Author's Note:
Hi, so I know this story is long overdue for an update. Life got in the way and I had absolutely no time to write. A long story short: my other commitments finally managed to lesson and I was able to return to this story. I started by rereading and correcting some small errors while reacquainting myself with the plot and the direction that this was heading in and discovered that I had previously written this chapter but failed to post it. I'm not making any promises about when the next update will come but I have started writing again and I think that's a good sign so I hope I am able to post more soon. I certainly have no plans of stopping this story as I have the next few years laid out.
Anyways, a continued thanks for hanging in there and hope the next update is not that far away.
Here is my disclaimer that says I do not own anything Harry Potter related. Everything belongs to JK Rowling, except in universe 47837. Probably.
Peter. Peter Pettigrew. That one name flitted around the inside of Harry's mind as he sat in his usual place in their part of the castle on a cold December evening. The room that he was currently in was warm, however; a masterful display of a perfect Warming Charm that Roger had cast.
All of Harry's followers were spread around the center of the room, each busying him or herself with an exciting and enriching book of choice. It was one of their favorite times to be allowed to freely peruse a single book or subject and learn everything that they could about it. And each one had their own magical interests so as a whole the group was very well rounded.
Harry liked these times also since it gave him a break from teaching his followers all of the magic that he wished them to know to be able to handle what the future had in store for all of them. Normally, he would have enjoyed nothing more than to indulge his own love for magic and his innate curiousness about how the world around him worked but tonight something else grabbed at his attention.
Ever since the realization that Peter Pettigrew's name was within the pages of his Marauder's Map, the questions that surrounded the rat's existence unnerved him.
Here was yet another thing that he had to concern himself with. Part of it he was sure had to do with being annoyed at himself over the simple fact that he had not realized that there had been more to Ron's pet two years ago. Other parts of him, however, knew that he was being too hard on himself; he had had other, more important things on his mind that day and just because he was capable of doing anything didn't mean that he had to do everything.
Harry consoled himself with the knowledge that at least he now knew that Peter Pettigrew had been hiding out as Ron's rat, and that Sirius Black had evidently broken out of Azkaban to get the rat.
Harry may not have known why yet, but there was still time to figure it out. Something told him that it wasn't simply because Sirius wanted revenge for being bested in the street that day. Something had caused them to fight twelve years ago and Harry was confident that whatever the reason probably remained unresolved to this day.
At any rate, it was more immediately important for Harry to understand how Sirius had known that the rat had been at Hogwarts and in Ron's possession. It was almost like Sirius had known exactly where to go when he had entered the castle two weeks ago. It was strange, for even if they had once known each other that alone wouldn't have explained that fact. Though, that would have probably explained how Sirius knew about Pettigrew's Animagus form.
'What if he hadn't?' thought Harry suddenly.
The sudden interjection from the back of his mind caused him to sit upright on the couch. The movement also caused his followers to lose significant interest in what they were reading and focus on their Lord, albeit secretly so as not to disturb his thought process.
'Maybe the man had a map like he did?' Harry next thought.
However, he quickly threw that notion aside because then Harry would have needed to explain why Sirius had chosen that exact moment to enter the castle. Surely Sirius would have wanted to wait until the rat was alone and there weren't dozens of people in the Gryffindor common room to sound the alarm of his entry into the castle.
Harry found it increasingly frustrating at having now even more questions and no really good way to answer them.
He was agitated; his magic was unsettled and now his followers were agitated as well. They had now lost all pretense of glancing at the pages in their books and focused exclusively on the closed eyes of their leader.
They watched him breath slowly in and out as he dealt with whatever was troubling him. It was a meditation technique that Harry had learned during the course of his Occlumency training, and he found that whenever the flurry of thoughts inside his brain threatened to overwhelm him that it was important to take a few calming minutes. Then, he would approach the problem from a different angle and see if that caused him to see something that he had previously missed.
And it usually worked if he had enough information in front of him to reasonably connect some of the missing pieces together. In this case though, Harry knew that the simplest solution would be for him to catch Pettigrew and interrogate the rat himself. Unfortunately, Peter's name had not appeared on the map since that night Sirius had chased him into the walls of the castles. Harry could only think that while everyone gathered inside the Great Hall as the teachers searched the castle, Pettigrew had abandoned Hogwarts for the outside world.
An act that had apparently made Ron quite distraught as his rat never returned to him in the days since that night had passed. As Ginny had mentioned to him earlier that same night after dinner as they made their way to their room, Ron was acting a hundred times worse than how he had behaved towards the second half of their Egyptian vacation when Scabbers had become ill.
"Egypt!" Harry gasped suddenly as he connected something that had previously eluded him.
The others saw the immediate and delightful gleam in his green eyes that gave the barest hints of a golden hue.
"Ginny," then said Harry quickly.
"Your family was in the Daily Prophet were you not? A large, front page spread on how the winners were spending the paper's one thousand Galleon prize money?"
"Yes…?" Ginny confirmed with some hesitancy. Her mind didn't work like Harry's and she was momentarily thrown off because they had previously talked about that whole vacation.
Harry wasn't deterred in the slightest, almost as if he wanted to lay out, in detail, wherever he was going with this.
"And Ginny, every member of your family was present, including Ronald with his pet rat?"
"Yes," she nodded again. She had no idea where Harry was going with this.
"That picture came out only a few days before Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban."
Immediately Ginny's eyes widened – as did every single one of Harry's followers. They finally had understood where Harry's epiphany had come from.
"Now," Harry said carefully, "I can't be one hundred percent certain that prisoner's receive the paper but it is too coincidental to not consider fully. If Sirius had seen Pettigrew alive, and he still had serious, unresolved issues with the rat, then that could have been all the motivation the man required to break out of the unbreakable prison."
Harry paused for a minute as he tried to contain the hunger in his eyes from where his thoughts were leading him. He knew he was onto something big and wanted to make sure he thought through each fact carefully.
"In fact, even if the photo wasn't the reason that the man escaped then it could certainly explain just how Sirius inexplicable knew the rat was with Ron."
At this point, Harry was talking through his thoughts mainly for the benefit of the others in this room.
"Therefore, if we continue this train of thinking then it stands to reason that Sirius had to have known that Pettigrew was an unregistered Animagus."
Harry then turned to Roger and nodded his appreciation for checking on that last part on his behalf last week. Roger's lips turned up slightly but he remained mostly centered and inclined his head slightly forward.
"I think then that we could say that Pettigrew and Sirius used to be friends at some point since why go through the trouble of being an unregistered Animagus and letting that secret slip unless you trusted that person. And Professor Snape," Harry smiled darkly, "was kind enough to inform us that Sirius and Lupin were friends. I wonder then what sort of relationship that Lupin and Pettigrew could have had…"
Harry's eyes sparkled in the same greenish gold. He was pleased that he was working this out and while some parts might have been educated guesses and not quite certain, at the very least they were logical connections. More importantly, they explained, so very well, his observations.
Feeling like he had made more progress than he had in a while, Harry sat back and spent the rest of the evening thinking just how he would begin that conversation with Professor Lupin.
Unfortunately, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was not teaching class the next day. Instead it was none other than the surly Potions teacher, Severus Snape. Just about the only good thing about the man's presence these days was that Snape still didn't quite know how to handle Harry anymore. Harry could tell that the man was constantly fighting some battle inside of him as to whether to glare at him or ignore him all together. The man's predicament had only gotten worse as the year progressed as Harry revealed some of his genius more and more.
It seemed that Snape was finally beginning to understand that Harry wasn't as much of a dunderhead as the teacher desperately wanted to label him as.
Of course, after everyone took their seats it was clear that there was one person in the room that Snape loathed more than him. Hermione Granger, and her infamous need for teacher recognition, just couldn't pass up the opportunity to ask a question.
"Where's Professor Lupin?"
"He says he is feeling too ill to teach today," Snape commented with a strange look in his eyes.
"What's wrong with him?" she kept going, apparently looking for the gold stars that her Muggle teachers no doubt awarded her for caring about everyone and everything.
"Nothing life-threatening, I can assure you," Snape remarked as if he were a little annoyed with that.
Snape began the lesson immediately to avoid another follow-up question.
"Today we will hopefully make some progress on your lesson plans, since it appears that Professor Lupin has not left a record of the topics you have covered so far -."
"Please, sir," Hermione interrupted and Harry could feel the eye roll that both Neville and Justin gave in perfect harmony.
"We've done boggarts, Red Caps, kappas, and grindylows," the third year said quickly, "and we are just about to start -."
"Be quiet," Snape hissed coldly. "I was not asking for information but merely commenting on Professor Lupin's lack of foresight. Five points from Ravenclaw for your insufferableness."
The wind had been knocked out of Hermione's sails and she looked like she was desperately holding back tears while at the same time still needing positive feedback from a teacher.
Harry watched the man return to the book in front of him and immediately head to the last section.
"Werewolves," Severus began only to be interrupted again.
Apparently, Hermione's need to regain the support of a teacher was unflinchable.
"But, sir, we are not supposed to do werewolves yet, we are due to start hinkypuffs."
"Miss Granger," Snape's back eyes settled on the smallest girl in her year.
"I was under the impression that I am teaching this class, not you. And I am telling you to turn to page three hundred and ninety four. All of you, now!"
"And a further ten points from Ravenclaw!"
Finally it seemed, as the rest of the class did as instructed, Hermione grappled with something more important than the respect of a teacher: house points. The fact that she had lost fifteen in the span of a minute did not sit well with her and Harry could only imagine the plotting going on inside of her mind to win all of those points back, and more.
"Which of you can tell me how we distinguish between the werewolf and the true wolf?" said Snape.
The man's response was met with silence, aside from the lone hand of Hermione who seemed intent on winning both the points and praise from a teacher in a single go.
"Anyone?" Snape asked, clearly ignoring Hermione's hand in the front row.
"Are you telling me that Professor Lupin hasn't even taught you the basic distinction between -."
"We told you," said Padma Patil, "we haven't gotten as far as werewolves yet, we're still on –."
"Silence!" snarled Snape.
"I never thought I'd meet a third-year class who wouldn't even be able to recognize a werewolf if they saw one. I shall make a point of informing the Headmaster on how very far behind you all are."
Harry began to question just where Snape was going with all of this. That statement in particular had stood out since it was a nearly universal sentiment that Lupin was miles ahead of both Lockhart and Quirrell. It was clear from the exchange he had overhead between Snape and Dumbledore that the man wasn't exactly fond of Lupin, but why was the man pushing werewolves down their throat. As far as Harry was concerned there were other creatures more likely to impact them than werewolves.
Harry's thoughts were again distracted by Hermione, who really did seem intent on being an insufferable know-it-all.
"Please, sir," she said yet again, "the werewolf differs from the true wolf in several ways. The snout of the normal wolf is -."
"That is the last time that you interrupt me today, Miss Granger," Snape said heavily with a flick of his wand. Instantly, Hermione's mouth was covered and no matter how much she fought against the invisible bonds sealing her lips together, she was unable to make a sound.
"Twenty points this time and if you ever interrupt me again I will make it fifty and give you a week worth's of detention!"
Finally, it seemed, that someone had found a way to silence Hermione, and it had nothing to do with the spell that Snape had cast. Being docked a few points hadn't had nearly the same effect as the threat of blemishing her perfect record with a detention. Harry idly wondered whether Snape would notice that he had just struck gold before turning his attention back to Lupin, Snape, and the sudden interest in werewolves.
Of course, Harry had already read the entirety of his textbook and went through the motions of looking like he was paying attention while he thought more on what Snape was playing at. It wasn't until he put Snape's earlier comments about Lupin not feeling well with werewolves and the fact that last night had been a full moon that all of the dots connected.
Harry couldn't have cared less about whether the man was a werewolf as he was a competent teacher and absolutely zero threat to anyone while in human form. What he couldn't get passed though was Snape's brazen attempt at calling attention to it.
What on earth could Lupin have done to Snape to make him try something like this? Was this just another piece to the puzzle of Sirius and Pettigrew or unrelated altogether?
Harry didn't know but just as the man began to assign them their reading he decided on a rather brazen course himself. Therefore, he spent the next few minutes thinking about the words that he would use and became more sure of his plan as Snape finished speaking. It was clear that the man hoped that someone would recognize Lupin for what he was by assigning them to write an essay on all the ways to recognize – and kill – werewolves.
While everyone excited the classroom as quickly as could be when their lesson was over, Harry managed to send Neville and Justin a quick look indicating that he wished for them to wait for him outside as he began to approach the front of the classroom.
His mask as the respectful student endeavoring to apply himself more and more had not changed since he had walked into the room at the beginning of class, but Harry focused extra hard on his outward persona anyways. While what he was about to do wasn't that risky since it was inline with his gradual reveal of his brilliance, Harry didn't want to take any chances where Severus Snape was concerned.
"Sir?" Harry cleared his throat and began when they were alone.
Severus' dark eyes flicked up from the parchment that he had just been scrawling in and narrowed in on the boy questioningly.
A raised eyebrow was the only other response that Harry received.
He decided right then and there that he was going to make the most out of this opportunity.
"Sir, I don't mean any disrespect in questioning your lesson plan and I'm only here because of how last year ended. I meant what I said about not wanting to be a dunderhead and have been working extra hard this year to never be in that position of helplessness ever again."
Harry began to look downward in a nervous, slightly overwhelmed manner, like speaking with the professor took a great deal of courage. His eyes, meanwhile, paid close attention to Severus' face before they were forced to look towards his own feet as his head tilted towards the floor. Harry was pleased to see the conflicting expression on the man's face. Just like the year before, Harry was making Severus think just what he wanted him to.
"I'll admit that your work has improved this year, slightly."
Severus' words were long and drawn out, even for him, and it only made Harry want to laugh. This was too easy.
"Thank you, Sir. I am trying and finding it a little less difficult every day. Um, which brings me to now. I had a question about what was covered in class today, and again, I don't mean any disrespect."
When Harry looked up he could see that Severus had managed to control his expression; it was neutral and gave nothing away.
"Spit it out Mr. Potter: I have another class arriving soon."
Harry nodded his head quickly.
"I guess I was just curious if you meant for us to realize that Professor Lupin, was in fact," Harry's eyes looked around him nervously and he lowered his voice to finish, "a werewolf."
Severus' eyes widened minutely and for the next several seconds no sound reached either of their ears. Harry swallowed timidly, making sure to keep in character.
Harry had honestly expected some sort of verbal response from the man and as the seconds ticked by he was sure that his best course now was to inch slowly towards the exit behind him.
However, as he moved to turn around, he finally heard that familiar and deep drawl.
"You are not to mention this conversation to anyone." The man's voice was deadly serious and Harry simply nodded his head in response.
The man continued to stare at Harry until the sound of the students walking into the room forced their interaction to be finished.
"You can inform your next teacher that you were late because you were speaking to me," said Snape simply.
"Yes, sir, thank you, sir," Harry nodded once more before turning around fully and making towards the door.
Harry waited until he was in the hall and Neville and Justin were at his sides for his mask to slip off and a Cheshire-like smile to replace it.
"Is everything okay?" Justin pressed.
"Oh, yes," Harry chuckled.
"Just wanted to ask why our dear Severus felt the need to try and reveal that Professor Lupin is a werewolf."
Harry could feel the shock pass through his friends even if he couldn't see their faces.
Of course neither of them questioned how Harry had been able to figure that out.
"And?" Neville said instead.
"What was his response?"
"I think Severus never thought that anyone would figure it out and I think I surprised him by being the one to do it."
"You're not worried about that, are you?" Justin quipped as they began their climb towards Trelawney's classroom.
"Not really," Harry responded by laughing again.
"I think it will give him pause for the time being. Besides, I want him to remember this moment in the future. I want him to realize that I've been onto him from the very first time I set foot inside his classroom and he belittled me in front of everyone. I want him to realize slowly over the years that I never forgot that moment and that in the end it will be his undoing."
Justin snorted.
"I'm sure there will be several things that Severus will remember when he looks back on your upward trajectory."
"I, for one, can't wait to see the look on his face when he understands how you played him with Lockhart," Neville added with glee on his face.
In fact, Neville's smile matched the anticipation that Harry felt on the inside.
"All in due time," he added.
"Now, though, what rubbish do you expect to learn today in Divination?"
"I'm just happy we moved on from reading tea leaves. The smell of the dregs for hours on end was making me start to think twice about my usual tea with honey after dinner."
"I've never really enjoyed the taste of tea," Neville commented as they rounded the corner and began the final ascent upwards, "but I'm still struggling to understand why they allow this course to be taught at all. You said it yourself Harry: this is one thing that you cannot teach. You either have the gift or you don't. Look at Luna!"
"I'm not sure that others see it that way," Justin added smartly.
"To them they think we are just being exposed to a well-rounded magical education."
"Just as long as we focus on a certain kind of magic and ignore the majority of things labeled as dark or wicked for Merlin knows why," Harry finished.
This wasn't the first time that Harry had said something like this, but it was the first time that they had talked about it in the context of Divination. It made them curious as to why Harry had instructed them to take this subject at all.
But now wasn't the time to get into that, so instead they climbed the ladder one at a time and settled into the less dim, but still stifling tower room.
"Good day to you," the familiar and overly mystical voice welcomed them.
Professor Trelawney then made her usual dramatic entrance and scanned over the look of faces throughout the room.
"I have decided we have had enough of tea leaves and want to introduce palmistry to you a little earlier than I had planned. The fates have informed me that your examination in June will concern the life line and I am anxious to give you sufficient practice."
Harry heard Hermione snort over in the distance. He then heard her mumble something about what an amazing prediction that was on account of the fact that Trelawney set the test herself.
The girl was no doubt still riled up over her encounter with Professor Snape but Harry was quite intrigued that the girl's incessant need to please a teacher did not extend to Trelawney.
It was hard for Justin or Neville to be certain if their professor had heard the young Ravenclaw because her face had been hidden in shadow, but Harry had seen the slight droop in her shoulders to be sure that she had.
The woman continued, however, as though she had not.
"Palmistry is a particularly subtle art," she began dreamily. "I do not expect many of you to understand the delicate interactions between one crease and another right away. We shall begin, therefore, by becoming familiar with the way these two fingers," she held up her right pointer and middle finger, "trace the palm of the person sitting next to you. I want you to close your eyes while you do so as not to be mistaken by what your outer eye tells you. You must begin to trust what your inner eye sees. Perhaps if we are lucky one of you might even be able to catch a glimpse of what the palm can reveal."
With that they divided up into their usual pairs and again Harry scooted right next to Susan Bones.
"Hello again," he smiled warmly at the girl.
"Hi Harry," Susan squeaked back in a high voice.
Ever since their first Divination class Susan had been a bit on edge whenever they were up here.
"Here, give me your hand and I'll go first if you want," Harry gestured by placing his left hand palm up against the table.
Susan nodded and moved her left hand to lay in the opposite direction over Harry's. With his most patient persona firmly in place Harry smiled somewhat awkwardly and used the two fingers that Professor Trelawney had indicated to gently trace the various lines on Susan's hand.
"Very good Potter," Trelawney indicated from where she moved in between the small table separating Harry from Justin and Neville.
"Now do it with your eyes closed."
Harry did as he was told and then reconnected his fingers to Susan's palm.
Though, the smell of the room was starting to bother him again and Harry sent forth his magic to surround him.
At once he felt a strange jolt run through his entire body that was soon followed by an intense shiver, so very similar to when he connected his magic to one of his followers. Harry curiously and quickly opened his eyes but when he did so he quickly came to the realization that something was very wrong.
Harry was sure that he was sitting in his chair and that he was still hanging onto Susan's hand. He was positive of that in fact since he could literally feel her pulse, but his eyes were showing him something far different than the dim Divination room.
For one thing, the scene in front of him was bright and the sudden increase of light made it difficult to see for several seconds until they adjusted. But once they did they revealed that Harry was on the edge of a high cliff and that he wasn't alone.
In front of him were the faces of those who had pledged both their life and magic to him but there was one person there that stood out immediately. Even though Harry couldn't see this person's face; his magic felt him or her and Harry didn't have the words to describe how extraordinary the sensation inside of him felt. At once he felt like he was anything and everything and that his power truly knew no limit. He was whole, complete, and his magic sang to him with a force that caused him to become lightheaded.
At that moment Harry felt like he could have moved a mountain and just as quickly as the scene before him had materialized it began to fade and the dull and boring classroom reappeared.
Harry had a very disappointed look on his face that he hadn't been able to see just who the seventh person was that would join him. He wanted to know whom that person was so badly that for once his masked slipped and a true frown appeared on his face.
Neville and Justin detected the change within Harry instantly but it was Susan who commented first.
"What's wrong, Harry?" she asked with a slight trepidation to her features.
"Please tell me you didn't see anything bad!"
"What? Oh, no, Susan," Harry responded with such difficulty.
And it was difficult for him to focus on her at this moment when all he wanted to do, all he needed to do to unlock his limitless future was to discover the face that matched that person's magic. It was on the verge of becoming painful to his very core to sit there and force his usual mask back on his face, but he somehow managed to do so.
"No, really Susan, everything is fine. I just dozed off for a moment and was a little disoriented when I woke up. Must be the incense up here, you know?"
Susan's features relaxed at once and Harry went through the motions of acting like he was participating for the rest of class.
On the inside though he was a mess, and for the first time it was extremely difficult for him to keep his emotions contained.
Neville and Justin had never seen their Harry like this and they didn't know what to do. And they weren't about to draw attention to the situation – even if it meant that they were in a similar state that Harry was in.
Because Harry was in a right state as he tried to figure out what the hell had just happened to him and what, if anything, it meant.
On the one hand he had just felt more complete that he ever had; even more so than being in close proximity to Tom's diary. It bothered him immensely that he couldn't figure out who the last person was or why he had that vision at all.
Something had just connected with his very soul and the seconds seemed to stretch into minutes as Harry was quite certain that time was slowing down to prolong his torture.
At long last they were dismissed and Harry was quicker to exit the classroom than normal.
Justin and Neville were of course right behind him but they didn't dare speak first. They may have known the instant that something very important had changed within Harry but they didn't know anything more than that and were afraid to interrupt him.
As always they knew that Harry would share with them anything that he thought that they should know; therefore, they just remained quietly at his side as they entered the Great Hall for dinner.
The others soon knew that something was different with their Harry as well but a quick glance at either Neville or Justin and they knew enough not to act in a manner that Harry would not have approved of.
So they mostly joined Harry in picking at their food. While Harry had next to no appetite on account of his magic being quite full from what he had experienced in his vision, his followers were too on edge to eat.
How could they not be able to feel what Harry was feeling? They had pledged both their lives and magic to him and his wants and desires were more important than anything else.
The time after dinner only made what had happened worse, for tonight was one of the few nights were they couldn't all be together. Justin and Neville had promised their younger buddies that they would help with a difficult Potions essay while Ginny and Luna were working on a group project for Charms in the library.
None of them had wanted to be separated from Harry but they knew that he would want them to carry on as normal.
That left Harry walking with Cedric and Roger a few steps behind him as he made his way quietly to their hidden part of the castle.
Once there, Harry took his usual seat while the other boys sat on the chairs next to him.
Not knowing what else to do but giving Harry space they attempted to pull out their books and carry on with what they knew Harry had wanted them to study that night.
But it was hard and neither of them managed to make any real progress, for their minds were thinking about any and every little thing that could explain what was happening. Nor could they, and so they too remained silent and ready to assist Harry when ever he was ready for them. Something that became increasingly harder as the minutes ticked by.
Meanwhile, in Harry's mind, he knew that he was being withdrawn and that his followers had looks of worry and concern on their faces. But he couldn't bring himself to fully return from where he had been transported.
It may have been temporary but he so desperately wanted that feeling of unlimited potential to last forever. He had seen but a glimpse of his true self and he was hungry to be that person, so much so that he felt inadequate in his current body. It felt wrong not to be able to access the power that he knew, without a doubt, that he would one day wield.
However, Harry knew deep down within his soul that he would have to endure the present to get to the destination that he wanted. And with that thought the present became just a little bit more bearable, and as he looked around at the faces of his two followers that had already connected to his core, each passing second became easier and easier.
He may have wanted that future more than he had ever wanted anything but he now knew that he would be able to wait until it came. And he would do more than wait, he would do more than prepare himself for that eventuality, he would savor each step along the way.
As Harry searched both Cedric and Roger's face, now considerably more at ease that Harry had come back to them, he couldn't be more proud to see what they were becoming themselves.
He wanted greatness and they would be the lieutenants that he led wherever his extraordinary journey took him.
Harry's smile at them came with the gift of his magic reaching out and caressing their cores. He shuddered as they shuddered and in the back of Harry's mind another thought took shape.
Where did Tom fit into all this?
Thinking about that boy – that handsome, powerful, and overwhelmingly seductive wizard highlighted other changes, or concerns rather.
While he had been spending the majority of the afternoon and evening developing an impatient longing to arrive at his destiny, he had neglected one simple fact that hit him squarely in the gut at this moment.
He had been spending all of his time these past few months trying to make sure he was the other boy's equal but he had overlooked the simple fact about what that would mean.
A different type of ripple spread throughout his body this time, and soon passed through both Roger and Cedric as well.
This time, however, his followers seemed to know something that he did not, for in the next instant Cedric's voice was whispering in his ear.
"Harry?" the older boy breathed against his skin.
Harry's throat was now very dry.
Magic he could study and practice. Learning how to be physically intimate with someone else was another matter entirely.
"What's wrong?" Roger said this time from behind him.
For good measure, the Ravenclaw put his hands, his large fifth-year hands, on his back and began to massage his troubled muscles.
"Do you need anything?"
Harry was hyper aware of everything around him now. He had this incredible tightness in his gut and deep within his groin.
Once more his eyes flicked about the room and he saw the devotion reflected in their eyes. Without a doubt he new that neither of them, his oldest followers, would hesitate for a second if he asked them to fulfill a single one of his needs. They were ready to kill for him; surely they would be open to other things.
But even the dashing looks of Cedric or the rugged and lean form of Roger Davies couldn't compete with Tom.
And neither boy took Harry's rejection personally. That didn't stop Harry from enjoying the continued massage and this decidedly and distinctly intimate moment with two of his chosen.
But even that didn't last long because while Harry was comfortable with these two, his magic only wanted Tom's at that moment.
Still, he wasn't quite ready for meeting Tom Riddle yet and the longer he sat there under the careful ministrations from both Roger and Cedric who alternated alleviating the stress in his back, the tightness in his gut became nearly overwhelming.
In a few moments Harry was forced to deal with his growing problem and he bid Roger and Cedric goodnight with a chaste kiss on the forehead.
As they left the room Harry's magic erupted from his core and he sealed the room so that nothing and no one disturbed him as he gave into his growing arousal.
Never before had he felt the urge to please himself or explore his awakening sexuality. His life up until now had been mostly one of survival and academics but with the recent changes his body was going through he knew he would run into this situation sooner or later.
The strength of his urges surprised him, however, and as the image of Tom grew clearer and clearer within his mind Harry's hand slid beneath his trousers. The contact caused him to suck in a rush of air and to squeeze his eyes shut, as if that would give him a sharper image of Tom. Harry let his mind wander into a place that he had never really considered from this angle before, and his breath hitched again as he imagined what it would be like to have both his body and his magic rub up against Tom; of what it would feel like to have his magic inside of Tom or Tom's magic inside of him.
As the seconds passed Harry's arm moved faster and faster and the images in his mind contained fewer and fewer articles of clothes.
Eventually, Harry passed the point of no return and drove his head back into the cushion as a most intense pleasure spread throughout his body.
Harry remained in that awkward position for several minutes afterwards as he caught his breath and a sense of normalcy returned to his mind.
A snap of his fingers was all it took to clean up and Harry readied himself to stand. His mind felt clearer and things felt as normal as they ever had; except that now he realized that he was that much closer to his goal of meeting Tom and arriving at his destiny.
For the first time since leaving Snape's class a true smile appeared on his face as he turned off the lights and made for the door.
However, a surprise awaited Harry when he stepped into the hall and saw the stoic and watchful forms of Cedric and Roger guarding this part of the castle.
Even though his magic would have kept anyone unwanted from interfering with his previous activities, Harry shouldn't have been surprised that his followers would go the extra distance. It might have been pointless and unnecessary but their devotion to him was unmatched and absolute.
More importantly, neither looked nor made a point to comment on anything being out of the ordinary, even if Harry had just turned them down or they knew what he had had done..
They knew they belonged to him and Harry knew they would always, always be there for him. With a small smile and a lick of gratitude by his expanding magic, Harry led them down the hall and back to their rooms.
Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading.