Joe's Note: For those of you reading this on , this is the actual update that I had to upgrade the file twice to write. I actually was sitting on two complete chapters of this story for like, two years or so. I'm not sure what happened, to be honest. They got posted on my P-treon but never made it to other sites. Which I guess is an incentive to go subscribe at the three dollar level so you have access to all of my posts in as close to real time as I can manage to export files and upload them to the site? Plus or minus a few hours; I always set my posts to go up at noon the following day. At any rate, we're going to wrap up Michelle's deliberations in this chapter and then get back to Cheipystri to find out more about Harry's women… and set up the acquisition of his fifth and final wife. Don't want her dangling in the wind for too long, now do we? That wouldn't really be fair to her if Harry is making a happy home with the others and she's off somewhere trapped in a ring.
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Samuel, Dale, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, MJ, Daniel, Christopher, Stephen, Crusifikz70, Chris, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Janne, Joseph, Jason, mpop, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Zachary, Marc, Ziryo, Timothy, Leigh, Chris, George, Koby, Dimitria, William, Frank, Mitch, Mauday, Stephane, Ken, Warslick, Paul, Pat, Edward, Elliot, Roman, Joel, Warren, Jess, and mikel for sponsoring me on P-treon, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.
"I simply felt that I should highlight all of my… relevant qualifications."
The tiefling had a point, Michelle was forced to admit. Two of them. Poking through the thin fabric of her remarkably meager breast band. Even as the Reaper added a solid three points to Reverence's column for her skills - her actual skills, because the physical appeal portion of the competition was still to come - Michelle found herself scouring Reverence's profile. While very few Oracles fell under her jurisdiction purely by way of the fact that she didn't interact with Golarion or its surrounding planes terribly often, the Reaper knew enough about them to be aware that… there. The Curse of her station was peculiarly specific form of covetousness? Not, like, some innate need to wear as little as possible? Huh. While it did little to explain Reverence's choice of outfit, at the same time it meant that she'd have fewer problems than Michelle had expected when it came to integrating with the family, as long as she articulated her needs properly to Harry… or more likely Janet.
Michelle nibbled on her lower lip as she stared down at her tally sheet. She'd hope the decision would be a simple and clean matter of math, but it really wasn't. Reverence won hands down when it came to outright usefulness: her magic was not only more versatile than Angela's technological prowess, but the overall scope of her talents would be far more useful in the oncoming war. Especially her ability to resurrect allies over a longer term if the worst ever came to pass. Hell, with her around, Michelle might not need to see Harry as often as she did.
Socially, on the other hand? Angela was far and away the better fit: she would do a better job of adapting to her new reality than someone from a world where gunpowder was a mystifying new technology. She would be able to help Janet and Harry guide the others, rather than needing to be guided the way Reverence would. At least to a degree. While Angela was from closer to the 'modern' day from Harry and Janet's reckoning, she was still from a more technological period in the future and would have to do some adapting of her own to her more primitive surroundings.
But while Angela would do better at handling both muggle or wizarding society at Harry's side, Michelle reminded herself, it was how the eventual winner would interact with five specific people that she really needed to focus on. Most of Angela's romantic and sexual experience had been with women, according to her file, although supposedly she had an equal interest in both genders. Which meant that her and Harry could discover certain things together? Yeah, Michelle decided, that was an excellent way to spin that. Reverence… was a sacred courtesan. That brought with it skill, experience, and knowledge that would greatly benefit the motley household as they tried to settle down and make something of the circumstances they'd been given.
Coming at the decision from a completely separate direction? Harry seemed most enamored with Dianessa out of his existing four wives. Reverence was closer to his size - clocking in at five feet two inches and a mere one hundred and twenty-five pounds - while still possessing the tail and horns that Harry seemed drawn to. Unless she was completely misreading the situation and Harry was genuinely into a woman as big as Dianessa? Which was possible; she hadn't plumbed the depths of his mind too deeply since he got back to Earth and met her. Still. A wife who was useful on multiple levels and who shared physical characteristics with his favorite wife so far? How could she lose?
Then Michelle realized that she was forgetting someone. Where did Kikyo stand in all of this? To be honest, the Au Ra astrologian was probably the poorest fit out of the three of them. She'd been the best available candidate at the time… and then the candidates had gotten better. She wasn't from any version of Earth, much less one close to Harry's present, which meant that she didn't have Angela's inherent advantage. She was a bit of a loner, so she lacked Reverence's social graces and ability to integrate well with a group. And her magic was… mercurial at best. She was better described as a healer/support hybrid akin to Dianessa's healer/tank hybrid, rather than the dedicated healer that Angela was. Granted Reverence was the likewise a healer/support hybrid for her intelligence-gathering capabilities… but the tiefling's healing ability was significantly better defined and more useful than Kikyo's.
Although Kikyo would probably outdo Angela at least when it came to their looks, if Harry's fascination of Dianessa meant anything. She had the horns and the tail to attract him, even if she was closer to Chadaara's unintimidating four foot eight - the Au Ra measured in at a whopping four foot ten inches in height - than Dianessa's towering seven feet. And Harry didn't seem to mind that Dianessa had tendrils on her face. He wouldn't think twice of the bony patches on Kikyo's face, right?
But at the end of the day, even if she was pretty… she was the second prettiest and the third most capable. Which meant that in the end, Michelle knew what she had to do. "Well, we've had some very good conversations here today and I thank you both for coming, but I think I've decided what direction I'm going to go in with this project…"
Standing in the foyer of his six thousand square foot new home, Harry looked around in wonder as he tried to figure out… what should he look at first? Given that the house was something like three times bigger than the Dursleys - six times if one took into account that it was a singular, sprawling floor instead of a two story affair like Number Four Privet Drive - he found himself just plain overwhelmed by the possibilities. Off to his immediate right, he could see into a dining room that would have fit all of the Weasleys comfortably with room for him and his wives left over. His house was bloody huge. How was someone supposed to live in a place like this?
"Given how primitive most of the buildings at Diagon Alley were, I'm not going to lie, I'm seeing a surprising amount of glass here. Expected the wood and stone support pillars, but this glass… hopefully you have a way to magically keep it all clean, because Lord knows I'm not going to fly up and clean all these skylights." Janet pushed her way to the front of the group, hands on her hips as she surveyed her new domain imperiously. "First things first-"
Harry reached out to rest a hand on her shoulder, stopping her from venturing deeper into the house. "First things first? Dobby! Winky!" One house elf popped into existence and then the other, startling his companions but Harry kept his attention firmly fixed on the elves as he crouched down to be on their level. "I don't know how long it's been since someone lived in this house. Can you take a look around and get things neatened up for us? And then maybe start working on dinner? It's been a long day for all of us and most of us have lost our meals at one point or another."
Nodding eagerly, Dobby rubbed his hands together as he looked around the house. "Dobby can be freshening the house up in no time at all! Come on, Winky! We have a job to be doing!" With another snap of his fingers, Dobby popped out of existence, Winky shaking her head in resigned amusement before following suit.
With the elves on site and working, Harry rose to his feet and offered the assembled women a nervous smile. "Here in the wizarding world, we have a servant race called house elves. They're symbiotic and need a family to bond to and work for in order to feel fulfilled. Dobby and Winky are free members of that race and are my friends. So I want to offer them a home where I know that they won't be taken advantage of."
"Well that's definitely noble of you. And any cleaning that I don't have to do is good cleaning. Not that I'm a slob or anything, I just… can get a little focused on my work sometimes." Janet clapped her hands together before looking both ways down the main hallway that seemed to run the length of the house. "Where to first? I didn't get too close a look at the floor plans but if I remember correctly, the west wing of the house is bedrooms while the east wing is living space. Do we want to see where we'll be staying? Or where we'll be spending our time?"
Stepping forward, Harry held out his hand with his palm up. "Would you be willing to accept a ride while we look around, Janet? This house may be big compared to what probably all of us are used to, but I can guarantee that none of the hallways or doorframes are five people wide."
Janet let out a titter of laughter before shrinking down to roughly the size of a doll, fluttering forward on her wings and bypassing Harry's hand as she came in for a landing on his shoulder. "Asking me to ride you already? And in front of the others? How daring of you, Mister Potter."
"You bring out the best in me, Missus Potter." Harry reached up to brush a finger along Janet's back as he fought down the blush he could feel forming; he was trying not to let her affect him but by Merlin it was hard sometimes. Looking around at the others, he worried his lip for a moment before focusing on… "Dianessa? Can we leave the hammer somewhere? I don't think you're going to need to smash anything in the bedroom… and by Merlin, Janet, if you make an innuendo out of that, I will use a Sticking Charm to glue you to the wall and you won't get to see the house until the rest of us are done."
Before Janet could respond with whatever depraved thoughts were running through her head, Dianessa nodded agreeably and pulled her hammer off her back, setting it down headfirst leaning against the nearby wall. Then she thought for a moment before stepping out of her boots, reducing her - still impressive - height by two or three inches. "Having someone riding on my back wasn't uncomfortable. Chadaara, if you want to reduce our numbers further…"
The diminutive Togruta considered that for a moment before ultimately shrugging uncaringly and making her way over to the… Harry still didn't have a name for Dianessa's race. He'd have to correct that sooner or later. Preferably sooner, when he got to know his new wife properly. Which would hopefully happen soon; they were married after all. "I used to ride the clones sometimes if it meant I could avoid stepping in gross things. I may have lived a relatively humble life, but even I hated getting gunk in my boots."
Harry quirked a brow as Chadaara scrambled up onto Dianessa's back, wrapping her arms around the purple-skinned girl's neck for stability. More questions that he'd have to try and get answers to at another point. For now? "Let's see how much I can remember from the floor plans. I spent a bit more time looking at them than the rest of you, although I'm not sure why I wasted the time. It's not like I'm an architect and they held any grand secrets for me." Taking the lead, Harry guided Sorcha and Dianessa off to the left a bit, and then through the first door on the right. "Well, this place seems pretty stripped for furniture but this is supposed to be the head of house's office. Janet, you were talking about wanting a space to set up shop. There's a slightly bigger space off on the tail end of the east wing of the house but you have to go outside to get to it… and there's a bathroom right next door here."
"I could probably tuck a desk into the corner with a smallish computer on it, and then set out worktables across the window wall. Sewing is better done in natural light, don't ask me why." Janet pushed off his shoulder and zipped around the room, taking in her surroundings with a critical eye. "Being on this end of the house means it's close to bed, too, so I can work until I drop and then you won't have to carry me far to tuck me into bed."
Harry let out a chuckle at that. "I guess that's one way of looking at things, yeah. So you're okay with this as your space?" Janet floated back across in front of him and nodded emphatically, leading Harry to pat his shoulder. "Then I'll let you work with the elves to get yourself set up… after we finish the tour and have some dinner." Janet came in for a landing and tucked her legs up under herself on his shoulder, and Harry led his group onward. "Let's see. Directly across the hall from the office should be the guest room… I think you can only get at that from down the hall, though. Yep. Here we go. Left is the 'everyone but the master' section of the house. One guest room, and three additional bedrooms built around a common area. I don't know if anyone else is going to want their own bedroom - or other room - but if you do, that's where it will be."
From her spot on Dianessa's back, Chadaara raised a hand uncertainly. "I may not strike you as the type yet, but I actually do a lot of meditating to center myself in the Force. Or at least try to. Usually it's more like meditate, get distracted, go eat something, go do something, go back and try meditating more… but at any rate, I do meditate. Maybe I can have the furthest room in the group for that?"
Nodding, Harry pointed at Chadaara before offering her a thumbs up. "Excellent suggestion. Absolutely. And if anyone actually wants a room for themselves because they don't want to sleep with five other people, we can do that too." Turning to his right, Harry opened a nearby door and stepped through. Off to his left was a curving walk-in closet that he was sure the girls - Janet especially - would manage to overrun in short order. Straight ahead, however, was the single biggest bedroom that he'd ever set foot in. Dominated by the single biggest bed that he'd ever seen in his life. "It's like they knew we were coming or something."
"Holy shit, talk about living in luxury." Leaping off his shoulder, Janet returned to full size in time to flop out on the bed. She stretched her arms and legs out as far as they'd go before letting out an incredulous laugh. "I literally can't reach the sides of this thing. Hang on." She rolled over once and then again before finally managing to slap her hand against the opposite side of the mattress. The foot of it remained stubbornly out of reach, even when she scooted down the mattress and swept her leg back and forth across it. "This is ridiculous. Where do you buy something like this? Where do you find sheets for it?"
Dianessa made her way over and reached down, pressing her hand against the mattress. Despite the considerable weight being applied to it, the mattress didn't make a single noise. "I was prepared to sleep curled up like I do in most human dwellings that are not made for someone of my size. This is… impressive." Sitting on the edge, she bounced lightly before wincing as the metal of her armor scraped against each other, making a discordant noise. "Perhaps we should prioritize finding something else for me to wear."
Rolling back across the mattress toward her sister wife, Janet wiggled in and rested her head on Dianessa's thigh before gesturing up at Harry. "Ask him to transfigure you something. He made me an entire outfit out of some of his school clothes… that I managed to ruin when I height multiplied to stop you from smashing Glassjaw. Sorry about that, Harry. But hey, at least I still had my catsuit so I didn't end up naked."
"Yeah, public nudity is seldom a good thing." Pulling his trunk out of his pocket, Harry unshrunk it and set it at the foot of the bed. Pulling out one of the oversized shirts that he'd inherited from Dudley, he looked Dianessa up and down slowly to try and get a true sense of how large she was before waving his wand and transfiguring it into a simple shift dress in the same shade of purple as her armor. Handing it to her, he looked around curiously. "I can't do this forever or I'm going to run out of clothes, but does anyone else want something to tide them over from now until we can get some new clothes for everyone?"
Janet coughed into her first before raising her hand. "I wouldn't mind having that cute outfit back, especially since I can take off my catsuit now that we're at home. If something happens, it happens; I'm married to you all so it's not like you're not going to see all of me anyway." Pausing, she furrowed her brow before pointing at Harry. "Don't think I didn't notice you trying to worm out of our date tonight by having your elves start dinner. Fine. We'll eat here and then you can teleport us to a movie theater or something. I'm still getting my date tonight."
Digging into his trunk, Harry pulled out another bunch of clothing and set it on the foot of the bed. "Dianessa's set, I'm about to take care of Janet… any other takers? Chadaara? Sorcha? Looking at you specifically, Sorcha, because it may be an armored jumpsuit but it's still armored and that can't be comfortable to sit around in."
After patting her hands down over her body, Sorcha debated for a few seconds before letting out a sigh. "Guardians pretty much live in their armor from the time that they're old enough to access the Light and learn how to protect the Tower. I logically know that I don't have to worry about that here, but this is going to be… weird."
"I can understand that. Let's start you simple, then." Harry dug out an extra shirt and a pair of trousers, transfiguring them into a pair of leather pants - or at least Sorcha's jumpsuit looked like it was made of leather - and a soft, oversized sweater. Straightening up, he approached her and waved his hands over her body experimentally before flicking his wand and revising his estimates as to what would fit her. Now that he had the time to actually inspect her without other things to distract him, he found himself tilting his head to one side as he stared at her quizzically… "Are those tattoos or face paint or natural markings on you?"
Sorcha reached up to run her fingertips over her face before snorting softly. "I can promise you that at no point did I ever let someone point a tattoo gun at my face. And yes, we still have tattooing where I come from. I used to have some but I'm going to guess that they evaporated when they turned back the clock on me. But no, they're natural. Most Awoken have them. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to them; you don't inherit them from your parents or even always have markings related to your parents. I'm lucky, though, at least mine are simple."
Pulling away from her with a soft hum, Harry made his way back over to the bed and transfigured the same ensemble that he'd created for Janet aboard the Hogwarts Express. "Alrighty then. I'm going to step out so you ladies can take care of business. When you're done, meet me in the living room - it's the big open area directly across from the foyer where we came in - and then we can explore the remaining half of the house together."
Before Harry could make his way out of the room, Chadaara doffed the long brown robe that she was wearing and tossed it onto the end of the bed. Making her way over to him, she put her hands on his shoulders before jumping up onto his back and winding her legs around his waist. He staggered a bit at the unexpected weight but managed to keep from falling flat on his face, turning to look back at her in askance. "This is actually more fun than I thought it would be. Figured I'd keep it up. Now move it. To the living room, we go."
Harry chuckled and nodded before obeying, making his way out of the room and closing the door behind him so the girls could change in peace. Meandering down the hallway - which really needed some paintings or something, especially on the side that didn't have doors to other rooms and closets on it - Harry turned left and narrowly dodged a planter whose inhabitant had long since died as he entered the living room. There was a single lonely couch sitting alone in the middle of the massive room, easily the largest single space that he'd found in the house thus far. "Okay, it's centrally located and it's even bigger than that room… do you think anyone would object if I moved the bed in here?"
"I'm not much one for creature comforts so I wouldn't really mind, but I feel like the others would object to how that would mess up the flow of things." Climbing down, Chadaara hopped up to perch on the back of the couch like an overgrown cat, looking around the room curiously. "The actual bedroom has closets and a bathroom. This one has neither. So they'd have to troop all that distance to take care of business or find clothes in the morning."
Harry snorted in laughter, moving over to join her as he sat on the couch properly. "All that distance. I have to go almost as far to get to a bathroom when I'm at school. Okay, maybe half as far. This house is ridiculously huge, after all. But it wouldn't kill them… but I could see where they'd object. Unless… we don't invite anyone else over ever, and we turn that-" Pausing, he turned and caught Chadaara's attention before pointing off toward what the floor plans had identified as the 'nook'. "-into the closet. Wait. No. We'd still be short a bathroom, wouldn't we?"
Rather than answer his question, Chadaara responded with a complete non-sequitur. "Can I kiss you?" Harry blinked owlishly at the question and she tumbled down off the back of the couch to kneel on the cushion next to him, staring at him curiously with big black eyes. "I know that's supposed to be a part of being in a relationship with someone but… don't tell the others, but I've never kissed anyone before."
"If it makes you feel better, in this timeline? I've only kissed one person and she was crying at the time. In the last timeline that I lived out, I got a little further with this girl I was dating but not much. So I don't have too much more experience than you do." Harry leaned a little closer before pausing, holding up a finger in askance. "Can you open your mouth for a second?" Chadaara obliged and he gulped nervously at the sight of a mouthful of razor sharp teeth. "Okay, I'm going to kiss you but please don't bite my lip playfully or anything after we're done. It looks like it would hurt."
Chadaara stared up at him curiously at that. "That's something that people do? I have so much to learn. Jedi were forbidden to form attachments, which meant no relationships, but I missed out on even the more straightforward physical affairs that a lot of my fellow padawans engaged in because… well, look at me."
Reaching out, Harry cupped the side of Chadaara's face with his hand and stroked his thumb over her cheekbone. "Look at you. I can't say you're what I was expecting when I agreed to this - none of you, not even Janet were - but that doesn't make you any less beautiful or important to what we're doing here."
Skin flushing a darker shade of red, Chadaara vibrated in place for a few seconds before reaching up to grab his head between both hands. "I'm going to kiss you now."
And she did.
