Dark Love
Chapter 7: Leading up to the wand weighing.
It had been two weeks since Harry had arrived in Hogwarts and he was already irritated beyond belief.
He wasn't being called a cheater, simply because he hadn't been in Europe at all for over a year and a half.
He also found out that he would be marring his girlfriends, not in three or four years time, but by the end of the year.
The contract specifically stated that he and they would be married when he reaches adulthood, which in the magical communities is seventeen... normally.
The problem was that the new regulation they had put in for this tournament, which ended up being passed into law due to a filing error.
The rule states that only an adult can participate in the tournament. Due to the fact that it was passed into law, and the fact that the leader of the courts stated that Harry is a legal participant, and thus the law emancipated him, starting the two-month time limit to be married.
The girls were already old enough, as non-humans with significantly longer lifespans than humans get a longer education, much longer, as they had the time to do so. Fourteen to twenty years to a being that literally lives over a thousand, is almost nothing.
The sheer number of complaints that he heard directed towards the oni irritated the hell out of him. It was almost as if the people of Hogwarts believed that they had a right to dictate how they, and he, dressed.
They kept demanding he wear robes, and that the oni at least cover up more.
He had to admit though, he himself felt cold just looking at how they dressed, even knowing that they didn't feel the temperature like he did.
The day he found out... well, it was a good thing he had the four females, at least in form, with him, or else he might have seriously hurt himself.
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It was three days after Harry had returned to Hogwarts when he received a letter from the Japanese branch of Gringotts.
To Harry James Potter:
We are writing to inform you that due to changes in British law, which affect you due to your forced participation in the Triwizard Tournament, you are now registered as an adult.
This means that, as stated by your betrothal contract, you have two months from the day you were entered in the tournament to have your marriage and to consummate the marriage, or else the contract you signed will inflict it's rather severe penalties, as the cancellation clauses must be put into effect before your adulthood.
We wish you a good marriage.
You will, as of eleven pm, on the thirty-first of October British time, have access to all Potter accounts, the trust vault has been emptied, and the accounts have been added to the main vault. The vault will remain active for you to set up as you wish for your future children.
Sincerely,
Frost
Account manager of the Japanese Potter accounts.
Ripclaw
Account manager of the British Potter accounts.
"FUUUUUCK!" Harry screamed. He really wasn't ready for marriage. He was only fourteen bloody years old.
Standing up, the only boy in the group of five that was in the room they were given at Hogwarts, that had a massive bed that could comfortably fit all five of them, he made his way to the wall to the amusement of the girls.
That amusement faded when he drew blood on the first impact his head made with the wall.
Leilah moved quickly after she saw the amount of blood, and put herself between him and the wall, even if she had to distort herself to do so.
Curious about what the letter said to cause such a reaction, Shuten-Douji picked up the letter and sighed after she read it. Typical, they had just gotten him to start being affectionate with them, beyond light hugs. He simply wasn't ready for 'third base'. They had just, a few weeks ago gotten into the early stage of second base.
With a sigh, she joined Leilah in comforting her soon to be husband and cast a small healing spell on his bleeding forehead.
Ibaraki-Douji, snatched the letter when Shuten-Douji dropped it, and she sprouted a fiery aura, that almost incinerated the letter.
The only thing that stopped her from doing more than scorching it, was that her headmistress would need to read it so that she could help arrange the wedding, that due to the timing would either need to be a quick one held at Hogwarts, or someplace else.
She hoped she could convince the headmistress to allow them a few weeks to set it up with her clan, and some sort of honeymoon.
Though odds were Shuten-Douji and her would both need to spend most of that time getting him into bed for more than cuddling or petting.
With a sigh Ibaraki-Douji went to find their headmistress, they needed to talk.
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Harry shook his head to dispel the memory. The two weeks that had passed since he got the letter had reduced his anger at the situation. He genuinely liked the two, but he would've preferred a bit more time to see if he wanted to marry them.
No use crying over spilled potions.
He then noticed that his headmistress was approaching him. She indicated for her to follow him into the room she was given.
The room was a similar size to the one he had, even if it seemed much bigger due to the much smaller bed. She indicated that Harry should sit down in one of the chairs in the room, and she followed suit.
"Harry," she started. "I have an offer for you, one that I have been considering offering since the start of term."
"An offer?" Harry asked confused.
She handed him a set of papers and let him read through them.
He looked at her wide-eyed as he finished.
"Really?" he asked incredulously. "Wouldn't a kitsune, or another species with natural talents in your specialties be better?"
Mina smiled at the boy and replied, "What fun would it be to teach someone almost literally born into the skills? Much more challenging, and satisfying to teach someone that has a good amount of potential, but needs help bringing it out to it's fullest. I also prefer teaching humans, because they tend to make mistakes, which also tend to make new techniques. Unlike kitsunes and other illusion specialty races, that tend to either get it perfect the first time or close enough that it just needs some tweaking."
Harry thought about it, and then came to a realization. "You learn from us as well, don't you? Our mistakes make new illusions that you would never have thought of, hence your own skills grow."
the kitsune headmistress simply nodded, and Harry closed his eyes in thought... for under a second before he pulled out a pen and signed and dated his name on the appropriate lines to indicate his acceptance.
He knew that apprenticeships with high ranking people, such as his headmistress, tend to open a lot of doors when it comes to careers.
"Thank you," Mina said with a smile at her new apprentice. "Now onto the more stressful news. Your fiancees are arranging the wedding for you three. I realize you don't feel comfortable with this, at least yet, but it needs to be done. So far we have compromised that you will be undergoing the ceremony, a small one considering the time limit, on December first, and then your honeymoon will last until the twentieth of December, As you need to open the ball on the twenty-fifth. We will leave on the twenty-seventh of November to perform the last minute preparations for the ceremony. They are also discussing a larger one later so that they could have a proper wedding befitting all of your group's stations. Any questions?"
Harry's eyes started swirling at the information dump, and the fact that the marriage was coming up even sooner than he thought.
Taking a deep breath he pushed the wedding out of his mind and asked a more relevant question to the problem coming up in nearly ten days.
"When do we start on my apprenticeship?"
"Now," said the kitsune with an evil smirk.
Five hours later Harry stumbled into his room, uncharacteristically ignoring the females in his life.
He was smoking, battered, and completely out of energy, as his 'master' was a master of both illusions and fire magic, and believed that being reliant on magic alone was stupid, so had been training him in physical combat as well as magical combat.
His clothes were scorched and in tatters, and he was giving everybody in the room a free show, but he was so exhausted he didn't care.
He fell asleep and collapsed on the floor two steps into the room, which sent the girls into a panic.
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Ibaraki-Douji stalked to the room of the last person Harry was supposed to have met, her temper in overdrive.
She knew she had one, and knew it got out of control easily, but she didn't care. She wanted an explanation.
At the door, she took a deep breath, before pounding on the door hard enough to put dents and cracks in the solid oak door.
The hard and hurtful words the oni was about to say, faded as she caught the minor scorches and bruises on her headmistress's clothes and body.
Instead, she simply asked, "Why?"
"He has accepted my apprenticeship, and demanded I don't take it easy on him," Mina said without a single trace of shame.
Ibaraki-Douji grit her teeth, if that was true then that meant that Harry's injuries were because of his own choices, so instead of cursing out the headmistress, that could easily crush her, she simply ground out, "could you leave him some energy to spend time with us?"
The kitsune smiled coldly in response. "We shall see. I think he will be better after a week or so. I want to drill in as much as possible to help him survive whatever the first task is. For all I know, they are doing something moronic like pitting students against dragons. Him being entered into this idiocy is why I offered him the apprenticeship this year instead of next."
The oni deflated at the subtle chastisement. She couldn't argue with prepping Harry to survive a deadly tournament.
"Can you at least get Dumbledore to keep that redheaded girl away? She's been really irritating all of us."
The kitsune smiled and responded, "I will see what I can do."
As the deflated oni went back to her room, she recalled the first meeting with the headache that was the redheaded girl.
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It was the day after they had arrived at Hogwarts, and the engaged trio, as well as the elementals, were up early for breakfast. They had easily made the transition to the new time zone since they hadn't really gotten any sleep the day before.
"Harry!" an unfamiliar voice shouted in glee.
The referenced boy turned and saw a redheaded girl, a year younger than him charging at him.
He reacted quickly, and dodged her lunge, causing her to stumble and land on her face.
"Who the hell are you, and why did you think you had the right to grab me?" Harry demanded angrily. Then the uniform registered and he scowled, "Great, a fucking Gryffindor. What do you want."
"Is that anyway to talk to your fiancee? And why did you dodge?" the girl asked.
"Great, a fucking delusional Gryffindor. We aren't engaged to marry, and did you think I would be happy to see anyone from your house, considering how they all tried to kill me for a damn sport? Or points? I have a contract written up, and signed by me, and the girls in question."
Ibaraki-Douji grabbed the girl by her collar and held her to her face and said, "Listen, bitch, try that again on our guy, and you will regret it." she then tossed the redhead away like trash.
Shuten-Douji simply looked at her, and the redhead never felt smaller. The disdain the scantily dressed girl had in her look made the redhead feel three millimeter's tall.
"Leave," the oni said coldly.
The girl scrambled away and vowed to tell her mother and headmaster about this. Her future husband shouldn't be associating with such dark creatures.
Much less claiming that he was going to marry them instead of her.
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Shaking her head to clear her thoughts about the redhead, Ibaraki-Douji headed to the room she shared with the others.
She was glad that her headmistress would have to take it easy on Harry tomorrow because of some sort of tradition for the tournament.
Sighing again as she entered the room she noted that Harry was still out cold and his elementals were cuddled up to him as usual, while Shuten-Douji was working on her homework.
She decided to finish her homework herself and turn in early.
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End chapter
Omake by Princess Asuna
The Mahora potions master whistled a cheerful tune as he carried the cauldron back to his classroom. He had found himself in need of one and low and behold he'd found one just sitting in the headmaster's office! What luck! He'd be able to demonstrate how to make a de-greasing potion today after all!
"Maybe next week I can try making that gender swapping potion," he mused.
It would be three weeks later a woman with long silky hair stormed into Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts looking quite pissed off.
"Can I help you miss?" Dumbledore asked the woman who'd stormed into his office.
"You. left. Me!" she hissed out!
Pardon?" Dumbledore replied
"You! Left! Me" she replied again.
"What do you mean?" was the headmaster's reply.
"Who else was with you to that bloody school and got turned into a bloody cauldron!"
The head masters eyes widened at the woman "THATS WHAT I FORGOT!" he exclaimed then blinked at the woman "What in Merlin's name happened to you, Severus?"
"A de-greasing potion and later a gender changing potion was made in me while I was a cauldron" Snape replied testily.
"Sorry," the headmaster replied sheepishly, "there was a lot going on that day."
"Yes, you will be," Snape replied before reaching into the dress she was wearing, and taking out a vial, threw it at the head master covering him in a potion and turning him into a literal goat. "You will be like that for three weeks, enjoy."
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Much later on Sirius Black was visiting Hogwarts when he came across an attractive woman reading a potions book. Turning on the charm a bit he walked up to her with a roguish smile "Why hello there. my name is Sirius Black, might I know the name of the beautiful lady before me?" he asked.
Snape blinked once, then twice, then actually broke down laughing in one part revulsion and one part humor that Sirius was actually flirting with her.
It was then that Harry walked past. "Good Afternoon"Professor Snape," he politely said.
Sirius's eyes widened, and then he ran to the nearest bathroom and vomited out everything he had eaten in the past week.
Severus-chan smirked and went back to her book, still searching for the counter to the potion that changed him to a woman.
End omake.