Happy October!

As usual, I don't own Harry Potter, just the stories in my collection. Also warnings of sex ahead.

Please let me know what you think.


The Treasure Hunter.

Harry was certainly enjoying himself while he danced with Padma at the Yule Ball - he had assumed he wouldn't, but when he had told himself to just relax, especially since a large weight had been lifted off of his shoulders now Voldemort was dead and the Death Eaters had followed suit, he found himself enjoying the dancing with Padma.

It helped that Padma wasn't only beautiful, she was also a brilliant conversationist although her topics were more varied than Hermione's. For a start she seemed to have a concept of a social life, as a result, she didn't bore him with her school work, the only problem was Harry needed to find something to spark a conversation about.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself," Harry commented.

Padma nodded and chuckled. "I am. I haven't really been to a Ball in Britain."

"Oh?"

"Yes, my family…well, we're not really welcomed," Padma's smile faded and she looked down at her toes for a moment. Harry's eyes crinkled and he gently lifted a hand and he cupped her cheek - it was the only way he felt he could make her look at him.

"Hey," he whispered, shocked to see the sudden sadness and embarrassment in Padma's eyes. "What is it, why aren't you welcomed?"

Padma sighed. "We may be purebloods, Harry, and our family has a history that is much, much older than many other pureblood families, but many people in Britain look down on us, simply because we're not white, or British. I hate it. My parents are embarrassed by it, especially since we're bringing in lots of trade deals from around the world to Britain, but Fudge and his bunch seem determined to burn every single bridge there is. As a result, my family like the Changs and the Li's are looked down upon."

Harry closed his eyes. Now he understood. "Racism," he said bitterly. "What is Fudge doing which is causing you and your family so many problems?"

"He's doing what he always does, Harry; dither around while surrounding himself with people who have their own agenda while he doesn't have a thought within his own mind. It does not help that Malfoy and several other puebloods kept whispering in his ear to make it very, very hard for families who have no ancestry in this country to establish connections; the only reason Parvati and I are in Hogwarts is because we've been here for 40 years now. The Patils came to Britain to find new trade in this part of the world, but while some were receptive, the Fudge administrational putting one block after another in our way," Padma had sneered at the description of Fudge, not that Harry could blame her.

Cornelius Fudge was a fool.

He surrounded himself with Yes people who told him, not only what he wanted to hear, but also what to do. Fudge was capable of making his own decisions and had his own ideas, but he lacked the ability to think. Harry remembered what Fudge had done during the Chamber of Secrets mess two years ago. Fudge had just taken one look at the original evidence against Hagrid, or somebody looking back in the past, discovered Hagrid had been charged and expelled for Aragog's presence in the castle and he went with that, just so the Ministry could be seen doing something.

But at the same time, Harry knew that it was likely Hagrid would have been expelled anyway, all because of his fascination and lack of common sense when it came to dangerous magical creatures. What if he made the mistake of hatching a dragon egg in the middle of his dorm room? What if Aragog had not been the only acromantula in the castle and if Riddle hadn't unveiled them? Hagrid might be a nice guy, but Harry just found it hard to see Hagrid lasting as long as he had at Hogwarts.

Yes, he was glad Hagrid hadn't suffered as much as he had, but in Harry's private opinion it would not have taken too much for Hagrid to be expelled even without the monumental mess caused by Riddle and his insane unleashing of the basilisk half a century ago.

In Harry's mind, the half-giant would have likely been on thin ice for recklessly endangering other students, particularly the ones whom he bunked with for his pet monsters. Sure, while Buckbeak had been nice, Harry had not thought too highly of Aragog and Norbert.

It was typical of Hagrid to ignore the drawbacks of keeping a dragon or an acromantula. One of them was going to grow into a car-sized giant spider with the ability to speak, the other was vicious and would grow into a fire-breathing monster. In a wooden house. Hagrid was lucky Norbert had been found when he had, and sent off to the dragon preserve when he had, or else he would be homeless and there would be a real problem for Hogwarts. Harry did not even want to think of what would have happened had Hagrid successfully raised Norbert, although he felt it would have been impossible for the groundskeeper to keep the dragon secret for long.

But Hagrid was not unique. Harry had little doubt in his mind that Fudge had caused misery for dozens of people over the years; on the scale, the Patils and a few people like them were at the top, Hagrid was at the bottom. The only thing that worried Harry as his mind drifted into that direction was there was a strong chance there were other people suffering because Fudge needed to be seen 'doing something.'

"Yeah, that sounds like Fudge; but surely, why don't you and your family look elsewhere for trade agreements. Surely there are some you could look into?" Harry asked curiously.

"What do you take us for, fools? Oh, sorry Harry," Padma snapped before she realised she had lashed out at him in anger, but he shook his head and sent her a reassuring smile, but the Ravenclaw looked closer to see if he was hurt and she was relieved to find he wasn't. In actual fact, he looked like he had expected and prepared for her reaction to his question. Now she was intrigued. He was not only asking questions like a true Ravenclaw, which was intriguing in itself, but he was also preparing himself for the potential outcomes.

"No, it's okay. I was expecting different responses anyway," Harry smiled at her as he gently spun her around.

Padma chuckled. She couldn't help it, and she turned to him curiously. "You sound like a Ravenclaw, Harry," she commented, deciding to test the waters and see his own reaction.

Harry surprised and intrigued her when he smiled. He wasn't offended in the least by her observation. "Just because I'm a Gryffindor doesn't mean I can't show traits of the various houses. I can be as hard-working as a 'Puff, as cunning as a Slytherin, and I can ask well thought out questions like a Ravenclaw. I don't believe in the stereotypes that go with the houses here, in fact, I hate them."

Padma blinked at him, intrigued by his statement. She knew, after speaking with him, her curiosity was written as plain and as clear as a passage in an English book.

She didn't have long to wait.

"When we arrive at this school, we haven't been inducted into any of the Houses, and so when we are in the little anteroom while someone like McGonagall tells us about the Sorting Ceremony, we have no idea which house we will be in for the next seven years. How do we know who's going to go where until the Sorting Hat is placed on our head? But the moment we have it placed on our heads and we're sitting at the House tables for the first time, we're expected by everyone to just be another mundane member of those Houses, with the same personalities. It just is as far as they're concerned. The end," Harry said grimly, thinking about all the times he had been treated and seen as another Gryffindor, although thanks to his fucked up past, he was expected to be the kind of hero who thoughtless went off in search of danger without giving a thought.

Padma was surprised by how well thought out Harry's statement was, but she had to admit he had a point. When she and Parvati had been growing up, nobody could tell which of the Hogwarts houses the twins would go into, but as they grew up and their interests came out as their personalities evolved it became easier to picture.

But yet…

Padma had never liked being seen as a nerd and nothing but a nerd. She might like reading and all of the other hobbies she had which relied on intellect and being able to sit still for a certain amount of time, but she didn't like the way everyone including Parvati and her bimbo friend thought she liked spending her days reading book after book.

Unlike Hermione Granger, Padma liked doing other things, but what made it annoying was how Parvati had started adopting the logic as everyone else when she knew full well her interests were more varied than that.

Feeling that they had gotten off-topic, Padma decided to get them back on topic (and she wanted to really get over the hurt she felt that her own twin sister felt she was nothing more than a library-loving nerd), and she looked down at her feet for a moment to gather her thoughts. "You're right about the Houses, Harry. They are badly stereotyped, especially when it comes to Ravenclaw; just because I like reading doesn't mean I like spending my days in a library reading book after book, and it doesn't help people like Dumbledore go out of their way to make them worse. And it doesn't help that thanks to Fudge, my family and so many others who are trying to help the British community of the Wizarding World economically have to look elsewhere for worthwhile contracts."

Harry's eyes narrowed slightly. He had just caught something there, but he could not be sure… "Padma, does Dumbledore have anything to do with your family's problems?"

Padma nodded slowly. "From what my parents say, Dumbledore doesn't outwardly go out of his way to deny the Patils and other families like us from running our businesses, but at the same time he doesn't say anything to help us either."

Harry was starting to think that the Patils disliked the old wizard as much as he did, although for different reasons. Unlike him, the Patils didn't have the old fool constantly going out of his way to poke his nose into their business and hold their hand like he had done with Harry in the past.

"What do you like doing, Padma? If you don't mind me asking…"

Padma realised that in her frustration of how everyone perceived her, she had leaked out a small tidbit about herself she hadn't really intended to reveal.

"Oh, erm…," Padma bit her lip, embarrassed she had let her guard down and spoken without thinking, "I do like reading," she chuckled a little, "but I also like writing my own stories, listening and writing my own music. Just last summer, I began studying magical art."

"You like writing your own music? Is that quite hard or easy?" Harry asked, intrigued. He had never imagined her having a hobby like that but then again there was so much about his year mates he didn't know about.

Padma laughed. The sound of it was quite lovely, he noted. "It can be both sometimes, Harry. It depends on how my muse feels at the time, if I feel really strongly about what I want, then it flows so much easier than if it does if I don't have a clue what to write down."

"Wow, I never thought of that, but I guess it makes sense; for some of the muggle fiction I've read over the years is really hard going, but now you've explained how you sometimes have moments where your work is flowing, it makes me wonder if they just spend hours on a sentence to make it as impressive as it can be because it was so tedious to think about what to say," Harry commented.

Padma felt she should be offended, but after her own experiences with story and music writing, she knew he was right. "Don't say that to Hermione Granger, Harry," she said seriously. "She will likely kill you."

Harry personally didn't care what Hermione thought of his opinions. In any case, he knew he was right. "I don't plan to."

'Mm," Padma nodded, "what do you like doing?"

Do you mean aside from stealing and plundering treasures, and selling them for the highest bidder? Or when I break into a house with either my magic or think up a crime?

"I went SCUBA diving over the summer," Harry purposefully kept out his stories of when he had stolen bits from the U-Boat which was remarkably well preserved at the bottom of the sea, and he wondered if there was less saltwater in that part of the ocean for some bizarre reason, or that incident recently with the shark, "I don't know if you know but SCUBA diving is a form of muggle diving, and I really enjoyed it. I want to keep doing that and hopefully, see more of the deep blue sea. I like reading as you do, but I like doing whatever takes my fancy."

"Oh?" Padma sounded and looked intrigued.

"Yes. Well, I saw a cook at the foster home I live in bake a cake, and I was intrigued by it all; the ingredients, the measurements and the precision. It fascinated the hell out of me, so I asked for lessons. Now I can bake cakes and breads, but I can also cook a nice meal."

"Really?" Padma sounded surprised bordering on sceptical but intrigued, and then she smiled at him wickedly. "You'd better prove it them, shouldn't you? How about you cook me a nice meal sometime?"

"Is that a challenge, Ms Patil? You are on!" Harry grinned, wondering what he was getting himself into.

Padma laughed but as they twirled, her laugh died when she noted Dumbledore staring at them, or more precisely, at Harry with disappointment, deep-rooted anger, and sadness. "Dumbledore's staring at you," she commented, although when Harry glanced at the headmaster out of the corner of his eye so then the old fool would not realise he'd been caught staring, he noted the curiosity in Padma's statement before he realised she was asking why the headmaster was even bothering staring in the first place.

"I know," Harry didn't really want to talk about it, he was hoping something new came out of this dance. He didn't want it marred by thoughts of Dumbledore.

But the Ravenclaw wasn't going to back down. "What is going on, Harry? I've noted Dumbledore looking at you ever since he revealed Snape had decided to resign, although that was a total lie."

Harry wasn't surprised Dumbledore had been caught out in the lie, all because of somebody else deciding it was time for honesty. When he had realised he couldn't just hide the fact Snape had died from the loss of his magic, something which had happened to nine out of eleven Death Eaters following the ritual, Dumbledore had instead told the school Snape had left to pursue his desires to found his own potion-making business or research, or something like that. Anything so then it wouldn't involve teaching students the basics day after day, year after bloody year.

It might have worked as well; everyone knew how much Snape hated teaching, so the lie did have some plausibility. Unfortunately, Dumbledore had decided to lie and cover up the truth yet again. It was one of Dumbledore's irritating habits, and Harry doubted the man was going to change his MO now.

It was just too bad that the lie could have worked, had the newspapers not been dominated by the news so many 'former and repentant Death Eaters,' the creme de la creme of pureblood society had likewise lost their magic.

It also didn't help that Amelia Bones had decided to take the law into her own hands, and forcibly questioned the Death Eaters, taking advantage of the stupid laws regarding squibs and muggles, which many of them had become. It was ironic, the Death Eaters had been reduced to what they had longed to become. Harry didn't care what was going to happen to them, and he doubted many others would, especially since Amelia Bones - God bless her - had revealed their crimes and the rotten truth of the Death Eaters, throwing a lot of Dumbledore's pedantic beliefs into the old wizard's face.

Dumbledore had been caught out in a lie, and he'd had to watch as the Daily Prophet reported Severus Snape's questioning in black and white. Bones had pressed the newspaper into revealing the whole truth and nothing but, or else.

Snape had not repented at all, regardless of what the old has been thought. No, he had been a firm believer in the Death Eater's sick philosophy from the start and he had seen no reason not to continue practicing it now, and he had been helping Voldemort's little cult by crippling the light and making sure so many professions that demanded potions were weakened because his vitriolic teaching habits put them off.

Dumbledore had been holding off his troubles for a while, ever since Harry had revealed himself to be a victim of muggle burning as a baby, all because the old fool had made a mistake that could have caused the loss of an entire magical house and family due to his negligence and nonchalant attitude to his 'ward' he had been placed under investigation. It hadn't helped in the least so many reports were leaving the school, detailing the teaching standards and the unbelievably high bullying rate Dumbledore and the rest of the teachers were unconcerned about. This was the nail in the coffin, although Harry didn't know what would come out of it.

"Alright, I'll tell you the truth. I conducted a ritual when I discovered Vol-I mean, You-Know-Who's method of survival, and it killed him for good this time around," Harry lowered his voice so then only he and his date could hear this.

"What?" Padma gasped, surprised by the news as they passed Blaise Zabini who was dancing with Daphne Greengrass. She hadn't expected this.

"I won't bore you with the details, but I've been studying him ever since I learnt about him. I found his means of surviving that night and I destroyed it. Unfortunately," Harry said the word in a way that meant the complete reverse, "the Death Eaters were joined to him, which only proved their stupidity. He had never died, Padma. He was still alive when he was thought to have died when he killed my parents, and I was left with nothing but a scar. When he died for good recently, so did the Death Eaters. In fact, they were part of the reason he had survived. Dumbledore and the rest of the staff caught me in the final stages, but I managed to finish it off before I called in Madam Bones, and all of the headmaster's ideas fell about like dominoes."

"And he is blaming you because of his own shame," Padma had by now heard enough to understand the rest.

"More or less. Dumbledore had these beliefs about mercy, love and compassionate forgiveness without once thinking other people were more pragmatic. Considering what Snape's revealed, he's had it rubbed into his face his views are not only not shared, but Snape has lied to him mercilessly for years," Harry rested a hand gently on her waist as he twirled her again. Personally, he didn't correct her belief Dumbledore was ashamed, no he was likely sad because he had screwed up and there was nothing he could do about it.

For the rest of the evening, Harry and Padma danced. They pretty much ignored everyone around themselves, although Harry had noted the way Ron was standing in the background, glowering at Hermione who was dancing with Krum, of all people.

"Why is he glaring at her so much?" Padma asked as she noted Weasley's anger with Granger as well, grimacing at the ugly dress - she could not call them robes as it was an insult to robes.

"Oh, it's typical of him. He was desperate for a date, but he never bothered to ask her out, and now he'd angry she didn't go with him," Harry purposefully didn't look at the redhead who was dressed in those god-awful old fashioned robes, remembering Ron going on and on moaning about Hermione's date; if he had wanted her to date, then he should have asked and gotten off his arse, but no. He didn't understand what went through Molly Weasley's mind sometimes; with her habit of making sure her children didn't use magic, they had it ingrained into their brains not to do anything with magic full stop. If Ron had been a more self-respecting wizard, he would have transfigured the robes or gotten someone else to do it for him. But he hadn't. Harry hadn't bothered either, the idiot wasn't his friend.

"What? What did he expect was going to happen?" Padma asked. "Granger's not a mind reader; why didn't he ask her?"

"Search me. Honestly, Padma; I asked you to be my date not because I was desperate but because you fascinated me," Harry smiled genuinely.

"Really?" She smirked teasingly at him. "Why?"

"You weren't like the girls I've met before, and lived with in the Gryffindor tower. Also, you were a great conversationalist and you're smart. I happen to prefer smart girls," Harry told her truthfully.

"You do?" Padma wondered how some of the more extreme fan-girls would take that if they knew, although she didn't know if Harry planned on revealing that.

"I do," he nodded in confirmation, noticing out of the corner of his eyes Ginny Weasley sending him a jealous look. He only hoped Neville, who was dancing with her, noted it and saw where and who Ginny was looking at. But that was the shy boy's problem; while Harry knew about the relations between his family and Neville's, he had gotten no knowledge Neville cared. The boy had been rather nonchalant about it when Harry had tried to talk to him about it three years ago, and so Harry hadn't bothered in forming a more meaningful friendship with the other boy. Oh well, his problem.

Overall the Yule Ball was a rather great night as far as Harry was concerned. But as they pressed their bodies together, Harry was more than aware of the fact he had in his arms one of the most beautiful girls in the school in his embrace, and it gave his body a lot of ideas.

Padma certainly noted it. She looked down meaningfully down at him as he reacted before she looked into his eyes with an amused but embarrassed fluster. "Something you want to tell me, Harry?" She asked in a rather brazen way.

"I'm sorry," Harry didn't know if Padma was teasing him or inwardly angry, and he didn't know if she knew the mind arts although he guessed she did but he didn't want to anger her…

"Don't be. I was kind of hoping to have a really exciting night," Padma said.

Harry felt himself becoming more and more excited as the implications reached his brain. He was not a virgin himself, he had lost his virginity as soon as he could the year before to a muggle girl at a club.

At that moment, Parvati appeared looking disgruntled. Harry was kind of annoyed since he had been hoping to have Padma to himself, but one look at Parvati told him that his fellow Gryffindor was frustrated with her own date.

Padma was just as unwelcoming if her expression initially told him correctly, but it warred with her concern for her twin sister. "What's up, Parv?"

"My damn date. He's chatting up three other girls, and he left me on my own when I had my back turned," Parvati threw a dark glare over her shoulder. "Anyway, I'm going to my dorm. I've had enough of tonight…"

Padma gently touched Harry's arm and pulled him down so he could listen to her whisper in his ear. "How would you like to do us both, Harry?"

While he had been geared up to do Padma, Harry felt his erection grow at the thought of having sex with both girls at the same time. "I'd love to, beautiful."

Padma pulled away and turned to Parvati, who was looking like she was halfway towards turning around and walking away and leaving and wondering what Harry and Padma were whispering about. "Parvati, don't go just yet. Harry was about to take me…somewhere," she said.

Parvati might not have been in Ravenclaw, but she was smart and it didn't take her more than a second to realise what her twin was implying. Seeing she was about to open her mouth without first engaging her brain, Harry pulled the two girls from the Hall and he lead them to the Room of Requirement.

"Why are we here, Harry?" Parvati asked her fellow Gryffindor, her eyes drifting to the wizard being pummelled to oblivion by three trolls wearing…were those tutus?

"You'll see," Harry said as he paced, visualising the room he wanted. When the Room door finally opened, Harry took the twins inside.

The Room of Requirement had transformed into a bedroom with a large emperor or king-sized double bed which made both twin girls blush. There was nothing overly romantic about the scene barring the bottle of iced champagne sitting in a metal bucket and a large box of chocolates resting nearby, Harry knew not to go too far when it came to romance.

Harry turned to the twins, hoping the girls didn't think he was going too far. But he was thankful when he saw Parvati and Padma looked okay with it.

Happy and hopeful, Harry leaned in and gave Parvati a kiss on the lips. The Indian witch jolted in surprise, but she leaned into the kiss and gave him one back, making her twin look on in jealously. Harry gently undressed Parvati while he ground herself against his erection to let her know he wanted her. Harry pulled away and kissed Padma as well while Parvati undressed, leaving herself in her lingerie, giving her a long, lingering kiss before he repeated his actions with her.