Authors Notes. Everything is coming together so please enjoy this Chapter and there is an important note at the end of it.
H.P. Love is All You Need
Chapter 7. The Hetaerae Assembles.
When Susan and Harry emerged about fifteen minutes later Ginny said "Lawks Harry what on earth have you done to the poor girl?"
"It was wonderful." Susan said huskily flopping down onto a sofa dragging Harry down beside her, she immediately put her arms around him and lay her head on his shoulder dreamily.
The other girls gathered around the pair and Hermione looked at Susan sagely then said, "I believe that 'it' has struck again. She will recover in a little while."
When all of the giggling had died down Susan was heard to whisper, "I really hope not."
One of the portraits on the wall interrupted, "Excuse me Harry but Mr and Mrs Patil are in the hall with their daughters and they are looking for the Headmaster, what shall we tell them?"
Harry looked at the Headmaster and nodded so Albus said, "Please tell them that we shall be down directly," then after Harry had managed to untangle himself from Susan he went with the Headmaster down to the entrance hall.
Mrs Patil looked like the twins older sister and Mr Patil was a short stocky but very handsome man, they all greeted each other and the Headmaster said, "We are in the middle of discussions with all of the other members of the group, would you like to join us?"
The party started the long climb back up to the seventh floor with Mr and Mrs Patil climbing with the Headmaster whilst listening to Harry talking to the twins the first thing Parvati asked was where they were going, she groaned when he said the seventh floor. Then Padma asked who was here already so Harry told them who was there and how it had come about that now the whole group had gathered seemingly by accident.
Mrs Patil spoke for the first time she smiled and only said one word, "Kismet!"
Professor Dumbledore replied, "The fates certainly appear to be colluding at our expense."
Sir Cadogan saw Harry approaching and swung open revealing the golden portal, Harry said to Parvati, "Place your right hand on the door please Parvati."
When she did Harry said, "Until rescinded," and he went through the relevant procedure to allow all of the others to enter.
The Headmaster had led the twins parents straight through to the Lounge but the twins had waited for Harry, so they started walking up the corridor until they came to the second doors and they entered the one on the left.
Padma said, "It is really nice for us but where is the other bed?"
Harry put out his hands and they each took one so he led them to the room directly across the corridor and when they went into the room on the other side, the girls were in raptures so Harry said, "Let me tell you what the Headmaster said. If you want to join my Hetaerae you have to ask me directly and when you do you will be declaring a magical contract with me that you will only be freed from if I don't accept you."
Parvati looked to Padma and asked, "So once we ask to join we are committed and the decision becomes his?"
Padma said, "Yes. To her sister then turning to Harry asked, "Harry I would be honoured if you would allow me to join your Hetaerae?"
Parvati smiled at him and said, "Harry I have loved you from afar for over three years, please allow me to join your Hetaerae?"
He smiled and said, "There is now only one thing left before I must make my decision, we must kiss. Who wants to be first?"
With a small laugh Padma said, "Harry we are identical twins which means that we always try to do things together, neither of us has kissed a boy before so we are not quite sure how it will work but let's try it together first shall we."
The twins each put one arm around her sister and the other around Harry's neck, the sisters kissed gently then turning their heads they put their lips against Harry's, then came the tongues.
It worked extremely well and twenty minutes later he led them to the lounge where he said, "I declare that Parvati and Padma Patil are to be members of my Hetaerae."
The other four girls jumped up and came across welcoming the twins and kisses were exchanged all around with Harry getting a lot more than anyone else.
Eventually the Headmaster said, "Settle down you lot, now that Harry has decided to admit the Patil sisters into his Hetaerae it is complete for this time and so there are some things I need to tell you.
From this time forward Harry is responsible for you, all of your needs everything clothes, books, schooling, cuddles, everything. It is only a suggestion but why don't you all buy matching robes? White is a sign of purity and I could have the owner of Gladrags visit tomorrow morning and Harry let the girls decide on the colour and whatever they say, just say 'yes' it's safest."
All of the adults giggled at this remark and the Headmaster continued, "There is a glade at the edge of the Forest near to the lake that is not accessible unless there is to be a Hetaering, that is the formation of a Hetaerae. All that is required on our part is for me to give at least twenty-four hours warning with the approximate numbers involved and for the attendance of the participants at noon on the requested day. There is a lot of room for observers around the glade but only those who are welcome will be able to observe, all others will be excluded and this is the oldest Earth magic and to break it is not possible if you wanted to keep the planet in one piece.
Those being joined will be allowed to the bottom of a small dell where the Lord of the forest will meet them with his retinue and they will conduct the actual bonding ceremony. This is a true bonding and is a lot more powerful than marriage which is normally only a union, although it is possible to have a bonding wedding they are not normal and they certainly would not be necessary after this ceremony.
Afterwards, if ever any one of you is in any kind of trouble or even threatened all of the others will immediately be drawn to the spot and the rights and obligations of Harry to defend his chosen ones are absolute as is the reverse. You ladies have the absolute right to defend Harry's honour, although this right should be exercised with caution. This includes any one of you being insulted with reference to your status, if, for instance, a first year were to call one of you ladies something as simple as a tart Harry would have the right to challenge the offender to a duel and kill whomsoever had caused offence.
What you are doing will inevitably very quickly become common knowledge there is no way to prevent it, in fact the law requires that the populous be made aware of the situation. Also I will have to circulate the parents of all students to remind them of just what it means and the likely result of any infractions. I will stop blathering for a while and let you seven decide when you want your Hetaering, I would suggest Friday."
Pren had been in several times serving drinks but this time she came in with a tray bearing seven bags and she gave one to each of them and then she said, "You should keep this with you all of the time, Godric called it, 'Adref Powdro' homing powder, if you drop one pinch on the floor and step into the apparent flame you will step out of the grate in the hall. The transportation grate in the hall is not connected to the normal Floo network although it will take you anywhere connected to the normal Floo. It will also take you wherever you wish to go provided you know where it is you want to go, so basically anywhere you have been before or where someone with you has been before and directs it for you.
Also if you have a lot of things to bring here ask one of the elves to help, it is what we like to do, to see you struggle with things that we can do easily hurts us, let us help we enjoy it."
Pren left and Harry said, "Why do I have the feeling that the last part of that lecture was directed at you darling," and he kissed Hermione, "I know how you feel but the elves are here because they want to serve and there is no other way so when the time comes I will say, I'm hungry. Hello Impyn how are you?"
The little elf smiled and said, "I am fine, thank you for asking and what would you all like to eat?"
Everyone was hungry and there was rather a vocal discussion as to what various parties wanted to eat and Hermione became involved after she had kissed Harry eventually Harry said, "Did you manage to make any sense out of that lot Impyn?"
She nodded happily and disappeared only to be replaced at one end of the room by Dalen and he moved all of the furniture around with a wave of his hand and then made a large dining table with enough places for all of them and invited them to come to the table.
There are some things Harry was not slow about and he could see that all of the new girls were milling around waiting to see where he was going to sit and then there would be a scramble for places next to him. So he very quietly asked Hermione and Ginny to take the next to end places either side of one end of the table as they did it he said, "Mr and Mrs Patil why don't you take these two seats here and if I sit at the end of the table we can all get to know each other.
As soon as the senior Patils had taken their seats Hermione and Ginny introduced themselves, when Padma and Parvati sat next to them it became a seven-way conversation. Consequently Harry did not have to contribute too much but the twins parents were finding out a great deal of the truth behind the myth that was the boy who lived.
When the meal was finished the first thing that Hermione did was send Harry to sort out Daphne who didn't seem very happy, she was sat moodily by Susan but when Harry went over to them they smiled warmly enough and made a space so he sat between them.
All of the other girls had come over to listen and he said, "Daphne I want you to work with Hermione to make us a rule book so that we don't have any silly arguments or falling out between ourselves, I want to give you a rule. 'We don't do sulking we talk about it'. So what's the problem?"
She looked really contrite and said, "Honestly Harry there is no problem, it was just that I can not remember having as much fun as I did at lunch time and I wanted to sit by you again. Hermione had already told us all that you had never met the twins parents before and I knew that you would have to talk to them but I was just disappointed, that's all." Then she kissed him on the cheek.
With a deadpan expression Harry said, "Well you're not much good with this are you," Daphne had started to tear up but Harry grabbed her and gave her a big kiss then he continued, "that's how you kiss somebody when you're really sorry."
Suddenly she had a big smile and said, "Then I had better get some practice in and try again," so she did, very successfully.
Professor Dumbledore said loudly, "You six girls, there is a will reading at ten on Wednesday morning you will all need to attend if you all gather here at nine forty five Harry will tell you where to go using your Floo from here."
The gathering was breaking up, the seven had arranged to meet back here at nine in the morning to talk and for some defence training; they had also agreed that Friday was a good day for the Hetaering, provided Hermione's parents agreed.
Hermione said to the four new girls, "Will you all wear Muggle clothes tomorrow because Harry suggested we may go shopping for Muggle clothes in the afternoon."
All of the girls had huge smiles as they were kissing him goodbye.
Just before they left Harry asked Pren would it be possible to have a telephone for Hermione to use in the house, Pren had asked Hermione for her phone number and told her she would see what could be arranged.
So for the first time they were going to use their transporter, Harry dropped a pinch of the powder and said, 'My room in Hermione's house please,' and stepped into the flames. It was excellent, he had simply stepped through into his bedroom and he heard the girls arrive giggling in their room at the same time and Tonks appeared having used the Portkey.
As the four of them went down stairs Dobby excitedly welcomed them, he already knew about the Hetaering and was very excited for all of them.
It was time for Tonks to leave so Hermione went outside with her and nervously said, "It's about virginity, what…"
Tonks could see that Hermione was nervous and she also knew what the young girl wanted to ask so she said, "He must not enter you between the legs, everything else is acceptable, beware of 'it'." The Auror disappeared with a small pop.
'Scourgify' was put to good use several times that evening as was the cold shower, but 'it' was kept in its place and an excellent time was had by all concerned.
x-x
The following morning Dobby woke them all at seven thirty telling them that they were to have a good breakfast before they went out, the three of them were very grateful that he had because once again they were starving.
At five to nine they arrived at the accommodation and they realised that they didn't know if it was a house or what, so Hermione set off out through the patio doors to look at what it was that they were to be living in. It was a house, it had an upstairs but they had absolutely no idea where the stairs were.
By the time she arrived back inside she found an almost catatonic Susan sat on a sofa, Daphne was kissing Harry thoroughly and the twins were patiently waiting their turn. As had happened the day before the twins kissed him together whilst the others looked on in both amazement and admiration, they were all hoping that it wasn't just a twin thing.
Nine thirty they were due to be at the room of requirements, which meant that they had twenty minutes before they had to leave so they all moved through into the lounge. The girls were talking about various things but Harry wasn't paying any attention he was looking at the girls, especially Daphne, thinking how different they looked in Muggle clothes, when her voice broke him out of his stupor.
He didn't have a clue what she had said so he said, "Sorry I was miles away, would you repeat that please."
Daphne said, "I am sorry about my clothes, I had to borrow these off Susan because I do not have any Muggle clothes of my own."
Harry said, "Wh… Bu…"
Hermione knew exactly what was wrong with him, Daphne looked much better than any pin up she had ever seen, so she said, "Harry this thing will only work if you tell her the truth. That had better be another rule, if you like or dislike something day so."
He had turned scarlet but he pulled himself together and although he was looking at the floor he said, "Actually Daphne I was thinking that you probably look better than anybody I have ever seen before. Do you think that it time for us to go?"
He was half way to the door before he was stopped by Daphne turning him around and saying, "Do you think that I am going to let you walk out on me after you said a lovely thing like that?" then she kissed him.
Having used their Floo transport Daphne and Harry arrived at the room of requirements in time to hear Hermione saying to Remus, "He was delayed by Daphne, I am not sure whether she was trying to snog his brains out or he was trying to snog her to death and they were both enjoying it." She turned to the pair of them and continued, "Coming that way is cheating, anyway Daphne, Harry wasn't joking you really do look superb but if we take you out shopping looking like that we will cause a riot, is Tonks busy Remus? "
"Actually we were going to run the Auror tests for the new girls," Remus said, "just to see how they are doing and what we need to teach them, what they need to practice, you know things like that. So I suspect that she will want to be here."
Harry seemed to wake up, "Come on we had better go in there is something I need to teach you before you start."
The girls all followed Harry into the room of requirements, he went to the wall on the left and said, "Room first move all of these bookcases out of the way and I want a range with seven manlike targets about ten yards away, every time a target is blasted replace it."
He turned to his girls and said, "When you are facing death eaters, first thing always assume that there are more than one of them and you need to disable them, it is a mistake just to stun them. We tried this course yesterday and besides death eaters and Dementors there isn't much else in there; of course that is in the sections we managed to complete. Neither of the girls had seen a Dementor.
So this first spell I call 'explode' and the incantation is 'Ffrwydro', apparently it was a favourite of Godric Gryffindor, when you cast it you simply think of whatever you are casting it at, blowing up."
Turning towards the dummies he drew his wand and cast, "'Ffrwydro' 'Ffrwydro' 'Ffrwydro' 'Ffrwydro' 'Ffrwydro' 'Ffrwydro' 'Ffrwydro'"
All seven dummies exploded in less than three seconds from him starting to turn and it took the room longer than that to replace the targets.
Harry spent five minutes teaching them to pronounce the spell and the mindset required to make it succeed and then the six girls spent ten minutes blowing up targets, they seemed to be enjoying themselves.
He asked Tonks how much longer he had and she told him that he could have another half an hour if he wanted it, so he stopped them blowing up targets and said, "This one is for Ginny, it is another of Gryffindor's favourites and it is especially useful if you have a lot of people to deal with, it cuts things in half. There are two ways to cast it, 'Gwahaniad', is the quickest but if you are squeamish and don't like all the blood, or simply don't want to get it all over the carpet, 'Gwahaniad a Selio', will seal the cuts as well.
It is better to become immune to the sight of blood because in a war blood will be there, if you blow a death eater up the blood will go everywhere, it is best to just get used to it. Keep in mind that no one is forced into becoming a death eater and they all knew what they were getting into when they joined, hell most of them join so that they could hurt other people. The slime ball you maim today cannot go on the raid with half a dozen others of his ilk to murder a loan mother with her three small children. Whatever you do, don't feel sorry for hurting death eaters, fundamentally that is what they signed up to do to you so you must be sure to do it to them first.
Harry asked the room to expand their area and add blood to the three or four targets that each of the girls now had, he soon had them all casting exploding and cutting spells to great effect.
Soon Tonks called time on them and they prepared to enter the Auror Assessment Facility as she said to them all, "Aurors get two weeks intensive training before trying this course, you have had an hour with the Green Eyed Sex God, let's see which is best."
As the four started the course Amelia, Albus, Minerva, Kingsley, Mad Eye Moody and Professor Flitwick came in to watch the students, they had all been waiting outside.
The display was awesome.
The four new girls failed on the twenty-sixth test when Dementors were introduced, practically they were qualified Aurors. Ginny and Hermione failed the thirty-sixth section when Dementors were teamed up with invisible death eaters and a Manticore so practically they were qualified Senior Aurors.
Rightfully they were all very proud of themselves but Harry wasn't finished yet.
The Headmaster had asked the room to provide a viewing area so that they could watch Harry's progress, no one was talking but everyone was oohing or ahh-ing as events unfolded before them them.
Mad Eye's record was forty-eight and Harry had equalled it, he was currently battling two Norwegian Ridgeback Dragons, having already disposed of their four death eater handlers. The Dragons were puffing fire and Harry was throwing spells then suddenly Harry was laying on the floor in front of the pair, simultaneously both Dragons opened their mouths inhaling prior to blasting fire at Harry. He fired two 'Ffrwydro' spells one into the mouth of each of the Dragons, both of the Dragons head's exploded; all that was left was for him to move, very rapidly, out of the way of the falling bodies. A ton of falling Dragon landing on you gives you more than a headache.
There was a cheer the loudest coming from Mad Eye whose record had just been broken now all that was left was the last test.
Harry swept his 'Gwahaniad' cutting spell around the room, six visible and six invisible death eaters fell, they had been cut in half; that only left the very unhappy Hungarian Horntail Dragon to deal with.
To Harry's surprise the Dragon said, "Why did you cut me?" both of the Dragon's forelegs had deep cuts from his cutting spell.
He answered in Parseltongue, "In one way I am sorry, but you were with some evil people and I had to remove them before they tried to hurt me. Now if you promise not to hurt me I will heal your legs and then you can go home."
The Dragon hesitated but said, "I also am sorry but I must kill you, so if you say 'go' we will fight."
Harry said go and the Dragon immediately blasted fire at where he had been standing, Harry had dived to the right and fired 'Gwahaniad' into the Dragon's left eye, he immediately dived to his left dodging the new fire burst and blew out the Dragons other eye. Not being happy the Dragon roared and received a 'Ffrwydro' in the mouth for his cheek, fortunately for Harry he was well aware that Hungarian Horntail Dragon's had two brains, the second one was responsible for motor functions and was buried, deep in its chest.
Fully grown male Hungarian Horntail Dragon's weighed in at around two tons, it was headless and thrashing around, the thought of chickens was somewhat appealing, ah well that was not his lot in life. It took twenty minutes to blast away enough of the Dragons chest for Harry to reach and destroy the Dragons second brain, Harry had set another record he was the first to ever completed the Auror course.
As he walked, smiling, out of the entrance he was engulfed by six hysterical, crying, very happy, extremely proud, girls.
It took nearly ten minutes for the powers that be to extract him from the melee but he wasn't interested yet in what the instructors had to say, he turned to Hermione and asked, "How did you all do?"
"Well," Hermione had a huge smile as she answered, "Padma, Parvati, Susan and Daphne all reached level twenty-six!" she finished bobbing up and down excitedly.
"Ah," he said, "the Dementors." He went around kissing and congratulating each of them in turn, he had assured them that they all had done exceptionally well, so now all four girls had huge smiles.
Hermione continued, "Ginny and I both completed level thirty-five."
"It was the Chimera?" he said.
"We both panicked," Ginny said dejectedly.
"Remember that panic is the mind killer." Harry told them all and then he congratulated the last two in the same manner he had the first four.
Tonks turned to Amelia and Kingsley loudly saying, "I want to join Harry's army! The perks are better than yours."
In perfect synchronisation the six girls grinned and poked their tongues out at her.
Grinning Tonks poked her tongue out at them and said, "See I've got one of those as well."
With a very superior smile Padma said, "But yours hasn't duelled with Harry's all of ours have."
An explosion of mirth came from everyone except Tonks she just looked totally deflated.
"So where would you all like to eat today?" asked the Headmaster, "I know that it is a little early but it would not do to meet Hermione's parents whilst your are all ravenous."
After a very short discussion they decided on the Bedouin tent again, the only difference today, apart from the addition of the twins of course, was that the conversation was all about their time in the Auror tests and what they needed to learn.
Author's Notes. So the Hetaerae members have assembled, what do you think? PLEASE REVIEW.
Important: I have also posted this notice with my other story.
I am having great difficulty keeping up with writing the nine thousand words it takes to keep up with the two stories I am currently writing. The best thing I can think of is to give myself five days to write each chapter which means that each story will be updated every ten days instead of seven. But as I have said before your reviews make the writing easier, so I thank you all for your comments to me, however short.
