Authors Notes. I apologise for the delay in producing this chapter, beside the intrusion of real life, it was caused by my wanting to send them all to 'Corf Keep' and it wasn't working so as you read this you will see what I eventually did instead.
H.P. Love is All You Need
Chapter 10. Harry's Birthday.
It seemed like the middle of the night and Harry was waking up slowly, but that wasn't Hermione or Ginny kissing him that was Susan!
Where were her clothes?
A Susan without clothes in a snogfest seemed to be a little dangerous especially for her, however after about ten minutes she seemed to have been whisked away.
Daphne quickly replaced her and it appeared that she had been reading Hermione's book because what she was doing was going to make an awful mess if she wasn't careful. Oops she wasn't very careful. Apparently she hadn't intended to be careful because she seemed highly delighted with her efforts but soon her ten minutes were up and he heard a distant 'Scourgify' and all was reasonably well.
This was definitely the Patil twins and he didn't think that what they were doing was in Hermione's book but he definitely wasn't complaining, he couldn't complain his mouth was full. In his more lucid moments he could tell the twins apart but at the moment he didn't care which one of them was doing what to him as long as they kept doing it, forever. Alas as was the way of the world all good things must come to an end and the twins time was up.
But there is nothing in the rules that insists that one good thing couldn't be replaced by another good thing, which was just as well because this was Ginny and her mummy, probably, wouldn't have thought that she was being very good. However it wasn't her mother who was the judge in this matter it was Harry and he had thought for quite a while that Ginny was very good, especially when she did that and that. Oh my god her hair must be in one heck of a mess and she's using it to clean up the rest, she's gone.
"Happy birthday darling." For the first time today someone had spoken to him and it was Hermione, she he placed above all others, "Have you enjoyed your birthday so far."
Now she was kissing him but when she had finished he said in amazement, "Did you arrange all of this?"
He was now kissing her but eventually she said, "Well you have so much money that none of us could think of anything to give you until I thought of this. But it's not over yet…"
Whatever she had been going to say was lost to the world forever as she started moaning, he had flipped her over and his head was between her legs and he was doing things with his tongue that Hermione was hoping would never stop.
When she had come for the fourth time he relented and she managed to croak, "I am supposed to take you to the shower in your room at our place, but I want to stay here with you for ever."
"Do you think that they would mind if we slipped away and eloped?" Harry asked, only half joking.
She giggled and replied, "They would round up a posse and hunt us down like dogs."
Grinning he said, "I have a pretty good idea what they would do to me when they caught us but I dread to think what they would do to you."
She giggled again, "They would make me watch what they were doing to you and not let me join in, a fate worse than death. Oh woe is me, alack and alas. Lawks we had better get on or they will wonder what I am doing to you."
Now they were both chuckling and he said, "You can always tell them that I was playing hard to get."
Her eyes lit up, "I will tell them that it took a while for me to persuade you to come."
He had a wicked grin, "Well I had come at least five times so it is quite reasonable to suppose that it would take some time for me to come again."
Still smiling she slapped him playfully and stopped him putting his dressing gown on and simply said, "No clothes!" and they went to their place.
Their place was eerily quiet and the silence was broken by their giggling as they made their way to the shower in his room and suddenly Harry said, "It's dark out what on earth is the time?"
Quite nonchalantly Hermione said, "I suppose that it must be about half past two by now."
By this time they had reached Harry's room and he headed straight for the bed and climbed into the middle of it and said loudly, "I am going to sleep for a few more hours and if there is another ambush you had all better join me. The first ones in the bed get the best cuddle spots."
There was no hanging about; Hermione was one side of him and Ginny, by means of a deft leap, just made it to the other beating Daphne by a whisker, eventually they all settled down and a house elf's voice said, "Happy Birthday Harry, what time would you like me to call you all.
Padma said sleepily, "Quarter to seven for me please and Happy Birthday Harry."
A few 'that will do's' and 'Happy Birthday's' later they were all asleep.
There seemed to be people kissing him everywhere and he had to admit that it was a very nice way to be woken up.
"Come on Padma," it was Parvati's voice, "we have to get home, you told mum to call us at seven."
Variations on 'Oh lawks!" came in several voices and they formed an orderly queue to kiss Harry goodbye telling him that they would see him in a couple of hours, then they disappeared off home.
Ginny, Hermione and Harry went back to their own rooms in the Grangers house where they arrived three minutes before Jane knocked on the girls door and called out, "Aren't you two lazy urchins going to wish Harry a happy birthday?"
Hermione opened her bedroom door wearing her dressing gown, she gave her mother a kiss on the cheek and said, "We wished Harry a happy birthday just after midnight but we are quite willing to do it again." Then she opened his door and walked straight into Harry's bedroom.
"Happy birthday Harry." Jane called out, "Breakfast will be in twenty minutes.
"Thank you Jane," he called back and then the girls smothered him again.
Just how they made it to breakfast on time none of the trio quite knew although they hadn't showered and Hermione's mum had called them again to come and help sort out all of the owls. If there had been a twitcher within a mile of the house he would of thought he was in heaven, every kind of owl imaginable was trying to deliver birthday greetings to the Green-eyed sex god. There were also hundreds of large tropical birds, from all over the world, attempting to fulfil the same task; a lot of these had never been seen in the wild, closer than two thousand miles from Britain.
Halfway through their breakfast Tonks came in with six other Aurors, Harry smiled when he noticed that they were all female and she said, "We asked for volunteers to help with your post today and these six won the raffle, anyway happy birthday green eyes."
Then she kissed him not very chastely as the other six Aurors, who were giggling at them, started first checking then removing the mail from the birds.
Hermione asked, "How many of you were in the draw?"
"Sixty three," Tonks answered, "there are only sixty four female Aurors and I was coming anyway, so I didn't have to enter."
Ginny grinned, "So he's a little popular then?"
Tonks still hadn't released Harry from the cuddle she was giving him, "I do believe that they threatened several of the guys with unspecified damage if any male names came out of the hat."
Harry asked, "Do you think that I could finish my breakfast?"
"Of course Dreamboat." Tonks said looking at him innocently.
He grinned, "Then would you mind letting go?"
"Sorry." She said releasing him and trying to look innocent, she failed and the six Aurors started giggling again.
Harry asked the six of them to put aside anything that looked as if it might of come from somebody that he actually knew.
So the trio finished their breakfast and went back upstairs to dress for the day whilst Jane and Matt went to see how the surgery was coping, they didn't expect to be back before early evening.
The initial plan had been that they should spend the majority of the day in the pool but of course this was England ergo it was dull, overcast, windy and trying very hard to rain so the two girls were in Harry's room trying to think of an alternative.
Harry said, "Should we all go to 'Corf Keep' and have a look at the house that Sirius has left me, it might well be that we will be living there for a while?"
Hermione answered, "When we go there I think that for security, it should only be the seven of us at first and then we can decide if anyone else is welcome. Anyway do you have any idea how big it is? We are going to need seven bedrooms for us, at least four big bedrooms for children and more as they grow up. So I would say at least twenty five bedrooms, what do you think?"
As the pair agreed with Hermione, Susan and Daphne arrived in Harry's room needless to say birthday kisses were exchanged, Susan was obviously getting a bit better, she even managed to stay on her feed after kissing Harry.
Two minutes later a lot of giggling was coming from Hermione's room, the twins came in to give Harry his birthday kisses and they had obviously collected Luna, Ron and Neville. Another voice sounded from the hall down stairs, Hannah Abbot had arrived as well so Ginny went down to bring her up to Harry' room.
When Hermione outlined their problem Daphne said immediately, "Why can't we go swimming at 'our place'?"
It was so obvious that Hermione was kicking herself.
Eleven of them made their way downstairs to Tonks and the Aurors to tell them where they were going so Tonks told them to be back in time for the party at six thirty.
Harry asked if they had found anything suspicious and the Aurors said no but one of them pointed to a small pile of mail that they believed came from people he knew. Harry then asked them if they would like to come this evening to the party, needless to say they were all delighted and they started giggling again.
When they all arrived at 'their place' Hermione showed Ron and Neville into one of the spare bedrooms so they could change into their swimwear and she showed Hannah and Luna into the other one to do the same.
Harry had changed and had just found a suitable towel when Daphne came into his room in her bikini, her red bikini, her red bikini that was so small that it left absolutely nothing to the imagination.
She looked wonderful and she whispered, "I love you Harry, happy birthday," and then she kissed him.
When she stopped from her wicked smile he realised that he had been set up again, kissing six beautiful girls clad in skimpy bikinis was one of the chores he was hoping to be set up with on a fairly regular basis.
Everybody except Ron was having a wonderful day.
First he gave himself a black eye when he walked into a wall because he was ogling Daphne; to add insult to injury Luna also punched him on the arm telling him to 'stop drooling'. When she had done this six or seven times in the first twenty minutes she declared to the Hetaerae that it was open day on the carrot if he was caught drooling at Daphne again. Five members of the group constantly helped Luna with his correction, however Daphne was too busy entertaining Harry to bother with Ron or anything the others were doing.
Lunch was served under a giant pergola on the beach, the elves had brought a large barbecue near to the blankets that they were sitting on to eat. On the barbecue they were cooking all kinds of meat, additionally there were large chunks of fresh bread and a varied assortment of fresh salad.
After lunch it was back into the sea to play and at four the girls decided that it was time to start getting ready for the party.
Subsequently Hannah and Neville were discovered, still in their dry swimsuits, snogging on one of the spare beds, they both said that they were having a wonderful day.
First Luna and then Hannah said that they hadn't brought anything special for the evening so Hermione took the pair to Gladrags and bought both of them party clothes for the evening.
When Neville went to the pergola to see what food was left Harry realised that Neville and Hannah had been missing at lunchtime, not to be left out Ron joined him but Harry went and sat on the veranda and read some more of his book.
Hannah, Luna and Hermione did not take long in Gladrags and when they returned Luna and Hannah wanted to thank Harry for buying them party dresses, he told them that if their invitations had been complete then there would have been no need. He also told them that Hermione liked spending his money so they had cheered her up as well, for this remark she jumped onto his lap and started tickling him, this only lasted until he kissed her and then she surrendered, unconditionally.
At quarter to six Harry called the other two boys who were still sitting under the pergola chatting, it was time for them all to get ready, they were still ready before the girls but at twenty five minutes past six they all returned to Hermione's home.
As a small quiet birthday party it was a total failure, the weather had cleared up and there were over forty people in the garden celebrating, however Harry appreciated that all of the girls' parents and guardians had to be invited. Jane told him that she had spoken to Molly and asked her to invite everyone she thought should come to the party, also Harry himself had invited Tonks with the six young Aurors who had sorted his mail throughout the day.
The sorters had found and disabled thirty-seven trackers, however they were all found to be from over amorous young ladies who simply wanted to press their affections on the Dreamboat personally. There were over three and a half thousand communications of which only fourteen were from people who knew him, to Harry's relief Daphne suggested that he should have a general thank you printed in the Daily Prophet, he hadn't thought of that.
When Tonks arrived with the six other Aurors she immediately gave him a kiss and then whispered, "Will you give the others a kiss as well please?"
Smiling at her he replied, "You had better ask permission from my Hetaerae in waiting."
Nymphadora Tonks was not noted for being the subtlest person on the planet and in a loud voice she said, "Harry said that he doesn't mind so can he have the Hetaerae's permission to kiss these six young ladies who would like to kiss him."
"Tonks!" Hermione said, "I was stood right here beside him and that isn't what he said at all. However the six of them have worked very hard all day for him so I personally think that he should kiss them but we had better have a huddle and vote on it."
All the guests were laughing at the antics of the girls as they went into a huddle with Harry, a minute later they broke up and with a big smile Daphne said, "The vote was six in favour with one abstention I therefore declare the proposition carried. Harry is to kiss the six Aurors."
Professor Dumbledore asked, "Who abstained?"
Susan answered, "Harry of course."
Chuckling Professor McGonagall said, "That shows a well developed sense of self preservation Potter."
The six young Aurors were lined up in front of Harry and shyly the first one said, "Most of the girls who want to be Aurors aren't like Tonks…"
"Thank goodness!" came from Kingsley.
"…I think that I speak for all six of us when I say that I have never kissed a boy before so I might not be very good at it."
Harry was a very considerate person, so as he took her in his arms he determined that he would do this properly and make the first kiss for each of them memorable.
It was very obvious to all who were paying even scant attention that the Auror was enjoying the kiss. So as she was being kissed Hermione whispered something to the Headmaster and he conjured six comfortable chairs for the post-kissed girls to sit on.
Each in turn had to be helped to their chair by the members of the Hetaerae and it took the quickest ten minutes to recover from her indisposition and she said, "Where's the list? I want to sign up."
"What list?" asked Ginny sounding puzzled.
She replied, "The list of volunteers for future membership of the Hetaerae."
Nodding their heads the other five were muttering me too as Hermione said, "You have hardly spoken to him and only kissed him once, how can you possibly know that you want to be tied to him for the foreseeable future?"
The first Auror to be kissed started talking and the others were agreeing with her, "I have heard a lot of girls describe their first kiss or when they first kissed their true love and things like that, but I have never ever heard anyone describe a kiss like the one I have just received and I want some more. So, where is the list of hopelessly smitten females, I want to join Harry's Hetaerae."
"Oh lawks!" said Ginny and Hermione at the same time and the other four were agreeing with them. The young Aurors, the Hetaerae girls and Tonks disappeared into the house to talk.
Luna, Ron, Hannah and Neville had all disappeared somewhere, Harry thought that they were all probably snogging in the bushes so he went over to chat with Remus and Hagrid who were talking to Hermione's parents.
After about a quarter of an hour he went to talk to Susan's aunt and after some idle chit chat he asked, "Will those six young ladies you so kindly loaned me today be coming on Friday?"
Amelia smiled, "They didn't seem to be too distressed at having to be here this evening did they? So yes I do believe that I will force them into your company again on Friday."
He looked a bit worried, "I hope that my girls can help them, they all want to join the Hetaerae and I don't know them at all. Do they realise that being near me it isn't exactly the safest place to be and can they remain as Aurors if they join a Hetaerae?"
"I hadn't really thought about the second point but of course they couldn't," she replied, " every time they had a problem a whole bunch of people would come to their rescue. As for the danger I think that they realise that, only as an abstract concept, none of them has ever even seen a death eater in anger, outside of the training module and no one really knows how they will react when they do, until they come under fire."
Harry was still looking fretful, "I hope that my lot can talk some sense into your lot."
Amelia smiled again, "Talking sense into girls that are smitten with the 'Harry bug' doesn't usually work, any way, we will soon find out here they all come."
The group stopped about three yards away and only Hermione came up to Harry, she put her arms around his neck and kissed him then she said quietly, "We had better go somewhere to talk quietly."
Hermione led him away from the crowd and they both went to their place where Godric told them that he would ensure that they wouldn't be disturbed, so they went through into the lounge.
Sprawling on a sofa they spent half an hour undertaking some serious snogging research then Harry said, "You better tell me the bad news."
She didn't look at him but said, "How do you know that it is bad news?"
Gently lifting her chin he smiled at her and said, "Well it can't be good news or you wouldn't bring me here for a good snog, would you?"
Smiling back she said, "Well the easy bit first, Tonks wants to marry you because she knows that she can't be in the Hetaerae, we have told her that we don't mind because we all like Tonks a lot, but after that it would be strictly between her and you. To make matters slightly easier Ginny has decided that as long as she is in the Hetaerae she doesn't care if she is married to you or not."
"Well," Harry said, "I want to marry you first and really I know now that I would be perfectly happy with just that, everything else is just a bonus. To a certain extent I love all of the girls in the Hetaerae and Tonks for that matter, so sometime after we are married we could decide about Tonks, you never know she might change her mind in a couple of months."
"That sounds good, we can tell her that you are not against the idea," she said, "but you won't marry her until sometime after we have had our wedding." Harry nodded, she kissed him delightedly and then she continued, "Needless to say the other girls are a bit more of a problem, all of them still insist that they want to be tied to you, as irrational as that may be, they do all seem very nice but none of us know them, which is what makes the whole thing completely illogical."
Having kissed Hermione again Harry said, "I was talking to Amelia and we realised that if any or all of these girls join a Hetaerae they cannot remain as Aurors because if ever any of them were in trouble then we would all come flying to help them. So until Voldemort is defeated and the aftermath has died down, it would be completely wrong to remove six trained Aurors from the Ministry.
Provided some meetings between them and us are arranged, it will give both sides time to get to know each other, their names can be top of a list, if that is what they want, but the effort against Voldemort is what comes first. The list will not bind either side to anything, it will simply be for consideration by both sides and to see what develops in the future. Warn them all that its existence shouldn't become general knowledge or there will be thousands of names on it."
This time Hermione kissed him passionately and said, "I think that that is about as good as we are going to get and the best option we can offer them."
One of the portraits told them that there were a dozen young ladies waiting patiently for them outside so the couple decided that they were finished and it was time to tell all of them the news.
When the dozen came into the lounge Harry said, "Daphne will you stay here with Hermione she will explain what we have decided and the rest of us will get back to the party, it is not very polite for me to be away all of the time, after all the party is in my honour."
As soon as the five of them had returned to Harry's bedroom he explained what had been decided to his girls and Padma said, "That seems entirely reasonable and is probably a better offer than any of them could have realistically expected, I think that Tonks will be delighted."
Harry went straight to Amelia when he had arrived down stairs and he explained their decision to her also the reasoning behind it, needless to say she was impressed so she assured him that she would do her part.
Within half an hour everyone returned from 'their place', which was just as well because the party was almost over and people were starting to go home. Ron and Luna were eventually found and they went home, by Portkey with his mum, the couple had been told that they would be collected from the Burrow at about nine in the morning.
Hannah wanted to go to the Leaky Cauldron with Neville, so Susan took her there via 'their place' and she extracted a promise from Hannah that she would contact her mother if she were going to be very late home. Susan actually thought that Hannah wouldn't go home until Neville took his Portkey back to Professor Sprout but she also believed that she had done as much as she could to keep the peace.
Tonks and the Aurors were the last visitors to leave and the girls lined up again for a very much more chaste kiss than they had received on their arrival and they all appeared to be reasonably happy as they left.
Then it was Tonks turn and she was obviously very emotional. First she thanked Harry for even considering her request and after telling them all that she would see them for breakfast at eight in the morning she kissed him sweetly before departing for her home.
The mail that had arrived throughout the day remained unopened and Harry had the elves transfer all of it to 'their place' where it would be opened sometime in the future. Parvati told him that he should make an effort to open the post from people he knew first thing in the morning but even she didn't think that the rest was in the least urgent.
Eventually the Hetaerae made their way to their homes and Harry bid his two loves a lingering goodnight making certain that they were both happy about the day's developments.
The three of them went to their beds and slept the sleep of the totally knackered.
Authors Note. Well that's it and I hope that you enjoyed it PLEASE REVIEW and tell me that you forgive the delay.
