Content Warning:
Some sexually suggestive situations and nudity.
Chapter 8: Premonitions
Everyone in Gryffindor immediately noticed Ron's change in behavior when school resumed. His awkwardness around Harriet had disappeared, and suddenly the two of them were closer than ever. Those in the know understood that Ron had accepted Harriet's sexuality, but to everyone else the change was baffling. Both Harriet and Ron denied being a couple, and while they treated each other playfully, there was no sign of romantic feelings from either of them.
Well, no real sign. They'd taken to rather publically flirting (which wasn't all that big a change really), but that flirting was so over the top that all the Gryffindors quickly decided that it was fake. Outside of Gryffindor though, many people were less informed, and so many assumed Harriet and Ron were an item, despite every Gryffindor's protestations. This was, of course, what they had intended, and while Harriet was fairly sure that it wasn't going to be very long before most Gryffindors knew she was a lesbian, it was going to take the other houses a while longer.
Despite that, most Gryffindors still hadn't quite figured it out yet, and in this brief space of doubt she and Ron were having some fun. Ron had a certain reserve about certain crude jokes, but at Harriet's prodding he'd overcome that quickly. And Harriet had developed a tendency to tell gross stories to all the Gryffindor boys, especially stories involving relatively normal (but exaggerated) aspects of female biology.
Seamus had almost immediately started joining them. Gross stories Harriet didn't mind out of Seamus; he had as much right to talk about his body's gross discharges as she did. But overtly sexually charged jokes were another matter. Ron could be suggestive towards Harriet at times, but he knew she wasn't interested in boys, and he knew to stop at suggestive. Seamus didn't know either of those things, so his jokes turned awkward lot more often.
Things came to a head one day during their first week back in a way that Harriet hadn't foreseen. She had wanted to ask Ron about their plan for the next defense meeting. Ron had been checking over their lesson plans for problems. It wasn't that Ron had such a keen grasp of defense that he could spot difficulties Harriet and Hermione couldn't, it was that as an average student he could tell them when they weren't really explaining something properly. So Harriet went up to the boys dormitory. Ron was still sleeping, but all the other boys were up, somewhere.
That somewhere had turned out to be the shower. Neville, Dean and Seamus returned, moments later, wearing only towels. Harriet did try and get their attention, by raising her hand, but she didn't actually say something until after they had all dropped their towels.
"Hey…" she said at that exact moment.
In Harriet's defense, she did try and look away. However, after Dean fled onto his bed and drew the curtain, Harriet looked back at them. It was pure curiosity really, she had seen boys naked before, but this was the first time it had happened in a setting where she felt comfortable taking advantage of the opportunity to look. Neville blushed a bit when she turned back, but he didn't seem upset. He grabbed his pants and was bending over to put them on, giving Harriet a full view of his backside and dangly bits. When he finished he laughed.
"Oops," he said.
Seamus, who had continued to face Harriet the entire time, decided to take a different tactic.
"Hey Harriet," said Seamus, walking over, "What are you doing up here?"
He leaned against a nearby bedpost. The effect of this had put his genitals fairly close to Harriet's face. Harriet felt slightly amused at this, but she was more annoyed than amused. It wasn't that she minded looking at Seamus' tackle exactly; in fact she probably would have found it funny if Seamus had taken to prancing around the room with his dick waving in every direction. But the closeness of this felt uncomfortable.
"Seamus," said Harriet politely, "please get your dick out of my face."
"You know the difference between my dick and an elephant's trunk?" asked Seamus.
"The elephant's trunk is much better at pleasuring a woman," said Harriet, "Now. Get. Your. Dick. Out. Of. My. Face."
"C'mon, don't tell me you aren't a little interested," said Seamus.
Ron nearly jumped to his feet. But Harriet stopped him. She wasn't sure why, but something about this situation felt wrong. Seamus' behavior was not typical of his normal attitude. A part of her brain screamed that she needed to take her mind off of sex, but she didn't understand the connection. She could see rhe same confusion on Seamus' face, as if he couldn't understand why he just said what je had said. Still, whatever had brought this on, he needed a lesson in how unacceptable this was.
So she punched him in the dick.
Seamus fell to the floor squealing. The other boys all seemed to cringe for a second, but they were all mildly amused as well. Seamus had certainly earned that.
"Have you learned something Seamus?" asked Harriet.
"When a girl tells me to put my dick away, put my dick away," said Seamus, breathlessly.
Harriet leaned down and patted the side of his face. "Good boy," she said. And then she left the room.
It had been a little squishy, thought Harriet.
XXXXX
At lunch that day Harriet laughed as the Gryffindor 4th years tormented Seamus. The girls had all managed to find some reason to pass Seamus over the course of the meal. As they passed by him they all greeted him with mock punches. Low mock punches. Punches, that were he standing facing them, would have found their mark in his genitals. Seamus seemed a bit perturbed at the idea that all the Gryffindor girls seemed to think crushing his bollocks was amusing.
The Gryffindor boys weren't really treating him much better. They were basically ignoring him. Ron told Harriet that he was getting at least one day's worth of silent treatment.
"I don't really get why he said what he did though," said Ron as they walked to Charms together.
"He's trying to prove beyond a doubt that he is a heterosexual," said Harriet, "Which, strictly speaking, I don't think he is."
"Wait, what?" asked Ron, "he likes girls."
"And he has a tendency to stare at certain boys," said Harriet, "Especially if they are wearing tight trousers. Dean, Cedric, Blaise Zabini from Slytherin."
"He wouldn't, not a Slytherin," said Ron.
"Listen Ron," said Harriet, "I am a connoisseur of bottoms. There's a lot of great female backsides in this school. Lavender, Susan Bones, Cho Chang, Katie Bell. All of them have differing qualities that make them attractive. But Blaise Zabini has a bum that was sent by the gods. It makes me wish I was straight. Look at it sometime if you get a chance. It is glorious perfection."
"When does he not wear robes?" asked Ron.
"Anytime he's not in class," said Harriet, "Seriously, you are going to want to just slap it."
"I doubt that Harriet," said Ron, but he was grinning all the same.
XXXXX
In all the fuss around the holidays, Harriet realised that she had forgotten to tell Angelina what Cedric had told her. A day after she embarrassed Seamus she made a quick stop in the sixth year dormitory.
"Hey Harriet," said Angelina as Harriet entered, "You need something?"
"Yeah, I totally forgot, but I think that Cedric gave a hint about that golden egg," said Harriet, "Have you figured it out yet?"
"No," said Angelina, her tone shifting to frustration.
"That is what I thought," said Harriet, "He told me you should take a bath with it. I think he wants you to open it underwater."
"Huh," said Angelina with a smirk, "imagine that. Makes sense. Probably mermish or something. Thanks, Harriet, as it so happens, I was planning to visit the prefects' baths tonight."
"Would you mind if I came along?" asked Harriet, "I'd like to hear the egg."
Angelina thought for a second. "Sure," she said after she finished, "We can go a bit early. Just, ah, know that you might not want to stick around once we've heard it."
"What does that mean?" asked Harriet.
"Nothing important," said Angelina, a little innocently.
Harriet shrugged. She wasn't sure what was up, but if Angelina wanted privacy, so be it.
XXXXX
"Being a prefect pays," said Harriet as she gaped at the massive prefect's bathroom, "No wonder Hermione wants to be one."
"It is a nice bathroom," agreed Angelina, "Lucky for me, I'm a Quidditch Captain."
"Nice," said Harriet. Okay, she'd have to wait a year, but she would probably be Quidditch Captain. Or maybe Hermione would let her come with her…
It was in this mindset that Harriet removed her clothes. Angelina had already removed hers and was adding something into the bath. Harriet walked out, and not for the first time, noticed Angelina's toned bottom as she crouched by the side of the bath.
Angelina saw her looking, and she stood up and faced Harriet. Harriet blushed at that. Angelina's full frontal still did that to her.
"Hey, I didn't say you had to ne naked," laughed Angelina, "You could have worn a swimsuit."
"I didn't bring one to Hogwarts," replied Harriet.
Angelina had put the golden egg right next to the water, so Harriet slid into the water and pulled it in. "Ready?" said Harriet.
"Ready," said Angelina.
They both dunked their heads under the water and Harriet opened the egg.
A strange sound emerged from the egg, words coming as if from far away underwater. The words went:
Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching ponder this;
We've taken who you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover who we took,
But past an hour, the prospect's black,
Too late, they're gone, they won't come back.
Harriet and Angelina surfaced.
"The lake," said Harriet, "If that was mermish, they are sending you into the lake."
"So I need a way to breathe underwater," said Angelina thoughtfully, "Thanks for your help Harriet, but you should get going."
"But they are going to take someone!" shouted Harriet.
"Yes, I noticed that," agreed Angelina, "Still I wouldn't take that bit about them not coming back literally. They can't put people who aren't even involved in this dumb tournament in danger."
"I don't know," said Harriet, "that dragon wasn't very safe for the audience…"
After Harriet trailed off, they swam in silence for a while. After a few minutes, Angelina suddenly spoke up.
"Oh shit! You have to get dressed now Harriet! Quickly! You don't have very much time."
Harriet swam for the edge of the bath, but suddenly she heard voices. And she understood. Angelina had invited her friends here tonight! But there was no way to get to her clothes unseen now!
So Harriet climbed out of the bath.
"Wait, you can just stay in the water…" started Angelina, climbing out after Harriet.
"Nope, taking this head on," said Harriet, turning to face the door.
Fred, George, Lee and Alicia all ran into the bathing area. They were all naked.
There was a moment of silence. Fred and George were very pointedly not looking at Harriet, though their politeness did not extend to Alicia and Angelina (not that the girls would have wanted that). Lee… well he did look, but his eyes bulged after a second and then began moving all around the room. He wasn't quite not looking either, but at least he wasn't staring.
Alicia was openly admiring Harriet, and Harriet had a hard time looking at anything else.
"Not bad Potter," said Alicia. She walked past Harriet and slapped her on the backside as she passed.
Harriet laughed, but immediately this focused her eyes on the three boys in front of her. Harriet turned to the side a bit so she didn't have to look directly at them. Unfortunately, this movement and Alicia's slap seemed to cause Lee's eyes to focus on Harriet's backside. She could see the wheels turning in his head as he did the mental calculations.
Now technically, Harriet didn't think she would actually mind being slapped on the bum by Lee. All in all she thought it would be in good fun. But a part of her told her that while she might not mind right now, Lee was perhaps not particularly at keeping quiet about certain things. The last thing Harriet wanted was other boys thinking she was willing to let them touch her.
"I see what you are looking at Lee," said Harriet, turning so her bottom was pointed directly at him, "Try it if you want, but remember, if I get annoyed at a boy I punch him in the nose. If I get annoyed at a naked boy, I punch him in the dick."
Lee's face paled a bit, as the news about Seamus had gotten around, and he shielded his genitals as he walked past Harriet.
"She's fourteen Lee," said Angelina as he passed her.
"I wasn't really going to do it, I was just trying to come up with something witty to do!" Lee objected, "I don't know why that specifically entered my head!"
Alicia rolled her eyes and slapped Lee on the bottom hard enough to knock him into the water.
Fred and George laughed and held up their hands for high fives (with their free hands notably hovering between Harriet and their genitals). And as she passed Harriet jumped up and gave them to the brothers. Then she made her way into the dressing area. She was proud of herself. She'd managed to stave off the blush until she was out of everyone's sight.
XXXXX
Morgana considered Harriet's disclosure that the second task would take place underwater. It was an inherently dangerous place to put a task, but the lake by Hogwarts had some nasty creatures in it. Morgana supposed the lake monster was unlikely to be part of the task, but the merfolk had definitely been consulted. They might even temporarily import creatures for the task. Grindylows? There already were some on the lake, but probably not enough to prove troublesome in the task. Ah, but of course, they must have let the merfolk keep the new grindylows. Simply put, the merfolk raised them.
All in all, it would be tricky, even without being underwater. If something were to happen to one of the contestants, well, no one would be surprised. Morgana pondered that for a moment. Yes, this would work nicely.
"There is a spell, known as the Bubble-head Charm," began Morgana, "It creates a bubble of breathable air around your head when you swim. I, uh, could teach you how it is cast. Just, ah, be careful. If you cast it wrong it can fail early."
Of course that was the whole point. This wasn't the real Bubble-head Charm, but a flawed copy. If Harriet taught it to Angelina her bubble would fail after about 15 minutes.
"Yes, that will do nicely," said Morgana quietly.
Harriet stated at Morgana quizzically. "You aren't supposed to help the Champions, are you?"
"I'm not," said Morgana, "I am teaching you a valuable charm. I don't control what you do with it."
Harrier grinned. Then she froze as Morgana weaved her geas one last time.
"Harriet," said Morgana, "I need you to do something for me."
"Anything," said Harriet, her eyes clouded over.
"I need you to hold your own against Voldemort in a fight," said Morgana, "Do that and I will reward you."
And so it was done. No going back.
XXXXX
Hermione had to admit, the story Harriet had told the Gryffindor fourth year girls about her adventure in the prefects' baths was funny. The other girls had been surprised by Harriet's easy acceptance of all those boys seeing her naked, but Hermione wasn't. Harriet was extraordinarily practical about such things. Hermione remembered a much younger Harriet demanding that her bare chest be shown to the Wizengamot to show off the injuries her uncle had inflicted. The moment it became inevitable that Fred, George and Lee would see her naked she simply accepted that it would happen and stopped letting it bother her.
No, Harriet's behavior wasn't out of character. Lee's was though. Lee Jordan was relatively shy around girls, all things considered. Not when he was making jokes of course. But the idea that he would have been considering slapping the bottom of a girl who he didn't know that well, and who was only fourteen at that, was very strange. Hermione wouldn't have thought he had it in him.
And maybe he didn't. This wasn't the only incident Hermione had noticed. She would never have thought Seamus would have been so aggressive with Harriet as he had been that day when she saw him naked. Oh, Hermione could imagine him strutting about with his cock out, but the words 'you have to like it,' didn't really sound like Seamus at all. Indeed a lot of people had been acting, well, horny this year, and the only thing any of them had in common was they had some degree of proximity to Harriet.
Hermione didn't know what it all meant. She didn't know that it meant anything. But she had developed a sense that somehow Harriet was involved in this. The truth was, Hermione had begun to realise that she herself had been acting out some… fantasies that she had not known were there. Hermione tried not to think on that too closely, but it was clear now that whatever had gotten into her, it was no longer affecting her. Hermione thought back to the moment she had overcome… whatever Morgana had done to her. Was this some other witchcraft of Morgana's? Or something else?
Hermione shook her head. Answers weren't likely to come quickly. But that wasn't what they were doing now. They were brainstorming ideas for the second task with the self defense group.
"The Bubble-head charm," said Sue Li, "It's an advanced charm, but it will let you breathe underwater. My uncle in Australia uses it to dive for pearls sometimes."
"I might just happen to know an optimized version of the Bubble-head charm," said Harriet.
"You do?" asked Angelina, "That's some serious reading ahead."
Harriet laughed, "Well I might have done a bit of special research on this topic last night."
The Weasley twins both laughed. Everyone here knew that Morgana was teaching Harriet privately. To them it must have been nice to get help from a teacher.
Hermione's throat suddenly grew thick with fear. Morgana was smart enough to know that Hermione or Padma or Sue Li or even Anthony would have eventually discovered the Bubble-head Charm, even if none of Angelina's friends knew it. It wasn't that obscure a spell. Hermione had even heard of it before. So why risk censure over something she absolutely didn't need to do? Why teach Harriet a special version of the spell?
"Well, let's get a copy of the original spell and then Harriet can show us her version," said Hermione, "Let's see if there is a significant difference in the difficulty."
Everyone, (even Harriet) thought this was a good idea. Luckily, The sixth year charm books had the Bubble-head charm in them, so they didn't even need to go to the library. Angelina just had to open her textbook. But then Harriet showed her version of the spell. It had several minor variations on the main spell, but was not noticeably different otherwise. Yet Hermione wondered. Those differences might not seem big, but they might actually be big. But why would Morgana want to...
"Do you mind if I go off and play with this spell for a while Angelina?" Hermione asked suddenly. She had abruptly made a horrible guess about why Morgana had taught this spell to Harriet, and was now intent on discovering if it was true.
"Sure, but why?" asked Angelina.
"I think this might be the key to learning how to improve some other spells," said Hermione, "It might not be useful, but who knows?"
Angelina nodded. "Sounds good to me."
Hermione left the Room of Requirement and headed for the one place she knew would be deserted. The second floor girls loo.
XXXXX
Hannah Abbott was enjoying being part of this group, and she liked Angelina Johnson. But there was something bothering her. It took a while to articulate, but about ten minutes after Hermione left, she pulled Angelina and Harriet aside.
"Listen, I like helping here," she said, "but we aren't supposed to be getting help from teachers."
"I never said anything about a teacher," said Harriet disingenuously.
"Don't insult my intelligence, Harriet," said Hannah, "Now, I don't mind breaking the rules, but if we are going to cheat, maybe we should at least spread out the benefits of that cheating? It seems wrong to accept help from a teacher that Cedric isn't getting."
"That is a good point," said Angelina, "I just want to see a Hogwarts victory, to be honest.
"Feel free to teach Cedric this version of the spell," said Harriet, "It isn't a secret or anything."
"Thanks, I knew you both would understand!" said Hannah happily, "This might go a long way towards healing the rifts in the school."
"No need," said Angelina, "In fact that works out nicely. The four champions are actually meeting to discuss the task soon. We have… reservations about it. I was going to bring it up then, but this way we can easily keep this technique secret from Krum and Delacour."
Hannah patted both girls on the shoulder. They really were decent people. And the other Hufflepuffs would be thrilled. A win/win!
XXXXX
Hermione pulled out her Arithmancy book and flipped to the back. There was the chart for Arithmantic Numeracy. Painstakingly, Hermione wrote down the numerical values of each aspect of the original Bubble-head charm, adding in the variables for power and focus. Because Hermione already knew the approximate outcome of this spell, she knew the outcome of this expression would have an Arithmantic probability of 95%. 95% was the highest Arithmantic probability you could get for any equation. All Arithmancy had some margin for error, though Hermione understood that for her purposes that 95% was actually 100%.
Solving the equation for the Bubble-head charm was trivial. The wand motions used would put out a power of 30x1y. The variable x was focus, while variable y was power. 30x meant that the spell needed a focus of 2, which was substantial but not extraordinarily difficult, to last an hour. 1y meant 1.0y in reality, which meant that a power of 1 would yield 100 percent effectiveness. The incantation provided the direction. Each syllable had to be intent balanced, but this was also trivial. Hermione confirmed that the spell from the spell book did what it said in the description.
But the values for the spell Harriet had taught were far more complicated. There were a lot of modifiers, and the incantation used a very non-standard pattern. With calculus this would have been simple to solve, but Hermione hadn't learned calculus quite yet. Algebraically, it was a slog.
The formula for the power of the spell immediately showed something was off. It was (7.5x1y)(-22.5x-1y). That was wrong. That was very wrong. The spell would cast normally for 15 minutes if the same focus necessary for the original spell was used. But then it would do the opposite for 45 minutes! It would prevent such an effect from being used on the caster for that whole 45 minutes unless someone used a Finite.
"This is designed to kill Angelina," said Hermione softly, unable to keep the horror out of her voice, "My god, Morgana is trying to kill Angelina."
It took her almost a half an hour to finish her analysis of the incantation, but that precisely bore out her previous statement. The spell was designed to kill someone under the water after 15 minutes. Hermione now had to decide what to do.
The first thing that was out was taking this to Angelina. Simply put, Harriet would deny getting the spell from Morgana. Everything Hermione had been reading about the geas confirmed that. Angelina might not believe Harriet, or she might. It didn't matter. Either way this did nothing to help get them closer to taking down Morgana.
At the same time Hermione had to stop Angelina from using that spell in the task. She sat back and thought for a moment. Hadn't Neville mentioned a plant back when they were looking at especially useful plants? Yes, Gillyweed. It sounded promising.
Hermione ran back to the Room of Requirement. The meeting was breaking up, but most of the Gryffindors were still there. All the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had left though.
"Neville," said Hermione, "I just had a thought. Wasn't there a plant that let you breathe underwater?"
"Yeah," said Neville, "Gillyweed. It does more than that though. It increases your ability to swim as well."
"Oooh," said Angelina, "Now that sounds like the ticket to me. No offense Harriet, but I think that is an even better idea than your special version of the Bubble-head charm."
"No offense taken," said Harriet, "That was a good idea Hermione."
"I did think about suggesting it," admitted Neville, "But I figured you would think it was stupid."
"Nope, it was a very good idea," said Harriet, "You have a lot of them, Neville. You just need to speak up!"
Hermione was already checked out of the conversation though. She was going to have to get help. She needed to take this to Dumbledore. She needed to get all her arguments in a row, because this would be a difficult conversation. Tomorrow. Yes. She'd do it tomorrow.
XXXXX
Later that evening, the Champions had their own meeting.
It was only a half hour before curfew, not that this mattered a whole lot. Technically, curfew extended to everyone in the school. However, there was an unwritten rule among the prefects that if you were of age they would let you go about your business as long as you were not doing anything suspicious. Teachers might not extend that same courtesy, (and in fact, among the current teachers only Professor Solaire and Headmaster Dumbledore did so), and the Head Boy and Girl might not, but the prefects invariably did so.
Cedric was the first to arrive. "Hey Angelina," he said, "I see you figured out your egg. Did I help with that at all?"
"Well Harriet helped, and so I guess by proxy you did," admitted Angelina.
"Good," said Cedric, "Kind of messed up, right?"
"Yeah," said Angelina
They both stood a bit awkwardly.
"Uhm," said Cedric finally, "Did you see today's Prophet?"
"What, the candidate interviews Rita Skeeter did?" asked Angelina, "Yeah, though only her interview with Greengrass was helpful. She was her usual suckup self when it came to the Minister."
"Well she has to be," explained Cedric, "My dad works at the Ministry, and he was part of a group there that caught her doing something… well illegal. She was caught red handed. The Minister stepped in for her, but it could all come public if she steps wrong with him."
"Huh, serves her right," said Angelina, "She's insufferable."
"Yeah, and I don't like Bryant Greengrass very much either," admitted Cedric, "Still he did ask where Barty Crouch Jr. is. And he hinted that Jr. might have something to do with the Goblet of Fire incident."
"That is almost certain," said Angelina.
"Well I'm glad the Minister took over the tournament," said Cedric, "Though someone is still messing with it."
"Yeah," said Angelina.
Fleur walked in at this point and greeted both Fleur and Cedric. By the time they were finished, Viktor had arrived.
"So what is this about?" asked Angelina.
"You 'ave deciphered ze second clue?" asked Fleur.
"Yeah," said Cedric, "we both have."
"Good," said Krum, "That means you know ve haff to go into the lake. To rescue a person who is dear to us."
"We do not believe that thees task ees safe," said Fleur, "We think putting people underwater ees reckless."
Cedric looked at Angelina, who nodded her agreement. "We agree with you there," said Cedric.
"Fleur and I complained to our respective Headmasters, but nothing can be done," said Krum, "Ve vanted to make some protest, but ve cannot decide vhat to do."
"We want you to join een," said Fleur, "so you should certainly 'elp decide…"
Ten minutes later, Angelina was already having second thoughts about what they had decided.
XXXXX
Ron knew something was up with Hermione. Her behavior the night before had been strange. But that wasn't what worried him. Oh no. He had noticed something odd, and he had a feeling that Hermione had noticed it too. The second task lasted an hour. The Bubble-head charm typically also lasted an hour. What possible use would an enhanced version of the Bubble-head charm be? It wouldn't have been a major point, except Hermione had immediately reacted to it, had gone off and done something, then had come back with a superior alternative to the Bubble-head.
It was almost as if Hermione thought Morgan had some sort of bad intentions towards Angelina. Ron was slow on the uptake usually, but he knew Hermione was suspicious of Morgan. And he also knew that Hermione was smarter than him, or Harriet for that matter. She wasn't that much smarter than Harriet, but the difference was there.
But Ron knew something Hermione didn't. He knew that Harriet had confided her sexuality to Morgan. That made some sense, as Harriet had told Ron about the fact that Morgana had been involved with Rowena Ravenclaw. But it also meant that he had been watching Harriet, and her behavior was concerning. She seemed obsessed with Morgan. Maybe it was a crush, hell, Ron wasn't certain he wasn't crushing on Morgan a little; she was extremely attractive! But Ron knew something was off.
So Ron did the thing he probably should have done ages ago, when he had first noticed Harriet behaving weird. He went to Hermione.
"I think Morgan has some ulterior motives for Harriet," said Ron quietly, when he cornered her in one of the hallways.
Hermione dragged Ron into one of the classrooms. "About time someone else noticed what was going on," said Hermione, her tone exasperated, "And no offense, but the fact that it is you who did it does not fill me with great hope about our schoolmates."
"No offense taken," said Ron, "If I noticed something was wrong it has to be really wrong!"
"But why are we the only ones who see this?" asked Hermione.
"Well, I saw it because I was looking for it," said Ron, "I had a crush on Harriet and I was kind of mentally cataloging how she spent her time and who she spent it with. Then when she… well she made it clear that we weren't going to be an item. Suddenly… I don't know how to describe this aside from that I could think better. Like a haze cleared from my mind instantly. So I just started noticing that she was spending a lot of time with Morgan."
"And I looked for it because Morgana tried to use her aura to intimidate me and it failed and… and oh fuck."
Ron's head snapped up at that. "Did you just swear, Hermione?"
"Harriet is putting out random auras," said Hermione, ignoring Ron's incredulity, "Most of the time she's just sending out random horny signals, it's why we've all been so fixated on sex. But everytime someone has noticed the way she fixates on Morgana, the aura pushes their fears aside. But we both brushed off Harriet's aura. You because you realised that Harriet wasn't going to be your girlfriend, and I brushed it aside because Morgana's attempt to intimidate me failed."
"And that's the last piece," said Hermione suddenly, "That is it! I have enough. We have to take this to Dumbledore and McGonagall. Now. We need to take it now."
"I agree," said Ron, "It seems you have already done your research on this. I'll back you up though."
Hermione grabbed the sides of his arms warmly. "I have had my doubts about you in the past, but I know you care about Harriet. We are helping her by doing this."
"I know," said Ron, "I, uh, don't know what evidence…"
"You'll see it all in a second," said Hermione as she dragged Ron to Professor McGonagall's office.
Before long they were both in the Headmaster's office, with McGonagall in tow.
"What is this all about," asked McGonagall angrily, "I'm surprised you didn't get Miss Potter involved in this."
"It's about Harriet," said Hermione, "I think Morgana is trying to make Harriet into her apprentice."
"And why would Miss Potter having an apprenticeship with such a skilled witch be bad?" asked McGonagall.
"By using the name Morgana, I believe Miss Granger is attempting to imply that Morgana is trying to turn Harriet into a dark witch," said Dumbledore calmly.
"I have a lot of evidence, and I think Morgana is using a geas on Harriet," said Hermione.
"I think you should start at the beginning," said Dumbledore.
"So I have been on edge since the end of last year," said Hermione, "That was when Morgana consumed the essences of those dementors to gain the power necessary to fend off Igraine."
"What?" demanded McGonagall, now confused.
"That is an accurate description of what occured, Minerva," said Dumbledore.
"Morgana herself said we should be wary of her for a while," explained Hermione, "And she initially seemed to be trying to be transparent about the whole thing. But then she quietly discouraged me from attending her training sessions with Harriet. At first it seemed innocuous, but I began to notice Harriet acting strangely protective of Morgana. Even justifying acts Morgana had done during her original life. It worried me, so I asked Morgana if she would clarify things for Harriet. But when I suggested that I sit in on their training, Morgana went crazy. She used some sort of aura or terror on me and told me that if I did not drop the matter Harriet would die."
"Do you really expect us to believe…" began McGonagall, but Dumbledore waved her off.
"We are in deep waters with Morgan Solaire, Minerva," said Dumbledore, "Even I do not know how deep. Yet I do not doubt that she could do what Miss Granger is suggesting. But it is also possible that Morgan is training Harriet to survive a battle with Voldemort. Some of the knowledge imparted there might be dangerous. She might have simply been honestly expressing that Hermione's interference was dangerous to Harriet."
"I know a threat when I hear one," said Hermione defiantly.
Dumbledore nodded.
"For months I was terrified, but after the Yule Ball I managed to muster my courage and began looking into this again," explained Hermione, "I even went to the goblins, to see if they had any pertinent information about Morgana. The historical Morgana. And what I discovered was chilling."
"Morgana used the goblins," continued Hermione, "She convinced them that she was on their side and was able to get a lot of information and assistance from them before she turned on them. The goblin histories are very specific, one of the most powerful goblin legilimens in history was living at the time, and he saw nothing in her mind that would indicate she intended to betray them. She was a natural occlumens, and a natural liar. If Morgana is intent on betraying us, she will give no sign until it is fait accomplit."
"I also knew that Morgana had used a geas to seduce Arthur, so she could bear Mordred," said Hermione, "So I investigated that as well. And Harriet is acting exactly like someone who is under a geas. I know it could be other things, but this is all very troubling when all put together."
"Perhaps," said Dumbledore, "What else do you have?"
"This," said Hermione, pulling out a sheet of parchment, "Harriet was helping Angelina plan out the second task. And she suggested a version of the Bubble-head charm that she learned in her training. Now it seems obvious to me that Morgana taught this to her. But she has refused to confirm that. But I did an Arithmantic analysis of that spell, and well, look!"
McGonagall's eyebrows furrowed, but Dumbledore's face grew grave.
"Are you accusing Professor Solaire of wanting to kill Miss Johnson?" demanded Dumbledore.
"Yes," said Hermione, "Harriet looks up to Angelina, sees her as a strong female role model. But Morgana doesn't want Harriet taking advice that might conflict with her own advice. That could interfere with the geas. So she has been trying to remove Angelina as an influence."
"This spell could have been a botched attempt to create a self-refreshing Bubble-head charm," said McGonagall.
"Perhaps," said Dumbledore, "But Harriet is a sorceress, not a spellcrafter. Would she attempt to do such a thing?"
"Also, Morgana knows you are trying to interfere with said geas if what you say is true," said McGonagall, "Has she tried to kill you?"
"I don't think so," said Hermione.
"Why not then?" demanded McGonagall.
"I don't know," replied Hermione honestly.
"It's because she doesn't want to hurt Hermione," said Ron, "I don't know much, but Morgana clearly has two favourite students, Harriet and Hermione. She would never hurt Hermione if she had any other option."
"You think a Dark Witch would care about such things?" demanded McGonagall.
"Not all Dark witches and Wizards hate everything as Voldemort does," argued Dumbledore, "Indeed, Voldemort is rare in that he has no love for anything but power, and sees Dark Magic as the pinnacle of magical power. He often ignores simple, but profound magical truths."
"My studies show that Morgana only ever used Dark Magic and indeed The Darkness itself as a last resort," said Hermione, "She understood it was dangerous, she just… underestimated the dangers. She is absolutely still capable of caring about things."
"That would make her less invincible than Voldemort, but perhaps more dangerous in the long run," said Dumbledore, "I have never failed to best Voldemort in a one on one confrontation, but his immortality has prevented me from killing him. Morgana, if she is Dark, might have the knowledge to match me."
"Why are you so convinced that Morgana is innocent?" Ron asked McGonagall.
"She has just done so much for Harriet," explained McGonagall, "Why would she try to hurt her?"
"She wouldn't see this as trying to hurt Harriet," said Hermione, "She would see it as trying to help her."
"Any other evidence?" asked Dumbledore.
"I have some," said Ron, hesitantly, "but…"
He thought about this. He really couldn't tell this to Hermione. He shouldn't tell it to anyone really. But if Dumbledore was gay, as Harriet claimed…
"I can only tell Dumbledore though," said Ron adamantly, "I promised to keep it secret. I… I would be breaking my promise the least to tell him."
"Surely Harriet wouldn't mind you telling me!" cried Hermione.
"She would specifically mind if I told you, actually," said Ron sheepishly, "Sorry Hermione, I can't say anymore."
Dumbledore ushered Ron back into the back section of his office, then silenced the area between them and McGonagall and Hermione. He also summoned a haze so they couldn't be seen.
"Now, what is this secret?" said Dumbledore.
"I am only comfortable telling you this because Harriet is certain that you are gay," said Ron, "So you probably won't have a negative reaction to this."
"I am surprised that she picked up on it," said Dumbledore, "It is not something that comes up much in a school. But I think I now see the arc of your thoughts. Harriet is a lesbian, is she not?"
Ron nodded. "Morgana was the first person she told because, well, Morgana had an affair with Rowena Ravenclaw."
Dumbledore frowned. "As a student?" he asked.
"An adult student, but yes," confirmed Ron, "I don't think that Morgana is just content with grooming Harriet to be an apprentice. I think she is grooming Harriet to be her partner, her co-ruler. I think she might even be preparing Harriet to be her eventual lover."
"This is a very serious accusation," said Dumbledore, "and it could just be that Harriet has a crush on Morgana, did you think of that?"
"She has crushes on Angelina, Fleur and Hermione as well, though," said Ron, "She doesn't treat them the same at all."
Dumbledore sat still for a long time. Then he dispelled the barriers that kept them from Hermione and Professor McGonagall.
"I will ask Professor Snape to investigate these claims," said Dumbledore, "They are serious and concerning. I am going to be honest, I suspect something very dark is going on. Minerva, do not in any way let on that Morgana is under surveillance. If she discovers that we are investigating her, it will become extremely difficult to learn anything. Simply put, to fire Morgana on conduct charges, I need evidence to bring before the Board. Without that, I can only fire her for academic purposes. And if she discovers that we are investigating her, she can demand that the board take over the investigation. And Sirius would have to recuse himself because of Harriet's direct involvement. This must be done quietly."
"Thank you!" said Hermione, excitedly.
"Do not thank me yet," said Dumbledore, "I fear if Snape is unable to uncover evidence to support your theory, I will still be powerless."
Ron felt a chill go up his spine. Somehow, he felt that things were about to get worse, not better.
Author's Note: I officially have finished my rough draft of Part 7! This is a huge landmark, in terms of just general progress but it's also a huge story moment as well. I'm actually quite excited for what is coming next.
This chapter and the next were really hard to edit into something manageable. The real issue that came back to haunt me was having Harriet's aura run wild. It pushed me into a situation where the characters are getting extremely randy and inappropriate, but I never felt comfortable with certain aspects of that. I have no interest in writing explicit sexual content about 14 year olds. Harriet is still pretty innocent as all that sort of stuff goes, so this aura is a result of how frustrated she is trying to hide her sexuality, rather than a measure of how thirsty she is.
The Seamus scene was especially difficult, because what Seamus does is so totally out of line, but at the same time Harriet's aura suggests that he isn't totally responsible for it. Still, as we saw with Lee, this aura isn't making anyone do anything, Lee was able to control himself, Seamus wasn't.
Updates should be more regular for a while as I finish Part 5.