Chapter Eight
Harry wasn't sure initially what woke him up the next morning. The first thing he noticed before even opening his eyes was that Hedwig had rejoined him in the bed and was curled up tightly against him. Letting his eyes flutter open, he was surprised to see a pair of dark blue eyes staring back into his own. Fleur had at some point during the night came into his room and conjured a chair to sit and watch him sleep. Her eyes looked bloodshot.
"Good morning 'arry." She said softly. "Sleep well?"
"Yeah." Harry answered softly, mindful to not wake the still sleeping Hedwig. "But it doesn't look like you did. Did you ever go back to sleep last night?"
"Oui." Fleur answered with a tired smile. "For a few 'ours. Then I woke up." Harry smiled apologetically.
"Was it my magical aura?" he asked softly. Fleur closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. She finally gave in to her desires from last night and let out a long shuddering moan that made Harry glad he was still covered with the sheets.
"Oui." She said slowly in a husky voice. "I was wrong last night. I don't think, I know that you are zee one. Right now I can feel my blood singing from being so close to you, calling to me to seal zee bond." She shivered again, trying to get herself under control again. "'arry, I cannot begin to describe 'ow badly I want to give in, to let your aura sweep around me and to claim me as yours…"
"What do you mean claim you?" Harry asked. Fleur looked at him and decided that he was not asking out of naivety, but to make sure it was what he thought it was. The mental connection was getting stronger.
"Exactly as you are thinking. I would be yours, completely, till the day we die." She didn't add that due to the soul bond, they would then be together for all eternity in the afterlife as well. She wasn't sure when she would tell Harry about the soul bonds, but she knew it had to be soon.
"Hermione is going to kill me…" Harry muttered. "She hates all forms of slavery." The look of dejection on Harry's face forced Fleur to use every ounce of her self control to not crawl onto the bed and kiss the sadness away from his life.
"Not slavery 'arry. For veela, zee ability to find someone who we can trust that much is something that is celebrated, as it is a form of love that cannot be matched by any normal relationship. It is anything but slavery, and I will make sure Hermione sees this."
Harry cheered up slightly, but was still confused by one thing.
"So why come into my room?" Harry asked. "Wouldn't things have been better if you had gone farther away?"
"Hush." Fleur said, a delicate pink, before deciding to relent. "To be far enough away would mean going several miles away… your aura is that powerful. You are lucky normal witches cannot sense auras or you would have had trouble long ago. So, if I must be this close, I would rather be close enough so that zee pleasure outweighs zee torture of denial."
"What she is trying to say is that she came in here to enjoy some free orgasms." Tonks said as she walked into the room carrying a tray with a few cups of coffee on it. Harry and Fleur jumped in surprise. "Now Fleur, tell the nice young man here thank you for the orgasms."
"TONKS!" both Harry and Fleur exclaimed together. However, Fleur's bright red face and lack of a denial was all that was needed to make Tonks grin with victory.
Hedwig, who had been woken up by the twin yells, poked her head up.
"Bacon?" she asked in a feeble voice before letting her head flop back down and pulling the sheets over it.
"I think you needed to bring four cups of coffee Tonks, not three." Harry observed with a chuckle as he wiggled out of the bed. Snagging one of the cups from the tray, he slipped past Tonks into the bathroom. Tonks grinned evilly and quickly whispered something into Fleur's ear, who flushed but also grinned. Hedwig merely dragged herself out of the bed to search the kitchen for leftover bacon.
Harry sighed as he relaxed in the hot water of the tub, the cup of coffee having done its job of waking him up. He stared at his gold hand, his fingers flexing slightly, altering the designs etched into the metal. Many of the "designs" were actually intricate runes, and Harry was surprised that Tonks was knowledgeable in such a field. He grinned. He would be forced to sit for several hours, if not days, while Hermione examined the runes that Tonks had used. He tried to identify a few of them himself, but the only one he could figure out was one that allowed the metal to reform if it should become cut for some reason. Making a fist, he was impressed when he felt the gold fingernails dig into the palm, then open his hand to watch the 4 creases slowly vanish from the gleaming metal. He idly wondered if Wormtail's hand had similar runes on it.
Glancing at the clock on the wall, and the pruning on his right hand, Harry decided he had been in there long enough and heaved himself out of the tub. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he let out the bath water and briefly contemplated trying to do something with his hair. It wasn't until he dried off that he realized something very very important: he hadn't grabbed any clothes before going into the bathroom. Shrugging, he pulled on his boxers and opened the bathroom door. He froze.
Tonks and Fleur were sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for him to come out with grins on their faces (Fleur's head was resembling a tomato even though she was grinning). Hedwig was sitting on the bed too, but she was far more interested in munch on some pieces of cold bacon then to stare at him. It was taking all of Harry's self control not to blush horribly but relaxed when his Gryffindor courage kicked in.
"See something you like girls?" he asked casually as he walked over to his bag to pull out some clean clothes. Tonks's mouth fell open at his boldness, but Hedwig giggled, having known her master long enough to know what he was capable of when cornered. Harry turned his back to the girls, and their twin yells of horror had him forgetting the clothes he was getting and lunging for his wand instead.
"'ARRY!" Fleur yelled, the revulsion clear in her voice. Harry froze, his fingers inches from his wand on the nightstand before they folded back into a fist as he stood up. He knew what she had seen.
"See Fleur?" he said softly. "Not everyone is perfect. Though I thought you would have seen these when you were healing me Tonks."
He felt Fleur walk up behind him, and her shaking fingers traced the hundreds of scars on his back, the result of 16 years under Uncle Vernon's belt. A few seconds later he felt Tonks's fingers join hers.
"All I did was make your hand Harry…" Tonks answered in a weak voice. "Remus insisted on healing all your other wounds while I cared for Hedwig. Now I guess I know why he did that…"
Fleur's breath was hitching in her throat while Tonks's heart ached as they explored his scar ravaged back, shocked that anyone could have survived so much abuse for so long. They gently turned him around to look at his front. While his back was scared from the abuse at the hands of his uncle, the front of his body was littered with scars from his many adventures over the past six years.
He held still as the pair ran their fingers over the thick scars left over from the Triwizard's Hungarian Horntail, the long scar on his left arm from where Wormtail cut him to collect his blood. Dozens of smaller scars that came from his two running battles with Death Eaters were scattered across his chest. Not really noticeable at a casual glance, but there nevertheless. But it was the ugly black scar on his right arm that gave them pause.
"Harry…" Tonks said softly. "What is this one from?" Harry didn't look down at it.
"That's the scar that one gets when you survive getting bitten by a sixty foot long basilisk. I would have died at the age of 12 if it weren't for Fawkes" The two girls just looked at him in disbelief.
"A basilisk?" Fleur asked, the skepticism clear in her voice. "Were would you have found one that old?"
"In Salazar Slytherin's hidden chamber. " Harry replied tiredly, slowly pulling away from their hands to pull on a pair of pants. "Dumbledore in another one of his moments of brilliance decided that no one should know what had been living under Hogwarts since the very beginning." He snorted bitterly. "Then again a sixty foot long basilisk would have been pretty handy in their current situation wouldn't?"
Tonks and Fleur took a step back and looked at each other, their hearts sinking. In a span of 2 minutes, the cheerfully and slightly flirtatious Harry Potter they had known and getting to know was gone. In his place was a boy… no… a man, aged far beyond his years and utterly broken. This was the true Harry Potter. Ignoring them, Harry pulled on a shirt and went to leave the room. Fleur quickly reached out and grabbed hold of his hand.
"'arry, stop." She said gently. "Don't go."
"Why?"
"Because it is bad to be alone, and I am going to take you out shopping as soon as we get our own baths. So stay." She smiled softly at him when he looked back at her. He sighed.
"Alright." He said finally. "But until we leave, can you girls leave me along for now? You too Hedwig. You say it is bad to be alone, well that is exactly what I need right now."
Hedwig looked down while Fleur bit her lip then reluctantly let go of Harry. Harry just nodded his head once and left the room. There was silence for a minute then Tonks's eyes blazed with determination and she grabbed Fleur.
"Come one Miss Delacour." She said. "You and I are going to bathe together to get out of this place sooner. I refuse to see Harry like that a second longer then he needs to be!" Ignoring Fleur's protests and Hedwig's giggles as she got dressed, Tonks dragged Fleur into the bathroom and closed the door.
~ Birds Of A Feather ~
It was a much happier Harry that Fleur lead through La Place Magique for a second time. It had helped that after Tonks and Fleur had emerged from the bathroom that Hedwig had disobeyed Harry's wishes and tracked him down to snog him senseless. It also helped that Fleur had decided to wear an outfit similar to Hedwig's, seemingly not caring if her scars were showing. Harry's view on her injuries seemed to have boosted her confidence. Tonks had insisted on wearing the same full body robes that she had been wearing from the beginning, merely using a quick scourgify spell to keep it clean.
Fleur had been dismayed that most of Harry's clothes had been all hand me downs and insisted that he wear his Hogwarts clothes while they went shopping for an entire new wardrobe for him. Of course it didn't hurt that the girls did some shopping as well. Harry was sure Tonks was grateful for the feather light charm on the many shrunken bags that were going into Tonks's backpack that already held all the trunks from Gringotts. Right now she was trying to buy an assortment of clothes for Hedwig. However…
"NO!" Hedwig bellowed at yet another selection that Fleur showed her. "I don't want a dress! I like Tonks's style just fine thank you."
"But 'edwig dear…" Fleur said exasperatedly. "I know you like that look, but you are taking it too far! You are… you are looking like you are…well… Harry's slave!" Hedwig smirked and walked up to get into Fleur's face.
"That's right Fleur." Hedwig said. "That is exactly what I am and I love it. And if half of what you said last night was true, you should be embracing that role as well. Or are you afraid master doesn't have enough room in his heart for all of us?"
"No… but…"
"No but Fleur!" Hedwig exclaimed. "You either love him as much as I do or you don't at all." She grabbed Fleur's hand and dragged her out of the store and into a neighboring one she had spotted earlier. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. Fleur blushed a bright red.
"You either love him as much as I do or you don't at all." Hedwig repeated. Fleur just bite her lip. The blush only got deeper the more Hedwig talked.
Tonks, meanwhile, was trying to do the opposite with Harry.
"Come on Harry." She said. "Haven't you ever wanted to be rebellious?" Harry glared at her as he went through a selection of jumpers that would actually fit him for a change, already planning on burning all of his old clothes in Fleur's tub when they got back.
"Like what?" he countered. "Do you want me to pin you to the shop wall and snog you? I've gotten pretty good at it by now." Tonks just smirked.
"Harry, you couldn't handle me in your wildest dreams."
"Is that a challenge I hear?"
"Maybe it is. What are you going to do about it?" Harry's response would long go down in Tonks's mind as one of the most shocking things that ever happened to her. Grabbing her by the waist, the clothes she was holding fell to the ground as Harry pushed her against the wall and promptly kissed her. Tonks was so shocked that she couldn't even react for a few seconds.
"Oh what the hell." She thought when her mind reengaged and tried to spin them around, only to find herself being bent over backwards as the kiss deepened. When the need for air finally forced them apart, Tonks once again had a stunned look on her face and Harry was smirking in victory.
"Didn't you Hufflepuffs ever learn not to challenge a Gryffindor? We always will accept it." Turning his back on her, he went back to selecting clothes that he liked. He never heard Tonks's reply as she went off to get a selection of formal robes for Harry.
"Oh Remus… looks like you got some competition after all…"
An hour later, Harry and Tonks left the shops behind and went to the center of the plaza to wait for Fleur and Tonks. Harry was relieved that while every now and then someone's eyes would flick to his scar, it was clear the French did not hold him to such high regard as the British did. To them, his only claim to fame was that he had survived the AK, nothing more. Voldemort had been a strictly "British affair." Hence, Harry was able to stand in the middle of the plaza and hold a normal conversation with Tonks without being interrupted every five minutes. Their conversation only stopped when a pile of bags was dropped next to Tonks. Harry glanced up and his mouth fell open.
Fleur and Hedwig were standing there side by side waiting for Harry to inspect them. It wasn't their clothes that had shocked Harry, all of their purchases had gone straight into the bags (Harry has immediately changed into one of his new outfits). What had shocked Harry was the fact that both girls were wearing a brown leather collar… a collar with a lightning bolt emblem hanging from it.
"Well master…" Hedwig said softly.
"What do you think?" Fleur answered, a bright blush on her face, but was smiling happily anyways.
"No no no…" Harry groaned, even though a certain part of his body threatened to betray him. "Hermione will kill me if she sees that." Hedwig smirked.
"You just leave her to me Master." She said calmly. "Please. We both want this. Just accept it."
Harry's mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he looked at Fleur for confirmation. She nodded her head.
"It is true Master." She said, a small shiver of pleasure running down her spine. "'edwig opened my eyes to a great many things while we were… ummm… selecting our collars. No matter what my matriarch says… I already… and will always… belong to you. It is too late for me…" She smiled and looked up into Harry's eyes. "So yes… I want this Master… very much so."
Harry looked back and forth between the two girls a couple of times, his mind and heart at war with each other. His heart won.
"Bugger it all." He thought. "I deserve to be happy for a change." He opened his arms and the two girls squealed, leaping into his arms. As soon as he accepted them, a charm on the collars activated, binding them to the two girls, preventing their removal.
"Aww." Tonks cooed as she finished putting the new bags into her backpack and pulled it on. "Looks like you are starting a pretty nice harem there Harry."
"Oh sod off." Harry grumbled, his arms still around Hedwig and Fleur.
"No." Tonks protested. "I think it's a good thing. After all that's happened in your life, you deserve a stretch of positive eve…"
Tonks was silenced when a sickly yellow curse suddenly shot through the crowd and hit Tonks square in the chest. She collapsed with a shocked groan as the crowded plaza erupted into screams.
~ Birds Of A Feather ~
A large explosion shattered the normally peaceful calm that was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Defenders of the castle rushed to a crudely made earthen wall that had been thrown up between Hogwarts and the Death Eater controlled village of Hogsmead expecting to repel an assault. Instead, they stood there in confusion as there was no unusual activity in the village. One of them, a young pureblood Auror who had refused to follow the mandates of the Voldemort controlled Ministry and fought his way out with 12 muggleborn witches and wizards from the jail cells, looked back at Hogwarts and frowned. There was smoke billowing from one of the many castle towers and he pointed it out to the other defenders with him.
"You know…" he said softly. "If I didn't know better, I would say that that was the tower containing the Headmaster's office…"
"Naw." Another defender told him. "That office is sealed up tighter then a Gringotts vault. Must be the tower that those Weasley Twins took over. They are always blowing something up."
Relieved that it was just a false alarm, the defenders started to go back to the castle when the alarm wards that surrounded the Headmaster's Office started blaring.
"Bloody hell!" the second defender shouted. "You were right! Let's go!"
By the time they got to the office, there was no one around. The gargoyle guardian had been blasted into a fine powder, while the door that had resisted all efforts to open it had been reduced to a burnt pile of splinters. The room itself was completely destroyed. The portraits on the walls were unscathed, but every piece of furniture, book, and trinket was smashed beyond repair. A closer inspection of the room revealed that a single portrait was off of the wall, and the canvas was burned to an ash. There was no one else around.
A few floors down, a young teen was lounging on the steps of a seldom used staircase reading one of the many muggle comic books that he had gotten since his stay at this castle began. He smirked as he read. One of the many benefits he had discovered was that he was able to get certain things far earlier then anyone else. He was about to turn the page when the sound of bare feet walking on the stone floor reached his ears. Turning his head to see who was coming, his mouth dropped open. He was just old enough to start appreciating the female form, and he knew right away, this red-haired goddess would stay with him in his mind till the day he died.
Lily Potter stopped on the step next to the boy and looked down at him with a smile. She was still naked, no doubt the reason for the boy's gobsmacked expression. She held her wand in one hand, while the sword of Gryffindor was resting against her left shoulder. She couldn't help but tease him a little.
"Hmmm." She said softly. "You seeing something you like?" The boy grinned.
"Yes ma'am." He said in a confident voice.
"Good boy." Lily said with a teasing smile. She then frowned as she noticed the comic book that the boy was holding. Tucking her wand under her arm, she pointed at it.
"Can I see that?" The boy was only too happy to comply.
As she looked at the images in the book, the frown rapidly turned into a devious grin. Giving the comic book back, she took her wand and started waving it back and forth, muttering softly. A minute later, she stopped and did a twirl for the boy.
"What do you think?" she asked innocently. The boy clapped in appreciation. Lily had conjured for herself a tight black leather sleeveless catsuit with a cream colored cowl around her neck. Slung low on her right hip was a brown leather wand holster while a sword sheath hung on her left. A pair of black leather knee high boots completed the look.
"You look just like her!" he exclaimed happily.
"Thank you." Lily said with a pleased smile on her face. She holstered her wand and put the sword in the sheath before crouching down to look at the boy.
"I am glad I met you." Lily said honestly. "What is your name?"
"William." Answered the beaming boy. "But you can call me Will."
"Thank you Will." Lily said, and then softly kissed him on the cheek. "Be careful and it was nice meeting you." Lily straitened up and walked away. Seconds later, the boy's mother found him.
"William! There you are! We've been looking everywhere for you!" the blond witch scolded her son. "Who were you talking to?" William never took his eyes off of the corner the beautiful redhead had vanished around.
"One of God's warrior angels mum." William answered with firm conviction in his voice. "One of God's warrior angels."
His mother blinked and turned her gaze to the corner as well, wondering who this mystery person was.
While the mother and son duo upstairs were merely confused (or utterly in love in the case of William), chaos was breaking out on the ground floor. Lily had put up her cowl, hiding her red hair and her face was invisible in the shadow that it cast, but there was no hiding the pure sexiness that her figure oozed. Some men and women froze in place with awe, while others walked into walls or doors. Others recognized the sword she carried as being Gryffindor's, and couldn't figure out how she came by it. But the one thing that had everyone running to find the castle's "officers" was the fact that no one had ever seen her before.
The few that were brave (or stupid) enough to confront her merely blinked a few times then slumped to the floor fast asleep. Each time no one had seen the mystery woman even move. When it became clear where she was headed, a dozen men and women tried to block her path, but they too fell to the floor asleep. No one noticed that each time the rather plain looking ring on her hand glowed briefly. Stopping in front of the doors of her destination, Lily pulled her wand and made a lazy flick with it.
With a twin crash, the doors to the Great Hall slammed open, a shower of dust drifting down from the ceiling. Walking in, Lily ignored the dozens of wands that were aimed at her and looked around in vain for the one face she was hoping to see. There were a great many faces that she recognized immediately, and two of those stepped forward to confront her.
"You will tell us who you are." Drawled out Snape, his wand aimed at her heart. "And how you got in, or we will be forced to take action." Lily ignored him as she continued to look around.
"Where is Potter?" she called out, her growing anger throwing her voice off, though she did try to disguise it a little bit regardless.
"Who are you?" demanded Remus. "And why do you have Gordic Gryffindor's sword?" Lily ignored him as well.
"Where is Harry Potter?" she called out again. Snape raised his wand slightly.
"You will tell us who you are now!" he shouted at her. Lily's wand arm blurred and suddenly the two men found themselves wandless and her wand pointed at Snape's head.
"YOU WILL TELL ME WHERE MY SON IS!" Lily bellowed at them, tearing back the cowl to free her long red hair and reveal her blazing emerald green eyes. More then a few wands clattered to the ground from shock.
"L-Lily?" asked a disbelieving Remus.
"That's Mrs. Potter or Miss Evans to you!" Lily snarled at him. "I haven't decided which yet." Snape opened his mouth to say something, but Lily closed the distance between them and backhanded him hard.
"You don't have the right to talk to me at all!" Lily hissed at him angrily.
"But…" he said weakly.
"BUT NOTHING!" Lily screamed. "I DIED BECAUSE OF YOU!" There was a few gasps and a silence fell on the hall. Lily took the time to take a quickly glance around the gauge the reaction of her reveal. Some, like Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey, were staring at her in open mouthed disbelief. Others who had known her had the spark of hope their eyes. The majority of the others were split between skeptical disbelief or outright distrust. One of them, a young bushy haired brunette woman, stepped forward timidly.
"But how do we know you really are Lily Potter?" she asked. Lily smiled at her.
"You must be Hermione." She said kindly. "You exactly match Harry's description of you." Hermione blushed.
"How do you know?" she asked.
"After Sirius died, Harry took to talking to pictures of My, James, and Sirius." Lily answered. "He was so lonely that summer, and I think doing that helped keep his mind together. He would talk about all his friends and all of the adventures he had been through since his first year. He will be pleased to learn that we heard all of it."
"But how do we know you are really Lily Potter?" Hermione persisted. Lily smiled and held her wand up in the air.
"I swear on my magic that I truly am Lily Evans, mother of Harry James Potter. So mote it be." There was a flash as the magic accepted the oath and then everyone in the Great Hall watched as Lily quickly cast the patronum charm and her eagle patronus soared around the hall three times before dissolving.
"Why didn't you use Lily Evans Potter?" Hermione asked curiously as everyone put away their wands. Lily blushed.
"I didn't know if the magic would accept me as a Potter now that… now that James is dead." Lily answered. "The oaths say "till death do you part," and I didn't want to take the chance. I knew that Evans would work no matter what."
"But how…" asked a pale looking Remus.
"Am I alive?" Lily finished for him. "One of Dumbledore's many nasty secrets. I won't go into details now because I have something more important to do first, but I will tell you the biggest part of the reason for me being back in the world of the living." She held up her hand to show off the ring. "The Stone of Resurrection. One of the three Deathly Hollows!" From one of the tables, a blond young woman squealed with delight.
"Now…" Lily said slowly. "Where is my son?" There was a lot of fidgeting. Remus stepped forward.
"We… uh… don't know." He admitted. "We lost him early yesterday morning."
"You lost him?" Lily repeated.
"Sorry Li… Mrs. Potter." Said Remus. "Me and Tonks were escorting Harry and Hedwig…"
"Wait…" Lily interrupted. "Tonks? You're with Andromeda now?" Remus fidgeted again.
"Umm…" he said slowly. "No. Her daughter Nymphadora." Lily's mouth fell open.
"Remus Lupin!" she exclaimed. "That girl is young enough to be your daughter!"
"I know…" Remus admitted. "But Tonks can… er… be very persuasive."
"I can imagine." Lily said with a disgusted shake of her head. "Continue."
"Anyways, we were at Gringotts when You-Know-Who showed up and attacked with his followers. I was cut off and forced to leave. They were still inside when You-Know-Who broke through Gringotts' defenses. Bad news is that they killed everyone inside. The good news is that if Harry was among them, You-Know-Who would be spreading that news as far and as fast as he can. That means at least he got out somehow, but we haven't had contact with him since." Lily's eyes blazed with fury.
"I'll find him myself!" She snapped at him. "He needs me more right now then you lot do." Closing her eyes, she didn't move for a few minutes. A few people who were watching closely would later swear that her ring started glowing while she did this. Finally she gave a smile of success.
"He's in France." She announced. "But he is on the move. I need to get going." She turned and left the Great Hall, but was stopped in the Entrance Hall by a shout from Remus.
"Wait!" he called out. Lily stopped and looked back at him. "Look, I know you want to get to Harry's side as soon as you can, but you are going to have to leave the sword here. We need it."
Lily scowled at him and unsheathed the sword. Walking over to the seal of Hogwarts in the center of the Entrance Hall, she examined it for a few second. Grunting slightly, she plunged the sword deep into a crack in the center of the seal and twisted the hilt. Instantly, the castle started shaking.
"Your walls." Lily said bluntly, pulling the sword free and returning it to its sheath. "Now you don't need the sword anymore." She headed back towards the front doors, but paused next to Remus.
"Not everything has to involve Harry." She told him softly. She then stepped outside and vanished with a crack. Remus stepped out and heaved a sigh of relief as he saw the massive walls that were built so long ago rising out of the ground. Hermione followed him.
"But you can't apparate out of Hogwarts!"
A/N: SURPRISE! A new chapter already! I have been able to secure a couple of hours each day to write, which has allowed me to do this. Magic willing, I will be able to post Chapter Nine either next week or the week after.
Now… I have two virtual cookies here to give out this chapter. First cookie: What character did Lily base her outfit on? Second cookie: what was special about William and his mother?
Also, I have reread the first few chapters and noticed a lot of spelling errors, they will all be corrected as soon as I can. I do not have a Beta, so stuff slips through every now and then.
Be sure to leave a REVIEW and if you haven't done so yet, head over to my profile to vote on my poll!