Disclaimer: see prologue
Guide: "Speech", Thoughts, ~letters and other written things, "Parseltongue"
Warning: sexual themes and kinks
AN: Happy (early) Valentine's Day! ^_^
-~-~- Altair -~-~-
-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-
-~-~- Chapter 43 – Infatuation versus academic interest -~-~-
Thursday, 22nd January 1998
Draco and Harry were very excited for their first Kamasutra lesson. When Draco wrote his parents about their decision and mentioned the teacher's name, his father wrote him back telling him that why the teacher was still young, he already earned the respect of the Warding community with his works. And what Lucius could tell from the two meetings he had with the young man, he was not someone who cared about fame. This fit with Harry and Draco's perception that Mr Harper would not be gloating about teaching 'the Boy Who Lived' even if they should talk outside of the privacy protected classroom.
The boys consulted the piece of paper they received from Professor Greige on Tuesday. According to the note, their classroom for the next weeks is supposed to be on the fourth floor, three doors to the right of a tapestry that showed a forest clearing with unicorns and thestrals.
When they opened the door, several things happened. Their teacher, Professor Harper's face changed from a tortured expression to pure relief. Lavender Brown's previously flirty eyes turned to an angry glare which she bestowed upon Harry and Draco. The latter two shared a look that said "It would have been too good if no one else would have been interested in this 'boring' subject." Parvati Patil's reaction was delayed as she had to turn around first to see who their fellow students were. When she saw that it was Harry and Draco, her eyes lightened up in giddy excitement. As entertaining as watching Lavender's rather unsuccessful attempt on getting into their teacher's pants was, having a first row seat when the two hottest guys in her year practised Sexual Magic was a wet dream come true for her.
"Since everyone is here now, let's start with the lesson," Professor Harper began, motioning for the students to take seats at one of the six desks in the room, while he sat on top of the teacher's desk. "I've already told you during my subject presentation what we'll be doing in this specialisation class. So if you do not have any questions regarding the aim of this course?" he asked as he look at all for students, who shook their heads. "I'll start with the prearrangements. First, starting with the next lesson, I ask you to wear some clothes which allow you to move freely underneath your school robes. As for shoes; since the back of the classroom is covered in mats, we'll practise the different poses barefoot."
It was only now, when Professor Harper mentioned it, that Harry and Draco turned around and saw that the second half of the classroom was covered in mats and that the celling above it was made out of mirrors. While they would have to live with Lavender and Parvati being present during the lesson, they were glad to hear that the only clothing they would need to take off were their shoes.
"Second," their professor continued. "I would like you to fill out these questionnaires. You only answer the question you want to answer and give as much or few details as you're comfortable with. Outside of this classroom I won't be able to connect your names to the answers, however the more I know about you, the better I can adjust my teaching plan to your individual needs."
In other words, he'll still know how kinky his students are, just not who his students are when he leaves the classroom, Draco translated. Let's see how nosey he is. Looking at the questionnaire, Draco saw that it had three columns. The two columns on the right were blank with only 'person 1' and 'person 2' written in the header. The first column from the left, on the other hand, was already filled out. The prompt in the first row was harmless enough, just asking for the gender of person 1 and 2. Then it started to get more private: Sexual Magic subjects; fitness level; level of flexibility; top/bottom/switch; dominant/submissive/switch; experience in material arts, yoga or similar activities; comments and wishes.
Draco and Harry shared a look between them and then one with Parvati. The majority of the questions were rather private, but they could see that answering the questions truthfully could help to find the best and most useful positions for them to learn. Draco raised an eyebrow in question, Parvati glanced at their professor and then shrugged her shoulder and Harry nodded slightly. They would fill out as much as possible. Their teacher was likeable and trustworthy and seemed to mean what he said about using the data to adjust the lessons to them specifically rather than to got to the press about their sex lives. Lavender was too occupied with leaning over the sheet of paper trying to come up with some good answers that would raise their teacher's attention to notice what was going on around her.
As more or less active Quidditch players Harry and Draco had not qualms about answering the question on their fitness level with 'very fit.' What to call their level of flexibility was another matter. While they were not stiff as a board, Harry's many different acts of how he captured the Snitch by stretching his body speaking for itself, they could not say that they were as flexible as the artists of a Chinese circus. "Medium?" Draco asked and at Harry's nod of agreement, he wrote down the word in both their columns.
Professor Harper watched the two pairs of students as they filled out the short questionnaire. It was interesting to see that the two girls were filling out their own columns while Mister Malfoy was answering for both himself and Mister Potter, knowing his partner's answers without having to ask. It certainly showed how well they knew each other. "Thank you," he said as he collected the questionnaires. "Today I'll teach you about the roots of Kamasutra and how it is connected to what the Muggles know as kamasutra. Does anyone of you know how old the Magical or Muggle version of Kamasutra is?" he asked.
"Kamasutra is as old as mankind. After all, it is the ultimate way to express one's love," Lavender answered, leaning forward and fluttering her eyelids in flirtation.
"Not quite. Other guesses?" Professor Harper asked, ignoring Lavender's attempts of flirting for now.
"There is proof that the magical Kamasutra was already known by the Ancient Greeks," Draco answered.
"And the Muggle version is about two thousand years old, writing down by an Indian," Harry added.
"That's both correct," Professor Harper praised. "It is said that the Ancient Greeks and before them the Egypts were practising Sexual Magic. And while they already knew from experience that certain positions seemed to strengthen or weaken their Sexual Magic practices, they were not the most creative of wizards and witches. It was Alexander the Great who, during his campaign to conquer the world, reached India and there first heard about what was known there as kamasutra. A book written by the Indian Vatsyayana Mallanaga.
"Unlike the nowadays common believe in the western world, the kamasutra is not a guide book solely for sexual positions. Rather, it is a book that gives advise about how 'Desire' can be lived out, it gives guidance on how to threat your spouse and what can be expected from each partner. But it also advises how one should kiss or bite someone. And while all of the Indian believes on lovers and the bodily love may have been interesting to the Greek, not many could understand the text. But this did not matter when it came to the chapter about different sexual positions, which were rich with pictures. It were these pictures that the Greek adjusted to their purposes in Sexual Magic. And even now wizards and witches all over the world are still trying to incorporate the ideas of the Muggle kamasutra into Sexual Magic.
"One can even say that this is one of the best examples how a Muggle concept helped to advance and refine magic. It showed that even without possessing magic, one can improve the Wizarding world. Though, I'll admit that more than one wizard claims that the kamasutra had not been written by a Muggle but a squib. We'll probably will never know that true answer as not much is know about Mallanaga. But what counts in the end is you do not need to posses magic yourself to invent or at least lay the basis for something great," he ended his heart-felt speech.
Maybe he is a Muggleborn or has a squib in his family? Draco wondered. The way he spoke about creating magic without possessing magic yourself could only come from having experienced something like this himself.
"As I said, today some wizards are again studying the kamasutra in the hope to further improve Sexual Magic," Professor Harper continued. "The main idea is to study the other chapters of the kamasutra and trying to find concepts that could also be applied to Sexual Magic. For example, the chapters about types of embraces, caressing and kisses are currently investigated. Here, the main problem is that while making one change in a Sexual Magic procedure can reduce its effectiveness, making more than one adjustment can again improve the magical performance. So you need to try out many different combinations.
"A further complication is that the other chapters do not have very informative pictures and different translations have different descriptions of the procedures. Thus, a lot of time is spent with cross-referencing various sources before they can try to find new combinations that could improve a Sexual Potion or Enchantments, while others try to learn the language to read the original version." Seeing that Lavender raised her hand, he halted his lecture. "You have a question, Miss Brown?"
"Yes," Lavender answered. "During the meet and greet on Friday, you said that you also study the other chapters of the kamasutra book. Could you show us some tricks to improve Sexual Magic or our love life in general? Maybe some hand on demonstrations on how to do the perfect kiss?" she asked, licking her lips.
One, two, three...breathe out, Professor Harper thought, his patience with Lavender running thin. Only because I'm teaching something that involves sex and am close to their age, does not mean that I'm possible boyfriend material for my students. "I remember that I told you last week that I'm working on the improvement and creation of wards. While I keep up to date with the newest suggestions in the field of Kamasutra to incorporate them with my own ideas, my focus remains on the practical use of new-found knowledge. So no, I'm not studying the kamasutra text myself," he explained getting annoyed by Lavender's advances.
"Wouldn't the researchers want to test and further develop their own ideas?" Harry asked.
"Some of them certainly would like to do this. However, many of them are well over the age of one hundred and not fit enough anymore to safely practise the contorted manoeuvres. That's where we practical researchers come in. We test their theories, while we learn from them how the theoretical work was carried out. This way, by the time people like me become too old to perform the practical aspects any longer, we have a good foundation to go into the theoretical research if we are so inclined," Professor Harper explained. "More questions?"
When no one raised their hand, he went back to his lecture. "As I said before, while incorporating of the different positions shown in the kamasutra in Sexual Magic already started two thousand years ago, the other aspects are still an ongoing research project. That is why in this course our focus will be on the different positions. Since it is very physical, we'll start our lessons with learning some essential stretching moves to reduce the possibility of getting an injury. If you'll follow me," he said and went from his desk to the other end of the room where the mats were covering the ground.
Once their, Professor Harper asked them to take off their shoes and their robes, before he showed them some stretches. Draco and Parvati had nor problems to copy Professor Harper's moves as they knew similar stretches from their respective material arts and yoga lessons. Harry had to try out some positions three or four times before he got the hang of it. The stretch Harry had the most trouble with was one where he needed to put his two feet over one shoulder, the shoulder blade on the same side touching the ground while the other shoulder blade was lifted slightly. Harry's problem was to keep the whole shoulder blade on the ground instead of just the shoulder. But once he successfully performed this stretch, he could repeat it without problem.
Lavender was much less skilled, requiring Professor Harper's interference before she hurt herself. Though with her previous comments everyone was wondering if Lavender was really this clumsy or if she just wanted Professor Harper to touch her. Either way, she was slowing them down considerably. In the end, Professor Harper had to skip three stretches because the bell already rang, signalling that their first Kamasutra lesson was over.
"Come on, Lavender," Parvati said when she saw that the other girl was purposefully slow in packing away her things. "We need to hurry up or we'll be late for Divination. You don't want Professor Trelawney to wait for us, do you?" she asked as she dragged Lavender out of the room.
"I did not need to know this," Draco told Harry, knowing from Pansy that the regular Divination class was on the same time as his Arithmancy lessons.
"Yeah, she's bad enough during the normal Divination class. I do not even want to imagine what rubbish she tells during Sexual Divination," Harry agreed.
"Trust me, you'll be too worried about getting some untainted air to even thing about what nonsense she's saying. If you thought that she used too many incense sticks, you'll be surprised how many she lights to open your inner eye during Sexual Divination," Professor Harper commented.
"Personal experience?" Draco asked.
"Unfortunately," Professor Harper told them. "My Altair partner had signed up for it. Since I had an OWL in Divination, she asked me to join her. Luckily I could convince her to drop the subject after three weeks."
"May I ask how you achieved this?" Draco asked curious. He could not imagine that anyone who had wanted to learn Sexual Magic would give it up.
Harry would have liked to hear the story too, but since he had Transfiguration he had to leave the Kamasutra classroom.Draco can tell me the story later, he thought as he left the room.
"For one, there is only the rule that you cannot change your partner, but you're free to drop or add a Sexual Magic subject during the school year. Since I had not originally signed up for Sexual Deviation I could very easily drop the subject without giving a detailed explanation. Though I think the most persuasive argument was that I was unable to open my inner eye, telling her some rubbish about anything sexually related making it foggy."
"It's actually possible to change your partner," Draco enlightened his professor. "At least if one of the sixth year students turns seventeen at the beginning of the school year and is more compatible then your original partner."
"Interesting," Professor Harper answered. "But her fondness for Divination aside, my partner was not so bad. And from what I can tell, you're happy with your partner too."
"We certainly are," Draco agreed, unconsciously smiling happily.
"By the way, is Miss Brown always like this?" Professor Harper ask.
"Not with the other teachers. But when she was together with Harry's best friend Ron, she actually called him 'Won-Won'."
"As long as she does not start to call me names," Professor Harper groaned, already thinking about who he could ask to teach the two girls for him without them suffering the same fate as him.
"It would certainly improve the atmosphere if she would stop," Draco said, and Professor Harper nodded in agreement. He certainly needed to find someone to teach Lavender.
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Thursday, 29th January 1998
Before the start of their next Kamasutra lesson Parvati approached Harry and Draco. "I tried to talk with Lavender about her behaviour last week. But you know her, she'll do what she wants," she whispered, mindful to not let the other girl overhear them.
"Thank you," Harry said, grateful that she had at least tried.
"Welcome back," Professor Harper greeted his students when he entered the room, followed by a woman who looked about ten years older than him. "I analysed the questionnaires you filled out last week. I noticed that both the Sexual Magic fields and the Typos Thesis in your groups greatly differ. My main concern is that your Sexual Magic fields require very different positions and I do not want one group to sit there, watch and get bored, while the other practise. Since our time is already limited, I asked my colleague Mrs Pewter to help me teach you so that you can fully concentrate on the position you need."
"Good afternoon," Mrs Pewter greeted them. "I've been working in the fields of Sexual Divination and Sexual Enchanting for over nearly twenty years now. I also teach Kamasutra to people who want to get their Master degrees in either of those subjects."
"Based on your questionnaires, it will be best if Miss Brown and Patil work with Mrs Pewter in the neighbouring room, while I'll teach Mister Potter and Malfoy," Professor Harper preassigned, inconspicuously pointing at Lavender behind his back to show Mrs Pewter who of the two girls had pestered him last week.
"Come on, girls," Mrs Pewter said, taking Lavender by the hand, Parvati quickly following them. "Let's open our inner eyes."
"Good riddance," Professor Harper mumbled under his breath once the door was closed. "Okay," he said in a normal noise level, "since we did not finish the stretching routine last week let's start with repeating the stretches I showed you, add the final three stretches and then I would like you to try to get into some more or less complicated positions that are used in Ritual Magic and Sexual Potions. This will allow me to gauge your initial level. In the final part of the lesson, we'll create a lesson plan that suits all three of us."
Harry and Draco felt much more comfortable and at eased compared to last week when they started with the stretches. The lack of Lavender's "Argh's" and "Oomph's" being the main reason for the relax and work-friendly atmosphere and their comfy workout clothes doing the rest. When it was time for Harry and Draco to get into the positions Professor Harper showed to them from different reference books, they felt a bit awkward when the poses got a bit more intimate. Fortunately, before either Harry or Draco became too uncomfortable, the positions became so complex that Professor Harper stopped watching them and went over to demonstrate the position as well as possible on his own, or adjusted their legs and arms, bringing all three of them to an equal level.
"Okay," Professor Harper said, when Harry and Draco were unable to successfully get into the more advanced positions. "You're already on a very good level. Around level three, with level one being the most advance level," he informed them as all three of them sat cross-legged in a circle on the mats. "Let's create your lesson plan. My suggestion is that we spent about two months on the basic use of Kamasutra in Sexual Potions and Ritual Magic and maybe try to increase your Kamasutra level with some exercises. For the remaining time, we can either delve further into the theoretical or the practical part, or we concentrate on one of your Sexual Magic fields. Of course, if there is something else that raises you interest, we can also concentrate on that topic."
"Sounds good," Draco said. "For the last part, I would like to have Sexual Potions as a focal point since I want to become a Potions master. And maybe add something that can be useful for Healers?" Draco asked, looking at Harry.
"You're reading my mind," the brunet answered.
"I can work with this," Professor Harper said, standing up. "See you next week." And seconds later the bell rang, ending their lesson.
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
AN: The voting poll on my profile page is still open. Right now, it's a race between 'Getting rid of Lucius' and/or Severus' Dark mark' and 'male pregnancy'.
Next: The next chapter is called 'Happy Valentine's Day'. Any suggestions for presents?