AN: The good news: A new chapter. The bad news: The end of the chapter is strong in the suck. Worse news: The next chapter is the last and it takes sucking to a whole new level.

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Dancing With Myself

Chapter 5: Empty Eyes

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At a quarter of eight, Harriet and Harry appeared before the gates of Hogwarts clad in their best robes. Harriet's outfit was the dark red robe from Madame Malkin's that showed off every bit of her newfound sexiness. The ensemble was completed with not one but two relics that had once been Horcurxes. Harry sincerely hoped that Dumbledore recognized them as the man was getting on his last nerve.

For his part, Harry was in his James Oslow guise and wearing a set of nicely tailored robes that allowed him relatively free movement. He wasn't going in to the ball to start trouble but… oh, wait, he was going in to start trouble. He just didn't want to start trouble that ended in violence.

With Harriet being invited, it was an easy matter for her to gain entry through the Auror guarded gates for herself and 'my godfather's appointed escort' as she referred to Harry. Harry was all smiles and wide eyes, playing up the role that his cover required and soon they were pushing inside the entry hall with a great number of other students who were waiting for the Great Hall to be opened.

Harriet received any number of looks, mostly from boys, but not a one of them recognized her. Of course, associating the voluptuous redhead that had arrived for the Ball with the scrawny waif that had been Harriet Potter did take a bit of effort. Harry caught himself looking more than once and instead forced himself to scan the crowd for trouble.

He spotted a scruffily dressed Ron in the corner, apparently dateless, and Malfoy coming up the stairs with his equally dateless goons in tow. Aside from that, there were many faces that tickled his memory but few that he cared enough about to linger on. He couldn't recall if Neville or Luna had made the Ball or not, and they were the only two students he really wanted to reconnect with. Hermione was… well, he'd like to reconnect with her, too, but she really needed to grow out of her 'authority is always right' phase before that would work. Ron was… he could do without Ron. After Hogwarts, he'd exchanged fewer than a hundred words with his 'best mate' and even those were on occasions when Harry had been seeing Hermione for one reason or another.

Within a few minutes, McGonagall's voice called for the champions and Harriet pulled him to the short line forming at the doors. Harriet was smirking and it only took Harry a second to figure out why. Krum was escorting Hermione again, and she did look nice, but she didn't even come close to Harriet's level of hotness.

McGonagall pushed up to the pair and looked disapprovingly at Harry. "Ms. Potter, who is this gentleman?"

"That'd my escort, Professor. He's the tutor my godfather found for me, now that I'm under his charge," Harriet replied with the best grace she could.

McGonagall frowned. "Mr…"

"Oslow, ma'am. James Oslow," Harry supplied, using the watered down half-English half-Aussie accent he'd decided James spoke with.

"Mr. Oslow, because of your station, you may attend the ball, but I'm afraid that it would be inappropriate for you to sit the dinner or dance the opening dance with Ms. Potter. You are, in essence, her teacher, despite your youth and it is more appropriate for another student to be in that position," she said and Harry got the sense that there was no animosity in her suggestion, but simply a concern for Harriet's reputation and the decorum of the Ball.

"I understand, ma'am… but we have to find Harriet an escort," he said with a fixed expression on his face. He was mildly disappointed, but glad that McGonagall had been the one to have this discussion with. She currently had a positive balance in his books so he was inclined to be diplomatic.

"I believe that Mr. Weasley is without-" she began but was just as quickly interrupted by Harriet's "No!"

Fortunately, at that moment, a pale arm snaked out of the crowd to twine itself with Harriet's. It was quickly followed by a slender body topped with long blond hair done in a tight bun and wearing a rather unisex set of dress robes. "Sorry I'm late, Harriet," Luna said with a dreamy smile. "It took me quite a while to find my left shoe. I suspect some of the Nargles finished mating early and mistook it for a good nesting site."

Harriet's angry expression turned to one of confusion, and Harry's turned to mirth. Trust Luna to insert herself into a situation at just the right moment.

"That's not a problem, is it Professor?" Harry asked, his eyes darting to the two girls.

McGonagall paused for a moment, as though reviewing the rules in her head. Eventually she frowned slightly and sighed. "No, Ms. Potter, Ms. Lovegood, while not ideal, I believe that having a friend escort you will be sufficient. You may proceed."

"Have fun, Harriet," Harry said as he patted her on her on the shoulder and watched her get swept into the Great Hall with her new escort. He cast a glance to the side and a grin spread across his face as he offered the older witch his arm. "Since I'm attending as a teacher then, would you be so kind?"

Minerva's left eyebrow rose before she gave him a tight smile and placed one hand on his arm. "Very well, then."

oOoOoOoOo

The realization that Harriet was the stunning redhead sitting beside Loony Lovegood was a slow one, but once it began there was no stopping it. While Harriet did her best to not glare at Dumbledore for the entire dinner, students constantly glanced in her directly, trying to discern what magic had been worked on the Girl-Who-Lived.

For his part, Harry found a stat at the Professors table and was immediately introduced as Harriet's new tutor. A couple of questions and citation of the appropriate rules answered the questions and he found himself enmeshed in a discussion of education. Aside from training Harriet, Harry hadn't taught much of anything since the DA experience of his fifth year, but he still found it quite interesting. He even took the opportunity to spread a little disinformation about himself and to cast Harriet's 'abductor' in the most sympathetic role possible. He claimed that he'd met the man who, it turned out, was an hold friend of Sirius Black's named Ralph that, upon discovering that Sirius was innocent and that Harriet was being abused, rashly took matters into his own hands.

Some of the faculty looked surprised at the casual mention of abuse, but others looked like it confirmed things they had long suspected. He made a few remarks about the potion regiment that Harriet had undergone but Harry was careful not to let the conversation linger on the subject too long. Soon, he was having a discussion with Professor Flitwick about the merits of the various dueling styles. Surprisingly, Harry found that he was having a rather good time, going so far as to mention that Ralph had said something about finding a way to make basilisk venom taste like polyjuice potion before he left, though Harry couldn't, for the life of him, figure out why. The nervous look on the fake Moody's face was really the highlight of the evening for Harry.

Before long, the music began and Harry managed to claim Professor Sprout as his dance partner. The opening dance was very stiff and formal, requiring minimal contact, which suited Harry just fine as he was getting a little tired of being so cheerful. He cast occasional glances toward Harriet to see her managing to dance with a smiling Luna leading. Professor Dumbledore had vanished from the dance floor by that point and Harry had a strong feeling that the man was arranging for Harriet to be detained when she tried to leave.

Deciding to worry about that later, Harry continued to dance through the second song, which was also rather formal as he changed partners with a pair of Hufflepuff sixth years. Soon, the music sped up and people weren't dancing with each other so much as dancing near each other. Harry used the chance to get near to his change and claim her from Luna who just smiled serenely at him after making him promise to dance with her later.

He almost laughed out loud when he watched her snag Cedric off of Cho's arm. Making it even funnier was the fact that Cedric couldn't keep his eyes off Harriet the entire time.

"So, how bad was it?" he asked in her ear as he leaned into her personal space.

"Pretty bad," Harriet said with a frown. "The old man is almost floating with glee. He's up to something."

"He's always up to something. You can tell because he's breathing."

"Yeah, if he keeps this up, I'll be happy to fix that for him," Harriet growled out.

"Now, now, that's not very nice," Harry chastised her with a smile on his face. "True, but not nice."

Harriet stuck her tongue out at Harry childishly and kept on dancing. Harriet certainly seemed to be enjoying herself and Harry found that he didn't hate dancing as much as he usually did when he was near her.

A few minutes later, Viktor Krum sidled over and traded partners with Harry. Hermione's eyes were almost pleading as she watched Harriet spin away. Harry grabbed her hand and started dancing with her, though she seemed reluctant at first. "I'm Harriet's tutor, James," he supplied and she relaxed a little.

"How is she?"

"Better, but not good. You really hurt her, but I think she misses you," he called back, having to be rather concise to be heard over the music. Hermione's face fell at the statement, but her eyes held a glimmer of hope. "Talk to her. Apologize to her. It might just take time."

Hermione nodded and soon Harry traded her to a confused Harriet. He went with Viktor to get something to drink for the ladies and shared a brief conversation with him about all of the odd happenings associated with the tournament. Nothing really important got said, but Harry got something of a feel for what it would take to get Krum on their side should old snakeface rise again. Back in Harry's world, he couldn't recall ever hearing of the Quidditch star out and out siding with the Light, but he knew he hadn't gone with the Death Eaters.

When they got back, they found Hermione and Harriet clutching each other and crying. Harry smiled and the group of four went to sit for a while. Hermione and Harriet had apparently had a rather tearful round of apologies and were friends again, though maybe not best friends. Hermione started to question Harriet on what she'd done to make herself look so much better and Harry was almost grateful for the interruption of one Ronald Bilius Weasley.

"Oi, finally decided to grace us with your presence, Potter?" the redhead asked, looking down his nose at Harriet. "Get bored with being a dark witch, then?"

Harriet's eyes immediately narrowed and she waved a hand dismissively. "Not that it's any business of yours, Weasley, but I came here under my own power to fulfill my part of the Tri-Wizard contract. A contract which I did not ask to be bound by, by the way. If it didn't exist, I'd never willingly be within a mile of you again."

Ron snorted. "Yeah, sure. You 'didn't want' to be on the front page of the Prophet every other day for months. Even with you doing so badly that you're in last place, you found a way to hog all of the press coverage for the Tournament."

Harriet drew in a shuddering breath as her cheeks reddened with anger. Then her eyes narrow and her jaw tightened. "Weasley, I don't care about any of that. All I want is to quietly leave the country and get on with my life away from you… you people."

"Yeah, sure you do. All you care about is the fact that you're getting all this attention. You weren't satisfied with the fame you got from your dead parents so you had to-"

What Ron was going to say next was lost as Harriet nailed him with a savage uppercut to the jaw. Ron fell backwards onto his arse and kept going, his head landing a split second later, out cold.

"Damn," Harry said, eyeing his student appreciatively. "I think it's time we were leaving," he noted as he rose. "Mr. Krum, Ms. Granger. It's been a pleasure. Harriet will be returning to school when the term starts back."

Pulling the unresisting Harriet with him, Harriet made a line for the dance floor. The two of them were soon lost in the swirl of dancers and a few quick wand flicks had them in new robes as they shifted using memorized polyjuice forms into other faces. Ducking and moving as they were, the transformation went unnoticed and they reversed course to slide past a team of Aurors moving into the area, no doubt looking for Harriet and her mysterious companion. They walked right out the front gate into the small garden prepared for couples and spent a few minutes wandering around and looking at the faeries before slipping into the darkness.

It was only the work of a few minutes to disillusion themselves and slip into the passage to the Shrieking Shack. From there, it was a quick trip back to Sirius' home where they gratefully changed into more comfortable clothes and debriefed each other on the night's activities.

Only as he went to bed did Harry realize he'd never given Luna that dance.

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The remainder of the holiday break flew by with Harry helping Harriet finish her Occlumency training. With a second fragment of Voldemort's soul consumed, Harriet was able to harness the formidable skills the former Dark Lord had possessed in the area and make them her own. As easy as it was to learn that way as opposed to having to earn the skills herself, Harriet still had very little time left over for anything else.

During her training, Harry started to notice that she was more and more on edge about something, but could never quite discern what. She had become overly affectionate with him at times, almost aggressively so on more than one occasion, but Harry managed to keep things at the level he felt comfortable with though an application of sheer willpower.

Aside from training and flirting, the only other items of note were the acquisition of house in Hogsmead for Harry, Sirius, and possibly Remus and a discussion on what had happened with the various students and teachers in Harry's world. Harriet knew a bit about Luna who she hadn't actually met until the Ball, but aside from that Harry had not mentioned much aside from the eventual fates of Sirius and Remus.

Hermione and Ron, it turned out, had embarked on a failed relationship before Ron eventually became jealous of her as well. Harry had last spoken a few nasty words to Ron several years before leaving his own world following the one and only incident where Ron had laid a hand on Hermione. Hermione had remained a distant friend through that time and Harry didn't see a reason for Harriet to push her aside provided that Hermione could be made to see that her friendship was more important than what Dumbledore wanted. What she should do with Ron remained unsaid but understood, considering the incident at the Ball.

Lavender Brown ended up writing salacious gossip articles for Teen Witch Weekly and would make a reasonable ally but a poor friend. Parvati, along with her sister Padma, eventually ended up in an arranged marriage to a wizard back in India. Neither had protested, but neither had they seemed happy about it making it one of the more grey areas in terms of whether or not they should get involved.

From the boys' dorm, Dean died in the war and Seamus had gone Muggle shortly afterward. Neither one was that important to Harry, so he didn't offer an opinion on them. Neville Longbottom, on the other hand, he encouraged Harriet to befriend. Neville had proven himself to Harry as a true friend and an able wizard on a number of occasions and having him for an ally was an excellent idea.

Of the upper years, Harry told what he knew. The Weasley twins were 'a good investment', as was Angelina Johnson. Most of the rest either died in the war or faded into the background.

Outside of Gryffindor, Harry had less knowledge. He did know the fates of a number of the Slytherins, but that was mostly because he'd killed them or seen them die.

Eventually, their talk came to an end and it was time for Harriet to pack for Hogwarts. A few quick swishes of her wand did just that and Harry gave her a chaste kiss on the forehead before departing for his own bed.

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The morning that he was scheduled to put Harriet on the express and take possession of the new house in Hogsmead was surprising to say the least. Harry came awake slowly, his mind slowly taking stock of a number of odd sensations.

First of all, he was naked, which was odd considering he normally slept in sweat pants. Secondly, something warm was pressed against his back, including a pair of rather hard points just over his shoulder blades. Finally, a small warm hand was sliding over his hip bone, fingers tracing paterns over the place where his bone jutted out a little.

All of these came together and he stiffened. "Harriet, what are you doing?"

"Nothing," came the reply and he could literally hear the smile in her voice.

"No, it's not nothing. Where are my clothes? Where are your clothes, for that matter?"

"I vanished them. I thought, since I'm going back to Hogwarts today that you might… you know… want to… you know…"

"Didn't I say I wanted to wait?" he asked, his eyes closed tightly. He couldn't hide the effect she was having on him with her touches, but he refused to look at her naked form. He didn't think he could resist her if he did.

"But I don't want to wait. I want you," she said in a deep voice. Her land slipped forward a little and cupped the proof of his own feelings. "I can tell that you want me, too."

"I… Harriet… oh, god," he gasped as her hand circled him and began to move amateurishly but effectively. His resolve crumbled, but he retained enough sanity to twist around toward her. Fortunately, his movement broke the delightful contact she had with his intimate areas and let him think enough to keep from mounting her right there.

He crushed his lips to hers, pulling her roughly toward him with his hands roaming all over her body. She was just as naked as he was and the feel of her tightly toned body was heavenly.

They went on like that for several moments, but when her hands began to roam again, Harry stopped them. "No. Not yet," he growled and pushed away from her.

"Why not?" she asked in a tiny, disappointed voice as she followed him, not willing to let him go so easily.

"I just… not yet. Your first time is supposed to be special."

"First time?" she said, snorting. "You think I'm a virgin?"

Harry's eyes very nearly popped out of his head at that. "Wait, you're not?"

"No… I…" she stopped, trailing off into silence.

"Harriet," he asked gently, his erection rapidly fading. "What happened to you?"

"I… it was…" suddenly her playfulness was gone and Harriet looked like she was going to break down. Harry drew her to him and stroked her hair. "If you don't, you'll leave me…"

"Harriet, please…" Harry said as he continued making soothing sounds. "Tell me what happened. If you can't… let me see the memory. I promise I'll be gentle."

No longer able to summon her voice, Harriet raised her teary eyes to meet his. Gently, he pushed into her mind and followed the emotional trail right to the memories he needed to see. Being careful to not force her to relieve them, he peeked inside.

"I'm sorry, Harriet, but we need to break up," said the voice of a young man that looked much like a younger Percy Weasley.

"What? Why? I thought you loved me," Harriet asked and her feeling of anguish was almost overwhelming.

"I thought I did, but you're… well, you're just too immature. Don't worry about that, though. We had plenty of fun this summer, didn't we?"

"Is this… is this because I didn't want to shag? Percy, please…"

"I'm sorry, Harriet, but I really should be with someone more mature."

"I'll do it!" Harriet cried, and Harry could tell that it was a decision born of desperation. "I'll have sex with you, Percy… just don't leave me…"

Harry pulled back and his face hardened. "What happened?"

"It was after first year… I was at the Burrow for half the summer and Percy was so nice to me," Harriet supplied in her tiny voice, still clinging to him. "He wanted to, but I didn't want to… and then… he left me anyway."

"And you think that if I don't… if you don't… that if we don't do that that I'm going to leave you?" he asked. The damage that Percy had carelessly inflicted on her was devastating. He felt her nodding and shaking again with tears.

"Harriet, listen to me," he said as he pushed her away from him a little. "I love you. I'm not sure if it's the kind of love where I need to be shagging you or not, but I know that I love you. I'm not going anywhere. Now, let me tell you what I'm going to do," he said as he fumbled for his wand.

"First of all, we're going to get some clothes and get cleaned up. Secondly, I'm going to have Sirius floo Dumbledore and tell him you've had something come up and won't be on the train. Thirdly, we're going to talk for a while. Percy's a git, but I wouldn't have thought he'd do something like that. I mean, you were twelve and he was what? Fifteen?"

"Sixteen," Harriet supplied in that small voice again.

"Right, sixteen, that's even worse. Fourthly, you're going to go back to school and finish this Tournament. Finally, over the summer, you and I are going to find Percy Weasley and we're going to castrate him. Then we're going to grow them back, so you can do it over again. When we're done, we'll taint the wound so that they can't be regrown and drop him in an alleyway somewhere. I've got all sorts of spells that I can't teach you without an appropriate victim, and I think we've just had a volunteer."

Tears still rolled from her eyes, but Harriet offered Harry a small smile. "I don't want to kill him…"

"No, we won't kill him. But we can certainly make it clear to him that no one messes with a Potter."

Harriet nodded, looking a little better. She wasn't okay, but one day she would be.