Title: Life Less Lonely
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: Harry's relatives ignore him, his new neighbours know a few things about him and he can feel others deepest desires. Things are about to get interesting. Confident, Charming and 'empathic' Harry. Has mature themes.
A/N: This fic is very AU, not just in Harry's upbringing but in a bunch of the historical fabric of the Wizarding World. Changes to the world are explained in the fic as they arise. This fic also contains non-sexual underage nudity and aspects of a consensual, at this stage non-sexual, Dominant and Submissive relationship. This is not what you see in Porn or most Fanfics, but a more realistic Dom/Sub relationship. You have been warned.
September had passed and October was coming to a close as Harry and his friends, now often called the 'Dirty Dozen' by some of the older Muggleborn students, sat in the corner of the unrestricted Common Room at their usual table studying. Of course, there was Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Sally-Anne. Joining Sally-Anne from Hufflepuff were Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott, who had been with the group since that first Breakfast conversation. Su Li, Padma Patil, and Terry Boot from Ravenclaw had joined the group by the end of the first week of classes. The last to join the group were the three Slytherin, Millicent Bulstrode, Daphne Greengrass, and Tracey Davis. Amusingly to Harry it was Daphne who had dragged Millicent and Tracey into the group as they were the best organised study group for First Years.
"Ok, that's enough for tonight. There's only ten minutes until curfew." Padma said, stretching her back.
There was a general sound of assent around the group as everyone began packing up their books and moving over to the four boxes to return them to their lockers in the House Common Rooms.
Harry had learnt a lot about his group of friends in the last almost two months, much more from general conversations than from his ability, though he used his ability to get topics to discuss in some cases. None of the others besides Hermione and Sally-Anne were Fixed. All three of the Ravenclaws, Hannah and Tracey Davis were all Blanks, while the rest were relatively weak Softs.
Susan's desire was to make her Aunt, who headed the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and her dead parents proud. Neville's desire was to prove to his Grandmother that he was an adequate wizard and he belonged at Hogwarts. Daphne's desire was a bit vague but mostly centred around independence and something about her sister, maybe something protective.
The transport gripped Harry and, after a second's disorientation that he was getting better at concealing, he found himself back in the sleeping room. Immediately Sally-Anne and Su began stripping down, with Harry himself a few seconds behind them, followed by Millicent.
Harry and Sally-Anne had been stripping to naked since the first night, and after three weeks Su had joined them being naked. Millicent was still a bit hesitant but was opening up, now stripping down to just her panties.
When Millicent stopped at her panties this time, Harry gave her a simple glance and a raised eyebrow. After a moment's hesitation and a deep breath, Millicent removed her panties.
It had taken a bit to figure out Millicent's desire, and it made more sense once he had learnt a bit more about Millicent's family history. There were rumours that the Bulstrode family had either Troll or Giant in their background, and some looked down on them for it. It was actually kind of the opposite. Millicent and her family were able to trace their linage back to some of the great Ancient Greek Heroes like Heracles and Ajax, meaning they had divine blood flowing through their veins, if you believed that the Greek Pantheon existed.
Regardless of religious belief, the Bulstrodes could prove the Heroes existed and they were descended from them, which had led to the family tradition that the largest and strongest of a generation was considered to be the leader of that generation and was responsible not only for controlling their relatives but also had to bear the responsibility for their activities. Millicent was the largest and strongest of her cousins and therefore all the responsibility had fallen on her to control and direct their activities at any family gathering.
This resulted in a conflict in Millicent, as it was considered an honour and duty for her to 'lead' her cousins, but she had never wanted the honour and harboured a secret desire to hand off decisions to another so she did not have to make them. This was a deeper desire than Sally-Anne's in that the Hufflepuff still wanted some control over her own life and set limits on what Harry had control over. Millicent's desire was to completely give up every decision in her life, but she was still fighting the desire given the ingrained expectations of her family.
Most of the progress Millicent had made in joining the group in their casual nudity was Millicent's internal wish to fit in with the group but there had been an occasional subtle nudge from Harry, like the raised eyebrow.
Millicent sat down on her bed and tucked her legs under her and looked slightly embarrassed. Harry dropped onto his own bed and stretched out. Su was on her bed petting her cat, which was called Mia, while Sally-Anne was using the toilet.
"How is your ankle, Su?" Millicent asked. "Feeling better?"
"Yes." Su replied. "Swelling went away quite quickly but it was still uncomfortable in my school shoes until yesterday."
Almost a week ago Su had been distracted on the Grand Stairway heading to the Ravenclaw House Common Room by an arguing pair of seventh years and had forgotten to jumped the trick step and had badly twisted her ankle. Madam Pomphrey had given Su a potion to help the pain and swelling and kept her in the Hospital Wing overnight, proving there was at least one place where the curfew teleport did not work, but only if the student was a patient as Padma had been with Su at curfew time and Padma was teleported out while Su remained in the Hospital Wing. It also turned out that healing magic spells were not good at healing things like twisted ankles or muscle strains. The spells worked wonders on thinks like broken bones or gaping wounds where something was clearly deviating from the template of the human body. A twisted ankle had no obvious break or missing element so the spells could not detect what the actual issue was. Potions were better at those kinds of injuries but were not the near instant remedies that the healing spells, but they acted like more efficient versions of Muggle medicines.
Sally-Anne had finished using the toilet, washed her hands and came over to Harry's bed and snuggled into his side. The bed was just barely wide enough for the two of them. She had been very good the last few days, following every order, and sleeping in the same bed as Harry had been her requested reward.
The four of them chatted about classes, their Housemates and the Professors until the lights went down and they drifted off to sleep.
"Honestly, she's a nightmare. Who would hang out with her unless she was doing their homework for them?" Ron said seemingly to no one.
Well, more accurately no one was paying any attention to the redhead. Hermione sobbed and began to run off. Almost no one. Harry quickly glanced at the others and they nodded. Neville, Sally-Anne, Susan, and Hannah all surrounded Ron while Harry chased after Hermione.
It was Halloween and they had just come from Charms Class where Ron, as usual, was struggling with the spell and Hermione had tried to assist him. Harry and his group had been walking behind Ron when the idiot had spoken.
Harry quickly caught up to Hermione and gently grabbed her shoulder.
"Hermione, it's Harry." Harry said, having noticed that she could not see properly due to the tears in her eyes.
He led her into a nearby empty classroom and guided her to a seat before sitting next to her.
"Hermione, you can't listen to the sleeping idiot." Harry said. "He is just bitter no one wants to be his friend and rumour is that McGonagall has already warned him if he does not increase his grades, he'll have to repeat First Year."
There was a reason Ron was called 'the sleeping idiot'. Two months since the start of the school year and there had not been a single morning when Ron had not appeared in the Gryffindor Common Room at the end of Curfew still asleep in his pyjamas. He was at the bottom of every class, alongside the Slytherin Morons of Crabb and Goyle, a nickname provided by Daphne. Ron never studied and refused to use the Unrestricted Common Room, only spending time in the Gryffindor Common Room trying to interest anyone he could in playing chess.
Hermione muttered something through her tears. It took Harry a second to translate it into a comment that people only ever want her to do their homework for them. He wrapped her into a hug and she sobbed into his shoulder.
"You know that's not true." Harry reassured. "Su, Padma, Hannah and Daphne are all competing with you for top spot in most classes and the rest of us are not that far behind. Yes, we study a lot together but it is collaborative. Plus, you and I spend a fair amount of time together. Don't we?"
He felt her nod against his chest. While he did spend a bunch of time outside of the group study sessions with Sally-Anne, she did not expect him to spend all his time with her as they were in the same sleeping room. In the larger breaks the group spent time in smaller groups chatting, with the groups kind of rotating around, though there was no set schedule. In the shorter breaks, with having to go and change books in their lockers in the Gryffindor Common Room, Harry spent his time with either Hermione, Neville, or both. Three times out of five it was just him and Hermione. He had no idea why that was, it was not a conscious thing, it just kind of happened. Maybe it was that they had a bit more in common with each other, both having been raised in mostly Muggle environments, than either of them did with Neville, not that Neville was excluded. Weekends were usually either the entire group or Harry, Sally-Anne, Hermione and Neville hanging out.
"Feeling better?" Harry asked as Hermione pulled back, with tear streaks on her cheeks but no fresh tears, and she nodded again.
"Well, Neville and the Hufflepuffs were giving Ron a piece of their minds. And you know how scary those three Badgers can be." Harry said and Hermione smiled.
"I'm hungry." Hermione observed, somewhat out of left field.
"Then let's go to lunch. And we'll sit with the Badgers, so Ron will soil himself before insulting you again."
That got a laugh out of Hermione. Harry smiled to himself.
TBC….