Author's Responses at the end:
Chapter Twenty: Homo Magicus
"He was kind of scary, I suppose," Diana said. "But you know, it made me feel good too! I knew that he would never be scary to me; that he'd always be there to protect me."
Around her, her friends and new sisters nodded in agreement. "Naomi," Katherine asked, "what did it feel like? Did it hurt at all?"
Naomi eyed the other ladies with a smile. "No, and truthfully that's not the way it normally works. But we all know Harry can heal with his touch. I guess it doesn't matter what he's touching you with."
The others laughed, and Naomi could hear a sense of longing in the sound. Even with Harry's warning about pregnancy, she could see that all of them were more than ready.
"Do you…do you think we are going to get married?" Diana asked.
"I don't know," Naomi asked. "Frankly it's not come up."
"You didn't wait," Susan said.
"No, I didn't," Naomi agreed. "I suppose as the oldest I should be the one to tell you that it wasn't worth it; that you should wait…"
"But then you'd be lying," Katherine said.
"Yes," Naomi agreed with a happy grin. "It was the single most incredible experience I've had, and I wouldn't trade it for anything."
"Do you think he's okay?" Mary asked.
"We'd know if he wasn't," Diana said.
The five of them sat in a spacious sitting room that formed the hub in a suite of five rooms that took up the top floor of a motel in Geneva. They were officially guests of the Prime Minister of Earth.
Naomi was the first to look at the door. Diana rose out of her seat. "I feel him," the youngest of them whispered.
The door finally opened and the rest jumped to their feet when Harry walked in. He looked tired, as if he'd been up the entire night. As tired as he obviously was, though, his whole face lit up when he saw the ring of women waiting for him. He stopped just inside the door, his face lit up. "My gods you're beautiful," he whispered. "All of you."
"Did you save Deanna?" Noami asked.
Harry nodded as he continued into the room. "I did. The Malleus is gone. We're safe now."
The five women drifted toward him, one at a time, until they surrounded him. "What are we going to do now?" Diana asked.
Harry grinned and leaned down, pulling her into a long, sensual kiss. The others watched spell-bound. When at last he released her, her face was flushed a brilliant red and her lips were trembling. "That depends on you," he said. He looked around them, staring them in the eyes. "I remember everything now. I remember how very much I loved my wives. And I know now why all of you felt so familiar, even from the first time I saw you. Their magic is with us now in each of you."
"Does that mean you couldn't love us if not for them?" Susan asked.
Harry pulled her to him and kissed her as deeply as Diana. When they parted, she was panting as surely as he was. "The idea that I could ever move on from those five women would have been impossible to me before," Harry said. "But when I was flying… I saw Daphne. She told me that we were starting over. That they were watching us. That they loved us. Loved you. I couldn't do this if I didn't know that for sure."
"Do what, Harry?" Mary asked.
She was his next victim and went with a giggle as he snogged her senseless. "Marry you," he said. "I want you to be my wives. We're going to restart the wizarding world. We're going to find all the latent wizards there are. We're going to find out just what Hermione and the others were doing while I was gathering people at Hogwarts. But mostly I'm going to love each and every one of you with everything I have. If you'll have me."
Diana sounded almost like a squealing rabbit as she jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. "I'd have you right now if you wanted!" she screamed.
"Think you could wait a day 'til we're married?"
"Only if we get married fast!" Diana declared.
"Would tomorrow do?" Harry asked.
* * *
"It has been a while since I performed a wedding ceremony," Jean Luc said. "I would be honored."
"And the fact this keeps you out of that budget meeting you had scheduled today has no bearing on how happy you are to do it?" Beverly asked.
"You said it, not me," Jean Luc said with a smug grin. "So, Mr. Potter, how exactly did you want to do this?"
Harry handed him a PADD. "I wrote down the ceremony as best I could remember it. Since you're not a priest of Hecate, Susan and I will have to have a normal wizarding wedding like the rest. But otherwise you can do the whole ceremony."
Jean Luc looked over the wording. "Interesting. Do you have any dress requirements?"
"I'll take care of that. But it would be better to do it sooner rather than later. We've confirmed the betrothal bonds and the effects get worse over time."
"And you need to do them one at a time?"
"It was the requirement of our laws," Harry said. "Polygamy wasn't exactly normal even for wizard kind. I could only do it because under Wizarding law I was five separate people. So technically we have to have five separate ceremonies."
"Then we shall have a very interesting afternoon," Jean Luc said. "I should warn you, though, Mr. Potter. You've become something of a celebrity. Do not be surprised if the media show up."
The morning was spent in a frenzy of preparation. If not for Beverly Picard's staff, it would not have happened. However, the First Lady was very succinct in her demands. "They're getting married and we're going to be there. Use your imagination and make it happen."
And so the staff of the First Lady begged, cajoled and outright demanded cooperation from providers around the city, while also raising a media storm. And yet, somehow, it all came together, and that afternoon Harry, Noami, Susan, Katherine, Mary and Diana stood in an ancient St. Peter's Cathedral in Geneva.
They had an unusual and rather dignified list of guests.
First and foremost was Federation President Astri Astrago and her staff. Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway attended with Rear Admirals Will Riker and Julian Bashir, both accompanied by their wives Deanna and Ezri. Additionally, the ladies' parents attended as well, though the Dunninghams still did not look entirely happy. However, Marilyn Dunningham had her hair back thanks to Harry's wand work. The Caraoughs and Chamberlains looked a little confused but generally accepting.
Carey Boxing was weeping but otherwise very happy.
Janeway's expression was blank at best. Still, she made no move to interrupt the ceremonies.
What was truly different were the reporters there. "Harry," Naomi pointed out, "you've just been declared the head of a previously unknown human subspecies, you've confirmed the existence of magic, you've rewritten Earth history, you have the president of the Federation as a guest and the Prime Minister of Earth is doing your ceremony. Did you honestly think there wouldn't be reporters here?"
He grinned at her. "I haven't had much luck with reporters in my life," he told her.
"It's a new life," she whispered. "Now go away so I can try on this dress you made. How did you do this again?"
"Permanent transfiguration."
"Well, you did a remarkable job."
When the time came, Naomi walked down the aisle in a cream-colored off-the-shoulder dress accompanied by the other four girls. Each of the girls wore a crimson maid's dress. Due to a limited selection of friends, Harry had Kirk O'Brian stand as his best man. Riker seemed to take offense at that, though, and a moment later he and Commander Paris joined him.
"You saved my wife," Riker said to Harry simply.
"And he hates asymmetry," Paris added.
Bashir, noting there were still only three men by Harry where as Naomi would have four maids, finally stood himself and joined them. "There, that's better," the head of Starfleet Medical said with a sharp nod.
Harry grinned at them all. "Thank you," he said. "You know I'm doing this four more times, right?"
"It'll be four times the party afterward," Bashir said.
Noami arrived. She looked absolutely beautiful, almost luminous.
"In my eighty-seven years, I have seen many things," Jean-Luc began between the two. "I have met legends out of history before—captains who through fate lived beyond their generation. I have met god-like beings and have seen beauty beyond description. And so frankly it should not surprise me to find that magic is real, and that wizards and witches have lived among us for these many centuries past."
Those assembled chuckled at the prime minister's wry humor.
"Magic comes in many forms," he said. "But the truest magic is not an application of power. It comes in the way the smile of a loved one can move your soul. It comes in the form of new life given birth from loving parents. And it comes before us today in the form of Harry James Potter and Naomi Wildman."
Picard spoke the same exact works Amelia Bones used four centuries ago, and Harry responded with the same affection and love. He could feel Ginny's magic as Naomi swore on her magic to love him. Evidently others could as well.
Harry and Naomi both glanced at the guests as they shuffled before the power of the oath. "Wait for this," Harry whispered. His turn came, and he said clear voice, "I promise to love and honor her, for the remainder of my days, sworn so by my magic."
Where Naomi's was a trickle, Harry's magical oath was a wave that washed across the room to everyone's amazement.
Even Picard seemed surprised. Harry leaned forward and kissed his newest wife before turning to the others. "Among wizard kind, an oath made on magic is a real magical contract, with real repercussions should the oath ever be broken. What you felt was our magic confirming our oaths to each other, and our magic mixing with our mutual love to ensure we will always be happy with each other."
"Thank you for that explanation," Picard said. "Now, as I understand it, we have one down and four to go."
After a quick change of dresses, Katherine as the new Lady Gryffindor went next, and once again magical oaths filled the room, followed by Diana as Lady Hufflepuff, Mary as Lady Ravenclaw, and finally Susan as Lady Slytherin.
"You really are going to love us for the rest of our lives, aren't you?" Susan whispered as they kissed.
They parted and he smiled at her. It wasn't a grin or a smirk. It was an expression of plain happiness, and it filled her. "I will love you," he promised her. She felt a surge of magic, and realized he had made another oath, just to her. "It was you who brought me back. Your willingness and faith to accept magic. Thank you."
There was a rather large reception that night. It was a room filled with curious dignitaries and Federation officials. Plural human marriages, while not illegal, were highly unusual, and never in such numbers as one young man with five wives. More intriguing to the historians was the truth behind the fall of Khan and the genocide of the last world war.
Harry did not give the historians, reporters, or dignitaries even a moment. He danced with each of his wives, over and over again. He drew energy from them and they drew it back from him, allowing them to dance and have fun well into the night.
They all stayed together as they walked with him back to their rooms in the hotel. They moved as if they had practiced, and he noticed there was no move for one to take him from the others. Rather, the six of them walked together, thrumming with shared magic.
"How do you want to do this?" Harry said. He was surprised by his own nervousness.
"The old fashioned way, of course," Diana said archly. They reached Harry's room and the oversized bed.
"That's not going to be big enough," Susan said with a discerning eye.
Harry removed his wand from the lapel of his suit and flicked it with a wordless enlarging spell.
"Much better," Susan purred.
Diana stepped to the foot of the bed and with a shrug slipped out of her transfigured golden dress. She wore nothing beneath it, and he stared at her lithe, beautiful form. "Me first, please," she whispered, trembling with need.
Harry looked around as the others slowly undressed him with gentle hands. "All together then?" he whispered.
"At least for tonight, all together," Susan nodded. "We're agreed." She slipped out of her own dress.
Naomi saw his eyes as she too slipped out of her own dress. "Do you like what you see?" she whispered.
As they slipped Harry's slacks down, he grinned. "Do I really need to answer?"
Diana stared at him hungrily. "Please," she whispered.
He carried her onto the bed and the others followed, touching and caressing gently. There was little foreplay—he could sense through their marriage bond that she was ready upon his first kiss. And so he positioned himself and slid in gently. She gasped, and then moaned as his magic swept the pain away. As he made love to her, he felt breasts against his back and hands touching him. He lifted his head and found his lips brushing against a pair of dark red nipples as Mary moaned. It was a bliss he never thought he would feel again.
He and Diana finished in a moaning rush, and almost immediately he started kissing Susan. He was hard in mere seconds and she welcomed him with legs flung wide. "Yes!" she hissed as he slid inside her.
They passed the night in a flurry of love making. Everyone had their turn at least twice, and for Diana and Susan, two more times beside. And when they were satiated, they lay on the expanded bed together, spooning while basking in the glow of their love.
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Author's Responses:
First, I realize this was probably the shortest chapter of the story. Sorry. It was necessary to transition to the last few chapters.
In the meantime, a big thanks to all who reviewed and commented on this story.
Now, for Questions and Answers:
Q: Please tell me the magical creatures are somewhere on Earth? At least call in Fawkes.
A: You will see. Promise.
Q: Couldn't he have just obliviated the memory of pretty much everything malleous related from white coats mind? No killing, no leaving an enemy behind to threaten him in the future, and no need to transfigure a man into a creature that probably no longer exists on earth anyways.
A: Yep, he sure could have. ;)
Q: You have a typo.
"...She leaned into his ear, giggling already for her joke. The anticipation was almost two much for the toddler..."
A: Indeedy I do. Two for the road, too damn many to catch all of them. Yep, thanks for that.
Q: WTF?! Harry listened to that PC ** from Troi and forgot the lessons of justice, of war, and of fanatics?
This story lost a lot of credibility right here.
A: I'm writing about a boy wizard in Star Trek. Not going for credibility, just fun reading. As I say all the time, if at any point you cease to enjoy a story, then please do stop reading it. On the other hand, the bad guy has been permanently transfigured into an ass. That seems a fate worse than death to a rational man.
Q: How did that resurrection ritual work? I doubt that the girls who'd never met some guy before were really willing to die for him, especially since they didn't even know what they'd be doing, as well as the fact that there was no enemy that was willing to die for him like Draco did.
A: The smartass in me wants to say: Magic. But the smartass in me also gets slapped a lot. So instead the intent was that by making the statement in the ritual and willingly shedding blood, they were at least magically agreeing to the formation of a magical bond with Harry. The blood, mixing with the horcrux (the heartstone of Hogwarts), recreated Harry's body, while the bonds restored his soul and psyche to that body. The reason he didn't have all memories is because the fifth bond was missing, and so there was a delay between being re-embodied and achieving total memories. That is the intent. Of course, we're talking magic, here, so it's not really intended to be realistic. If you want to see the actual Horcrux ceremony, read HP and the Four Founders.
Q: As such it was maybe a less exciting final battle than might have been featured, but it works in terms of realism.
A: I appreciate you making that point. From the very start, without giving the whole story away, I tried to help folks understand that this was not an action-oriented story. Yes, there were villains, but they were villains without any conception of what a trained wizard could do, and Harry was really the nuclear bomb of wizardry, so there was never any question. That's why also had the chapter interspersed with flashbacks to his previous conflict, to really put it in context.
Q: And you should have Wesley make an appearance.
A: I should, but I didn't.
Q: Speaking of Dumbledore and V-mort, what ever happened to them? Did you mention it earlier in the story (and I didn't see it) or in Four Founders? Or was their fate the same as in canon?
A: That's in HP and the Four Founders.
Q: Speaking of dark side, you mentioned you had some ideas for another Star Wars crossover involving Harry. How's that turning out?
A: A bit frustrating, to be honest. The alternate sequel turned into a third sequel to this story and Four Founders, but frankly by this point HP is so damned powerful that it's a little boring to write about him. I got about a 120 pages in and stalled. However, just in the past couple of weeks I started expanding another HP/SW cross idea that might end working better. When and if I get one finalized, I'll probably post the abandoned efforts on my Yahoo group. But that'll be a while. In the meantime, I'll start posting Last Jedi regularly when this fic is done.
Q: I suppose, but as they were planning on killing her anyway, that seems like quite an oversight.
A: Once the public became aware of Harry, the Malleus decided to use Deanna as leverage. They were actually willing to let her go as long as they got Harry. We all saw how that worked out.
Q: Aren't Cochran's the distortion used to explain how the warp drive works or something?
A: From Memory Alpha: A cochrane (symbolic abbreviation C), is the unit for subspace distortion.
