Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Harry Potter characters.
Chapter Twenty-four: A Marauder Wedding
The next night...
A soft sweet voice was singing on the night breeze drifting across the grounds of the Phoenix Complex. Many enjoyed the song itself if not the voice singing. Many of those, in the know, enjoyed the irony of knowing that if there was ever a song that was sure to get a reaction from the object of it's intention, than it was this one.
Hermione smiled from her balcony overlooking the jungle land bordering the compound. She had warned Ginny only last night that she was 'playing with fire'.
Now they both were.
She had no illusions that Harry wouldn't figure out her hand in this. She also knew, that while tempered over the years, his temper was legendary and this was either just the sort of push he needed, or it was a push too far and his temper would rear its ugly head and they would end up pushing him farther away.
She'd warred with herself over this. This was a deeply personal song to him, one that had not been heard since he'd sung it at the first Ministerial Ball under the guise of Alan Brandt.
Now that ballad, the ballad, that Harry had composed from his very heart; the one that chronicled his lost love of Ginny all those years ago after facing Voldemort for the final conflict, was being sung for all of the Knight Watch family to hear.
Only it was being sung from the female perspective. It was Ginny's voice that hesitantly sung the ballad with a few alterations in the lyrics, chronicling her own point of view, though keeping the melody and the main theme of the ballad intact so that it was still notably recognizable.
Hermione had conceived the idea to use Harry's own song against him in a last ditch effort to reach his lonely heart and draw him from his self induced exile from romantic attachment.
She had taken the penseive memory of Alan Brandt's performance of the ballad and together; with Fleur and Ginny's help, they'd converted the ballad to the finished product that Ginny was now,( supposedly), innocently singing as she walked along the river bank below.
The air still held a hint of the day's heat, though a snow flake drifted by now and again in pleasant reminder of the holiday season and that Harry was about and mindful of his promise to provide a white Christmastime wedding for the perspective brides.
The air supercharged with static electricity. The sounds of the night abruptly ceased, Ginny's voice faltered momentarily along with her surroundings, before she haltingly took up the melody again.
Hermione marveled at her sister in-law's courage, knowing as she did that Harry was making his presence known.
The breeze stirred around Hermione growing in intensity and forming the vortex of a small, self contained whirlwind. Green orbs winked into existence within the twister. Eyes that seemed to challenge, beckoning her to delve into their depths, exposing her very soul to its scrutiny.
She held her resolve, pretending to be enjoying the night that she was gazing upon from her balcony.
A form solidified within the cyclonic winds as they bent and shaped themselves into the outline of a man.
Abruptly the tumultuous winds died and her sister in-law's quarry stepped up alongside her by the railing.
"Am I interrupting?" he asked courteously.
Hermione smiled, grateful in that he at least wasn't enraged as she was worried his reaction might be.
"You know you're not." She returned fondly, her own hand ghosted into the crook of his arm as she sidled up to him and rested her head against his shoulder in a comfortable, affectionate gesture.
"Lovely voice." He commented appreciatively.
"It's more than the voice." She intimated rather facetiously.
She could feel his eyes shift toward her, measuring her words. At length he asked the first of the questions she both hoped and dreaded he would ask.
"Why Hermione?"
She didn't need play coy with him; they were well past teenage angst and with it the fumbling about around each other.
"Because it's time, luv. It's been too long already. You both need to resolve whatever this is between you."
Harry sighed, but he didn't make any half hearted attempts to refute her claims.
"I take it you pulled that particular song from a penseive memory and altered it accordingly?"
She nodded her head against his steel wrought arm, not daring to chance her voice in her anxiety. This was the part of her plan that she feared the most. This song was a part of Harry; a glimpse into his very soul. On some level, she instinctively knew that she had no right to violate the sanctity of his heart, no matter the reason or however benevolent.
Harry sighed again.
"Are you mad?" she asked worriedly, biting her bottom lip anxiously.
"No,... not mad. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what I am?"
Harry's sharp eyes tracked Ginny as she wistfully walked along the river way, the last strains of her sweet voice fading gently into the darkening night.
"She's not sure either, Harry." Hermione intimated, trying to ease his trepidation.
"Right" Harry chuckled skeptically. "I'm not stupid, Hermione and I'm not gullible either." He reminded her.
Hermione nodded her agreement against his arm. "If you were, you wouldn't be here trying to gather your courage."
Harry's arm stiffened beneath her fingers. "You don't know what you're talking about."
Hermione gentled her fingers across his arm, soothing the tension away. "Then why are you talking to me when you should be talking to her, Harry?"
Hermione turned toward him, her brown eyes catching hints of the stars in their reflection. His own emerald green eyes seemed to almost glow, radiating the extraordinary power that dwelt within.
Twin beacons of hope or dread, depending upon the intentions of those that dared look upon them.
"I've only ever known you to be afraid one thing and one thing only, Harry. Put aside past disappointments and the pain that resulted from them. Free yourself and her along with you if it's what you truly want? If not...?"
Harry's eyes shifted away and down toward the figure walking below. "I-It's not that simple, 'Mione."
"You're wrong, Harry. It is,... it is just that simple." She urged.
"I-I'm not the same Harry that she...?" he stalled.
Hermione smiled knowingly. "Nor is she the same Ginny." Hermione confided. "You've both grown and flourished in so many wonderful ways, all but one and it's probably the most important of all, though you've both been too afraid to really explore it. You both bring so much happiness to the rest of us, but never for yourselves. It's ironic, but all that we truly want is for you both to be happy... together."
At feeling him stiffen at that last, she hurriedly explained. "You've both seen other people and tried with other people, but I think some part of both of you has always known that it was Ginny for Harry and vice versa. Maybe it was always meant to be?"
"If that's true than what was Susan?" Harry ground out irately not liking the demotion that logic applied to his and Susan's brief relationship.
Hermione brushed her hand down his arm trying to relay the deep affection and devotion she had for him and his wellbeing.
"I'm not implying that Susan was a mere diversion. She was my friend too, Harry." She reminded him. "As much as my heart would've rejoiced had the two of you been able to have your dream, it,.. it just wasn't meant to be. Susan knew that,..and I think that deep down you knew it too?"
Reluctantly, Harry's head nodded, his hand surreptitiously wiping at one eye. "I...I loved her you know?" Harry was trembling beneath her touch.
"I know you did, sweetheart, but sometimes events conspire against us, no matter how much we might want otherwise. I-It was the same for you and Ginny, though fate or God or maybe even Merlin, have chosen to give you another chance. The question now is...What will you do with it?" There was both understanding and challenge in her tone as her hand slipped from its position on his arm.
Part of her was letting him go as well, whether he knew it or no. It wasn't an easy thing for her to do, by any stretch of the imagination, but it was the right thing.
For so long it had been her, Ron and Harry against the world. Then it became her and Ron,.. and Harry as an afterthought.
Now, with luck, it would become her and Ron and Harry and Ginny. Separate, but at the same time more whole than they had ever been.
Hermione patted his shoulder affectionately, urging, "It's time to do what you do best, Harry, fight! Fight as you've never fought before, only this time fight for yourself and what you want. Show me that Gryffindor courage one last time?" She nodded her chin pointedly in Ginny's direction.
Harry's moist eyes turned toward hers. There was such a depth of emotion therein that it was breathtaking: Pain, loss, sorrow, uncertainty, but overwhelmingly; there was love, love and the defiance that defined him as the warrior for the light he was.
He stepped forward and reverently kissed her forehead.
His lips had just barely left her forehead when she realized with a start that he was no longer beside her.
Hermione's eyes searched the complex below. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw a familiar silhouette moving slowly, but steadily on an intersecting course with Ginny's.
This was the courage that no one ever heard about in regards to Harry Potter. This was the steadfast courage that marked the man for what he is.
It was one thing to face the terrors of hell itself. Most could not do so. It was an even rarer thing to be able to face the fears of one's own heart. To take that leap of faith that could shatter one's heart and leave it beyond repair. Even more avoided that potential fate.
But to have both such types of courage burning within a single heart was the rarest of all virtues. This was Harry Potter.
Hermione knew that decorum dictated she should leave them to their privacy, but she couldn't turn away. It wasn't so much that she had a vested interest as that she felt she owed it to the chronicles of posterity.
How many could say they were their when Marc Anthony first kissed Cleopatra? When Juliet takes her own life with Romeo's dagger? When Helen of Troy is spirited away in the night by her lover-Paris?
When Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley found their heart?
Hermione was not entirely alone as other parties, with a vested interest, were watching the scene unfold with bated breath.
Harry plucked a white lily flower in passing. Ironic that, he considered briefly, before his eyes drank in Ginny's appearance and all conscious thought momentarily fled.
Ginny wore a white sundress, off the shoulders. No shoes, enjoying the feel of the cool grass beneath her feet as she drifted along the meandering river.
She hummed softly to herself, not the ballad from previous but another of his collection that she'd committed to memory.
He recognized it as that last simple love song he'd sung before leaving England's shore nearly nine years ago.
It was another he'd performed only that one time and though he'd not voiced it since; he readily picked up the melody and sang it to her... as it was meant to be sung.
Ginny heard him moments before she saw him emerge from the darkness, walking slowly toward her. His voice wafted gently on the night breeze, surrounding and caressing her. She smoothed her trembling hands down the sides of her dress, giving her hands something to do, rather than fidget nervously.
His being here, now, like this, was both more than she had ever hoped and so much less than she dreamed.
Distantly she realized that she'd stopped humming as his voice finished the song that she'd sang to herself a thousand times over the years; hoping and wishing that he would sing it to her as he once did,... and now he was.
He wore a black sleeveless shirt, jeans and dragon hide boots and with his dark hair and heavy tan, he should have blended into the night, except for his eyes? His eyes shown with emerald fires that seemed to fill his silhouette with an ethereal glow.
She tried to act nonchalant, act being the keyword here. Neither was fooled and it was long past time to drop all pretence with one another and come clean.
She was about to speak when his hand ghosted forward, proffering a white lily flower to her.
Ginny startled slightly at that. She could infer so much from that, at least she wanted to.
Her hand hovered just short of the flower, her eyes searching his for some sign; some hope that it was more than just a simple coincidence on his part?
His eyes were nearly unreadable as so many emotions were present within. Mostly they were kind and forgiving, mixed with deep set longing, yet something hard and burning at the core.
"Th-Thank you" she heard herself say as if from a safe distance away to protect her exposed heart.
Ginny brought the flower to her nose, inhaling its sweet fragrance. It was some minutes later that she marveled in realization that he'd folded her arm into his and they were walking arm and arm along the river pathway.
She'd thought hundreds of times over what she'd say if she were afforded the chance to talk to him, really talk to him like he was giving her the chance right now.
All those carefully perceived thoughts and plans fled her conscious mind and she found herself pouring her heart to him as she'd never even dared to consider doing before.
The silly hopes and dreams of adolescence flowed into a school girl crush fueled and reinforced by hero worship over having saved her from the 'Chamber of Secrets'. She'd fought down said crush and tried so hard not to let her fantasies dictate the life she could and would have with a little hard work and self reliance.
Ginny became her own person with her own wants and desires and sooner, rather than later those wants and desires returned to Harry.
Her young heart soared with the glories of young love, only to be dashed among the rocky cavernous tomb of Greymore Manor when Harry fell in battle.
The pain, the terrible clawing, wrenching, unforgiving pain that followed. She'd wanted to die. She wanted oblivion. Anything but the reality of what was, but would never be.
And oblivion came. With it she'd lost herself as well as him. She was bereft, floating on an endless tide of complacency; knowing neither hot nor cold, sweet nor sour, love nor loss. She settled just for mind numbing mediocrity. A safe, sheltered existence where her heart could not soar yet could never plummet to the depths of despair.
It was a half life, but it was safe. She wrapped that semblance of a life around herself like a comforting blanket, protecting her from all, from having a life, a real life. Though she knew it in her heart, it was easy, so easy to avoid the truth.
She wanted to blame events, or family as having conspired against her, of conspiring against them, but she couldn't and wouldn't project the blame anywhere by where it was due- herself.
She'd wanted to chuck it all away to follow him when he'd left, but as much as she wanted to do that, she wanted him to return to her and not because of her pride, but because she was still afraid to take that leap of faith. She was afraid to put her heart out there in the possibility that it could be shattered again.
Now, though she was still terrified beyond all reason, she knew she would never be whole, never be truly happy until she faced that fear, until she embraced the life that might be hers if she but found the courage to seek it.
Ginny wiped at her eyes, trying to find the courage to glance at his face and see his reaction, but too afraid to lest he shatter her heart with his rejection.
"I-I'm afraid, Harry. Afraid as I've never been afraid before and yet it's exhilarating, liberating even... does that make any sense?"
Harry could feel her trembling next to him, not from cold, but in dread over what he'd think or say.
This was both more wondrous and terrible a power as he'd ever known. This was the truest form of Phoenix Fire. Like her; it was for him both exhilarating and terrifying.
"It makes perfect sense, Gin." He agreed without extrapolating further.
They walked on, the silence lengthening between them, finally when her curiosity outweighed her fear, she blurted...
"Well?"
"Well what?" he returned fighting not to grin.
"Well, what do you think?" she growled, letting her impatience show more than she wanted to.
"About what?"he asked facetiously.
"About us?"
Harry nodded, pretending to finally catch on. "There is no us, Ginny." He intoned so bluntly that she could feel her heart clench. "There hasn't been an us since I fell beneath Greymore." He could feel her beginning to tremble violently next to him, but he pressed on needing to cleanse himself in turn as much as she had.
"Then there was Susan, and I was happy for a time. I had a chance to love and be loved, though some power greater than myself decided otherwise. I have no illusions that I didn't have a hand in that heart ache, but not entirely so. Had things gone according to plan, I would have married Susan, had children with her,... and been crushed when she succumbed and died as I'm sure Justin is now at her passing."
Ginny was sniffling beside him, partly in sorrow over this, but more so for her own despairing thoughts.
He continued undaunted, finding more courage than even he knew he had. "Then there was oblivion, only unlike you, I was resolved to move on to the next grand adventure."
Ginny startled at that, her moist eyes searched his own for some semblance that he was being dramatic, but what she saw in those eyes frightened her.
Harry eyes hardened as they bore into her own. "Part of me had passed. I was there looking down upon myself with no one but the shade of Voldemort for bitter comfort. My own mother rejected me. I was denied even the comfort of rejoining my lost family in the next life. She bade me that I would never be welcome lest I 'find my place' and 'find my heart'. I thought I had, for a brief moment, and then your father dashed those ill conceived dreams."
Ginny gasped in alarm as Harry's voice turned so bitter at that.
He continued as if not noticing her reaction, or in spite of it. Ginny knew that Harry was a proud man and what he'd suffered at the hands of her family was nearly unforgivable, though she fervently hoped he could do otherwise.
"I begged them, you know,... your parents. I begged them to give me the chance, just a chance to court you, to see if we could make it work? If we could find the love we once shared and make something of it? They spurned me. Oh, they were sorry, sure.." He offered incredulously, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Everyone's always sorry after the fact, but I was the most sorry of all. I was the one who suffered for it, but still I soldiered on. I tried to make a go of it, stiff upper lip and all that but something always conspired to keep us apart, Ginny?"
Harry rounded on her taking her by the shoulders as his enflamed gaze bored into her despairing own.
"I followed the rules, Ginny, their rules; your mum and Dad's. I skirted the parameters they'd set with an acrobat's grace. You both teased and tantalized when only so much as a kind word and I might have forgone any sense of honor and swept you away, defying that which would forever have alienated me from the only family I'd ever known. I was, myself, despairing. I was ready to give up and concede defeat. But that wasn't enough for your father. No, not nearly enough? He had to make sure that his precious daughter was safely out of reach, not that it mattered as there was no breeching your mercenary heart!" He spat venomously.
Ginny shook violently at that. A whimper escaped her throat, but still he pressed on.
"Exiled! It was less than a conspiracy but no more than extortion. For no more than the ability to right wrong that would help the Chang family and hundreds of others that were preyed upon. For the daring to aid the helpless victims of the corrupt and blundering Fudge administration, I was exiled from my own home. The home I'd fought and bled for,.. died for even... only to be exiled. But it was really a matter of semantics, logistics even. I was really being exiled from all things Weasley, but especially their precious Ginnikins!" he growled contemptuously, pulling his hand back as if scaled.
Ginny's eyes narrowed at that, her own temper fueled, not so much the hard feeling he'd vented, but the jealousy the mere mention of Cho Chang's name still brought her even though she knew better.
"Maybe dad was saving me the heartache of being two timed, huh? Cho Chang bats her eyes and you cross a continent in a trice and topple governments, purely for unselfish reasons, I'm sure?" she drawled sarcastically, jabbing her finger into his steel hard chest, ignoring the ache it caused to do so.
Harry glowered down at her half thinking to storm off into the night, but he was through running from this girl, any girl.
"What I did, I did for Cedric because he'd of wanted me to." He clarified angrily, then adding. "Being exiled from you and yours ended up being an unexpected bonus!"
Ginny first goggled at the revelation that he'd only helped Cho in Cedric's memory... Merlin she felt low and thought she couldn't feel worse. Then Harry went for the throat and proved she could.
He grabbed her up by the shoulders again in a vice like grip that, while not painful, belied any hope of escape. His eyes smoldered with the intensity of his feeling.
"You thought it would be all 'guts and glory', huh?" he groused. "You thought you could gather up some semblance of courage, pour your guts out and the rest would all be glory, eh? Sing a little poignant song and Harry will fawn over you like some glamour struck Veela leavings?"
Harry shook Ginny's shoulders pointedly, careless of the tears that were welling in her beautiful eyes.
"They're billions of women in the world , so why is it you that stirs my blood! Why am I cursed with falling for some red headed malcontent?" he lamented his lot to the powers that be.
"I was afraid, Harry. I wasn't ready, Harry." he whiningly mimicked her pleas of moments ago.
"Now I should take you back because you're ready?" he asked incredulously. "Maybe I should? God knows I want to." He nearly shouted at her in his own outrage over the notion.
Ginny's eyes continued to track tears only now her tears were those of hope.
"The only trouble is, is that I'm through being played for a fool by you and your father. I can think of no more fitting punishment than to give you exactly what it is that you seemingly want and what you actually deserve!"
With that, Harry scooped her up in his arms and kissed her. Not hard and demanding, but soft and beseeching she melted into that kiss and into his arms. Ginny molded her trembling body against his own, becoming more self assured with each moment the kiss deepened.
Too soon he abruptly pulled away, leaving her wide eyed and whimpering from the loss of contact.
"Is that what you wanted, Ginny?" He crooned passionately, searching her vacant eyes, though she could only nod dumbly by way of an answer.
His eyes seemed to glow with a fervent passion she'd never seen before as he promised, "Then it's time to give you what you deserve."
A snuffling Ginny stumbled back to her family's quarter hoping to sneak in unnoticed only to find Hermione, Fleur, and future sisters' in law, Alicia and Katie waiting expectantly over a glass, or two, of wine.
At seeing her emotional and somewhat worse for wear state that naturally assumed...
"It went that well, huh?" Katie rang out happily.
"He s-spanked me!" Ginny whined, breaking down in tears as she rubbed at her aching posterior.
"Oh, dear Merlin!" Hermione half gasped, half laughed into her hand as the others did their best not to laugh and remain supportive. Eventually they failed and broke down in hysterical laughter as Ginny rubbed her aching bum, snuffling miserably.
The next morning Molly hurriedly answered the sharp rapping on their suite's door.
"I want to talk to you, the both of you." Harry clarified, seeing Mr. Weasley entering the room behind Molly.
Harry swept into the room without waiting for an invitation.
Breath taking is how Molly would describe his appearance. He was immaculately comported in full dress uniform. His legendary sword gleamed at his left hip and his boots were polished to a high sheen. The entire left breast of his uniform was adorned with ribbons denoting many of the world's highest citations.
It wasn't so much how he dressed, but how he carried himself that was so startlingly impressive.
Elegant, with a cool precision that even bordered on arrogance.
"How much?" he asked without preamble.
"B-Beg pardon?" Arthur hesitantly returned, both he and Molly wore puzzled expressions.
"Come now, sir, let's not quibble. How much?" Harry rolled his eyes impatiently. "Your bride price, sir? What's your offer?" he snapped.
Molly Weasley gasped excitedly at that, bolting forward to try and grab him up in a rib cracking hug, but a glare from Harry halted her in her tracks.
Arthur cleared his throat. "H-Harry, you don't think...? That is... surely you don't expect us to sell you Ginny's hand in...?"
"S-Sell me?...Ha-Ha-Ha!" Harry broke out in guffaws, while Arthur and Molly alternated between worried glances with each other and concern for his welfare, if not sanity.
Harry finally regained some semblance of composure long enough to clarify. "Har...Y-You make good jest, sir. Not how much you expect to get, but how much you expect to give for me to take Ginevra off your hands?"
War had been declared. Harry Potter against the Weasley's and frankly,... the Weasley's weren't up for it.
In retrospect, Arthur's having rebuffed him in outrage, (once establishing he was indeed, serious), was perhaps not the best course of negotiation.
They were on Harry's turf now and he was utilizing Home field advantage to the fullest.
Hot showers inexplicably turned freezing, cool water scalding, but never until a person was fully invested in their subsequent showers or baths, and then; only adults were victimized, never children.
Clothing became transparent at the worst, most embarrassing moment.
Delicious foods that revealed themselves to in actuality be the most horrific of entrées once half eaten and soon found their way coming back up-explosively. Those with stronger stomachs paid for it in the end-literally so.
Bill Weasley was the first to concede and seek forgiveness. It seems his wife's rather provocative nightgown turned into a fuzzy pink bunny suit complete with feet and hands, but no zipper, at the, er... most inopportune of moments.
Ron was next. Starvation drove him over the edge when the ice cream machine,(his sole bastion of hope), began churning out disgusting flavors like Sea bass soufflé.
Hermione, too stubborn for her own good, should have conceded defeat when her personal hair care products thoughtfully returned her hair to a state of 'bushy brown' that no spell or conditioner could alleviate. When her toothpaste turned her teeth back to their former 'buck toothed' appearance from her adolescence, well,... that was another thing?
She threw herself to her knees, begging his mercy to which he replied that he had 'no notion of what you speak, but I highly doubt you're deserving of any subsequent mercy as yet, madam? With that said Hermione learned the folly of her ways.
She'd been 'playing with fire' and now she was getting burned for it. She didn't know how he did it, but every book she brought with her,.. every book in the Foundation's library, anything with print on it,... became the most scandalously detailed sexual fantasy novels that even she couldn't read without blushing to the roots of her 'bushy hair'. Initial intrigued,(for purely educational purposes), she readily became appalled as each story became progressively more vulgar and trashy!
What's worse, her claims of disgust and outrage proved invalid when others found the books to be exactly what their covers denoted.
When she vehemently brought it to her host's attention she received no satisfaction as:
"I would have thought you'd enjoy a little creative interpretation as you had no such qualms when you took it upon yourself to alter one of my personal compositions to suit your needs?" he snickered at the wounded expression this elicited, but finally relented when she hit below the belt.
Hermione's lips quivered below her protruding teeth and her eyes welled with tears.
"Oh,... all right..." he mumbled regretfully canceling all the spells with a mere wave of his hand.
Unfortunately that did little to save him as she collapsed in his arms sobbing her apology. Fleur saved him further embarrassment when she stormed into the room demanding...
"You fix this now!"
"Beg pardon?" Harry feigned ignorance though the delight grin that split his face told otherwise.
"You know what you did, now undo et!"
"W-What did he do?" a hastily recovered Hermione asked curiously, stepping to the side after pulling herself out of Harry's embrace.
"E-Et is personal,... very personal." Fleur growled low in her throat, though for probably the first time-ever, the very question had her blushing like a school girl.
Harry guffawed at that.
"What did you do?" Hermione rounded on him, taking her sister in law's side at seeing how embarrassed Fleur was.
"Er,.. nothing much." Harry pretended to be considering his fingernail. "Since she'd so interested in sparking romance in others, I borrowed a bit from the expert."
"What did you do?" Hermione hissed accusingly at hearing the whimper of dismay from her sister in-law.
"I, .. removed her , er,.. enthusiasm for um,.. certain after hour activities,.. is all." Harry haltingly admitted.
"Enthusiasm?" Hermione asked for clarification.
Fleur stomped her foot letting out a shriek of frustration. "He took away my ability to appreciate my usband's ministrations!"
Harry smiled cruelly at that.
Before Hermione could vent her own shocked outrage, Fleur growled and hit him with a blast of her Veela Allure-full power. Her hair floated on a nonexistent breeze and eyes sparkled mesmerizingly. She absolutely glowed with sexual vitality. "You want to make me happy...?" she whispered huskily.
Hermione gapped stupidly, enthralled by the display.
"Have you done something with your hair?" Harry asked half interested.
"Urggg!" Fleur squawked impotently, dropping her allure and bursting into tears of –frustration.
"Harry...?" Hermione pleaded in Fleur's behalf.
"Who said I did anything" he ventured innocently, shrugging his shoulders. Perhaps Bill just isn't up for it?
Hermione snorted at that, despite Fleur's emotional distress.
"P-Pleazeeee, 'Arry?" Fleur begged.
"Learned your lesson, have you?' Harry asked reluctantly.
Fleur nodded emphatically, daring to hope.
"Alright then, but I suggest you consider just who you're fooling around with next time?" he warned pointedly.
"Oui" Fleur nodded, chancing a contrite smile.
Harry waved his hand and Fleur dissolve into puddle of goo, gasping and wide eyed as she writhed on the floor.
Immediately worried, Hermione hissed. "What did you do now?"
"Did I forget to mention I merely held her ah,.. reactions in trust, waiting for the proper release?"
He roared in laughter as he beat a hasty exit, leaving a mortified Hermione to deal with 'her family'.
On it went as he vented his wrath. No one was spared save the twins as Harry held them unaccountable for the rest of their relation's folly.
Ginny was the least spared of the lot. The spanking she got was merely the precursor. A warning salvo if you will.
After another grueling workout under the twin's supervision, Ginny dragged herself to see one of the team's trainers for a much needed massage to relive her tight, aching muscles.
She was just drifting on a sea of pleasure when the masseuse's soothing hands disappeared and Harry's voice asked expectantly...
"Enjoying a nice relaxing rub down, eh?"
Ginny froze- literally. Harry had spelled her with a silent petrificus charm.
She was helpless, and what's more; was naked form the waist up with only a towel covering her bum where she lay, thankfully-face down, on the table.
"Let's see if I can't bring you back to life, shall we?" Harry cooed with anything but sincerity.
"I'll scream..." she warned.
"I'm counting on it." Harry chuckled at that casting a sonorous charm.
The next thing she knew- she was giggling and screaming as he tickled her mercilessly with an owl feather.
Finally, blessedly,.. she fainted from over stimulation.
It was the next day that he turned the knife.
She'd been enjoying lunch with her family, as much as anyone could these days, what with state of perpetual paranoia he kept them in.
Anyway, Harry materializes out of nowhere, absently scrutinizing information held on the pocket notebook he was perusing.
He tsked under his breath at her table, absently commenting... "Hmm, only lasted twelve minutes under intense stimulation before fainting? That's something we'll have to work on Ginevra?" he suggested, smiling lecherously before disappearing, leaving his 'Cheshire grin' hanging in the air, like in the storybook.
Ginny squealed in mortification, fleeing the room as her family erupted in laughter.
Seemingly, the 'brides to be' were also unaffected by his antics, thinking themselves safe by proxy as he didn't prey on their twin grooms.
Wrong
It was only a few days before the wedding when , innocently enough, the dressmaker in Paris had lost their original bridal gown purchases and due to having several seamstress elves on maternity leave at the moment, was scrambling to replace the gowns in time for the wedding.
Harry, naturally, offered to pop over to France and pick up their purchases as he had business in the area.
"Does this dress make my bum look fat?"
"Personally, I think it makes the room look smaller."
"Of all the nerve!" Jane Granger shrieked indignantly rounding on the offending party that had spoken in place of her husband.
She found her husband , obliviously having succumbed to the boredom of perpetually never ending gown fittings.
"H-Harry?" Jane paused, her hand poised in mid-slap. "Harry!" she crowed excitedly, throwing herself into her surrogate son's arms.
When she finally calmed and let him get in a word edgewise, he suggested, "Just get the blue one and get moving before you're late for the wedding, 'k?"
Nodding her head excitedly, Jane Granger shook her husband awake and hurried to the clerk to make her purchases, finding her entire purchase already paid for including a handsome suit waiting for Richard, with a variety of complementing shirts and ties.
She returned to disappointedly; finding Harry gone, but Richard waiting with a knowing grin and a sweet note that doubled as a port key.
Harry returned later in that same day with the promised gowns. The intended brides squealed delightedly and ran off with their friends and mothers to do the final fittings for a little 'girl time'. They'd just vacated the room when Harry crowed delightedly and gathered the men together for a little 'boy time'.
"Oh, Katie... you look positively stunning!" Her mother gushed appreciatively as Katie Bell twisted and turned in front of the mirror, critiquing her appearance from all sides.
"Not too much breast?" she asked worriedly.
"For Fred?" Ginny asked in a shocked tone before answering incredulously, "I sincerely doubt it."
"Alicia Spinnit! Honey,.. that's simply divine." Her own mother gushed next when Alicia emerged from behind the partition wearing her own gown.
"Does it down play my hips?" she asked nervously, checking her rear in the mirrors.
Before anyone could reply Katie's and her dresses morphed into tropical sarongs and they disappeared with a pop only to emerge on a beach front , who knows where, before a stone alter with a hideous, fat fertility goddess looming in the back ground.
The two witches were surrounded by a gauntlet of their male friends and male family members dressed up in native garb,; loin cloths and war paint with ornamental bone piercings in a variety of areas.
Their perspective grooms were beating out an ominous tribal tune on twin sets of giant bongo drums, one to each side of the dais.
"What the f...?"Katie began to complain in outrage, before being cut off.
Harry jumped up on the stone dais dressed in a witch doctor outfit holding a staff with a shrunken head on it that rattled when he shook it.
"Billia...Billia...Billia!" Harry rang out, shaking his rattle to which all the native men grunted, "UH-UH!"
"Oh Great Moa-Moa,..." he prostrated himself before the hideous idol. "We bring these unworthy women before you to ask your blessing to bring-um mookoo babies when make boom-boom!"
"UH-UH!" The men chorused with dead serious expressions on their faces.
"Mookoo babies?" Katie gapped in shock.
"Boom-Boom?" Alicia scoffed indignantly.
"Silence!" Harry thundered. "You um interrupt ritual, make Moa-Moa veerry angry!" he drawled, at this the ground shook ominously beneath their feet.
Both women went silent in wide eyed dread, still skeptical but not taking any chances especially when several wands came to hand around them.
Harry dropped to his knees in supplication. "Forgive unworthy wenches great Moa-Moa. Bestow upon them great magic of Hooey-Hooey!"
"UH-UH!" The men chorused.
Harry leapt down from the dais and with a grunt of command, two men each grabbed an arm of the startled women, holding them fast.
Harry pried open Katie's mouth and inspected her teeth. "Ug,.. shadow on bicuspid." He announced unhappily.
Several of the men groaned and shook their heads warily.
Harry raised his hands up in supplication to the fertility idol and beseeched.. "Though she be toothless hag she have um fine maaguffees! She make-um fat mookoo babies. Moa-Moa, most generous!" he thanked the idol.
"UH-UH!" The men chanted.
"Maaguffees?" Katie foolishly asked.
Harry cupped his hands pointedly over his chest and grunted, "Big Maaguffees!"
Katie blushed, darkening her skin to near pitch black.
Alicia howled in laughter next to her, too late realizing she was next on the chopping block.
Harry poked and prodded Alicia who squawked and growled her displeasure, finally he concluded with a firm swat across her fanny.
Swack
"Hey?" Alicia shrieked indignantly.
"This one... nice round poo-poo." Harry grunted appreciatively thrusting his hips forward suggestively as he added. "She bring-um many mookoo babies. Moa-Moa be praised!"
"UH-UH!"
Alicia went scarlet, stifling a strangled scream of outrage as Katie chortled, "R-Round poo-poo!"
"Nice round poo-poo." Harry corrected, leering at the both of them.
"You um...'play with fire'... insult great Moa-Moa's high priest: Hari-Hari. You um pay big time." Harry threatened shaking his shrunken-head staff in their faces.
"You um take wally-wally right up gazoo for being treacherous wenches."
"Wally-Wally?"Katie asked anxiously, sharing a nervous glance with her captive friend next to her.
Harry smiled a cold, cunning smile and shook his staff in their faces, announcing, "This wally-wally."
"UH-UH!"
Eyeing the six foot long thorn covered tiki staff, Alicia gulped and ventured nervously, "Er,.. is there an alternative?"
Harry made a show of considering her question before snapping fingers and offering grudgingly. "You um wear paint of Great Moa-Moa's symbolic pleasure to wedding? Earn much favor. Mao-Mao bless union. Make Woo-Hoo magic."
"That, er, doesn't sound too bad?" Katie suggested half heartedly to her fellow victim.
Alicia nodded. "Alright, we'll do it."
Harry smiled evilly at that, directing to his native subjects, "Bring um much paint- Big job."
"UH-UH!"
Two hours later...
With twin pops of port key arrival; a painted from head to toe, Alicia and Katie arrived crying despondently, flying into their mother's startled arms seeking solace.
"What in the world?" Angelina murmured as she eyed the rune and hieroglyphics plastered over every nuance of her friend's exposed areas.
Hermione stepped up and with a critical eye ventured... This one is a Norse rune and this..." she pointed to Katie's shoulder.. "is a Celtic symbol."
"What's the rune?" Ginny asked, curiously.
"This one says...'W-Why... did... the...chicken... cross... the... path?' " Hermione haltingly questioned her own interpretation.
Katie gasped out between sobs... "T-T-There wasn't a N-Norse word for r-road!" she explained.
"This is all your fault!" Alicia seethed at Ginny, grabbing for her wand off a nearby vanity.
She didn't quite make it safely out the door before the hexes started flying her way from Alicia and Katie.
The next morning, and several failed baths later, a still heavily painted and desperate Katie and Alicia sought forgiveness for insulting the great Moa-Moa's high priest.
Out of respect for the groom's, he promised to lift the curse only temporarily. They would have to proudly wear their painted brands for the wedding night to honor their husbands and the Great Moa-Moa.
When Katie swore and Alicia threatened to hex him, he recanted his offer. They would have to find their own way out of their predicament for insulting, Hari-Hari.
By the morning of their wedding and after innumerable failed attempts they were sure to be much more agreeable to compromise, not that the price of such wouldn't have gone up by then? They vented their wrath on Ginny anytime she was foolish enough to wander into their bridal radar.
Their twin grooms took to wearing t-shirts that declared Hari-Hari the High Priest of the Great Moa-Moa and worshiped him as the all-time greatest marauder. They took to bowing and scraping in his presence which he responded to airily with a regal grace.
Ginny was dumb enough to ask who the Great Moa-Moa was? To which Harry, popped in with perfect timing and announced with an evil sneer that the 'Great Moa-Moa had big things planned for her'.
All the males in the room grunted "UH-UH!"
Deciding that 'safe was better than sorry', Ginny fled on the heels of already scrambling to safety; Alicia and Katie.
As bad as the Weasely's were getting it, Harry stuck it to Draco, but good, for his part in what he deemed the 'Ginny scenario'.
Draco awoke in Harry's room, in Harry's body, lightning scars and all. Not registering this new fact; he, of course, went back to his own room and climbed into his own bed snuggling against his wife, innocently thinking to explore the odd occurrence further after a nice lie in.
Abby awoke and within moments began screaming bloody murder. He took a lot of hexes before he fled his own home in fear for his life.
From that point on his day got better and better.
Harry had chosen his timing well for this particular prank, as being Harry Potter was not currently a popular identity to have.
He ran across Ginny Weasley, more than once, and found that not only was she disbelieving of his vehement claims that he was not , in fact, Harry Potter, but his claims only infuriated the witch until she hexed him on sight as a matter of principal.
Apparently she found the ruse in poor taste.
Angelina approached him regarding their missed training session.
Thinking it was better to play along at this point, he assumed Harry's identity...wrong move.
What started as uncertainty over a lack of communication between them, quickly degraded to the point of her assuming he thought her unworthy or incapable of being a Knight. The woman fled their conversation in tears.
This occurrence led to the unenviable visit by Angelina's two closest friends to whom Harry Potter was not currently held in the highest regard. They gave him a tongue lashing that would make a 'howler' blush.
After that, he spent the rest of the day dodging curses and fruitlessly seeking Harry Potter, or actually..Draco Malfoy,... or at least, his body.
He awoke outside the door to his own home, having nowhere else to go,.. nowhere safe. The first thing he did was conjure a mirror, gasping in relief at his normal reflection. For the thousandth time, in his life, he considered the ludicrousness of anyone wishing they were Harry Potter.
Absently, he considered the whole thing had just been a nightmare.
Wrong
His joyous reunion with his wife, child, friends and associates was anything but,.. apparently Draco Malfoy had been a real git yesterday.
By midday, he was wishing, (whether ludicrous or not), that he was, Harry Potter, again.
Thankfully, blessedly,(with much apologizing and kowtowing), things returned to normal.
That was until the bachelor party that night.
The men had graciously offered to take their festivities into town as the females in question refused to celebrate their 'Hen Night' in public, still painted as they were.
Thinking they were being manipulated into turning the men loose to pursue Merlin knew what tawdry pleasures; Katie and Alicia relented and begged the High Priest of the Great Moa-Moa to accept their apology and temporarily remove the body paint until their wedding nights.
Moa-Moa's priest was feeling generous... "UH-UH!"
The 'hen night' took place in the private rooms of a conservative little spot off the radar known as: "Wand-less Witches".
It was going on midnight when Angelina proudly announced the highlight of the evening to here rather enthusiastic friends; made so by generous amounts of alcoholic beverages, amorous charms, and strip wizards- who incidentally really knew how to use their wands!
"Ladies... it is my pleasure to offer the highlight event of the evening... The Cauldron of Desire!" Angelina cheeringly announced amongst excited gasps, cat calls and even a few uncertain groans on where this was going.
Angelina waved her wand vanishing the partition that was hiding the 'cauldron ' from view.
Excited squeals turned to puzzled expressions and disappointed groans when the 'cauldron turned out to be a children's wading pool, complete with a rubber duck floating in the middle.
"That damn Potter!"
Meanwhile, back at the absolutely- rocking entertainment wing of the Phoenix Foundation's complex...
"Gentleman...I give you... 'The Cauldron of Desire'." Harry proudly crowed amidst cheers, cat calls and even a few groans at just where this was going.
While an attentive, even exuberant host; Harry, himself, did not partake of the Cauldron's legendary pleasures.
The stunning brides were escorted down the aisle amidst appreciative smiles and happy nods of well wishers.
Their grooms readily accepted their hands and pensively waited for the ceremony to begin...
Harry Potter entered from an alcove, solemnly walking toward the alter to address the waiting couple. He along with the groomsmen wore Knight Watch dress uniforms, immaculately cleaned and pressed, their brides wearing traditional gowns.
The Foundation's church was elegantly decorated with deep red poinsettia flowers and fairy lights dancing amidst snow dusted Christmas trees.
Snowflakes lazily fell against the outside windows. The grounds of the Foundation were covered in a light blanket of pristine snow.
It was perfect.
Harry stood before the nervous couples, smiling reassuringly.
A calm set over the gathering, waiting expectantly for the service to begin.
Harry snapped his fingers and the entire church instantly transformed into the semblance of a native tiki lodge. The guests and the wedding party adorned in native garb; loin cloths, sarongs, and even a few well placed bone piercings.
A dark stone alter loomed in the background containing a hideous, fat fertility goddess.
Harry had a bone in his nose, naked from the waist up above a grass skirt and painted with odd runes. He held a six foot long tiki staff adorned with a shrunken head that rattled when he shook it.
"Billia...Billia...Billia! Oh, Great Moa-Moa..." he began...