Harry and Cyrus returned to Potter Manor after a very tiring and frustrating morning for Harry. After Harry had his blow up in front of Nullus, he and the older wizards had a long discussion about what Death had revealed to Harry. Harry was frustrated that Death was not able to give him specifics on any of the items, but with the information that they did have, Nullus and Dumbledore had many very good theories that they would be looking into as soon as they went their separate ways. Nullus once again apologized to Harry for the crappy way they went about trying to force Harry into his anger. He promised that they would continue to focus their research into how he is able to access that side of his magic when they were not busy looking into the horcruxes.
Harry walked up to his room for a long shower. He had expended a lot of energy during the tests and he realized that he was starting to sweat more when his green flames happened. He spent a long time in his shower, enjoying the cool water flowing over his body. He stood there letting the water rush all over him as he thought about everything that had happened over the past week. It had only been one week since Dumbledore took him to Gringotts and his entire world changed. It was one week since his connection with the girls manifested itself. One week since the green flames became part of him.
"Harry, are you ok," asked Susan from outside his bathroom with obvious concern in her voice.
"Yeah. Just thinking and the shower is a great place to think," he responded. "Give me a few minutes and I'll be out."
"Take your time. I just wanted to make sure. You know you can talk to any of us if something is bothering you."
"I know. Gather the others and have them come up here in 30 minutes. There are things I think we need to talk about as a group."
"Ok. Is everything really ok?"
"Yeah Susan. I just have a lot of things happening all at once and my mind feels overloaded. I know I need to explain things better to all of you but that is not something that I am used to doing."
"I'll let the others know and we will be up here in 30."
Harry heard her leave the room. He turned off the shower and dried off. He found a pair of shorts and short sleeve t-shirt to change into. It was not much longer until the girls arrived in his room. He had them sit on his bed while he grabbed a chair he had sitting near his dresser.
"Couldn't wait to get us into your bed, could you," said Katie. This made everyone laugh.
"Well, how could I help myself with how beautiful you all are," said Harry.
"Smooth talk can get you far," said Susan.
"May just need to work on your approach to some of them," said Daphne.
"He has not had the best of luck talking to members of the opposite sex," said Hermione. "Remember the Yule Ball?"
"Please never remind me of that time ever again," said Harry.
"Fine. So why did you call us all up to your bedroom," asked Hermione.
"I have been doing a lot of thinking and after the fun last night and this morning, and I know that I need to make sure all of you are kept in the loop with everything. I also realized that we have not spent anytime really alone and together since all of this happened. It has been a rollercoaster of events and I want to make sure it does not run off the tracks."
"Is that a muggle thing," asked Daphne.
"Yes," replied Harry. "Before we get into any other conversations that I think we really all need to have, I want to tell you the exciting stories of my wonderful conversation in my sleep last night and how much I have found I am not a fan of Daphne's grandfather."
Daphne's eyes bulged when he mentioned her grandfather. "Did you meet him at work?"
"Oh yeah. I think he now realizes that I am not a morning person and I hate rudeness. But, before I met him, I had a very enlightening conversation while I slept. This time, Death paid me a visit. She is quite lovely, and very sweet. Really not what you would expect from Death."
He proceeded to tell the girls all the information given to him from Death, including the revelation about the Deathly Hallows.
"Wait. You mean to tell me that the children's story that any child that grew up in the magical world had read to us is based on reality," said Susan.
"They made that story into a children's story," asked Harry, looking baffled. "That is dark stuff."
"It was one of the darkest children's stories we ever had read to us," said Daphne. "It's supposed to be a story about morals and being a good person over a shitty person."
"Well, my many generations back grandfather was the one with the cloak," said Harry. Hermione looked at Harry with a flabbergasted look. "Yes Hermione, my cloak is one made by Death."
"Wait, what," said Daphne. "You mean you actually have the cloak?"
Harry stood up and walked over to his dresser and pulled out the cloak. He wrapped it around himself. There was an audible gasp from the three girls who had never seen his cloak in action. He pulled it off of himself, allowing himself to be visible again.
"That is how I was able to avoid getting in trouble when we did our many adventures in school," said Harry. "Dumbledore gave it to me first year at Christmas. He said it was my fathers that he had been holding onto. Turns out it is a family heirloom from when they outsmarted Death."
"And Death wants you to collect the other two hallows," Katie asked, confirming what Harry had told them.
"I am pretty sure she knows where the wand is, but she wouldn't tell me," explained Harry. "And I think I understand her reasoning. With all of these changes that I am dealing with, my magic is not very controlled. We are always taught that the wand chooses the wizard and with a wand like that, it will not accept me if I cannot keep control and cannot earn it's allegiance."
"Oddly, that makes sense," said Hermione. "What about the stone?"
"That one she cannot see, which worries her. It is not destroyed, because she would have noticed that. Something has it hidden. I am not sure what could prevent her from seeing something of her own creation."
"I say you let others worry about that right now," said Hermione. "You have been trying to deal with all of this and it is too much for anyone to deal with. Take the information you have received and let other people help."
"I am doing that," said Harry. "Dumbledore and Daphne's grandfather are looking into everything I already told all of you, except for the thing about the Hallows. That I don't want anyone else to know about except us. At least for now. Those are not necessary items. Now the other thing I wanted to talk to all of you about is us."
"Are you breaking up with us already," asked Katie with a slight giggle.
"Nope. You are all stuck with me, as long as you can put up with the insanity that will be my life. What I wanted to talk about is how is us going to work? Life is only going to get more insane and I don't know anything about being in any sort of relationship."
"None of us have ever been in a relationship," said Susan. "Since all of this started happening, the four of us have been spending a lot of time getting to know each other."
"And that is what we all need to do," said Harry. "But for me, how do I do that properly. How do I date four women at the same time and not make any of them feel less special or less wanted. And I do not want to hear about dating on a schedule. That suddenly makes dating boring."
"I think we can all agree on that," said Hermione. "We have given this some thought and we don't really have a solution, but some possible ideas."
"I am all ears at this point."
"Every day, we are all going to sit down and discuss things about ourselves together. We can all write down questions and we all must answer them honestly," explained Hermione. "As for one on one time, we will need to figure out some what of a schedule so that we can all enjoy that much need time alone with you."
"My life is already becoming perfectly organized for me, not really allowing for any spontaneous adventures."
"The last thing we want to do is control more of your life," said Katie. "We just have no idea how to do this. It is a lot."
"I know. It is too much all at once. It's not like we get to slowly work our way into all of this. Instead, everything is happening all at once."
"So we hold off on working on the us part," said Daphne.
"Why is that the part that has to suffer," asked Harry. "Did I happen to mention my patronus?"
"We know that you can cast it and it is a full corporeal patronus," said Daphne.
"It has changed."
"What do you mean it changed," asked Hermione. "Do you mean that it is not Prongs anymore?"
"Yeah. It got bigger, and I mean a lot bigger. But not only did the form change, but the memory that helps me cast it changed too."
"What was the memory before," asked Susan.
"My parents. It is an odd way that I have that memory, but it is what made me the happiest. Now the memory is all of you when we were out shopping. Seeing the joy that all of you had making me model all of those clothes and seeing your eyes light up when I told you all to shop for yourselves. That is my happiest memory. I do not want to push us back because other people think that I need to focus on what they consider to be more important. The four of you are what make me happy right now and I want to make sure I focus on that."
"Then we will make sure that you get to focus on what you want," said Susan. "But some of what they want you to focus on is important too."
"I know. Occlumency is very important for a lot of things according to everyone. Physical training is just as important. I also know I really need to work on spell control. The things like history and procedure and protocol are not things that I want to focus on."
"Those things are important, but in the hierarchy of what you have in front of you, they are the least important items," said Daphne.
"For my history, I am going to read my grandfather's journals. Death said that they would be a good read for me and I will get to see how he was back during the first war."
"I would also suggest adding some time in reviewing your family grimoire," said Daphne. "Family magic could be very helpful in everything that is coming up."
"Ok. This is what our daily schedule will be like," began Harry. He waited to hear any protests from the girls but was happy that none of them said anything. "We have to be up at 6 in the morning for physical training. " This did bring out a chorus of groans. He wasn't thrilled about the early wake up during the summer, but he knew that it was needed. "After that will be breakfast followed by Occlumency training for any of us who need it. I think that is Hermione, Katie and myself."
"Yeah. Susan and I have had that training for years. What should we do during that time," asked Daphne.
"I am not adding anything for you two to be required to do. None of you are required to do any of this," explained Harry.
"You do this, we do this," said Katie.
"While you three are doing brain training, we could dedicate some time to assist in the research of other issues," said Susan. "It keeps us busy and puts two more sets of eyes looking into things."
"I think that would be very helpful," said Harry. "After Occlumency, then I have spell training, focusing on power regulation and control. I think that they want only me in these because of how unpredictable it could be for a while."
"Then we train somewhere else. None of us are even close to your level," said Katie. "I mean Hermione is probably the closest. She trained with you."
"I could run some training like we did in DA," offered Hermione.
"We also have a lot of people that could help us progress further," said Susan. "My aunt would probably have no problem loaning us some people to train us."
"Tonks has been assigned to us as my security. I am pretty sure she would have fun training all of you."
"Then it is settled. Moring torture, followed by breakfast and then brain training and ending the morning with magic training," said Susan. Everyone agreed on the finalized schedule.
"After the morning training, the afternoon will be filled with whatever we want," said Harry. "Is there anything in particular that you all like to do for fun or to relax? I mean, I know Hermione is happy with a book and could get lost in it all day."
"That is true, and I could enjoy it anywhere. Poolside sounds perfect."
"Swimming is a must for me," said Katie.
"Me too," said Daphne. "And I know Susan loves being in the pool."
"So the pool will be frequented by all," said Harry. "If you haven't figured it out, I love flying and will spend plenty of time out on my broom. I am guessing that I will be joined by Katie most of the time."
"You know it," she said with a smile. "We have got to keep game ready for the next season."
"I wouldn't mind joining the two of you occasionally," said Daphne. "I have found flying to be very therapeutic."
"Have you seen how those two fly," asked Hermione. "I am not sure I would call that therapeutic. Watching them gives me anxiety."
"Then maybe you should join me occasionally for a calmer ride," suggested Daphne. "I will show you how relaxing it can be."
"I'll join the two of you for therapeutic flying," said Susan. "But only if Hermione joins us."
"I could give it a try," agreed Hermione. "So now we know a few things that we can all enjoy together. What do we want to do for the rest of today?"
"I need lunch and then I need to have another conversation with someone," said Harry, looking at Hermione. "I need to get this over with."
"Hopefully Mum has been able to make him understand the situation."
"Well, let's get some food first," said Harry. "This morning was tiring and I didn't get much of a breakfast."
The group made their way down to the kitchen where Frederick and the other house elves were quick to get the five teenagers fed. After a nice lunch of sandwiches and crisps, Harry asked Hermione to go get her mother and father and to have them meet him in his office. The last time, the conversation became aggressive before Harry had even arrived. This time, Harry was going to be in position of control from the beginning. He was going to have to become the powerful lord that he has to be. This is not a side Harry wanted to have to have come out very often.
Twenty minutes after he arrived in his office, Hermione and her parents arrived at the door.
"Lord Potter-Black, we are here answering your summons," said Mrs. Granger.
"Ok. I know this is going to be somewhat formal, but I am not needing it that formal. Please come in and have a seat."
The Grangers all walked forward. Hermione took a seat next to Harry across from her parents. This was done by Harry to make sure that her parents understood that Hermione was with him and that nothing was going to change that. Her parents sat directly across from the two teenagers.
"Now, thank you for joining me. I am hoping we can have a much calmer conversation than the one we experienced before."
"I would like to start by apologizing for my behavior yesterday," started Mr. Granger. "A lot has been happening and it finally sent me over the edge with my only child telling me that she was bound to a teenage boy with three other girls."
"I understand how very disturbing that sounds," said Harry. "I really do. It sounded very bad to me. Most guys would be excited about something like this. I am terrified. But, I think you need to understand a few things first. If none of this soul bond stuff existed, I would still be the one wanting to be with your daughter. She is my best friend. She has been with me through all of my horrible times. We have laughed, cried, and fought together. She has been an incredible influence on me, and I am pretty sure I have been a not so good influence on her."
"You have been a good influence to me too," retorted Hermione. "I am more confident in myself because of you. I know my true worth because of you. When others looked to bring me down, you brought me up above them."
"So we are good for each other," said Harry. "I know very little about the emotion of love, but what I do know about it, I know because of her. This situation we find ourselves in is not normal. Not in any stretch of the imagination is this situation normal, but it is the situation we find ourselves in. I have spent the time when I got back from my miserable wake up call and testing talking with Hermione and the other girls, trying to figure out how to make this all work. The last thing I want to do is make one of them feel less important than the others. Your daughter means everything to me. I need you to understand that above all else."
"I witnessed that yesterday," replied Mr. Granger. "I saw it in your eyes, before they went green and filled with flames."
"Yeah. I apologize for that happening. That is not something I have had for very long and learning how to control it is proving difficult because none of us know what it is exactly. We do know that when I get upset, it makes its presence known. So far the only thing that has really helped is the girls. This bond gives us a connection that has a positive effect on me. They are a calming presence on me while my world is filling up with chaos."
"I think that is one thing that does worry us," began Mrs. Granger. "From what we understand, you have a target on your head from a terrorist who hates people who are not magical. That is very scary for us."
"I understand that. I really do. What happened the other night at your house was truly terrifying. That is why I am opening my home to all of you. It is safe here. No one is getting passed these wards unless I let them. We can do some work at your practice to make sure the two of you are safe and that your patients are safe too. All we need is your permission and I know some people that will have that place very secure."
"How can they make it secure and still allow our clients in," asked Mr. Granger.
"Because we are going to do something a little crazy. We are going to prevent anyone who is magical from finding the office. It is sort of like what is keeping my home hidden, but this will focus on keeping anyone with magical blood from seeing or knowing where your office is. They will not see anything."
"What about Hermione or yourself," asked Mrs. Granger.
"There will be a log book just like I have that will keep listed the magical people that you want to allow in."
"And this will work," asked Mr. Granger.
"As far as I know it will. If I understand, it will be the first time this has been done in a while."
"How do you know that," asked Hermione.
"It's a family spell," answered Harry. "I was looking through it last night before I went to sleep and happened to see that. My family has a history of protecting muggles from magicals. So, what do you say?"
"I think that it is going to take me some time getting used to seeing my daughter with a boy and his other girlfriends," began Mr. Granger. "But I can tell that you truly do care for her and the others, and by extension, their families, including us. "I would be happy to have you setup this protection at our clinic."
"Wonderful," said Harry as he stood up and extended his hand out. Mr. Granger grasped Harry's hand and they shook. "I will get with some of the others and we will go tomorrow afternoon to get everything set up."
"I do have one other question," asked Mrs. Granger.
"Of course. Ask anything."
"Are we to expect Hermione and the others to be sharing your bed with you?"
Harry's eyes grew wide in fear. He had recently had thoughts about the girls in his bed, but that was not something he was expecting any of the parents to ask right away.
"Not at this time," said Harry. "If you find us in my bed, then someone put us there. I am trying to be a gentleman about all of this."
"Good answer," said Mrs. Granger.
