Another talkie chappie. Responses to the few reviews I got for last chapter are in my forums. Thanks for reading!

Chapter Twenty-One: The Order of the Phoenix

Harry woke up with a start, his head throbbing and hot moisture on his lip; a touch of his tongue told him it was blood. Beside him, Hermione propped herself up on her elbow, her hair frizzy from sleep, and her nightgown hanging loose from her shoulders. "You're bleeding," she whispered, trying not to wake Luna.

Her hope was in vain. "He had a vision," Luna said. She also sat up and allowed the sheets to fall away, unheeding of her bare chest. Hermione didn't even bat an eye anymore at Luna's penchant for nudity and instead looked at Harry intently. "What did you see?"

"Dumbledore falling again," Harry said. As he spoke, Luna slipped out of the bed they shared in the master suite of Grimmauld Place and padded silently to the large wardrobe. She opened it and disappeared completely inside the expanded space, emerging moments later with a kerchief and a phial of pain potion.

Harry accepted both gratefully, and after using both, pushed himself into a sitting position. Luna sat at his knee, cross-legged and as naked as the day she was born, while Hermione sat beside him in her nightgown. "Was there more?" she asked.

Harry held the heel of his hand to his forehead. "Blood," he said. "Fire. And screams... It doesn't feel like…it feels like we don't have a lot of time."

Hermione looked at her sister wife. "Luna, have you had any visions?"

"Not many since I bonded with Harry," she said with a wry smile. "His magic has quite overwhelmed me, you see. I don't mind, not really. Visions are such a bother."

"I need a shower," Harry said with a grunt as he started out of bed, clad only in boxers.

"Want some company?" Luna asked.

He looked at her, then at Hermione, before shrugging. "Sure. I can never get my back clean. Want in, Hermione?"

"No thank you," Hermione said primly. "I don't like to shower with others."

"Okay."

Hermione watched the two walk toward the master bath before she pulled on her heavy robes and left the room. In some ways, the easy intimacy Harry and Luna shared bothered her, even after the week they spent on the love potions. Things were a lot better than at first, she would never deny that, but still far from perfect.

She and Luna still occasionally argued, though more often the younger girl would simply retreat in silence, which was even more frustrating than if she stayed and tried to defend whatever it was she was arguing for at the moment. Hermione thoroughly enjoyed a good debate, whereas Luna despised and fled from conflict of any kind, even a conflict of opinion.

And yet she had no problem sleeping naked in a bed with two other people, and while they tried to be quiet, Hermione was positive Harry and Luna had sex last night while Hermione was trying to get to sleep. Now she was scrubbing Harry's back in the shower, and she had no doubt they would probably have sex again there.

When she reached the kitchen for a nice cup of breakfast tea, she was surprised to see Amelia and Susan Bones alone at the table, talking intently about something that had the young Hufflepuff blushing brilliantly. She caught the name "Neville" and understood. She considered giving the two some space, but after last night she desperately needed her tea. So, she stepped loudly and said a cheery "Good morning" to the Bones women as she walked in. "Is there any tea left?"

"There is indeed," Amelia said, smiling in greeting. It seemed such an odd juxtaposition, seeing the normally formidable head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement sitting at a table in a morning robe and evening gown, drinking tea over a folded and mostly forgotten edition of the Daily Prophet. It was a far sight from the frightening warrior who attacked and destroyed Sir Marcus Finch-Fletchley's Security Service team. "And scones."

"Oh, marvellous!"

Hermione helped herself and walked to the table, debating momentarily whether to give the women space, or sit near them to avoid seeming standoffish. She was relieved when Susan indicated the seat across the table from them.

Susan glanced first at her Aunt, and then Hermione, before flushing brilliantly. "Since it's just us girls right now, could I ask you a question?" Susan said. She spoke in a hushed tone, not a whisper but definitely intended not to carry.

Hermione swallowed her bite of scone and nodded. "Of course,"

"Do you and Luna and Harry…oh Morgana. Do you share a bed?"

Hermione nodded and sipped her tea.

"Have you ever…I mean, has Harry and Luna ever…"

"Yes," Hermione said, realizing exactly where Susan was going. "Neville and Hannah too?"

Susan looked down furiously. "I have no right to be upset—it was my idea that they bond first. I need to retain my family name so the Bones family doesn't die out. But they just seem so happy together, like they don't need me at all."

Hermione was surprised to see the girl fighting back tears. Her aunt sipped her tea and watched her closely, but offered no comfort.

"I'm bonded with Luna too," Hermione said. "Not just Harry. And yet…and yet," she finished lamely. "They did it last night, and then this morning she joined him in the shower."

"Did they invite you?" Susan asked.

"They did," Hermione admitted. "It's just…I really don't like being in baths or showers with others. I always got up first so I'd have the shower in the dorm first, and tried to be dressed and out before anyone woke up. But Luna…she sleeps naked, and walks around starkers all the time like it's perfectly natural. I just can't do that. But I see Harry watching her with this silly little grin on his face, and I just want to slap him."

"Miss Granger," Amelia said softly, "you'll find that wizards can't help but look at naked ladies. In fact, even more than Muggle boys, for wizards it's thoroughly programmed into their magic."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked.

The director of the DMLE smiled wisely. "As part of my studies for the DMLE, I took part in several classes in criminal law at King's College in London. Oh, don't look shocked, most professionals in the Ministry attended Uni at some point or another. We don't have the population to support large higher education institutions for ourselves. Anyway, I always found classes on sexuality and crime the most fascinating because of how different wizards are from Muggles."

Hermione struggled with that. "What do you mean?"

"The biological programming of a wizard is reinforced with magic," Amelia said. "During the last war, I was very nearly killed in an ambush. Four unbonded wizards had me in a corner, and any one of them was magically more powerful than I was. Do you know what I did?"

Hermione shook her head, fascinated.

"I vanished my clothes," Amelia said, blushing a little herself. "I stood there as naked as you please, and they could not curse me. A normal wizard simply cannot curse a naked woman—his own magic will stop him."

"What'd you do next?"

"Killed two and stunned the other two," Amelia said proudly. "Then I apparated straight home to my shocked husband and sister wife, and he was just as paralyzed as the other wizards were. It was Margaret's turn that night, but I don't think Gregory even saw her." She smiled fondly at the memory.

"That's just so unbelievable," Hermione said. "What about sex crimes?"

"They are exceedingly rare, at least with women, because of the potential for bonding," Amelia explained. "You can't hurt Harry, and he can't hurt you, because of your bond. The very act of sexual intercourse carries with it the potential to bond. In fact, in the few cases of rape against a witch we found, the women very intentionally bonded their rapists as a means to protect themselves, and thus protected were able to escape and prosecute the crime. Truly the only abuse against witches comes from other witches with power over subordinates. Dames, mothers or older sisters have been known to give out their siblings to bonded wizards as playthings, or in some cases sell an unwanted sibling or daughter to the Goblins."

Hermione's mouth was dry. "That's…how can that be legal?"

Amelia looked bothered, but shrugged. "Ours is not a perfect society, Hermione. There are very dark aspects to being magical. Because the drive behind our sex is so powerful, and yet at the same time so primitive, it gives us problems all the time."

"Wizards who do rape witches—what happens to the rapists?"

Amelia frowned. "They are Obliviated almost to the point of childhood, and then bonded to older single witches until their magic is nearly depleted. Wizards are so rare, Ms Granger, that few ever are killed."

"Please, call me Hermione." She sipped her tea. "So, you had a sister wife and husband?"

Amelia nodded.

"How did you…deal with jealousy? Even with the potions, it's difficult. On top of everything, I just don't get along with Luna. That's not to say I hate her, because I don't. But we are so different that talking to her is frustrating, and the constant coupling has me on edge."

Amelia peered intently at Hermione. "You realize that you'll be adding two more girls to your union before long."

Hermione nodded in a forlorn fashion. "It might be nice to know who the fourth will be. Harry and Luna are both sure about Justine, but all they've said about number four is that it's a bloody affair."

"Well, I only had my sister wife and I," Amelia said. "I was the first wife, but Margaret was always my very best friend, so we got along well even when we started sharing Gregory. We shared a bed, but we always kept a spare as well for those nights when one or the other of us just wanted to sleep. So, I suppose I should ask you just how intimate a discussion you want."

With slumped shoulders and a tired, despairing sigh, Hermione said, "I just want help."

"Me too," Susan admitted.

"Very well," Amelia said. "You first have to understand that in your case, Hermione, Luna is an actuating Aether. She's bonded with you as you are with Harry, that much you already know. From what I understood from Lily, Sibyl and the few other Aethers I know of, they are more attracted to magic than the person. What I mean by that is that Luna would have no problem loving a woman if their magic felt good to her. The truth is that Margaret and I were as happy sleeping together as we were with Greg. It was not always about sex, either. It was about touch, sensuality and magic. Do you ever snuggle with Luna?"

"We have," Hermione nodded. "Like I said, I don't dislike her. In fact, sometimes I think I may love her, as much as a girl my age can 'love' anyone. But I just…it's hard."

"I have a suggestion, then," Amelia said. "Tonight, see if Justine would be willing to share her bed with you."

Hermione's cheeks flushed brilliantly. "What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what it sounds like," Amelia said. "There are eventually going to be four of you in that marriage, and I promise that at some point or another Harry is going to be too tired for love play. He'll become overwhelmed and need some time to himself. Rather than let that hurt you, or cause jealousy, it will help if you have a comfortable relationship with one or more of your sister wives. Luna is a unique girl, so I understand that it may not be her. But Justine is your friend. Try spending the night with her. Given the fact that she is aware of what the future holds, I'm sure she'd be willing. And more importantly, have separate beds available. Eventually, given there will be four of you, you should consider making a schedule for time with Harry."

"Would he agree to that?"

Amelia laughed. "Dear, Harry's a good lad and a ridiculously powerful wizard, but there are four of you and one of him. Take his desires into consideration, but make your decisions as a whole family. Vote. From what I know of Harry that should be enough to quell any rebellious tendencies he has. Within reason, of course."

The door opened and Justine wandered in wearing frumpy pyjamas gifted to her from Georgina's closet in the Burrow during her and Hermione's brief stay there, a wild mane of unkempt brown hair and a constellation of freckles across her cheeks. "Morning," she said in what sounded like a moan. She made her way to the tea and took it black and straight as she walked to sit beside Hermione.

Once seated, she leaned her head on Hermione's shoulders without comment. "Justine?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"Yeah?"

"May I sleep with you tonight?"

Justine stifled a yawn and sat up to regard Hermione. "Problem with the love monkeys?"

"An experiment," Hermione said. "I mean, we're going to be sister wives soon enough."

Though obviously not a morning person, Justine was awake enough to blush. "Yeah, I suppose we are."

"Madam Bones…"

"Amelia, dear,"

"…Amelia was just suggesting a way for me to deal with the difficulties Luna and I are having."

"I thought the love potion took care of that?"

"I'm a little jealous of them."

"Because they go at it like bunnies?" Justine asked. "Yeah, I can see that. Well, I only have the one bed in my room, but…"

Hermione, blushing brilliantly, leaned over and whispered something in Justine's ear. "Ohhhh," the other girl said with wide eyes. "I see. Like Megan Jones and Sally Ann." She stared speculatively at Hermione for the longest time before she said, "Okay, then. But I think you should switch off with Luna too."

Hermione stared. "What do you mean?"

"We're going to have separate beds," Justine said, as if it were already established fact. "No way you can have four girls in the same bed and hope to get any sleep at night. So, we need to see which of us pairs off best. All the books I've read say you should do two or four wives. Odd number wives are considered bad luck because someone is always left out. I personally think you and I will work out, but think of it like this: if Luna agrees, that means you'll get a night to Harry all by yourself."

"Very good thinking," Amelia said approvingly.

Just then the door opened and Harry and Luna walked in, glowing and holding hands, but fully dressed. "What's that?" Harry asked, having just caught the end of the conversation.

"I'm going to be sleeping with Justine tonight," Hermione said.

Harry stopped as if slapped. "Really? But…did I do something wrong?"

"It's practice for the future, Harry," Amelia said. "I think we all know that Justine here is going to be your wife as well. It will be a good idea to know how your wives get along before you marry, since in most cases wives are already friends. It is rare for witches as disparate as Luna and Hermione to share a spouse."

"We are quite different," Luna agreed. "And after she's done so, I gather you'll want me to do the same?"

Hermione nodded, biting her lip.

Luna walked over to Justine and looked the other girl in the eyes. "Okay," she said softly. "Perhaps it would be good for all of us to have time to ourselves. Being around Harry's magic all the time sometimes makes my head fuzzy."

~~Firebird~~

~~Firebird~~

Harry was not entirely sure what to expect from the Order. It was one thing to talk about lofty goals, but how did one actually go about instituting a revolution? He had visions in his head of super-advanced military training from someone like Samuel White or Arlene Vance from the WestCon.

He was not expecting a crash-course in Sabbat politics from, of all people, Sybil Trelawney.

The Divination Professor Floo'd in two days after the kids arrived, stumbling out of the fire with only a little more grace than Harry or Luna, and walked casually into the kitchen until she found Arabella Figg, who she proceeded to snog the dickens out of. "Oh, it's been too long!" she purred.

"And Happy Christmas to you as well," Arabella Figg said with a fond smile.

Hermione sputtered, while Harry just shook his head and grinned. His grin faded, though, when he discovered that Trelawney was not there to entertain them with her flagrant sexuality, but instead was there to start their education as revolutionaries—something Amelia wanted done, but could not do herself because of her work schedule.

Harry, Hermione, Luna, and Justine gathered on one couch, while Neville sat on the other with Hannah and Susan. Deanna Thomas and Jessica Rivers sat in back with their mothers, interested in the inner workings of the Witch-born world.

"It has never been Lily's goal to start a bloody war," Trelawney began. "The day after Delia Griffin threatened her life, she had a vision of what would happen if she carried on as she had. She was powerful enough that she would have survived the assassination attempts, and would eventually have been labelled as a Dark Lady while leading a bloody, decades-long war similar to what is happening in the Americas. She dreaded that idea, and started using her Divination skills to seek out different paths. I'm proud to say that, though I was never as powerful as she was, I helped."

"Is that when she came up with the plan for me?" Harry asked.

Sybil nodded. "Eventually. However, her glimpses of you were hazy, and she didn't realize who your father was. Not at first."

Harry closed his eyes, trying his damnedest not to think of her with Snape.

"Eventually, she picked James and settled down to play the Sabbat games. She knew Delia allowed her bonding with James only because he was so powerful he could have formed a new coven."

"How often does that happen?" Hermione asked.

Sybil shrugged. "Not bloody often, and it's an open secret that if a potential wizard comes along to a clan or coven whose politics don't align quite right, he may be bonded as a youth. It's happened before—where a young man was intentionally poached on orders from one Dame or another before he was physically or magically mature enough to handle it. The poaching witch then claims him for her coven, and they keep his body alive for stud service."

"That's barbaric!" Leah Thomas burst out, before covering her mouth.

Sybil nodded, and then sipped her tumbler of sherry—it was not even ten in the morning. "It is indeed. James Potter was one of the most powerful wizards not just of his generation, but in England as a whole. However, the Potter family was very influential within the Griffin Coven, enough that Delia's position as Dame was tenuous at best. She agreed to let Lily poach James and passed it by his parents as a means of obtaining potential Aether children. The Potters were not in line for the Griffin Coven, after all, so there was no risk of a Muggleborn dame if he never formed a coven. And if he did—well, there were always contractual means of changing the internal order of a marriage group. Delia also assured them that James would be able to found a coven for sure with an Aether wife once Lily had a child. The assumption was that James would bond a second, pureblooded wife under a marriage contract that would name her as his Dame."

"And then Delia convinced Voldemort to kill my family," Harry said darkly.

Much of the room turned and stared first at him, then at Trelawney when she nodded. "Exactly. That is the ultimate secret weapon of the Covens. Dark Lords come along almost every generation and serve an important purpose—they pull in all the rebellious elements of our broken society, giving voice to the minority of wizards who, despite being individually more powerful, still have almost no rights but what the Sabbat chooses to give them. The Dark Lord becomes the bogey-man under your bed to threaten your children with, and more importantly, the Dark Lord becomes the blade to slit the throat of those the Sabbat wishes to eliminate. It just happens that a Dark Lord arises nearly every time the light or progressive covens come into dominance in the Sabbat."

"So the covens work with this Voldemort?" Jessica's mother, Marian Rivers, sounded astonished at the thought.

"Some do," Trelawney confirmed. "It was Delia Griffin who convinced Voldemort to attack the Potters because of the risk of the Potters breaking off into their own coven. Not only would that have upset the political balance and gutted the Griffin Coven, even Delia realized Lily would never have agreed to being replaced as first wife, despite what Delia said to James Potter's parents to convince them to support the bonding initially. She was simply buying time to formulate her own plans. The loss of the Potters from the Griffin Coven would mean a loss of income. Coven members don't just mean political support—Dames and Elders receive a tithe from the coven members each year—a mandatory political tax which funds their political efforts. With the loss of the Potters and their aligned families, the Griffin Coven would have lost over seventy per cent of its tithes."

"So if I'm able to declare a coven…" Harry began.

"If you declare a coven, and survive the almost certain challenges and assassination attempts, you'll instantly get a tithe from any family that wishes to join you. I would join yours, most certainly, as would Amelia. Plus, if you market yourself as a coven for the Muggleborns, you would be able to tap into a significant portion of our population that has been purposely held down. Not a majority by any means, but easily a quarter. That sheer plurality would make your coven extremely powerful."

"And what would I do after that?" Harry asked.

"You would start to push for political changes in the Sabbat," Trelawney said. "Think of the coven structure, Harry. Why covens? It is a holdover from the first days of wanded magic, when witches were fighting over wizards who continued to use their less efficient staffs to hold off the debilitating effects of bonds, only to lose in the end. Children have always been the true wealth with witch-born, so any coven that could produce the most children would be the most powerful. Those wizards who were magically strong enough to bond a larger number of witches inevitably ended up with more children, and so that grouping would become more powerful. In those days it wasn't unusual to have a wizard powerful enough to support five or six bonds. What we have today is the remnants of that very same structure."

"Sybil," Luna asked, as comfortably with the Divination Professor as Harry was, "what would happen if Harry bonded with a fifth or sixth wife?"

Harry shuddered. "Luna, bite your tongue! I'm overwhelmed with just two of you!"

"Does that mean you don't want me?" Justine asked in a patently false, hurt tone.

"Or me?" Deanna asked, grinning.

Harry stuttered, horrified and not realizing how they were playing with him. "No, no, it's just…I…"

"Odd numbers of wives is not arithmantically sound," Sybil said. "Three is a unique number with unique properties, but after that, even numbers of wives are best. If he were to do more than four, he would want to bond with six."

"Could he bond six wives?" Susan asked.

"With Luna as he first wife, he could bond half of England if he were foolish enough," Sybil said, laughing before taking a long sip of sherry. "That was Lily's greatest prank—ensuring he bonded with another actuating Aether. But really, there would be no advantage to having six wives, and if you think you're having difficulty just with two wives, I assure you it does not get better with more."

"I know a lot of you obviously revere the late Mrs Potter," Marian Rivers said archly, "but listening to you now, it seems as if she has used you and these children just as mercilessly as the Covens you aim to fight."

Sybil sobered a little. "Yes, she did," she said. "She gave her own virginity to a man just to test if he was the father of the boy she saw in her visions, and shattered his heart when she rejected him for being the wrong one. That man went on to join Voldemort in his anger and sorrow. Lily was as ruthless as any Dame because she was a fanatic for her cause. She knew the path she started would end with her death, Madam. I hope you understand what that means—she saw her own death clearly and saw a life of hardship and grief for her only child, and yet continued along that path because she felt it had the greatest chance of achieving her ultimate goal."

Sybil walked to the couch where Harry and his girls sat, touching Luna's head fondly. "She planned this girl's future for her as if she were a dame herself, just as other dames do for witches in their own covens. She told me that she felt bad for what she would make Luna do, but would not stop. Luna's own parents agreed with her vision so much that almost from birth, Luna was raised knowing she would be Harry Potter's first wife, but only because of what she was. A cruel thing, to be sure, but necessary."

Harry meanwhile looked deeply into Luna's eyes before taking her hand and kissing her. "I'm glad it was you," he said softly.

"This is all fine and good, but why Hermione or Justine?" Leah Thomas asked. "Deanna is a beautiful girl—why not her? Or Jessica?"

"Mum," Deanna whispered, blushing.

"Because they were the first witch-born Harry ever saw," Luna said simply before Sybil could answer. "He had been deprived not just of magic, but of love and happiness. His relatives are despicable and treated him poorly. He was so alone and desperate for affection that he imprinted magically onto the very first witch-born he saw. Who did Harry touch first at his Orientation."

"Me," Hermione said.

"And me," Justine added.

"Wait a minute, I was there too!" Deanna said, "Why not me?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and laughed. "Deanna, you don't even like boys. You and Jessica are always in bed together!"

Leah Thomas's eyes bulged, while Marian shook her head. "Hermione!" Jessica said. "How could you?"

"It's more common than you may realize," Sybil said, cutting off the potential argument. "It's as much a function of magic as anything. Deanna and Jessica are going to bond before school is out."

"But…but…"

"Just like I've bonded with Arabella," Sybil continued. "Same sex bonds can happen. They just don't have the same properties as a heterosexual bond. Luna almost bonded with that Veela last year just by accident. You'll find, my friends, that lesbianism is not just common in the magical world, it's necessary. Think about it—with so few wizards but a powerful biological and magical urge to join with another, what else could we do? In fact, that has often been the bane of magical society—we often fall in love with a person's magic, regardless of their gender. It's tolerated in witches because there are so many of us; it's ruthlessly crushed in wizards. Unfortunately, same-sex marriages do not produce children and artificial Muggle means do not work with us."

She finished her sherry. "So, now that we've touched on what happened, let's talk about what is happening, beginning with who the current dames are, and what their alignment is. Take notes, children, they'll be a test later."

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Author's Note: Very special thanks as always to Teufel1987, JR and Miles for beta reading. If there are any major faux-pas, they are entirely of my own doing.