Chapter 19
"All you've got to do is watch for Malfoy to show up and press this," Hermione told Daphne.
They were currently all just outside the Great Hall, with Hermione currently trying to get Daphne involved in one of her latest pranks.
As for himself, he was merely enjoying listening to the conversation.
"How come you can't get the twins to help out?" Padma asked her.
"Since they got detention for our last prank," Hermione admitted.
"How come you didn't?" Padma pointed out.
She smiled and said, "Since unlike them, I never get caught."
"I still don't get this fascination with torturing Malfoy," Daphne joked, "it's like you have a crush on him or something."
That was just low...and also very untrue.
"That's disgusting," Hermione claimed, crinkling her nose.
"Oh no, then what about that time I found you with your hand down your pants during your last prank?" Daphne observed.
"For the last time," Hermione argued, "I had an itch."
"Oh you definitely had an itch all right," Daphne concluded smartly.
Hermione looked around at him and he put an expression on his face as if to say "Don't involve me."
"I'm not turned on by Malfoy," Hermione admitted, "I'm kind of turned on...by pranking."
"Right because that's a perfectly normal fetish," Padma answered, "some girls like abs or bums, some like pranking."
"I realize it might sound a bit...unusual," Hermione was forced to admit.
Luna was actually the one to go to her rescue as she put an arm around her and said, "don't worry Hermione, I have plenty of weird fetishes. Rubber, sweet feet, dinosaurs, being covered in food."
"Well remind me to go barefoot wearing my rubber raincoat with dinosaurs on it and covered in melted chocolate," Harry suggested.
"You're going to make me wet myself just thinking about it," Luna insisted.
"How horrible would that be?" Harry asked sarcastically.
"I could finger myself right now in public so you can make fun of me instead Daphne?" Luna offered.
Luna clearly didn't like someone else potentially getting bullied, even if it was Daphne.
"That's okay, Luna, I'm not really bothered by her," Hermione admitted, "I'm just really pervy and sometimes have difficulty admitting it."
"I'd say we're all a bit pervy," Harry answered fairly.
"Nothing wrong with that," Daphne agreed, "if I thought that Hermione couldn't handle it, I wouldn't tease her so badly. Besides, I'm an even bigger pervert than she is with plenty more to be teased about."
Hermione was about to reply when she happened to look over down the hallway said, "all right, Draco's almost here, you go get into position Daphne."
Both girls then rushed away.
"I love Hermione's pranks, especially the ones I can eat afterwards," Luna claimed, licking her lips afterwards.
"I wouldn't have considered that tapioca to be sanitary," Harry pointed out.
"It still tasted good," Luna replied.
Padma looked her up and down, appearing a bit jealous.
"It's a wonder you're not a blimp after all the candy and junk food you eat," Padma said, "my mom would be jealous. She claims that for every pound of food she eats she suddenly gains two pounds."
"Unfortunately my metabolism is too good," Luna confessed, "even though I think it would be a nice to be a blimp, being able to float through the air, not a care in the world."
"I don't think that's really how it works Luna," Harry explained, "when you get fatter you get heavier, not lighter."
"I'd still get rounder," She pointed out, "then you'd have to roll me everywhere and my boobies would be huge!"
"I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to give you piggyback rides anymore if you got that big," Harry answered.
Luna pouted at that. She rather liked it when he gave her piggyback rides.
"Never mind then, I suppose that's why I'm lucky I'm still small and you're so muscley strong Harry," Luna observed as she put a hand onto his arm to feel it.
He obligingly flexed for her and he thought he heard her mutter, "yummy."
"Actually I'd say I'm really not that strong," Harry confessed, "I used to exercise a lot for quidditch training, but with quidditch not happening this year I've been rather lax."
"You could go work out with me in the mornings," Padma offered, "unfortunately I have to actually try to maintain this figure."
"Well I can totally tell it's worth it," He answered as he looked her body over with an appreciative eye.
She blushed at that but then asked, "well do you want to?"
"Would it involve you wearing tight work out clothes?" Harry asked her hopefully.
She smiled and admitted seductively, "I might be...especially if you will be."
Letting out a smile of his own, he told her, "Then sign me up."
Padma looked at Luna and offered, "You can go too if you want."
"I already get plenty of exercise already Luna-cizing," She answered.
"How do you Luna-cize?" Padma asked her.
Luna then started skipping down the hall while singing before turning around the corner.
After 30 seconds of waiting however, she did not reappear.
"Do you think she's coming back?" Padma asked curiously.
"Not sure," He had to admit as he still looked down the hall watching for her.
That's when he heard someone call his name and tap him on the shoulder from behind.
He whirled around to see that it was Professor Snape, looking as cheerful as ever, meaning of course he looked like he was being forced to eat a live blast ended skrewt.
"Potter," Snape sneered at him, "a letter arrived for you."
"Did my owl get here early or something?" He asked him.
Hedwig had on occasion decided to surprise him by being there before he even got to breakfast...usually when she was trying hard to get a treat.
"Actually it originally came for the headmaster and he insisted I play errand boy for him and deliver it to you immediately," He admitted, "he said to tell you that he had to go finish up some things involving the contents of the letter so you'd better be grateful he's deigned to spend all this time on you."
Snape had likely added that last part himself.
The delightful Potions Headmaster handed the letter to him and then he strode off again, robes billowing behind him.
He looked it over, stunned by what it said.
What a way for Snape to finally break the curse of always being the bearer of bad news.
In short, it addressed the request he had made to Dumbledore concerning him being removed from the custody of the Dursleys.
This appeared to be the Ministry decision concerning it.
The letter was brief, but it explained that such a request had been granted, effective immediately.
"No more Dursleys!" He said happily.
Even as he said it though, it sounded very strange to him as he was still struggling to accept that it had actually happened.
He handed the letter over to Padma for her to read, with her looking just as stunned as he was.
"I don't believe it!" She exclaimed.
"Neither can I," He said.
He was still in celebration mode when a thought came to him.
He wouldn't be going back to the Dursleys but he had to go somewhere right?
"What will happen to me now?" He asked aloud.
Padma glanced at him and then said, "they'll likely appoint a judge to determine that, who will look at the possible places you could go, but the highest weight will be based upon your own wishes.
Unfortunately the Ministry isn't known for being fast, so the process could take quite a long time."
"How do you know?" He asked her.
"I had to go through a similar experience when my parents got divorced," She explained.
That certainly made sense.
"So who would you like to end up with?" Padma asked him.
He honestly didn't have the first clue now that he thought about it. He had admittedly thought about getting away from the Dursleys but none of his choices could realistically take him. Sirius was still on the run, Remus was a werewolf and would be considered unfit by the Ministry.
The Weasleys had once been at the top of his list but after all that had transpired with Ron he didn't think it was a good idea if he went with them.
Ron was currently being home schooled by Mrs. Weasley, feeling that she needed to personally straighten him out before he returned to school, presumably next year.
"I don't really know," He finally admitted to her.
There was a long pause before Padma offered, "you know...if you'd like...only if you'd like...I could talk to my mom about being the one to adopt you."
"You would do that?" He asked incredulously.
An image of living with Padma came to mind.
The idea sounded really good to him.
She argued, "not that we own a huge manor or anything, and it would just be my mom and my sister, but..."
"I'd love that," He quickly replied.
"You would?" She tried to confirm, still sounding a bit skeptical that he would actually want to, "it wouldn't be too um...gross or something?"
"Why? Do you live in a rubbish bin?" He joked.
"I didn't mean that kind of gross, like me becoming your sister gross," Padma explained.
That stopped him for a second, but only for a second.
"I don't know if I could ever think of you as a sister," He admitted, "family certainly. You mean a lot to me."
She seemed touched by such a response and said, "you mean a lot to me too Harry. I also just wanted to make sure that things wouldn't be that kind of weird between us. I don't think I could stand having you think of me as just a sister."
"I'd miss making out with you too much," Harry claimed.
She grinned and said, "that too. My mom might have to get used to walking into rooms with us kissing each other, but she'll get over it."
"Well for what it's worth, I'd be extremely proud to be your brother or at least part of your family," Harry insisted.
"So would I," Padma answered.
He could have said something else heartfelt, but he simply couldn't resist making another joke.
"You'd be proud to be my brother?" He pointedly asked, "is there something you should be telling me Padma?"
He pretended to look down at her crotch to see if he could spot a bulge.
"No!" She insisted, "sorry to disappoint you, but I'm 100% girl."
"I'm afraid I'm going to need proof," He joked.
She pretended to pull her pants down.
"You know, that's kind of something I'd like to know if we're maybe going to get married," He pointed out.
"I wasn't aware you were planning on asking me," Padma pointed out.
That stopped him for a second but then he realized she was just messing with him so he decided to counter with, "well not now that you've ruined the surprise."
"I could still act surprised," She offered.
"No the moment is ruined forever, I guess I'll just have to settle for someone else," Harry claimed.
"The key word being settle," Padma replied, "I'm clearly the best choice."
"You really think so huh?" He asked.
"You don't think so?" She countered with her eyebrows raised as if daring him to choose somebody else.
"Truthfully, I'm not sure if I should admit that, I might make a lot of girls jealous," Harry answered.
"Then please don't," She replied, "I'd hate to do that to anyone."
He was impressed by such a response.
It was probably quite tempting for her to brag that she was his favorite...but that was not Padma. His already ridiculously high respect for her rose.
"That's why you're my favorite," He told her.
"I asked you not to say," She reminded him.
"Couldn't resist," Harry admitted, "besides I know you won't say anything to anyone."
"I won't," Padma promised, "hearing it is kind of nice though. It just reminds me of what I already know."
"What's that?" He asked her.
Instead of answering, she decided to change the subject.
"Well we don't even know if it will work out or not, you living with me, but I sure hope it does," Padma told him.
"True, but I hope it does too, living with you is bound to be better than the Dursleys," Harry responded, "then again none of them are beautiful teenage girls that I can kiss."
She laughed at that.
"You always make it sound like living with them was so awful," Padma said.
He clammed up at that.
How the Dursleys had treated him was always a subject he had been tight-lipped on. He'd hinted at them being awful but never went into any details. Partially out of shame...and other emotions he wasn't sure how to identify.
However he trusted Padma more than anybody, and he was free of them after all anyway.
Yet as he opened his mouth to explain, he was interrupted.
"Harry?" Someone asked him.
Turning around, he spotted Fleur standing there, looking very nervous.
"Am I interrupting something?" Fleur asked.
"No," He said, even if she sort of was.
"I was wondering if you had solved that egg clue yet?" Fleur asked.
Quite honestly he hadn't nor did he really care.
Kissing and dating girls, spending time with his friends, doing schoolwork, and just about everything else going on in his life was admittedly much higher up in importance to him than some tournament he had not entered nor wished to be in, so he would have to be forgiven for being rather lax about it.
A check of the tournament rules by Hermione had led to the realization that he had to compete, not actually try very hard.
If he had known, he could have simply thrown a pebble in at least the same direction as the dragon he had faced in the First Task and then sat down and forfeited.
Just as long as he had made at least some effort, no matter how pathetic.
Besides he'd had enough of monsters and the prize money or the eternal glory given to the winner really did not appeal to him enough for him to want to risk his life again.
"Ah, I'm thinking I'm just going to throw the tournament all together," Harry replied.
"What?" Fleur asked incredulously, "you did so well though in the first task."
"I don't really see the point," Harry claimed, "I've got better things to do than worry about some silly tournament."
Then he realized that this might be a bit insulting.
"Sorry, I wasn't referring to you when I said that..."
"It's okay, it is just a silly tournament," Fleur agreed, "however I was kind of hoping if I win to use the prize money to emigrate here. It would be enough to get an apartment and some furniture and all that and then maybe see if I can't find some work nearby."
"You want to live here?" Padma asked her.
"Well yeah, I kind of like it here and I know that Gabby was wanting to go to school here," Fleur admitted.
"Gabrielle wants to stay here as well?" Padma questioned.
"She wants to transfer," Fleur explained, "apparently she likes the school better than Beauxbatons. At least she's been keeping more out of trouble and she's even made a really good friend in Luna. I think it will be good for her as long as she goes back home over the summers."
Harry claimed honestly, "I know that Luna will be pleased to hear that."
"It's only if I actually win," Fleur countered, "I'm not sure how I'll be able to afford to move and get my own place otherwise."
"I guess we'd better make sure you win then," Harry argued.
She smiled and said, "I'm glad to hear you say that Harry, because I kind of need your help."
His eyebrows rose as he asked, "my help?"
"Yes," Fleur explained, "I was hoping that you had already solved your egg clue, but I think I'll just tell you what it's about."
"Isn't that kind of cheating?" Padma pointed out.
"It's not like I wasn't told about the dragons beforehand," Fleur replied, "it didn't escape my attention either that nobody seemed surprised when the First Task started."
"Karkaroff told Krum about the dragons and I actually told Cedric about them so that everyone would then know," Harry explained.
"That was nice of you Harry," Fleur commented, "even if it appears Cedric chose not to return the favor."
"Me dating his ex-girlfriend might have played a role in that," Harry admitted.
"Well why don't I suggest that you go put the egg underwater?" Fleur asked him, "then come back to me tomorrow so we can discuss things."
He nodded. That sounded fair.
As Fleur left however, Padma pointed out, "so how are you going to work on your egg clue when you already have a date with Angelina?"
He frowned but then said, "I'll think of something."
TOOMANYTOOMANY
For his date with Angelina, he picked her up at the foot of her stairs, with her seemingly clad only in a huge blue towel, although she did have a swimsuit on under it.
"I would hope that the reason I have to wear a bikini on our date isn't just so you can better see my wonderful body," She joked once she'd come down next to him.
"Oh no, that's just a bonus," He insisted.
She laughed and said, "I'm surprised you haven't done this type of date before then."
"Oh I've considered it but I never had a good enough reason for it," Harry argued, "now I do."
"While I appreciate the flattery on my part, I'd hardly say I'm the girl you'd most likely want to see clad in a bikini," She pointed out.
"Maybe I've just got jungle fever," He suggested.
"Oh you definitely have that," She insisted.
"You think you're that good looking?" He asked.
"No you're just too attracted to girls in general," Angelina argued.
"You make me sound so pervy," Harry commented.
"Do you really want me to answer that question?" She asked.
"Nope."
They headed to the Room of Requirement and when they got there he waited for the inevitable surprise.
He always looked forward to the big reveal moments for his dates.
"Wow," Angelina exclaimed, sounding impressed.
This time the room was set up like a large swimming pool, complete with poolside chairs, a small waterslide, a diving board, and a water volleyball net in the shallow end.
"This is what we're going to be doing for our date?" She asked him.
"No, actually we're going to be cleaning out the pool," Harry joked.
"How did you know I like swimming?" She asked him.
He shrugged and said, "lucky guess."
In all fairness to him, he did remember her mentioning a few times after quidditch practice that she liked swimming so it wasn't like he was completely choosing a date more for him.
"Since Hogwarts doesn't have a pool and the lake is rather cold to be swimming in I figured that I'd make a pool," Harry explained.
"I love it, thank you Harry," Angelina answered, giving him a hug.
"I wish you'd removed your towel before you'd hugged me, but that works," He commented.
She hit him playfully on the arm.
"I will admit that I kind of do have ulterior motives," Harry continued, "I found out I need to be underwater to figure out the egg clue I got."
Angelina did not seem at all bothered by that.
"It beats having to listen to that awful screeching noise every time you open it up," Angelina replied.
"I suppose I did bother a few people," He said a bit sheepishly.
"Well for now, let's just go swimming," She insisted.
"Yeah about that..." Harry answered, "another confession: I don't really know how to swim."
Of course the Dursleys had never taken him to the beach or to a swimming pool so there had never been an opportunity to learn.
To her credit, Angelina was again unfazed by that.
"I guess that means I get to teach you," She responded, "it'll be nice being able to actually teach you something for a change. Mr. I-can-fly-perfectly."
"Only from watching you so much, you're a better flier than I am," He insisted.
"Oh I know, I just wanted to get you to say it," Angelina admitted with a grin.
"You little..." Harry said exasperatedly.
"Careful, remember I am the one teaching you how to swim. I could simply let you drown you know," Angelina argued.
He changed his tone and told her, "What I meant was you beautiful, smart, vivacious, sexy witch you."
"Wow, I haven't even taken my towel off and already you're giving me compliments. At this rate I might give you a heart attack when I do, are you sure you're ready?" Angelina asked him.
"A heart attack would be worth it," He claimed.
"Harry," Angelina singsonged seductively as she tried to get his attention as she slowly removed her
towel.
"A guy could get the wrong impression when you do that," Harry reminded her.
"I'm just having some fun," Angelina answered, "although you should probably know I'm not a virgin so I have done this before."
"Fred or George?" He asked.
She scoffed and said, "They wish. I like my men more..."
Whatever she said next, he totally forgot it as she began to let the towel go down slowly, first exposing a good supply of cleavage, held in only by a lime green bikini top.
Then he saw a gorgeous and well toned stomach, Angelina was in shape after all, he just hadn't had the opportunity to see some of the results as well.
The bikini bottom then tapered down to her finely chiseled legs that seemed to go forever.
"Well what do you think?" She asked him.
"I'd say I definitely have jungle fever right now," He commented.
She laughed at that.
"Well it's your turn," She invited, "I would hope that you haven't gone soft with no quidditch this year."
He of course wasn't in bad shape, but he definitely wasn't in as good a shape this year.
Hopefully him starting to exercise with Padma might help rectify that.
As soon as he had stripped down to his swim trunks, she commented, "not bad...for a boy."
"Just a boy huh?" He observed.
"Well I am 3 years older than you," She pointed out.
"Yet I still managed to get not just one but two dates now with you," He countered.
"I'd say you're just lucky no one my age interests me," Angelina explained, "fortunately you've got potential and that's what interests me. A few more years and you'll be irresistible."
He pretended to pout and said, "I thought I was irresistible now?"
"No just got a lot of potential," She insisted.
"I can live with that," He agreed.
"Come on, let's go swimming!" She invited.
Angelina headed immediately for the diving board and then did a perfect swan dive into the water.
He however was more hesitant as he approached the water's edge and carefully put a toe in.
His date began swimming over to him.
"What are you waiting for?" She asked him.
"Just going to see if I can't adjust to it," He claimed.
She swam over and then grabbed his leg.
It caught him by surprise enough that he failed to stop her from dragging him into the pool.
With a splash he fell into the water.
He began thrashing about, trying to get back to the railing as he really couldn't swim.
"Just stand up Harry," Angelina advised, "it's not that deep here."
He stood up, now feeling stupid.
The water only came up to the top of his shoulders.
"Well is that enough adjustment for you?" She asked him.
"You must really be trying hard to give me a heart attack somehow," He commented.
"If I wanted to do that, I would have just taken all my clothes off," Angelina answered.
"At least I would have died happy," Harry admitted.
After a few minutes of them talking and splashing each other, Angelina decided to teach him how to swim.
He felt like he wasn't really doing it right, but she still encouraged him.
At least he could already swim better than Dudley, who after just one swimming lesson when he was 7,
had had a temper tantrum and complained that it was just too hard and given up.
You would think that with all of that fat to buoy him up, it would be easy but apparently not.
After he was tired out enough, they had fun on the waterslide and played a quick game of water volleyball.
While Angelina was busy diving off the diving board, he got out the egg clue and put it and himself underwater.
Melodious music began to fill his ears, entirely different from what he heard normally.
He listened, trying to figure out, and before long Angelina came by to hear it too.
Finally once he had it memorized, he came to the surface to try and figure it out.
"So apparently I've got to swim down to the bottom of the lake, get something some merpeople are going to steal from me, and then get it back all in one hour?" Harry questioned.
"I guess we should really work on learning to hold your breath," Angelina commented.
"Well I certainly won't be happy if they decide to take my Firebolt and put it underwater," Harry replied, "it makes me rethink if I should actually try in this task."
"Why wouldn't you try?" Angelina asked him.
"Since I don't really care at all about the tournament," Harry commented.
"You do realize that plenty of people, including myself wish that they were in your place?" Angelina reminded him.
"Trust me, it's not all it's cracked up to be," Harry pointed out.
Angelina nodded and said: "then again if I was a Triwizard Champion being swarmed by lots of hot guys, I probably wouldn't care about it either."
He grinned and said, "now you're getting it."
"Any chance of us trading places?" Angelina asked him.
"The champion aspect sure," Harry concluded, "assuming you can manage to do it without killing or severely injuring me like I have to to get out of it."
She pretended to mull the idea over as if it was tempting.
"Don't go in the deep end then, I might be too tempted to let you drown," She admitted.
"You shouldn't have taught me how to swim them," Harry pointed out, "besides, don't hurt me, I'm too cute to die."
Angelina laughed then said, "I think I'll smother you with my chest."
He wasn't sure if that was possible but if it was, it sure sounded like a good way to go.
Harry couldn't help but glance at her rather revealing bikini cleavage then commented, "just kill me now."
"I thought you'd see things my way," She replied.
Nevertheless, to his disappointment, she did not decide to kill him in such a fashion.
Instead she just leaned in and kissed him.
Kind of a consolation prize to dying, but he could live with it.
TOOMANYTOOMANY
Luna was weird, Daphne thought, not for the first time.
Daphne was currently following Luna down a hallway, under the impression that Luna wanted to play a game with her, but unsure what the game was.
Not that it mattered. It would likely be a strange but fun game, and Luna hadn't let her down yet in having a good time.
Her life before hadn't been boring but having Luna in it made it so much better.
Like pure awesomeness in the form of a blonde girl wearing radish earrings and a butterbeer cork necklace.
"It's just a little bit farther," Luna told her, as she half skipped, half ran.
Goodness that girl had plenty of energy. She was exhausted trying to keep up.
Finally Luna stopped in front of a painting of a monkey eating a banana.
"We're here," Luna announced.
"Where?" Daphne asked, just now coming up behind her.
Instead of answering, Luna began to make monkey sounds.
The monkey looked at her for a second then make some sounds of his own before the entire painting suddenly slid to the left, revealing a large hole.
"I had no idea this was here," Daphne admitted, "or that you could speak monkey."
"Neither did I, but at least George understands," Luna answered.
She assumed that George was the monkey.
Luna went inside the hole and Daphne followed her.
As she looked around the room she now found herself in, she was amazed.
There were various pictures lining the walls, stacks of paper, and various devices that she had no idea what they did.
"Like it?" Luna asked, "this is my new secret hideout. Since we kept using the Room of Requirement so much I had to get a new one so no one would find out my plan."
"Plan?" Daphne queried, "I thought you gave that up?"
"No, just rested for awhile, now I'm back," Luna informed her, "besides giving up is like farting. Once you let it go, it makes a big stink that you and everyone else around you has to smell."
Interesting analogy, but okay.
"Farting stinks, got it," Daphne claimed.
"It's not time to make jokes Daphne," Luna scolded, "you need to be serious."
"Who are you and what have you done with Luna?" Daphne asked.
Luna couldn't help giggling.
"Now you're making me be not serious too," Luna replied, "I need to convince you to help me build the harem but I can't if I've got the case of the giggles. It's just too much fun to laugh."
Luna let out a few loud laughs.
Wait what?
"What are you talking about Luna?" Daphne asked her.
Luna seemed to straighten herself up before saying, "There's some things you should probably know."
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