Disclaimer: Usually I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so this time as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am not making any money off of this story or any of the other stories I have written.
AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter 41: Deliberation and Determination
Harry didn't have time to wallow in his renewed grief, the scant few hours he allowed himself (when he first found his lost family and when he finally brought them home) would have to suffice until he could set aside a day to re-inter them. He'd already decided that his parents and his godfather would be buried separately from the rest of the deceased because they were heroes to the wizarding world; his parents for saving his life when he was a mere babe (and in his mind they had been the ones to defeat Voldemort that first time) and his godfather for sending him forward through time so he could one day save the magical world.
He wanted all three of them to be remembered as the heroes they were so he was going to entomb them in a memorial just outside the entrance to Hogwarts where anyone visiting the reserve (because it was no longer just a school) would be able to see them and remember them for their sacrifices. The rest of his family and friends would be interred beside each other in the graveyard with the other witches and wizards that had been pulled from the castle and their names added to the memorial that Harry was thinking of building to replace the winged boar gate pillars that had once guarded the entrance to the school grounds.
Instead, he conducted the eighteen scheduled interviews, tentatively hired twelve of those individuals, and made arrangements for them to be brought to the castle after they signed their contracts (with contract quills). He also checked on the progress of the green houses, began collecting samples of those plants he already knew he would need to grow first (the food and medicinal crops), and consulted with the Maganacs about getting an additional greenhouse built closer to the castle to set aside for a kitchen garden so they could grow some of their own produce in addition to the magical crops.
While digging through his potion supplies for seeds and bulbs, Harry stumbled across the crates holding the preserved remains of hundreds of different creatures and beings in various stages of development that used to sit in the potions lab and Snape's office (all of them meticulously labeled in Snape's familiar scrawl – the wizard having purposefully avoided unpacking those hated reminders). After narrowly avoiding the panic attack the frightfully familiar jars had sent him into the moment he saw them, Harry gathered them up and turned them over to Dr. Watanabe in the hopes that they could be used to help repopulate the magical world.
To forget about the abrupt reminder of his tormenter, Harry spent hours going over plans to renovate the first floor north and west wings (which were formerly nothing but classrooms) into quarters for those individuals (and their families) that he would potentially be welcoming to the reservation in a few days time. Right now everyone (aside from himself) was staying in a pair of communal dorms on the first floor and while it had been fine in the beginning, the castle was more than large enough to allow for everyone to have their own quarters.
Cathy, after Harry went to her for her opinion on the renovations, threw out his plans entirely and talked him into gutting and renovating Ravenclaw Tower to set up apartments for those individuals that Harry hired that did not have plans to bring their family and setting up family suites on the seventh floor between Gryffindor Tower and Ravenclaw Tower for those that would be bringing their families with them. Her reasoning was that the lower levels should be dedicated to labs, workshops, and classrooms since it would make more sense to have those types of rooms closer to the ground floor and therefore easier to access. Harry then told her she'd just officially gotten herself appointed as the reservation's Director of Renovations and told her any and all construction crews would answer to her from that point forward.
All he asked was that she run her plans by him first so he could know what to expect and if he needed to make magical adjustments prior to any work being done on them and told he'd get her a list of the rooms, corridors, and castle grounds that were not to be touched for the moment (such as the ruins of Hogsmeade and the Quidditch Pitch).
When it was finally finished, the new Ravenclaw Tower (freshly repainted in blue and bronze) sported a large common room (minus the books shelves it had had before the renovation) that was sparsely furnished with several couches, armchairs, coffee tables, and rugs. The head boy's room had been converted into a recreation room, the head girl's room turned into a modest kitchen, and the storage room off the ground floor of the tower became a library/study where all of the shelves from the common room had been transferred with several large tables, desks, and chairs scattered about the room. The intact statue of Rowena Ravenclaw that he'd found in the tower was placed into storage until he made a decision as to where her presence would have the greatest impact; in the Entrance Hall, in the Library, or in the hall outside of the Ravenclaw Tower).
The seven floors of dorm rooms (that had been of similar design to those in Gryffindor Tower with boys on the left and girls on the right) were now seven floors of apartments with a pair of communal bathrooms for each floor (men and women still being housed separately even though the enchantments that had once kept the men out of the women's rooms had not been replaced). Each floor sported sixteen apartments (eight on each side) with the attics at the very top being converted into a pair of rooftop terrace garden with a wide bridge connecting the two sections where employees could hang out on their days off.
The family suites, once completed, would consist of three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchenette, a dining room, an office or study, a sitting room, and a small entryway. The master bedrooms and the sitting rooms would both have balconies overlooking the lake and castle grounds as those rooms were situated along the outer wall. There would be other options for those families that needed more than three rooms but for the moment none of those currently working on the reservation or those that Harry was tentatively planning to hire numbered more than four (not counting his own adopted family; all of whom maintained individual rooms anyway). For those individuals that would not be making the castle their permanent home, Cathy had Harry help set up a series of guest dorms directly across from the family suits.
Halfway through the housing renovations, Harry's potential new employees arrived and he greeted them on the steps of the castle with his wings in full view to test his prospective employees since if they couldn't accept him there was a large chance they wouldn't accept the animals and he needed to know that before any of the magical creatures ended up hurt. By the end of the tour, only one person had refused to accept a position (he just couldn't accept that magic existed and wanted nothing to do with the freaky, deformed creatures – the thestrals had really freaked him out) and Harry calmly Obliviated the man before having Takoda return him to the Winner Estate.
The other eleven people gladly signed their new contracts and those with families asked when they could be allowed to bring their wives and children (or in some cases siblings and parents) to the reserve. Harry told them once their families signed the non disclosure agreement that would protect their community from persecution (with those members age twelve or under being exempt) they were more than welcome to join them at the castle.
The next round of hiring would take place a month later to allow the new employees plenty of time to establish their routines. Harry would spend about a week helping the new staff members and (the family members that followed them) settle into their new quarters and their new jobs. He explained the rules to all of them and let them know that while the castle was pretty much theirs, the grounds belonged to the creatures first and foremost though they tended to avoid the open areas around the castle. The Forbidden Forest was off limits (as it always had been) unless he was available to guide and protect them if their duties required them to venture beneath the trees but few would actually ever be required to enter the forest.
He warned them of the on-going renovations and let them know the dungeons and several of the various wings were off limits due to the structural damage that he was still trying to get repaired. To help everyone navigate the maze that was Hogwarts, Harry had all of the floors in the known safe corridors painted green, dangerous corridors were painted red, and the corridors and rooms under construction were done in yellow. He also used white lines and arrows to mark the safest route between the top floors and the ground floor. Unpainted floors (aside from those that were obviously in use such as the Great Hall, the kitchens, and the Entrance Hall) were to be avoided because the structural integrity of those rooms and corridors had not yet been determined.
Of the six employees with families, only four of them had six children between them and of those children four were in their early teens, one just turned nine, and one was a six week old infant. Harry gave permission for the teens to help out around the reserve so long as they had their parents' permission, respected the animals or the people they were helping, and followed all of the rules. Schooling for the five older children would temporarily be done via the internet until they hired some teachers (which might take until summer) much to the children's joy. And while Harry thought the enthusiasm of the older children was contagious (it was their first time in a real magical castle after all), it was the wee infant that caught his attention; something the new mother and her husband couldn't help but notice.
The man in question just happened to be one of the veterinarians that Harry had hired and he'd already been made aware of the cloning program that had been initiated, including the human portion of the program. The reason for that was because some of the magical beings fell somewhere between creature and human and would therefore require both doctors and veterinarians to work together to establish treatment options, especially for those like the centaurs and mermaids that had mixed human and animal physiology. So he was aware that there were eight children that would be born in a few months and that Harry would be their primary caregiver.
The veterinarian had also been warned by both Quatre and Wufei (when they learned the man had an infant) that Harry would either avoid him and his family like the plague or be drawn to them because of their child. That was how Harry ended up getting a crash course in baby care from the veterinarian's wife once she and her husband caught him staring at their son on more than one occasion. She taught him how to hold Ebert (her son), how to bathe him, how to change his diapers and his clothes, how to feed him, and the various reasons why a baby would cry.
The first time the woman plopped the little boy in Harry's arms he'd nearly panicked before he got caught up in the baby's curious brown eyes. He'd spent quite some time counting toes and fingers and slowly relaxed as he realized dealing with an infant wasn't much different than dealing with any other newborn (only they grew slower in most cases). After two weeks of lessons, Harry could even be found staring at the growing witches and wizards with far more interest than he had previously shown, his eyes unerringly being drawn to the one labeled Bard Jr. (quite a change from when he refused to even look at the baby that was his clone).
At the start of the second week of May, Harry once again began making short trips into the wilds surrounding the castle to collect D.N.A. samples from various magical creatures and in the rare case beings. With the phoenix twins now entering the fledgling stage of their development and the weather steadily growing warmer, Harry often took them and the two cobras with him when he went. Unlike his first trip though, he never spent more than a day or two trekking through the forest and cast the majority of the detection spells from Wolfstar's cockpit so he would be within easy reach if anyone needed him.
He also took another couple of trips into London; one to pack up the rest of his godfather's former house and one to hunt out the buried remains of the Ministry of Magic. He also noted the possible locations of St. Mungo's and the former Diagon Alley but would need more time to explore those two areas because they were both technically above ground (not counting the tunnels of Gringotts).
The trip to the former Ministry of Magic didn't really gain him as much as he'd hoped as it had been raided far more thoroughly than Hogwarts had been; either by the muggles, by Voldemort and Dumbledore, or by the fleeing employees prior to the muggles going to war against the magicals. There had been only three departments that had escaped the ransacking due to extensive warding; the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, the Historical Records Department, and the Department of Mysteries in the very depths of the Ministry. He collected a wealth of information and invaluable historical records from all three departments but he had hoped to find something more; not that he had known exactly what he'd been looking for when he'd gone. Though, the comprehensive list of magical businesses and homes that he had pulled from the DMLE offices would be extremely helpful in tracking down any and all magical ruins to prevent any intact magical artifacts contained in those ruins from falling into the wrong hands.
In the Department of Mysteries, he'd found a creepy broken arch that seemed to suck the sound out of the gloomy and dust filled amphitheater it sat in, a room filled with hundreds or possibly thousands of broken Time-Tuners, a room filled with strange shriveled gray lumps in a tank, an extraordinary replica of the solar system that filled an entire room (still fully functional), a room filled with what looked like millions of broken snow globes, and a locked room that when opened revealed a treasure trove of research notes, rare books, one of a kind magical devices, and what was purported to be the skeleton of Emrys Myrddin (Merlin).
Harry took the notes, the books, and the devices from that room (having taken nothing from the other rooms aside from the few files he found) but left Merlin's remains untouched after saying a brief prayer over them as he had no wish to invoke the ancient sorcerer's wraith by disturbing him after all of this time and not even he was crass enough to even think of cloning that particular wizard, let alone allow scientists to experiment with his D.N.A..
After the Ministry raid, Harry spent the last four days of May at the castle sorting through the books and scrolls he'd taken from the Department of Mysteries. It was there, on the thirtieth, that his long avoidance of one Dorothy Catalonia finally came to an end in a strange mimicry of the day when she'd first kissed him. He'd been sitting at his desk in Gryffindor Tower trying to decipher the ancient dialect of the book in his hand (which he thought might either be Old English or possibly a bastardized mishmash of Welsh and Old English) so he knew how to categorize the book when Dorothy had entered his tower.
He'd looked up when he heard her huff and utter a complaint or possibly a curse beneath her breath before she strode up to the desk to address him, "Cathy sent me to tell you that you once again missed supper and to remind you that you have interviews scheduled to conduct tomorrow."
"Thank you… I'll grab something in a bit, I'm right in the middle of something right now and don't want to lose my place because it is confusing enough as it is without having to sort through it a second time."
"You still insist on pushing yourself?"
"Still a habit born of necessity… but not nearly as bad as it had been before," Harry quipped with a short bark of laughter as he buried his nose in the book once more.
Dorothy huffed a second time before Harry tuned her out as he once again tried to translate the sentence he'd gotten stuck on. Hands dropping down onto his shoulders made him lose his place and while he didn't jump and freak out like he had the first time she'd touched him unexpectedly, he did tense and try to lean away from her hands. She simply barked at him to sit still as she pulled him back into the chair and began kneading his neck and shoulders. After a few minutes she told him to relax when she noticed he was still extremely tense; she needed to repeat the order several more times before he actually did though. He was practically nodding off as a result of the surprisingly pleasant massage (once he got over the discomfort of being touched) when Dorothy began speaking and he snapped back into full awareness and tensed up once more the moment he processed her first sentence.
"You do realize that avoiding me isn't going to accomplish anything, right?" Dorothy asked as she worked at a particularly stubborn knot just to the left of where Harry's right wing connected to his back. "And I thought I told you to relax. As I was saying… ignoring me isn't going to make me suddenly forget our last conversation or the fact that we never did properly sit down and talk about your asinine assumption that you could order me about. Sit down; you aren't going anywhere until we're done talking."
"I already told you… I'm…"
"Broken, yes… I heard you the first time you uttered that ridiculous tripe. Tell me, do you already have a girlfriend? Or a wife I've not yet met? Or maybe just a girl you've been mooning after since before you met me?"
"No… I don't; not that I think it's any of your business."
"That's one less possible issue then," Dorothy stated as she moved her hands to the other shoulder and ignored the rest of Harry's declaration. "And I'm not dating anyone either so there is no conflict there. You've also shown no interest in other men so I am going to go out on a limb here and say that isn't the problem either. That means you are afraid of something or there is something about me you personally dislike. Oh do stop moving about, I told you I'm not letting you go any where until we're done."
"This is not a discussion I am having with you."
"Oh? And who are you going to have it with? Your brothers? The strange if somewhat nice old centaur? Last I checked, a discussion that involves a man and a woman needs to take place between the man and the woman involved if one hopes to actually resolve any problems between the two of them."
"I don't have anything to offer you or any other woman," Harry growled as he ducked down and spun around so he could glare over the back of the chair at her.
"I didn't realize we were talking marriage before we'd even dated," Dorothy shot back as she crossed her arms and unflinchingly met his gaze. "Last I checked, we hadn't even spoken about whether or not we'd felt any mutual attraction after we'd unexpectedly kissed."
"It wouldn't matter even if we did; I won't allow anything to become of it because I have nothing to offer any relationship."
"Not even friendship? Does that mean you're just pretending, or worse lying, to the others when you joke about with them or speak about how important friends and family are to you?"
"Don't put words in my mouth."
"I didn't… you are the one who said you don't have anything to bring to any relationship."
"That's not what I meant and you know it."
"Actually, no I don't. I have no idea what you meant at all because other than saying you are broken and have nothing to offer, you've said nothing. Except to say what you won't allow. I find it curious that you have been very insistent about not getting into a relationship whenever we've talked since I first kissed you. Why would you automatically assume that I want anything but friendship to develop between us? If I was the type to gambol, then I would bet that the reason you are protesting so much is because you are afraid that a relationship is exactly what you want. I mean, you didn't even come right out and say you didn't feel that way about me when you easily could have without hurting my feelings too much."
"I told you… I'm not discussing this with you."
"Yet again you had a chance to deny that you felt anything and once again you seek to evade the real issue. Is it because of who my grandfather is?"
Harry felt like screaming out of sheer frustration over her ability to latch right onto the topics he really didn't want to discuss. Growling, he turned on his heel so he could just walk away before he lost his temper only to find Dorothy blocking his way (the younger teen having hauled the chair out of her way the moment he broke eye contact).
"I'm not going to just let you run away. I'm tired of you avoiding me and watching me from across the room when you think I'm not looking," Dorothy declared as she poked him in the chest with her finger. "I love my grandfather, despite how angry I am with him for the things he'd said during the short confrontation you had with him, because he is my grandfather but that doesn't mean that I am anything like my grandfather; as you should well remember after you dosed me with that truth drug and had me interrogated me for hours."
Dorothy paused for breath and jabbed him a second time with her finger before she continued, "And while I would like to think that my grandfather would approve of any I boy I date (especially, when there are obvious political advantages to being involved with the boy of my choice), I'm old enough now that his disapproval will not impact the decisions that I make involving my personal life. Furthermore, anything my grandfather might have done to you or your family had nothing to do with me personally and you strike me as being intelligent enough to keep that straight in your mind; so what exactly is the problem?"
"Look… I'm sorry that you are reading more into my words than was originally intended but I've never been very good at dealing with girls except when it came to running in the opposite direction from rabid fan girls that never saw me for whom I am and wanted something from me that I wasn't going to allow them to take. The ladies working with me here are a few of the exceptions because they're like sisters to me. Even then, it took time for me to grow comfortable around them because I'm not very good at opening up to new people nor am I a very trusting person; which is why I rely so heavily upon my brothers when it comes to judging other people. Now, if you will excuse me; I have work to do."
"Is it that I am seeing things that don't exist or that I am seeing things that you didn't want me to see in your words that bothers you?" Dorothy demanded as she refused to budge.
"This conversation is over."
"No, it's not; technically we never even started it because you refuse to actually talk if I don't count that little speech you just gave me. I'm not going anywhere and I'm not letting you leave until we sit down and discuss this."
"No."
"Fine; you don't want to talk, then I'll just have to find another way through that thick skull of yours," Dorothy stated as she grabbed hold of his shirt and pulled him towards her unexpectedly so that they were nose to nose once again. "My uncle once told me that actions speak often louder than words anyway."
And with that she was pressing her lips to Harry's for the third time. Harry brought his hands up in an attempt to free his shirt from her grasp but she stubbornly clung to the open front of his button up shirt. So, with his hands still over top of hers fruitlessly trying to free himself, he leaned backwards to escape the kiss only for Dorothy to follow him courtesy of the hold she had on his clothes until he was leaning precariously over the desk.
Only a few seconds had passed but already Harry could feel the butterflies stirring in his stomach as he struggled not to respond. In his desperate attempt to free his shirt he forgot to keep breathing until his lungs started to burn due to a distinct lack of air. It was therefore, only natural for Harry to gasp in search of a quick breath of air to satisfy his need for oxygen. The gasp honestly had nothing to do with the feelings she was invoking in him – really it didn't.
Dorothy took advantage of the gasp as she shifted slightly so that their lips fit together perfectly and her tongue darted out to moisten her lips and brushed against his at the same time. Harry gasped a second time and this time, not even he could deny that it as because of the sharp spike of heat he'd felt rush through him at that tentative touch. Knowing that he was losing his battle against himself, Harry gave a soft whine of resignation before he simply gave up and gave in only for the kiss to end the moment he did.
"Are you ready to talk now?"
"No. I told you…"
What ever it was that Harry was going to tell her he'd told her was lost as her lips cut him off. This time he didn't even last half as long as he had the first time and once again the moment he gave in she pulled back just enough to ask him again. Brain a bit fuzzy but not addled enough to actually admit to anything (he was nothing if not stubborn, after all), Harry again replied in the negative but barely got the word 'no' out before he was once again silenced by her lips.
This time he didn't give more than a token struggle as she parted her lips and once again brushed the tip of her tongue against his lips as one of her hands slid inside of his shirt and pressed flat against his heart. The new assault on his senses made him gasp and groan before he whimpered as her tongue slipped between his lips to brush against his slightly parted teeth before retreating.
Vertigo swept over Harry as another spike of heat shot through him to pool in his belly before it shifted south as his body began to show its appreciation for the things Dorothy was doing to him with her kisses. His heart was pounding and if he could have formed a coherent thought he'd have realized that Dorothy could feel the erratic beating of his heart through his shirt due to the hand she'd deliberately placed over his heart. He was also breathing quite raggedly as Dorothy broke the kiss yet again and drew a soft whine of protest from him in the process.
"Are you ready to admit that you feel something for me now?" Dorothy asked breathlessly as she hadn't exactly been unaffected by the kisses they'd been sharing and he couldn't help but shake his head no in response. "How many heated kisses do we have to share until you are willing to admit to yourself what your body is already telling us both?"
Harry's eyes, which had fallen shut at some point, snapped open to find her watching him with intense violet eyes that had darkened with desire completely unaware that his eyes were reflecting the same emotion. He knew in that instant that she'd keep on teasing and testing him until he broke down and admitted that he found her desirable whether he really wanted to or not. She wasn't going to back down and he wasn't certain he really wanted her to. He was also certain that he didn't like her teasing him in such a way just to get a reaction from him because she stubbornly refused to take no for an answer.
When he looked back on the moment later, he wouldn't quite be able to pinpoint the exact moment when he'd stopped thinking logically and stopped fighting what some small part of him had been telling him from the moment their lips first touched when she stole his first kiss; all he knew was that one minute he was adamantly trying to deny his growing attraction and the next he was establishing himself as an alpha staking his claim on a desirable mate. He later ended up blaming it on the wolf-like mentality that Zero and Wolfstar had developed the moment Harry compared Zero to Moony.
With a soft growl over how submissive he'd been behaving, Harry straightened up and somehow managed to give the impression that he was looming over Dorothy despite the fact that she was a good five or six inches taller than him. He'd then taken a single step forward so that he was no longer pressed up against the desk, spun the two of them around so Dorothy was the one pinned against the desk, and then moved in for the kill… or rather the kiss. This was no teasing kiss meant to draw a mere confession from her… no this was a domineering kiss that claimed her mouth as his as he gave into the desire she'd stirred in him and allowed instincts he didn't know he had to guide him in his conquest.
His mouth the proceeded to plunder her mouth thoroughly as she moaned softly against his mouth and his magic swirled excitedly around the two of them.
He then broke the kiss to trail fiery kisses down her jaw until he reached her ear and he reached forward to catch her when she gasped in pleasure as her knees buckled. He sat her down on the desk, which put them on a more even level as the height of the desk was fairly low to accommodate his short stature, and buried his hands in her long tresses as he returned his lips to hers so he could drink in the taste of peppermint and chocolate that he was quickly starting to associate with her kisses – a combination of the breath mints she always nibbled on and the hot chocolate she'd taken to drinking to keep warm during the winter and still cool spring air of Scotland.
Her hands slipped his outer shirt off of his shoulders, freeing his wings and disturbing the two cobras (who seemed confused by the strange dance the two humans were participating in) as he placed himself between her legs and continued to ravish her mouth. Her fingers brushed over the scales of his wings and he moaned low in his throat at the feeling it invoked as he broke the kiss and arched backwards slightly. The feel of her lips on his neck and her fingers caressing his wings sent a wave of pure lust through him and the heat of it staggered him as he'd never before felt such feelings.
He dropped his hands to Dorothy's hips, pulled her forward so that she was flush against him and the evidence of just how desirable he found her, and buried his face in the crook of her neck while his wings reached out and forward to wrap around them both. Her soft mewling cries of desire filled his ears as he felt her pressing even closer to him as he kneaded her bum with his fingers and nibbled his way from her neck to her ear. His hands then slipped upwards and slid beneath her shirt so that he was caressing the bare skin of her back and nipped at her neck just below her ear. He could feel her fingers digging into his shoulders as she arched her back, baring her throat to him and he growled appreciatively as he pressed his lips to the base of her neck and felt the racing of her heartbeat fluttering against his mouth.
Wrapping his right arm more securely around her, he brought his left hand around to splay his fingers across the silky smoothness of her stomach before sliding upwards to trace the edge of her ribcage. Dorothy pressed a dozen feather light kisses across his face as she once again ran her fingers along the top edge of his wings while wrapping her legs around his waist. It was enough to drive him crazy as he dropped his left hand to her right leg and slid it beneath her skirt to run his fingers up her leg and beneath the edge of her lace trimmed panties to massage her bum once more. A questioning mental nudge from Wolfstar brought him back to reality at that point and he stilled as he struggled to catch his breath and cool his desire; something that was increasingly difficult with a hot and bothered Dorothy in his arms.
Once he thought he could trust himself to speak, Harry set Dorothy back a ways so they were no longer pressed up against each other and leaned forward to rasp in her ear, "If you insist on starting something you'd best be prepared for the consequences because you can bet your pretty little behind that I will finish it. This will be the only warning I give you; if you step into the fire thinking that this is some kind of a game you will get burned. I don't play games; I play for keeps. I suggest you think very carefully about what you think to gain by pushing me because there is a good chance that you won't like the end result. Magic can be wondrous but it is also very unforgiving and there are some things that magic just can't fix."
Harry retracted his wings, stepped away from the desk, and pulled his shirt back up so his wings were once again hidden before he walked away. He needed to find a large enough pond he could dive in because he felt as if his entire body was on fire. A large part of him was also screaming obscenities at him because he was walking away from Dorothy knowing full well that she'd been completely receptive to the idea of going further (at least physically even if he wasn't certain how she felt emotionally and mentally). Wolfstar found him around the third floor and Harry gave the metal wolf a pat on the head in thanks (for waking him up enough to at least warn Dorothy and stop before things went too far and he hurt her).
He was just walking down the main staircase when he ran into Cathy, who'd been on her way up to look for him and Dorothy. He glanced at her once and told her that Dorothy would need moral support and someone to talk to because she'd pushed him too far this time but gave her no details as he continued on passed her without stopping. He was then stepping outside and relishing the cold wind blowing across his fevered body as he headed to the forest in search of a pond before he stopped and spun around as he finally remembered there was a large, freezing cold lake conveniently parked right beside the castle.
Ten minutes later, he was sitting on the floor of the lake neck deep in the icy water after having discarded his shirt and shivering as the water leached the heat from his body and wings; uncaring that his right hand and arm were throbbing as the icy water seeped beneath the glove he wore. Dropping backwards, Harry let the water close completely over his face as he starred up at the sky through the water as he felt water and mud sliding between the scales of his wings and drawing off the last of his body heat. He intended to hold himself beneath the water until the need for air brought him up only for Obduro's concerned face to block out the moon. Closing his eyes, Harry sat up again and wrapped his arms around his legs as he stared out over the lake.
The centaur clucked his tongue, draped his shirt around his shoulders (tucking the wings back inside the hidden pocket), gathered Harry into his arms, and carried him back towards the castle like a lost foal. As he listened to the rhythmic thumping of Obduro's hooves, Harry couldn't help but wonder aloud if all girls were troublesome or if he was just cursed to only encounter those that drove him up a wall. The centaur chuckled in amusement but Harry couldn't muster the strength to feel annoyed as a bone deep chill filled him as the biting wind cut through his soaking clothes.
By the time they reached the castle, Harry was chilled to the bone but feeling far more in control of himself than he had when he'd first walked out of the castle. He quietly thanked Obduro for putting up with him (something that only served to amuse the centaur further) as he was set on his feet before bidding the centaur goodnight. He took a minute to purge the water and mud from his clothes so that he didn't drip all over the stone floors before he made his way inside to find Wufei sitting on the bottom step waiting for him.
"Feeling better?"
"I don't know… all I know is that I needed to cool off before I did something stupid so I went for a late night swim in the lake."
"Cold showers have been rumored to work just as well and are less likely to see you developing a respiratory infection due to needless exposure to the elements," Wufei commented dryly.
"Not when there is a seventy percent chance that the source of your overheating is going to follow you because she's too damn stubborn to know when to leave well enough alone. Whose idea was it to send her to fetch me anyway?"
"Did you wish to talk about what happened?"
"I don't know… I think I'd rather dig up a bowl of soup, some chocolate, and a bottle of something fortifying but since I know I have interviews to sit through in the morning I'm going to have to settle for two out of three instead."
Wufei smiled and shook his head before he led the way to the kitchen so Harry could get his requested soup and chocolate only once he had both in hand he only stared morosely at the cup of hot chocolate as he distinctly recalled the taste of peppermint and chocolate on his tongue as he mercilessly ravished Dorothy's mouth. Sighing, wondering if he'd ever be able to think of chocolate or peppermint without thinking of those kisses again, Harry shoved the mug away and slowly worked his way through the bowl of clam chowder he'd fixed for himself. The comforting presence of his brother and the soup went a long ways towards restoring his equilibrium, though he still didn't touch the chocolate.
He slept alright that night, curled up beneath a pair of fledgling phoenixes and on top of Wolfstar, but his dreams were haunted by violet eyes, blonde hair, and fire and he woke to find he'd turned his blanket to ash because his wings had ignited during the night (which the two phoenixes at least had appreciated – Wolfstar, not so much). Breakfast was a bit tense as the moment Harry walked into the Great Hall his eyes locked with Dorothy's and the temperature in the room spiked for a moment before Harry tore his gaze away. But not before he'd seen the flush that had crept across her face and neck and Harry wondered if it was desire or embarrassment that had caused her to blush before he decided that he didn't need or want to know.
He was distracted further from the events of the night before when a warmly bundled up babe was deposited in his arms and he couldn't help but smile softly as he heard the small boy coo adorably as he waved his tiny fists. Feeding the squirming boy wasn't much different then feeding the phoenixes when they'd first hatched (only slightly less noisy) and Harry couldn't help but laugh at the faces the baby would make over the porridge when Harry didn't mix it with the mashed fruits that were part of Ebert's breakfast.
Feeling a little lighter, Harry cleaned the boy's face and passed him back to his mother with a soft thank you once they were both done eating so that he could take care of the scheduled interviews. Sadly, of the twenty interviews he held, only three of the applicants were properly qualified for the positions for which they had applied and while there were another two that were semi-qualified, they had irritated Harry with their condescending attitude because of age or rather his apparent lack of age.
The feeling of dissatisfaction drove Harry into kicking everyone out of the Great Hall so he could attempt to reactivate the charms that had once allowed the ceiling to mimic the sky outside. The former headmasters had given Harry the spell months earlier but it required far more magic than he'd wanted to expend at the time and so had put it off. Right now though, his lingering frustration from the night before and his irritation from the rather unproductive morning meant that a large expenditure of magic was just what he needed.
Eight hours later, around supper time, everyone filed into the room tentatively now that the doors were no longer magically locked to find Harry flat on his back, his hands clasped beneath his head, and a satisfied smile on his sleeping face; above him the ceiling turned fiery red and orange as the repaired ceiling charm displayed the setting sun outside. The resident centaur and the older five children were absolutely entranced with the magical ceiling that brought the stars close enough to almost touch and spent most of the night staring up at it instead of eating. Once he'd made it up to his bed, he slept better that night due to the mild exhaustion though he still ended up with a singed blanket and sheets due to his dreams.
The next morning saw him teaching Spera and Spero how to stretch their wings and flight muscles in order to prepare them for their first flight. A lesson that was mocked and ridiculed by Seth while Anubis simply laughed over a human teaching a phoenix to fly; Seth just insisted that Harry had hit his head far too hard. Harry then reminded both snakes that he'd been flying longer than both of them had been alive and without wings which shut the snakes up quite nicely. The entire argument had taken place in front of a dozen witnesses that had found the fact that Harry was arguing with snakes more than a little amusing and not a little bizarre.
That afternoon saw him being reminded that the first baby wizard, his clone, was due in less than two months with the other three oldest set to be born one a week apart a month after that in order to stagger the births a bit and allow Harry those first four weeks to adjust to taking care of a child. The last four weren't due until about four months after the fourth child was born. Cathy and Annemarie (Ebert's mother) gave Harry his next lesson in fatherhood the day after that revelation; infant shopping one-oh-one.
They taught him about the different baby formulas available and why one type was better for some babies but not good for others (lactose intolerance was brought up a time or two) and how for the first couple of months the babies would not be able to digest solids. They then lectured him on the differences between disposable and cloth diapers (Harry was going with cloth since reusable diapers would be less expensive in the quantities that he was going to need). Similar lectures covered bathing products, clothes, shoes, hygiene products, and a dozen other necessary supplies.
By the time they returned to the castle just before supper, Harry thought his brain might have been turned to mush from the sheer volume of information that the two women had tried to cram into his head. He'd also purchased far more than he thought he'd need and spent more than he'd intended (though he saved quite a bit buying in bulk the way he did). The clerks at the various stores had ogled his purchases until he quietly explained he was donating the items to a small nation that had taken in a number of orphaned children which had earned him a two percent discount at all but one of the shops and Harry felt slightly guilty even though his statement hadn't actually been an outright lie.
He'd barely managed to get everything put away when his three new employees showed up a full sixteen hours early in the company of Trowa and Heero. Harry gave his brothers a funny look because he hadn't expected either of them to turn up (Duo having been the next one scheduled to join him in a few days) before he whisked the two men and one older teen (his new employees) off to give them the full tour. All three of them signed their employment contracts three hours later and Harry welcomed them aboard and told them to see Cathy for keys to their assigned quarters after they grabbed something to eat. Harry himself didn't even get a chance to eat before Heero and Trowa hauled him off for a rather serious discussion.
Harry at first thought they were going to pester him about what had been happening between him and Dorothy only to find that they'd come to discuss White Fang. The news that Treize suddenly became the spokesman for the activist group was a little troubling but Harry didn't think it newsworthy at first. Then he learned that Treize had built (sometime after he'd been disposed as the leader of OZ) a Gundam that was equal to Wing Zero with an operating system that was just as dangerous if not more so since the system was purported to be able to completely take over control the pilot instead of just make them hallucinate.
On top of that, they informed him that White Fang had captured the five Gundam scientists again and the group now was using the Planet Defensers to protect all of their mobile suits (including the mobile dolls). Worse yet, the group had begun taking Quatre's many sisters living throughout the colonies hostage in the hopes of drawing out all six of the Star Pilots; holding the six of them responsible for the 'false' peace, the 'traitorous' actions of Zechs, and the 'death' of Lady Une.
They claimed they'd be willing to enter peaceful negotiations if and only if the Demon of the Stars was handed over to face justice for the death of 'many dedicated and honorable' soldiers that had perished in the Battle for the Moon. The penalty for failing to hand over the 'demon' would be the destruction of the earth as they fully intended on dropping one of the colonies onto the planet which would effectively wipe out the planet's entire population (in addition to those living on the colony they would be dropping on the planet).
When they finished, Harry didn't say a word as he walked out of the room. His eyes picked out Obduro's towering form and he walked straight up to the ancient centaur and gently grabbed his attention by trailing his fingers across the centaur's flank as he approached him from his blind side. When Obduro twisted around to look at him, Harry asked a single question that immediately drew the attention of everyone in the room.
"How many lives is one soul worth?"
"Mars will burn for a hundred years straight should the wolf bar his teeth in the face of the hunter," Obduro answered gravely. "Should the wolf walk willingly into the hunters trap, then the stars shall give rise to the guardian's ire and the huntsman and his hounds shall fall beneath the rabbit's shadow."
Harry nodded once as he mentally called for Wolfstar to return to his side.
AN: Harry and Dorothy's relationship… I'm still catching a lot of flack for this but I'm still not changing my mind. This story is, for the most part, completely written bar the final few chapters where I'm trying to wrap up the plot and fill in any holes I've missed. I will not go back and rewrite over twenty-five chapters just because a handful of people are displeased with my choice in partners for Harry. This is my vision… if you want to see a different scenario play out, please feel free to write it and post it. I might even read it when/if you do…
Next point… some people see Dorothy's change of character as being too hard to believe but I've already established Harry's ability to affect the people around him. Starting with Heero becoming more human, Trowa getting in touch with his emotions, Zechs discovering his parental side, and Zayeed getting a wake up call – just to mention a few. Dorothy is still stubborn, she's still intelligent, and she is still aware of the political aspects of the relationship that she wants with Harry (as she briefly pointed out here in this chapter).
We'll see more insight in her metamorphosis in three to five chapters as the next handful of chapters will deal with the White Fang Arc.
Finally, some of you might say that Harry is acting inconsistent in his reaction to Dorothy and their shared kisses based upon his past. So, since I know it will most likely come up, I'll address the important points now. One; Dorothy is not Snape and Harry knows that on some levels. Two; Harry has finally addressed the worst of his emotional baggage from his past and that has affected his responses (for the most part anyway). Will he still have issues now and then? Yes, but they won't be the same issues each and every time. Three; Harry experienced his first crush before he was thrown forward through time and he did admit that Dorothy is smart and pretty, so it isn't hard for him to be attracted to her even if he doesn't want to be at this point.
Four; Harry has matured since he first found Heero and he's also done a considerable amount of healing both mentally and emotionally (even if he still has room for more healing and growth). And fifth; Dorothy's stolen kisses are a far cry from the unwanted intimate touches from the guards back when Harry was still a prisoner or from the unpleasantness he remembers from the detentions with Snape. I'm sure there are other points that could be addressed, but I think I've made enough of a point for now. Maybe.
That said, I will apologize for not getting this chapter up sooner; I was frustrated by negativity in regards to my chosen pairing for this story and trying to get WWY2 ready for posting on top of late winter and spring being my busy time of year to deal with the critters. I was also trying to smooth out the scene between Harry and Dorothy in this chapter.
I should admit to getting sucked into starting two new stories because my dust bunnies morphed into plot bunnies and sparked a pair of Hunter X Hunter/HP crossovers. I've also been trying to finish at least one of the HP/Naruto crossovers (and those bunnies have multiplied yet again and I now have FIVE of those (all with different plots) in the works. Plus there's an HP/SAO crossover that I've been writing and the edits I've been doing on the final installment of my Discovering Series (which I'll start posting soon).
Anyway, my point is that I've been busy but I've not abandoned any of my stories. On the plus side, the next eighteen chapters of this story are also pretty much prepped and ready for posting and I will be posting them at least once a week for the duration of the summer. I also have the final four chapters of Haunted ready for posting. I just have to upload everything and clean up the formatting before posting them. There's more I could say but I think I've said enough for now, so I'll leave it here. Thank you all for the reviews and support and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. ~ Jenn