4 Library
The cold shower helped a bit, although Harry wondered for how long. The image of the two naked beauties was burned deeply in his mind and he hoped to always have it with him, yet he hoped just as much that it wouldn't cause him any more embarrassment. He tried to think of something else – anything that would distract him from that image. He managed to keep his body under control, at least.
Hermione came down the stairs as soon as he arrived in the common room and they walked to the great hall together. The Gryffindor table was empty this early in the morning, as were the other house tables, yet the food was already waiting. Harry and Hermione sat down for breakfast. A moment later, Padma arrived in the Great Hall. She noticed them and took the seat on Harry's other side. "I don't think anybody would mind that I sit here," she said.
Harry took a good look at her. She was beautiful, as he had already noticed more than once, but she seemed tired and a bit concerned. "Slept well?" he asked.
"Not really. I had a very vivid dream that woke me up and I couldn't get any sleep after that. Luckily, we don't have classes, or I would have been in real trouble." She blushed a bit while talking. Harry thought it made her even more beautiful, yet he wondered what made her blush.
"Care to tell us about your dream?" he asked.
"No!" Padma sounded alarmed. "It was very personal," she added as an explanation.
"Harry and I also had some vivid dreams and couldn't sleep. Were the two of us in your dream?" Hermione asked.
Padma blushed some more. "Yes, but I don't think we should speak about it here, in the Great Hall."
"Sure! It can wait for a bit later," Hermione agreed.
Sitting between the two girls made Harry feel somewhat weird. He felt quite content being with them, really, but he also felt as if something was expected of him – of them all, actually – and he didn't know what it was or why he was feeling that way. Having each girl press at his side occasionally, while grabbing this or that from the table, made him feel even weirder, yet he liked sitting between them, he liked them pressing onto him, and he was still wondering about his feelings towards Padma.
They ate silently and then left together. As if by an unspoken agreement, Hermione led the way, going into a deserted corridor and opening a door to an unused classroom. She cast a few spells to remove the dust and some others to lock the door and assure their privacy. Another spell transfigured an old desk into a comfortable sofa. Hermione motioned Harry to sit in the centre while she and Padma sat at his sides, as close to him as they could. Harry was amazed, as always, by the way Hermione was doing complex magic as if it was nothing special. He idly wondered if Padma was as talented, although being sandwiched between the two girls made it hard to think at all.
"Tell us about your dream," Hermione prompted Padma.
"Well… It was probably inspired by our visit to the prefects' bathroom… In my dream, you both were present and the three of us were naked." She seemed to get redder as she spoke. "Harry was sporting an impressive erection, just the way it happened in the bath, but this time we didn't use our hands to handle it."
Both her listeners seemed to have known already what she meant.
"We shoved it inside us, first I did and then you," Hermione completed the story. "Was your dream the same?" she asked Harry.
It was now Harry's turn to blush. "Yes, it was the same, only my body acted as if it was real. That was what made me wake up."
"Our knickers were soaked too," Hermione noted, her blush resembling Harry's. Padma only nodded.
"But what does it mean? The three of us having the same dream at the same time must surely mean something," Harry said. Hermione looked just as bewildered.
"I have a few ideas," Padma said, her blush deepening, "but I'd rather not speak about them until we check the library."
"There's something else we should tell Harry before going to the library, though," Hermione said, as if reminding Padma about it.
Padma blushed some more before speaking again. "You see, Harry, I've been in love with you for more than a year. I've even changed places with Parvati several times, staying a few hours in the Gryffindor common room, just to have a chance to be closer to you, and those times only made me fall deeper in love, although you hardly noticed me. They also confirmed my suspicion that you and Hermione are a couple, despite none of you seeming to be aware of this."
Harry looked questioningly at Hermione and she pressed his hand, as if confirming their love. This exchange didn't go unnoticed by Padma, yet she continued talking. "I hoped that the Yule Ball would give me a chance to be closer with you and make you a bit aware of me. It didn't work that way, but then you decided to apologize. This made my hopes rise again and then you agreed to date me, and it was really fabulous. You were a better date than I hoped you would. That pushed me to talk with Hermione the next morning, as I thought we should rather be allies than rivals."
Hermione took over. "I've been aware of my feelings since the second year, yet I knew you were still too young to have similar feelings. I really wanted to be your date at the Yule Ball, but you seemed oblivious, so I agreed to date Krum, hoping it would make you jealous, or at least make you realize I was a girl."
"I always knew you were a girl!" Harry protested, yet he couldn't remember when he treated her any different due to her being a girl. In a way, she'd always been just a friend, who happened to sleep in the other dorm and use the other bathroom.
"I can't say you showed it." Hermione retorted. "Anyhow, it didn't work as expected, but the next day, when you told me about Padma, it gave me a way to act. Then, when Padma wanted to talk to me, I knew what we were going to talk about."
"Me?"
Hermione smiled. "Who else? Well, it only took us a few minutes to come to the realization that we both love you dearly and that none of us is going to give up on you. Then Padma said that you had several titles, and it would be politically wise to have more than one wife. I had some difficulties in accepting the idea – you know that muggle society doesn't allow polygamy – but once she explained it, we decided to cooperate and become your wives, if you'd agree."
Both girls were looking expectantly at him, and Harry felt as hot as if he was put into an oven. Wasn't he too young to even think about getting married? The mere idea of marriage frightened him. Marrying two was more than he thought he could endure, and yet this was what these two girls were planning for him!
Hermione pressed the hand she was still holding and Padma grabbed his other, holding it reassuringly. He looked at their faces again. They were both beautiful; they were both sexy – he had already seen that; they were probably the smartest girls at Hogwarts – at least Hermione was; they both wanted him. His teen hormones finally kicked in, but he didn't dare commit himself yet. "Aren't we too young to talk about marriage? I don't mind dating you both and see where that may lead." Just thinking of the future made him lose some of the happiness that the girls' presence was giving him. "You know I still have to survive the tournament and then Voldemort also seems to be after me. How can I say anything definite about the future?"
Both girls tightened their hold on him. "We're going to help you with the tournament and with whatever else we need to in order to assure that we'll have a healthy husband for many years to come," Hermione said.
This brought Harry back into a good mood. He looked at the two girls and felt some hope for a better future, even though he was sure it wouldn't be easy to achieve that future. Finally, he smiled again. "It's good to know I have somebody to count on."
"You've always had me!" Hermione huffed.
"I know, love. I've always taken it for granted, so it seems. Now I'm finally aware of this, and with Padma helping as well, I have an even better chance."
This made Padma more decisive. "Well, we now need to go to the library. We need to understand that dream we had in common and to devise a way for Harry to survive the second task."
She looked longingly at the sofa when she stood up, as if reluctant to leave it, yet she grabbed Harry's hand to help him up and he helped Hermione just the same.
..
Hermione seemed extremely uncomfortable as they walked into the divination section at the library, where she would normally not go unless forced to, yet that dream was something that really needed a certain explanation. She internally cringed some more when she found Parvati and Lavender there, yet Padma seemed content to see her twin.
"What are you looking for?" Parvati asked. Both she and Lavender looked very anxious to hear the reply, making Hermione even more nervous. Normally, telling any of these two was like shouting it loud for the whole school to hear. She was sure neither Harry nor Padma wanted their weird dream and its meaning to become common knowledge any more than she herself wanted it.
"Whatever we're doing here is covered under the Potter House secrets," Padma declared, making her sister look much gloomier, yet Lavender seemed bewildered.
"House secrets are like a magical vow," Parvati explained to Lavender. "If you disclose them it may cost you your magic."
Lavender looked frightened, yet Parvati seemed even more eager to learn about what was happening. "How come you are dealing with Potter House secrets?"
"Later," Padma said. "Right now we're looking for a book to help us interpret a dream we had in common. Do you know of any?"
Parvati seemed to be in her element now. She grabbed several books from the nearby shelves and presented them to her sister. "I think this one may give you better answers, and the others can give you some more background."
Padma took the offered book and moved to an adjacent table, along with Harry and Hermione, who grabbed the other books to take along.
It took Padma surprisingly little time to find the appropriate chapter, at least as Harry saw it, and only a few more seconds to find the right paragraph. She quickly glanced at it and then urged Hermione to read it as well. Hermione read and gasped. She then elbowed Harry and pointed at the relevant paragraph.
"I still don't understand what it means," Harry said when he finished reading the relevant sentences.
"Well, it means that we are either bound to each other or destined to be bound. It's like you are either married or betrothed to both of us, based only on the fact that we all had the same dream at the same time. I wonder what we may find about the contents of that dream." Hermione blushed nicely just thinking of their dream.
Padma proved her Ravenclaw sorting. By the time Hermione finished explaining, Padma had already found another book, one dealing with the interpretation of dreams.
Harry looked at her and noticed her blushing while reading. He wondered what that could mean.
Just as before, Padma let Hermione read and then Harry read it. This was even more confusing, though. He was sure that what he understood was not what it meant. "Can any of you explain this?" he asked.
Both Padma and Hermione closed their books and looked at each other as if reaching a mutual agreement. "Back to that room!" Hermione said.
Parvati and Lavender seemed quite bewildered at the three, but didn't ask. They knew it would be futile to ask and then, it would all be disclosed soon, one way or another.
