7 New Year Day

Neville joined Harry and Hermione at dinner, sitting at Harry's side. Ron sat at Hermione's side, still looking grumpy. Padma ate at her house table, but came to talk shortly to her sister. On her way back she stopped for a moment near Hermione, whispering, "Wish me luck."

Back in the common room, Harry asked Neville to show Hermione the book. Hermione read the appropriate chapters attentively. "If it really works as the book suggests, then it can solve Harry's problem with the second task."

"I'll make sure Harry gets both plants before the day of the task," Neville promised.

"That's very nice of you," Hermione said, and then turned to Harry. "You still need to have a contingency plan in case this one doesn't work as expected for any reason. We shall start working on this tomorrow."

Harry nodded his head in approval, also noticing Parvati coming in. She glanced at Harry and Hermione and nodded slightly, as if approving of the new situation, before going to talk with Lavender. Harry hoped she was not disclosing any information that should still stay secret.

With so much excitement in a single day, both Harry and Hermione were already tired. They soon retired to their respective dorms, parting with a short hug only. By the time his dorm mates came to the room, he was already in deep slumber.

The rest of the week passed quickly for Harry. He met each morning, soon after breakfast, with both his wives in "their" room. They stayed there for about an hour, spending most of it on making love. They usually spent the rest of the morning doing research in the library, looking for alternate ways to allow Harry to breathe underwater and for offensive and defensive spells that could prove useful.

Afternoons were spent on training. Harry tried to learn each and every spell that his wives considered useful. He mastered the bubble-head charm, but lacked the concentration needed to keep it active while casting any other charm. They also spent some time cuddling together, inevitably leading to another love-making session.

When asked, Harry explained his new interest in both girls as a way to tap their talents for the benefit of surviving the coming tasks. Nobody could find a fault in that, not even Ron.

They used the prefects' bathroom once again on Friday, not bothering with swimsuits at all. This reminded Harry of the first time there. "You still haven't explained what happened here last time," he reminded Padma.

She blushed nicely before answering. "You already know that I had a crush on you for some time. While you got to know me during our date, we were both wearing too many layers for you to be attracted to me physically. I thought that seeing me in a swimsuit would assure your attraction to me."

"It was practically transparent!"

She blushed some more. "Originally, that swimsuit is black. It hugs my body nicely, and my nipples could push the fabric, but it's quite modest. I thought that making it white would make it more enticing. I didn't expect it to become almost transparent when wet."

He turned to Hermione. "Did you wear that bikini intentionally?"

She paled. "No, honestly! I wasn't aware of how unfit it had become before I wore it. Then, I just thought that with Padma being so beautiful, I needed to have some ways to attract you as well, and the bikini just happened to do that for me. I also didn't expect it to become so revealing when stretched and wet."

Hermione blushed nicely at the memory. Harry hugged them both and felt content. He found that having these two girls for wives was more fun than he ever expected, although when studying, they could both be quite intimidating.

There was another ball at the new year's eve, only intended for sixth and seventh-year students. Harry felt relieved that he would not need to participate. He had his own ball with the two girls a few hours earlier.

..

Harry woke up early on the day of the new year. He took a long shower and made sure to use his best manly perfume for the occasion. He arrived at the common room seconds before Hermione and they had breakfast together with little company, being so early.

"What did you tell Ron?" Hermione asked.

"I told him that I promised to pamper you with a date as a reward for helping me with the tournament. He grumbled a bit but seemed to accept this."

It went quite similar to his date with Padma, although Harry felt much more confident this time, going out with his wife, who had been his best friend for a few years, and not with a girl who was almost a stranger.

Hermione bought quite a few books as well as some parchment and quills. Harry still took her to the sweets shop and pampered her with some chocolate. She didn't protest much, enjoying it no less than Harry.

"Padma has shown me a nice place to eat out. I think it may be perfect for you too," Harry suggested.

Hermione accepted the idea with a smile.

They had lunch at that restaurant, only Hermione preferred the red room. Hermione suggested some Greek food and Harry found it very tasty. After lunch, Hermione insisted on buying Harry some more clothes, but quite formal. "You're soon going to publicly claim your lordship. You should be dressed accordingly."

They met with Padma, Parvati and their parents at four. Once again they visited the same establishment they had selected for lunch, this time choosing the yellow room, which had a larger table, and ordering afternoon tea for all with some cake. Once served, Mr. Patil cast a few privacy shields before reaching the main subject.

"Lord Potter, I knew my daughter had a crush on you, but I never expected it to turn into such a special bond. The task Padma asked me to do, which I accepted mainly out of curiosity, has now turned into something I have a deep personal interest in, as it concerns my family – and I include you and Lady Potter in it."

Harry smiled with relief. Despite Padma's reassurance, he was still very apprehensive about her parents' reaction to the bond.

"Before we continue, I'd like to know a bit more about how you happened to get married," Mr. Patil continued.

Harry paled at the idea of telling the details, yet Padma didn't seem to mind. 'She's probably told this to her sister already,' he thought.

Padma told her parents about Harry's apology, her date and her suggestion to use the prefect bathroom for finding the clue. "I expected Hermione to join in, as she and Harry were evidently a couple since the second year, if not earlier, although they seemed oblivious to that. I talked with her the next morning and we both agreed to cooperate, if only to help Harry through the tournament."

She didn't go into details about their visit to the bathroom, which made Harry feel a bit better. "That night I woke from a very vivid dream, one in which Harry and I were very intimate, along with Hermione. When I took a cold shower to calm myself, I noticed some blood spots on my knickers. Later, after breakfast, I found out that Harry and Hermione had the same dream at the same time. We checked at the library and found what it meant. We then went to a secluded room and summoned our rings, proving that we were married."

The Patil parents looked stunned for a moment. "This is a very rare kind of soul bond," Mrs. Patil told them. "I'm not sure it even has a proper name, but as it unites three souls, it gives you some additional abilities. I'll have to check a few of the books in my private library to see if I can find anything about it."

"Well, congratulations to you three. Now, let's return to the subject we originally intended to handle," Mr. Patil said. "It was quite easy to find who your magical guardian is – it's your headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. It was more difficult to find what he had done about you and almost impossible to find why he acted that way. It was too short a time to do any deeper research, but what I found gives me some doubts about Dumbledore's actions and possibly his motives too."

Mr. Patil took some parchments out of his robe's inner pocket. "As you can see here, Dumbledore is signed on the document for sealing the Potter will. He also countersigned, along with the minister, the order to put your godfather in Azkaban without trial. It's impossible to get any information from the goblins, as you may know, but they were willing to say that they would recognize someone's lordship at twelve, if he's the last surviving member of the family, regardless of the ministry."

Harry frowned. "So, it was Dumbledore who kept me in the dark… I wonder what else he did…"

"Dad, Harry had some severe binds on his magic and quite a few spells cast on him, I believe, judging by what happened when he took his lordships rings," Padma commented.

Her father frowned. "How many lordships?"

Harry let his rings become visible and showed them.

"Potter, Gryffindor, Peverell, this one I don't know, Ravenclaw, and on the other hand – another unidentified one, Slytherin…" Mr. Patil looked up in surprise. "You are Lord Slytherin. Have you known that?"

Harry was just as surprised. "I didn't give my rings much thought and I had them hidden almost since I've got them. Does that mean anything?"

"While each lordship by itself may not mean too much, the fact that you hold the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin lordships gives you much more power than each lordship by itself. If you combine powers with the heir of Hufflepuff, you can control Hogwarts and probably the Ministry as well."

"I don't know who that heir is," Harry said.

"Oh, I think you do, actually. The Bones family is known to be the only Hufflepuff descendant, and Susan is the last of that line," Padma said.

"You don't expect me to marry her, do you?" Some panic was evident in Harry's voice.

"No, and she probably isn't interested right now, but she may join forces and become your ally. We must speak with her as soon as we can," Padma stated.

"Actually, she may be interested in becoming much closer," Hermione commented. "She once told me that she had a big crush on Harry. She also said that she couldn't marry anybody who may need heirs for his own line, as she wants to continue the Bones line. Being second or third wife may solve that problem."

Harry looked on the verge of panic again.

"We'll discuss it later, alright? We need not hurry. We can handle this in several ways, not necessarily by marriage," Hermione hurriedly explained, pressing his hand in hers.

"Fine. What do we need to do now, though?"

Mr. Patil took the lead again. "I suggest you go with your wives to Gringotts and see what you may find there. This may take up to two hours. We shall wait here. I'm sure Parvati also has some things to tell us."

"How do we go there? Is it even open now?"

Padma replied to that. "Gringotts is open until midnight each and every day, excluding only the spring equinox, when they close at eight. Dobby can easily take us all to their entrance hall."

Hermione didn't wait for Harry to understand. "Dobby!" she called.

Dobby popped in immediately. "What can Dobby do for Master and Mistresses?"

Hermione bent down to his level. "Dobby, will you be so kind to take the three of us to Gringotts?"

Dobby smiled happily. "That's no problem at all. Just hold hands tightly."

Harry held both his wives' hands and they also held each other. Dobby grabbed Harry's waist and a moment later they found themselves at Gringotts.