Triplicity

by psalmuel

Harry, Daphne and Pansy try to navigate their lives after the war.

21. Reception

Reception

---

Daphne

The week leading up to the seasonal opening of Frame and Stroke had been one of the busiest of Daphne's adult life, but she had – somehow – managed to finish her requisite six paintings, with time to spare, at that.

Her partners, of course, had enthusiastically held a pre-celebration for her, and many of the last few nights had been among the busiest of their relationship so far, in an extremely different way than her professional occupation.

Perhaps not all that different, really, she pondered, standing with a glass of champagne in her hand, looking at the centrepiece of her small exhibit. The sixth painting was the largest that she had completed to date, an abstract oil piece that she'd titled "Trine".

While Daphne was not an egotistical woman, she had to admit that the piece might well be her greatest achievement as an artist to date, one that (in her own opinion) stood by itself and managed to tie the rest of her pieces together into a coherent theme. Other paintings such as "drowning" or "Throne" carried a heavy, somber mood, "winter" was bleak but also bright, and "Thirst" conveyed a distinctly sexual impression in its suggestive, yet indistinct figures.

"Trine" managed to hit all of those notes and more, a complicated assembly of vaguely triangular geometric figures, each painted in three colours. Daphne thought that it gave the impression of a human figure, but the spaces between the geometric shapes caught the eye in their own way, almost suggesting the existence of a transient something that couldn't be described by sight alone.

Daphne wasn't blind to the fact that she had also put a lot of herself into this final painting, realizing after it was completed that the triangular shapes and general mood of the piece were both heavily reminiscent of her relationship with Harry and Pansy: something that had seemed to become more than the sum of its parts.

Neither was she unaware of the fact that her paintings were generating interest from the guests at the gallery opening. She'd had the chance to speak about some of the themes and concepts that went into her work (the personal relevance remained a secret, of course) with a number of fashionably-dressed wizards and witches, and the gallery owner himself (Mr. Higgs was dressed less on the "fashionable" side and closer to the "eccentric" part of the spectrum) had informed her that one curious party was a well-regarded art critic.

With a drink in her hand, the steady thrum of the music that Mr. Higgs had playing flowing over her, Daphne felt satisfied (without any reservations, even), which had been an awfully elusive state for her in the previous couple of years.

She heard a click of heels behind her, and stopped her introspection to glance in the direction of the latest visitor to her little section of Frame and Stroke. As was a common-enough occurrence in her generation of witches and wizards, she recognized this guest, though she wouldn't say that she knew the woman.

There had been a couple times when she and Padma Patil had been paired together for assignments in Runes, back at Hogwarts, and while they'd worked well enough together in a competent, academic way, Daphne would hardly have said she'd ever befriended the Ravenclaw.

Then again, she recalled, other than Stori, Tracey, and kind-of sort-of Theo, I wasn't really friends with much of anyone back then.

This had been one of the unexpected benefits to her relationship with Harry and Pansy: as much as she was still somewhat unused to the idea, Daphne had made friends through her partners. She semi-frequently met with Hermione for tea (even when they weren't scheming about Harry's upcoming role in the political arena), and found that the bushy-haired woman's intellect was actually more staggering than her infuriating (at the time) stranglehold over the top marks in any class they'd shared had given her reason to suspect.

While it would be unkind to say, at a somewhat less cerebral level, she also found that she enjoyed Gregory's company now that he'd finally shaken off the horrific views that he'd previously held. Daphne still found his particular relationship dynamics somewhat unsettling if she were to be honest with herself, but his surprising depth of knowledge in the subject of Magical Beasts was, she supposed, only fitting for someone who was his girlfriend's "pet".

Padma Patil's name had come up a time or two in conversation with Hermione, and from what Daphne understood, Padma had been undertaking some sort of international research for the last couple years, studying a sort of magical anthropology by attempting to learn spells and different methods of working magic from other cultures across the globe.

Even at Hogwarts it had been apparent that the Patil twins were rather different from each other (most obviously, being sorted into different Houses would imply that), but Daphne realized that these differences had only become more noticeable with time; from what she'd seen of Parvati at different parties over the years, Daphne couldn't picture her thoughtfully studying artwork, nor did she think that Padma was the type of woman who would find herself thrown out of a number of pubs for being caught shagging Seamus Finnigan in a dark corner.

So too had the twin sisters become physically distinct over the years. Where Parvati was slender with the suggestion of a slight "hourglass" to her figure, Padma seemed to have matured into a figure that could only be described as "curvy", only emphasized by the generously plunging neckline of her magenta dress.

Daphne couldn't help but engage in her habit of trying to take the measure of someone at a glace; even though she was very well aware that appearances could be deceiving, she still found it interesting somehow to try and gauge people in this manner.

She noticed that Padma wore an obviously enchanted pair of glasses perched on the bridge of her nose, the lenses whirling and glowing at times in a way that could only indicate that their purpose was not to correct her vision. Padma's bared arms were heavily tattooed from the wrists to elbows, swirling mixtures of script that appeared to be a blend of henna markings, mundane ink tattoos, and slowly shifting magical counterparts.

If Daphne had to guess, she suspected that the numerous pieces of gold jewelry Padma had were charmed in some fashion or another, which could have left an impression of an extremely academic personality, someone who had immersed their very self into runes and spellwork. This observation, however, would fail to account for the streaks of magenta dye in Padma's dark hair (matching her dress), as well as the nose ring which was unlikely to be a magical trinket.

All things taken together, Padma certainly seemed an interesting sort of person, a particularly striking example of a "modern witch" who blended Muggle culture with Wizarding conventions together; Daphne noted (with a pleased smirk to herself) that this was exactly the sort of crowd that she hoped to draw to her artwork.

When Padma turned towards her, pulling her spectacles off as she did, Daphne made sure to replace her smirk with a cool, politely-welcoming expression, not wanting to send the wrong sort of impression with her glances in Padma's direction, after all.

"Hello, Daphne," Padma greeted her, "it's been quite a number of years, hasn't it?"

"It certainly has," Daphne replied, noticing a steady calm behind the other woman's voice (even if her timbre was on the higher end of the scale), "how have you been?"

"I've been well, thank you!" Padma turned back towards "Trine", gesturing at the piece, "it certainly seems that you've become quite accomplished as well, this is quite a bit more advanced than those old assignments we'd worked on back in the day."

"Thank you, I appreciate that," Daphne accepted the compliment, though she failed to see the connection to studying runes, "I've been fortunate enough to expand my skillset somewhat since then."

"I'd certainly say so," Padma raised her spectacles to her eyes one more, before turning back to Daphne with a sly-looking smirk, "eikomancy is quite a rare practice, especially here, after all."

"Pardon?" Daphne's confusion was steadily growing.

"Magic expressed through image and impressions, rather than symbols or words. You are aware that your artwork is magical in the literal sense of the word, right?"

Daphne sure hadn't been aware of this. She felt a brief stab of insecurity, wondering if her efforts to produce her art through her own hands alone had been in vain after all.

"I hadn't intended it to be," Daphne sipped her champagne, trying to measure her response, "I paint by non-magical methods, after all."

"Ah, sorry," Padma made a small conciliatory gesture with her hands, "I didn't mean to imply that you aren't an accomplished artist. It's actually the completely opposite way around, not using magic to create an image on the canvas, but rather using the imagery that you crafted to shape magic."

"To be honest, I'm unfamiliar with that field," Daphne felt slightly reassured by the clarification, "are you saying that I accidentally charmed my artwork?"

"Mm, not quite. Here," Padma pressed her spectacles into Daphne's palm, then went so far as to begin guiding Daphne's hands towards her face.

Intrigued, Daphne slipped the charmed eyewear on, and almost let out a sob of surprise at what she saw. With whatever charms Padma had applied to the glasses, Daphne now saw that her paintings were surrounded by vague auras of different colours and shapes, with "Trine" in particular being surrounded by an intricate, silvery-golden lattice of light.

"This type of magic predates the development of charms, as it happens," Padma began to explain, ever the academic, "not that this means it is primitive by any means, rather that it relies more on emotions and feeling rather than commands or intent."

Daphne reluctantly pulled the glasses off of her face, the sight having somehow managed to completely flip her earlier insecurity on its head: from what she had seen, it almost looked as if she had somehow created artwork on two planes at once. Strangely, her older pieces had only dim, hazy auras, the effect seemed to be more obvious with her more recent paintings.

"To be honest with you, I'd stopped by here tonight simply out of curiosity, but now I am extremely glad that I did. I've never had a chance to witness this sort of magic before," Padma smiled, nodding her head towards "Trine" for emphasis.

"What does it do?" Daphne was somewhat astonished still, "I suppose it's not quite a proper ritual, correct?"

"Naturally, you're quite right," Padma nodded, as Daphne felt her academic interests being roused, "it's not a precise correspondence, being that it's a less precise sort of magic in itself, but if I had to make a comparison, I'd say that this work," once again, gesturing to the centrepiece, "is closer to a rite of hearth, something along the lines of protective magic."

The fact that the painting which was closest to Daphne's heart represented "home" in a manner of speaking did not escape her notice.

"This one," Padma continued, gesturing towards "Throne" this time, "looks to be a bit more on-the-nose for the subject matter, it seems to carry some sort of authoritative effect. Nothing so overt as a compulsion charm might be, but part of the same lineage. Of course, this piece," she now pointed at "Thirst", "is a lively sort of magic. Sexuality and creation are intimately linked, after all, but this sort of application might produce subtle healing effects past the obvious link to fertility rites."

Fuck, that makes a bit too much sense, Daphne thought. After all, she'd painted that one while she'd been particularly occupied by reminiscing about some of the more memorable nights with Harry and Pansy.

Speak of the devils...

A loud outburst of laughter drew her attention momentarily, where she quickly spotted her partners standing in front of a different exhibit, evidently in the middle of exchanging some sort of barbs with each other. While the trio couldn't be public about their relationship in this setting, it was the sort of event that all three of them would be likely to attend independently, so apparently her boyfriend and girlfriend hadn't been able to resist the temptation of continuing their long-running tradition of mocking each other at parties.

When Daphne returned her attention to Padma, she noticed that the other witch was also looking in that direction, and felt the briefest moment of concern that the intelligent former Ravenclaw had seen right through the trio's deception as quickly as she'd managed to unravel the secrets of Daphne's artwork.

"Once again, this is utterly fascinating," Padma spoke, a vaguely uncertain note in her voice, "but I'm afraid I've actually got to run, my sister's expecting me tonight."

Before departing, Padma pressed a printed card into Daphne's hand, a clever little development in charms that allowed people to connect with each other through various magical communication devices.

"Let's continue this conversation, shall we?" Padma inquired, "Perhaps over a drink or two?"

"Perhaps," Daphne agreed, "I'll let you know!"

"Cheers," Padma turned to depart, "good seeing you, Daphne."

Well, that was surprisingly revelatory, Daphne pondered, still trying to puzzle out what exactly it meant that she had – apparently – been practicing a rare and ancient form of magic without even realizing it.

While it seemed that Padma's expertise had grown vastly beyond her own, Daphne was no slouch when it came to magical theory, and she wondered if it might have to do with the deepening bond between Harry, herself, and Pansy. Though Daphne hadn't noticed any mysterious magic present in Pansy's clothing designs that wasn't intentionally crafted through charms placed on the items, it was certainly true that both women were creative sorts. Perhaps some aspect of Pansy's magic is spilling over into mine? Daphne pondered.

I'd be surprised if it's Harry's magic at play, Daphne smirked against her glass of champagne as the man in question began to approach her, my paintings haven't fought anybody that I'm aware of.

"Good evening, Miss Greengrass!" Harry announced himself, quite literally, "I must admit, rarely have I witnessed such a beautiful sight!"

"You're too kind, Lord Potter-Black," Daphne easily slipped into the role they'd planned out, "I hadn't known that you were an appreciator of the arts."

"Oh, right," Harry grinned widely, "your paintings are also quite beautiful, I suppose."

Daphne didn't even have to pretend to be flattered by this unexpected compliment. Despite how much she enjoyed it, however, she noticed something about Harry that strongly tempted her to roll her eyes at him.

While he obviously wasn't drunk, he was also very clearly not sober, and if she had her guess right, she suspected that the flask he'd surreptitiously taken a swig from was full of firewhisky cut with Libation of Loquaciousness. It was a common-enough additive to magical drinks, inspiring a cheerful, outgoing mood in its consumers, but it came with a severe side effect.

This sort of potion caused those who imbibed it to gravitate towards wordplay and puns, which Harry needed absolutely no further encouragement towards.

"You flatter me, my Lord," Daphne couldn't help but smile, slightly-exasperated though she might be, "do any of these paintings particularly catch your fancy?"

"Oh, I certainly suspect that you can guess which of these seven pieces of art is my favourite," Harry flirted, "the drapery surrounding this particular masterpiece is pleasing in its own right, but I can hardly tear my eyes from the central attraction. Truly, a divine foundation."

None of the paintings have background drapery… oh Merlin, Harry, laying it on a little bit thick, love.

Of course, Harry had just told her that while he liked her outfit, he preferred to look at her arse.

"I trust you've been enjoying yourself, my Lord," Daphne stepped closer to him, extending her hand to his, allowing him to lift it to his lips to press a perfectly-proper kiss against her knuckles, "but I am rather afraid that I do have other guests to converse with, this evening."

"But of course, Miss Greengrass," Harry smirked at her, and she felt her cheeks heat up at the mischief mixed with attraction in his gaze, "I will have to occupy your time another night, I suppose."

"Maybe you shall," Daphne just barely managed to stop herself from rolling her eyes as Harry dramatically bowed while making his exit, "good evening."

"Good evening," he replied, before practically scampering off to another part of the gallery.

Fuck, if I know Pansy, she's been matching Harry drink-for-drink, which means that she'll also be all exuberant, Daphne realized with a very "relationship"-specific sort of dread, I'm going to go home later and walk right into the middle of one of their pun wars.

Despite her frequent protests at being made to witness these contests, she couldn't wait.

The scene she arrived to back at 12 Grimmauld Place was certainly surprising, but whether it was a good surprise or a… Pansy and Harry sort of surprise, Daphne wasn't quite sure.

Her two partners had a shared look that was somewhere between bashful and proud of themselves, and that was all that they were wearing. Both were completely naked, and covered in what looked like streaks of paint.

"We got inspired by you," Pansy drawled, "figured we'd try our own hands at painting, yeah?"

"'Course," Harry continued, grinning lopsidedly, "we've nowhere near the talent for it that you do, so we started with finger-painting…"

Daphne finally let herself react naturally, laughing happily at the sight of the two. In a way, she had to admit that the pair had some kind of talent; Harry was covered in whirls of black and red made by Pansy's hand, making him look suitably fierce in the way that their girlfriend so enjoyed, while Pansy's features were traced with green lines all over her body, managing to make her look sharper in a way that she knew caught Harry's eye.

"Well, it seems like I've got some catching up to do," Daphne cheerfully decided, unzipping her own dress and stepping free of it, pleased with the way that both of her partners' gazes immediately latched on to her body, "who's got a drink for me?"

The next hours passed easily, and were thoroughly amusing, her partners deciding that they both wanted to try their hands at "painting" her, drawing over her nude form with the simple colouring charms summoned at their fingertips.

While the attention was certainly intimate, it didn't even fall into any outright sexual acts (for the most part; both Harry and Pansy certainly spent more time drawing shapes on her arse than any other area of her body), the trio spending the late hours of the night simply enjoying this kind of closeness to each other.

"Apparently, I'm even better than I thought," Daphne smirked, as their conversation eventually wound its way to the gallery opening, "I learned tonight that I've been making magic paintings, it seems."

"Told you that you were brilliant," Harry stroked the outside of her thigh, "magical how? I didn't see any of the paintings moving, I don't think."

"That's because your eyes were otherwise occupied," Pansy teased, "can't say I blame you, though."

"Oh, I actually wound up speaking to Padma Patil," Daphne explained, giggling, "she's been studying different forms of magic, I guess? Turns out that I've been practicing icono… ekonomo… eikomancy," she finally found the word – Daphne had made a solid effort to catch up to her partners in drinks, and might have wound up overshooting them in doing so – before continuing, "which is an unstructured, emotional sort of magic."

"That's amazing!" Harry grinned widely, "I've no idea what that means, of course, but you always impress me, Daph," he took a swig of his own drink, "hadn't even realized Padma was back in town," he observed casually.

"It sounds like she's visiting," Daphne answered, unsurprised that Harry was friends with the former "D.A." member, "though she invited me to…"

A realization struck Daphne.

"Fuck," she restarted, "I just realized that I think she was hitting on me."

"Oh?" Pansy had an odd look in her eye, like a cat that caught the canary.

"Yeah, shite," Daphne cursed, "she wanted to meet with me to keep talking about the magic painting thing, but I didn't even notice that it was over drinks. She left in a hurry, I guess that might be why it flew over my head."

"Why's that?" Harry had a similar look in his eye, for some reason.

"I've no idea," she admitted, "actually, it was right after the two of you had a particularly rambunctious outburst, it seemed like she caught sight of that and ran off."

"Oh, yeah," Pansy started.

"Ah, right," Harry's words came at the same time.

"It's probably because I shagged her once," Pansy confidently stated.

"We, uh, slept together a while back," Harry much less confidently provided.

There was a moment of silence, before Harry and Pansy turned to each other, their eyes wide, then they broke into uproarious laughter.

"You've both had sex with her!?" Daphne supposed she shouldn't be too surprised, both of her partners had somewhat more adventurous pasts than her own.

Harry and Pansy, instead of answering with words, chose to high-five each other instead, continuing to practically roll around in laughter.

Daphne couldn't help but join them in their mirth, deciding that any potential implications of this revelation could wait for the next day.

Of course, when the next day rolled around, Daphne was rather hoping that they'd managed to forget about that conversation, entirely unsure of how to navigate the topic.

Am I jealous of them? she wondered, before dismissing the thought. The past was the past, after all, and while she could easily admit that Padma was a very attractive woman, Daphne felt far too secure in their relationship to worry that either Harry or Pansy would throw what they had aside in order to pursue her.

Are they going to go at each other because they just learned they share a previous lover? This, too, seemed unlikely. The pair seemed to be ecstatic at the discovery instead of any more complicated feeling.

She settled for nestling further into the couch, sipping her mug of tea, hoping that the whole thing would just blow over.

"Soooo," Pansy appeared with a coffee, perching beside Daphne, the eager look on her face dashing Daphne's hopes, "Padma Patil was trying to pick you up, hey?"

"It appears so," Daphne shrugged, "obviously, it's not a problem."

"So, are you gonna accept her invite?" Pansy leaned in, the look in her eyes the exact opposite of 'jealous', 'worried', or 'uncertain'.

"I, um," Daphne honestly wasn't sure how to answer, "I wasn't planning on it?"

Harry appeared, his own coffee in hand, but when Daphne looked to him for an escape, he simply smiled easily at her, settling in at the other end of the couch beside Pansy.

"Why not?" Pansy, as much as her bluntness could be endearing, threw Daphne off-balance with the question.

"Because I'm in a relationship?" the answer seemed self-evident to Daphne.

"Yeahhh," Pansy smirked, "a partially-open relationship, you recall?"

Oh. That was, in fact, a specifically-agreed-to aspect of their dynamic.

"Fuck, I hadn't really thought of it," Daphne tapped her fingers alongside the edge of her tea mug, "I don't know?"

"Take it easy on her, Pans," Harry chuckled, and their girlfriend rolled her eyes, but nevertheless slouched back on the couch rather than looming increasingly closer to Daphne.

"Of course, my sweet, there's no pressure," Pansy shrugged easily, "if you're not interested, then that's perfectly fine! I just thought it seemed like a uniquely well-suited opportunity to take that whole thing for a test run."

"Elaborate on that?"

"Well, you remember our conditions, right?" Pansy, to her credit, had certainly backed off from sounding like she was trying to convince Daphne of anything, "it has to be someone that all three of us are interested in, and, well, apparently Harry and myself have both fulfilled that interest before."

"She's not really the relationship type," Harry shrugged, "when I was, uh, involved with her, it was a strictly casual thing, and it ended cleanly, no hard feelings from me or anything like that."

"Same here," Pansy admitted, "so it seems like if you were interested, it would be a neat little no-strings situation."

"Hmm," Daphne couldn't decide. True, Padma was very attractive, and Daphne had definitely enjoyed the short, intense conversation that they'd shared, but the way that she'd missed the further implications in the heat of the moment still left her feeling unbalanced, "I'm really not too sure. We're doing absolutely great as-is, this is the happiest I've ever been, I don't want to risk that, you know?"

"Harry," Pansy interjected, "if you imagine Daph hooking up with Padma, how does it make you feel?"

"Er," Harry took a moment to consider his response, "kind of… happy, I guess? It doesn't make me feel jealous or anything, I guess that I'd be content knowing you were having fun? Hypothetically, of course."

"Right, and I think it's pretty obvious," Pansy smiled, a hint of bashfulness crossing her expression, "that I'm considerably more enthusiastic about the idea than that. Really, again, I don't want this to sound pushy, but, well, I'm fairly sure that this might be a kink of mine."

"How so?" Daphne thought she had an idea, but wanted to be absolutely clear on it.

"Well, uh," Pansy was uncharacteristically hesitant, "you're fucking gorgeous, you know? You are too, in your own way, Harry," their boyfriend smirked, raising an eyebrow in response, "and imagining you with someone else that I think is pretty fucking attractive? Well, I think I like that idea. A lot."

"Padma does have fantastic tits," Harry interjected, his smirk growing more devilish at the looks of surprise on his girlfriend's faces, "I know that you're a big fan of breasts."

He's not usually the one to be bold about these things, Daphne knew, so if he's being this forward, he must be okay with the idea.

"She does," Pansy muttered in agreement, "look, I don't know if this makes sense of it, but let me put it this way, Daph, what do you think you'd do if you were single and this same situation came up?"

"I think I'd," Daphne paused, taking the time to fairly consider the possibility, "I think I'd probably go for it, honestly."

"That's what this is really about for me, I think," Pansy mumbled a bit, still not great at expressing vulnerability, "this relationship we have, it's fucking amazing, no doubt about that, but I don't want it to be something that limits us, right? I know it seems contradictory, but it feels more secure to me, somehow, if the three of us can enjoy other people, if that's what we all want."

"Pansy," Harry spoke softly, "you're never contradictory."

"Oh, hush, you lummox," she swatted at his arm, but giggled as she did so, "does that make sense?"

"I think so," Daphne admitted, "it's just… actually doing it is different than agreeing to the idea in principle, yeah?"

"Of course," Harry agreed, "same for me, really. Honestly, I think it's what Pansy said earlier," he shrugged, "since Pans and I have both slept with Padma, and now she's expressed interest in you… it almost seems more fair to me if you have your own experience, however that makes sense."

Daphne had to admit that her earlier worries felt less substantial by this point, and she certainly wasn't turned off by the idea, but it was still all so surprising to her.

"I'll think about it, okay?" Daphne finally decided, "then we'll talk again?"

"Absolutely," Pansy leaned in to embrace her, "and I love you just as much no matter what you decide."

"Same for me," Harry reached over Pansy to stroke Daphne's hair, "we love you, Daph, that's not changing."

The quiet confidence in his voice helped to reassure the last of her lingering concerns, and for the moment, Daphne simply leaned in to her partners' affection, thoroughly enjoying the unshakable truth they'd both had in their voices when they'd said they loved her.

"I love you both," she spoke, just as certain of her own words.

---

Pansy

She stretched out on the couch, thumbing through a spring/summer lookbook from Vivienne Westwood. While the magical world almost certainly wasn't ready for some of the edgier outfits that her muggle contemporaries had come up with, Pansy still felt that it was productive to look for inspiration in these designers' material.

Pansy peered over the edge of the magazine-like publication to look at Harry, who sat at the other end of the couch, his reading material (some sort of report from the Aurors' office) much less interesting – in her opinion, at least – than her own.

"Hey," she spoke, catching his attention.

"Mmh?" Harry murmured a reply, turning his eyes to her as he stopped absent-mindedly tapping his pen against his lips.

"Soooo," Pansy scooched down the couch, planting her legs over Harry's lap, where he idly began to run his thumb in circles over her calf, "how're you feeling?"

"Fine?" Harry tossed his report to the table, leaning back into the couch, "you?"

At this moment, Daphne was on a maybe-date with Padma Patil, their girlfriend having eventually decided that she'd take the former Ravenclaw up on her possible advances. Pansy found the possibility absolutely thrilling, but she was still somewhat unclear on what, precisely, Harry felt about it.

"Oh, I'm doing quite well," Pansy drawled, rubbing her leg against Harry's hand and enjoying the feel of his touch, "like I said, I find the whole idea of Daphne being out on a date to be particularly interesting, yeah?"

"Heh," Harry smirked at her, "that so?"

"Absolutely," Pansy replied, cooing as Harry began to actively massage her calf, "but I'm still a bit unsure how you're feeling, y'know?"

"Oh, I'm not worried," he shrugged easily, "like you said, Padma seems like a good fit to test out the whole 'maybe sleeping with other women' thing, I guess? I hope Daph has fun, however that goes for her."

"You don't find it interesting?" Pansy teased, drawing her other leg over Harry's lap, "you aren't picturing our girl shagging another beautiful witch right now?"

"I, uh," Harry tensed when Pansy's leg brushed over his groin, the beginnings of a flush appearing on his neck, "I hadn't really been picturing it much, but I am now, I suppose?"

"Oh?" Pansy knew that she had him now, "what are you picturing? Exactly?"

"Well, er," Harry licked his lips, "Padma's pretty gorgeous, yeah, and of course both Daphne and you are incredible, so, uh, I guess it'd be pretty hot to watch them together?"

Sometimes, Potter, you've no imagination at all, Pansy teased her boyfriend in her thoughts, I guess I'll have to see what I can inspire for you…

"Did you know?" Pansy drawled, "I was Padma's first woman? Even for a beginner, I'd have to say, she caught on pretty quick."

"That so?" Harry swallowed, "I'll admit, I was a bit surprised to hear that you'd slept with her too, but, uh, yeah, she's a fun time."

"When did you have fun with her?" Pansy was honestly curious, her boyfriend typically fairly tight-lipped about his previous love life.

"A few years ago," Harry answered, "before I left for Europe, a little while after Gin and I broke up. You?"

"Oh, you got her first," Pansy teased, "I shagged her a couple of years back, in Milan, actually."

"How'd that happen?"

"No, no, no," Pansy gave her boyfriend a positively predatory grin, "you tell me your story first."

He did so, outlining the way that he and Padma had initially begun spending time together to perform sort of magical healing for his sake, which later blossomed into a considerably more intimate sort of care. Pansy was tempted to scoff at a few points in Harry's story, where she recognized that the brunette witch had obviously been putting the moves on him, which Harry seemed ignorant of even today.

Is it really so surprising to you that you might be desirable? She wondered.

Nevertheless, Harry's story had been hot, and thanks to her own experiences with Padma Patil, Pansy found that she could clearly picture the scenes he described, the imagined sights sparking a familiar heat between her legs.

"What about you?" Harry asked huskily, and Pansy smirked as she obliged his request.

Her and Padma had wound up hooking up out of circumstance more than anything that could have been foreseen ahead of time; a mistake with a reservation at a hotel, a common interest in certain forms of art, and a bottle of firewhisky had led to Pansy providing Padma her first (and second, and third, and so on) lesbian experience. Apparently, such an occasion had not been a one-time exploration of Padma's sexuality, given that, years later, Pansy's own girlfriend was on a date with the woman.

"Fuck," Harry groaned as her tale reached its conclusion, "I think I see what you mean about picturing you with other women."

"I wonder if we shared anyone else without knowing it," she ran the sole of her free foot over Harry's trousers with purpose this time, smirking to herself as she felt his cock beginning to swell under her touch, "after all, you have quite an interesting history, I imagine…"

"Um, yeah, I don't know about that," Harry's reply was flustered, clearly struggling to handle both the heated conversation topic and her actions at the same time, "like I said, I, er, didn't really have the most active love life back at Hogwarts or anything."

"Oh, me neither," Pansy admitted, "I really should've fucked you back then. But I think we both made up for it after the fact, didn't we?" she couldn't help but giggle at Harry's enthusiastic nods in response, before she continued her line of questioning, "who else are notches on your belt that might be on mine, I wonder?"

"Uhh," the interjection, usually limited to when Harry felt awkward, came out halfway to a groan, especially when she pressed her toes against the side of his cock, "Romilda Vane? That was a mistake, but I guess she might be the adventurous sort?"

"Can't say I recognize the name," Pansy admitted, pulling her other leg free from Harry's hands so that she could run both her feet around his (now fully-hard) member, "what was so adventurous?"

This topic of conversation wound up fulfilling two (similar) purposes for Pansy: first, it was clearly getting Harry hot and bothered even more than their earlier exchange of stories, but secondly, it was definitely confirming her recently-discovered kink. Pansy was realizing that, without a doubt, imagining her partners fucking other attractive women absolutely got her own motor running.

"She was, ah," Harry groaned as Pansy sat up, drawing her fingers teasingly over the tent in his trousers, "bit of a fan-girl, more into the whole 'Man-Who-Won' idea than me, really, but she was very insistent that she wanted to give me a blowjob to express this admiration…"

"Ooh," Pansy teased, unzipping Harry's fly and pulling his cock – still covered by his underwear – through the opening, "was she any good?"

"More enthusiastic than talented, really," Harry hissed his reply, especially as Pansy flopped back to her previous position, now teasing his cock with her feet with one fewer layer in between, "I was worried she was going to choke herself unconscious at some points."

"That sounds fun," Pansy had to admit that her own voice was hitching at points, the heat between her legs beginning to grow nearly unbearable.

"Uhhh," Harry didn't even try to disguise his groan, "Katie Bell?"

"The chaser?"

"Yeahhh," Harry leaned back with his arms behind his head, pushing his hips into Pansy's feet of his own accord, "we had a bit of a thing going before she moved away, totally casual and all, but it was… a lot of fun. I know she was dating a girl for a bit last year, and there can't be that many witches who might be on both our lists."

You'd be surprised… Pansy thought. While not exactly a topic for "polite conversation", it was a barely-hidden secret of Pureblood society that it was surprisingly common for witches to be attracted to both women and men. Pansy's own ventures into Muggle society had revealed that the proportion of bisexual (or other similar labels) witches seemed to be much greater than women in the non-magical world, for reasons she couldn't begin to guess at.

"Mmm," Pansy moved so that Harry's cock was trapped between the soles of her feet, her legs spread wide open in a positively lewd fashion, judging from the way that Harry's gaze immediately locked on to looking up her skirt, "I haven't had the pleasure, but she's pretty cute, good job, you stud." Despite her teasing tone, she actually meant the words, not that Harry would realize it.

Katie Bell was, indeed "pretty cute" in Pansy's estimate, despite the trio of claw marks on one side of her face. She'd been one of the more public victims of Fenrir Greyback at the Battle of Hogwarts, along with Lavender Brown, and Pansy quietly harboured suspicions that Bell's mostly-stagnant Quidditch career was in part due to prejudices she faced from her not-quite-Werewolf status. Still, compared to the only other professional athlete that Pansy knew (Ginny Malfoy, Seeker for Holyhead), Bell's powerful – bordering on muscular – build was much more interesting to look at in the games that Pansy had watched.

"Umm, yeah, you'd probably have fun with her," Harry practically stammered his words, his face now well into a blush, "she's, uh, super submissive."

"Oh?" Pansy teased, smirking at her boyfriend's difficulty in finding his words, "have you been holding out on me, Harry? Do you have an actual dominant streak hidden in you somewhere?"

"I, uh," his blush doubled, probably due to embarrassment in some degree, "I'm not great at it. I'm not holding out on you, I just, you know, would rather do what you like, yeah?"

And if I'd "like" for you to actually let me fulfill your fantasies for once… Pansy thought, resisting the temptation to roll her eyes. As much as she loved Harry's constant efforts to make sure that Daphne and her were both satisfied and happy, Pansy could admit that she actually wanted to do the same for her partners, and Harry had been stubbornly difficult to extract any specific kinks or desires from.

"I see how it is," Pansy teased, leaning up to capture his lips in hers quickly, bringing her hand down to palm his erection, before swinging her legs off the couch and beginning to walk away, "goodnight, Potter."

Take the hint, Harry…

While Pansy still wanted to pull Harry's innermost desires to the surface, this didn't mean that she was going to be hesitant to express her own fantasies, not in the slightest. She had previously discussed with Harry (while Daphne giggled and teased them both, of course) that one of her long-standing fantasies had been a scenario where Harry, as a Head Boy, had caught her in the halls of Hogwarts after dark.

It was one that couldn't have been fulfilled in reality (for many reasons, some much more serious than others), but now that she'd somehow managed to convince Harry to become her boyfriend, it was well within her reach.

However, Pansy had already decided that it wasn't going to be something she told him to do for her – this would ruin the appeal of the scenario, really – instead hoping that her various hints and references over the course of their evening so far would manage to spur him into action.

As she strode away from him, making sure that she put an extra roll in her hips, mimicking wearing heels even though she was barefoot, Harry somewhat let her down.

"Pans?" he asked, "did I do something wrong?"

"It's awfully late, Potter," she turned over her shoulder to smirk at him, admitting that perhaps her hints may have been too subtle, "I should be getting back to the Slytherin dorms, should I not?"

She turned her gaze forwards again, hoping that this obvious invitation, at least, would spur him into action.

"Well, fancy finding you here, Parkinson," Harry's words came at her ear, and she didn't even have to act the thrilling shock it sent through her. She forgot just how fast and silently Harry could move when he wanted to.

"Potter," she schooled her expression to look as smug as she could manage, "some of us, in fact, have social lives. I can't imagine that you've anything interesting to say, so if you would, I'd quite like to get to bed."

"Ah-ah-ah," Harry chided her, "I'm afraid, Miss Parkinson, that it is well after curfew."

"Is that so?" Pansy smirked at him, "hmm, I'm afraid I simply don't give a fuck."

"I wonder…" Harry reached down to clasp her wrist, "if you'd be so smug with a week's detention. I'm thinking Care of Magical Beasts, yeah? Since you always look like you've just smelled something unpleasant, it might do you some good to spend some quality time with Hagrid's latest batch of blast-ended skrewts, give you some real experience in that regard."

"If I look disgusted," Pansy tried to snatch her wrist from his grasp, but failed, "it's because I so often see disgusting people. Release me, Potter."

"Or else what, Parkinson?"

"I don't know who you think you're fooling," Pansy drawled, "Head Boy or not, I'm not impressed by you. I'm not one of your little Gryffindor sluts, so why don't you run along and bother them, and both of us will find it more enjoyable than this."

He roughly pulled her by her arm, pressing her back against the nearby wall, and she had to consciously stop herself from moaning as he did so.

"I only see one slut here, Parkinson. I wonder how your reputation would manage if I turned you in, coming back after midnight? That skirt certainly doesn't look regulation-length to me…"

"Perish the thought, Potter," Pansy's breath was coming faster, "now, if you'd quit playing at whatever game you're attempting, let me go. I've got better places to be."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why should I let you go?" Harry leaned in to murmur the words in her ear, pressing his body against hers in doing so.

"You…" Pansy's words hitched, before she returned to the fantasy role she was playing, "you don't have the balls, Potter. Release me."

"No." Harry pushed tighter against her.

"This isn't funny," Pansy tried her best to sound nervous, instead of thrilled, "don't go getting your little cock excited, and stop it this instant."

"Little?" Harry smirked, dragging her hand to his groin, placing it on his (in reality, substantial) erection instead.

"What are you doing?" Pansy put a whine into her voice, though even in this fantasy, she couldn't help but grip his cock over his underwear, still protruding through his open fly.

"I figure, Parkinson," Harry hissed the words, "if you want me to let you go, you're going to have to make it worth my while, yeah?"

"Ugh," she genuinely attempted to sound disgusted, "you fucking pervert. Fucking fine, just make it quick."

She fished his erection free of his underwear, and began to half-heartedly stroke his length, demonstrating precisely none of the skill she had if she were genuinely pleasuring him.

"You think you're getting out of this with a handjob?" Harry chuckled, and his other hand came to her shoulders, pressing down on her, "if I wanted to have a wank, I'd do a better job myself. On your knees, Parkinson."

Fucking finally, she exulted in her thoughts, as she acted as if she were struggling against his grip, before "reluctantly" dropping to her knees in front of him. While she continued to slowly stroke his cock, she made a show out of keeping her mouth closed, petulantly turning her head away when Harry attempted to guide her mouth to his throbbing member.

"Open," Harry commanded, and Pansy shook her head in protest. He reached down, pressing on the sides of her face to force her mouth open, and actually reached into her mouth (she couldn't help but suck at his digits momentarily, despite the scenario they were acting), pinching the tip of her tongue between his index finger and thumb and pulling it out between her lips.

"That's better," Harry's own voice hitched in the middle of his words, but if he harboured any doubts about their roleplay, he thankfully didn't let them stop his actions, gripping her hair roughly and bringing her head forward to meet the thrust of his hips.

"Fuck, it seems that you've got some talent after all," he imperiously stared down at her, slowly fucking her face, as Pansy couldn't resist her urge to run her tongue around his cock, just barely managing not to moan as he pumped in and out of her mouth.

When Harry began to pick up his intensity, pushing deeper and deeper into her mouth, Pansy made a show out of making gasping, choking noises, only slightly failing to disguise the low groan that she made as she rubbed her thighs together absent-mindedly.

With one particularly aggressive push forward, Harry hilted himself in her throat, and she felt his length spasm, not able to prevent herself from moaning loudly around his cock as he came, this sort of rough play exactly what she was hoping for when she'd told Harry about this fantasy of hers.

She gasped for breath in a way that wasn't entirely acting when he pulled free of her mouth, staring up at him with what she meant to look like "horrified defiance", but knew probably actually looked more like "smoldering desire".

"Fuck you," she spat, her words slurred from the intensity of his actions, "you've had your fun, now let me go."

Harry stepped back from her, raising his hands in a mockingly-placating gesture, as she rose unevenly back to her feet.

She made it all of one step before Harry came in behind her, pressing her face-first against the wall this time, his body pressed harshly against her back.

"Did you think that we're done here?" Harry taunted her, and it took all of Pansy's willpower not to throw him off of her and ride the fuck out of him in that instant, "I didn't recall telling you that I'm finished with you…"

"Potter," Pansy tried to sound frightened, "what are you doing? Stop it!"

Don't you dare fucking stop, Harry, she thought.

"I don't think I will," Harry leaned in to bite at her earlobe, a bit more roughly than he normally would, but perfect for their roleplay.

"I'll scream," she whimpered.

"I rather expect you will, Parkinson," Harry's voice rumbled in her ear, and she pressed her arse back against him almost instinctually.

"Oh, what's this?" Harry tried his best to keep his own voice cruel, but she still noticed a bit of his good-natured charm coming through, before he flipped her skirt up, tearing her panties off her body. He ran a finger between her legs, and she didn't bother disguising the hissed moan she made, "why, Miss Parkinson, it almost seems like you're enjoying this, doesn't it?"

Without warning, Harry shoved his length inside of her, and Pansy's vision exploded with bursts of light as she came from this first thrust, the rough aggression was precisely what she wanted from Harry in this moment. He reached under her arms to shove her own limbs up above her head, pinning them in place with a single one of his hands, the other coming to rest over her throat.

"I suppose that this would be the way you're used to being treated," Harry 'cruelly' taunted her, as her moan was muffled by the way her face was pressed into the wall, "I'd expect nothing else from a Slytherin slut."

He began to fuck her in earnest, and Pansy's world melted away into pure sensation, the rough impacts of his hips against her arse bouncing her against the wall, his grip around her neck just tight enough to make her head spin, his aggressive possession of her body sufficient to lift her to her tip-toes as he slammed into her over and over.

Pansy honestly lost count of her orgasms by the time that Harry came inside of her, her vision filled with stars, her body feeling like it was falling apart in the best way.

"Hey," Harry's voice was soft again, all the love that he'd managed to disguise during this role-play scenario returning, "you okay?"

"Fuckin' brilliant," Pansy slurred, leaning back into his comforting strength, "fuck, thank you."

"Heh," Harry kissed the top of her head gently, "I'm just glad it wasn't too rough. I know you didn't use your safeword, but I still got worried at a couple points there."

"Hush," she muttered, half-heartedly slapping his shoulder, "fucking… wow. Yes. Great."

"Aren't you eloquent."

"Shut up, you," she giggled, "mmm. Let's have a bath."

"That sounds great," Harry admitted, only caught slightly off-balance when Pansy sagged into him even further.

"You're gonna have to carry me," she commanded, "you've made my legs go all jelly."

"Perish the thought," Harry teased her, but he easily scooped her up into his arms, where she nuzzled into the side of his neck.

"Once you've run the bath," she continued, "get us a bottle of champagne. Daph should be getting home at some point."

"Right, yeah." Harry carried her up the stairs to their bedroom, "have I mentioned lately that you're absolutely gorgeous?"

"Mmrrr," Pansy practically purred, kissing the side of Harry's neck, "damn right I am. You're brilliant. Love you."

"Love you too, Pans," Harry returned a kiss to the top of her head.

Later, Pansy continued to luxuriate in the bath, the warm water, champagne, and Harry's nude body beside her proving to be the ideal accompaniment to her well-fucked state.

"That wasn't so hard, right?" she teased, running wet fingers through Harry's hair.

"In all honesty," he leaned into her hand, "it's not really my favourite scenario, but since it's what you wanted, I definitely enjoyed it."

"And what is your favourite scenario?"

"Well, uh," Harry blushed under her hand, "I know that this is right frustrating for you, but I'm seriously pretty much content exploring whatever it is that you and Daph want to try."

"Nothing comes to mind?"

"I just don't think I'm the most inventive, really. It's something I love about the two of you, I always enjoy what you come up with."

"You're damn right you do," Pansy ruffled his hair, leaning in to kiss him quickly, "but I really have to reiterate, the instant that you come up with some kind of fantasy, I want to help you fulfill it, you know."

"I know," Harry chuckled, "and I don't want you to think I'm not interested or anything like that, it's just… it can be hard, yeah?"

"How so?"

"I just, well," Harry smirked, "I know that this sounds cheesy, but I'm really, really lucky to have the two of you. Luckier than I'd ever really imagined, you know. When I'm already more fortunate than I'd ever dreamed of, trying to come up with something even better is beyond me, yeah?"

"That's because you're a lummox," Pansy leaned her forehead into his, "and I just want to be sure that I know that you're still content."

"More than content," Harry reached around to squeeze her arse, and she happily wiggled against him, "I never really pictured being this happy."

"No?"

"Not really, no," Harry smiled happily, "it's not that I want to sound like I was all heartbroken or anything like that, but when Ginny and I broke up, I'd never really pictured actually dating again, y'know? I didn't spend a lot of time dreaming about my future when I was young, so it was all uncharted territory for me."

"It's pretty new for us as well," Pansy admitted, "but why on earth wouldn't you figure you'd wind up dating? If it wasn't me and Daph, someone would have snapped you up eventually, Harry."

"I'm not sure about that," Harry murmured, "I know that the two of you think I'm great for some reason, but really, I'm not all that easy to handle, I think."

"It does require a certain tolerance for sulking," Pansy pinched his arm, and he squirmed against her, "but… I mean, you don't have to tell me if you'd rather not, I just can't figure out why you always seemed so resigned about that foolish thought of yours."

"I can't really figure it out either," Harry shrugged, "I guess, maybe, since I'd never really had a chance to make my own choices for so long, I kind of got lost once I ran out of a purpose to fulfill?"

Hmm, Pansy thought, I know he doesn't really mind talking about the War for the most part, but this seems a bit heavier than usual.

"Do we need a purpose?" she asked, "I can't say that I've got some grand calling in life, but I'm certainly enjoying just living it, anyways."

"I'm not sure," Harry frowned, and Pansy did her best to chase away whatever doubt he felt with a quick kiss, "I've felt more focused ever since all this political shite started up again, and I wonder if maybe I always have to have a mission of some sort, yeah?"

"I dunno," Pansy embraced him, "apparently the whole 'brooding Lord adrift in his own existential uncertainty' thing really works for me."

"I'm glad it does," Harry chuckled, "I'm not sure if I've quite got the handle on being anything else, yeah?"

"You never had any grand ambitions?" Pansy teased, "not a Quidditch star, or a famous Auror?"

"Honestly," Harry shrugged, "I'd never really figured I'd have lived this long."

Fuck, there it is. This revelation was a new one, and it finally helped some pieces of the Harry Potter puzzle slide into place in Pansy's mind.

"Why?" she asked.

"Well, can't blame me," Harry explained, "like, not to make you worry about me or anything, it's not like it worries me now, but I had someone or other try to kill me pretty much annually ever since I was eleven. That was before I figured out that it was quite literally my responsibility to defeat Voldemort."

"You've had a hard life," Pansy sympathized, "but… you can picture a future now, I'd hope?"

"I hope so," Harry squeezed her tightly against him, "and, assuming that you and Daphne remain interested, I'd like to think you'll be parts of it."

"You'll have to try harder than that to get rid of me, Harry," she kissed him again, "after all, if I can put up with your puns, my tolerance must be rather extreme."

"Yours are just as bad."

"Slander and falsehoods," Pansy protested, "I engage in clever quips and stunning displays of wit, your own attempts are barely acceptable forms of comedy."

"You seemed to enjoy it well enough when we got drunk on Libation of Loquaciousness," Harry teased.

"I suppose I did," she pinched him again, just because she could, "I might be willing to admit that you aren't all bad."

"High praise, Parkinson," he drawled.

"You're worth it, Potter," she answered.

Daphne returned to 12 Grimmauld Place a couple hours of later, and from the flush on her face (to say nothing of the hickey at the base of her neck), Pansy could tell that she'd had an equally enjoyable evening.

While Daphne looked as captivating as ever, in a casual outfit (wearing the dragonskin trousers that Pansy had gifted her, at that), there was a tension that she carried in her body language, her arms slightly crossed in front of her, her shoulders pulled back in a way that seemed on-guard.

"Hey, gorgeous," Pansy greeted her, "looks like you had a good night, hmm?"

"I uh, um," Daphne stammered, nervously. Pansy could tell that her girlfriend was concerned about her reaction, her eyes darting around nervously, "I did, yes. To be blunt about it, yes, I had sex with Padma."

"And?"

"…and?" Daphne blinked in confusion.

"How was it?" Pansy swept closer to her, bringing her girlfriend into a tight embrace. She could smell a hint of an unfamiliar perfume on Daphne, and the scent was almost enough to inspire her to throw her girlfriend onto the bed from the erotic images it conjured to mind, were it not for the fact that she had been so thoroughly satisfied earlier in the evening.

"I'm not jealous either, if you were worried," Harry interjected, inserting himself beside Pansy to join her in hugging their blonde girlfriend, "we all agreed to it, you haven't done anything wrong, Daph."

Daphne's tension seemed to disappear in an instant, as she melted into the embrace.

"Oh, it was very… it was fun. She's very good with her mouth… which the two of you already know, I presume."

"I want to hear everything about it," Pansy drawled, guiding her girlfriend to the couch, but not before planting a reassuring kiss to her lips, "and in exchange, I'll tell you about our evening."

"Oh?"

"I finally convinced this lug," Pansy reached to flick Harry's shoulder with her fingers, "to act out the whole 'Head Boy catches a delinquent Slytherin out after hours and takes advantage of her' scenario."

"Ooh!" the spark returned to Daphne's eyes at this, and Pansy felt the last remnant of her own nervousness disappear, "deal!"

As Daphne began to explain the events of her evening, Pansy felt a strange, and yet somehow familiarly blanketing sense of security settle over her.

Our relationship might not be the most conventional, she thought, nor are any of us flawless people, but fuck me, is this ever working out brilliantly.

It may not have been exactly what Pansy had pictured when she'd hoped for the future, but now that the three had come together, she could not imagine anything better.

---

Daphne

Daphne gave herself a final once-over in her mirror, checking her outfit again as if it might have suddenly changed in the last fifteen minutes, then, running out of excuses, left her flat to apparate off to her "maybe a date?" with Padma Patil.

She had dressed herself in a "sharp casual" style, which seemed appropriate for the destination; wearing a black blouse over the dragonhide trousers which Pansy had made for her, black patent heels completing the look, with a mix of silver and sapphire jewelry to accessorize. In many ways, her outfit was a form of armour for her; she was still a bit hesitant and uncertain about what, precisely, this night might involve, and she'd rather look the part of the "Ice Queen" than act it.

Huffing one last breath out in preparation, Daphne made her way into the bar. It was called "After 6", one of the hip new places to go for cocktails in Diagon Alley, and even the choice of location was somewhat more ambiguous than Daphne would have liked: certainly, many people seemed to meet here for business, but other tables she walked past clearly involved more romantic sorts of pursuits.

It didn't take long for her to find Padma, who was dressed in a similarly sharp manner: a partly-sheer purple blouse (unbuttoned deeply enough to show a considerable amount of cleavage), neat dark-blue jeans, and a few pieces of gold jewelry in her ears, nose, and at her neck.

It's probably a good sign for Pansy, Daphne thought, that stylish young Witches have moved so much closer to Muggle fashions.

"Hello, Padma," Daphne greeted her "hostess" for the evening, "how are you?"

"Hi, Daphne!" Padma replied cheerfully, "quite well, thanks! You?"

"I'm good," Daphne took a seat across the table, settling her nerves at the same time as she (literally) settled in to the chair.

They passed a few moments making idle small talk, before Daphne decided she'd move the topic of conversation closer to the ostensible reason that she was meeting Padma this evening.

"I'm still curious," Daphne admitted, "how, exactly, it is that I have apparently been practicing a rare and ancient form of magic, without my own intent or awareness."

"Well, I hope that I can do some small part to explain!" Padma's eyes sparkled with interest, "I presume that you recall the basic theories of Magic as an entity?"

"Mhmm," Daphne agreed, "it's not truly a conscious being, by most theories, but rather something that follows certain rules and tendencies, and to go against these conventions makes it more difficult to accomplish whatever your intended result is."

"That's correct," Padma took a sip of her drink – a magical beverage with similar effects to a weaker Pepper-Up Potion, Daphne noted – before continuing, "however, the area of study which I've been focusing on leads me to believe that it is a somewhat incomplete understanding, just as my own knowledge has only led me to believe that there is so much that we have yet to accurately discern."

Not many people speak this quickly, Daphne smirked, but if nothing else, it's fun to get a bit academic about this.

"Well, it seems fairly straightforward that Magic is not a strictly empirical phenomenon," Daphne argued, "so it may well be that a true understanding of the underlying characteristics of Magic is forever out of reach simply by its own nature."

"Very likely," Padma admitted, "but my studies have, thankfully, been more illuminating than I'd even hoped for. Are you aware of the concept of 'Magic of the Land'?"

"Not in-depth," Daphne had heard the phrase before, but her own studies at Hogwarts had focused on practical applications over more esoteric topics.

"As a summary, it's clear that magic is a global phenomenon," Padma's explanation was rapid-fire, and Daphne almost felt a point of pride for being able to follow it, "an underlying part of reality that some people are able to access, and in doing so, to use magic. The actual nature of manifestation, however, seems to be quite varied across cultures and geographical locations, which might well indicate that different forms of magical practice actually change the shape of magic within a certain context."

"Such as?"

"Well, for example, we're both quite familiar with the practices of Magical Britain," Padma continued, "the easiest way to cast spells is to employ a magical implement – wands, in our case – in coordination with specific gestures and spoken commands. However, these components are not truly required, as many accomplished Wizards and Witches are quite capable of casting spells without their wand, without gesturing, and without speaking."

"Is it related to an individual's power?" Daphne wondered. Certainly, Harry seemed to be able to easily cast complex spells without aid of wand or spoken command, but he was an outlier in many regards.

"Somewhat, I'd say," Padma took another sip of her drink before resuming once again, "it seems likely that the magic of Magical Britain is predisposed to follow certain conventions; each of these three components of spellcasting makes it easier to reach the intended result, but magic users who are uniquely powerful, particularly well-practised, or notably strong of will appear to be able to bypass this 'pathway' in order to reach the same destination."

"That's a very poetic way of describing spell-casting," Daphne was impressed, "but it still seems to rely on the magic-user's intent to produce a result, which doesn't appear to apply to my own recent works."

"Which ties back, I believe, to the idea of Magic as an entity:" Padma seemed to be well-prepared for this topic, "accidental magic is a well-known phenomenon in young children in our culture, where weak spells are cast without any accompanying casting components, and often without conscious intent. While I don't wish to compare you to a child, it seems that your own personal magic is somewhat more flexible than many others' might be, and I suspect that you've been creating eikomantic works as a result of your own magic reaching for a new avenue of expression."

Huh, Daphne pursed her lips in thought, because I'm not doing all that much spell-casting in my day-to-day, my magic itself is reaching out for something else? It sounds plausible, if not exactly what I'd expect…

"Those who stop practicing magic as frequently usually tend to grow weaker, do they not?" Daphne expressed her curiosity, "I'd anticipate that if it was because I'm growing out of practice with traditional spell-casting, that I'd simply start to lose magical ability, rather than manifesting new ones…"

"And that, I suspect, ties back to the concept of the Magic of the Land," Padma grinned, clearly excited to continue her 'lecture' on this topic, "the traditions of Magical Britain are actually fairly muddled, with contributions from a number of different cultures. Our wand-based casting is very similar to Kabbalist tradition, surprisingly enough, and yet Potion-making is almost purely Druidic in its practice."

"Hmm, I hadn't considered that," Daphne admitted, "potions are a different kind of casting than attempting to produce the same effect by charms or incantation. Why is that, do you think?"

"It's my belief that the shape of Magic within Magical Britain is one that is predisposed towards certain practices and outcomes, just as many other cultures have their own predispositions. For example, some European nations which still hew more tightly to Pagan practices will use staves or rings as casting implements instead of wands," Padma leaned forwards, and Daphne had to make an effort not to glance at her cleavage, "while the aspects of Blood Magic that are practiced here would be seen as horribly Dark in some other cultures."

"Blood Magic?" Daphne frowned.

"Not so grim as you're picturing, but quite so, yes," Padma nodded, as if to confirm to herself, "I've heard that this is a topic that you might not wish to discuss, so please let me know if you'd prefer that I stop talking about it, but the organization of 'Pure-blood' families is actually a ritualized expression of blood magic."

"The whole 'Family Magic' idea is rather overstated, I think," Daphne argued, "while it may be true that, say, House Ollivander has traditionally produced wand-makers, I rather doubt that this is due to predestination or anything so deterministic, I'd argue that it's just as likely that a father trained his son in the family business, and so on."

"I'd agree with you, in part," Padma's gaze seemed to grow a bit more intense with this topic, "I don't think that magic actually commands people to follow specific paths, but I do believe that it, well, tends to open doors and provide subtle nudges in certain directions."

"Hmm, I could see that," Daphne agreed, "what would an example be?"

"Well, one avenue I've found particularly interesting is the outdated practice of forming Covens," Padma answered, and Daphne's eyebrow raised in interest; this was not the first time she'd heard that phrase recently, "which were likely themselves the result of combining the Kabbalistic tradition of significant numbers – three, seven, nine, thirteen, so on – with an older, Druidic rite, which used sexuality to empower the results of these rituals. The practice of forming Covens had an impact on the nature of magic within Magical Britain, which in turn has an impact on magic-users within this area."

"How so?"

"Well, I'm sure you've noticed," Padma smiled slyly, "but it's actually quite common for Witches to be bisexual. When compared to Muggle society, the proportion of this orientation seems to be much higher, which I suspect is due to a lingering tendency to make it easier for Witches to participate in Covens."

This is, once again, starting to sound uncomfortably close to predestination, Daphne thought, although she couldn't say that Padma was wrong (considering part of the reason for her accepting this offer, after all).

"That sounds a lot like destiny, I'm afraid," Daphne voiced her thoughts.

"I wouldn't consider it so straightforward as that, personally," Padma continued, "for most of us, I imagine that we have just as much ability to make our own choices as any Muggle person would. The way I view it is that magic tends to open certain doors; since women such as myself are attracted to both men and women, it means that I could have the option of joining a Coven if someone had the daring to found one, even though I doubt I'd make that choice, personally."

That was pretty well-done, Daphne smirked in approval, a subtle way of indicating that you're interested, while still couched in the topic at hand. Nearly Slytherin of you, Padma.

"Almost like the principle of natural selection, the way you're describing it," Daphne pondered, "if these sorts of… effects make certain niches easier to access, without necessarily obligating them."

"That's a good comparison!" Padma paused, as their server returned to the table, and her second beverage order was a drink that was mixed with just the slightest hint of a lust potion, which Daphne realized was another subtle expression of interest.

"I'll have the same, thank you," Daphne hadn't yet decided what, exactly, she was going to reply to Padma's presumed offer with, but she was beginning to lean more towards 'yes'.

It's not that I'm not interested, she thought, and, like Pansy said, were I single… I'd almost certainly go for it, but it's just…

Daphne wasn't really used to uncertainty in this sort of situation. When she had been single, her brief entanglements were usually quite straightforward in terms of mutual interest, but this possibility also carried the complicating factor of her existing relationship, which was halfway a secret, yet also not an impediment to any further developments.

In a way, the novelty of the scenario seemed to have its own sort of appeal.

"So, other than possibly making it more likely for me to be bisexual," Daphne decided to open this particular 'door' a bit wider, "what is your theory on the effects that Magic itself has had on me?"

"Well, just to be clear," Padma leaned slightly closer, almost conspiratorially, "and my apologies for being blunt, but I find it is easier to be straightforward; I am absolutely flirting with you, but if I've misjudged things, then I am also quite content to hold to purely academic topics."

"Mm," Daphne felt a slight blush rising in her cheeks, "well, you should know that I am, hmm, involved with someone, however…" she spoke over Padma's beginning attempts to apologize, "they are aware of where I am, and they, um, approve."

That's putting it lightly, in Pansy's case, Daphne recalled with a smirk, and hopefully that's vague enough not to reveal too much just yet.

"Oh!" Padma's eyes sparked with interest, "that's quite fascinating! Unconventional arrangements such as that are particularly intriguing to me as well, I would love to discuss that further, if you'd be willing!"

"Perhaps," Daphne realized that she had, in fact, made her decision, "but first… I am rather curious about hearing the conclusion to your theories as to why my magic, in particular, is behaving in new ways."

"Oh! Yes!" Padma seemed as if she had to make an effort to refocus on this topic, "right, yes, the last aspect I was discussing was relating to Magic of the Land, and how this could be relevant. Well, um, not to dredge up any grim topics, but with the end of the Second Wizarding War, it's quite likely that local magic is, itself, in somewhat of a state of flux."

"Oh?"

"Yes, well," a brief flicker of something dark flickered over Padma's expression, something that Daphne had seen happen to Harry at times, "the so-called Dark Lord was a powerful practitioner of magics related to Death, destruction, domination, generally Dark avenues of magic. With his rather conclusive defeat, these elements have in turn been weakened, which, if returning to the earlier metaphor, has likely opened doors which had previously been shut."

I wonder if Harry's ever been told that he saved the "soul" of Magical Britain itself… Daphne rather suspected that he hadn't.

"Given that magic is still adjusting to this change in nature, I think that it's quite plausible that the avenues of practice are somewhat more flexible at this point," Padma continued, "and considering the current focal figure who drives some of this change, it would make sense that forms of magic based more in emotion and unconscious expression may move closer to the forefront."

"Hmm," Daphne turned this idea over for a moment, "I don't think it would come as a surprise to many people to suggest that Lord Potter-Black seems set to become the next Dumbledore, but I'll admit that I find it surprising to suggest that someone of that stature can reshape the nature of magic in this land."

"Not quite 'the next Dumbledore', the way I'd phrase it, if I'm correct in my theory," Padma disagreed.

"Well, I'm sure you know him better than I do," Daphne forced herself to maintain this deception, "but I've seen him duel, and it certainly seems as if Harry… Potter," she added his last name as she realized how familiar she'd sound, "is among the most powerful magic-users I've ever witnessed."

"That's just it," Padma smiled, and there was a glint of something in her eyes, "if I'm right, I think 'Dumbledore' would be selling him short. If he chooses to actually use his power, then, well, I believe that Harry might well be the next Merlin."

These words left a brief moment of silence in their wake, as Daphne tried her best to process the idea. The more she tried to find holes in this theory, the more she realized that, yes, her boyfriend might well have the capability to become a legendary figure, beyond even his current heroic status.

"Wow," she breathed the word, impressed, "that's a lot to take in."

"There's a lot more to the man than most realize," Padma agreed, with that glimmer of interest in her gaze only increasing in intensity.

"I think I might wish to discuss lighter topics, after that," Daphne admitted, eyeing her empty glass pointedly.

"I agree!" Padma cheerfully announced, leaning across the table to rest her hand against the back of Daphne's arm, "and, well, if you would like to move this conversation elsewhere… my hotel is just down the road from here."

It was strange; though the weight of the last topic seemed like it should have dampened Daphne's enthusiasm, she felt oddly relieved by this advance. In some way, Padma's offer felt like something that just made sense, as if something were subtly sliding into place.

Daphne made her decision.

"Is it, now?" she smiled, "perhaps you should show me."

Daphne's heart began to thrum in her chest as soon as she set foot in Padma's hotel room. It wasn't quite nervousness that she felt, closer to a sort of uncertain excitement. While it was just as likely that this night may prove to be a one-off, Daphne also understood that this could mean a change in her relationship, the first step towards something different.

She couldn't help but compare the idea to the conversation about the shifting nature of magic that she'd had with Padma earlier; if anything, this certainly seemed like a door being opened.

No longer making the effort to disguise her gaze, Daphne's eyes traced over Padma, who stood at the center of the room, not far from her bed. Daphne realized that Padma was similar to Pansy in some superficial ways; shorter than Daphne, with dark hair, and a sinfully curvaceous figure.

While Pansy's features carried a hint of something sharp, and Padma's own seemed soft, by body-type alone, Daphne noticed a resemblance. She was struck by the idle thought that Susan, as well, possessed some of these traits, the three women sharing similarities even though each was so different from the others.

Fuck, I really do have a type, she thought.

"Do you have any hard limits, particular preferences, or boundaries I should be aware of?" Padma asked, the gleam in her eyes seeming to land halfway between 'lustful' and 'intellectually curious'.

"I don't want to do anything too extreme," Daphne answered, "and, while it's unlikely that it would come up, talk of pregnancy is a pretty hard 'no' for me."

"Oh, certainly," Padma grinned at her, and Daphne wondered if 'dark hair' was another aspect of her 'type', "I do like to talk a lot, during sex, but more in terms of actions currently happening, not, um, biologically-implausible hypotheticals."

"What about your preferences?" Daphne's voice was husky, as she stepped a bit closer to Padma, "anything of note?"

"I'm fairly open-minded," Padma leaned forward, and Daphne's eyes fell to her cleavage, "don't get too rough, but otherwise, I'm very interested in finding out what you prefer."

Daphne closed the remaining distance between herself and Padma, taking the shorter woman into an embrace as she leaned in to kiss her. As soon as their mouths met, Padma's tongue began to probe at Daphne's lips, which Daphne happily accepted. Daphne's mind conjured images of Pansy standing in her own place, followed by brief fantasies of what it must have looked like when it was Harry kissing Padma.

She found the idea more arousing than she would have suspected.

Kissing Padma was different than kissing either of her partners: though it was still fun, Daphne was definitely aware that it seemed shallower in a way, lacking the deeper connections that have grown between herself, Harry, and Pansy. This wasn't unexpected, as the whole evening was meant to be an explicitly casual sort of arrangement, but she couldn't ignore the contrast.

Still, though… Padma was an excellent kisser.

Daphne pulled herself out of her thoughts, and instead began to enjoy these feelings for what they were: a light, enjoyable release. She turned her attention to the purely physical side of her activities.

Speaking of "release"…

Daphne pressed her hands into Padma's chest, and even over her shirt and bra could feel the fullness of Padma's breasts, the heat in Daphne's belly growing as Padma's tongue invaded her mouth, their snogging quickly becoming wet, almost sloppy.

The two women began to undress each other, their blouses unbuttoned and tossed aside, followed quickly by their bras.

Daphne smirked, toying with the ring piercing in Padma's left nipple, the action met by Padma's enthusiastic moan into her mouth.

You're right, Harry, she does have great tits.

Padma's own hands clamped down on Daphne's arse, and Daphne reluctantly removed her hands from the pillowy softness of Padma's breasts to unbutton her dragonskin trousers, aided by Padma dropping to her knees to help pull them free of Daphne's legs.

As Padma lowered herself, she continued to pay an exquisite amount of attention to Daphne with her mouth; she sucked one of Daphne's nipples, licked down her abdomen and around her navel, and planted a wet kiss against the edge of her hipbone.

Daphne shuddered a breath when Padma began to kiss up her thighs, loosely running her fingers into Padma's black hair as the other woman slowly traced her tongue along the edge of Daphne's thong. Daphne pulled the garment aside with her free hand, then eagerly guided Padma's face between her legs.

"Mm," Daphne murmured, as Padma pressed her tongue flat against her pussy, both her hands returning to Daphne's arse cheeks, the kneeling woman pulling Daphne's hips closer with enthusiasm.

It seems like she enjoys me being in charge, Daphne thought, as Padma begins to lick her more vigorously, not unlike Harry, actually.

"You're delicious, " Padma hissed, then dove back between Daphne's legs.

Padma was, indeed, quite skilled: though she didn't have all of Daphne's most pleasurable spots memorized as Harry or Pansy did, but Daphne appreciated the long, almost hungry movements of her tongue all the same.

"Fuck, you're good," Daphne hissed her approval.

"Am I?" Padma teased, nowhere near 'submissive' despite her subordinate position in front of Daphne, "you like being serviced?"

Padma paired her demanding tone with a slow, almost taunting stroke of her fingers along the entrance of Daphne's pussy.

"Get on the bed," Daphne ordered, letting a bit of 'Ice Queen' creep into her voice, but it seemed as if Padma was more than okay with this authoritative sort of tone, "it's my turn to show you what I can do."

They kissed quickly when Padma stood up, and Daphne tasted herself on Padma's tongue. She had a brief thought of how hot it would be to taste another woman in Pansy's mouth, which inspired her to guide the brunette witch back into her hotel bed with urgency.

Daphne took a moment to appreciate the sight of Padma's breasts heaving as she flopped down onto her back, propping herself up on her elbows, before Daphne practically yanked Padma's jeans off, then immediately lowered her face between Padma's legs. She sucked on Padma's clit over the brunette's underwear even as she pulled them off with one hand, rubbing two of her fingers over Padma's entrance before plunging them inside.

The other woman was hot to the touch, slick around Daphne's digits, and Daphne pumped her fingers slowly in and out of Padma as she licked at the top of her pussy.

"Fuck," Padma groaned, watching her, "you are good at eating pussy. You know what would make it even better?"

"Mmm?" Daphne's reply was muffled by the way her mouth was pressed against Padma's sex.

"I think you should sit on my face."

This is a new kind of dynamic, Daphne thought, she's bossy, but seems to insist on putting herself in the submissive position…

While Daphne was quite experienced with switching between (heh, "switch") who took the dominant role between Harry, Pansy, and herself, the way that Padma seemed to land solidly in a "demanding" sort of role was interesting. It left her feeling somewhat off-guard, but in an intriguing way; since she tended more towards the submissive side of things herself, Daphne thought that this could be an opportunity to practice her skills being more dominant, even if she clearly wasn't "in charge".

Daphne smirked against Padma's pussy, giving one last, long lick against her sex before she scooted up the bed, swinging her knees over Padma's head to oblige her request. Once again, the brunette's hands latched on to Daphne's arse, and Daphne luxuriated in how eagerly Padma lapped at her pussy, grinding her hips back into Padma's mouth.

Taking advantage of her height, Daphne reached down to replace her fingers between Padma's legs, enjoying the muffled moan that came from her "seat" below her. Padma, meanwhile, became even more enthusiastic (somehow). She didn't tend to use her tongue as quickly as Harry or Pansy did, but seemed to prefer depth, and lewd wet sounds echoed from between Daphne's legs as Padma feasted on her pussy.

The way that Padma worked her tongue inside of Daphne at times was enough to distract Daphne from her own task, as much as she attempted to stay focused on fucking Padma with her fingers. Sure enough, Daphne was the first to orgasm; she threw her head back and moaned unashamedly, her thighs tensed around Padma's head.

"Fuck, you're hot when you're cumming," Padma's voice was thick with lust, "I want to see that again."

"Now I want to see you come," Daphne moaned, before she pitched forwards, latching her own mouth to Padma's sex. She devoted herself entirely to this task, no longer distracted by Padma's own skills, pumping her fingers in and out of Padma at the tame time as Daphne sucked at her clit.

When Padma shuddered and clenched around her fingers, Daphne rolled to the side, catching her breath while she lay on her back. It didn't take long for Padma to recover, and the brunette quickly began to resume her nigh-worship of Daphne's body; she leaned over to lick one of Daphne's nipples, then sucked at the side of her neck, immediately followed by a wet kiss against her lips.

"Get on top of me," Daphne commanded, gently pulling Padma into position. She reached between Padma's legs again, hooking her fingers inside the curvy woman as Daphne squeezed and fondled her breasts with her other hand.

"Fuck, that's good," Padma muttered between kisses, and Daphne hissed a breath in turn as Padma wedged an arm between them and pushed her own fingers back inside Daphne.

"You like that?" Padma's voice was insistent, "are you going to cum for me again? Going to cum while we fuck each other?"

"You're going to cum first," Daphne protested, "I'm going to make you cum."

It wasn't her most inventive dirty-talk, but Daphne found that she enjoyed it all the same. In the back of her head, she wondered if it would be possible to enhance this dynamic more if she slept with Padma a second time; the way that they seemed to almost compete with each other felt like something that wouldn't be the most fluid during their first time together.

She is actually quite similar to me, Daphne realized, at least, the way she likes to talk during sex is.

Daphne idly wondered if this was perhaps related to the way that both women were somewhat academic in their mindsets; Pansy tended to communicate with her body just as much as her words, while Harry… tended to be fairly straightforward when expressing his own pleasure.

"Yes, please," Padma almost whined, "please, your fingers feel so good inside me," her thumb flicked against Daphne's clit, and Daphne's legs quivered in response, "you look so good underneath me."

Daphne knew that she was getting close, but immediately decided that she was going to win this particular "contest", as she hooked a third, then a fourth finger inside Padma's hot pussy, the brunette's breath hitching. Padma latched her lips onto the skin above Daphne's collar bone, sucking hard as a high-pitched whine started to escape her mouth.

When Daphne felt Padma clench around her fingers, the way that the brunette bit down onto her sensitive flesh sent a shock of pleasure through her body, which immediately set off her own orgasm.

"That was fun," Daphne reviewed, after the women had caught their breath.

It was fun, she thought, not the best sex I've had, by any means, but, well, I enjoyed myself.

She couldn't help but think that Padma represented, in some ways, a sort of blending of different traits of the three members of Daphne's relationship when it came to sexual preferences; vocal like herself, demanding like Pansy, and yet focused on her partner's pleasure in a way that was reminiscent of Harry.

"It was!" Padma seemed similarly content, "I, um, I'm busy the next couple of days, but we should do this again before I leave town. If you'd like, of course."

Daphne found this statement (and Padma's continued interest) surprisingly relieving, for some reason. Was I concerned that I didn't perform well enough? she wondered, sure, it wasn't exactly mind-blowing, but it was a first-time hook-up, so that makes sense. Am I just starting to overthink something?

I'll worry about it when I'm not in another woman's bed, I suppose.

"I'm sure we can work something out," Daphne smiled, as she started to dress herself.

As she made her way back to 12 Grimmauld Place, Daphne found herself lost in her thoughts once again.

While she knew that having sex with Padma was something that both Harry and Pansy very much approved of, and it had been fun, Daphne had started to get herself caught on some ideas of what the evening might mean.

She was far from worried about the idea of her partners deciding to join in any potential future rendezvouses with Padma (if anything, that idea sounded very interesting, if the political concerns could be addressed), but the ease at which she'd slipped into Padma's bedroom seemed to be the ironic cause for her unclear thoughts; Daphne wondered if any future entanglements might prove to be not quite as temporary as this one, and then couldn't help but feel a flash of insecurity at the idea that someone else might wind up fitting better in the relationship, somehow.

Daphne pondered if it were perhaps some strange form of pre-emptive guilt: she'd certainly been aware of Susan's interest in her, and with the redhead's upcoming prominent role in the political games that Harry had found himself embroiled in, Daphne couldn't ignore the idea of turning that dynamic into something more, whatever that might look like.

I doubt she'd be Pansy's first choice, though, Daphne knew, and she wondered how the trio might manage to reconcile these various possibilities.

Am I just being ridiculous because I've slept with another woman and they haven't yet?

Is someone who frets and worries like this – over what's probably nothing – even the right fit with Harry and Pansy?

She shook her head, attempted to dispel her anxiety.

I know I'm good enough for them, they've never given me cause to doubt that, so what is this???

When her girlfriend greeted her, Pansy's own "flushed and content" appearance sent a warm feeling through Daphne's chest which had been entirely absent during her time with Padma, helping to chase some of her rapidly-circling thoughts away for a moment. Even still, Daphne felt a new, apparently-paradoxical form of doubt emerge: I had fun, but I want to be with Pansy more than any other woman. Do they feel the same?

As Daphne muttered her way through Pansy's cheerful welcome and bluntly confirmed her actions of the night, she felt these insecurities finally begin melt away in the face of the obvious love that her partners felt for her, and she allowed herself to simply relax and stop thinking for a few moments (as difficult as this was for her), wrapped up in the middle of Pansy and Harry's embrace.

Later in the night, when her mind had become a bit clearer, Daphne finally reached the realization of what had been worrying her.

"Harry, Pans?" she began, "I've got a bit of a lingering concern, I think. It's about magic and all that, not anything about either of you, but, well, I'm curious about something."

"Yeah?" Harry seemed unbothered by the topic change, while Pansy just continued to lounge in Daphne's lap, sprawled halfway across each of her partners.

"So, uh, well, I'll just be blunt about it," Daphne licked her lips, "I know how you get uncomfortable when we talk about how powerful you are, but have you considered what that might, um, mean?"

Harry paused for a moment, but thankfully, he didn't seem to be offended or hurt, merely surprised.

"Honestly, I try not to," he shrugged, "what brought this up?"

"Well, Padma and I did actually discuss magical theory in a fair amount of depth," Daphne explained, "and, hmm, she seems to believe that you're a sort of focal point for Magic itself. At least within Magical Britain."

"Shocking," Pansy drawled, "the boy who single-handedly defeated the Dark Lord, magically powerful? I would never have guessed."

"It wasn't really single-handedly," Harry grumbled, "and besides, I thought we'd decided that that whole side of things wasn't really, uh, important?"

"I don't think it's made any difference for us," Daphne reassured him, gesturing to the three of them, "but, well… I'm apparently manifesting new types of magic, and I'm fairly certain that it's because I've become so close to you."

"Perfect," Pansy smirked, "if I get all this and get to become more powerful thanks to hanging around the Great and Powerful Harry Potter? Bonus."

"You don't seem surprised, Pans," Harry muttered, his brow creasing in thought.

"I know it's easy to forget," Pansy said sarcastically, "but I was raised as a Pureblood. Intimate relationships are well known to result in some blending of magic, so, no, it's not really that surprising. You've got loads of magic to spare, after all."

"I guess that's what has me a bit out of sorts," Daphne admitted, "I'm not saying that I want you to become anything other than who you are, Harry, but, well… the odds are pretty good that you're going to be an important figure in the magical world."

"He already is," Pansy protested with a shrug, "hasn't really made a difference yet, we've still got him wrapped around our pinkies, don't we?"

Harry reached down to tickle the back of Pansy's knee, but his frown relaxed into a more comfortable expression, at least.

"What I'm wondering is… do you think I'm enough to be part of that?" Daphne finally admitted her insecurity; while she had absolutely no reason to doubt Harry and Pansy's love for her, some small part of her still wondered if she was deserving of it.

"You're brilliant," Harry leaned over to kiss the side of your head, "one of the smartest people I know, really, and you're both strong in all the ways that matter. I'd be utterly lost with all this political shite going on if it wasn't for you, you know? I don't really think that I'm exactly set to become like Dumbledore or anything like that, but even if I do wind up becoming some important big-shot, it'll only be because I had the two of you by my side."

"Dumbledore" might be underselling it, Harry… she did her best to cast this doubt aside, focusing on the steady certainty of Harry's words.

"'Behind every great man', and all that," Pansy chuckled, "besides, Daph, he's already managed to land the two of us, brilliant, gorgeous, and devious witches that we are, he's pretty much nailed down the future of his two Houses."

Daphne blushed at this statement; while the three of them had vaguely discussed an unclear future together, she hadn't expected it to be Pansy who would be the first to raise the topic of marriage, even indirectly.

Three is a magically significant number, she recalled.

Somehow, Pansy's words seemed to brush aside a portion of her worries. Her girlfriend's fierce and uncompromising nature was a constant source of strength for Daphne, and for Harry too.

"Heh, yeah," Harry fidgeted for a moment, as if he wanted to say something, but then seemed to settle himself, "we can sort out Houses and all that when we have to, but if you're worried, Daph, I've got to say that I'm better than I've ever been, with the two of you."

"So am I," Daphne admitted, leaning over to kiss Harry, then down into her lap to kiss the top of Pansy's head, when her girlfriend had started making playful noises of protest.

Still, though, she wondered to herself, there's parts of you that I don't understand – can't understand, really – and I want to make sure that you still have that kind of support when we can't provide it.

Daphne settled in deeper to the couch, simply enjoying the feeling of Harry and Pansy's bodies pressed against her.

Whether you decide to become "Great" or not, she decided, refusing to listen to her own doubts any longer, I'll be by your side either way.

Finally, she felt assured in herself. Whatever the future may hold, whatever "doors" Harry might find open in front of him, Daphne knew that she and Pansy would be with him when they crossed those thresholds.

---

Harry

Harry found himself lost in a number of different thoughts as he put himself together, getting ready for a small "boys' night" with Neville, Ron, and Seamus. For once, he didn't struggle to decide what outfit to wear, but rather found himself ensnared in matters ranging from the (relatively) ordinary all the way to mystical concerns.

It hadn't been hard for him to notice that Daphne had been somewhat out-of-sorts the past couple days, but – unlike what he had feared at first – it didn't seem that her recent dalliance with Padma was behind her latest bout of worry. Instead, it seemed that his girlfriend was caught up in thoughts relating to her past, which Harry could sympathize with.

There were just over two weeks left until the Wizengamot reconvened, and along with this proceeding, Daphne's planned re-entry into the thoroughly frustrating world of Pureblood politics. Harry felt for her; it couldn't be any easy thing to suddenly return to a world that she'd emphatically exited from, and it seemed that her recent doubts about being "good enough" for him (an utterly preposterous concern, in his opinion) were rooted in her childhood lessons guiding her to be a "proper Pureblood wife".

Harry wasn't looking forward to his upcoming duties acting as "Lord Potter-Black", intentionally casting himself into a role that didn't suit him whatsoever, but he understood why it was necessary, and so couldn't really bring himself to worry about it, really.

Instead, he was more worried about Harry Potter, rather than Lord Potter-Black.

While he doubted that the effects were quite as dramatic as Daphne had claimed, it was clear that his magic was affecting his girlfriends somehow. He recalled Proudfoot's suggestions and warnings about how Harry (as a magically-powerful Wizard) would tend to attract "followers" simply by existing, and though Pansy and Daphne had made very certain to chase away the fear that they were dating him because of his magic, he couldn't quite manage to shake off all his own, deeper concerns.

Not that they even know the whole story, Harry frowned, I'll really have to come clean about some of my past at some point…

That conversation, at least, could wait for some uncertain time in the future when they didn't have other problems like "how do we keep our relationship a secret" or "let's come up with a plan to defeat Daphne's dad in politics" breathing down their necks.

I wonder if this is why Dumbledore never found some bloke to settle down with? Harry could just barely manage to tolerate the fact that politics were going to cause so much stress and worry for his girlfriends.

Harry knew that he wasn't going to be the second coming of Dumbledore: for so many reasons, and in so many different ways, Harry simply wasn't the same kind of man as his deceased mentor had been. Even if (and to Harry, that was a very significant "if") he eventually became as powerful as Dumbledore had been, Harry simply didn't possess the same kind of multi-layered deviousness that Albus had.

Which only exacerbated his concerns. Harry was happy to admit that he was a relatively blunt sort of man, one who saw more value in a direct approach over crafting different schemes within schemes, and this tendency had certainly reasserted itself a few weeks prior, when he'd saw fit to duel not one but four of his political opponents.

I don't think that Dumbledore had a single duel against any of his various Wizengamot enemies, and I'm already almost out of room to count mine on one hand.

Instead, he'd started to worry that his tendency to approach these conflicts with a strategy of "join with my cause, or I'll destroy you in magical combat" was a much closer comparison to the other once-in-a-generation Wizard that had influenced much of Harry's life. Not for the first time, Harry wondered if – before he started murdering and torturing – Tom Riddle had also found himself frustrated by the limitations of "laws" or "rules".

Which was precisely the motivation that Harry needed to do his best to just go have fun with his mates. Though his tendency to meet the problem of "I feel emotional turmoil" with the solution of "therefore, I shall drink about it" might not have been the best approach, Harry was pretty damn certain that fucking Voldemort never went to get drunk with his friends as a means of dealing with his stress.

Fuck, it's a good thing that we're dating Pansy, Harry grinned to himself, if it was just Daph and me, we wouldn't have anyone around to give us a kick in the arse when we get all troubled like this.

Though the trio hadn't really planned out anything specific yet, Harry knew that Pansy was also going out with Blaise and Michel tonight, and Daphne was attending a private party at the art gallery her pieces were being displayed at, so there was a vague idea of reconvening to celebrate later, which Harry was very much looking forward to.

With that happier thought, he stepped towards his fireplace with a handful of Floo powder, starting to make his way to the Leaky Cauldron to meet up with the boys.

If I thought that this was my last chance to cut loose for a while, Harry realized, I really wasn't thinking about Ron.

While Ron always tended to be somewhat on the "exuberant" side of social events, he was well and truly cutting loose that night; it was all that Harry and Neville could manage to do to convince him to keep his shirt on by the time they'd wandered to their third bar of the night.

"I'm fuckin' terrified, mate," Ron admitted to Harry, his eyes slightly bleary, "but also, really… excited?"

"I can't imagine, mate," Harry patted Ron's back in reassurance, "but you're gonna do great, yeah?"

"I'm gonna be a dad," Ron practically goggled, though this couldn't have been a new realization for him, "the kid could do so much better, and, fuck, they're gonna got me as a dad!"

Not making too much sense there, Ron, Harry just continued to reassure his friend, leaving his own thoughts unspoken.

"Ron, you're gonna be fine," Harry hushed him, "I mean, your dad did brilliant, and he had to raise loads more kids than you. Could be worse, can you imagine if you had twins?"

Ron stared at Harry with wide eyes, before guffawing loudly as he apparently thought of something funny.

"Fuck, what am I even complaining about?" Ron continued to snort and chuckle as he spoke, "after all, you're gonna have two wives to have kids with, eh?"

Surprisingly, the thought didn't scare Harry. Though it was definitely far too soon to discuss marriage and children beyond any vague, hypothetical sense, the idea of starting a family with Daphne and Pansy just sounded nice to him.

"Oi!" Seamus announced his return to the table, a pint in either hand, "what're you doing, wasting your time with this sad sack here? You're the last of us that's a bachelor, Harry, you should go find some pretty bird to have some fun with!"

"I am?" Harry wondered, as Ron snorted beside him. Spotting a glimmer of gold, Harry caught the fact that – at some point in the evening – Seamus had put a ring on his left hand, quickly realizing the sentiment behind his jibe, "oh, fuck! Congratulations, mate!"

"Thanks!" Seamus grinned widely, "it was finally time for 'Vati to make an honest man out of me, yeah?"

"I truly doubt that Parvati could make you an honest man," Neville, exasperated, also returned with a pair of pints, "but, yeah, congratulations!"

As his two friends sat down, sliding one of their pints to Ron and Harry respectively, Harry couldn't help but smirk at this development. Ron, yeah, that makes sense. Neville, too. But for Seamus to be the next one of our year to get engaged? Wouldn't've bet on that.

"That's half the reason I got this together, after all," Seamus gestured dramatically, "wanted to break the news in person, yeah?"

"Too bad Dean couldn't make it," Ron took a deep swig of his ale, "how's he been doing, anyways?"

"Oh, he's doing brilliantly," Seamus leaned towards Harry, a wry grin on his face, "coming up on their first anniversary, aren't they?"

"Yeah?" Harry wracked his memory, trying to recall the name of the French witch that Dean married after a whirlwind romance, "been that long already, has it?"

"Helps when they got married after dating for three months," Neville shrugged, "can't blame him, Marie is lovely, of course."

"Well, that's my first secret revealed," Seamus's grin was practically maniacal at this point, and Harry wondered if he'd wind up having to put literal fires out before the evening wrapped up, "as for my second… my lovely fiancée and her friends will be joining us in a bit!"

Ugh, Harry grumbled internally. He didn't dislike Lavender, but neither was she someone that he really set out to spend much time with. Her newly-minted relationship with Bill Weasley didn't do much to improve Harry's opinion of her.

Wait a minute…

Fuck.

Harry realized a number of things in that instant: first, the mystery of Padma returning to town, and yet (surprisingly) not attempting to contact him resolved itself; she was clearly visiting just long enough to celebrate Parvati's engagement. Secondly, that part of Seamus's celebration would apparently mean that he would in fact have this reunion with Padma.

Third, that he'd have to somehow find a way of wriggling out of any possible advances without hurting Padma's feelings; she wasn't part of the inner circle that Harry trusted with the secret of his real relationship, and he already had plans with his girlfriends that he wouldn't dream of changing.

Harry did his best to mask his spike of anxiety by taking a long drink of his pint, but instead he managed to nearly choke himself when the quartet of women appeared just moments after Seamus had announced his plans.

Padma had met his eyes across the room immediately, an almost-conspiratorial smirk crossing her features as soon as she did so.

She looked good.

Harry swallowed the briefly-strangling swig of his ale, putting himself back in the right sort of mindset to greet the women in a friendly manner. He knew Parvati fairly well, sure, and while he had already thought about how she wasn't his favourite person, he also knew Lavender well enough. Their fourth member, Fay Dunbar, had been a Gryffindor in their year, but Harry had never really got to know her beyond a casually polite level of acquaintance, and didn't really see any cause to deepen that connection.

So, of course, Padma easily pulled up a seat beside him, and he couldn't not be awkward about it, considering that she was the one he was closest with out of the four women, even putting everything intimate aside.

"Hey, Harry!" Padma cheerfully greeted him, "been a while! How're you?"

"Hey, Pads," Harry took another bracing swig of his ale, "I've been pretty good, you?"

I already know what you've been up to lately, Harry thought, entirely at a loss as to how to navigate this dynamic, considering that "shagging my girlfriend" was one of your recent highlights…

"Oh, pretty well, thank you!" Padma leaned into him to bump her shoulder against his, "better now, I think," her voice had a friendly teasing tone to it, but Harry's mind crashed to a halt anyways. "It looks like you are doing well! You're certainly dressing a lot sharper than the last time I saw you," she poked at his jacket, the dragonhide one that Pansy had made for him, "is that actually dragonskin?"

"Er, uh, yeah," Harry stammered his answer, "it is, yup."

"Very nice!" she chirped. He was sure that Padma must have noticed his awkwardness, and yet she was acting as if it was amusing to her, "where did you get that from?"

"The dragonhide?" Harry mumbled, "it's, uh, from a dragon that I killed. Slayed? Slew? Not sure what the right term is for that, heh."

"Oh, I figured," Padma leaned closer to him, and Harry had to try not to look down her cleavage as she did so, "I meant the jacket! It's quite sharp, I might look into the maker while I'm in town for a bit!"

"It's, uh, er, it was a gift," Harry scratched at the back of his head, "I'm, uh, not sure if they make more like this?"

He was granted a brief reprieve when the ladies' drinks arrived at the table, and Padma turned to talk to her sister for a moment instead, and this moment of relief immediately ended when he felt his enchanted notebook vibrate against his chest, inside his jacket.

Opening it, he saw a message from Pansy.

"Merlin, Harry. How did you ever manage to get laid if you're this awkward?"

His blood ran cold.

While Harry wouldn't call himself a "hero" or any of the ludicrous titles that had been assigned to him over the years, he would admit (if pressed) that he was a fairly brave sort of person. There wasn't really much that scared him any more, especially not after facing down fucking Voldemort on a number of occasions.

One of the few things which still terrified him was whenever he figured out that Pansy had a new target to tease him about.

"Behind you. To the left. By the bar." Pansy's next messages were in her characteristic brief style, "don't make it obvious when you turn to look at me, you prat."

Thankfully, one of Harry's few skills he was proud of was his ability to try and catch someone tailing him without others noticing; as he turned to ask Seamus about what Dean was up to in France these days, he flicked his gaze to the bar, and surely enough, spotted his girlfriend sitting there with Blaise and Michel, a frightening smirk on her face.

"When did you get here?" Harry hurriedly scrawled a reply into his notebook, keeping it close enough to his chest that any potentially-prying eyes wouldn't be able to read it, "why didn't you say hi?"

"Because." Pansy's reply came almost immediately, "Blaise and Michel haven't even noticed you yet. They're quite drunk. And I don't want to explain my presence to Seamus fucking Finnigan."

"Save me, then," Harry pleaded, "Padma's already flirting with me, and I don't know how to get out of this."

"You're an idiot." Pansy was not his saviour, "It's far more fun to watch you squirm."

She actually took the time to write one of her words in bold, Harry realized, I'm doomed.

"Trouble at work, Harry?" Padma interrupted his thoughts, which was the last scenario that Harry was hoping for.

"Ah, no, nothing to worry about," he lied, "just, er, talking to a friend."

"Oh, that's great!" Padma beamed a smile, "I'm, um," she dropped her voice lower, to a more private level of volume, "I'm glad you're doing well, Harry, really. It seems that you've come a long way since the time we had together."

"Heh, uh, yeah," Harry shrugged, "thanks!"

If only you knew, he thought. Hmm, wait, are we being manipulative to Padma?

The necessity of keeping their relationship hidden had been an automatic assumption that Harry hadn't thought to question, but he realized for the first time that it could be argued that the trio had intentionally mislead Padma; after all, the fact that he and Pansy both had their own histories with her might have allowed Daphne to manipulate Padma, even if he trusted that she hadn't.

Fucking hell, he chastised himself, you know that Pansy and Daphne aren't like that, you've been involved in politics for, what, two months, and you're already seeing plots and schemes everywhere?

He was spared from the prospect of any further introspection by Seamus standing to his feet, and loudly announcing that it was time to start doing shots. Harry didn't volunteer to accompany his loud friend to the bar, especially since Padma had been one of the first to do so, and he had no idea how he'd handle her running into Pansy in mere moments.

Another message caused his notebook to vibrate, and this time, it was from Daphne.

"So, you've got yourself in a spot of trouble, Pansy says?"

"Help, Daph," Harry pleaded, "I've no idea how to handle this."

"Well…"

He finished his ale while Daphne continued to write.

"Do you think we can trust her with our secret?"

Harry honestly wasn't sure how to answer Daphne's question. On the one hand, Padma was a former D.A. member, and he'd trusted her in situations very close to "life or death" before, so the answer seemed like it should be a simple one. On the other, he was already struggling to figure out how he'd handle publicly hiding his relationship while acting as Lord Potter-Black, and opening up any further complexity to that situation raised goosebumps on the back of his neck.

To say nothing of the upcoming plans where I have to pretend to be "courting" Susan, Harry remembered, fuck, that's going to be a fright and a half, right there.

"Maybe?" Harry replied, "I really don't know?"

Unfortunately, Daphne didn't seem to reply further, at least before Neville spoke up, breaking Harry out of his brooding.

"Huh," Neville gestured, "didn't know that Pansy was here tonight."

Harry's friend could speak openly, as the only people left at the table – himself, Ron, and Harry – were all aware of Harry's relationship with his girlfriend.

"Oh, uh, yeah," Harry shrugged, "wasn't planned out, but I guess she wound up coming here too."

"Really didn't know that her and Padma are so close," Neville hummed.

Harry chanced a glance over his shoulder, and, sure enough, Padma and Pansy were speaking to each other, though he couldn't manage to read their lips from across the bar.

"Uh, I guess?" Harry tried to change the topic, "everyone sort of knows everyone, I suppose. Anyways, Ron, where's George tonight?"

"Dunno," Ron shrugged, "he's always been too clever for his own good, probably figured out that Seamus was planning on getting hitched, somehow, and ditched out before Angie wound up getting any inspiration from it."

"Ah, uh," Harry feared he'd uncovered something he shouldn't have, "they alright?"

"Oh, yeah, for sure," Ron finished his pint, "y'know George, if he can find some way to annoy her, he'll carry on with it for as long as he gets away with it. Would drive me right mad, but she seems to love it."

Not actually that different than how Pansy and I are, Harry realized, and the flush of affection that he felt was enough to briefly calm his nerves.

When Seamus, Parvati, Padma, and company returned with a staggering amount of shots, the burn of liquor down his throat helped to do the rest.

By the end of the night, it became very clear that Harry's luck had well and truly run out.

As was fairly normal for the couple, Parvati and Seamus had disappeared at some point, and at least this time they had the sense to wait until they were in private to start stripping each other. Fay Dunbar had left next, then Neville, and finally Ron had got himself drunk enough that Harry had to help him into the Floo and trudge back to pay off Ron's bill.

Speaking of "Bills", Lavender had departed shortly afterwards, cheerfully announcing that Bill didn't want her to stay out too late. Harry still didn't feel great about that relationship, as there seemed to be some unsettlingly controlling aspects of Bill Weasley making themselves known, but it also seemed as if Lavender was entirely in favour of that dynamic, so who was he to judge?

This, of course, left Harry and Padma as the last people from their table remaining, and before Harry could make up an excuse to escape, Padma saw right through this effort and cut him off.

"Let's get a drink, Harry," she practically purred, "we should talk, you and I."

Before he could stammer out some kind of reason that he shouldn't talk to her, she'd actually grabbed him by the hand and begun to lead him across the room to the bar, where – sure enough, damn it – Pansy had apparently found herself similarly the last remainder of her own friends.

It only raised his hackles further when Padma dragged him directly towards Pansy, and Harry flopped into the seat next to his girlfriend, whose grin was positively predatory at noticing his discomfort.

"Potter," Pansy greeted him, "isn't this an unfortunate surprise."

"Parkinson," Harry did his best to maintain the whole 'hostile and yet oddly friendly' dynamic that he and Pansy presented to the public, "any surprise involving you tends to be, yes."

"Ah, such tension," Padma teased, before ordering three drinks, "you know, I was actually thinking of trying to make a bit of a contest out of seeing which one of you would take me home tonight, but I've simply no patience for those sorts of games."

"I, uh," Harry's brain, once more, shut down for a moment, "pardon?"

"After all," Padma pushed the drinks towards Harry and Pansy, then clinked her glass against theirs in a quick cheers, "I suppose that it would be inappropriate to interject myself, at least until I determine if Daphne approves or not."

Uh?

"Daphne?" Harry was lucky that his bafflement was genuine, "uh, what?"

"I'll admit," Padma smirked at him, "it actually took me longer to put together than I suppose that it should have, but, well, I'm confident that the three of you," she gestured to Harry and Pansy, then vaguely in the air, "are, hmm, involved."

"Interesting theory," Pansy's voice was sharp, a tone that Harry hadn't heard from her since Hogwarts, "but this sort of speculation could prove dangerous for anyone who might think of making it public."

"Oh, I figured that part out ages ago," Padma was entirely unbothered, "why do you think I waited for everyone else to leave before I made my move?"

A beat passed as Harry tried to wrap his brain around what was transpiring, and failed.

"…fucking Ravenclaws," Pansy muttered, before draining her drink in a single swig.

"So, shall we?" Padma's smile was far too innocent for how thoroughly she'd seen through the trio, "perhaps Harry's place?"

"Mmm," Pansy tapped her nails against the edge of the bar, "Harry, I think you should go home now."

"Uh, yeah, alright," Harry couldn't figure out what was happening here.

"You might have a guest tonight, after all," Pansy turned to him, smirking, and he realized once again how much better than him she was at handling these sorts of situations.

"Right, um, g'night, Padma," as he stood, he made an effort to not make it obvious that he was fleeing, "pleasant as always, Parkinson."

When he arrived back at 12 Grimmauld Place, Harry began to pace around his living room in confusion as soon as he set foot in his house, his rising panic interrupted by a familiar voice interjecting.

"So," Daphne spoke, as she entered the room, "sounds like you two had an interesting night, by the message Pansy just sent me?"

"Apparently," Harry grumbled, "I'm no good at this whole 'secrecy' thing, so, uh, if I fucked something up…"

"Harry," his girlfriend cut through his rant by closing the distance to him, then embraced him tightly from behind, "you haven't. I promise."

His fireplace roared to life a moment later, the green flames swirling and revealing the familiar forms of Pansy and Padma.

"Well, hello again, Padma," Daphne's voice was a bit cool, but Harry noticed a hint of intrigue hiding in it, "it seems that the four of us should have a talk, yeah?"

"Oh, don't worry," Padma just grinned proudly, "your secret is safe with me, but I do want to say that I'm impressed, honestly."

"Er?" Harry couldn't figure that out.

"Quite!" Padma sat on his couch, apparently feeling comfortable in his home even years after she'd last visited, "this sort of relationship makes a lot of sense for you, especially, Harry! It's nice to see! I'm actually quite pleased to discover that the three of you are together, the more I think about it, the better an idea it seems!"

"And how, exactly, did you discover this?" Pansy didn't seem quite as intrigued as Daphne did, at this point, "again, this is far from public knowledge, and it could actually be a problem if it gets out."

"Well, I wouldn't worry about it too much," Padma's words were as rapid as ever, "after all, I have a fairly unique perspective, I think, given that I've slept with all three of you. Which, actually, I'm particularly interested in discussing; when I saw Daphne the other night, I believe that this was the first involvement I had with one of you after you three got together, which is actually not what I would have expected."

"How's that?" Daphne asked, but she seemed to handle this development with the most grace out of the three of them.

"As I mentioned, I'm quite interested in non-conventional forms of relationships," Padma continued, "while a three-person relationship is already atypical by many standards, one that also involves some form of non-exclusivity is even more unique!"

"You still haven't explained how you figured it out," Pansy grumbled, wandering towards Harry's bar, "was it just because you shagged Daphne?"

"That certainly helped," Padma shrugged, "would you mind fixing me a drink as well? Thanks! But no, if it reassures the concerns that any of you three feel, I don't think that there are many other people who could have determined the truth of your connection to each other, even if they were aware of the same information that I was."

"Ah," Harry murmured, "is it because I was being weird tonight?"

"That was a point I considered," Padma winked to show she was teasing him, "but no, my suspicions were first roused by Daphne, actually."

"Oh?" Daphne seemed quite curious about this.

"In terms of things that other people might have noticed," Padma accepted a glass from Pansy, who had surprisingly met her request for a drink, "I found it rather curious that Daphne used gender-neutral pronouns to refer to the person she was involved with. While I considered that she may have meant someone who didn't adhere to the binary concept of gender, it began to make a lot more sense if she referred not to a person, but to people that she was in a relationship with."

"Your fucking etiquette," Pansy's words were harsh, but her tone was fond, "must you be such a decent person, Daph?"

"That realization related to some of my particularly specialized knowledge," Padma was undeterred from continuing her explanation, "when I caught sight of Daphne's magical presence at her art show, hmm, I noticed that she has two significant contributions to her personal magic. One of which seemed awfully familiar to me, as it turned out."

"Just one?" Pansy smirked, "what, it wasn't magical for you, when we fucked?"

"Oh, Pansy, I had a lot of fun with you in Milan," Padma smirked back at her, apparently completely able to handle Pansy's moods, "but I didn't quite get inside your magic the way that I did with Harry."

"Is it, uh, the bond that you mentioned, back then?" Harry winced, realizing that it might have sounded like he was confessing some form of love for Padma, "you did say, er, it wasn't that big a deal?"

"It isn't," Padma confirmed, "and unless you've made a habit out of performing intimate magic rituals with any other people who also have niche academic interests in the nature of magic, I'd think it rather unlikely that many other people would notice."

"How'd you place me, then?" Pansy sat down beside Daphne, "I can understand the nerdy Ravenclaw 'I study obscure forms of magic' angle helping you to figure out that Daphne and Harry are connected, but I'm almost offended that my own subterfuge was so lacking."

"Ah, that," Padma sipped her drink, "again, if I hadn't had a past involvement with you, I doubt I would have noticed it, but I caught a thread of your magic on Harry's jacket tonight. Once I sniffed that out, everything pretty much fell into place."

"So, uh," Harry finally flopped down into a chair, "the three of us aren't being too, well, obvious about our relationship, then?"

"I'm hardly the expert in matters of social duplicity," Padma shrugged easily, "but unless the three of you have made a habit out of hiding your relationship from people that one of you has sex with, I don't think that it should be an issue. Although…" she tapped one of her fingers against her lips, "now that I look back on tonight, it was actually fairly obvious that you and Harry were sending messages to each other, Pansy."

"Fuck," Pansy cursed, "that's your fault, Harry. Stop being so entertaining, damn it."

"Anyways," Padma placed her glass down on the table in front of her, "I'm also in a unique position to know that Harry has two girlfriends, so that knowledge helped me to put the whole thing together at the end. Which reminds me, sorry for ignoring you, Harry, I just didn't want to intrude, before I realized that your, hmm, metaphorical 'doors' are open."

"How'd you know that?" Harry wondered, "has Parvati figured it out too?"

Padma actually giggled at this question, and for some reason, Pansy rolled her eyes at him.

"Hardly!" Padma leaned back in her seat, entirely comfortable, "that knowledge came from another source, actually."

"Who?" Daphne wondered.

"Ah, I'm afraid I have some secrets of my own," Padma smiled slyly, "but I can promise you three that she's not interested in exposing you."

Hermione? Harry put the pieces together.

"And no, it's not Hermione," Padma almost seemed to read his mind, "she's been nothing but secretive about you, actually, Harry, which again only raised my suspicions entirely because I had a pre-existing connection to you and Pansy both."

"So," Pansy clicked her nails against her glass, "what is all this, then? You've puzzled out our secret, very good, ten points to Ravenclaw, et cetera, but why the whole song and dance about revealing that you know?"

"Oh, right!" Padma toyed with a lock of your hair, "well, since Daphne and I closed off the missing connection between myself and the three of you, I'm fairly certain that any potential magical concerns should be fully addressed at this point, which leaves my personal interest."

"Mm?" Pansy's eyes lit up with a glint of something that was much more interested than she had been.

"I should preface this with the disclaimer that I don't want to presume anything, and I'm not quite certain what the specific nature of your particular form of non-monogamy entails," Padma turned so that she was facing in the general direction of all three of the trio, "as well, I'm leaving town again in a couple days, so there's no need to worry that I'm attempting to interject myself into your relationship, but, hmm, the three of you may all recall that I'm particularly interested in new experiences?"

"Yeah," Harry replied, as Daphne nodded across from him.

"Well, I've never had a foursome," Padma smiled widely, "and I'm quite interested in exploring that possibility, if you three are."

Fuck, Harry realized, as the glint in Pansy's eyes grew into a veritable inferno, at the same time as Daphne's gaze darkened with lust when she turned to him, I thought I was in trouble before, when I believed that Padma was flirting with me.

I'm really in trouble now that I know she's flirting with us.

Pansy

Her heart thrummed in her chest in excitement as Pansy reclined on a seat in Harry's bedroom. The pace of her heartbeat could, admittedly, be partially explained by the potion that she'd taken, a potent mix of Disinhibition Draught, Stamina Potion, Elixir of Euphoria, and some good old-fashioned stimulants.

She'd already set out to have a great time tonight, and the unexpected addition of a fourth party to these celebrations only enhanced her anticipation. Of course, she'd shared her acquisition with her partners and Padma, a party ritual which brought to mind memories of doing Muggle drugs during some of her more exuberant evenings.

Hmm, I wonder when that changed, Pansy mused; while she wasn't intentionally setting out to "clean up her act" or anything like that, she'd been getting steadily less adventurous with different substances the longer that she dated Harry and Daphne, to the point that she didn't even count as a regular smoker any more, a somewhat surprising development for her.

Any further introspection was cast aside in favour of watching this other surprising development unfold: while things had yet to really kick off, the change in locale of this little gathering was surely an indicator that it wasn't far off, to say nothing of the proximity of Daphne and Padma as the blonde inspected Padma's tattoos in the middle of Harry's bedroom.

Padma had certainly changed a bit since Pansy had last seen her; the brunette was more stylish than she'd been in Milan, with dyed streaks in her hair, wearing an eye-catching yellow blouse over a grey skirt, the gap between the two pieces exposing just a hint of Padma's torso. If Padma had been on the "curvy" side when Pansy had encountered her in Italy some years ago, she was undeniably in that category now; she had wide hips, full breasts, and a general softness to her build while maintaining a mostly-flat stomach.

The tattoos which Daphne was presently so enamoured by were another change which Pansy approved of. While she didn't have much interest in the various magical applications which Padma was explaining, the whirls of black ink (magical, mundane, and henna alike) covering Padma's arms from fingertips to elbows were an addition which worked for her.

Pansy sat up in her seat when she noticed Daphne's hands linger on Padma's waist, eagerly anticipating the moment when someone would make the first move.

"You're gorgeous," Daphne murmured, just loudly enough that Pansy could make out the words.

"So are you," Padma replied, bringing her own hands to Daphne's waist.

Pansy sucked in a breath as Daphne leaned down to kiss Padma, her heartbeat getting faster as she watched this take place. She carefully monitored her own thoughts, waiting to see if a spike of jealousy or uncertainty appeared, but instead she found that she was filled with impatience more than anything else; Pansy very much wanted to see her girlfriend continue to kiss Padma.

Well, I can confirm that this is, in fact, a kink of mine, she supposed, as she felt heat building in her belly.

It didn't take long for things to escalate once they began, in short order Daphne and Padma were outright snogging each other in the middle of the room, and Pansy heard Harry release a shaky sigh beside her. She glanced over at him, and was delighted to see that his own gaze was similarly free of worry or jealousy, her boyfriend had a look on his face of fascinated interest which must have resembled her own.

When the two women had fallen into Harry's bed, Daphne astride Padma, Pansy made no effort to resist her own impulses, as she shimmied her own skirt off, before beginning to run her fingers over the front of her panties, feeling her own heat radiating from between her legs.

"Enjoying the show?" Daphne teased, as she sat up to pull her shirt off, revealing the pale blue bra she wore underneath.

"Of course," Pansy hissed, glancing over at her boyfriend. Harry hadn't quite been as blatant as she was, but he was shifting in his own seat, one of his hands idly palming over his crotch as his gaze smoldered while watching Padma and Daphne.

Pansy didn't hesitate to reach across to Harry, deftly flicking his belt open and unzipping his fly, before her hand darted under his waistband to grasp his mostly-hard cock. Without turning her gaze from the display in front of her (where Padma had also removed her shirt, revealing a set of cream-coloured lingerie that looked great against her brown skin), Pansy slowly began to stroke Harry's member.

Without needing to ask him, Harry's hand crept between her legs, teasing over the surface of her panties before he pushed his own digits under the fabric, running one of his fingertips along her soaking entrance. Pansy practically whimpered when he slowly inserted his finger inside her, pushing her hips forward needily as they continued to watch Daphne and Padma stripping one another.

"Fuck," Harry groaned, "you're right, that is hot."

Pansy merely smirked as she continued to lazily pump Harry's cock, pausing at times to appreciate the heft of his manhood in her hand. She felt him twitch in her grip when Daphne had lifted Padma's hips to tear her skirt off, and in turn Pansy moaned when Harry pushed his fingers deeper inside her as they watched Padma latch her mouth onto one of Daphne's nipples.

She pulled her own shirt off (though the sheer mesh hardly counted as a "shirt", really), gripping one of her own breasts and groaning as she watched Daphne's hand disappear between Padma's legs, the blonde's delicate fingers pumping in a way which could only mean that her girlfriend had begun to finger-fuck the brunette witch.

Harry seemed just as excited by this show, if the way he stiffened further was one indicator, then the way he began to hook his finger up inside Pansy's pussy was another. She ground her hips against his hand, realizing that if things kept going this way for much longer, she might actually come before she even left her seat.

Well, that's not exactly what I have in mind.

"I think it's time we join in, don't you?" she smirked, at Harry, who returned her expression with a smirk of his own, as he started to kick his trousers off.

While her boyfriend was occupied, Pansy made her way to the dresser at the side of the bed, retrieving a familiar object from within. She removed the last remnants of her clothing before she slid the harness of her magical strap-on over her legs, muttering the incantation to activate its particular charms when it was in place.

She felt the tingling sensation spread through her sex as the spell bound the artificial phallus to her; while she doubted that it quite managed to simulate the feelings that having a cock would, the way that the magic wrapped around her clit and sent very convincing pulses through her body as she stroked the toy's length was undoubtedly close enough for her purposes.

Pansy crawled into the bed behind Daphne, where her girlfriend and Padma had wound up in a position where they lay on their sides, face-to-face, their hands busy between each others' legs.

"You're so fucking sexy," Pansy murmured, turning Daphne's face towards her own, slipping her tongue into Daphne's mouth and smothering the moaned response that the blonde attempted. Pansy then leaned over her girlfriend's shoulder, kissing Padma next, who met her own efforts with considerably more boldness, their tongues duelling against each other before Pansy finally won the contest and pushed past Padma's lips.

She slid one of her hands over Daphne's side to squeeze Padma's breast, and realized (with considerable enthusiasm) that Padma's tits were probably a bit bigger than her own at this point.

Daphne's got to be thrilled, she thought with a smirk, recalling her girlfriend's particular weakness for busty women.

Harry made his own appearance, taking the spot opposite Pansy behind Padma, and he too chose to lean in to kiss Daphne first, then Pansy herself, followed by the fourth guest in their bedroom. The sight of her boyfriend kissing another woman was just as thrilling to Pansy as her girlfriend doing the same had been, and not wishing to wait any longer, Pansy repositioned herself behind Daphne, angling the strap-on up between Daphne's legs.

The vibrations along her clit when she slid the toy inside Daphne's pussy were delightful, and both Pansy and Daphne moaned together when Pansy immediately began to rock her hips against her girlfriend's arse. The position didn't allow for much force behind her thrusts, but she intended to make up for it with enthusiasm.

"Oh, fuck!" Padma moaned across from her, "fuck, I forgot how big you are, Harry. It's been a while since I've been with a man, actually…"

"Fucking wreck her, Harry," Pansy ordered, delighted that her boyfriend had taken the initiative to start fucking Padma while Pansy did the same to Daphne.

"Yes please," Padma whined, before her words were cut off by Daphne's lips.

Four people is a bit trickier to position, Pansy mused, but this sure fucking works.

The tangle of limbs and bodies in the bed could have been awkward, but with Pansy and Harry pressing the two women between them against each other, they quickly established a rhythm; it was undeniable evidence of the chemistry that the trio possessed that Harry and Pansy began to synchronize their thrusts, while Padma and Daphne kissed each other, smushed against one another breast-to-breast.

One of Harry's hands came over to squeeze Daphne's arse, which jiggled against Pansy's hips, while Pansy in turn slid her hand between Padma and Daphne's tits, squeezing and fondling both women and appreciating the benefits of adding a third witch into their bedroom activities.

Pansy lifted one of her legs, hooking it around all three of the others and locking her heel under Harry's hips, taking advantage of the leverage to pull herself harder and harder against Daphne, audible slaps echoing through the room accompanying the sound of Daphne's increasingly urgent moans.

"I bet you," Pansy muttered between thrusts, "I'll make Daph cum before you get Padma off."

"That so?" Harry teased her, propping himself up and repositioning his hand from Daphne's arse onto Padma's hips, "what's your wager?"

Pansy let a moan of her own loose when one of Padma's hands snaked around Daphne's chest to pinch her nipple, leaning past her girlfriend's blonde hair to bite Padma's lip in retaliation.

"I bet you," Pansy continued, after disengaging from this pleasant distraction, "whichever one of us makes the other two cum first gets a reward."

Harry craned his neck towards her, kissing her deeply, even as Pansy felt the ripples of his own powerful thrusts through Padma, then Daphne.

"Deal," he murmured huskily, and then his free hand latched onto the leg she'd swung over him, the pair using each other to begin well and truly fucking each of the women they were inside.

"Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck," Daphne cried, and when Pansy trailed her fingers down between her girlfriend's legs, she found that Padma's own digits were already there, toying with Daphne's clit as Pansy fucked her with the strap-on.

Round one to me, Pansy smirked, as Daphne came loudly, moaning wordlessly and throwing her head back into Pansy's shoulder. Not that I'm going to make it that hard on you…

Pansy turned her wrist, pushing her fingers against Padma's clit this time, feeling Harry's cock pistoning in and out of the brunette just below her touch. When Pansy pressed inwards and moved her fingertips in small circles, and Harry leaned in to suck at the side of Padma's neck, it was enough to secure his first "win" in this impromptu contest, as Padma came with a whine.

"Fuck," the brunette woman muttered, "you three are… really good at this."

Fuck yes, we are, Pansy thought triumphantly.

She slid her strap-on out of Daphne, who rolled onto her back as Pansy pulled free, panting for breath with a wide smile on her face.

"Let's switch!" Pansy commanded, turning her gaze to Padma, who similarly already looked well-fucked and satisfied.

Oh, we're just getting started.

Harry

He hesitantly withdrew from Padma's tight, hot pussy, leaning across the brunette to kiss Daphne quickly, before Harry propped himself up on his knees.

Harry recognized the gleam in Pansy's eyes, across the bed from him, and felt somewhere between "excited" and "terrified" in response. His dark-haired girlfriend had always been the kinkiest out of the three of them, and he could already tell that Pansy had all sorts of ideas of how to take advantage of Padma's presence in their bedroom.

It was strange, in a way, how this almost felt natural to Harry: perhaps it was because he'd somehow managed to become used to the idea of regularly having threesomes with two beautiful women, but he was somewhat surprised that he hadn't already cum simply from the thrill of having three women in his bed at once.

Following their orgasms, Padma had rolled over onto her front, while Daphne now reclined on her back, but otherwise, the two women remained side-by-side on the bed. Harry took a moment to appreciate their figures; Padma had a round, full arse, and while Daphne still had her beat on that particular front, Harry was struck by the impression that the former Ravenclaw had somehow become more attractive since he'd last seen her.

Pansy knee-walked over to him, pulling his face down against hers and snogging him aggressively, before swatting at his arse and nudging him towards the head of the bed.

"Mmm," Pansy murmured, reaching down to take a whole handful of Padma's arse, "you know, Padma, I was thinking…"

"Hmm?"

"I seem to recall," Pansy shifted her legs, straddling the backs of Padma's thighs, her magic strap-on practically glistening as it jut from her hips, "there was a certain missed opportunity last time, wasn't there?"

"D'you know what she means?" Daphne asked, as Harry shuffled up beside her, enjoying the view of Pansy perched atop Padma.

"I've got a guess," Harry admitted, as he reached between Daphne's legs. She cooed pleasurably, but grabbed his wrist.

"I need a minute or two, apparently I cum hard with that potion," Daphne explained, "lean back, yeah?"

Harry smiled and did just that, and Daphne rolled over as if she were laying with her head in his lap, almost innocent except for the way that her mouth immediately wrapped around the tip of his cock.

"Mmm," Harry ran his fingers lovingly through her hair, "from what I recall, Pans and Padma share a certain kink…"

Pansy looked up and winked at him dramatically, before she leaned over to retrieve her wand from the bedside table.

"Lubricatus," she murmured at the strap-on she wore, coating it in slickness and confirming Harry's suspicions for her intent.

"Ooh," Padma tilted her hips up towards Pansy, "I remember what you mean. Yes, I'm still very much in favour."

Harry tapped the side of Daphne's head, catching her attention.

"You'll wanna watch this," he smirked.

Without warning, Pansy plunged her head down to Padma's arse, her hands coming down on the woman's dark skin with a slap, before Pansy practically shoved her face between Padma's full cheeks.

"Yesss," Padma hissed, looking up at Harry and Daphne with lust in her eyes, "fuck, one of you come over here, please? Keep my mouth busy while your girlfriend eats my arse?"

She's just as talkative as ever, Harry thought, amused, that's also pretty hot.

Daphne rolled off his lap, nudging his hips to indicate that he should be the one to fulfill this request, which Harry was entirely happy to oblige. He crawled forward, kneeling in front of Padma's face (which was almost pressed into the mattress from how she lay prone), and Daphne embraced him from behind, reaching around to guide his cock to Padma's lips.

"Fuck," Daphne whispered in his ear, before licking it, "I love watching you get your cock sucked."

Harry, as it turned out, was also a big fan of this. The angle at which he crouched over Padma didn't exactly allow for her to take him deep into her throat, but from what Harry recalled, Padma wasn't much of a fan of that anyways; the way that she eagerly sucked and licked around the head of his cock more than made up for it.

"Lubricio Penetrata," Pansy practically spoke the spell into Padma's arse, and judging from the moan that Harry felt vibrate along his cock, Padma had maintained her interest in anal play that they'd discovered when Harry had first slept with her.

"Oh, morgana," Daphne moaned, "that's so fucking hot."

Pansy pushed the strap-on inside Padma's arse slowly, straddling over her hips from behind, and the sight of her thighs sandwiching Padma's round arse between them was, indeed, one of the hottest things that Harry could remember seeing.

The way that Padma's arse jiggled under Pansy when his girlfriend began to thrust in earnest? Also up there.

Padma, meanwhile, was apparently enjoying this more than either Harry or Daphne's considerable enjoyment of watching it happen, as she basically forgot to keep sucking his cock, but fortunately (for Harry) Daphne had stepped in to take over, slowly stroking him with an arm wrapped around his hips.

"You know," Daphne whispered to him, a sly note in her voice, "the strap-on that Pansy's wearing…"

"Mm?"

"It leaves her pussy open," Daphne nipped at the side of his neck, "I think you're about to lose your little contest with her, otherwise…"

Harry leaned back to kiss Daphne, smirking against her lips. The suggestion was clear to him, and he always enjoyed the little games of "who's in control right now?" that Pansy and Daphne tended to play with each other.

He took a moment longer to appreciate the vision of Pansy straddling Padma's hips, the strap-on disappearing into Padma's arse with quick, aggressive thrusts, Pansy's tits jiggling as she was completely lost in her own activity. Harry shifted towards the end of his bed, repositioning so that he was crouched behind Pansy and Padma, before he closed the distance, pressing himself against his girlfriend's back.

"As it happens," Harry teased, holding Pansy in place by wrapping both his arms around her, "I notice that you're pulling ahead, can't have that, can we?"

He pushed her forward, so that instead of crouching upright, she now lay against Padma's back, both women prone against his bed. Grabbing Pansy's hips, Harry noticed that Daphne's advice was entirely correct: the straps of the magical toy that Pansy wore split so that they did absolutely nothing to obstruct her glistening pussy from his sight.

Without warning, Harry shoved his cock inside her, causing his girlfriend to stiffen up and whine in response.

"I didn't say you had to stop," Harry murmured into her ear, glancing up to Daphne at the head of the bed, who had started to reposition herself in turn, spreading her legs wide and sliding her hips down towards Padma's face.

Pansy just whined again, before her hips started to move in short, jerky motions. Harry realized that, thanks to the magic of the toy she was using on Padma, Pansy had been getting her own stimulation out of fucking Padma's arse, and now that he'd hilted his own cock inside Pansy, she might well be close to overwhelmed.

Good, he thought, smirking.

Harry began to thrust into Pansy every time her own hips moved forward, and before long, his girlfriend had become practically paralyzed, slumped on her hands and knees overtop of Padma's back, while Harry took over fucking for both of them.

---

Daphne

Daphne was enraptured by the sights before her; first, Pansy straddling Padma's curvy hips and then fucking her arse with no hesitation had proved that she enjoyed watching her girlfriend fuck another woman, then Harry moving behind Pansy and fucking her only reinforced how much Daphne liked watching her two partners together.

The way that they'd seamlessly shifted dominance, from Pansy taking control of Padma into Harry controlling both only added to Daphne's appreciation, she felt an odd sort of pride at how her partners just worked with each other so smoothly, as if the sexual chemistry alone served as a demonstration of how well the three fit together.

Then again, Daphne only had moments to appreciate the spectacle before she inevitably found herself drawn back into it as a participant.

"Daphne," Padma's voice came out husky, almost short-of-breath, "come here, please, I want to go down on you," she moaned, "I want your cunt."

Well, I won't keep her waiting, Daphne smirked, sliding down the bed so that her hips came closer to Padma's face. Apparently, none of their guest's enthusiasm was feigned in the slightest, as Padma immediately began to sloppily lick Daphne's sex, her tongue moving in long, slow movements despite the increasing frenzy of the two people behind her.

Looking away from the pleasant sight of Padma's face between her legs for a moment, Daphne was confronted by an equally-arousing display; Harry had one of his hands wrapped (somewhat) gently around Pansy's throat, and their dark-haired girlfriend practically writhed in place as her hips spasmed back and forth, sheathing Harry inside herself every time she pulled back, and pumping her artificial cock into Padma every time she thrust forwards.

"Oh!" Daphne cried in surprise, as Padma pressed her legs even further apart, her attentions immediately dropping lower, from Daphne's pussy to her arse, "mmm, fuck, that's great," Daphne might not have been as big a fan as Pansy (and apparently Padma), but in this sort of context, she was hardly going to complain if Padma wanted to rim her.

Daphne started to play with her own pussy, locking eyes with Harry as she ran her fingers over her soaking entrance (Pansy, despite all her efforts to be dominant, had her own eyes half-closed in a lewd expression of lust), arching one of her eyebrows at him when he held up a single finger, as if to say "just wait".

His intent became clear when he shoved Pansy forwards, so that instead of just barely managing to remain on her hands and knees, she fell entirely into Padma, who groaned loudly as Pansy's weight drove the strap-on deeper into her. This new position had also brought Pansy's face just above Padma's own, and Daphne wasted no time in running her fingers into Pansy's hair, pressing her girlfriend's mouth into her "neglected" pussy.

"Fuck, yes, you two, keep doing that," Daphne commanded, though they didn't exactly need the guidance; Padma had immediately returned to licking her arse, and Pansy was just as enthusiastic when it came to flicking her tongue against Daphne's pussy.

Sparks of pleasure shot up Daphne's spine as the two women pleasured her, feeling her second orgasm of the night approaching quickly. Daphne was thankful that the potions that Pansy had passed around had helped to let her last a bit longer at first (probably the Stamina component, she guessed), but even with this in mind, she had never struggled with reaching orgasm shortly after the previous one.

Harry leaned forwards, propping himself over the two women underneath him, and with one quick gesture, he set off a chain reaction that gave Daphne an entirely new appreciation for just how good he was in the bedroom. First, his hand brushed over Daphne's own, then his thumb pressed roughly into her clit, flicking upwards. This caused her to cum hard, her hips spasming upwards, and the jet of fluid that sprayed from her pussy made her orgasm obvious. When she came on Pansy's face, Pansy went still, a blush rising on her neck, before screaming her own orgasm, then collapsing bonelessly on top of Padma, who also came with a shout as Pansy wound up driving the strap-on inside Padma with her entire weight.

"Holy fuck, Harry," Daphne panted for breath, "I think you just made three women cum at once."

If that isn't a boost to his self-esteem, then I have no bloody idea what could be.

"Fuck," Harry groaned, as he pulled out of Pansy and rolled to the side, "that was… wow."

"Fuck," Pansy reiterated his statement, "we're just fuckin' getting started."

"I think Harry won your contest, didn't he?" Daphne teased, but almost regretted her choice of words as soon as Pansy rolled off Padma, a fiery gleam of lust in her eyes.

"That he did," Pansy agreed, before she leaned in to whisper the 'reward' she had in mind to Daphne and Padma.

---

Harry

He'd been pretty impressed with himself when he had managed to set off all three of his partners for the night in one go, but really, Harry figured that this was just a natural consequence of having such an intimate knowledge of Pansy and Daphne's preferences, on top of a lingering awareness of what Padma enjoyed.

When Pansy ordered him to sit at the edge of the bed, and all three women proceeded to kneel between his legs, Harry was just smart enough to keep his mouth shut before he protested that this "reward" was too much.

He couldn't help but think that he'd have to make sure that each of the other three had their own turn as the centre of attention, but for now… Harry was willing to shut up and enjoy their attempt at sucking his cock all at the same time.

His girlfriends had pressed Padma into the middle between them, and the mere sight alone of the three gorgeous women pressing their lips onto different parts of his cock had sent a shock of pleasure through his body, his cock twitching in this oral embrace.

Harry groaned as the three women seemed to make a game out of passing his member between themselves; first Padma bobbed her mouth over the crown of his head, then Daphne slowly sucked him as her head descended halfway down his length, and then finally Pansy made a lascivious show out of pushing his cock into her throat.

His cock visibly throbbed when Pansy lifted free of it with a pop, but with an unspoken agreement, none of the three women relented. Padma dipped her head lower, running her entire tongue over his balls, while Daphne circled her lips around his tip and sucked, her cheeks hollowing, and Pansy planted wet kisses along the side of his manhood.

Pansy encircled her delicate fingers around the base of his cock, keeping it stationary as Daphne began to bob her head more vigorously, while Pansy also lowered her lips to his balls, sucking at one as Padma licked the other. As always (and he loved it about her), Pansy was the proactive one who moved things along towards her intended actions; Harry saw her hand creep to the top of Padma's head and then push downwards.

"Fffuck," Harry moaned, as Padma – without hesitation – began to lavish her oral attention along the underside of his ballsack, only to continue even lower, circling her tongue around the rim of his arsehole. While it wasn't the first time he'd been the recipient of this kind of act, it had never been accompanied by having his balls sucked and a blowjob at the same time, and the lightning bolt of pleasure it sent up Harry's groin was nearly indescribable.

Harry tried to last for as long as he could under this kind of teamwork, but even the potion running through his body wasn't enough to stand against the expertise of these three women.

"Fuck, I'm gonna cum," he announced, if it wasn't obvious enough by the way his cock swelled within Daphne's lips.

Once more demonstrating their unspoken agreement, Pansy's head immediately lifted from his balls, and Padma's face reappeared between his girlfriend's in turn, her hand coming to lightly fondle his testicles, while Pansy began to stroke at his base, and Daphne replaced her lips with her hand, meeting Pansy's strokes in time.

He erupted over the three of them, thick jets of cum landing on all three of their faces, a pool of white forming between Padma's breasts from the sheer volume of his release.

"Wow," Padma breathed, "that's… impressive."

Any further commentary was halted by the way that Daphne pulled the other two women into a sloppy, messy three-way kiss, and Harry felt his cock twitch as if he could keep going at the sight of the three witches pawing at each others' tits while splattered with his cum.

"Well," Padma was the first to speak again, "I don't know about you three, but I could use a drink."

"Absolutely," Pansy agreed, smacking her lips against Daphne's once again, "y'want any help with that?"

"I'll go with you," Harry volunteered himself, rising to his shaky legs, "least I can offer after that, really."

"That was your reward, after all," Daphne teased, leaning her head into Pansy's shoulder, "you earned it!"

He guided Padma to his kitchen, and helped her retrieve four glasses.

"You're really doing well for yourself, Harry," Padma spoke, as he filled the glasses with firewhisky and soda water, hoping that the cocktail was refreshing enough to meet her preference.

"Yeah, I'm, well," Harry couldn't find more eloquent words, "I'm really lucky."

"I think all three of you are, from what I can tell," Padma smiled at him, and if she felt left out or envious in any way, Harry couldn't see any evidence of it, "I don't think that a more 'conventional' sort of relationship would have worked for any of you, really, but in addition to that, I think you three have got a rare kind of connection to each other."

"Yeah," Harry agreed, "I'm, well, I'm really happy."

"Good!" Padma smirked as she turned to return to his bedroom, "I'm having a lot of fun too, as it turns out!"

Harry was glad to hear it; while he still wasn't quite sure how he found himself in this situation, he supposed that anything where all four people involved were enjoying themselves this much must be worth it.

---

Pansy

After a short break to have a drink, where Pansy and Harry shared a smoke, Pansy found herself struck by the realization that not only was she long from finished with that night's activities, but that she was getting even more turned on than she'd been at the start.

The sight of Daphne reclining lazily in the middle of Harry's bed had been enough to spur her back into action, practically pouncing on her girlfriend and leaning down to kiss her hard. Before Daphne could do anything other than make some small, pleased noises, Pansy had immediately moved to the next step she had in mind, swinging her leg over Daphne's shoulders and pulling her girlfriend into a sixty-nine.

Four people's a bit interesting like that, Pansy mused, it's not as tricky to pair off for a bit, since the other two can amuse themselves.

Sure enough, when she glanced up from between Daphne's legs, she saw Harry and Padma kissing at the end of the bed, Harry's hard cock wrapped in one of Padma's hands, while his own fingers were busy between her legs.

Pansy almost wished she could keep watching, but didn't want to remove herself from Daphne's cunt any time soon, pressing her tongue back into her girlfriend's slit, thoroughly enjoying the way that Daphne wriggled underneath her (but didn't stop licking Pansy, either).

It was unexpected when Padma kneeled on the bed beside them, her arse pointed towards the edge, and yet it didn't seem as if Harry was preparing to fuck Padma. Instead, her boyfriend crouched between Daphne's spread legs, pulling Pansy's face away from her pussy in order to pull her up into a deep kiss.

"Mmm," Pansy murmured her approval, before bringing her hand down to slap Padma's arse beside her, "you gonna take care of our guest?"

"Actually," Harry smirked at her when Padma returned the spank, swatting Pansy's arse, "I think it's Daph's turn, yeah?"

"And I," Padma brought her other hand down on Pansy's arse, making her squeal enjoyably as she slumped back down into the sixty-nine with Daphne, "have a favour to repay, hmm?"

Pansy was practically spellbound as she watched Harry push his cock into Daphne's pussy directly under her eyes, making sure to begin to lick in long, slow strokes which covered both Daphne's clit and the top of Harry's cock as he slid in and out of their girlfriend. Padma, meanwhile, leaned over Pansy's arse, dragging her tongue along one of Pansy's cheeks before sliding between them to rim her.

Daphne, bless her, moaned enthusiastically, and redoubled her efforts on Pansy even as Harry started to thrust harder, his abdomen bumping into the top of Pansy's head at times.

Caught between Daphne and Padma's tongues, Pansy lifted her head to moan, and in the same instant, Harry slid out of Daphne, pushing his cock between Pansy's open lips. She did her best to suck him, but the sudden display of assertiveness from her boyfriend was arousing on its own, and the two women busy between her legs were an additional stimulus that Pansy couldn't ignore.

From the corner of her eye, she saw that Harry had two of his fingers pressed into Padma's pussy as the other woman licked Pansy's arse from her hands and knees, and all the different sights and feelings collapsed together into a surprisingly-rapid orgasm.

Sure, pairing off is fun and all, Pansy thought, as she rolled off of Daphne, but it's so much more fun when there's all these hands and mouths involved.

---

Daphne

Daphne almost whined in protest when Pansy moved away just after she came, but any complaints were smothered by the seamless way that Padma's lips moved in to replace Pansy's lower lips, the brunette woman kissing Daphne in the almost-overwhelming way that was apparently Padma's style.

Harry continued to thrust without stopping, and Daphne made another distinct whining noise as his cock plunged deep inside her, her eyes widening in arousal when she noticed that he was fucking Padma with his fingers the whole time.

It was obvious that group sex simply held more possibilities than the trio's usual activities, and Daphne had to admit that she was glad that she'd taken Pansy's advice after all, and furthermore, that Padma had wound up being an ideal candidate, considering the surprisingly effortless way in which she'd untangled the true relationship between the three.

While Daphne had certainly enjoyed sleeping with Padma one-on-one, that experience was nowhere near as satisfying as sharing a "guest" with her partners, she'd decided.

"Padma," Pansy ordered from beside Daphne, "come here."

"Mmm," Padma protested, "but Harry's doing really well with his hands, I don't want him to stop."

"I'll take care of you soon," Pansy was resolute, "I want to give Daph a treat."

Oh?

Daphne propped herself up on her elbows, glancing to her girlfriend in curiosity, only to be met with a faceful of Pansy's breasts, as her girlfriend pulled Daphne's face into her chest.

Oh, fuck yes.

"See, my girl has a thing for tits," Pansy explained, "and yours are pretty fuckin' great, Padma."

"Well, thank you," Daphne could hear that Padma's tone had become huskier once again, "so are yours, of course…"

Pansy turned Daphne's head away from the pillowy prison that she'd been "trapped" in, only to find herself immediately pressed between Padma's breasts, her moan smothered between the second pair of (definitely) great breasts in their bed.

Daphne lost herself in pleasure as Harry continued to saw in and out of her, while the two women perched at either side of her head murmured encouraging (or teasing) phrases, Daphne's face pressed between their breasts the whole time. When Pansy turned her face so that Daphne was pinned in the middle of Pansy and Padma's tits, Daphne shamelessly began to lick and nibble at the soft flesh around her, at one point managing to draw both Pansy and Padma's pierced nipples between her lips.

"Fuck, that's a great show," Harry grunted, and it was the fact that Daphne could barely hear him, surrounded by tits as she was, that caused her building arousal to snap into a sharp orgasm.

"I think she likes this," Padma hummed, "I'll admit, I certainly enjoyed seeing Daphne the other night, but it seems like she's having more fun tonight!"

"We're best as three, I think," Pansy agreed, "though I wonder if this poor girl will be content with only my tits from now on."

Daphne tried to protest that of course she'd be content, but her words were immediately smothered.

"It's really hot that she squirts," Padma continued, and Daphne found the apparent ease with which her and Pansy were holding this conversation arousing in a way, as if this casual repartee was a means of Pansy dominating her, "I've always found it's very satisfying to make someone come that hard."

If Harry had anything to add to this, it seemed to be limited to the way that his thrusts grew harder, more urgent; Daphne could tell that he was starting to approach his own limit.

"I'm really getting a kick out of the way I seem to have turned you halfway into a lesbian," Pansy teased, "though for someone who's not fucking blokes any more, you seem to handle a cock up the arse quite well."

Daphne squeaked as Harry started to pound her, her face bouncing against Padma and Pansy's breasts even harder.

"Oh, well," Padma's tone was equally as teasing, "it doesn't mean I'm a stranger to cock, of course, your own skill with a strap-on is one example."

"You getting close, babe?" Pansy asked – presumably – Harry.

"Yeah," he grunted, "don't let me distract you."

"Oh, are you going to come inside her?" Padma released Daphne, leaning back, and Daphne felt herself panting for breath, "are you going to fill her? You came so much earlier, can her tight little cunt even hold it all?"

Fuck, she's good at dirty talk, Daphne thought, as Harry seemed to agree. His hips snapped forward, thrusting deep inside of her, and Daphne moaned as she felt him spasm within her pussy.

"Fuck," Daphne practically growled, "you two put those tongues to use, now."

She reached to grab both Pansy and Padma by the backs of their hair, shoving them down towards her groin. Daphne saw Harry smirk knowingly as he pulled his cock free of her, helping to spread her legs wider with his hands to ensure that she could push both women's heads into her now-soaked sex.

"Mmmm," Daphne purred, contentedly, as the two began to lick at her entrance, the angle not quite right to allow them to reach deep inside of her, but certainly more than enough to send shocks through her sensitive flesh.

"Fuck!" Daphne cried, as her next orgasm came fast on the heels of the previous one, and she was pleased to hear small noises of pleasure from Pansy and Padma alike as she drenched them with her cum.

"That's my sweet's other big kink," Pansy drawled, entirely too smug, "now, Padma, I think it's your turn, isn't it?"

---

Harry

Harry was practically lost in a haze of pleasure at that point, long past the point of "introspection" or any activity requiring his higher brain functions. He'd noticed that Pansy was very clearly taking "control" of their activities, and hadn't thought to protest when he was really enjoying fucking his girlfriend while watching her get smothered between Padma's and Pansy's tits, but he was almost beginning to feel nervous at the maniacal glint in Pansy's eyes.

When he came back to the bedroom after grabbing a glass of water, Pansy had already positioned Padma back on her hands and knees, her arse arched up into the air very appealingly, three of Pansy's fingers hooked into her pussy as his girlfriend knelt at Padma's side.

Daphne lay on Padma's other side, panting for breath and blushing in the way that indicated she'd had a really good orgasm, but her eyes carried some of the same mischief as Pansy's did when she looked up to him.

"Harry," Pansy almost sounded desperate, "get that cock over here."

Happy to be of service, he thought, with a smirk crossing his features.

By the time he'd caught sight of the activities happening on his bed, he'd already started to get hard again, but it only took seconds after he crossed the room for Pansy's quick, efficient strokes of his member to bring him back to his full erection. He planted his hands on Padma's arse as Pansy angled his cock towards Padma's dripping pussy, and pushed forward slowly inside her without any further thought.

While Harry would never compare Padma to his girlfriends, one of the unique differences of having sex with her compared to Daphne or Pansy was how hot her body was, the tight, wet heat of her pussy practically boiling for how it felt around his cock.

Pansy reached up to pinch one of his nipples, a wild grin on her face.

"She's warmed up enough," Pansy ordered, "now fuck her."

Daphne crawled over on her hands and knees, leaning over Padma's arse to watch Harry's cock plunging in and out of their guest, biting her lip in appreciation. Harry certainly enjoyed the sight as well: Padma's arse looked spectacular from this angle, and the way her cheeks bounced against his hips with every thrust only added to his enjoyment.

He could have protested when Pansy slipped her hand between him and Padma and slid his cock out of their guest, but when Daphne leaned down to suck his cock, still slick with Padma's sex, Harry quickly forgot any remnant of that idea.

I really don't mind not being the one in charge, he thought, if this is how it goes.

He groaned in pleasure as Pansy leaned over Padma's arse, flickering her tongue against Padma's rim in much the same way as the other woman had done with her earlier in the night.

"Mmm," Daphne hummed, releasing Harry's cock from her mouth, "tilt the other way a bit?"

Pansy did so, and Harry boggled at the sight before him: taking advantage of the way that Padma was bent over, Daphne moved herself into the same position as Pansy on the other side, and both women danced their tongues over Padma's arsehole for a few moments.

"There," Pansy announced, apparently satisfied, "I already opened her up earlier, so now it's your turn, Harry, break her in fucking half."

Padma made a high-pitched whine that could only be an enthusiastic one, as Pansy spread her arse cheeks wide apart, even pulling her arsehole open a tiny amount.

"Fuck," Harry couldn't find anything else to say.

Daphne's hand flew to his cock, and she eagerly lined Harry's cockhead up against Padma's arse, her eyes hooded with lust as she watched the very tip of his member sink inside Padma's hole.

Pansy chose this moment to slap his arse, her previously-"wild" expression now approaching something close to "feral".

"I said fuck her!" Pansy pulled Harry towards her, causing two inches of his cock to sink inside Padma's arse in an instant, "ruin her!"

"Fucking do it, Harry!" Padma agreed, "fucking pound my arse, bugger me, show me how hard you fuck!"

Padma and Pansy definitely feed off each other's impulses, Harry couldn't help but make this observation, I'd better get to it before she dreams up something kinkier.

He half-hoped that she would.

Harry groaned as he continued to push forward, inch after inch of his cock disappearing into Padma's arse until his hips came to rest against her plush cheeks. Pansy took the opportunity to pull Daphne into a heated kiss overtop of Padma's hips, and judging by the sensations Harry felt around his balls, Pansy had also resumed fingering Padma at the same time.

Inspired, Harry took two firm handfuls of Padma's arse and started to thrust, knowing that the charm Pansy had cast earlier alleviated any concerns about safety or warm-up for this particular activity. Indeed, the only concerns that Padma voiced were half-slurred demands for him to "fuck me harder", which Harry did his best to fulfill.

He found that the effects of Pansy's potion had continued to build throughout the night, so while Harry was now building towards his third orgasm of the night, he felt that it was likely to be just as powerful as the first two.

Padma's arse was even hotter than her pussy, and even with the copious lubrication that Pansy had applied (magical and non-magical alike), the tight, clenching sensation around Harry's cock was almost excruciatingly pleasurable. As he began to thrust hard enough for his hips to audibly clap against Padma's, he felt her insides clench and spasm around him, clear evidence that he'd once more managed to make her cum from her arse.

"Fuck yes, Harry," Daphne encouraged him, "pull out when you're going to cum, okay?"

He grunted instead of forming a more lucid reply, continuing to thrust as hard and as fast as he could, as Padma mumbled a continuous stream of almost shockingly obscene words towards him. It did not take him much longer to approach his orgasm, so he pulled free of Padma's arse, his member bouncing in the air in time with his heartbeat.

Instantly, Daphne's hand flew to his cock, while Pansy's returned to Padma's arse cheeks, tilting her hips up and spreading her open in front of him as Harry came hard. His cum splattered over Padma's groin and arse, one rope landing in her arsehole, another dripping between the lips of her pussy.

"I told you I'd get him to ruin you," Pansy smirked, as Padma collapsed on her side with an extremely content sigh.

---

Daphne

Things became somewhat of a blur for Daphne by the later parts of the evening, many of the specific acts that the trio and their guest had engaged in blending together into a chaotic jumble of limbs, breasts, pussy, and fucking. She vaguely recalled sucking Harry's cock while he went down on Padma, or Pansy sitting on his face while Padma rode him, but only the more intense moments stood out from the sheer carnality of the night.

At one point, she and Padma had both needed to take a break, sitting on the side of the bed and drinking glasses of water until they could literally cool down enough to rejoin Harry and Pansy. Pansy, meanwhile, was unstoppable, a veritable force of lust who seemed like she didn't slow down for a minute.

She's so fucking incredibly hot, Daphne was even more impressed by her girlfriend than she had been before, just… seeing her unleashed like this, it's something amazing.

It was also, perhaps, a little bit scary, but Pansy had managed to fuck her well past the point of being capable of feeling anxious.

Harry was Pansy's current "victim" at that point, laying flat on his back in the middle of his bed as Pansy fucked his brains out: she was squatted over him with her thighs practically parallel to his torso, lifting and dropping her hips onto his with enough force that Daphne could feel the whole bed shaking.

"Fuck, she's incredible," Padma muttered, clearly as impressed as Daphne was.

"She absolutely is," Daphne agreed.

"Is this… do you three normally go this hard?" Padma wondered.

"This is a bit of a special occasion," Daphne teased, "what with having a guest and all. But no, we can get fairly intense sometimes, but this is… wow."

"Wow, indeed," Padma agreed, "hmm, actually, I was wondering, have you brought other people in before? I'm simply curious, of course, I don't expect you to reveal anything particularly private to me."

"This is the first time, actually," Daphne admitted, "it had always been a condition in our relationship, but, well, I suppose it hadn't come up before now."

"Ooh!" Padma seemed interested by this, "well, I'm glad that I could be the first, in that case!"

"You two!" Pansy actually growled at them, "come here!"

Daphne and Padma looked at each other, and with matching smirks, crawled back towards Pansy and Harry.

Pansy snaked an arm around each of their backs, pulling Daphne so that she knelt by Harry's legs on one side, Padma on the other.

"Fingers!" Pansy hissed the command, spreading her thighs for emphasis.

Daphne began to tease at Pansy's clit, as Padma – uncertain what Pansy was demanding – stroked at the inside of her leg.

"Inside!" Pansy dropped her own hand lower, circling between Daphne's legs to thrust inside her pussy, doing the same to Padma if the other woman's gasp of "ooh!" was any indication.

Not sure quite what Pansy intended, Daphne still attempted her best, pushing one of her fingers up along Harry's cock until it slid inside Pansy's cunt, with one of Padma's fingers following as their hands intertwined.

"Fuck, Pans," Harry whined, as his cock ran along Padma and Daphne's knuckles, "so tight, fuck."

Daphne ground her hips back against Pansy's hand, unable to escape the impression that her girlfriend was managing to fuck three people at once.

"Fuck yes," Pansy threw her head back in triumph, her breasts bouncing wildly as she began to grind her hips back and forth violently, Harry's cock and a digit of Padma's and Daphne's all inside her pussy at once, "give it to me."

Daphne shifted her hand so that her finger lay overtop of Padma's, then hooked their digits forward, grinding against Pansy's g-spot as Harry's cock filled the rest of her pussy. With a shrieking, desperate cry, Daphne felt Pansy's cunt clench around all three of them, her hips spasming and jerking forwards arrhythmically.

"Fucking hell," Harry groaned, "fuck, gonna cum."

"Yesssss," Pansy actually hissed, her hips gyrating wildly even through her own orgasm.

Daphne felt Harry pulse against her finger, and then a flood of fluid filled Pansy's pussy. As soon as he came, Pansy collapsed bonelessly, propped up by Daphne and Pansy on either side, pulling her fingers from each of the women's pussies to grab their wrists.

"Holy fuck," Padma murmured, when Pansy brought hers and Daphne's fingers to her mouth, wetly licking and sucking Harry's and her own cum from their digits.

"…yeah," Daphne agreed, lost for words.

"Do you have a strap-on too?" Padma had a gleam in her eyes almost as bright as Pansy's had been, "I really need to get fucked again after that, and I think these two are out of commission for a bit."

As it turned out, Daphne did.

---

Pansy

More, she thought. More, more more more.

Later, she'd amuse herself by realizing that her inner dialogue started recreating the song "Rebel Yell", but in that moment, Pansy's base instincts had complete and total control over her thoughts.

This had been the most she'd been able to cut loose and indulge every fantasy that came to mind in a long time, ever since some of the earlier times with Harry and Daphne when the three of them would get drunk and have rough sex with each other, and Pansy wondered if it was the addition of a fourth party which had inspired her to these heights (or depths, perhaps).

Watching Padma and Daphne together? Pretty fucking great. Padma and Harry? Also great. The three of them? Even better. Getting in the middle of all three? Fucking spec-tac-u-lar.

Pansy was well aware that this was a one-time-for-now thing with Padma, and in truth, suspected that she wouldn't ever be able to date Padma in the same way that she was with Harry and Daphne anyways, but more than anything else Pansy was driven to get every last ounce of pleasure from that evening that she could manage.

"Evening" might be pushing it a bit, I suppose, she realized, as she spotted faint rays of sunlight beginning to filter through Harry's windows.

Not that this bothered her. While she was always impressed by Harry's stamina (which seemed to be growing the longer he dated Daph and herself), she knew that even he had his limits, and even with the aid of the potions they'd taken, seemed to be approaching them.

This, too, didn't bother her: it merely gave her an excuse to suck his cock back to hardness, while beside them, Daphne fucked Padma with a strap-on.

"Fuck, Pans, you're insatiable," Harry tugged his fingers gently through her hair, "I think I've only got one more left in me, just so you know."

"Mmm that's fine," Pansy answered, popping her lips free from his dick, "same for me, actually."

Not wasting any more time with conversation when there was fucking to do, Pansy leaned over to the bedside table, retrieving her own strap-on which she'd removed earlier in the evening. She shivered as she activated its familiar charms one last time, turning to take in the sight of Daphne and Padma having sex.

Daphne stood at the end of the bed, and Pansy was struck once more by how she appreciated Daphne's tall, almost regal frame. She had Padma's legs in her hands as she thrust, both women panting for breath and covered in sweat.

Pansy swaggered over to her girlfriend, smirking as Daphne paused to glance down at the strap-on jutting from Pansy's groin.

"Hey, Padma?" Pansy asked. She was aware that their guest might not be able to handle what she had in mind, although she had a good feeling about it.

"Yeahh?" Padma gasped for breath in the middle of her reply.

"Think you can take two at once?" Pansy swung her hips for emphasis, slapping the strap-on against the underside of Padma's thigh.

"Fuck," Padma and Daphne both paused for a moment, as the brunette woman answered, "fuck, I don't know. I want to try, but I'm near my limit, I'm afraid."

"This is the finale," Pansy answered, nudging Daphne's legs to get her to step back a bit. As Padma's legs fell together, Pansy tilted the other woman's hips, turning her so that she lay on her side, facing in towards the center of the bed where Harry lay.

"Lubricatus," Pansy repeated the lubricating charm, but this time, directed it at the strap-on which Daphne wore. Her girlfriend's was an earlier model compared to the one Pansy preferred, transmitting sensations from the shaft into the short end of the toy (which was currently inserted into Daphne's pussy), and this attribute suited Pansy's ideas perfectly. Her own variety was too sensitive for Pansy to be able to handle the part she had in mind for Daphne.

With Padma still on her side, Pansy pushed her knees up towards her chest a bit, bending her hips open, as if she were in doggy-style, but rotated ninety degrees.

"You go first, sweet," Pansy leaned in to kiss Daphne, a bit of softness before she planned to go hard.

"Fuck," Daphne murmured, "you think this'll work?" she hesitantly guided her strap-on towards Padma's arse, and given what Padma had already taken there that night, Pansy was fully certain that she could handle this.

"Mmm," Padma moaned as Daphne slid inside her, "that's good, yeah."

"Okay, now I'm going," Pansy announced, standing beside Daphne. The angle was a tricky one, and Pansy wasn't certain it would work with real cocks, but given how their strap-ons remained rock hard no matter what, Pansy figured it was worth a shot.

She was rewarded by being proven correct as her own artificial cock slid into Padma's pussy, the motion sending shocks of pleasure along her sensitive clit.

"Fuck," Padma hissed for breath, "that's a lot. It's good. Keep going."

It was indeed "a lot", Pansy having experienced this kind of double-penetration from her partners on several occasions, although she had to admit that Harry was actually bigger than either of the toys that she and Daphne were using.

It took a moment for her and Daphne to work out a rhythm, eventually landing on movements that saw Pansy pushing forward while Daphne withdrew, and vice-versa.

"Merlin, you're creative," Harry muttered, rolling onto his knees to watch this, "I don't think I've ever heard of that position."

"It was an idea I had," Pansy moaned, already hyper-stimulated from everything they'd done before this, "Harry, she's still got one more hole open."

He looked at her, confused.

"Fuck her mouth, Potter," Pansy rolled her eyes with mock scorn, the effect ruined somewhat when Daphne tweaked one of her nipples and she squeaked.

The trio set a somewhat languid pace (especially compared to mere minutes before) as each of them slowly thrust a cock (real or artificial) into one of Padma's orifices, and Pansy absolutely loved this dynamic: it was fun to trade off who was more dominant or submissive between herself and her two partners, but all three of them dominating a fourth woman? Magical.

Padma, too, seemed to enjoy this treatment, as she moaned softly around Harry's cock.

Despite the slow pace, the tightness of Padma's pussy (especially with Daphne's strap-on in her arse) and Pansy's sensitivity were enough to guarantee that this last hurrah wouldn't last too long. After merely a minute or two, Pansy felt her own motions becoming erratic, her strokes into Padma's pussy shorter, shallower than she'd started out with.

"Hey," Daphne murmured beside her, "c'mere."

Pansy leaned her head up to kiss her girlfriend, their tongues sliding against each other as they continued their careful see-saw motion, and Daphne's soft hand coming up to squeeze Pansy's breast was the last bit of pleasure that she needed to reach her final climax for the night.

Daphne, too, shuddered and made a high, whining noise as she came shortly after, and the girlfriends slowly pulled their toys out of Padma, who twitched and jerked as they did so in a way which meant that she'd also found her pleasure in this experiment.

Pansy flopped onto her back, her face coming to rest just beside Padma's, watching Harry slowly pump his length into their guest's mouth. She idly stuck her tongue out to lick along the underside of his cock, noted how his legs quivered beside her head, and reached up to begin stroking the him at the base.

After she recovered, Daphne lay on top of Pansy, making her twitch as the strap-on she still had attached bumped against Daphne's belly, as Daphne started to focus on the top half of Harry's cock that wasn't in Padma's mouth.

"Fuck, you three are amazing," Harry groaned, "I'm really close."

"You two can finish him," Padma decided, popping free of his member, "I'm not actually the biggest fan of cum, and I'm all fucked out at this point."

To Pansy, this sounded like the perfect end to the evening, and when Harry spilled himself into both hers and Daphne's mouths, she hummed contentedly, lazily kissing her girlfriend before Daphne rolled to the side.

"Well, that was… quite incredible, really," Padma was the first to speak as all four tried to return to reality, "I am rather glad that I was able to share that experience with you three."

"Same," Daphne stretched lazily, curling against Pansy's side.

"Yeah, me too," Harry chuckled, his eyes half-closed, "you sticking around, Pads?"

"Well, it seems like the question of whether or not I should stay the night," Padma gestured at the windows, where dawn had broken, "has basically been answered already! So, no, while that was very good, I've got to be getting back to my hotel, I'm leaving town again pretty soon, after all."

"Yeah? Where're you off to next?" Harry asked sleepily.

"Norway, actually," Padma yawned, thoroughly worn out at this point, "there's some aspects of their system of Runic magic that I wish to investigate."

I haven't anywhere near the brainpower left to process that, Pansy thought.

"Well, I'll see you out, yeah?" Harry lifted himself from the bed, "how're you two?"

"Brilliant," Daphne sighed happily, "that was great, Padma, perhaps we can do it again some time."

"Perhaps," Padma smirked, "who knows when I'll be back in town, but, yeah, I'll say hi when I am."

"Sounds great," Pansy slurred, as she realized that she was very much on the edge of falling asleep, "that was fun."

"Right," Padma rose from the bed, and efficiently retrieved her clothing, "well, this isn't 'goodbye', I don't think, but this is definitely 'farewell for now', I'm afraid."

"Enjoy Norway," Daphne murmured, as Harry pulled his own pants on, preparing to walk Padma down to his Floo, "bye for now."

"See you later, Padma," Pansy confirmed, nuzzling her head into Daphne's arm.

As she drifted into sleep, Pansy thought that this was the best way that the three of them could have spent their last chance to have fun for a while.