Regarding Dowreys

"What's up Pup?"

"Merlin!" said Harry, "It actually works."

"What does?"

"This floo," said Harry, "this was partly a test to see if it was connected at all."

"Well it does," said Sirius, "Though from the shade of green, I'd say it only makes calls, you can't travel through it."

"It's too small to stand in anyway."

"No wonder, then. If that was only part of the reason, what was the rest?"

"Do you have any idea what my net worth is? Or my passive income for that matter."

"Including real estate or excluding it?"

"Including only liquid assets and real estate under management and actively giving passive income."

"This is a dowry question isn't it."

Harry gaped, but recovered quickly, "I'm impressed. Yes, it is."

"No idea, used to be about two hundred thousand a year, but don't know how that was allocated, if all of that was wine grapes, and they haven't been cultivated for a decade you might be in trouble, but to my knowledge there are no debts, and your grandfathers liked to pay property taxes by the century."

"I think I've heard of that … God I wish I'd gotten the second instalment of Aunt Narcissa's tutoring in finance management last winter hols. Instead of that blasted tournament."

Sirius boggled, "I thought you liked it."

"It was mildly fun intrigue, and after the ball I got laid, so on net it wasn't a loss, but …" Harry shrugged, "I guess if I'd gotten the lesson then, I wouldn't have the girlfriend now, and therefore wouldn't have the girlfriend's father pushing numbers at me I don't know how to react to."

"How much does he want?"

"He wants a million pounds safely in trust for her and our children's food and tuition, should I die or become insolvent."

Sirius blinked, "Change it to two million."

"I was thinking that, but wasn't sure if I could come up with the money."

Sirius blinked again, "it did specify pounds not galleons?"

"Yes."

Sirius nodded, "Then he wants it in plain view of muggle transparency and auditing laws, but that also implies additional options where you can put it. Are you aware of Loyd's?"

"Only in the vaguest terms."

Sirius nodded, "do you want a summary now, or are you content with, 'yes, you can do that,' or I can do it for you now and you can pay me later?"

"Can I afford to pay you later?"

"If you cannot, then there are multiple people that I need to sue or declare blood feud with, and Gringotts will help."

"Oh," said Harry, "am I to interpret that as: I could put the same amount in trust to each of my children to pay for their children's tuition?"

"There may already be a trust set up for that, but yes, maybe not immediately, but if you're careful and don't have too many all at once."

"Alright," said Harry, "That's sufficient for now, next question: What are the rules about breed contracts?"

"What rules about them?"

"Multiple active at once, do they interact with marriage contracts in more than the obvious way that fidelity could not be promised while others own options on my errrrr activities?"

Sirius frowned, then cleared his throat, "Harry I forbid you to sign anything of that nature without my reviewing it."

"I, um, already signed one."

"With whom."

"House of Bones."

Sirius smirked, "Nice, Amelia is a straight shooter … about … err … how much is she paying you per child?"

"Nothing."

Sirius sighed, "How many children?"

"Not limited," said Harry, "I have visitation rights with the children the day before and the day after any requested studding events."

Sirius gaped, "That's not a … Oh … Harry … um, alright, we'll come back to what that is, are there escape clauses?"

"There are separate termination clauses for studding and for visitation, but if they terminate studding events, I get to set the schedule for visitation instead of them, and there are amendment clauses."

"Good," said Sirius, "we'll review them if we need to, in the mean time, let's discuss why you might even be considering multiple."

"The other two available contracts, three, depending on how you count, are for twins, the older sister wants to attach her family to the House of Potter, and keep all her children, at least in name, and the younger wants to bear mine. Though her father sent along an additional breed contract for the younger that merely matches the one for the older."

"Fine," said Sirius, "And there are mildly muggle, mildly cheap, dowry requirements attached to the marriage contract, because the man is a muggleborn and has no way to check what Potter tradition or assets are."

"I guess."

Sirius nodded, "And the breed contract?"

"I have a right but not an obligation to help with tuition for her children, I have an obligation to help with her further tuition if she has to drop out for a year or two because of any pregnancies that I helped with."

Sirius chuckled, "That's sort of passive aggressive for a breed contract."

"It calls itself a breed contract, because that's what most of it is, but really it's a 'by letting my heir join her family to your house, I intend her to be the head of a family that you and your descendants will be proud to protect, not your serf."

Sirius nodded soberly, "Does she deserve that consideration?"

"Yes," said Harry, "She made Ravenclaw prefect this year, and apparently she's shaking things up in directions that they should have been shaken long ago."

Sirius raised an eyebrow and nodded, "The horse and gibbon that I met when I was there?"

"Yes."

"Which is which?"

"The gibbon is prefect, and will run her family, and perhaps be my assistant regarding Wizengamot bill research."

Sirius nodded, "and the horse?"

"Executive officer, both at home and regarding house affairs."

"How do the other three girls feel about all that?"

"Hermione wants to find like minded unhoused families and start her own house from scratch."

Sirius blinked, "That's … not usual, but completely legal. Erm, good luck to her."

Harry shrugged, "I only knew for sure that it was legal in parts of Europe, I wasn't sure about here."

"It's probably much more difficult here, but still possible. It would be only marginally more difficult to move somewhere more House friendly, establish the house, then move back one family at a time."

Harry nodded, "I'll tell her that's a possibility, but that you think it's the hard way?"

"Mildly the harder way," said Sirius, "And that's even assuming that she'd like to live anywhere that the laws still even recognise the existence of houses. Several states on the continent realised as they were putting themselves back together after Grindelwald's purges and reforms, that they had no houses or house members left and just didn't bother to re-enact the relevant laws under their new constitutions."

"Oh," said Harry, "I don't think I've ever really considered whether Grindelwald's reign had any effects beyond terrorising the populace."

Sirius gave him a sever look, then closed his eyes, "I'm not going to disinherit you for not getting your History NEWT, or anything, but if you don't pass it, I reserve the right to give you remedial reading later. But don't mind me, Your mother … at some point shrieked at me for half an hour for not explaining earlier that Grindelwald was the wizarding version of Napoleon, not the wizarding version of Hitler. I don't know if that helps."

Harry sighed, "Umm, maybe … more than a little. Thanks."

"What of your other friends, and their ambitions with regard to you?"

"Ginny Weasley also wants to marry me, but … she's definitely mother, head of family, and soldier material. Not head of house and officer material."

"Ah, who does that leave?"

"Luna Lovegood," said Harry.

"And how does she fit into your organisation?"

"Like rain or wind," said Harry.

Sirius blinked.

"Flowing where she's needed, or where she's not excluded," explained Harry, "and seeming not to mind that, I'm not sure that there's anything I can offer her to entice her to stay. I'm not even sure she'd like to nominally be part of the house, Or if she'll just visit from time to time. She only needs my protection now, because of the 'forced school attendance' thing. And the previously insufficient prefect oversight in Ravenclaw."

"Alright, so what I'm hearing," said Sirius, "Is that you've got an outstanding contract, and two more offers on the table, and one more that you would like to accept if it presented itself and didn't pose problems."

"Yes."

Sirius closed his eyes for several seconds, "are there any other families that you'd like to induct into the House of Potter?"

"Not off the top of my head."

Sirius nodded, "could you be content to induct any of those four without a breed contract?"

"Married to someone else?" said Harry, "That's plausible, but it would involve needing to vet two people in place of one."

Sirius smirked, "True." After several seconds of thought he said, "and how would you feel if one of them joined in a more normal way, then brought home a breed contract to someone else?"

Harry shrugged, "If I get to pick who raises them, I have half as much worry about who contributed the genetics."

Sirius stared for several seconds, then nodded, "Half genetics, half edification, is a vaguely good rule of thumb," said Sirius, "how would you feel about one of them bringing home multiple breed contracts?"

"I have the vague idea of Luna not bothering with contracts," said Harry, "or not in writing anyway. And likewise Susan's contract does not stop her from finding someone else. I actually found an ideal place I'd suggest it get changed if we ever get around to amending it, to make her finding someone have the ideal repercussions without requiring extra paperwork or negotiations."

"I'd like to see your notes on that," said Sirius, "But in the mean time …"

...-...

House meeting

Harry entered Lion's-Keep and looked around, not to see zero to six girls revising and zero to two cats snuggling, instead he saw that the tables and their chairs had been rotated ninety degrees, providing a more direct and safer path from the bedroom to the front door, and all six girls were seated around one of the tables.

"Good, you're here," said Susan.

"Is this the much anticipated whole house meeting?" Harry said as he circled to his work station and put his things down and removed his outer robe.

"Family conference," said Ginny, "Yes, it is."

Harry smiled, "good," he finished hanging his robe, then circled back to an empty chair and sat down, "has an entire agenda been collated, or are we going to play it by ear?"

"I've collated a bunch," said Susan, "most everything is scheduling related, etiquette related, or tutoring related, except one issue, which is all of those, plus political, I think we should cover it first, the rest can probably be heard then shuffled off to committee, which here means Hermione can draw a up a calender, and the rest of us can argue about the etiquette, and tutoring can happen as anyone who 'doesn't know' can find time to schedule with someone who 'does know,' etc."

"Sounds plausible," said Harry, he looked around the room, everyone was serious and intent, except Luna seemed to be … paying attention with ears only while she doodled runes on parchment. "I think we're all listening," said Harry, "Go ahead."

"The issue is sexuality," said Susan, "or maybe it's romance, or both." She said it while looking at him, and seemed expectant after. Like she'd just asked him a question. Or merely wanted him to start off.

"Last year I said, I would tutor any of the six of you, but wanted only one girlfriend at a time. Parvati and Padma convinced me to change that to letting myself be shared between them. So I thought about it and I'm willing to be shared as long as everyone involved, including me, is fine with it. So I'm officially … dropping the 'only one girlfriend,' rhetoric. The six of you may all call yourselves my girlfriend, and flirt with me equally, though … there are some forms of flirting that I'd rather didn't happen outside that room."

He pointed toward the bedroom door.

"Do you have any inclination to share sex with anyone outside Lion's-Keep?" said Parvati.

"You all know that my first tutoring was with Bellatrix, and I think you were all here when I asked for a consensus opinion on whether I should help Gabrielle Delacour."

"I wasn't there," said Susan.

"I wasn't there," said Ginny, "but the story I heard was that, you asked Padma and Hermione for an ethical analysis of the situation, then you made your own decision."

Harry stared at her, then nodded, "You're right, that is what happened, at the time Lion's-Keep was barely a study group, that happened to include two of the people I trust most with certain kinds of ethical analysis. Since then we've become something of a family and I respect all of you."

They all nodded.

"To finish the history summary," said Harry, "Based on that ethical advice, I agreed to the tutoring session, I was cooperation tutor to Gabrielle which included sex, and various other projects. Also I … accepted sex from Fleur."

"Why?"

Harry sighed, "it was therapy, there is an extreme loneliness to offering care, especially as affection or sex to a creature who lusts but doesn't yet comprehend cooperation or the meaning of any of the care that you're trying to show her."

"You can say that again," muttered Hermione. What? Oh, yeah, she'd been hugging me for over a year before Draco forced me to understand that she didn't mean it as torture.

"I think that describes childcare in general," said Padma, "if they truly comprehended the care you were giving them, they'd be in a position to carry out that care for themselves. Though of course sex is not care generally given to a child."

"But it is sometimes given to equals who don't yet comprehend it," said Ginny.

"What are you saying?" said Parvati.

"Only that … a lot of us might only really comprehend it after our first time, or something."

"I think I understood it less after my first time," said Susan.

"You might have had a lot of misconceptions to unlearn," said Hermione.

Susan shrugged, "or interpreted the proverbs I had heard about it very wrongly," she shrugged, "Which might amount to the same thing."

"Anyway," said Harry, "when I was back in England, and coming down off veela overexposure or something, and very lonely for all of you, and before I figured out that half of you were on the floo network, and I could floo over to The Rookery or The Burrow or Bones Manor. Tonks and I—"

"What!" said several of them.

"She flirted with me a little and I flirted with her a little, and we both said no romance. Then I asked her for a specific kind of tutoring, which she … agreed to, but then gradually put so many limitations on it that I figured out it was not a healthy place to ask her to go, and later, that it was not a healthy place for me to go at all until I came to grips with how Leona altered my perception of reality."

"Have you finished that?" said Ginny.

"I believe so," said Harry.

"Are you going to seek her out again?" said Ginny.

"No, … not for sex," said Harry.

"What if she joined Lion's-Keep?" said Hermione.

Harry blinked, "As a professor, I think it would be unwise."

"You're afraid she'd take charge around here?"

"Not that exactly," said Harry.

"You were willing to share her with me when I visited, or me with her, whatever," said Hermione, "so I don't think you're concerned about sharing us with someone else, what are you concerned about?"

"In her role as a teacher," said Harry, "she might … have influence over us that would not be healthy either direction, if we all agree to it, and if Sirius places me in that house again next summer. I don't mind all of you visiting and inducting her fully into Lion's-Keep at that point, I'm just not sure it would be wise. I am sure it would be unwise here." Harry turned to Susan, "am I crazy? Or am I working from muggle legal perspective again because I don't fully comprehend the stages of mage mental development?"

"You're probably working from muggle stages of mental development, but mostly you're just highlighting the fact that we all have been trying to bring up, and unsure how to do so, is our group a study group? or several interlocking study groups? or Harry Potter and his sexual partners, or something else?"

"I'm willing to go so far as as to say, several interlocking study groups, as well as Harry Potter and all the friends he has taken a personal interest in protecting and offering snuggle time to, while at school. Sex is not required."

"However," said Susan, "It is emphatically permitted."

"Something like that," said Harry.

"Does … is everyone alright with that as a possible definition?"

There was unanimous consensus.

"That being said," said Susan, "Several of us," she glanced at Ginny, "want … some measure of control over who can get in here, and/or who you have sex with, Harry."

"The only other people I've let in are Neville (once), before most of you had been in here. It was just an office then," said Harry, "And I gave Professor Snape a holster, and told him that this place existed and where to find it, and why he should not in general come here to enforce curfew, but should be aware that it existed in case someone else was trying to enforce curfew and started panicking because they came up a few students short."

"And how did he respond?"

"He listened and asked questions about whether I was mature enough to make an informed decision as counter to my nature as offering snuggle therapy to anyone, and then agreed to let it continue for the time being. He also made sure he understood our roster, I guess well enough to not come barging in here looking for anyone who wasn't likely to be here anyway."

Hermione glared, "does he know that sex happens here?"

"Yes."

"What did he ask about that?"

"Whether I was following in my father's and Sirius' footsteps trying to sleep with everyone in the school."

"And what did you tell him?"

"What was at that point the truth, that I had offered myself to each of you, for sex tutoring, but at that point was only having one girlfriend at a time. He agreed that was significantly better communication than Sirius was known for at my age."

"Did he ask or did you tell him which of us had or had not accepted tutoring?"

"No," said Harry, "he specifically asked if I'd pressured Luna, and I have not."

"Alright," Hermione relaxed.

"Just to clarify," said Ginny, "Hermione, did you make out with Tonks?"

"We had sex," said Hermione, "She can turn into a man when she wants."

"What does she look like?"

"Whoever she wants to?" said Hermione, "She went into black hair, frizzy like mine, and muscles like Harry had after Quidditch season, only more-so. I think … there's something about the instinct that makes the metamorph talent work, that makes mirroring easier than making up things from scratch."

"I believe so," said Harry, "But she can also make up things from scratch."

"Oh, dear," said Padma and rubbed her forehead.

"What?" said Parvati.

"Nothing now," said Padma, "I've come to my senses."

"You want her?"

"Only a little," said Padma.

Parvati giggled.

"I think that brings us to the next sub-point," said Susan, "if we were to induct, for example, Tonks, would the assumption be that she was permitted to have sex with Harry, or that she was permitted of have sex with all of us?"

"Could you instead say, as many of us as want to?" said Harry.

"Yes, we could," said Susan, "and I think that's exactly what we're getting to."

"Also why would we induct her? She doesn't need our protection."

"She might could offer us interesting tutoring," said Susan, "especially in defence."

Harry nodded, "Which she could just as easily do without us inducting her," said Harry, "She's a teacher."

"Especially in sex?" said Luna.

"Exactly," said Susan, "currently none of us have jurisdiction on the sexuality of any of the others, but some of us seem to want some, The rhetoric earlier was controlling Harry, but I think that is only because … for most of us he's our only point of contact and we only see what he does as affecting us, but I think that's not clear thinking. How many of us are ok with Harry having sex … regularly with everyone currently present?"

Everyone raised their hands, though Ginny's hand looked reluctant.

"And how many of us are alright with everyone else present having sexual activities with everyone else present?"

Some of them gaped at her, Luna and Hermione put their hands up. Very gradually Ginny put her hand up.

Parvati and Padma stared at each other.

"I have no idea what to think," said Padma, "we're evidently outnumbered."

"You don't have to participate," hissed Ginny, "They're just asking our permission."

"It's really Susan asking permission to tell Hermione to beg Susan instead of Tonks," explained Luna.

Hermione gaped and put her hand down.

"Luna, You don't think it's not also Susan and I asking your permission to flirt with you?" said Ginny.

"Oh," said Luna, "I forgot about that." Luna kept staring at Ginny until Ginny looked away.

"Are we done voting or do I need to keep my hand up?" said Luna.

"We're done voting," said Hermione, "so the next question might be, do we need to figure out more bedrooms to give each other privacy."

"The standard bed curtains have silencing charms on them," said Harry, "we have three such beds."

"If I don't have to watch or listen," said Padma, "or be watched, then yes, I'm fine with the rest of you making out."

"Same," said Parvati.

"So, unanimous consent of lesbianism," said Susan.

"Unanimous consent of lesbianism in others," said Padma, "standard rules of consent still apply."

"Of course," said Susan.

"I haven't voted yet," said Harry, "Luna, are you sure you don't mind everyone asking you?"

"I don't mind being asked," said Luna.

"Can you tell them 'no'?"

"I've told you 'no' before haven't I?" said Luna.

Everyone stared.

"Not that I remember," said Harry, "I don't remember asking you."

"Well you have," said Luna, "and I told you, 'not until you give Ginny a turn first,'"

Ginny glared.

Harry took a deep breath, "Yes, Luna, you have told me that."

"So I can tell you 'no,'."

"Fine," said Harry.

"It will be Susan that will be hard to tell 'no'." said Luna.

She turned to Susan, "Um, Yes, sometimes, usually even. But … I'd rather give my first time to Harry."

"That's fine," said Susan, "Don't hurry on my account."

Luna turned to Hermione, "Can you teach Susan and I how to do the fake boy parts?"

"Yes," said Hermione, "I can show you two how to conjure dildos and strap-ons."

Padma shivered and glared at the ceiling.

"Do I want to know what those are?" said Ginny.

"They're about what you'd expect them to be," said Parvati, "Toys for if you like sex with boys for the feel of it only, but happen to find yourself in love with a girl instead."

"So if I'm content with just making out when I'm with girls?" said Ginny.

"Then don't worry about it," said Padma, and Hermione, and Harry, and Susan.

"When you're ready to try something new," said Luna, "you can see if it's something you like, but it's not something to worry about, no matter if you like it or don't like it, it's not something to worry about."

"Alright, Luna," said Ginny.

"Alright Luna," said Harry, "you've convinced me that your vote is informed, I also vote to allow lesbianism between our members."

"Now it is unanimous," said Susan, "and by technicality, this is now a sex commune, and we can, and perhaps should, put a constitution in place regulating the sexual behaviour of our members with regards to outsiders."

"OK, damn," said Harry.

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"No," said Harry, "Seems logical."

"I have a problem with it," said Hermione.

They all looked at her. She sighed and frowned, then nodded, "I don't have a problem with the logic, but respectfully and cordially, I'm opting out of a sex commune, I'm still available for hugs and snuggles, I won't suddenly start objecting about the accidental groping that happens in our sleep, but it's easier for me to give up sex with Harry and Nim, than to agree to regulation by outsiders."

"We're not outsiders," said Susan.

"Susan, You might be the only one here who wants into my pants," said Hermione.

Susan gaped, then closed her mouth and glanced around.

No one contradicted her.

Harry got up and circled the table and put one knee on the floor, to bring him down to her sitting height. "Hermione," he said, "I understand making the choice you're making regarding the sex, but please don't give up sleeping or studying with us on account of that. Please come snuggle as often as you need."

Hermione smiled and patted his hand, "thank you, Harry, I will."

She looked at Susan, "Do I need to leave for the rest of this meeting?"

"No," said Susan, "But possibly abstain from voting for the remainder of the sex commune constitution type discussion, I assume we might still prefer your advice."

Hermione nodded, and glanced Harry back toward his chair.

He patted her knee and returned to his seat.

"I'm really uncomfortable with this," said Ginny.

"I am too," said Parvati, "I don't think we should be kicking anyone out. I'm not even comfortable with defining ourselves as a sex commune. Some of us haven't even had sex yet."

"I think," said Susan, "That there's a misconception about … what any of us even want the rules to be, let alone what punishments we might want for them. The point of this discussion is to choose rules that we all want to agree to."

Hermione sniffed.

"Do you want to add something?"

"No," said Hermione, "but I have a feeling where some of you are going wrong, why don't we go around and say what we each wish the rule would be, then we can negotiate. Perhaps from a position of having listened, and been listened to, instead of a position of thinking merely that you have dictated, and the rest of us have been dictated to."

Susan shifted in her chair, then nodded.

"And I suggest youngest to oldest," said Hermione, "and I'm oldest, Luna would you like to start?"

"I like the rule that someone has to ask, and the other has to accept, and kissing doesn't count for asking or accepting, because sometimes someone might only want kissing."

"Fair enough," said Hermione.

"Your turn Ginny," said Luna.

"The only people here that I want sex with are Harry, and … I'm just not sure about Luna, and I can't imagine that changing soon enough to be able to figure out what rules I might want between everyone else. Maybe I'll understand well enough to vote once everyone has talked enough that I can guess multiple choice or whatever."

"That's fine," said Susan, "Harry?"

"I want," said Harry, "the discussion that I've … the mood that I've felt so far is about ordering me not to have sex except with any of you, or about not telling anyone new about this place, because you come here to feel safe, either safe from getting jinxed in the hall, or safe to leave your projects out on a desk that is really your own, or to snuggle, or to go naked and possibly have sex."

He looked around the room at all of them, "The point of this place," said Harry, "is protection, not sex."

They seemed to believe him and understand him.

I really want to say, that it is my right to give my protection to whoever I want, but that is not how protection works, humans are territorial creatures, just as veela are, they just handle taxes and regularized property registration very differently.

"I want to be able to bring more people in, if they need protection, just as I want all of you to continue to feel safe, regardless of that. If that means I must rescue them to a different room with a more temporary door marking, so be it. If it means asking for permission and not bringing them into this room, until I receive unanimous consent, I can do that. The sex is a side issue to me compared to that, but I'm willing to follow a similar rule, flirt with who I want to flirt with, study with anyone who I need to study with or who needs to study with me, but no sex unless I first collect unanimous consent of … he shrugged, "whoever is still voting about that, at that point."

"I'm alright with that," said Susan, "oh, um, Parvati your turn next."

"I'm alright with what Harry said," said Parvati, "but I feel like there's a lot of subtext somewhere that I just haven't been, or haven't needed to be, privy to, so I don't know it, was there someone else rescued before Luna?"

"I was," said Ginny, "you-know-who took me to the chamber of secrets and was going to sacrifice me to bring himself back, Harry came and killed the thing."

"Ron and Harry rescued me from a troll, my first year," said Hermione.

"And you rescued me from my relatives the summer before last," said Harry, "Similarly, Ginny's older brothers rescued me the summer before that."

Everyone sat up and stared at him.

Harry sighed, "My muggle relatives were awful to me growing up, it wasn't because they were muggles, it's because whoever explained to them about the statute of secrecy did a very very poor job, and made them paranoid. They are getting better, a lot better actually, but I'd still rather spend my time with people I like instead of people that are afraid of me, but have at least decided I'm enough of a human that they can stand to be civil."

"Ok," said Susan and looked around until her eyes fell on Padma.

"Alright," said Susan, "I apologise for getting swept up with my aunt's designs, and the breed contract, and all the standard adult perspectives on everything, and forgetting that this was about protecting each other. Parvati, you can keep talking." She covered her face with her hands.

"I'm still not sure what I'm missing," said Parvati, "Am I, in fact an outlier here?"

"We were here," said Padma, "as allies in rescuing people, rather than as people that had already rescued or been rescued."

"Harry rescued me," said Parvati, "From feeling weird and awful for wanting more snuggles than you could give me, because you were busy with Luna, and no one else wanted to give me sister snuggles."

Padma stared at her a second, then took her hand.

Parvati sighed, then looked at Harry, "I never really noticed that was a thing separate from and significantly more general, than the sexuality being an option on offer, (and more than that the … privacy of a much tinier stage within which some of us have been experimenting with clothes choices or lack there of), please forgive me."

Harry nodded, "You're forgiven."

"Pad, your turn," said Parvati.

"I agree with the rule that Harry suggested, no partners outside the group without consent of the group, I think the muggle term is informed consent, but I can't quite figure out why that phrase means you get to be told how many people your prospective partner has been with before answering 'yes' or 'no' means what it is supposed to mean."

"I can explain that," said Hermione, "but I can wait for my turn."

"Go ahead," said Padma.

"There's two reasons: before muggles came up with condoms and abortion and genetic tests, a man could only be sure the children of his wife were his own, if he could be reasonably sure she hadn't had breed access to other men."

"Sure."

"And after muggles were sure that diseases were carried not by mysterious forces, but by germs, some in the air, some in the water, some in bugs and pets, some from various kinds of contact, yes, including sexual contact. It became obvious that some of the weakest germs could cause the most horrible lingering diseases, and they required fluid contact between two bodies, to transfer from body to body."

"Some magical diseases can be carried by charms of the correct colour alignment," said Susan, "But they've been rare and getting rarer since Merlin introduced the new method of maintaining neutral alignment. Most magical diseases still common enough to be worrying about, are also carried by germs."

Hermione nodded, "After that muggles began rebuilding their sexual norms, based around how diseases actually spread, instead of by instinctive reactions to how they thought they spread, instead of 'only sex with pretty people,' (which doesn't really imply they are not sick, only that they haven't been sick long enough for it to affect their looks.) or anything like that, the rule should be something like, only sex with people who have been verified as well, or who have not been exposed to disease since they were last verified as well, or for that matter: just people who have been with no-one or only other people that have followed similar rules, etc."

Everyone looked around, especially at Harry. He felt a little bad, he knew very vaguely most of what Hermione had just mentioned, but hadn't actually put together why one morality was being discarded and the other implemented. Nor had he understood why it could already have the force of moral code behind it even if not everyone followed it yet.

"In a society where the consensus is that everyone uses condoms to protect themselves during sex, and agrees that protected sex is morally neutral, only unprotected sex carries the risk of disease transmission or of pregnancy, 'Fluid Bound' is the name for an agreement between two or more people who have agreed that they want to kiss or have sex without condoms and therefore want to exclude everyone else not already selected to be part of their group, at least from the kissing and the sex without condoms. What you all want, is for each of the others to recognise that by being fluid bound to Harry, you are in effect fluid bound to each other, and need each other's protection as part of protecting each of yourselves. You need to each protect yourself from outside the group, to the same extent that you need everyone else in the group to protect themselves as well."

"I understand," said Harry, "and for that kissing lips matters exactly as much as sex?"

"Right," said Hermione, "maybe a tiny bit more, the statistics are still a bit unclear on that."

"What rules do you suggest?" said Susan.

"Harry's recommendation about unanimous consent on inductions sound right, but you've got to realise that, unless you send each prospective addition to first get Madam Pomfrey to test for all the diseases spread by intercourse, and I don't even know if she has the tools to test for them, you're not voting on becoming fluid bound to one person, you're voting about becoming fluid bound to that person, and every other person they have ever kissed or had sex with, and everyone those people had previously kissed or had sex with, etc., etc."

"So we should all go find out what Madam Pomfrey can test for?"

"I'll go," said Hermione, "Harry should come too, everyone who had sex with him before this summer only has to worry about what Nim might have been carrying before she started tutoring him, he and everyone who had sex after this summer also needs to worry about what Fleur and Tonks might have been carrying."

"Why do you talk about 'carrying' diseases, you're either sick or you're not," said Ginny.

"Most of the diseases transmitted by sex are slow compared to other diseases, some take years or decades to kill you, some don't kill by themselves, or make most people even noticeably sick."

"If they don't make you sick, why worry about them?"

"Sometimes because they make you stupid, or immune to pain or other weird things, that make it hard to take care of yourself, or make you a danger to those around you."

Susan sat up and stared, "Harry are you immune to pain?"

"No," said Harry, "I'm merely very aware that I can change bodies on a whim, and pain only is a warning message that one of my bodies may be at risk and I should consider moving it out of danger, it is not a warning that my soul is at risk."

"Hmm," she said, "that's what you said before."

Harry nodded, "wait until you're fully an animagus, and see if you can figure out where to find the same things, or else find them and show me where my gryffindor idiocy is letting me get around the black cruciatus but at risk of letting myself get tortured to death by other things that do real damage instead of frightening you out of your mind with the threat of it."

"Who hit you with Cruciatus?" said Parvati standing and looking fierce.

"A death eater," said Susan, "He screamed horrible for less than four seconds, then stood up again and growled at them, scared them into thinking that they'd botched it or used the wrong wand, then he switched their mark from dark to lion, and turned them over to Auntie." She frowned, "Did you ever turn them in for that cruciatus?"

"No," said Harry.

"Do you want me to?"

Harry shrugged, "I need to talk with your auntie about whether he's any use in the cause against you-know-who, and if not what he needs to get turned back into a useful human being."

Susan nodded, "Like what? Oh, your style is, a promise on their magic not to cast unforgivables anymore?"

Harry nodded, "Something like that."

"Alright," said Susan, "Getting back on track? It sounds like a consensus for keeping sensible limits on how far we're fluid bound, and a homework assignment for Hermione, to find out what Pomfrey can test for, and then for us to go get tested, or … just take the appropriate potions or whatever?"

Hermione shrugged, "I'll ask that too, she might have the answers ready, or she might be clueless and send me to the library. In which case I have very little hope that mage healing is as advanced as its muggle counterpart."

"And what do we do in that case?"

Hermione chewed the inside of her lip for several seconds, then shrugged, "limit fluid sharing to your group until Christmas or summer when you can get tested by muggle doctors."

"Is that your strategy?"

"My strategy, as I said, is I'm going to quiz Madam Pomfrey. And yes, if I test positive on anything, I won't hesitate to mention that my last sexual contact was outside of school, and then go warn Tonks. But, while I expect we're all clean, every new person brought in is another vector of risk."

Harry raised his hand, "'test positive' for a kind of germ means the germs were found, it is a bad thing regardless of how it sounds, and 'vector of risk' means like a door left open to let the wolves come in, except we're not talking about wolves wandering around we're talking about germs jumping from one of us to the next."

"And 'fluid bound' means," clarified Parvati, "agreeing to think of our entire group as a single animal that will stay healthy together or get sick together, and each of us have to take the correct steps to protect all of us?"

"Yes," said Hermione.

Hermione turned to Harry, "Who have you had sex with since Fleur, or since Tonks more to the point."

"After Fleur was Tonks, so it's the same question," said Harry and rubbed his forehead, "and better to ask who I've kissed: Dudley, who's probably had more blood contact through his knuckles than through kissing, Amelia and Susan, You, Luna, and Ginny. Parvati kissed my cheeks instead, this is the first time since hols I've had a chance to talk to Padma."

"So basically," said Hermione, "if you caught anything in France, or from the adult and muggle you kissed, all of us have been exposed except the Patils."

Hermione turned to the centre, "That is why we want to be sure no one kisses us if they haven't proved themselves clean, because we like kissing enough that we're always doing that." She turned back to Harry, "and by the same token, if anyone … kisses you even without your permission or whatever, you go to Pomfrey for a ruling before you come back here and let all of us kiss you again.'

"Hermione?" said Susan.

"What?"

"You're talking intermittently like you are part of the group, and intermittently like you are not, which is it?"

Hermione shrugged, "I'm not part of the fluid bound agreement until I decide whether I'm accepting or rejecting certain breed contracts that I have been offered."

"Oh," said Susan, "yeah, that makes sense now."

"Nim," said Harry.

Nim have you been listening?

Tuned it out, has it gotten to Leona charm casting time yet?

No, do you know about HIV and syphilis and I don't know what else?

Pepper-up kills all viruses. the mushroom poison antidote destroys all fungi and most of their toxins, including the commonest kind of dandruff. Syphilis is harder, there's lots of bacteria that your skin and stomach need around to stay healthy, don't know what the state of the art is, but … when Andromeda married her muggleborn I made a study, and most of the anti-marrying-muggles stigma was from muggles being worse at curing leprosy and syphilis. I take it from the current entire lack of concern for those in muggle movies, that they've been cured?

A test and a cure have been found, doesn't mean all cases have been caught and treated.

Ah.

"Nim says that pepper-up cures all viruses, so that means we're probably all clean from HIV and HPV," said Harry, "and says that syphilis isn't one that is accidentally cured by other cure-alls, but there is a treatment available, don't have any idea if we should prefer it to the muggle treatment though."

"Hmm," said Hermione, "that's mildly relieving. How does she feel about the fluid bond concept?"

"She says if we're trying to become each other's familiars we're doing it all wrong," said Harry, "Um, she says that she's not stopping her previous oaths to be available to her sisters, which really means Narcissa, because Andromeda is married according to covenant not according to contract, or something, and she says as my property she'll share with whoever she's ordered to share with, and mostly only Lion's-Keep even know she can be Bellatrix, so … if I'm really letting all of you dictate to me, then you should feel free to dictate to her also, except she stays open to Narcissa."

"What about her own husband?" said Ginny.

"She says her husband sold her to you-know-who, before I managed to claim her."

"Oh," said Ginny.

"Is there any general objection to the demand for all of us, including Nim, excluding Hermione until she tells us her decision,to keep our sex and kisses inside Lion's-Keep, until and unless a full session of us agree otherwise?"

"And any of us can decide to quit the group, whenever we want," said Luna.

"Yes," said Harry, "and if you later change your mind, you're welcome back, but only after going through the full set of tests to prove you're still clean, as determined by Hermione later, and/or take the appropriate treatments for whatever to get cured."

"Thank you, Harry," said Hermione.

"And if you get raped or kissed or anything else," said Padma, "you don't need to call that quitting, just 'pausing' and feel free to ask for as many of us to guard you down to the infirmary and back as you choose."

"Definitely," said Harry.

.

...-...

Introducing Leona

"Next on the agenda," said Susan, "scheduling and tutoring, how is everyone coming on prerequisites to the animagus seminar? Does anyone want help on specific topics or exercises?"

.

"Next on the agenda," said Susan, "There's a transfiguration charm Harry showed me, he says the arithmancy is very much like the animagus, and I believe him, but it has a very different set of effects, and … I understood it better from feeling it cast on me, and taking it off by myself, than I did from the wand motions version he showed me."

Harry sat up, "I have reason to believe that it might be better to teach that after animagus."

"I learned it before animagus," said Susan, "but then, … I felt like one dose was enough to get me into the state of mind that Sirius talked about two doses getting most people with big animals. So maybe I'm not a good test case."

"So teach Parvati," said Padma, "and see if she agrees with Harry, or has a different idea."

"Sure," said Harry, "I can give everyone the overview, and what strategies and ethics I've noticed about its use, then … I'd like you all to try it a few times, and critique my analysis."

Everyone nodded.

"It's a living-to-living transfiguration charm. So it's safe in the sense that it is intended to be reversible. I learned this spell from Nim, it is originally designed to be cast on familiars, so it requires more in depth knowledge of the body and personality of the target than most transfiguration hexes, which are intended to be used … frankly on disposable animals, animals that perhaps you'd be annoyed if they died, but might not notice if they changed behaviours slightly. The other group of curses is … according to legend used to punish trespassing children, it is intended to be reversible, but often only by the original caster, or according some other preset combination of conditions is met, usually going home for punishment, and or doing some exercise meant to encourage altruistic behaviour."

"I've merely found where in the arithmancy for triggering the pre-created safe change back, the conditions were changed to the standard finishing spell," said Susan, "and I've found how to add those conditions back, Mostly to make it so that no one can take off my disguise, or so that I don't take off my own disguise by accident."

"Oh, Merlin, Harry," said Hermione, "you cast that spell on yourself? And Susan?"

"There were extenuating circumstances in each case," said Harry, "as it is, I think it's physically safe, but it has mental side effects, which as an animagus, seem obvious and natural to me. If you're ok with managing the side effects, I don't see that it's a problem, Susan do you agree?"

Susan nodded.

"Alright," said Hermione, "what side effects?"

"I'm hornier, and … more flirty."

"I'm not hornier," said Susan, "and I'm more withdrawn, but … once I relax to letting myself be aroused, I aroused easier and my pleasure gradient is steeper."

"Sex can happen faster?" asked Hermione.

"Or climax can happen more times in an encounter of the same duration," said Susan.

"Oh," said Hermione.

"Why would sex and disguise even be…?" said Padma.

"Oi," said Hermione, "Just show them the spell already."

"Alright," said Harry, Be Leona.

Susan and Ginny smiled slightly. Luna didn't react … right, she'd also seen it before.

"Um, Leona?" said Parvati, "You're Harry?"

"I intend," said Leona, "for any of you to be able to call up this disguise, should you need it." or perhaps another of your own making.

"Um?" said Padma, looking back and forth between Leona and Parvati, "This is what you saw?"

"This is who I saw," said Parvati, "but it was … a lightning elemental themed family Quidditch team of—" she looked around the table, "Hello, seven of us.'

"I don't fly when I can help it," said Hermione.

"It's good exercise," said Ginny, "and it can be an extreme advantage in a duel, but the mobility compared to the loss of cover is usually a bad trade-off in a real battle."

"Exactly," said Susan.

"And we were extremely bad at Quidditch," said Parvati, "which makes sense now, with two seekers, one beater, no keepers … oh wait, me for keeper, and no chasers. And I'm now beginning to wonder if the entire point was to get adult eyes to ignore us while we actually practised mid-air duelling."

Hermione huffed.

"Anyway," said Padma, "so it's inevitable that we all learn this disguise? And use it for what?"

"Well for one thing," said Ginny, "When you want Harry to be shorter and/or girl shaped for making out with."

Everyone stared at her.

"That too," said Leona.

"Interesting," said Luna.

Ginny giggled, and shrugged,

"Hold onto your chemise, Harry." said Padma coming over and starting to pull Leona's blouse off.

"My name is Leona," said Leona, but she got the idea and unbuttoned another two buttons, so Padma could lift the shirt off her.

"That's why you even have a chemise," said Padma, "it's not that you were borrowing it from Susan."

"No, Leona made mine too," said Susan, "second one came out better than the first obviously." She winked at Leona.

Leona shrugged, "I might make another for myself, after I've made one for as many of you as want them."

"Why?" said Parvati, "I mean, it's got it's own aesthetic thing going, but …"

"Temperature control runes, keeps you cosy, clean and fresh," said Susan.

"From blood sweat and tears?" said Padma.

"Just sweat," said Leona, "actually just the water and salt, should I consider more aggressive runes?"

"Figure out blood and side effects of that," said Hermione, "and dead skin, that might be tricky, the top fraction of skin is supposed to be dead."

"Let me take notes," said Leona and went to Harry's desk.

"Does it take care of everything inside?"

"No, whatever touches it, err whatever it detects touching, molecule by molecule," said Harry.

"Dealing with blood would be the same as dealing with urine but with blood cells in it," said Hermione, "That's lots more kinds of molecules there than just water."

"Can you go cell by cell, and only trigger for cells that aren't touching other cells?" said Padma.

"I can try," said Harry. And took some more notes.

"Never mind that," said Ginny, "either teach Parvati next or explain about names."

"Right, let's back up," said Leona, "My name is Leona, I'm an international student, I was raised by a wild veela, or by an organised crime syndicate, or by an Eastern European warlord, to be a hit-witch. I'm wanted by the ministry on account of supposedly bullying some dementors to death, and by you-know-who, on account of being some new kind of seer, except I'm not a seer, I can just remember things that happened to alternate me's in alternate dimensions."

"Is that a real side effect of the form?" said Padma.

"No, it's several cover stories that people have guessed about me, and a history of the trouble I've gotten into, wearing this disguise."

"How many people have you had sex with," said Ginny.

"This Leona has had sex with you and Susan and Tonks," said Leona, "and another Leona has had sex with Harry Potter."

Some of them looked confused.

Susan chuckled, "That would be me, obviously."

"That was the other thing," said Leona, "one of the ways we played it was that anyone wearing this is named Leona, that was the identical triplets raised by a wild veela and a rescued abandoned witch, either muggleborn or believed squib, or bastard. The other explanation was that the veela and partner were stealing every muggleborn child they noticed among the visitors to the national forest where they were squatting in. And not knowing any healing spell, but knowing and teaching us this charm, we aren't this shape because we're identical septuplets, we're this shape because living life in the wild and hunting your own food, and not enough clothes to protect knees and elbows, we just naturally ended up under layers and layers of this charm and have been since we were babies, and don't even know that this isn't our natural shape. Or that siblings aren't always named the exact same thing."

Ginny snorted, "not all twins are like Fred and George."

"Certainly not," said Padma.

Leona nodded, "The point at the time was not to mock identical twins, the point at the time was to be confusing and have an excuse for seeming to talk English badly because we needed to coordinate our act through absolute minimal communication to keep from giving anything away, and 'only having learned enough English to construct a twin-speech out of it' seemed a shortcut to stereotype we could throw at them to keep them from digging deeper or listening harder."

"That was the point then," said Parvati, "what is the point now, and going forward?"

Harry looked at Susan, then at Luna and Ginny.

"For the moment, the point is to give each of you a disguise that the rest of us can recognise instantly, the fact that the spell can be used to make other disguises, but it's finicky to get right on the first try because it's finicky to concentrate on both what you're changing from and into. If you want a separate disguise from this, you should probably practice it, in front of a mirror, I guess."

"I've been looking into other charms that have to identify what constitutes clothes," said Susan, "I think we could in theory make it check what you're changing from for itself, then you just have to concentrate on what you're changing into, But I haven't managed."

"What happens if you just used it to look like yourself," said Parvati, "I mean, like … using it instead of makeup or whatever?"

"I haven't tried that," said Leona, "But I assume that it's physically the same as being who you normally are, but emotionally there's the personality shift that the charm creator built into the spell, I haven't pinned down what it should be, or how to adjust it to be less jarring."

Hermione nodded, "and you said we could self transfigure ourselves into ourselves as a method of healing."

"Not really as a method of healing, but as a method of functioning in a non-injured body until you can get to a healer, or just to get to first aid, depending on what your injury is. As soon as you take off the charm, your injury is no longer in stasis, so to speak."

"That sounds like a blessing for herbology, alone," said Hermione, "I'm sold."

"Alright, teach me," said Parvati standing.

"First," said Leona, "I'll cast it on you, I want you to inventory yourself, so to speak, then try to take it off again using either wordless finisher or a wandless finisher, your choice."

Parvati nodded.

Leona drew her wand and tapped Parvati's wrist, be Leona.

Parvati grew taller about an inch, stood up straight, and adjusted her clothes and took a turn about the room. Then turned back to look at all of them.

Then started trembling and turned to stare at her sister.

Padma stared back for several seconds, then jumped up and hugged her and turned her around to face away from the crowd.

"Don't turn that way," said Parvati.

And after a brief struggle, Parvati was seated, Padma was standing over her with her back to the table, "What's it doing to you?"

"Doing to me? … it … oh!" then in a much more normal voice she said, "Just … making me very shy."

"Got it," said Padma, "Makes Harry more flirty and affectionate, makes Susan more sensitive, makes you shy, I'd suggest that it only moves the personality towards baseline human, or the spell creator's ideal of what constituted baseline human, probably makes me more outgoing and … less responsible."

"Sounds like fun," said Susan.

Padma turned to glare at her, "can you wait at all."

Susan shrugged, "Parvati, are you alright?"

"I guess," she said, "Oh, Merlin I'm like this with just friends around, can you imagine how I'd feel in the great hall?"

"How. It. Would. Make. you feel," said Padma.

"Right," said Parvati, "can you take it off now?"

"Harry wanted you to try to take it off by yourself," said Padma.

"Ah, right," said Parvati, and drew her wand, a tap later and she looked herself again. She stood up and looked at them all. Staring them all down in a way that she hadn't been able to a minute before, "alright," she sighed, "alright, that was weird."

She rolled her eyes, not at anything Leona was aware of, and again returned to her seat, "give me a few minutes to process what just happened, I'll worry about the magic involved later."

"Sure," said Susan.

"I'm next," said Padma.

"Then me," said Hermione.

...-...

{End Chapter 13}

A/N: If it was not already obvious, and I'm deeply embarrassed that I have not yet mentioned this fact: I am deeply indebted to 'Coming Of Age in the House of Black' by LeighaGreene and several companion stories by her and her posse for my head-cannon regarding the history of wizarding Europe and Bellatrix's back story.

Her Bellatrix is much more badass (and funny) than I expect to be able to write, ever. So … don't consider this a claim to be cannon compliant with her story in any way. Consider this both credit and recommendation for her very extensive series.