There was a steady fall of clear white snow falling from the enchanted ceiling as the students ate their breakfast Sunday morning. It seemed to Harry that everyone from all three schools was there, which wasn't always the case. Quite predictably, people were still chattering about the tasks the previous day. For his part, Harry was sitting across from Fleur just enjoying his breakfast, and taking the opportunity to tease the French beauty, "I still have a bigger lead than you…"

"You didn't 'ave to deal with ze whirlpools, or ze sea serpent…" The basics of the task had been the same for each set of champions, but the details became more difficult with age. Fortunately, the sea serpent had been rather innocuous, except for the fact that it chased, almost as though it had been playing, anyone who fell.

"That would be a good argument if it weren't for the fact, you never fell into the water." Harry pointed out. Though Roger hadn't been so lucky. He'd lost nearly five minutes getting chased around by the serpent.

Huffing, Fleur frowned cutely at him, "Nor did you 'ave to deal with ze spikes or blinding darkness… or ze random platform flips…"

"Because they were such horrible, impassable obstacles for you."

"And I'd say that Viktor iz tougher competition than either of yours." She said the last a bit more softly, glancing in the direction of Solen who was discreetly watching them.

"You know what I'm hearing, Fleur? Excuses." The blonde narrowed her eyes at that and he only gave a little smile back. How adorable. Though, he knew she would likely make their next dueling session more difficult for his cheek.

"Oh, stop teasing her. You both did vonderfully, it doesn't matter that you finished bit faster than her." Anya said from his left. This was only the second time the two veela had joined them for breakfast. Orina was further down sitting with Daphne, Sue, and Tracey. Even though they had incredible control of their allure, thanks to the entwinement, there was still more than one not so subtle glance thrown their way from the lads, and a few of the ladies, around the Great Hall. And that was to say nothing of Fleur.

All three were perfectly accustomed to it though and ignored it effortlessly. Fleur just nodded her head toward his first lover, "And you didn't even finish zat much faster zan moi! You just finished much faster zan Solen and Ivar."

"And she didn't get concussed." Anya pointed out unhelpfully.

Harry just waved that off, "It was nothing."

"If it vas nothing, your matron vouldn't have made you stay for observations."

"It was barely an hour." He argued.

"But longer zan me." Fleur singsonged.

Harry held up his hands and conceded, "Fine… fine, we'll call them equally impressive performances."

The young women shared amused looks as they went back to eating their breakfast. There was a wooshing of wings from overhead as the morning post arrived. Dozens of owls dropped off the letters and packages, and the Sunday edition of the Daily Prophet.

Hedwig dropped in with the paper in her claws and stared at him expectantly. Absently, he fed her a few scraps of bacon as he unfurled it. Unsurprisingly, the first headline was about the Tournament, but quite understandably, that wasn't the thing that immediately caught his eye. Instead it was his name emblazoned boldly across the middle of the page.

Harry Potter: Fearless Champion or Reckless Menace?

By Rita Skeeter

There isn't a witch or wizard alive who doesn't know the name of the child that ended the war with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. But after years of anonymity, he's returned to the wizarding world with a clear penchant for danger… and little regard for his own safety, and seemingly that of those around him.

Thanks in no small part to his previous accolades, many view him as heroic; however, there are those who paint a much different picture of the young wizard. "He's a menace." One anonymous Slytherin student claimed when asked for comment, "If you say the wrong thing, he'll start making threats at best or throwing spells at worst. I know more than one person who just stays out of his way for fear of what might happen if you don't."

The article went on to try and defame his character, even portraying his actions at the World Cup as self-serving and questioning his association with more than one of the ladies in his life. Though, Harry didn't personally find that out as he tossed the rag away with a sardonic chuckle. Anonymous Slytherin student my arse. Draco really is pathetic.

To be perfectly honest, he'd expected worse from the muckraking journalist. From the fact that there were a few people around the hall openly pointing and laughing at the article, he couldn't help but think that most of his peers agreed. There was a small part of him that wanted to deal with it, but something told him he wouldn't have to. He would swear he could actually feel the moment that Sirius read the same paper far away in London as he felt the hair on the back of his neck go up. And he trusted that his godfather would take it far worse than he did.

And as the Headmaster stood at the front of the room, he had a feeling that he would have something else to worry about in short order, "Good morning, I will take up only a moment of your day, I promise." The whole room went silent, "With the first task of this Tournament over, we must look ahead. The Yule Ball," Those three words caused more than one of the young witches to start chatting among themselves excitedly, "was a tradition of the old Tri-wizard Tournament and will be continued on in its successor."

"It will be another wonderful opportunity grow the international relationships that are already being built through the tournament." He continued, "The Ball will be open to all years and held, on Christmas night. Our champions will open the first dance of the night." He looked over the crowd with a light smile and that twinkle in his eye, "Now, that's all. Have a wonderful rest of your day."

The soft murmuring became far louder as the Headmaster sat back down. The topic of conversation was now decidedly on one thing and one thing only, the Ball. The tasks the previous day were all but forgotten. While Harry was sure it would be a good bit of fun, it did bring to the forefront something he'd been putting off. The tournaments had taken precedence for him in the last month, but now that there was a little bit of a lull before the new year, he knew that it was time to have that conversation. And the Yule Ball just means it'll need to be sooner rather than later.

Noticing his distraction, Anya gave his hand a squeeze beneath the table. Giving her a reassuring smile, he said, "I think we should go have a little chat…"

Without needing to say more, she knew what he meant, and replied softly, "That vould probably be for best. I'll go tell Orina and ve'll tell the others." He appreciated the help and knew it would make things easier. Less conspicuous than me going up to all the ladies and inviting them somewhere in private. With that she got up and went to talk to her fellow veela. There were nods and agreements, and Orina along with Daphne and Sue got up and headed out of the hall. Tracey watched them go with a small curious frown before she found Sigrid instead.

As they went, they gathered Ginny and Padma as well. Luna gave them a hearty wave as she read a copy of her father's magazine. Considering it was a group of truly lovely girls, more than one of the lads followed them with their eyes. Half of them are probably thinking about asking them to the ball.

Across the table, Fleur looked at him curiously, "If you wouldn't mind, I need to have a rather important conversation with you… in private." He informed her softly, careful not to let anyone overhear.

Fleur quirked an eyebrow, but agreed easily, "Of course." They stood together and she headed toward the door while he made his way over to Susan. The redhead was sitting next to Hannah… who had a red cheeked, stuttering Neville across from her, "If… if you want, would you… would you go to the Ball with me."

Susan was having a hard time not giggling at his struggles. Not because she was teasing him, but because she found it a bit mental that he was so nervous to begin with. Hannah nudged her friend in the shoulder to shut her up before she reached across the table and rubbed his hand, "I'd love to go with you, Neville."

He gave a big sigh of relief while Susan just gave him a big smile and thumbs up before she noticed Harry approaching his fellow Gryffindor from behind. He clapped Neville on the shoulder which made him jump slightly, as Harry told him sincerely, "Well done, Neville. I think you might be the first person in the whole school to get himself a date." That made him blush tomato red, but he also looked more than a little proud of himself for that.

Turning his attention to Susan, he asked, "Can I steal you for a bit?" He knew that Susan was already aware of the situation, but he also wanted to make sure all of the ladies were on the same page with the whole thing.

"Sure, it'll give these two a bit of time alone… maybe to discuss their plans for the ball." She couldn't resist ribbing the pair as she stood. Neither of them seemed to mind as they were just too busy smiling at one another.

She followed him down the table until they reached the door where Fleur waited for them, "Alright, come on then." Susan seemed to have some idea of where they were going from her previous visit, but Fleur just followed behind. They reached Anya and Orina's room quickly, and he opened the door for the two girls.

The others were already there and they all turned as he came in. Whatever conversation had been going on before his arrival stopped, and he couldn't help but recognize this was the first time he was with all the ladies in the same room, just them, since finding out the exact nature of what was going on. Or ever really.

Fleur went and took a seat at the table between Anya and Orina with Padma across from her, while Susan plopped herself down on the couch with Daphne and Ginny sitting between her and Sue. Though it was a bit of a tight fit, she ended up draping her legs over her Slytherin friend, which earned her a light glare.

"So…" He really didn't know where to begin as he found himself standing there with his back to the closed door and eight pairs of intense, and quite beautiful, eyes on him.

"Come on, out with it, Harry." Daphne interjected bluntly, causing more than one the other girls to snicker, "We're all curious and Orina and Anya have been incredibly obtuse about the whole thing."

"Right, well…" Harry took a breath and decided to just come out with it, "You're all aware, to some extent or another, that I'm involved with everyone here." The girls listened, none of them surprised by the blunt truth, "It's not because I'm a cad or… or some sort of a ridiculous Casanova who just wants to get into your knickers." Not that it hasn't been lovely.

"Harry, if any of us actually thought that, I don't think we'd be here." Sue Li piped in.

"Besides I'm pretty sure we've all been more than happy with you getting into our knickers." Ginny added with a little wink in his direction. A few of the girls giggled at that while Fleur, the only one who had done nothing more than kiss him, had a light blush come to her cheeks.

Harry chuckled at that, "There are some… unique circumstances that have made that possible." He wasn't going to tell them the specifics of the Horcruxes, not while Tom was still alive, but he could tell them enough.

"Of course, there is." Susan snickered, "It's you… and nothing ever seems to be simple with you."

"Thanks…" He said blithely as he ran hand through his hair. Getting to the crux of this conversation, he continued, "Look, when I saved Orina and Anya at the World Cup, we had sex for the first time." No one was surprised by that particular piece of information. Those who didn't know for sure guessed at it easily enough, "And in the process, they entwined their magic with mine." Half of the girls looked surprised by that, the three veela and Susan being the exceptions.

"And that means?" Padma gestured with her hand to continue.

"That we share a fragment of our magic between us. It has some small advantages for all of us." He wasn't going to get into the specifics at the moment, he wanted to get to the point, "But the important thing you all need to know is that in the process… they healed a bit of my soul that had been damaged." The other girls all turned to the two veela shocked.

"Partially." Orina corrected him with a little smirk. She seemed to enjoy the predicament he found himself in or more that he even thought it was much of predicament to begin with.

Talking around such an intricate bit of magic wasn't the easiest thing in the world, so he just ploughed on, "Yes, partially. There's still a scar there, a scar that is trying to heal. And it's done that by seeking out balance… from the magic of others. People who are compatible with both my magic and that of Orina and Anya."

"In other words, us." Daphne cut in, with one arched eyebrow.

"Yes, exactly. And it's… facilitated that process by manifesting something similar to the allure. Dumbledore's words not mine." He clarified when they giggled at his rather clinical description, "Which probably explains why some of you started having some rather…"

"Knicker-ruining thoughts and feelings towards you… not to mention the dreams." It was a rather crude way of putting it but also the most accurate.

No one spoke up to contradict Susan, but he did hear Ginny whisper a quiet, "Nothing new there." He was slightly surprised to see Sue nod beside her.

He swallowed as he got ready for the last little bit, "Anyway, our magics are melded together, according to Professor Dumbledore and Iliyana, 'on a truly profound level.' And when we… have sex for the first time, just as happened between Anya and I, our magics become entwined."

The room went completely silent then. After a second, Sue spoke up brow furrowed in concentration, "How long have you known?"

He expected the question, especially from Sue, "About the allure? Around a month. About our magic? Just over a week." Her shoulders eased slightly when she heard that, "I promise you, I would've told you before we…"

"I know," She assured him with a little smile that did a great deal to set him at ease, "I just needed to hear you say it."

"Well, at least we're not nearly as mad as I thought we were." Daphne said, sounding about as relieved as Sue, "I just about drove myself around the bend at one point because I couldn't work out how everyone was just so okay with it all."

"Are there any negative side effects?" The Slytherin asked astutely, more to the other girls than him.

"Being really turned on every time Harry decides to get frisky with someone else who's magic is entwined." Ginny said wistfully, "Not that it's much of a negative mind you. It's not all that hard to get used to and, it can be quite fun, honestly." Susan and Sue both couldn't hold back their naughty smiles of agreement.

"And it's nice to know exactly why that's been happening. But I would say there are more important things to consider. What does it mean for the future?" Sue changed the line of thinking, "Will we all be married? Will we all just keep it hidden? Would it even be legal?" Leave it to a Ravenclaw to ask the pragmatic questions.

"Oh, it's definitely legal, just extremely rare." Every eye turned to Padma then, curious why exactly she knew that. She noticed the attention and started nervously playing with the bangles on her wrist, "I might have looked into it when I realized just how many gorgeous women were interested in the same bloke that I fancy."

"That's why you had the book on magical laws during the academic practice!" Her Slytherin teammate sounded very satisfied to finally understand that little oddity.

"Yes," she said quietly.

"I could have saved you some trouble and told you that while it is antiquated, it's perfectly legal. Though I doubt there are very many people who have ever had eight partners before." Susan couldn't hide her amusement.

"Right," The Indian witch said slowly, "It makes sense you would know at least a bit about it. If you want to continue the Bones name, you'll need to find a man willing to let you keep it."

"Same for me." Daphne raised her hand casually.

"Vhich is easier if man already has another vife, or six, to carry on his own name." Anya supplied helpfully.

"While I'm happy to understand exactly what's going on, I am curious why you decided to tell us all now specifically though?" Sue questioned him.

"Oh, isn't it obvious." Ginny said from beside her, "The Yule Ball… he can't take all of us, even if he wants to, and he doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings so, it gave him a good reason to explain the whole thing."

"It seems rather simple to me." The only Hufflepuff of the group certainly made it sound obvious, "Harry is going to take Fleur to the Ball, because as champions they both must have dates and start the dancing. The rest of us can just go together either just us seven or with our other friends, and Harry will be a very attentive boyfriend by making sure he dances with every one of us over the course night." There were a couple of seconds of thought before the rest of the girls murmured their agreement to that proposal.

"I thought Ravenclaws were supposed to be the logical ones?" Padma snickered.

"Studious, witty, and wise doesn't always mean logical." She shot back.

"It's just gonna be a pain having to say no to all the other blokes in the school." Daphne ignored their banter and looked particularly put out by that idea.

"You'd be surprised, most of them vill have the good sense to stay away." Orina told the Slytherin.

Harry turned to the French witch, who he realized to that point had been surprisingly silent, "Fleur?"

"Oui, 'Arry?" He was caught up in those piercing blue eyes.

"Are you alright with all this?"

She gave him a gentle smile, and shook her head ever so slightly at his naiveté, "I knew, some of it at least. I knew from ze first moment we met zat zere were others in your life. And honestly, it didn't deter me for one moment… because I could feel zat connection. Zat compatibility inside of our magic. And ze way you can resist ze allure is… exhilarating." There was a naughty glint in her eyes, "And considering you wreaked of four ozzer women when I met you, I knew that ze ozzer ladies wouldn't mind sharing, too."

"She is veela, Harry." Orina smirked at him, "Even haughty French ones know when they meet someone exceptional."

Fleur leaned over and smacked her playfully on the shoulder for the jibe, "I'm not 'aughty."

"Fleur, you're French. They're basically synonymous." Ginny laughed out. Everyone chuckled a bit at their lone French member's expense as she pouted cutely. But she was only able to keep the façade up for a moment before shaking her head with a soft chuckle of her own.

Harry gave her a smile and comforted her, "Honestly, it's endearing. Especially once someone gets to know you." Walking over to her, he made sure that her undivided attention was on him before he asked, "Fleur, would you do me the honor of being my date to the Yule Ball?"

The French witch beamed up at him, "I'd love to." There was a silence as she looked up at him with her heart in her eyes.

He looked to the rest of ladies in the room, making sure to look each of them in the eye before he promised them, "And I want every one of you to be my partners for the rest of the evening." They need to know that I care about all of them, that if I could, I'd take every single one of them.

The moment was broken with a meaty slap as Daphne swatted her hand against Susan's thighs, "How about you Susie, want to go to the ball with me?"

The redhead giggled, "Yeah, that'd be great." None of them really expected Daphne to be the one to do the asking, if anything Harry would have thought it would've been Susan.

Harry felt Fleur rise beside him, before her smooth fingers took hold of his chin. She tilted his head down as she leaned up to press her lips to his. On instinct, his hands ran down her side to cup her bum through silk skirt. As the kiss deepened she reached around and gave his bum a pinch of her own. It caused him to jump and she giggled as she told him, "I've been wanting to do zat for weeks… You can expect more of it now zat we understand each other."

"His bum does look wonderful, especially when you're dueling, doesn't it?" Sue sounded almost wistful just thinking about it. There were some slightly pink cheeks on each of the other witches, none more than Daphne from what he could tell.

Fleur smiled at the Chinese witch, "I meant ze kiss, but his bum is delicious, too." She leaned in for one more brief, passionate kiss, before pulling away with a chuckle, "Much as I would like to do this all day, I promised Gabrielle I would spend some time wizz 'er today."

Harry smacked his hand against her pert cheek one last time, leaving her gasping and flushed, "Well, I certainly wouldn't want to get on your sister's bad side." He pecked her on the cheek and then reluctantly let her out of his arms.

Fleur didn't look like she wanted to leave as she replied quietly, "No, you wouldn't."

"Much as we could probably get up to some proper fun in here, now probably isn't the time." Ginny decided to be the voice of reason, "Everyone saw us leave the hall together, after all." There were some disappointed frowns, none more so than Anya and Orina, but everybody recognized she was right.

Fleur was the first to the door, swaying her hips all the way. When she opened it, two bodies came tumbling into the room while one more person stood behind. Tracey and Sigrid, tried to untangle themselves from one another as Chloe hid her laughter behind her hand while waiting behind them.

"Didn't take you two for eavesdroppers." Their fellow female quidditch player was openly laughing at them.

"We weren't eavesdropping." Tracey insisted, "We just came up to let you know that the snow stopped so we were heading down to the pitch. Figured you could join us when you're done… with whatever this is… but knocking didn't seem to be doing the trick."

Ginny hopped off the couch and gave Harry a quick peck on the cheek before grabbing them around the arms and leading them out, "We're all done anyway so let's go."

"What about you, Harry?" Sigrid made sure to include him too.

"Not today, busy day yesterday, you know." There was no proper quidditch practice because of the events the previous day and he intended to take advantage of it.

"Your loss." Tracey said and waved him away as the three girls made their way out. Fleur followed just behind and quirked an eyebrow at her friend.

With a shrug of her shoulders, Chloe explained, "Gabrielle was curious where you were, I figured it was better if I came to find you just in case you were… occupied.' The little wiggle of her eyebrows made her meaning perfectly clear.

With a huff, Fleur just started walking down the corridor, her voice just carried back into the room as she said, "You're 'orrible… but thank you." Harry turned back to the other girls in the room and found that the rest of them were getting up to leave too.

Padma and Sue bid him goodbye next, giving him a kiss on each cheek, "We'll see you later, Harry. We have a couple assignments that need finishing… and Hermione convinced me to get an extra study session in for next weekends first proper round of the academic tournament." The Indian witch didn't sound too pleased with that, but she wasn't the sort to back out on something she'd already agreed.

The two Ravenclaws left side by side before Susan came up and gave him a hug, sure to press her impressive bust into his chest, "I should probably get back to Hannah, I can imagine how excited she is. She's been waiting for Neville to make a move since the start of term."

"We lads can be a bit slow sometimes." Harry snorted out.

"Oh, I know. You just got lucky that your own magic intervened on your behalf." With that she moved to the door before looking back to Daphne with a knowing little smile.

The blonde Slytherin, leaned in and gave him a kiss right on the lips before pulling back and saying ever-so-softly, "I'll see you soon."

"Of course," Harry agreed obliviously. Daphne gave him a little smirk and joined her friend as they headed out of the room, closing the door behind her and leaving him alone with Orina and Anya.

Sitting down between his two veela lovers, he breathed deeply, "That went about as well as I could have expected."

"They care about you." Anya said with a squeeze of his hand, "And it's hard to argue vhen someone tells you that your very magic is connected. And more than that, that you can feel it."

"Exactly, it was never them that you were really going to have to worry about… it was their families." Orina added unhelpfully.

Running a hand through his hair, he really didn't want to think about that, "One thing at a time, yeah?"

"Of course, that can just be future Harry's problem." Orina agreed as she moved over into his lap and rested her head in the crook of his neck. Leaning down, he kissed the her head affectionately when something caught his eye.

"What's that?" Lying on the couch was a ring, of knotted silver with sapphire inlaid on the top. That's Daphne's isn't it? I swear I've seen her take that off in potions before.

Anya followed his gaze and she just snorted, "I vould guess that one of the girls forgot it… by accident, I'm sure." Though from the lilt in her voice, that wasn't what she thought, not at all. Getting up, Harry placed Orina in his seat and went to pick it up.

As though it summoned her, there was a knock on the door. Anya shared a look with Orina as she got up and opened it. Daphne came gliding in looking determined as Harry offered her the ring, "Forget something?"

Daphne didn't take the ring from him, instead she came right up to him and pushed his hand down, molding herself into his front. She grabbed the back of his neck to pull him down into a hot, needy kiss. The silver piece of jewelry went tumbling to the ground forgotten as her tongue demanded entrance and he found himself happily following along. Her other hand pressed against his oblique as she lost herself in snogging him right there in the middle of the room.

Giggling, Anya whispered to Orina in Bulgarian, "Enthusiastic, isn't she?"

"Well, considering she manipulated the whole situation to make sure she would need to come back, alone, I would expect nothing less." Orina didn't look at her friend though, too busy watching the pair as hands started sliding beneath the clothes to tickle at bare skin.

Nipping at his lip one last time, she pulled back and gasped as she felt his hands cup her breast beneath her shirt. Harry took the opportunity to lean in and kiss against the lily-white skin of her neck. Her face flushed with desire as she moaned.

He pulled away and gave his a roguish grin, "I'm guessing you didn't have any prior engagements, unlike everyone else?"

Daphne shook her head, breath coming out in cute little pants, "No… and considering I've wanted this so badly, I figured there was no time like the present."

REDACTED

As Anya leaned in to kiss his jaw, he knew that they weren't quite done for the morning. Not that they'd hear any complaints from him.