Rain battered the glass windows of Hogwarts. It was a torrential downpour atypical of the Scottish springtime, which usually had less rainfall than the other seasons. The sound of the splattering rain masked Harry's breathing as he readied himself.
Harry stood in the centre of his training room, his eyes flickering between the two women that were standing on opposite sides of him. There was at least six metres between him and each of them, which would give him enough time to react if they suddenly attacked. It wouldn't be the first time one of them suddenly lashed out without warning in this room, but Harry was ready for anything.
All three of them were dressed in tight-fitting, light clothes that allowed them to move freely. Robes were bulky and a hindrance during this training, so they'd opted for their current outfits. One on hand, it helped make Harry move and react faster. On the other, it made it harder for him to pick up the sounds of clothes flapping about as either Daphne or Astoria moved to attack him.
Sure enough, Daphne was the first one to try something. Unlike Astoria, who couldn't help but hold herself back until she got into the swing of things, Daphne had no reservations about unleashing the most brutal curses right away. She insisted that he needed to be prepared for anything during the Third Task, and Harry couldn't fault her logic in that, even though it generally meant that he was going to get hurt because of it.
Although casting silently was generally more effective in terms of speed and obscuring your actions from your opponent, it was often harder to perfectly visualise a spell, especially in the middle of combat. That led to the spell being weaker, if only slightly. And despite Daphne's proficiency in casting spells silently thanks to her Defence Against the Dark Arts training sessions with Harry, even she was aware that she could add just that extra bit of power with a verbal spell.
So, when the sound of the rain grew louder for a moment, Harry perked his ears towards Daphne. He heard just the slightest mutter under her breath, and then the game was on.
Harry snapped a shield into place a second before Daphne's spell would have hit him. The vibrant jet of red light exploded like a firework against his shield, but Harry didn't have even a second to celebrate or retaliate because Astoria had joined the fray.
He spun out of the way of a stinging hex she sent at his exposed back, making sure to drop his shield just in time so that the spell would carry on past him. It wasn't in a direct path to hit Daphne, but it would get close to her, and Harry hoped that would be enough to give her a scare so that he could buy himself a bit of breathing room before the next attack.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case; maybe she'd gotten too used to his tricks by now. Regardless, Daphne's follow-up Blasting Curse sailed through the air towards Harry with all of the intensity that she could muster. He managed to bring his shield back up in time, but he was rocked backwards under the power of the spell.
Harry didn't even realise that Astoria had cast another curse until he heard her yelp of surprise and felt a sickeningly-hot gash open up on his left arm. The pain was intense, but Harry forced it out of his mind. He was too focused on dodging Daphne's followup curse to even take the time to numb the pain, but at least he knew that Astoria would feel bad enough about hitting him that she'd hesitate for a few seconds before trying anything again.
"He's wide open!" Daphne shouted at her sister in frustration as she kept up her attacks. "He's not going to learn to keep his back covered unless you keep targeting it!"
Her frustrations were born out of the fact that now that Harry didn't have to worry about two sets of spells coming his way, he was much more open to counter attacking.
The next curse that Daphne sent Harry's way passed straight over his shoulder after he dropped his shield. Then, he lashed out with a lightning-quick Freezing Charm.
Daphne had to throw herself to the side to dodge it, as Harry expected. He had planned on trying to shepherd her over towards Astoria, which would make fighting them easier since they'd be in the same direction, but Daphne tripped over herself as she tried to get up off of the ground. He had a perfect shot lined up to hit her, but Astoria's Freezing Charm froze him perfectly in place.
Daphne got to her feet and shot her sister an annoyed look. "Took you long enough," she said.
Astoria just ignored her and rushed to Harry's side. He was stuck in place, unable to move, but that didn't stop his cut from bleeding freely. Astoria muttered "Episkey" helped to stitch the split skin back together reasonably well.
As the Freezing Charm began to wear off, Astoria gave Harry a very guilty look. "I'm sorry."
"You don't need to be," Harry sighed in frustration at having been bested again. Perhaps he shouldn't have been so eager to teach Daphne how to cast spells so effectively. "I got too greedy hoping I could take Daphne down before you attacked me again."
"You were greedy," Daphne agreed before she turned her gaze back to her sister. "And you're being too soft. You can't keep taking it easy on Harry. We're already into our second week of training, and there's only a few more weeks before the Third Task starts."
"I know, but I don't like hurting him," Astoria grimaced. "It's bad enough seeing you hurt him."
Harry smiled at Astoria. He'd never expected to see this overly protective side of her come out like this. Normally, she was quite happy being snarky and playful with him, but he supposed it was a different matter entirely when he was putting his body on the line like this.
"It's better that you hurt me a little bit now rather than me being unprepared to face off against something dangerous during the Third Task," Harry told Astoria gently. "Besides, you're always there to patch me up afterwards, right? Just make sure that your next cutting curse doesn't sever my head."
His attempt at humour had the exact opposite effect as a look of terror overcame Astoria's face.
"You're right," she murmured as her eyes went wide. "If I'd just been a little bit off with my aim…"
"It wouldn't have severed his head," Daphne assured her sister before she shot Harry a glare that told him to quit making things worse.
"Maybe we should take a bit of a break," Harry suggested. "An early lunch maybe?"
No one disagreed, so Harry quickly cleaned up his spilled blood off of the ground and walked over to the far side of the room where they kept a couple of large tables handy. Daphne and Astoria were already over there, and Astoria had a Blood-Replenishing Potion in her hand for him.
"Just half of the vial," she reminded him.
Harry nodded and took the vial from her. They had to be careful with how much he took. Unfortunately, overuse of potions could lead to future complications down the road, such as your body not healing itself properly, the effects of the potion being lessened, or having your body reject the potion altogether. Harry uncorked it and forced the metallic-tasting potion down his throat. He stopped right around the halfway point and popped the cork back into the vial.
"Dobby," Harry coughed out, grimacing as the taste of the potion lingered in his mouth.
The incredibly eager house-elf popped into view. "Harry Potter, sir," Dobby bowed his head low. "And Miss Astoria and Miss Daphne."
Harry smiled at his greeting. No matter how many times he tried to get Dobby to stop calling him 'sir,' the house-elf refused to budge on that point. He supposed that he should at least be grateful that Dobby wasn't trying to call him 'master.'
"Would you be able to bring us up some lunch from the kitchen please?" Harry asked Dobby politely.
"Of course, sir," Dobby bobbed his head up and down excitedly. "I'll be right back with it."
Daphne snorted as soon as Dobby disappeared. "I still want to see your memory of when you tricked Draco's dad into freeing Dobby."
Harry smiled as he remembered the night he told Astoria and Daphne about that event. They'd both been doubled over with laughter as they tried to act out the rage that Lucius Malfoy had felt when he realised that Harry tricked him.
"One day," Harry promised.
A moment later, several platters of food appeared on the table around them. As per usual, Dobby had gone all out and collected enough food for eight people instead of three. There were small meat pies, sandwiches, pasties, cured meats, a selection of cheeses, a couple different types of salad, and some fresh bread and condiments. A couple pitchers of pumpkin juice and water appeared too, along with all of the cutlery and tableware that they needed.
Harry, Astoria, and Daphne quickly filled their plates up. Harry snagged several meal pies and quickly dug into them as Daphne pulled out a piece of parchment that held the training program that she and Astoria devised together.
"Since we now know that you'll be in a maze for the last task, we'll need to start training on how to cast spells in narrower spaces," Daphne pointed out.
Harry remembered that meeting well. Ludo Bagman had explained to all of the champions about the cup in the centre of the maze that they had to reach in order to win the tournament. There would be obstacles in there, magical creatures and spells and the like. He'd been dismayed to see the Quidditch pitch being reduced to ruins as the hedges grew for the maze, but at least he had the tournament to focus on for now.
"Maybe we can stick to stinging spells this time?" Astoria suggested hopefully.
Daphne sighed. "If it'll make it easier on you."
"It will," Astoria assured her.
Harry snorted as he looked over at Daphne. "You almost seem disappointed that you can't actually hurt me."
"I always thought it would be more realistic if you were actually scared to be hit," Daphne replied with a sly smirk on her lips. "Besides, I like seeing you get all fired up and passionate when we train."
Harry didn't miss the way Daphne was looking at him like she wanted to leap across the table and snog him. Now that they were officially in a relationship together, she'd been relentless with her demands for kisses. They hadn't gone further than that yet, not that Harry minded too much. Astoria was more than eager to keep making up for lost time during the Easter Break by sharing his bed with him at night and pulling him into the nearest abandoned classroom for a quick shag whenever they were off spending time alone together.
"Hey!" Astoria snapped her fingers in front of Daphne's face. "No looking at him like that."
"Like what?" Daphne retorted as she leaned back in her chair.
"Like you want to tear Harry's clothes off!" Astoria exclaimed. "We agreed to no hugs, kissing, or fucking while we're doing these training sessions."
"Have I done any of those things today?" Daphne asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No… but you were thinking about doing them," Astoria countered.
Daphne couldn't deny that even if she wanted to. "Well, I won't do anything like that while we're training."
"The second it's up though?" Harry suggested hopefully.
Daphne nodded her head, but it was Astoria's response that drew Harry's focus. She was humming in thought, glancing up at the ceiling as she pieced together what she was about to say.
"You know, that's not a bad idea actually," Astoria commented.
"What? Waiting until after training to do anything with Harry?" Daphne asked.
"Yeah, but what if we made it into a reward system?" Astoria asked Daphne excitedly. "Like, maybe if he does really well during training, then he can ask for certain things from us right afterwards."
"You know, that's not a bad idea," Daphne agreed. "But I don't want it to cut into my normal snogging time with Harry."
"Obviously not," Astoria nodded. "Maybe we can block off the first hour after training for only rewards?"
"And if I don't do good during training, I just have to wait an hour until I can kiss either of you?" Harry asked for confirmation. At Astoria's nod, Harry snorted. "I can wait an hour."
"Want to make it three hours?" Daphne asked him sharply.
"No, and one hour's fine," Harry quickly backtracked with a placating smile.
Astoria giggled and ran her hand down his arm. "Don't worry; I don't think either of us could wait more than an hour either."
"Hey! No touching!" Daphne exclaimed.
Astoria yanked her hand back with a sheepish grin. "Sorry."
Daphne rolled her eyes at Astoria and picked up her glass of water. "If we're giving Harry rewards for training, we'll have to come up with a special reward if he wins the tournament."
The two girls eyed Harry then, and his mind ran wild with the possibilities. But, that was something he had plenty of time to think about. For now, he needed to eat and get his energy levels back up in time for the rest of their training.
The meal passed by smoothly as they talked about more mundane things and filled their bellies with the delicious food that Dobby had brought them. When they were done, the aforementioned house-elf reappeared and cleared away all of the dishes. After thanking him, the trio returned back to the centre of the room for more practice.
"Can you lock these in place?" Daphne asked Astoria as she began waving her wand in front of her. She summoned over several of the old, wooden desks, which Harry had placed up against one of the walls, and laid them out in two lines. Then, she gave the tip of her wand a twirl and transfigured the first desk into a thin, wooden wall.
The wall wobbled, but Astoria was there with her wand to freeze the wall and place and stick it to the floor. She gave it a small shove, but the wall didn't so much as move.
The sequence repeated like that until Daphne and Astoria had built up a long corridor. It was little more than three metres wide and twenty-five metres long, but it would serve their testing purposes.
"I flew over the maze the other day," Astoria told Harry. "It's going to be big, so you'll have a bit more room than this to manoeuvre around in, but it's better to get some practice in a more confined space like this."
"We don't know what types of things will be in the maze exactly, but I think it's safe to assume that they're going to be trying to test your limits as competitors," Daphne added. "That means doing all they can to try to trip you up, like hitting you with complications from two directions at once."
Harry grinned at them. "You two are brilliant."
"Astoria did most of the research," Daphne said, almost shyly.
"Oh, look!" Astoria exclaimed giddily, pointing at Daphne's face. "She's blushing."
Daphne swiped at Astoria's hand. "Shut up," she grumbled.
"I think she's got a crush on you," Astoria winked at Harry.
"It's a good thing I've got a crush on her too," Harry laughed.
He was so happy to see Astoria and Daphne getting along like this. Sure, they bickered, but there was never any real malice behind it. Plus, they all seemed to be adjusting well to the new dynamics of their relationship.
Daphne couldn't quite meet Harry's gaze without her cheeks turning more pink. "Just go to the opposite end," she told Astoria.
Astoria and Daphne walked to opposite ends of the makeshift corridor, leaving Harry to ready himself in the middle. He stretched out his arms and legs before getting his wand into his hand and ensuring that his grip wasn't too tight or too loose.
There was no need for a call to see if anyone was ready. They'd given up on such things when Daphne pointed out that there'd be no warnings during the actual task itself. So, Harry learned to prepare himself quickly for whatever was to come his way.
A moment later, the first spell came his way.
Unlike earlier, Harry stopped himself from being too greedy. He knew that Daphne was more likely to be vicious with her attacks, but he wasn't going to underestimate Astoria's willingness to hit him when his back was turned to her. He kept his head on a swivel, and when Daphne sent the first spell towards him, Harry blocked it and immediately looked Astoria's way to see what she was doing.
She looked surprised, and Harry understood why: she'd cast a spell at the same time as Daphne. Perhaps Daphne's earlier words about being too soft had gotten to her, or maybe she just wanted to test herself. Regardless, the spell was less than a metre from his face.
Using his reflexes he'd honed through years of Quidditch practice, Harry ducked just in time underneath the spell he belatedly recognised as a stinging hex. It sailed high over the wall and crashed into the ceiling, but Harry didn't have time to catch his breath because Daphne wasn't holding anything back.
Blasting and cutting curses came easily to Daphne. Once Harry had helped her get the hang of casting smoothly, she'd shown a tremendous amount of proficiency with it. She hurled them down the corridor at him, and with such little room to manoeuvre, Harry was forced to block most of them. His shield held up well to the assault, and it let him keep Astoria in his periphery.
After the initial surprise of nearly hitting him with a spell and seeing him dodge it at the last minute, Astoria's confidence seemed to grow. She hesitated less as she fired spells his way, and Harry felt his job of blocking and dodging from two sides becoming more difficult.
When Harry leapt out of the way of a spell and crashed into the wall behind him, he knew he had to do something to get out of this mess. He watched both Daphne and Astoria carefully, waiting for one of them to tire out a bit.
Daphne showed the first sign of flagging as a poorly cast bludgeoning curse fell short of Harry and crashed into the floor. As a spray of chipped stone crashed over Harry, he ducked underneath Astoria's next curse. He heard a yelp as Daphne was forced to jump out of the way, and without hesitation, he fired a stunning spell right at where he expected her to land.
The spell struck true, and Daphne collapsed onto the floor. Harry snapped a shield into place without even looking to see if Astoria was sending any more his way, and he was pleased to hear the gong-like sound of one of her spells crashing against it. He turned to face her with a confident smile on his lips.
Despite knowing just how powerful of a duellist Harry was from how often they practised their spellwork together, Astoria didn't shy away from him. He admired that about her. She showed that she was far more courageous than any passerby would have ever guessed; he certainly never would have expected that beautiful woman he saw in the library all those months ago to be as strong as she was.
Astoria's wand whipped back and forth almost faster than Harry's eyes could follow. She was throwing anything she could at him, even if it wasn't magic that would work well in a duel. A Packing Charm, which had no effect on anything other than clothes and other odds and ends, was sent his way just because the wand motion flowed smoothly from a Disarming Charm. It would expel his energy if he blocked it, so he let it hit his body. However, with how fast Astoria was casting spells, Harry was having a hard time keeping up with what spells he needed to block and what ones were fine if they hit him.
Even as he was forced to block, Harry couldn't help but think what a brilliant witch his girlfriend was.
Astoria's onslaught couldn't last forever, and it didn't. She messed up the wand motions of a single spell, which caused the spell to be improperly cast and threw off her rhythm. Even though Harry was feeling the wear on his body from having shielded against so many spells, he was able to push through it and fire one more Stunning Spell.
Astoria went down, and Harry sagged in relief.
"That was pretty clever," Harry told Astoria when he woke her back up a moment later.
She blinked her eyes open as she slowly sat up on the floor. "I swore your shield was getting weaker."
"It was," Harry admitted. "Another ten seconds or so and it would've broken."
"Damn," Astoria groaned. She pushed herself up to her feet, clearly feeling the strain from her casting as well. "Let's go wake up Daphne then, and then we can sit and rest for a bit."
"Good idea," Harry nodded. He hurried over to Daphne, with Astoria following close behind him, and he woke her up as well.
Unlike Astoria, Daphne just glared at him angrily. "I hate you," she told him seriously.
"That's good to hear," Harry replied cheerfully, having heard far worse from her a couple of days ago when he knocked her out three seconds into the first training session of the day.
"I really do," she insisted as she stood up.
"I know," Harry smiled at her. "Can I have a kiss now?"
Daphne pouted at him. "Fine," she relented.
He kissed her sweetly for a moment before he felt his knees buckle again. Apparently, he'd used up far more magic than he realised.
"I need to sit down," Harry chuckled as he pulled away from Daphne.
He collapsed onto the chair back at the table they ate at, exhausted. He could feel himself growing stronger with each passing day, but it never seemed to be enough. He wished he could cast spells endlessly, but the limits of his body wouldn't let him come close to it. There was still so much to learn and practice before the Third Task too. At least he had Astoria and Daphne at his side to help him along this path.
Speaking of whom, Daphne came and sat down across the table from him, but as Harry looked around, he realised that he couldn't see Astoria.
"Where's—" he began to speak, only to feel a tap on his legs.
Astoria was sat on her knees underneath the table, grinning up at him.
"What're you doing down there?" Harry snorted.
"You beat us," Astoria pointed out. "So, it's time for your reward."
Harry didn't even have a chance to question it before her hand started tugging at his waistband. He had to lift his hips up as she tugged his shorts and underwear down to his knees, and then she tore them all the way off of his body as he sat back down.
No matter how many times she went down on him, Astoria never seemed to tire of giving him one of the simplest pleasures in life. She licked her way up and down his shaft so lovingly. Her eyes were smiling up at him as she did it, showing him that she loved doing this too.
Across the table, Daphne's curiosity got the best of her as she leaned over and looked at what Astoria was doing. Her eyes widened again as she took in the size of Harry's cock and the practised ease of how Astoria was able to wrap her perfect lips around the head and suckle on him.
Astoria quickly started to bob her head up and down, keeping her plump lips sealed around his shaft. Her tongue expertly twisted and rubbed against his cock, pleasuring him as she hummed happily along. The pleasant tingles from her mouth vibrating around his cock made Harry moan quietly.
"Fuck," Daphne groaned from across the table as she bit her lip.
Harry looked up at her, and she turned away again, embarrassed. It seemed odd to Harry that she now seemed so embarrassed around him whenever sex came up given the fact that she'd watched him and Astoria fuck multiple times before, but he supposed it was different now that she was a part of the relationship too. He and Daphne hadn't quite done anything too sexual yet, even if she did like to tease him. It was like the more real everything was and closer they got to actually do something, the shyer she became.
"I just like hearing you moan," Daphne admitted under Harry's curious gaze.
"You don't have to be shy about it," Harry told her.
Daphne nodded her head in understanding, but that didn't change her behaviour in any way. She just stayed back and watched as Astoria worked her magic on Harry.
Astoria was so proficient at taking his cock deep into her throat now that she barely struggled to get him in there. All it took was a bit of extra saliva to help lubricate his cock and focusing on relaxing her throat to push him inside of it.
Having his girlfriend go down on him like this felt so relaxing, but it also turned him on so much. Seeing how enthusiastic Astoria was to pleasure him really reinforced the love that Harry had for her. She kept pushing herself further down onto his cock until her lips reached the base of his shaft. She choked a little then, but it only lasted a second before she got her breathing back under control.
Now that she'd reached the limit, Astoria went back to bobbing her hot, wet mouth up and down his shaft. She showed off her prowess by moving her lips all the way from the base of his shaft to the tip of his cock and then back again, but she mostly stuck to keeping his cock just in her mouth where her tongue could pleasure the head more easily.
Harry's groans grew louder as Astoria kept up her pleasurable pace. He didn't realise at what point he looked back up from Astoria's eyes to Daphne, but he had his gaze focused on her breasts. The tight top she was wearing showed off her curves perfectly, and he could still remember how good she'd looked in that white-lace lingerie she'd worn when she'd tested his dedication to Astoria before the Easter Break.
Daphne didn't miss his gaze, and she glanced down at her breasts as though she realised what he wanted. For a moment, she bit her lip in concentration, and then, with a sudden boldness he hadn't expected out of her, she pulled down the front of her top for him.
Daphne's breasts were perfect, just like Astoria's. Both of them seemed to have virtually no sag, and they were perfectly shaped. Where they differed was in size. There was no denying the fact that Daphne's breasts were larger than Astoria's, but Harry couldn't decide between which he liked better. Daphne's stood out beautifully with small, pink nipples that were surrounded by gooseflesh. The skin around them was flawless and creamy, and Harry so badly wanted to reach out and touch her.
At that moment, Astoria sucked hard on his cock before taking him back into her throat, and Harry suddenly went tumbling over the edge. Astoria kept her lips sealed around his cock as she sucked hard on him and drank down all of his cum without missing a drop. She stayed there, holding him in her throat until Harry finally finished, and then she came back up with a bright smile on her face.
"Finally," Astoria exclaimed as she got up from under the table and saw Daphne putting her breasts back into her top. "I was wondering if you two were ever going to do more than kiss. I've been having to work double time to keep him happy with how worked up he's been getting after his dates with you, not that I'm complaining."
Daphne blushed again and looked away. "We're taking things slow for now."
Harry nodded in agreement. "Whatever you feel comfortable with."
There was a pause before Daphne looked back at him. "Maybe if you win the tournament we could…"
Suddenly, Harry's motivation to win this thing had never been bigger.
A/N: Hey, thanks for reading! If you are interested in reading more or supporting me, check out at p atreon .com(slash) ashox