"After the last one, this seems kind of anticlimactic," Rias chuckled as she picked up the heavily cursed ring.
"He decided to rely more on magic in this case," Harry replied. "The shack was well-hidden by the trees around it to begin with, and with the enchantments Voldemort added, no one in the village was able to think about it for more than a moment. He reasoned that no wizard or witch was likely to remember that the Gaunts had once lived here and his final protection lay on the ring itself."
"Yes, this is far more vile than what was on the diadem," Rias commented as she looked down at the ring. "I'm tempted to burn this place to the ground just to remove the eyesore."
"I'm sure the villagers would appreciate it, but until Voldemort's gone for good, we shouldn't," Harry replied.
"I know, but it is just so gross," Rias shuddered. "Anyway, come. Sirzechs is free, and I want to check in on his progress as well as deliver the next horcrux."
"Have I set the record yet for most trips to the underworld made by a human?" Harry asked.
"If not, you have to be up there," Rias replied, wrapping an arm around him and conjuring a magic circle around them.
A moment later, they left the decrepit shack and reappeared outside a palace Harry hadn't seen yet. It was a massive, sprawling structure of dark stone and red roof tiles, and he swore that it looked familiar.
"Sirzech's palace is based in part on the Palace of Versailles," Rias said before he even asked. "The color scheme was at Grayfia's insistence, as she thought the actual palace was too irritably bright for her tastes."
"If it's based on Versailles, it can't have been their first home," Harry mused.
"It's the only one I've ever known, but no, they've had other palaces and castles through the centuries," Rias replied as she waved her hand and the front door opened before her.
"Princess," a man dressed as an old-fashioned English butler smiled as he spotted Rias.
"Geoffrey," Rias replied just as warmly. "My brother is expecting me."
"Of course," Geoffrey replied. "You know you're always welcome here."
"Princess?" Harry asked through their mental link.
"Geoffrey's been Sirzech's servant for a very long time, and when I came along, he decided that, as his master is essentially king of the underworld, I was technically a princess," Rias replied, brimming with amusement.
She led him upstairs, clearly knowing the way, and as they passed through the richly decorated halls, she turned to him and said, "After you become a devil, you'll need to come to the Underworld the first time on one of the trains. After that, once you gone through the official channels, you'll be able to come and go freely."
They passed through multiple long halls before coming upon their apparent destination. Rias knocked on the door, and it opened immediately, allowing them inside. They found Sirzechs seated behind a sturdy-looking desk made of some kind of dark wood. His study, as Harry figured this was, was less richly decorated as the rest of the mansion, though he imagined that the furnishings were still all very expensive. The walls were painted blue and covered in paintings and tapestries portraying figures he didn't recognize.
"Rias," Sirzechs smiled, standing up to greet his sister. "Hello, Harry."
"Hello, my Lord," Harry replied.
"Call me Sirzechs," Sirzechs said. "Anyone this close to my sister can forgo such formalities."
"We found another one," Rias grinned, tossing him the ring. "We've nearly gotten all of them now."
"That is some impressively vile magic," Sirzechs murmured as he felt the curse on the ring.
"How did things go with the cup?" Harry asked.
"I destroyed it," Sirzechs replied, looking sheepish. "I've been using the Power of Destruction for longer than you can imagine, and I can destroy virtually anything, but this is rather different. Focusing the power so intensely that I can destroy something within an object without damaging the whole thing is something I haven't attempted since the early days of my training and I never attempted it something as delicate as a soul fragment."
"It has to be much worse with the object in question being a fragment of a soul," Rias muttered. "I can sense the presence in these objects, but it's faint."
"A fun challenge," Sirzechs smiled. "This is why I wanted to test it out on these horcruxes first."
"Something I appreciate, by the way," Harry chuckled.
"Now, just be silent for a moment, and let's give this another try," Sirzechs murmured, closing his eyes. "I think I know what went wrong with the cup."
Harry watched with bated breath, hoping more than anything that he would succeed. Once he was sure that Sirzechs could safely remove the horcrux from him, he'd want to wait a little while, so that he could further interrogate and learn from it, but it would be a relief to know that it was possible.
Sirzechs called upon the Power of Destruction, and Harry felt a chill go down his spine as he felt the raw power coming off of the devil lord in waves. He didn't have an inherent ability to sense magic, being only a mortal wizard, but Sirzechs was powerful enough that he imagined a muggle would be able to feel it. His hand was enveloped in crimson energy, and Harry heard a terrible scream echo through the room. A moment later, black smoke billowed out between his fingers, and Harry recalled what happened when he stabbed the diary back in second year.
"Ha! It…" Sirzechs exclaimed, only to trail off in confusion as he opened his hand. "Well, that's odd."
"You destroyed only part of it," Rias said, sounding both hopeful and confused. "That's progress...right?"
"I don't think so," Sirzechs replied, sitting down behind his desk and setting what remained of the horcrux on his desk.
The ring itself had been completely disintegrated, but the small square-cut black stone that had rested in it looked completely undamaged. As Harry got a closer look, he caught sight of the small photograph that sat next to it on the desk. It was a picture of Grayfia and Sirzechs standing with a crimson-haired boy who had to be their son.
"The Horcrux itself was destroyed," he pointed out. "I know what the destruction of one of them looks like."
"It is, and I failed to isolate the soul fragment without destroying the object just like last time," Sirzechs said, "but somehow, this stone resisted my power."
"Resisted you?" Rias asked, sounding like someone had just tried to argue that the sky was pink. "How is that possible?"
"I'm not actually omnipotent, Rias," Sirzechs chuckled, "and there are a handful of beings out there who are more powerful than I am. I suspect that one of them made this. Did Voldemort ever seek out an alliance with a god of some kind?"
"No," Harry replied with absolute certainty. "He fears death above all else and has a pathological need for control. He contemplated trying to reach out to the devils for power, as other wizards had in the past, but ultimately decided against it because he knew that such a being would demand his servitude in return and try to kill him if he double-crossed them. As for gods, they exist?"
"They do indeed," Sirzechs replied, looking over the stone. "I don't sense anything dangerous in this, nor do I have much use for it, so you hold onto it. See later if your slave has any further information for us. In the meantime, I'm going to go back to the drawing board with this. I think that I'm approaching the problem from the wrong angle."
"There are still others to test out," Rias said reassuringly, looking at Harry. "We hope that we'll be able to get our hands on the next one soon."
"If it still exists," Harry muttered.
Sirzeches cocked an eyebrow at that but didn't comment on it. "I'll leave things in your hands, and I'm afraid that I must bid you both adieu. I have a meeting in ten minutes."
"Of course," Rias replied, taking Harry's hand. "I'll talk to you later."
"Thank you for all your help," Harry added.
"It's no trouble," Sirzechs replied. "Take care."
The two of them said their goodbyes and disappeared in a magic circle. The moment they were gone, Sirzechs smile fell, and he sent a quick request to Ajuka to speak and summoned a mirror. His old friend's face appeared in it a moment later.
"Is something wrong?" Ajuka asked curtly.
"Hello to you too," Sirzechs replied wryly. "You said before that you felt an old and faint trace on Harry, as though he had come into significant contact with a powerful figure when he was very young. Are you sure that that figure was a devil?"
"That's what it felt like," Ajuka replied. "I took tissue samples from Harry while I was enslaving his parasite to him and will have a definite answer when my scanner finishes, though it's taking its sweet time. Why?"
"I destroyed another horcrux earlier, and a piece of the object resisted my power," Sirzechs replied.
"That's...interesting," Ajuka drawled. "Send it to Agreas and I'll find out what it is and who made it."
"I have a good idea of who made it, and I sent it back with Harry and Rias for that reason," Sirzechs muttered. "It might be unrelated, in which case it is much better that it stay on Earth for the time being, but I thought I'd call you and ask if there was a chance that the energy signature you detected came from a god instead of a devil."
"No," Ajuka replied. "I might not have been able to tell exactly who I was sensing when I examined Harry, but I would know if it were a god. Who do you think made the object the idiot turned into a Horcrux?"
Sirzechs' response made Ajuka's eyebrows race towards his hairline.
"That was weird," Rias commented through their link just after she sent Harry back to the Room of Requirement. "I've never seen my brother fail to destroy anything before."
"All Voldemort knows of it is that the ring's been in his family for centuries," Harry replied. "The symbol on the stone looks weirdly familiar, so do some digging and see what I find. At any rate, I'm sure that the answer will lie in one of these books."
He looked around the omnilibrary, not seeing Dobby at all, though he knew that the excitable elf was somewhere in the vast expanse of it, which seemed to stretch on for miles. He had wanted to thank the little guy for keeping the room available for Rias to send him back to, but he wasn't about to bother him if he was busy. Goodness knew that there was a ton of work to be done after all.
"I told my father that I was looking to expand our library, and he's agreed to have another tower built in the castle for it," Rias said.
"Does he know just how extensive an expansion that's going to be?" Harry asked.
"Not yet, but the tower he has in mind will be a good start," Rias replied. "I already said it, but good luck today."
"Thanks, luv," Harry replied, smiling warmly despite the fact that she couldn't see him. "I've got this."
"I know you do," Rias murmured. "Let me know when it's done."
"Will do," Harry promised. "Bye."
"Bye," Rias sighed before disconnecting.
Harry smiled to himself as he left the room, heading over to the Gryffindor Common Room. It was empty, and he was sure that everyone was already down gathering for the second task. Just how much they'd be able to see of an event happening entirely underwater, he couldn't say, but that was no concern of his. After taking a moment to change into his swim trunks, he threw his robe over it, cast a powerful heating charm on himself, and went down to the lake, finding most of the three schools already there.
As he made his way through the crowd, he noticed that it was actually more extensive than he'd expected, and he was going to make a beeline for the starting area, where he could see Krum and Cedric already waiting, but stopped when he heard something that drew his immediate attention.
"I can't seem to find my little Lunebug either," a rather distracted-sounding man said.
"Seems like most of the school is here, so I have no idea where they could be," a woman added.
He looked over to where the voices seemed to be coming from and spotted a rather tall man with long, thin blonde hair, leading around a couple in muggle clothing who looked vaguely familiar. It took him a moment to recall that he'd seen the pair of them picking up Hermione before from the station. No sooner did he realize that than Xenophilius spotted him, his silvery eyes, which looked so much like his daughter's lighting up as he did so.
"Harry Potter?" he asked, smiling widely as Harry nodded and went over to meet him.
"Hello," Harry said in greeting. "You must be Luna's father. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"The pleasure is all mine," Xenophilius beamed. "Luna's been ecstatic to have found such good friends this year. Speaking of, these are Charlotte and Daniel Granger, young Hermione's parents."
"Yes, hello," Harry smiled. "I'm sorry we haven't met sooner, but my uncle's always so insistent that we get going immediately from the station."
"I feel like we know you already," Charlotte laughed. "Hermione's been talking and writing about you for years."
"You and the other one. What was his name again?" Daniel asked.
"Ron," Harry muttered, his face falling for a moment.
"Right, that was it," Daniel said. Realizing that he'd waded into something best avoided, he changed the subject and asked, "Do you know where Hermione is? We've been having a devil of a time trying to find her and Luna."
"Both of them?" Harry asked, looking around.
Sure enough, he couldn't see them anywhere, and when he spotted a confused-looking Marietta Edgecomb looking around as well, his heart sank. Rias had raised the possibility that the 'thing' taken for this task, which he'd be expected to rescue within an hour of it starting, might be a person, but he'd hoped that the beautiful redhead was wrong. Using their Yule Ball dates would be a simple way to choose someone to keep as a hostage under the lake, and he scowled at the thought.
"I know Luna wouldn't miss watching you compete," Xenophilius commented, sounding a little more worried. "Her last few letters were so excited about it."
"Um, it's possible that the headmaster needed volunteers to help with setting all of this up," Harry lied. "You know what an overachiever Hermione is."
"That does sound like our girl," Charlotte replied, relaxing a little. "So long as we get to see her afterward, I suppose it will be fine."
"Right," Harry muttered, still looking around. "Anyway, it was nice meeting you all, but I must go join the other champions."
"Of course," Daniel smiled. "It's nice to finally put a face to the name."
"If possible, would you mind giving a short interview after the task?" Xenophilius asked. "I would so like to write about the gardening habits of selkies."
"Umm, I'll try to get a look while I'm down there," Harry replied, nonplussed.
"Thank you again for bringing us, Xenophilius," he heard Daniel say as he turned to leave.
"We were lucky to be in the area at just the right time," Charlotte added.
"Oh, it was no trouble," Xenophilius replied. "You said you were in the Highlands for a conference.
"Yes, I've been arguing for years that the UK should add floride to our drinking water for the sake of our basic oral health and was invited to give a presentation on a paper I wrote some months ago," Daniel replied. "God only knows if I managed to sway any naysayers, but the conference was enjoyable anyway."
"Right, Luna said that you worked with teeth?" Xenophilius asked.
"That's right," Charlotte replied. "We operate a dental practice in Abingdon, just south of Oxford. I've always wondered what magical dental care entails."
"Oh, well, I don't think it's quite as formal or specialized as it seems to be for muggles," Xenophilius replied just as Harry walked out of earshot.
None of them happened to notice the baleful light grey eyes locked onto them as they spoke.
Harry stopped pretending not to be worried the moment his friends' parents were no longer watching him. He continued to look around as he made his way closer to the lake, hoping against hope that he'd spot either of them or Cho to prove that he was wrong. When he spotted Roger Davies, he breathed a sigh of relief, though that relief was short-lived as he soon came upon a positively frantic-looking Fleur.
"Gabby's not 'ere," she fretted the moment she saw him.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Gabrielle, ma soeur, she's not with my parents," Fleur replied. "Mama said that she'd be 'ere and I...I 'ave a terrible feeling about zis."
"You might be right to," Harry muttered, scowling as he looked around at the crowd again. "Luna and Hermione are missing as well."
"Both of them?" Fleur asked, her confusion outweighing her concern for a moment.
"Luna was my date and Hermione was Krum's," Harry explained. "Cho Chang, Cedric's date, seems to be missing as well. Your date's in the crowd, but given how poorly things went with you two...I think they might have looked further afield."
"Oh no," Fleur panicked. "'Arry, she is Veela, and she is only nine years old. Ze very idea of 'er being 'eld under ze lake by merpeople...why would Mama and Papa agree to zis?"
"They might not have been told everything," Harry muttered. When Fleur looked even more worried at that, he took her hands in his and said, "Hey, it's going to be okay. I promised that we would work together, and I meant it. We'll make sure that Luna and Gabrielle are retrieved unharmed, make sure that the others save their hostages, and deal with anything that gets in our way."
"Zank you," Fleur sighed, relaxing visibly. "I would not 'ave zrown my 'at into ze ring 'ere for a moment if I zought it might endanger Gabby. If anything 'appened to 'er, I…"
"Don't think like that," Harry said soothingly. "Like I said, we've got this, and I promise you, no matter what, I'll get your sister out of that lake unharmed."
"My 'ero," Fleur smiled weakly.
"Are our champions ready?" Bagman asked, sounding like an overcaffinated child in his excitement.
Harry and the others all glared at the man, whose smile faded for a moment.
"Let's get this over with," he muttered.
"The people are here for a show, Mr. Potter," Percy said primly, still filling in for his missing boss. "We are expecting them to be given one."
"And what exactly will this show entail for them?" Harry asked, pointing around.
"Hey, that's right!" Cedric exclaimed. "All anyone here will be able to see is the lake while they freeze their arses off sitting around."
"Um, well, that is…" Bagman stammered.
"Not important at the moment," Dumbledore interjected. "It is time to begin, I should think, if you'd like to explain the rules, Ludovic."
"O...of course," Bagman said, forcing a smile. "On the count of three, I'll blow my enchanted whistle, and from that moment, you'll all have one hour to retrieve what's been taken from you. One...two...three!"
With that, he blew his whistle, and numbers appeared in blue and white light above the lake, counting down from sixty minutes.
"So they'll get to see the lake and some blinking numbers," Harry thought to himself. "Riveting."
Cedric and Fleur both cast bubblehead charms, and the Hufflepuff rushed off. Krum, wand in hand, seemed to have a similar idea to his and began to transfigure himself. He wasn't sure what his Bulgarian opponent had in mind at first, but at the first sign of a large grey fin, he got a pretty good idea.
Drawing his own wand, Harry tossed his robe off, ignoring the whistling that he was pretty sure came from the Weasley twins, and quickly transfigured his body to match the transformation he'd experienced when he took gillyweed. This was more complicated and challenging than just swallowing more of the slimy, unpleasant herb, but it was more pleasant, more controlled, and wouldn't run out in an hour. As his webbed feet hit the water, he smiled, realizing that his heating charm was working well, and quickly descended into the depths, casting a lumos charm to light his way.
He caught up with Fleur, who was waiting for him, and cast a spell that he' d managed to work out with Voldemort. The evil prick had been reluctantly intrigued by the mental link Rias had cast on him not long after they met and the two of them managed to work out a similar charm based on the principles of legilimency.
"Can you hear me?" Harry asked.
"'Arry?" Fleur asked, turning to him in surprise.
"Something I came up with," Harry lied. "I figured it would be easier to work together if we could communicate."
"Magnifique," Fleur complimented, sounding genuinely impressed. "Let's get going."
Harry, owing to his more aquatic features, was faster than the Veela, but knew from their earlier exploration that the village wasn't truly that far away and slowed down to let her keep up. The two of them swam deep into the frigid lake, seeing all manner of fish scurry away from them as they went. Most of the things in the lake were relatively harmless, and would avoid them if possible. As he looked ahead, he saw a shark-man in the distance and realized that he was likely what was scaring the creatures around them most.
"Krum will get extra points for 'is transfiguration, but it is not as impressive as yours," Fleur commented.
"He based his idea on an actual animal and had to limit what he did for fear that he'd actually turn himself into a shark and lose control," Harry explained. "I looked to replicate the effects of gillyweed specifically because I knew it did nothing to the mind, and so I didn't have to restrict myself at all."
"You actually look like a merperson," Fleur grinned. "Not ze selkie kind, of course, but ze prettier warm-water ones."
"Some have actually theorized that overuse of gillyweed by the Cult of Poseidon was what created the first merpeople," Harry said. "I don't know if I actually buy that, since it wouldn't explain the existence of selkies and the like, but it was an interesting theory I came across while I was reading up on the plant."
"That's...look out!" Fleur exclaimed as she spotted a number of little creatures swimming towards them rapidly from her right.
Harry turned and saw a horde of grindylows coming their way and swore under his breath. Fleur was already sending stinging hexes and bludgeoning charms to try and scare them off, and Harry quickly followed suit.
Being underwater greatly limited the options one had for magical combat. Fire and lightning were out of the question for obvious reasons, and ice magic could be unpredictable. You couldn't conjure physical objects to blast at an enemy because they'd move more slowly than you were used to, and the last thing you wanted in a fight was to have to adjust on the fly to changes like that. Worst of all was the fact that concussive spells, like the blasting curse, would, owing to the greater density of water compared to air, often cause as much harm to the caster as their target.
With few options to choose from, Harry stuck to the same spells as his partner, peppering the little blighters with stinging hexes and light bludgeoning charms. The ones they hit cried out and swam off, but there seemed to be dozens of them, and the pair of them soon found themselves surrounded. Pressing his back to hers and trying not to let himself realize just how bloody incredible her arse felt, he cast as quickly as he could.
"Zere's so many!" Fleur exclaimed.
"Seems like every grindylow in the lake," Harry grimaced as he stung one right between the eyes. "We just have to beat them back."
His arm began to tire as he worked, and he realized another limiting factor to his casting underwater. Moving about under water was more tiring than moving above ground, and he'd instinctively limited himself to spells with minimal wand movement as it was. Just as he was considering switching to something like cutting curses or piercing hexes, he heard Fleur panic.
"'Arry!" she cried, and his heart started hammering in his chest at her obvious peril.
He hazarded a look behind him and saw that one of the grindylows had managed to poke a hole in her bubble, leaving her unable to breathe. He hissed in pain as he felt one take advantage of his distraction and get close enough to claw his chest, and he shoved his wand in the little monster's face.
"Perfero," he hissed, and he winced as he saw the piercing hex blow right through the creature's skull, sending bits of its brain all around him.
The sudden death of one of them shocked the others just long enough for him to think. He had discarded the idea of using a bubblehead charm for that very reason, but as he felt Fleur slowly losing consciousness through the link between their minds, he realized that he'd need to use something like it. Turning around, he cast piercing hexes at the three nearest grindylows in front of Fleur as he pulled her close. He killed a few more, driving them far enough away that he was able to focus on Fleur just long enough to cast the charm.
The bubble of air formed around her head but didn't stop there, growing larger and larger until it had enveloped the both of them. With him still having gills, he couldn't breathe, but he knew that wouldn't kill him instantly, and for what he had in mind, the two of them could not technically be in the water. The grindylows had watched him work, intrigued by what he was doing, and as they figured it out, they gave him positively demonic grins. Rushing forward, intending to pierce this new, large bubble, they extended their claws towards him, advancing from all angles.
He allowed them to draw close until they were inches from him and Fleur and then he attacked, casting, "Glacia maxima."
The water around them froze instantly, cocooning them in an egg-shaped sculpture that extended out for four feet in every direction. The grindylows around them were trapped in the ice immediately, their shocked, horrified expressions frozen in time. Reaching down, as he felt himself start to fade from lack of breath, he melted a circle of the ice under them and began lifting the massive iceberg above them. Once it was safely away, he exited the bubble that Fleur was still safely held within and swam around, allowing his gills to work again as the icy prison containing dozens of little gremlins continued to zoom towards the surface.
The reason why using ice magic while in water was ill advised was because one couldn't guarantee that you wouldn't accidentally freeze the water around you as well. To get around that, he needed to first create a pocket of air for him and Fleur, which he managed to do with the expanded bubblehead charm.
The overpowered levitation charm continued to raise the giant hunk of ice towards the surface with such force that, once it broke through the surface, it jettisoned up into the air, shooting towards what he dearly hoped was the Forbidden Forest.
"With any luck, my icy missile will land in the center of the acromantulas territory," he thought to himself.
The remaining grindylows fled when they saw so many of their number imprisoned in ice, and, as they were sent flying away, Harry was able to focus on Fleur, who he realized still wasn't speaking.
"Fleur!" he exclaimed, rushing over to her.
His bubblehead charm had forced all the water around them away, and he expected it to force any water from her lungs as well, but as he reached her, he wasn't sure it had worked. He quickly realized that she was breathing, though not strongly, and that she was still unconscious. She was also bleeding from a number of wounds the grindylows had inflicted, something that he noticed only in that moment was true of him as well.
"Fuck," he muttered to himself as he realized what his only course of action was.
He cast a locomotion charm on her swimsuit and directed it to take her to shore, towards the area they'd just come from. He didn't have time to help her himself if he wanted to rescue Luna and Gabrielle as well, and he wasn't nearly as proficient as Madam Pomfrey either. As he watched the beautiful Veela zoom off, he could only hope that the school matron would manage to help her and focus again on the task at hand.
As he swam towards the Merpeople village, he passed through a cloud of Grindylow blood and winced. He didn't know if it was that they weren't human, or if he'd just grown stronger and more stoic about this sort of thing, but he found that he felt nothing at all for having killed so many of them in complete contrast to his experience in Italy. Of course, as he rushed towards the village, able to swim much faster now without Fleur, he realized that it could also be the simple fact that his current task was far too important to worry about such trivial things.
He reached the village swiftly and saw Cedric swimming off with Cho in hand as he did. It looked just as it had the week prior, a small collection of stone dwellings, surrounded by a wall made of rocks. In the center of the village was a stone statue of a merperson with four ropes attached to it. One of the ropes dangled freely with the flowing want, but the others were attached to the remaining hostages.
Hermione, Luna, and a little silver-haired girl who he'd have known was Fleur's sister even if she hadn't told him, all floated there, tied to the posts from their ankles. They were clearly in some sort of magical sleep, breathing calmly thanks to the bubbles around their heads. Krum was already there, trying with little success to bite through the rope attached to Hermione. Harry sliced through it with a wave of his wand, saluting Krum as the shark-man looked at him. He nodded and swam off.
Content that all of his friends would be safe, he sliced through Luna's rope and grabbed onto her. As he was about to aim at Gabrielle's rope, though, one of the merpeople, pointed his spear at Harry's neck.
"Only one," the creature hissed.
Harry glared at the merperson and transfigured his spear into a bright pink pool noodle. He squawked in obvious offense, and some of the others around them laughed, but Harry was far too irritated to find much funny just then. Focusing inward, he flared his aura outward so strongly that no creature or person with the barest hint of magical sensitivity could have missed it. His frustration with the tournament and rage at the mere thought of being prevented from saving Fleur's sister became a part of his very presence, and the merpeople backed away a little, suddenly wary of him.
He didn't want to fight them, both because he doubted that they'd signed up to have their village turned into a warzone for this stupid task and because he couldn't risk Luna and Gabrielle being harmed in the process. As the guards were looking at each other, seemingly wondering what to do next, he took advantage of their distraction and sliced Gabrielle's rope cleanly, close to the statue. Before they could react, he pulled her to him and, untying the rope from Gabrielle's leg, quickly tied it around the three of them to hold the unconscious girls in place before swimming off.
He didn't know if the merpeople were going to pursue him or not and didn't particularly want to find out. Conjuring a large piece of driftwood, he cast a locomotion charm on it to force it to rush towards the surface and held onto it for dear life. The three of them ascended away from the lake floor at great speed, and sooner than he expected, the piece of wood was floating. Vanishing the rope, he pushed first Luna and then Gabrielle forward, and the two of them woke the moment their heads were above water. As he undid his transfigurations on himself, he heard Gabrielle scream.
"It's okay, it's okay," Harry tried to assure her as he poked his head above the water.
"Où suis-je?! Que se passe-t-il?! Où est maman?!" Gabrielle cried, tears running down her cheeks as she looked around in terror.
"I don't think she speaks English," Luna pointed out as she pulled herself up onto his conjured raft. "Shh. It's okay, little one."
She said the words anyway, hoping that her tone would get across what they could not, and reached out to help Gabrielle out of the water. Looking up into the blonde's big silver eyes, she took her hand and climbed on the raft, getting onto it just as Harry managed. The little girl was still asking questions in rapid French as Harry charmed his raft to take him to shore as Luna cast drying charms on them all.
"Non Francais," Harry said, speaking two of the few French words he knew. "Why, oh, why couldn't they have taken Hermione for me? Unlike Luna and I, she actually speaks French."
As they sailed rapidly towards the crowd, Harry heard the distinct sound of a Veela singing over the excitement of the crowd, and Gabrielle whipped around, calming almost instantly as she spotted the source of the song.
"Maman!" she exclaimed, and both Harry and Luna breathed a sigh of relief.
Her mother stopped singing as Gabrielle calmed down, and Harry wondered if the veela had been able to hear Gabrielle freaking out across the water or if she sensed her youngest daughter's fear somehow. The raft reached the shore in under a minute, and Harry chuckled to himself as he realized that he was actually the first one back. Cedric arrived with Cho mere seconds later and laughed at the sight of Harry's raft.
"I'm gonna kick myself for the next week for not thinking of that," he chuckled in good spirits.
"Gabby!" Fleur exclaimed, rushing over to them and pulling her sister into a tight hug.
"I promised I'd get her back safely," Harry smiled.
Fleur looked at him, her blue eyes brimming with tears.
"'Arry, you're bleeding," she whimpered.
"Yes, you should really get those looked at," Luna murmured.
"Eh, I've had worse," Harry shrugged, wincing as he realized that he had a particularly deep cut on his left shoulder.
"'Arry?" Gabrielle asked, looking up at him in confusion. Her eyes locked onto his scar and widened almost comically as she realized who he was. "'Arry Potter?!"
"You saved 'er," Fleur breathed, her blue eyes darkening dramatically as she stared at him.
"I gave you my wo…" Harry went to reply.
She cut him off with a searing hot kiss, pressing her body tightly against his as she plunged her tongue into his mouth. Harry returned the kiss with equal passion, grabbing the back of her head and her arse as he completely forgot where he was for a moment. Her allure went wild, making the air thick with her palpable desire, and just as Harry was about to vanish their clothes and take her right then and there, a voice cut through the fog of their lust.
"Je veux un tour!" Gabrielle whined petulantly, and something about those words startled Fleur out of her lustful trance.
"Huh?" Harry asked, looking around. He noticed almost everyone in the crowd staring at him, the looks on their faces ranging from anger to jealousy to amusement, and he blushed.
"She said that she wanted a turn," Hermione replied, and Harry whipped around, smiling as he saw that she was safe. "Fleur's explaining that she's way too young for that."
Harry looked over and saw Gabrielle had her arms crossed and was glaring up at her sister. He snorted and turned back to Hermione.
"No shark bites?" he asked, earning a scowl from her.
"None," Hermione replied primly, "though you look like the same can't be said for you. You need to see Madam Pomfrey."
"Correct," Pomfrey said as she walked over. "In the medical tent, Potter. I need to clean out those deeper wounds before I heal them."
"I'll point out I was just in the water," Harry remarked, earning a flat stare from the healer. "On my way."
"That was beautiful," Luna smiled, looking at Fleur, who was joined by a couple who could only be her parents.
"A touch public," Hermione muttered.
"Probably only show audience got," Krum chuckled. "Task was poorly design from their point of view."
"I can't argue with that," Hermione said, shaking her head at the stupidity of inviting spectators to watch an event that happened entirely underwater.
Harry emerged from the tent a couple minutes later, wearing robes, and went over to Fleur, who was watching her parents lead Gabrielle away.
"Madam Pomfrey said I should try to get you to put this on now," he said, holding out robes for her. "You were apparently too concerned about Gabrielle to even notice her try to give them to you earlier."
"I failed," Fleur sulked.
"Hey, we knew you were at a serious disadvantage from the start," Harry reasoned as he draped the robe over her shoulders, "and you were doing fine until we were completely swarmed by those little pricks. The bubblehead charm is useful but not without certain downsides."
"Zank you, 'Arry," Fleur sighed, smiling at him. "Gabby seemed to be perfectly fine."
"She freaked out when she came to in the lake, and neither Luna nor I could speak French, so that was unfortunate," Harry replied. "Once she heard your mother, she calmed right down."
"We 'eard 'er scream from 'ere," Fleur shuddered. "Mama realized quickly zat it was just ze rude awakening zat caused it."
Harry was about to say something else when Dumbledore started speaking, clearly using the sonorus charm to enhance his voice.
"And so concludes the second task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament," he called out. "It was even more exciting than anticipated, featuring some spectacular tranfigurations and a flying iceberg, which, Professor Sprout assured me, missed the greenhouses, albeit barely."
Harry winced and looked over at the Herbology professor, grimacing further when he saw her glaring at the lot of them, unsure of who she should blame for nearly destroying her precious greenhouses. In the moment, his sole concern had been getting rid of the grindylows so he could save Fleur, and the only thought he really gave to the icy prison's trajectory was ensuring that it flew far enough that he wouldn't have to worry about it hitting anyone in the crowd. He could only hope that they'd make good fertilizer.
"The scores are as follows," Dumbledore continued, "in fourth place, Fleur Delacour, who, although she didn't finish the task, still earned twenty-five points for a well-cast bubblehead charm. In third place, Viktor Krum, whose partial transfiguration was truly inspired and who finished the task thirty seconds before the timer was done, earning forty points. In second place, Cedric Diggory, who went with the same solution as Miss Delacour and managed to finish the task with one minute left on the clock, earning forty-five points. In first place, Harry Potter, who managed to fully transfigure his body to give himself webbed hands and feet and, it appeared, gills, managed to rescue two hostages instead of one, and who conjured a raft and charmed it to sail the three of them to shore while also saving the life of a fellow champion, earning fifty points."
"Fifty?" Harry asked himself in surprise, not listening as Dumbledore continued.
"That means that Karkaroff gave you a perfect score," Hermione whispered. "Considering how obvious he was in his bias before, that's a significant change."
Harry looked over at the Durmstrang headmaster and wondered if he wasn't trying to suck up to Dumbledore, hoping for protection from Voldemort with this.
"Did you 'ear any of zat?" Fleur asked.
"No, sorry," Harry replied.
"The final task is in late June," Luna explained. "It will be right before the end of the year."
"Remind me again why we couldn't fit Quidditch into this year as well," Cedric grumbled.
"I know, right?" Cho asked as she took his hand and led him away. "It's not like three tasks that take only an hour or three each were that time-consuming."
Harry wondered about that as well, but he was surprised by just how little he'd missed the game this year.
"'Arry, once you've 'ad a chance to shower and change, is there somewhere private where we could...talk?" Fleur asked.
"There's a room on the seventh floor I could show you," Luna piped up before anyone else could, earning sharp looks from him and Hermione.
"Zat would be nice, Luna, zank you," Fleur sighed. "Excuse me, I must speak to my parents."
"Of course," Harry nodded. Once she was gone, he turned to Luna and said, "I don't know if I truly want to show her the room yet."
"So long as you get there first, she only has to know it as a bedroom," Luna replied. "My birthday was on the 13th and…"
"Wait, of this month?" Harry asked. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"To be honest, I'm not used to anyone here caring," Luna replied, "and also, I knew that what I wanted wouldn't be available for another eleven days."
"Luna, we really do need to know these things," Hermione sighed. "Happy belated birthday."
"Thank you," Luna beamed. Leaning in close to Harry, she whispered, "I want her, Harry, and the easiest way to have her is for you to get her as addicted to your wonderful penis as the rest of us are. Do it for me, please?"
Harry looked down into her big puppy-dog eyes and resisted the urge to laugh at the absurdity of the request. He looked over at Hermione, who just shrugged and mouthed, 'I wouldn't object.'
"I'll see what I can do," he replied, earning a bright ear-to-ear smile from the eccentric blonde. Pulling her in for a tight hug, he whispered, "Happy birthday, Luna. No matter what happens with Fleur, we are celebrating that."
"Okay," Luna whispered, her eyes shimmering. "I...no, Rias should say it first."
"Huh?" Harry asked.
"Just getting ahead of things," Luna replied mysteriously.
"Luna?" Xenophilius asked, and she turned around, her eyes going wide at the sight of him.
"Daddy!" she exclaimed, rushing over. "I forgot you were coming."
"In all this excitement, I'm not surprised," Xenophilius chuckled.
"Mum, Dad," Hermione said as she spotted them.
"Hello, Hermione," Charlotte said, sounding awkward. "Is...is there somewhere we could talk?"
"I'm sure Professor McGonagall wouldn't object to you showing them Hogsmeade if you asked," Harry suggested, pointing to their approaching head of house.
"Professor McGonagall," Daniel said in greeting as she came close.
"Yes, Mist...Mister Granger?" McGonagall asked, looking surprised. "Oh right, your daughter mentioned that you were both attending the task. It's nice to see you again."
"You as well," Daniel replied. "Hermione was wondering if she could show us the village of Hogsmeade."
"I...suppose it would be alright, provided she's back well before curfew," McGonagall replied.
"Of course, Professor," Hermione smiled. "Thank you."
"Mister Potter, I was hoping to have a word," McGonagall said.
"I was about to shower, Professor," Harry replied.
"I'll walk you back to the tower," McGonagall replied flatly.
"I see," Harry replied. "See you later, Hermione."
"Bye, Harry," Hermione smiled.
"It was nice to finally meet you, Harry," Charlotte added.
"You as well," Harry replied. "Take care."
The three of them left, and Harry was escorted to the Gryffindor tower by a very irate Transfiguration professor, who wanted to make sure that he understood the finer points of the N.E.W.T level transfiguration he'd demonstrated earlier.
"She was like a dog with a bone," Harry groaned as he sat down on the large, comfortable bed he'd had the room make for him and peered into the mirror Sirius had given him. "No offense."
"I can only imagine how livid Minnie would have been if she'd learned back then that your dad and I became animagi without her guidance," Sirius chuckled. "She always has had a great appreciation for how dangerous her chosen specialty can be if buggered up. None taken, by the way."
"How're you and Buckbeak getting settled?" Harry asked.
"Eh, well enough," Sirius sighed. "This place is even more of a nightmare than I recall. It looks like no one's been here for years."
"So the house elf is dead then," Harry scowled.
"No, he's just a prick," Sirius replied. "I haven't mentioned...what we discussed just yet. Once I've gotten the place a little more habitable, I'll invite you over to speak to him."
"That's great!" Harry exclaimed, pleased that he'd, at the very least, manage to find out what happened to the locket. A knock came just then, and he looked over at the door before saying, "I need to go. I'll speak to you tomorrow."
"Company?" Sirius asked, looking intrigued.
"You know how one of my competitors is a girl?" Harry asked, growing instantly amused as Sirius' eyes widened.
"The French Veela?" Sirius asked.
"Gotta run, Sirius," Harry grinned. "Bye."
"Lucky son of a…" Sirius was cut off as Harry ended the call and stashed the mirror in his mokeskin pouch.
He got up and answered the door, finding Fleur and a very excited-looking Luna standing there.
"Have fun!" the shorter blonde exclaimed before taking off.
"She is unusual, zat lover of yours," Fleur laughed lightly as she walked inside. "Oh, zis is lovely."
"A discovery I have Luna to thank for," Harry murmured. "Can I get you something to drink? You said you wanted to talk."
"I did say zat," Fleur replied, turning around and regarding him with hungry eyes, "but it was a lie."
"Oh?" Harry asked coyly. "What did you have in mind then?"
"You are ze most vexing, confusing man I 'ave ever met," Fleur breathed, looking him up and down. "I should say boy, perhaps, but we both know it would not be appropriate."
"Not for some time," Harry murmured. No one who had killed men and fucked, not just women, but devil women into mindless stupors could be called a boy.
"I don't know 'ow you are so powerful or 'ow you became so utterly intoxicating virtually overnight, and I don't care," Fleur continued. "You saved my life tonight and risked yourself further to save my sister."
"According to Professor McGonagall, she wasn't actually in danger," Harry couldn't help but point out.
"So Madame Maxime said, but again, it does not matter," Fleur said, stepping so close that he could smell the faint aroma of her rose-scented perfume. "I owe you, 'Arry, for saving me at least. I can zink of several ways in which I could pay zat 'debt,' zough perhaps you 'ave a few of your own."
Her allure was running wild, and while Harry was generally quite resistant to it, like during their heated kiss by the lake, there was something different about it here. Maybe it was because he was the only one in the room, or maybe it was because it was laced with actual desire on her part.
"Oh, I'm sure I could come up with something," he grinned, his voice deep and his tone teasing.
"Fuck, you smell good," Fleur breathed, her face inches from his, "like ze very essence of masculinity, as well as power and ze others."
"Others?" Harry asked, reaching out to rest a hand on her waist and grinning when she shivered at his touch.
"Your lovers," Fleur replied. "Luna, 'Ermione, and ze other two, ooever zey are."
"You can sense who is sleeping with who as well as their attraction," Harry murmured.
"Plenty of Veela are terrible gossips, as you can imagine," Fleur laughed, "but rest assured, I am not."
"The fact that I'm sleeping with multiple women isn't a deal-breaker?" Harry asked.
"Far from it," Fleur grinned. "Don't forget, 'Arry, zat I can sense everyone's attraction and desire, not just yours. Even if I couldn't, zough, Luna is not exactly subtle."
"She rarely is," Harry chuckled.
"Perhaps I'll join you two some time, but right now, I zere's only one zat I want," Fleur grinned before kissing him.
Just like the first time, Fleur's lust became almost palpable, and Harry's cock, which had grown progressively harder as she spoke, strained against his pants as they started making out. Their tongues dueled for dominance in their mouths, locked in a sensual dance as he walked her to the bed. They fell into it without hesitation, and Fleur quickly flipped them over, grinding her hot cunt on his cock through their clothes.
"I saw and felt enough earlier to know you are very gifted," she purred, "but zis feels even more promising zan I imagined."
Before he could reply, she kissed him again, and he reached down to cup and knead her wonderfully round ass. She was more aggressive and dominant than he was used to. Rias and Hermione were both happy to let him take them as he pleased within reason, while Luna was an outright submissive. Akeno could go either way but seemed to realize early on that he was much more comfortable being on top and was happy to let him indulge her submissive side. Given that her mere presence often reduced men to gibbering idiots, he wasn't surprised that Fleur was used to being on top and wondered how she'd take it when he took control.
"You're wearing far too many clothes," he growled as he broke the kiss for air.
"Do you not like my uniform?" Fleur pouted, sitting up and running her hands along her sides.
Her powder blue robes were thinner and more form-fitting than the bulky things they wore at Hogwarts, and did much to show off her spectacular figure.
"The average grade of the male students at Beauxbatons has to have dropped since you started there," Harry chuckled. "I can't imagine the guy around here paying much attention in class with you around."
"If zey 'ave so little self-control, it is zeir own fault," Fleur giggled. "As for me being overdressed, I am not alone zere."
"Hmm, how rude of me," Harry grinned, drawing his wand.
He waved it over himself, and his clothes quickly disappeared, reappearing folded next to the bed. Fleur's gaze turned positively feral as his muscular body was revealed, and when his cock sprang free from its cloth prison, she let out a low moan that made him throb.
"Mon dieu," she breathed, leaning in to get a better look. "I don't know if I am more impressed by ze size of your cock or ze fact zat little Luna 'as taken it."
Harry chuckled at that and grabbed his cock, raising it up to rest against his abs. Fleur licked her lips and went to reach out to it when Harry held up his hand.
"I think it's your turn," he grinned.
"You are cruel, 'Arry Potter," Fleur pouted, "to reveal something so incredible and make me wait to play with it."
She undressed herself even more quickly than he did, and Harry groaned as her perfect hourglass figure was revealed to him. Her breasts were large and full, sitting high on her chest. Every inch of her was pale, as though she were incapable of tanning, and her dark pink nipples stood in sharp contrast to that. The little nubs looked achingly hard, and he longed to caress them with his lips, tongue, and teeth. Her waist was as slim as Rias' and her hips about as wide, though he had seen enough of her by now to know that. Facing him as she was, he couldn't see her incredible arse, but her long legs and thick thighs were on display, and as she spread them, the sight of her bare mound made his mouth water.
"Now...lie back and shut up," Fleur grinned, pressing a hand against his chest and pushing him back.
She kissed him lightly before moving south, kissing his chest and abs before practically inhaling his cock.
"Holy fuck!" Harry cried as she swallowed him whole in one shot, burying her nose in his wiry pubic hair.
He grabbed her head, burying his fingers in her thick, silver-hold hair as she started bobbing her head up and down. He had had his cock sucked many times through the last few months, usually to help him reharden for another round, but none of those blowjobs held a candle to the magic Fleur was unleashing on him. Her eyes locked onto his and never left, as she did everything in her power to drive him insane. The way she sucked every time she let most of his cock escape her lips made him hiss and everything she did with her tongue, from dancing across the underside of his cock to swirling it around his head, made his eyes nearly cross.
If there was any doubt in his mind that the Veela descended from Succubi, as Rias had said, it vanished in an instant as she did her level best to suck his soul out of his cock.
"Shit! Fuck! Fleur!" Harry moaned.
"Cum, cum, cum, cum!" Fleur thought to herself as she sucked his cock like a woman possessed.
Harry was so powerful, and his magic felt so good to be around normally, but that was nothing compared to what she felt when she reached his cock. His magic made her soul sing, and she wanted to swallow his potent seed more desperately than she'd ever wanted anything in her life. She deepthroated him again and moaned around his length as she pulled back, adoring the look of pleasure on his face. Moving her hand away from her dripping cunt, she cupped his balls, moaning when she felt how large and full they were.
"Fleur, I'm gonna cum," Harry groaned, his voice sounding terribly strained.
Fleur didn't slow down in the slightest, and she gave him a pleading look, wanting nothing more in that moment than for him to cum. With a strangled groan, he let go, and her eyes went wide as she felt the first spurt on her tongue. It was so potent, so wonderfully magical, and tasted so good to her. She swallowed every drop, moaning in delight as she did it, and let him go with an audible pop when she realized that his orgasm had stopped.
"Magnifique," she sighed as Harry collapsed on his back, panting like he'd just run a marathon.
"I think that...should be my line," Harry panted, making her giggle.
"I've never tasted anything so potent," Fleur breathed, grinning widely at him. "What are you?"
"Human, as far as I know," Harry chuckled, furrowing his brow at her in confusion.
"You're so powerful, 'Arry," Fleur beamed.
"Does that really make that much of a difference?" Harry asked, sitting up.
"Part of the reason why Veela can sense the magic of others is that, as we mature, we begin to need the sexual fluids of magical beings to help sustain us," Fleur replied. "Ze more powerful ze wizard or witch, ze more potent ze magic in zeir fluids. Usually it feels like I just 'ad a satisfying meal, but right now, I swear I'm tingling from 'ead to toe."
"You and me both," Harry chuckled. "That was insane, but now it's your turn."
Before Fleur could react to that, he grabbed his wand and levitated her higher up on the bed. As she squeaked in surprise, he conjured ropes, which tied around her arms and held her to the headboard.
"'Arry!" Fleur exclaimed, sounding excited. "You 'ave me at your mercy, my 'ero. Whatever will you do to me?"
"Whatever I want," Harry rumbled, and he grinned as her eyes darkened further with lust.
He kissed her lightly and moved down more slowly than she had, leaving a trail of hot kisses on the slender column of her neck. Fleur pressed herself up against him, pushing her breasts into his chest, and he almost laughed. Taking the hint, he moved to her chest and took a moment to admire her perfect breasts. They weren't quite as large as Rias' or Akeno's, but they were just as impossibly perky for their size, defying gravity in a way that hinted at her demonic heritage. As he grasped the firm mounds, the moan she let out made his cock twitch.
"Mmm, just like that," Fleur sighed as he started peppering her soft flesh with kisses. "Suck on my nipples, 'Arry. Bite zem."
Harry wrapped his lips around one of the hard rosy peaks and sucked gently, keeping his eyes locked on her face. As he switched back and forth between them, teasing them with his tongue and teeth, her jaw dropped and her eyes clenched shut. She moved her legs up, trying to grind her dripping furnace of a pussy against him, and he reached down to hold them in place.
"More!" Fleur cried.
"But you look so good like this," Harry chuckled, his eye roving over her body.
A rosy flush had formed on her pale skin, and she was starting to develop a sheen of sweat, making her glow in the soft light of the room. She glared at him, and the look tempted him to stay right where he was, slowly tormenting her and seeing if he could make her cum from playing with her tits alone, but he decided against it. For one thing, he was hard again and really wanted to move on to the main event, but more than that, he could smell her slick sex, and the scent made his mouth water.
Kissing his way down along the flat, toned expanse of her belly, he paused by her pussy and inhaled deeply, feeling his cock throb painfully. He buried his face between her thighs immediately and gave her fleshy folds a long, slow lick. Fleur gasped in pleasure and strained against the ropes, growling when they held her in place. She didn't ask him to let her go, though, so Harry decided to tease her more.
Keeping her legs pinned in place, he slowly explored her entire mound with the tip of his tongue, sparing her clit only the occasional lick. Fleur cooed and sighed at first, but as this went on past a couple minutes, her moans grew frantic. When he swirled his tongue around her throbbing pearl, she cried out in pleasure only to shriek in frustration when he backed off and pushed his tongue inside her.
If he were anyone else, she might have thought that he was just incompetent, but she knew he held the attention of multiple women, and beyond that, his actions were too deliberate. He was edging her, keeping her pleasure plateaued right at the edge to torment her. Part of her wanted to demand that he stop playing around and make her cum and a pitiful part wanted to beg, but she didn't, wanting to see just what he had in mind and wanting to feel how hard she'd cum when she finally did.
"Fuck, she tastes good," Harry thought to himself a couple minutes later, his eyes closed as he enjoyed feeling her inner walls flutter around his tongue.
He had expected her to demand that he stop teasing her by now, but she hadn't said a word. In fact, the sounds spilling from her lips sounded less and less coherent. He was about to ask her how badly she wanted to cum when he felt something oddly soft against his hands and cheeks and looked down to see something he truly didn't expect. There were soft little white feathers growing out of Fleur's skin, and as he looked up at her, meaning to ask what was going on, his eyes widened further. Her blue eyes had turned black, and she was struggling against the ropes so frantically that he became worried that she was going to hurt herself.
"Fleur?" he asked.
"Cawk!" Fleur screeched, her voice oddly avian.
If he wasn't so concerned by her sudden transformation, he would have laughed at that, but as it was, he could only watch in shock as the feathers forming on her body got thicker. The heat emanating from her sopping sex increased dramatically, and just as he was about to free her, the ropes caught fire and burned to cinders in an instant, leaving her unharmed. Fleur grabbed him and wrestled him onto his back before impaling herself in one smooth motion, letting out a shriek of triumph as she did so.
"Oh, fuck!" Harry cried as her insanely hot, slick depths engulfed him.
She felt almost too hot, and he might have feared her growing hot enough to scald his cock if her pussy wasn't so amazing. He instantly knew that it wouldn't be long before he came again and hoped that he'd be able to satisfy the feral beast he'd teased to her breaking point. She grabbed his shoulders, and he noticed that she'd grown talons as well as they pricked his skin. Holding on tight, she started to ride him violently.
He screams echoed through the room, and he felt her impossibly hot inner walls start to spasm around him almost immediately. Reaching up, he cupped one of her feathery breasts as he snaked a hand down to stroke her clit. Her black eyes widened, and her shrill cries became clearer and almost musical. Her body went taut as she soared towards her peak, and Harry stared into her eyes, searching for some sign of sentience, but there was nothing but inky darkness and all-consuming desire. She slammed herself down onto him a few more times before her orgasm crashed over her like a tidal wave.
With an exultant scream that sounded like phoenix song, Fleur came hard, and Harry joined her almost immediately. Her pussy was incredible enough normally, but the feeling of her insanely hot, vice-tight walls clenching around him, milking his cock hard, was far too much to handle. He filled her to the brim, painting her tight tunnel white with his seed, and Fleur's eyes rolled back as the first spurt struck her womb. She fell forward, and he wrapped his arms around her, holding onto her tightly as the two of them rode out the waves of soul-searing ecstasy together.
"Wha...wha...wha," Fleur tried to ask, as she panted for breath.
"You...okay?" Harry asked as he watched her talons and feathers retract.
"Think...so," Fleur replied.
The two of them held each other tightly, coming down from their highs as each one tried to catch their breath.
"Incroyable," Fleur sighed, grinning from ear-to-ear. When she felt a trickle of liquid hit her cheek, she furrowed her brow in confusion and looked only to gasp as she saw blood. " 'Arry!"
"What?" Harry asked, wincing as he moved his shoulder. Feeling the area, he saw the blood on his finger and remarked, "Oh."
"I'm so sorry," Fleur muttered, grabbing her wand. "Episky."
"It's okay, luv," Harry laughed as he felt the talon marks seal back up. "You're not the first girl to scratch me up as she came."
"Probably ze first to do it as a ravenous beast," Fleur scowled. "I don't know what came over me. Even teasing me as you did should not 'ave triggered ze 'arpy transformation like zat. It is something that only comes out when we are in danger, usually."
"Fleur, I just came so hard I saw stars," Harry sighed. "I'm hardly going to complain after that. Besides, how many guys out there can honestly say they brought out a Veela's inner wild animal in bed?"
Fleur huffed at that but couldn't keep the smile off of her face. Resting her head back on his chest, she whispered, "You are not ze only one oo just saw stars, 'Arry."
Harry grinned at that and ran his fingers through her hair, enjoying the soft sigh she let out in response. As he held her there, feeling her incredible body press against him, he felt his cock start to harden again and heard Fleur gasp.
"Again?" she asked.
"You sound surprised," Harry chuckled. "Has no man ever managed to go twice with you?"
"Zis would be three times and non," Fleur replied. "Usually 'aving a Veela ride 'im to completion is enough to knock a man out cold."
"Well," Harry replied, grinning as he rolled them over and pinned Fleur's arms above her head, "I am no normal man."
"You really...ahh!" Fleur cried as he buried himself to the hilt inside her.
In her normal form, she felt as good as any woman or even devils, but not as madness-inducing as she had before, something Harry was honestly glad for. If he truly wanted to blow her mind, he needed to have more control over himself than he did as he fucked the harpy she'd become. Luna wasn't the only one hoping that this wouldn't be a one-time thing at this point, and as he looked down into Fleur's eyes and saw the look of raw pleasure in them, he doubted that it would be.