Three For All
Chapter 8
By Kinsfire
The stories in this grouping have been abandoned by me, and will not be worked on again.
Three For All — Chapter VIII
Tonks watched Harry over the next week, and became more worried. Finally, shortly before the term was to end, she pulled him aside. "Harry, can we talk for a little while?"
He followed her out by the lake, joined by Hermione when she saw the two of them. Finally, down by the place that they loved to go on a regular basis, Tonks stopped and turned to Harry. "You may have cured my physical clumsiness, Harry, but now it seems to have gone verbal. I need to talk to you about something, and I don’t know how."
His face went white. "You’re … you’re not ending things with me, are you?" His voice was smaller than she could have imagined coming from him.
"Oh! No, Harry! I’m going to be with you for as long as you’ll have me!" She hugged him tightly. "Goddess, Harry — I am so sorry for making you think … can you forgive me?"
He laughed brightly. "Now that I know you’re not breaking up with me, I’m not worried. I can handle anything else. Nothing to forgive."
She bit her lower lip. "I need to talk to you about your anger, Harry. It’s too much. You need to tone it back. It’s all right to be mad, but … you’re going to burst something, Harry," she finished with a sniff.
"You need to find a happy medium somewhere, Harry," Hermione said. "Your anger is colouring everything. Even people in Gryffindor are worrying about you. They don’t know about what happened to our Tonks, but they know you’re about ready to kill someone."
Tonks frowned for a bit. "I am not telling you not to be angry — we’ve made that mistake before. Find a way to calm down a bit, though."
"I really …" he started to say. "I’m not sure exactly what you’re saying, other than that it sounds like you’re telling me to be angry and not angry at the same time."
"No …" Hermione said, frowning. Her expression made it plain to Harry that she was trying very hard to come up with the words to explain exactly what she and Tonks were thinking.
"A-ha!" Tonks said with a slightly nervous laugh. "Got it! How fast does your Firebolt go, Harry?"
"Don’t know," he said, confused at the abrupt segue in the conversation. "Never really got it up to its top speed. At least, not when anyone was watching," he laughed. "I’ve been told that it can reach about 300 kilometres per hour — uh, around 180 miles per hour," he corrected, at Tonks confused look. "My fastest on the pitch is a bit over half that speed. I do about 100 miles per hour during a game."
"Why don’t you take it flat out?" Tonks asked him. "You’d catch the Snitch in no time!"
"Are you kidding? I’d be unable to steer! No real control at that speed. I don’t even dare burst to that kind of speed for too long. If I need to make a sudden turn at a speed like that, I’m likely to be eating whatever I was avoiding, assuming I survived the collision. The speeds I do during a game are faster than anyone else, but I’m dealing with a broom with good control. If I take it beyond safe limits, then I’m just screwed."
She smiled at him. "Harry? Your anger is your broom. Right now, you’re on the pitch, chasing the Snitch at 180 miles per hour. You need to slow the broom down, Harry, without stopping completely. That’s the only way you can safely win the game."
He blinked at her for a long moment as the concept percolated through his brain. After a moment, he turned to Hermione and stuck his tongue out. "See? Ron and I told you Quidditch was good for something! I’ve just learned a life lesson because of it!" He laughed and turned back to Tonks. "I’ll try, Nymph. Now that I have a model that makes sense, I’ll do my best to control my anger without squashing it completely."
"Besides," Hermione said, "being coldly angry around Malfoy is far scarier than the obvious ‘I’m gonna throw you to the Willow’ attitude you’ve had recently."
He laughed again. "We need to work on the Malfoy campaign, you know. I’ve sort of left Blaise to fight it himself."
Hermione looked skyward, perhaps a little too innocently. "Sorry, Harry, but I’ve been working along those lines, quietly. I’ve got one campaign ready for as soon as we get back from the winter break." She paused. "Where are you spending it? Here?"
He looked to Tonks and blushed. "I’d like to spend it at home, if Tonks doesn’t mind."
Tonks looked bewildered for a moment. "Home? Didn’t you leave …." The penny finally dropped, and she blushed furiously and quite demurely. "You’ve taken to thinking of my apartment as home?"
"It’s where you live, isn’t it?" he said, smiling. "Right now, Hogwarts is home, because both of you are here. When the break comes, home will probably be in two places — where you are, and where Hermione is. Since I doubt her parents would be entirely happy with me moving in with them for the break, I was hoping you’d let me come be with you."
Tonks leaned forward and gently brushed her lips across his. "If you feel that my apartment is home, then of course you should come home for the winter break." She sniffed, and looked the most content Harry had seen her in weeks, as if all was finally perfect with the world.
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Winter break finally arrived, and Hermione headed with Harry and Tonks to Hogsmeade. "I wrote to my parents," she said. "If Tonks doesn’t mind, I’ll come visit her on Boxing Day, and stay until it’s time to return to school."
Tonks pulled her into a hug and brushed her lips across her neck. "We’ll wait until then to give gifts," she said, loud enough for Harry to hear.
"You’re evil, Tonks," Hermione laughed. "You do that to me, and then expect me to go home and act naturally? 'Oh yeah, Mum, I'm okay. I'm just distracted thinking about my lesbian lover.' Her head exploding would definitely make the Beeb, if not the Prophet."
Harry looked worried. "She won't have a problem with Tonks, will she?"
"I doubt it. I just think she expected me to have a nice normal boyfriend, not someone who has to save the world. And I really doubt she expects me to be sleeping with another woman, no matter how sexy that woman is." Tonks blushed prettily. The three of them climbed aboard the train and found a cabin.
The ride back to London was enjoyable, and they were joined at one point by Ron, who had Luna with him. She seemed to have a death grip on his hand, but if he minded, he certainly wasn't showing it. They sat down, Luna almost in Ron’s lap. Harry couldn’t stop smiling at the sight.
"Mate?" Ron asked after a few minutes. "I’m probably saying the wrong thing, given my history, but — why are you smiling so much?"
"Look at us, Ron. I’m happily involved with not one, but two sexy women, and you seem to have captured one yourself. She certainly doesn’t seem to be fighting to get away from you, at least. For the moment, we’re happy. It’s winter break, and I finally have somewhere I can call home to go to. At least for now, life is good."
"Harry, did you intend to call Luna sexy?" Hermione asked with a smile.
"I’m sixteen, and finally noticed girls," he laughed. "I’ll spend my life with you, but I think it would be physically impossible for me to stop looking at least. You remember my comment about my fidelity, though."
Hermione frowned for a moment. "Yes, I do. Nymph, this crazy man swore a wizard’s oath to remain faithful to us!"
"Harry!" Tonks said, frowning.
"I won’t apologize for it, Nymph. Those rings you two wear state my intentions — when Hermione and I leave Hogwarts at the end of our seventh year, then you both will be receiving proper engagement rings from me, and we will begin planning our wedding. The only way another woman will be in my bed with me doing anything more than sleeping is if you two place her there. And I’m not even hinting that you should, because you two are more than enough for me, thank you very much." He reached out his hands and brushed their cheeks gently. "I don’t think you’ve grasped how I feel about you. You both expect that I’ll stay with you until I find somebody better, don’t you?" They looked at each other for a moment, and he continued to speak. "It’s not going to happen. I’ve been blessed with not one, but two beautiful women who love me. It’ll have to be you getting rid of me, because the other way just won’t happen."
He turned to Ron and Luna. "Ron, you be good to Luna. She’s a friend, and you know how I defend my friends. If you hurt her on purpose, then I will deal with you." Ron nodded, smiling. "Luna, the same goes for you. Ron’s my best mate — been my friend since I first started coming to Hogwarts. I love the guy, and if you hurt him, well, the same deal applies."
Luna climbed off Ron’s lap and took Harry into a hug. "Thank you," she whispered in his ear. "Thank you for trusting me with something so precious."
"I think you ought to tell him that, too, you know?" Harry whispered back. "He needs to hear it from more than just his family and oldest friends." She released Harry from the hug and walked back over to Ron, whispering something in his ear. His jaw dropped, and he suddenly pulled her into a tight hug, his eyes suddenly shining, a large grin on his face.
Harry looked at Tonks about an hour before London and suddenly asked, "Is our plan still on for this break? My morph, that is?"
"I hadn't heard you call it off, and I think it's a good idea to see how long you can hold that form."
"Okay. Ron, is your family still doing the Christmas Eve party?" When Ron nodded, puzzled, Harry laughed. "They're going to get a bit of a surprise when Tonks and I show up."
"What are you doing?" Ron asked, intrigued.
"Oh no, that would spoil the surprise for you, my friend," Harry grinned at him. "Couldn't have that, could we?"
"Bugger," Ron said with a return grin.
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They entered the apartment, and Tonks almost immediately was out of her clothes. "As much as I’ve gotten used to clothes at Hogwarts, I still prefer nudity."
"Me too," said a voice that Tonks knew would cause most men to have a sudden redirection of their blood flow to points south. She turned to see Harry, nude, and extremely female. She winced slightly as her nipples stiffened a little painfully.
"Gods, Harry, do you know what you’re going to be doing to people at the Burrow?" she chuckled as she pulled the younger metamorph into an embrace.
"Same thing I’m doing to you?" Harry asked. "I can feel your heart pounding, my sexy little Nymph."
"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?" Tonks asked.
"No." With a grin, Tonks led Harry to a full length mirror, and watching ‘her’ jaw drop at the sight made Tonks giggle. "Great Merlin! I’ve become wank material!" ‘she’ laughed. Turning to Tonks, ‘she’ said, "I really didn’t plan this, you know. I just tried to become what I would have been if I’d been born a woman."
"Makes sense, if you think about it," Tonks said. "You’re fucking hot as a man, so it kinda fits that all things being the same, you’d probably make a damned sexy woman. And you do."
"Hmm," Harry said. "I’ll need a few things if I’m going to do this, Nymph. I’ll need a wardrobe of my own, since I seem a smidgeon more endowed in the chest. I’ll also need another name, since I really don’t like the sound of Harriet."
"Mind hitting Lilli’s place for some really sexy clothes?" Tonks asked. "We’ll hit other places as well, to completely outfit you. Hmm, Gringott’s. You’ll need money. Tell you what, gorgeous. We’ll get you into loose sweats, you’ll become male again long enough to let the goblins know about this, and then we’ll get you dressed as a woman." She paused. "Hmm, let’s change your last name, too. Let’s see, you mother’s family apparently liked flower names, given that their daughters were Petunia and Lily. How about we rename you Blossom, and pick a new last name. Potter won’t work, and Evans is too bloody obvious."
"How about Blossom Black?" ‘she’ asked. "I could be an illegitimate daughter of Sirius’s. I’ve got the black hair like his. I may look like a Potter, but that can actually be passed over with a simple, ‘I get that a lot.’ I wish Hermione were here to help us on this."
"You really love her, don’t you?" Tonks asked, pulling Harry close.
"I can’t put it into words, Nymph, the way the two of you make me feel. I’m nothing when I’m by myself, trying to do things. But when I’m with you or her, I’m something. I mean something. I’m whole, and I believe that I’m worth something. After all, when not one, but two goddesses walk into your life and tell you that they’ve given you the most precious thing they have, their very hearts, well, to have earned something like that, I’ll work forever to prove to myself that I’m worth that."
She sniffed. "You are worth it, Harry. I gave the most wonderful man I know my virginity. And even after I was attacked by those … things, you still think I’m worth loving."
"You are worth loving. I wasn’t lying, Tonks. If I have to, I will make this form my permanent one. To stay with the woman I love, I will live life as a woman." They kissed, ‘Blossom’ discovering that there were now things other than noses to get in the way. "I suppose we ought to head to Gringott’s now, before we let it get too out of hand," she said in a particularly husky voice that made Tonks heart start to pound.
"Um, yeah," Tonks replied, shaking her head. She led her lover into the bedroom and quickly threw a velour running suit at her, as well as a T-shirt. "Throw these on, and we can buy whatever we need elsewhere. Knickers — definitely knickers," she murmured. She snorted. "Just curious — why a Brazilian cut for the pubic hair?"
"Don’t know. Guess I was thinking there should be something down there, but I might want to wear something skimpy around you and not have hair peeking out from behind knickers. Is that what they call that rectangular cut?" Tonks nodded, giggling slightly. In short order, Tonks was dressed in casual clothes, and looked vaguely like an older sister to Blossom. "Let’s go to Gringotts. I think I’ll need a unisex cloak, one that covers my entire head if I bring the hood up. I can walk to the bank completely covered, and when I walk out I can be Blossom." A moment of concentration later and Harry stood before her again. "I think I like Blossom a lot. The only names that really come to mind were Lily and Petunia, then came things like Gardenia or Ivy. God forbid I take the name Hyacinth, and Rose is just too common. Maybe Sirius had a hand in naming his daughter, thinking of one of his best friends from school?" He blushed. "Besides, you came up with Blossom, so it’s already a more favourable one in my mind, because you must think it’s pretty to suggest it. So Blossom it is."
Tonks blushed prettily and they left the apartment after grabbing cloaks. A quick trip to Gringott’s later, Harry had made the goblins aware of his ability and had added ‘Blossom’ to his account. (More precisely, he had made them aware that he was still Harry Potter when looking like that.) She had marvelled at how utterly beautiful Blossom was on the ride back. She was smiling widely, short hair flying wildly behind her, her cloak flapping in the wind, and the occasional laugh escaped her throat — a rather sexy sound, Tonks decided. When the cart had come to a stop, Tonks helped Blossom from the cart and pulled her into a clinch and kissed her rather thoroughly. "Sorry, but I just had to tell you how I felt watching you in that cart," she said. "You were so happy that it simply … well, I had to kiss you."
Blossom laughed. "Beloved, if you think I’m going to complain about any reason you may have for kissing me, then I think you need to see a St. Mungo’s healer. Shall we go do our shopping?"
Three hours later, Tonks had finished spending chunks of Harry’s money on outfits for his Blossom form. Harry amusingly discovered that Mistress Lillibet was a member of the Order, and cleared to know who Blossom truly was.
The closet of the second room was immediately given over to house all the clothing that had been purchased. Tonks chuckled at the mild absurdity of the situation as she watched. Here was a drop-dead gorgeous woman in her apartment wearing nothing but skin, carefully hanging and folding what almost seemed to be an endless assortment of clothes. As the last of the dresses went onto the bar in the cupboard, Blossom turned to Tonks and said, "Are we staying in tonight, or eating out?"
With a lascivious grin she responded, "I was certainly hoping to eat out tonight."
"Nymph!" came the startled response. The response was interesting, however — eminently female. Blossom’s nipples tightened and she bit her lower lip. "I promise you, you’ll get the chance," came the husky reply. "I was talking food, though."
"Oh, food!" Tonks said innocently. "We can go out somewhere if you’d like. My friends all know I’m bisexual, so they won’t think twice if they see me nuzzling a sexy woman like you. And people who sniff and look down their noses at us aren’t worth worrying about." She looked at the clock. "Good point! It’s gotten late enough that I suppose we should find something to eat before we give that body of yours a proper test run. More precisely, your concentration."
"This feels different than when I try to become Hermione or Ginny or Ron. That always feels like there’s a tiny low level fight to switch back to normal. This feels normal. I think it’s the way I made the change. I was trying to morph from me to me. I didn’t force it to be someone else, I asked it to be a different me."
"Interesting way of looking at it. Maybe I can figure out how to do that and try being male. Usually it’s just a rearranging of things, no real conversion of gender."
"Talk to Hermione when she gets here in a few days. I’ll bet she can find a way to describe it to you in wizarding terms, especially since she knows the Muggle science terms too." Blossom shook her head. "It’s weird having to think differently. Trying to remember to think of myself as Blossom, and not Harry." She headed into the second bedroom to put on some clothes.
Author Notes:
Last chapter's problem resolution gets resolved. We meet Blossom.