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With a Little Help From My Friends
Chapter 4
By Kinsfire
With a Little Help From My Friends
Chapter 4
"He has that effect on us, doesn't he?" Miss Granger asked some time later. I jumped, not having noticed her enter my 'private room'.
"I don't understand what you mean," I blustered, wiping my eyes.
"Bullocks," she replied. "You're just as much in love with that man as I am. And he's so lost right now, because he fell for you over the summer as well, I think."
"Society does not smile on one man loving two women," I said, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice. "I won't have him ridiculed for it."
"Fuck society!" she barked, and I heard a male gasp from outside the curtains. "I love him and you love him. You put your life on the line for him, the same way I did at the Department of Mysteries. You made him as happy as possible since he disappeared. I trust him. If he loves you, I can give you the benefit of the doubt." She blushed. "Besides, I admitted something to him that worried me most, and all he did was ... well, it was a distinctly male reaction."
"And an impressive one as well, isn’t it?" I asked with a small smile.
"Very — it made me a little weak in the knees, to be honest."
"What was this revelation of yours?" I asked her finally.
She blushed furiously, an even darker red than before. "That I think I’d like to see you nude as much as he would, and for the exact same reason."
I smiled. "You’re bisexual as well?" I asked softly. "I may not have taken a man to my bed, but I was damned if I was going to go without for seventeen years." I grinned. "Pansy may look like she’s been chasing parked carriages all her life, but wait until you meet her mother. Pansy took after her father in the looks department, but her mother is quite beautiful, and she doesn’t even need spells."
"I don’t care," came a soft voice from outside. "She can’t hold a candle to either of you two."
"Wait until you meet her," I replied.
"I don’t need to," he said firmly. "I just wish I could follow through on what I let slip earlier."
I laughed. "Oh, so you did realize what you’d said." At Miss Granger’s questioning look, I said, "He let slip that in a perfect world, he’d marry us both and everyone would be deliriously happy."
Her eyes widened. "You do know that there are no laws forbidding it, don’t you, Harry?" She had a slight smirk on her face, as if she was calling his bluff.
The curtain slid back suddenly. "Seriously?" he asked, suddenly happier than I’d ever seen him. "You’re not saying that just to shock me?"
"Nope," she said smugly. "Came across that titbit looking for something else. Muggleborn writer musing about what political pressures did and didn’t exist that caused that problem not to exist. You could ask every girl in the school to marry you, and you could legally do it, too."
He winced and whimpered quietly just once as he dropped to one knee, quite carefully I might add. "I don’t want to marry every girl in school. I just want to marry Hermione Granger and Narcissa Black, if they’ll have me." He held out a hand to the two of us, and her hand went to her chest.
"Are you serious, Harry James Potter? If you get my hopes up just to dash them down, I will never forgive you."
"I have never been more serious in my life, Hermione. I know I’m only sixteen, but damn it, I want to live, and I want to live with the ones I love more than my own life."
She knelt before him and kissed him gently. "Then my answer is yes, Mister Potter. I will become your wife."
"As will I," I said thickly. "I am honoured, Harry."
"I have the two most beautiful witches in existence agreeing to marry me, and you're the one honoured?" There were tears in his eyes, but it was obvious that he was incredibly happy.
"Felicitations, Harry," said Albus Dumbledore from behind the curtain. "May I enter?" After my nod, Hermione moved the curtains. "You might wish to rise from the floor, Harry. That looks quite uncomfortable."
"Actually, it is," he grunted. "Um, Hermione, could I prevail upon you to …"
"I don't know, Harry," she replied with a laugh. "I think I like you on your knees in front of me." She put on an imperious air and added, "Which is as it should be."
His eyes sparkled with mirth, and looked directly toward her stomach and environs. "Hmm, you have a point there. Professor, if you'll excuse me -" he said with a grin.
"Harry!" she squeaked. The resulting blush could probably have set parchment on fire.
"Hey, when I have a chance to win a battle of wits with the smartest woman in Hogwarts, even if it is only for a moment or two, then I fully intend to enjoy it." He tried to rise to his feet and discovered that he was simply unable to. Hermione took pity on him and helped him to his feet.
Once he had finished chuckling, Dumbledore said, "It appears that there will be some last minute work done to get you ready for school. You were unable to receive your O.W.L.s or choose your classes for the year. Normally this would be unacceptable, but I believe that you have some extenuating circumstances."
"You think?" Harry asked sarcastically. Returning to a more pleasant tone he added, "May I have my scores?" Dumbledore pulled out an envelope and handed it to Harry.
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Ordinary Wizarding Levels for Harry J. Potter
Written Practical Overall
Ancient Runes N/A N/A N/A
Arithmancy N/A N/A N/A
Astronomy A* A* A*
Care of Magical Creatures E E E
Charms E O E
Defense Against the Dark Arts O O*** O
Divination A A A
Herbology E E E
History of Magic D** N/A D**
Muggle Studies N/A N/A N/A
Potions O O O
Transfigurations E O E
Total 8
* Due to an incident during the examination, all results were set to Acceptable. A retest will be available to all who wish to attempt to better this result.
** A retest will be offered, since there has never before been a student attacked during an exam.
*** The proctor stated that if there were a grade above Outstanding, this student would have been granted such a grade.
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"Wonderful," he grumbled. "I get N.E.W.T. Potions with a man who literally has tried to kill me."
"Ah, that brings me to another bit of information I have for you. It appears that Sirius' will was considered legal. It had been written when you were roughly six months old, with a codicil he added after escaping. Also considering the simple fact that he never had a trial, he can't be considered to have legally been incarcerated. Eradicating the legal wording, he emancipated you, and gave the majority of the Black estate to you." He turned to me. "It appears that you also will be receiving a substantial sum of money and property, Miss Black, since you are no longer a Malfoy."
"What does this have to do with N.E.W.T. Potions?" Harry asked.
"Well, since you happen to be considered a legal adult with the emancipation, I was wondering if you might be willing to swear out a complaint with the Aurors against your torturers?"
"No trying to convince me that we need him?" came the somewhat bitter response.
"I admit to being too willing to believe the best of people, and I do not intend to stop, for the world would be a much darker place that way. But I will agree that I was wrong about Severus. You state that you saw him torturing you, whereas he continually told me that he knew nothing of your whereabouts." He paused. "My problem now is figuring out who to replace him with if you two swear out complaints against him, which I would definitely recommend."
Before I could open my mouth, Harry said, "Sir? One of the future Mrs. Potters will need some level of protection. She's also quite able to at least brew potions, and I understand the field more now that she's been talking to me this summer. Why not give her a chance to teach it? And you can work with her when necessary, since you are, after all, an alchemist."
"Ah, a student who remembers my Chocolate Frog card information!" Dumbledore smiled.
I couldn't help but laugh. "Professor Dumbledore, I think that, if you give me a chance to prove myself, you will actually find me more skilled than Severus."
"Yes, I remember your skills when you were a student. I believe that such a solution would be more than satisfactory."
"You know, Professor," Harry said slowly, I think that … I think that I'd like to figure out something else to do with my life, sir. I think I'd like to get away from fighting for a while. I know that it's a case of Tom or me, but after that - hell, if I could sing, I'd be tempted to try for a career on the Wizarding Wireless. Or maybe I could just sit at home and be a house husband while my extremely talented wives do what they want with their lives. Maybe Hermione can be Minister for Magic while Cissy becomes a world renowned Potions Mistress." He laughed. "I look forward to the possibility of someday being referred to as the husband of one of them, with it being an afterthought that I was once known as The Boy Who Lived. But I really want to do something with my life."
"Well, our children will need to be conceived," I said with a grin that I hoped was seductive in nature. "If done right, that will take up quite a lot of time."
Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling madly. "A word to the wise, Harry: if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing right."
Harry couldn't help but laugh. Blushing furiously, he said gamely, "I wouldn't call them 'things', but they're certainly worth doing right." He pulled Hermione into an embrace and planted a kiss upon her flaming cheek.
When the laughter had died down, Harry said, "When I can finally get out of here, I need to get to Diagon Alley to replace my wand. My old one is a little useless right now."
"When Madam Pomfrey certifies you to walk around with minimal aid, then we shall arrange such a trip. In the meantime, should I ask Minerva to speak with you when she has a moment, for a proper career counselling?" Harry nodded, and the headmaster turned to leave. "You may wish to join the feast, Miss Granger, if only to pass along the good news to the rest of Gryffindor."
"Sir?" Harry asked. "Are there Aurors around? If so, Cissy and I can swear out the complaints in front of the school. Even if I don't eat anything, seeing me alive is going to make the students feel a lot better. You can tell them, but seeing it with their own eyes - well, you understand."
Madam Pomfrey walked over. "Normally I would complain about such talk, but Mister Potter makes a valid point. We can bring you a chair, but please, don't eat anything while you are down there. The damage it could do to your stomach is beyond description."
"I understand," he said, blushing. I could tell he was thinking about his 'favourite meal', as he'd called it once during our pillow talks. Dumbledore walked over to Pomfrey's fireplace, and a few moments later was pulling his head back from the fire. "They will be here in just a few minutes. We can take our time and meet them at the doors." A chair was brought from Madam Pomfrey's storeroom, and a few minutes later, we were heading toward the doors to meet the Aurors.
#####
A short time later, we were entering the Great Hall for dinner just as the last student had been sorted. Silence reigned, but only for a moment, as Harry was suddenly holding Hermione's wand, and Severus was blasted back against the wall as Harry's Stupefy hit him.
"I wasn't aware that you could be thrown by a Stupefy," Albus said quietly after a moment of stunned silence.
"Sorry," Harry said quietly. "I let too much anger get involved in the casting." He turned to the Aurors. "Gentlemen, I'd appreciate your taking the good professor into custody as a Death Eater and torturer. I was his victim."
"And I was his nurse, and therefore a witness to the damage done by the accused," I said to them. I had remained silent about something since meeting the gentlemen at the door, but no longer. Facing one of the three, I added, "And perhaps you can avoid your 'fire a deadly spell first, ask the corpse questions later' mentality this time, sir."
I could almost hear Harry's head snap around, especially when he whimpered in pain. "You're the one who tried to slice her in half?" he hissed, ignoring the pain. "You almost killed the woman who saved my life, simply because she was in the Malfoy Manor - a place she had every right to be?" He stood up from the chair and walked toward the Auror in question, but not before handing Hermione's wand back to her. "You're just as bad as the Death Eaters - you know who the enemy is, never mind logic." He back-handed the man and stared at him, daring him to respond in kind.
"You're defending a Death Eater," the man hissed.
"She has no Dark Mark anywhere on her, you ass," Harry barked. There were gasps and snickers around the Hall. "Oh, grow up!" he said dangerously as he turned to look at the rest of the Great Hall. "I was in no condition to do anything about it, you idiots." He sighed in exasperation. "Rather than get my blood all over her clothes, since there was quite a bit of it flowing after Lucy and company were through with me," he explained as if to a student who simply could not grasp a concept, "she did the smart thing and worked on me nude. Trust me, when you're three inches from death and looking at your broken bones sticking out of your body, I don't care how beautiful a woman is - you just don't care what she's wearing."
"Good way to tell when you were healthy enough, though - when you did notice, you were healthy enough to worry about other things," I quipped, getting a blush from him and much healthier sounding laughter from the crowd. I looked and noted Severus getting to his feet. "Gentlemen, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you possibly arrest that man?" They jumped and quickly took Severus into custody.
In short order, Harry was seated at the Gryffindor table with Hermione and I flanking him, and Severus was on his way to a holding cell in the Ministry. Our preliminary statements had been taken, and we would be at the Ministry within two days to swear out more formal complaints. Mister Weasley looked a bit shocked at first, but then said, admittedly in a somewhat strained voice, "Thank you, ma'am. Thank you for saving my best mate's life." It became obvious almost immediately that he had not been pushed to say that, based purely on the rather shocked expressions that most people around him wore.
"Mister Weasley, I can honestly say that saving his life was my pleasure." I turned to look at Harry, my eyes twinkling as badly as Dumbledore's can. He looked at me for a moment, smiling, and then obviously came to a decision. I was stunned as his lips met mine in this very public venue.
As we broke, he said, "I proposed, and you accepted. I am not going to hide it. If you brought yourself to Tom's attention by doing what you did, then you can't really go any higher on his 'to kill' list by marrying me."
Conversation in the Great Hall came to a sudden halt, and a moment later, I heard the voice I expected to. "He's what?" screamed my son. Draco shot to his feet and stormed over to the table I was seated at. He'd definitely spent too much time with his father. What the two of them called threatening, I called a mince masquerading as a towering snit. "Mother, did I hear him right? Did he refer to marrying you?"
"Yes, Draco, he did. We have yet to set a date, but it will happen."
"I forbid it!" my son shouted.
I opened my mouth to give a blistering response, but Harry spoke first. "Good for you, son! It's about time you learn to stand up for yourself, rather than hiding behind Dumb and Dumber all the time! It's all right if I call you son, isn’t it? After all, I'm going to be your stepfather." My fiancé had the most delightfully evil smile on his face, and my son proved that purple really does not go well with our hair colour. The Great Hall was filled with sniggering.
Draco pulled his wand and pointed it at Harry. "You'll pay, Potter. I don't care what you do to me, but you'll not get your hands on the Malfoy money. That's what you want, after all. Marry Mum, kill Dad, as if you could, and then with me as the sole heir, try to take it from me. I won't let it happen."
I smiled. "Your father is penniless, Draco. All the Malfoy properties, and I do mean all, are the possession of Narcissa Black. I am no longer married to your father. He now has no usefulness to Voldemort, and may well be dead."
The wand spun to me, and I could see his mouth start to move, and feel the magic build. Before anything could happen, however, teeth and blood went flying as Harry shot to his feet to punch Draco. "You will not touch her, Malfoy. If I find that anything has happened to her during this school year, I will assume that it was you, and make your life hell. The same goes for Hermione - anything happens to her, and the punishment doubles." He walked carefully to my son. "I am sick of rolling over and accepting everything that is given by you and yours. I am going to start returning your crap with interest. You cast a Rictusempra, I Banish with force. You Banish, I fire a Blasting Curse. You try to cast the Killing Curse, there won't be enough of you left to scrape into a tiny matchbox, and I won't even need to use an Unforgivable. You got that, Malfoy?" My son looked sullenly at him. Harry grabbed him and pulled him to his feet. "I asked you if you understood. I expect an answer."
All anyone could hear, even those of us closest to him, was an indistinct mumble coming from Draco. "What was that, Draco?" Harry asked, his voice cold.
"I said that I understand, you fucking bastard!" Draco finally screamed at Harry.
The crowd inhaled sharply, expecting Harry to explode at Draco, but instead, he dropped him. "Good. As long as you know that trying to hurt the people I care for could very well end up with you occupying a mausoleum somewhere, I have no problems with what you call me. My parents were married, however, when I was conceived. Just to clear the air on that matter."
"Don't see how," Draco sneered. "I thought there were laws against bestiality."
"If there were, then your mother would never have been able to marry your father then, would she?" Harry asked, voice dripping honey. I could hear the vinegar behind it, however.
So could my son. His wand whipped back up, but Hermione had launched herself from the table and had struck him in the groin with her knee, full force and with a great deal of momentum behind it, before Draco could do a thing. The wet sound I heard before my son's anguished *PEEP* burst from his body led me to believe that Draco was now, in fact, the last of the Malfoy line. In fact, if something wasn't done soon, he might not survive the day. I cast a quick stasis upon him, and she turned to look at me, horror in her eyes. "I'm sor …"
"Don't apologise. He got what he deserved. I believe there is a phrase that recommends that one should not do something unless one is willing to have it done to them?"
"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time," Hermione said softly.
I nodded. "He called one of Harry's parents an animal, and I believe I know which one. He couldn't have been farther from the truth, mind you. All that Harry did was return fire by referring to Lucius as a beast, which is actually far more accurate than he knows." I looked her carefully in the eyes. "I do not blame you."
By this point, Madam Pomfrey was examining Draco. "Well, unless I'm quite lucky, Miss Granger has ended his chances to continue the Malfoy name." She pursed her lips as if to speak sharply to the girl.
I interrupted. "He was going to attack either myself or Harry. Perhaps she could have struck him elsewhere. Perhaps he could have avoided pulling his wand. She acted to protect a fellow student and had only a split second to respond, and I for one will not blame her for what happened in the heat of the moment."
Dumbledore spoke up, having approached in the interim. "She was also potentially protecting our new Potions professor, so I also will not complain, and will instead award her twenty-five points for her quick thinking. Unfortunately, for the attack, I must also give her a detention." He twinkled at her. "Tomorrow night at seven PM, Miss Granger, in my office."
She blinked for a moment and then smiled. "Yes sir."
He turned to me. "Would you be willing to step to the head table, Madam, and join your new colleagues?"
I looked at Harry, who smiled and nodded, and then turned to walk to the Head Table. "Cor!" came a muttered comment from the Gryffindor table. "What a magnificent … oh, sorry Harry."
"Why? I agree with you, Seamus. She has one of the two best bodies I've ever seen."
"Who has the other one?"
"Hermione," Harry said simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I’d gotten a glimpse of the figure under those robes, and thought that he was perhaps overstating his case, but then again, he was in love. For that matter, I could hear her saying something similar.
"Harry, I'm not a model. I'm not beautiful. I'm … oh my …" That last was said with a small gasp, and I turned to see the reason.
Harry's heart was in his eyes, and anyone looking at them could see that he loved her. I felt tears enter my own eyes as I realised he had looked at me the same way. You could tell that, no matter what anyone else in the school might think, he saw Hermione as the most beautiful student attending.
He went to one knee again before the assembled students. "I asked you before, Hermione, but I do it again with an audience. Will you agree to grace this meaningless life of mine with undeserved beauty? Will you do as Narcissa has agreed and marry me?"
She helped him to his feet and threw her arms around him. "Yes, Harry Potter, I will marry you. I'd do it today if I could."
"Perhaps we should talk about this later," the Headmaster said with a bright twinkle in his eyes. "I believe that our students are becoming hungry." Mr. Weasley's stomach punctuated the comment with a loud growl, and he blushed furiously.
At the head table, I looked down to see Harry happily amongst his fellow Gryffindor, and once again envied them. Slytherin children rarely seem to develop the deep abiding friendships that the other Houses have. We develop connections. We learn how to use people.
I heard Ronald Weasley make a comment about Harry not eating, and smiled slightly as Harry informed him that he'd obtain his nourishment later. I was successful in not blushing, but I was not successful in not becoming aroused by the thought of him suckling. If I have any say in the matter, I will finally get him to break my seventeen year drought.
When the meal was over, Albus asked me to accompany him to his office. Harry and Hermione were politely requested to come as well. Once there, he quickly got to the point. "I find that the idea of a wedding is an excellent one. No matter how you may choose to look at the situation, it will be forever unsafe for you to return to the Dursley home, Harry."
I was surprised to find myself thinking a purely Muggle phrase - No shit, Sherlock. I looked at him with puzzlement. That was not my thought; it couldn't be.
"Ms. Black?" Albus asked.
"Odd circumstance. I just had a thought that simply does not make sense for me to have in regards to the Dursley family. I found myself thinking, verbatim, 'No shit, Sherlock'. I have no idea whom this Sherlock person is or what connection he would have with you."
Harry's eyes were wide. "I was thinking it, but I'd never have said it out loud. How did you … why am I asking? I doubt you'd know."
"I do not know how I received your thought, unless it connects with how intimately we have come to know each other, and your acceptance of your feelings for me." Harry blushed. "My apologies if I have embarrassed you, Harry."
"No," he said. "We will have a problem, however. I have publicly proposed to Hermione, and stated that you accepted my proposal. By not correcting me, we have announced that engagement. How are we going to work this situation? I've discovered that I sleep quite well with a beautiful woman in the bed with me, but I think school rules say something about teachers and students sleeping together, and I really doubt that you'll let Hermione sleep in my bed, either." He looked at the both of us for a moment.
"Perhaps I should worry about the governors, Harry," Albus said with a smile, while you three decide how you wish to work this. Moving in with Miss Black for the short time it will take to prepare for a wedding is no difficulty, and I apply that statement to you as well, Miss Granger."
"Are there quarters for such?" Harry asked. "For a teacher and two others?"
"This is an ancient castle, Harry, and as such has quarters from the era when such instances as you invoked today were far more commonplace. I'm certain that Dobby could locate such."
A quiet pop announced the arrival of the old Malfoy house elf. He blinked his large eyes at me for a moment and then smiled. "Dobby is pleased to see Mistress Narcissa again." He turned. "How many Dobby serve the Headmaster?"
"Dobby, we need quarters where these three may love comfortably for the school year." He looked for a moment before adding. "They will need but one bedroom." I was amused to see the blush lighting Hermione's face, and astonished to see that her reaction was visible through her robes. Harry and I might be needing to … calm her in a short while.
Dobby looked into space for a moment before focusing again and saying, "Dobby knows just the place. Give Dobby thirty minutes to get it clean."
"Did any of my house elves survive?" I asked. "Specifically, I wish to speak to Snari." A quiet pop later and a smile lit my face. Snari had been a constant companion for some time, and her loss would hurt me. "Snari, please help Dobby clean the quarters that Master Harry and Mistress Hermione will be moving into with me." Snari's eyes widened as she recognised Dobby, and we were all surprised to see her launch herself at him and hug him.
"Snari missed Dobby!" she cried, and I remembered that the two of them had been as close as it was possible for elves in the Malfoy home to be.
"Would Dobby like to remain free, or join a household where he can look after Master Harry?" I asked. "You would never again deal with Lucius or Draco."
"Mistress Narcissa would allow Dobby to rejoin her household?" Dobby asked me with eyes so wide that I was afraid that they would simply exit his skull.
"I never owned you, Dobby - Lucius was the head of household. He now is penniless, and likely to be dead soon, unless he has other skills of use to that insane creature he serves. I would not complain about accepting you into my household. Would you have a problem, my husband?" I asked that last with a twinkle in my eyes, trying on the phrase for size.
His heart came into his eyes, and he smiled. "As long as he knows that Hermione and I are going to treat him and Snari as friends and not as servants. You both have been that to me in the past, you know. Snari, you helped Cissy save my life multiple times, and Dobby - well, we've had some interesting times together, especially with your misguided attempts to save my life by doing everything you did."
He paused for a moment. "I you were specifically given something as a uniform of the household, would that be considered giving you clothes, or simply a requirement of service? I've never liked the tea towel as prevention of nudity -"
"Especially since I doubt it would cover, in your case," Hermione quipped,blushing as she realised she had said that in front of her Headmaster.
"Trust me - it wouldn't come close," I responded with a grin.
"- tea towels," Harry bulled on, blushing furiously at the interplay which was making even the house elves grin. "Would a uniform be permissible?"
Snari looked at him for a long moment. "You would not be forcing us to take them - it would be a choice?"
"Correct. If wearing a uniform made you truly uneasy, then you could wear what you wanted."
"If choice is permitted, then Snari will choose to wear the uniform of the Potter household."
My eyes sparkled. "Does that include me, Master Harry?" I asked in a voice that I could see was causing his blood to flow below his waist. Snari and Dobby popped out as Harry imitated a fish for a moment.
"What are you trying to do to me?" he strangled out.
"Whatever are you thinking, Harry?" I asked innocently, causing Albus to release a chuckle involuntarily.
"Nothing," Harry finally said. "Nothing at all." He shook his head.
"I was thinking that I would wear my nurse's uniform from this summer." Miss Granger looked at me and I mouthed, "Nudity" at her.
"That sounds like an excellent idea," she added suddenly. "After all, you're still healing."
Harry sat down and put his head into his hands. "At least I'll die with a smile on my face," he finally said with a laugh.
We sat and talked with the Headmaster for a short time more before Dobby and Snari reappeared to report that our rooms were done, and our things moved into them. "Perhaps now would be a good time to go to your new quarters," he said, and led us there.
Author Notes:
Upcoming - Draco bashing, and wife cuddling. (As well as some things to earn it the NC-17 rating.)