FicWad

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books, Raincoast Books, and Warner Brothers Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

--

Angelina stifled a laugh as she overlooked the chaos below from her spot on the stairs above the common room. Nearly all of her house mates were already tipsy, if not well on their way to being drunk. Harry was one of the few exceptions to this, having learned his lesson about drinking too much after their victory against Slytherin his first year. Just about every Gryffindor fifth year and above had become completely plastered during that particular party, and though most the Quidditch team was younger, they all joined in on the fun. Of course, they had a great deal to celebrate back then, just like they did now.

It was rather amusing, if not a little sad at how similar this celebration would be to all the others. She could already hear a couple raunchy pub songs being sung- well perhaps sung was too nice of a word. A few of her house mates had already disappeared to find some abandoned corner or spare room to snog in, while others indulged in even more liquor. A few of those would end up either throwing up somewhere, or making a complete arse out of themselves. Good fun for all, but it’d been done several times before.

Actually, it was amazing how quickly everyone could get so used to this. During her first year, Gryffindor had not won a single game and there’d been no Quidditch celebrations at all. After Alicia, Fred, George, and she joined the Quidditch team in her second year, they'd at least managed to tie Hufflepuff and only barely lost to Ravenclaw. Most of Gryffindor celebrated after the Hufflepuff game, but Angelina and Oliver both knew they should have done better and didn’t join in. It wasn't until the following year, when Katie and Harry joined the team that they had their first victory. It’d been Gryffindor's first win in three years.

Quidditch wasn’t the only thing to change though. House pride as a whole was nearly non-existent back then. Slytherin had been the best and most prestigious house, with Ravenclaw taking second. It wasn't until Harry arrived that things began to change. Having The Harry Potter, even if he looked nothing like what everyone expected, was a source of pride among the Gryffindors. The beginning of her fourth year, his second, was a huge change for Gryffindor as the previous June they'd won the House Cup for the first time in seven years. The Gryffindors actually started to wear their badges with pride and participate in the school more, which earned even more points, pride, and respect. A year later, when Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup for the first time since Charlie Weasley graduated ten years before, the change had become complete.

It wasn't just Harry, she understood that, but he had been the catalyst. Once they felt what it was like to actually have pride in their house, everyone worked that much harder to keep it. Now, house pride, Quidditch parties and respect were so common no one really thought twice about it. But Angelina, like a few of the other older students, still remembered.

Searching the common room she found the subject of her thoughts near the fireplace surrounded by tipsy well wishers, with the exception of Hermione- who sat next to him reading a book amid the chaos. It was rather obvious from his stance and the way Harry kept looking at the floor, that he wasn't comfortable accepting their praises. This was just one of the many oddities of Harry Potter. He regularly performed in front of a stadium full of students- and had since he was 11- with no problem. He could keep his cool under any situation, take on and argue with professors that scared even Fred and George, fight Dragons and Merlin only knows what else, yet couldn't handle well deserved praise.

Many just assumed it was a false humility, but she knew better. That was just the way Harry was. Before today she’d barely even spared it a moment’s thought. Now though, it confused and bothered her.

An enigma, that’s what he is, Angelina thought to herself as she unconsciously took another glance at him.

The little orphan who often wore ill-fitting hand me down clothes was the same confident young man who taught students two and three years his senior better than most of their professors. The shy boy below her blushed and stuttered when being complimented, yet was also the determined Quidditch player who fired up his team and led them to a victory unheard of in Hogwarts' history. Harry had done it for her, that much was certain. She saw the way he looked at her when she'd been injured on the field; saw the anger in his eyes turn to determination. He’d led the team and won the game for her.

Many boys had tried to gain her favor since she began to grow breasts during the summer before her third year. They tried to impress her with their money, with their clothes and good looks, with their brains and intelligence, or with tales of their stupidity. Harry was a different story though. Where they bought her trinkets, completed her assignments, or did idiotic things in her name; he helped guarantee her the future she'd always dreamed of.

Alright, so she felt something for him. She felt things for a lot of guys though, it didn’t mean anything. But that didn’t explain why she reacted the way she had, the way she still was.

What was it about Harry that made him so special? Just what type of a life had he lived to react the way he had, and did she deserve the respect and near reverence he gave her? Sure, they talked and she considered him a decent and reliable friend, but it wasn’t like she had ever really gone out of her way to help him.

Shaking her head, Angelina decided it was best to go down to the common room again before her thoughts completely turned her inside out.

--

Everyone was in such high spirits during Sunday’s longer defense meetings, Harry decided they were finished with the reflex and aiming training and moved on to learning a couple new spells. Only a few could hit the small moving targets with any realistic success, but they had improved greatly from the beginning and he’d make sure they continued to work on it throughout the year. Today though, he wanted to keep them interested and happy.

He’d gone over his lecture on basic shielding spells and how to use them with Hermione that morning to prepare. As he stood in front of everyone, however, his nervousness returned slightly and he mentally questioned each aspect of his plans. Teaching the practical nature of magic he could handle without a problem, but Harry didn’t have the same confidence when dealing with theory and lectures.

Once he began talking though, all the nervousness left and Harry felt nothing but the calmness he usually associated with flying. A thrill ran through him as he felt the sensation of leading them. The entire group, even those who last month would have never considered going to him for help, were responding to him, listening to his every word and believing him! He mentally shook himself and got back to his lecture but couldn’t help the pride he felt.

The rest of the meeting actually went fairly well. The Protego charm was a rather basic shield used to block low and mid power spells, but it could also be used in several ways that most people didn't think of. One method in particular that Harry liked was to use the charm as an outer shield to reduce the power of more advanced spells before they hit your real shield. As the spell was simple and fast to cast, another method was to place the shield well in front of you in the hopes that the impact would cause the incoming attack to veer off to a side and miss.

The full body shield Harry had found in a book about proper duels that he nearly skipped. The author mentioned that many ideas from duels could be used in real combat situations though, so he read on anyways. The spell created a translucent, physical shield that covered the entire body and remained a few centimeters away as you moved. It was weak and wouldn’t protect the user from any magical attacks, but it did protect against hand to hand fighting, and from being hit with potions or other objects. It was something he could have used in the graveyard last year, as he had received several nasty cuts from the exploding head-stones.

Flinging a potion at someone was a form of attack Harry never thought of before but could understand. Even in their classes students oftentimes needed to wear protective gloves and goggles to prevent serious injury. Another advantage of the spell was that it doubled as a weapon. Since it created a physical barrier around your entire body, the shield would hit your opponent before your fist would, causing a great deal of pain to the enemy and next to none to you. Harry wished he’d known the spell years ago when Dudley and his gang used to beat him.

After pairing everyone off, he and Hermione walked around the room helping each person by correcting small flaws in their wand movements or giving them a few of the other tips he’d read from the book in the Room of Requirement. There were a few problems, but overall Harry was impressed with how easily each person picked up on the shielding spells. By the end of the three hour meetings, all but a few of the younger students could cast the two spells. The majority could also produce a fairly powerful shield that stood a fair chance of blocking an attack. Only a couple could actually cast the spells quickly enough to be of real use in a fight, but it was a good start.

What Harry found most surprising though, was how serious people were taking the lessons. A few came to both the Sunday morning and afternoon meetings, and a couple others stayed late to get in a bit more practice and one on one time with him. Some of those who stayed for both meetings he could have guessed; Padma, Susan, Luna and Ginny- as they were among the most dedicated in any meeting. The real surprise was that Parvati stayed for both meetings as well. Though, the fact that Katie decided not to stay also surprised Harry a bit. Since the first meeting she had regularly been among the most dedicated, and her own father had been killed by death eaters. He just assumed she’d be there.

Overall, the meetings were going much better than he and Hermione had anticipated. There’d been no real problems with his leadership after the first day, and even the normally less than respectful students were behaving well enough. The security measures of splitting everyone into two groups and using different doorways also seemed to be working fairly well. So far as they could tell, Umbridge had no idea the group existed. The only apparent problem was with other students. It wasn’t a big deal yet, but a couple of the members reported that a younger girl they didn’t know had mentioned the defense group. Harry reminded everyone to be careful when talking about the meetings, and hoped that would be enough until Hermione came up with something better.

--

Whenever something good happened in his life, something bad happened to offset it. And with Halloween occurring later in the week, Harry expected even worse than normal. That was why Monday morning Harry walked down to breakfast preparing himself for the bad news. What he found, however, did not meet his expectations.

The Gryffindors apparently weren’t ready for things to return back to normal and he and Ron walked to their normal seats under the applause and congratulations of their housemates. Angelina, Katie and Alicia were already there, but when Fred and George arrived several minutes later, they too, were applauded. Even the other houses seemed to get into the celebratory mood, and while everyone expects breakfast to be a little rowdy after a Quidditch match, Professor McGonagall actually had to stand up and calm everyone down before it got out of hand.

History of Magic was as boring as ever, but it was Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts which were interesting. Snape’s snide comments and Umbridge’s blatant lies were as annoying as ever, but Harry was far too happy to let them bother him all that much. Besides, he had other things on his mind; Malfoy. It was not what they were saying that caught his attention, but rather the absence of any sort of snide remark or insult. Throughout the entire day Harry didn’t see him say a single word. In fact, there wasn’t so much as a single peep from any of the Slytherins outside of answering questions.

Now Harry understood a little of what Snape and Malfoy must’ve felt when he stopped paying any attention to them. After years of predictable behavior from Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins, having it change so quickly was… disconcerting. Thankfully, Snape and Umbridge were as typical as ever and just assigned him ever more detentions, not that it mattered as he still had a full week’s backlog of detentions to go through first. If things kept going at this rate he’d be in detention nearly every day for the rest of the year and still have plenty left over for next year.

Despite all his detentions, Harry actually had more free time now than in the last few weeks. Ravenclaw had to play Hufflepuff, and then Slytherin against Ravenclaw before Gryffindor would finally play again. That gave them another two months before their next match and after having won by such a large margin, Angelina was actually giving the team a bit of a respite. Their extra morning practices were canceled now that they didn’t need to worry about Ron’s confidence. She also reduced the standard five practices a week down to three, but then lengthened them from two and a half hours to four hours. Even without the extra anger egging them on, the advantage Gryffindor gained because of the team’s greater stamina was significant. Angelina planned to take advantage of that in their future games and was changing their practices to emphasize it.

The experience with Marietta had shown that there was a lot more to the room than he first thought and Harry wanted to learn more about it. He tried to use his new free time in the afternoon and evenings to explore more of the Room of Requirement, but found it was rather difficult to disappear for long without questions being asked by his friends. He did manage to spend a bit of time there after his detentions most evenings. It wasn’t nearly long enough though, and he took to visiting it during the late nights again.

Though he didn’t care for the process, as the horrible experience of disconnecting his own senses and reconnecting to theirs remained, Harry was able to reliably bind himself inside of other people. He didn’t dare try the headmaster, or any of the teachers, just in case they caught him. The rest of the student body, however, was open to him and he eagerly tested the ability out on several. It actually surprised him by just how different each person felt.

Cho, the first person he tested it out on after the Marietta incident, was a mess. Harry couldn’t read her thoughts, and didn’t want to just yet as dealing with the physical and emotional sensations was difficult enough. She could go from feeling helpless and not caring one moment, to overwhelming sorrow and self-loathing the next. Harry understood her all too well though. He was sure she also had problems concentrating, couldn’t sleep- or at least couldn’t sleep normally on her own- and was probably growing incredibly annoyed and frustrated at her friends. Technically, part of Harry knew other people had problems too, but it never really registered before that others felt the same way. Experiencing it like this really brought that fact home, and while he felt bad for Cho, it made him feel better about himself as it meant he wasn’t the only one that was screwed up.

Hermione, on the other hand, was comparably stable and very driven. Nearly everything about her was very specific. Even in walking there wasn’t the normal sense of leisure or frantic hurrying Harry was used to. Instead, she walked with a purpose; getting from point A to point B efficiently. Talking to Ron and a couple of her other friends, in this case Neville and Dean- who were teaming up to play chess against his red-headed friend- was different as Hermione seemed to be slightly more laid back with them. Even then though, it wasn’t anything like what Harry normally felt. He knew it was possible for Hermione to relax as she did it with him often enough, but in the hour he followed along in her body, he never once felt it.

Angelina was incredibly strong, confident and most definitely a Gryffindor. Everything about her attitude seemed so self-assured and bold that it took him by surprise. Harry could be confident and brave when he needed, but on a day to day basis he was still rather self-conscious. He’d only recently realized his insecurity was a problem and that he really shouldn’t act that way, but changing himself wasn’t nearly as easy a task as he first thought. Angelina was anything but insecure. When she was in the common room or walking down the hall, she knew guys were looking at her but didn’t care. If anything, it actually just made her even more confident. If she felt like doing something or talking to someone, she just did it. There wasn’t the normal doubt and worry that Harry felt. It was a rather enlightening experience over all, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous for how easy dealing with people came to her.

Pleasing a woman had been on his mind in the past, but never before like it was now. Normally it was just a thought in the background, knowing that someday he’d have his chance, but it’d always been further away in the distant future. With Angelina and whatever they had – and Harry wasn’t sure what exactly that was- the time was hopefully coming a lot sooner than he expected. The fear of disappointing a girl, while always having been present, was made even worse by knowing Angelina was already a lot more experienced than him. Even with the experience of being Marietta, he felt woefully underprepared and was hoping the room would help him with that.

It took him three nights, but finally he stumbled upon Fleur and Bill together. As the long haired red head was probably the coolest person he knew, Harry was hoping to learn a thing or two from him by binding himself inside of Bill. Unfortunately, no matter what he tried it wouldn’t work. Even when attempting to become Fleur nothing happened. After a few minutes he gave up on the idea of experiencing it first and decided on a different learning method- spying.

There was a fundamental difference between watching Marietta and Cho compared to Bill and Fleur. Where Marietta was soft, caring and slow; Bill was rough, powerful and demanding. Harry knew exactly what he was doing and he was hoping to benefit from that experience. As it was, Harry was shocked and amazed at what was happening before him. He, like most males in Hogwarts, had ‘read’ and talked extensively about girls and sex. Within the last couple weeks though, he’d learned so much that he couldn’t believe just how naive they’d all been. This was nothing like any of them imagined or claimed to have experienced.

Bill's fingers and mouth expertly played Fleur’s body causing her to moan and scream as he desired. He continued using her body roughly for quite a while before finally given in to her cries and allowing her the pleasure she so longed for. Once she came down from what Harry was sure must’ve been a mind blowing orgasm, Bill flicked of his wand and her arms were bound above her head, though her legs were left free.

Grabbing an ice cube out of the glass on the table next to the bed, he brought it over to her body and slowly traced each nipple before slowly running it down her toned stomach and then back up again. Fleur gasped at the cold but remained still, waiting anxiously for what would come next. Placing the melting cube into his mouth, he then softly traced her gorgeous lips with the ice until she opened her mouth and welcomed both the freezing water and his hot tongue. After a while of snogging, they separated and Bill grabbed another ice cube from the glass.

This time, as he used the ice to trace down her body, he followed up by kissing and licking the icy path as he went. When he reached her nether lips Harry was amazed to see Bill continue to tease her with the ice. Fleur gasped and her body writhed, but it did little to stop Bill. He easily maneuvered her legs out of the way and continued to tease her with the ice until she was once again moaning and screaming in lust and passion.

Bill wasn’t done yet though. Moving up her body he thrust into the gorgeous blonde causing her to throw her head back in a silent scream. Leaning forward he ran his lips along her neck and then with his teeth before biting into her flawless skin. Harry could nearly feel Bill’s lust rise as he bit her again and again, never hard enough to draw blood but more than enough to leave an imprint. Moaning, Fleur arched back, trying to push her body into him as she wrapped her legs around him. Bill responded by thrusting into her with an even greater urgency and bringing his hands up to her body to pinch and grasp her chest. Just as things were reaching an even greater peak though, he slowed down.

If it wasn’t for the intensely erotic nature of the situation, Harry would’ve laughed at the look of fury and contempt Fleur sent the redhead. She tried to move her body and coerce him, but Bill merely continued with his excruciatingly slow rhythm. It was then that Harry learned an important lesson. This wasn’t just about sex to Bill; it was about doing it his way. He could see the cocky little grin on the curse breaker’s face, and Harry was sure his thoughts were something like I am in control here. I’ll tell you when you can finish.

That continued for a while until Fleur finally gave in to her passion and Bill knew he had won. The red-head slowly worked his way back up to speed and once again began deeply kissing the Half-Veela until they were both nearly incoherent with desire. This time though, there was no teasing, and with a few more violent thrusts they each found their release.

Afterward, Harry just stayed there in an awe kind of wonderment at what he’d witnessed. It was a completely different experience than he expected, though he couldn’t deny being turned on by seeing the perfect French princess begging and pleading for relief. The thought of Angelina beneath him like that stayed with him and was the main theme of his dreams that night. He wanted to do that with her. Maybe not so much make her beg, but to be able to make her moan like Bull had, and to give her such pleasure…

The failure to bind himself inside of Bill and Fleur re-enforced the need for Harry to more thoroughly explore the Room of Requirement. Waking up early in the morning for Quidditch practice the previous few weeks had been annoying and a bit tiresome, but also very productive. With his body already partially used to the schedule, Harry decided that instead of staying up late and waiting for everyone else to sleep before heading to the room, he’d just wake up early and go before the others woke up.

The Room of Requirement had several limitations that he found. One of the most obvious was that the room was significantly weaker once it involved something outside of Hogwarts’ walls. Using it, Harry could bind himself to anyone inside of Hogwarts with no problems; male or female, sleeping or awake. Once he was outside of the actual walls to the school though, he couldn’t. And, as he painfully learned one morning, the moment the person he was in walked outside of the school doors, the connection broke. The pounding migraine he received from being forcefully ejected from the girl made sure he’d remember it for a long time to come.

Outside of Hogwarts the room appeared to be limited to spying only and even then it still had other limitations, though Harry had not yet figured exactly what they were. Distance never seemed to matter. He’d successfully viewed Hogsmeade, Grimmauld Place, Diagon Alley, and the Dursley’s house on Privet Drive with little problems. However, several places he also tried to view failed. The Greater Whinging Zoo, for example, wouldn’t appear. Neither could he use to the room to just try to wander around. The immediate areas surrounding Privet Drive, Grimmauld Place and Diagon Alley were viewable, but any further than a few blocks away from them was not.

Inside of Hogwarts, however, the room was incredibly powerful. Not only could it spy on everywhere he tried- though he was still too wary to try the headmaster’s tower- and bind himself inside of people, but he also made a door from the Room of Requirement connect to the one inside his dorm. That greatly helped his use of the room as he no longer needed to sneak back into the Gryffindor Tower when he finished. Harry decided against trying to sneak into the girl’s dormitories with it, even though that was one of his first thoughts. The stairwells were incredibly well warded against any boy walking, flying, levitating, crawling up the wall or otherwise entering the girl’s stairwell, and he didn’t want to risk setting off some sort of alarm if their dorm’s were protected as well. Harry knew he had a very good thing going at the moment and wasn’t about to lose it by being foolish.

--

Back outside of the room things were changing. Winning by such a huge margin and defeating the previous record, set more than 200 years previously when Quidditch was not taken nearly as seriously as it was now, impressed a lot of people. For Harry it was a double edged sword though. Recently he’d begun to enjoy the attention of the different girls in the defense meetings, and this just gave him even more attention from the fairer sex. But it was also a different sort of attention.

With the girls in his Defense Against Dark Arts classes he had something other than himself to talk about. That, he was learning, was what he’d always hated about the attention. He didn’t mind talking to them when it was about something else, like the defense meetings or just talking in general. This time, though, the attention was all about him, the match, his abilities at Quidditch and his future; and that bothered him. A few of the more annoying girls even had to gall to suggest talking to McGonagall about taking over as team captain. Something Harry vehemently disagreed with, and he informed them in no uncertain terms that Angelina was the captain.

It wasn’t just Harry though; everyone from the team was receiving a lot of attention. Like after the second task last year, Ron loved the attention and could often be found entertaining someone with stories of his Quidditch prowess. Actually, it looked like most the others loved the extra attention. It was also the reason why Katie wasn’t staying for the extra defense lessons. Apparently Roger Davies had been impressed by her performance and was spending a lot of time with her. Harry didn’t know what the deal was exactly, but neither Angelina nor Alicia was particularly happy about it.

Harry actually found himself spending his extra time in the afternoons with Hermione in the library. Thankfully, she understood his problem and never asked him why he was suddenly going with her to the library. He knew using her as shield was getting her some evil looks from the different girls, but she didn’t seem to mind. The one time he brought the subject up, Hermione merely said that it was their problem and not to worry about it.

Spending time at the library with her was an eye opening experience for him. It wasn’t even close to the first time Harry had gone there with Hermione, but it was different this time. At the beginning of last year when Ron was being a prat and not talking to him, he and Hermione spent nearly all their free time there together, but it’d always just been the two of them. Now, however, Hermione was rarely alone in the library. Rather, she had a small group of friends that studied at her table regularly under the watchful eyes of the librarian, Madam Pince. Padma Patil, Terry Boot, Ernie Macmillan, Susan Bones and Hanna Abbott were all regulars at the table. It was surprising to realize that Hermione had an entire life there that he didn’t know about, though it did help explain why she invited more people than he thought she would to the defense lessons.

Thankfully, everyone in the group was part of his defense lessons and at least somewhat trusted. So instead of studying his normal classes, Harry opted to finally start learning more about his family. He’d been meaning to do it ever since his talk with Hermione a few weeks ago, but hadn’t had the time until now. Oddly enough, it turned out everyone at the table knew more about his family than he did. The wizarding world was small when it came to the pureblooded families and just about every single marriage and child, legitimate or not, was well known and documented.

It also turned out he was related, though very distantly, to Hanna Abbott and Ernie MacMillan, as well as several other students in Hogwarts. Hanna and Ernie weren’t dating as he had first assumed either, but rather were cousins who grew up together in their family’s manor. They both also considered Susan family, as she’d been friends with them for as long as they could remember. Apparently it was common for friends in Hogwarts to have known each other most their lives as pureblooded families often initiated formal friendships with others who had children the same age. Not for the first time, Harry wondered what it’d have been like to grow up in a proper family like that; to have had parents and friends, and have known about the magic beforehand.

Harry asked a few questions the next day to try and figure out how Hermione joined the group. Near the end of the first semester last year, she and Padma helped Parvati and Lavender with an extra-curricular project. Hermione and Padma apparently got along pretty well together and started meeting to study in the library afterwards and once she started seeing Victor, he started studying with the pair as well. With Padma and Krum there, a couple other Ravenclaws would stop by and then a couple more from the other houses until they had their own little study group. How could Hermione have been friends with them and he not know about it? It took a few minutes for the answer to sink in, but Harry felt sick when it finally did. It was quite simple really; when he stopped spending time with her, Hermione found others who would.

Harry now realized that after Ron came back he stopped spending time with Hermione outside of classes, meals and during the evenings inside of Gryffindor Tower. They were still together a lot, which was probably why he hadn’t noticed, but it was a shock to learn that he’d pretty much written her off in order to spend time goofing around with Ron. Harry wasn’t particularly bothered that she had other friends. In fact, he actually liked that he, Ron and Hermione now hung out with more than just the three of them. It was the fact that he hadn’t noticed which bothered him or, more aptly, that he hadn’t cared enough to notice. After that, Harry was too distracted to really concentrate on reading and instead decided to leave the library early.

Walking toward the great hall to grab an early dinner, Harry saw Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle standing further up ahead near the staircases surrounding someone. Malfoy had stayed quiet the last few days, but it looked like he was up to his old tricks again.

“…with all your zits, you ugly bitch,” Harry could hear Malfoy say to the girl as he pointed his wand at her face. “I thought I told you before, you’re a disgrace to your bloodline and your parents. So why don’t you do us and them a favor and leave!”

“I seem to remember your father wanting to ship you off to Durmstrang so he didn’t have to deal with you, Malfoy,” he said as he placed himself in front of her. “So why don’t you do us all a favor and leave her alone.”

“Saint Potter!” spat Malfoy. “Here to save the day even when it doesn’t involve you.”

“You’ve been so quiet lately that I thought the humiliation we gave you last weekend taught you a lesson Malfoy. Guess picking on girls is more your style though.”

Harry had barely noticed the growing crowd around them until Malfoy went to cast a spell at him. Four older Slytherins, probably seventh years from the looks of them, instantly moved in beside Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. That worried him a little. Malfoy and the stooges were nothing more than pathetic bullies and Harry would have little problem with them. Seven against one was not something he looked forward to though. Regardless, he wasn’t about to back down to a bunch of Slytherins. They stared at him and he stared right back at them.

“We protect our own and don’t like it when they’re threatened,” one of the seventh years said to him, a tall girl with ash-blonde hair. “But, we like it even less when one of our own pushes little girls around. It’s those types of actions that give our house a bad name. So next time you see something like this happen, you come and get one of us and we will deal with it. Don’t try and start a fight or we’ll all come after you. Got it?”

Harry stared at her in amazement for a moment before getting his act together. “Yeah. You deal with him and I’ll have no problem ignoring he’s even alive. But if he continues for long, I will deal with it.”

“Gryffindors!” the girls said with a shake of her head. “You’re outnumbered seven to one and yet still you make trouble. You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that. Not much for brains though. Now get her out of here while we take care of things.”

Harry nodded and grabbed the girl before heading up one the side staircases. What in the world was going on with Slytherin? First Malfoy keeping quiet and behaving, and now this…

Once they were on the next floor he got a good look at the girl for the first time and saw she was Eloise Midgen, a sixth year Hufflepuff who was best known for her acne problems. Harry was rather surprised to see she looked scared and just about ready to cry though. He and his friends were annoyed by the blonde Slytherin over the years, but he never thought Malfoy actually managed to scare people.

Thinking quickly, Harry decided on inviting her to the defense group. He may have screwed up with Hermione last year but that didn’t mean he couldn’t change, and this was a good of a place as any.

“You want me to join your group?” she asked in an amazed tone that Harry figured meant she was still shaken up from the incident.

“Sure, you know Susan and Hanna right? I’ll have them bring you next week. We’ll figure out your schedule after that.”

--

Unfortunately, when Angelina reduced the number of Quidditch practices, she also reduced the number of opportunities for Harry to snog her. Even worse was that he had to cut out of the first practice early in order to head to another detention with Umbridge. Harry thought Angelina might be mad at him for nicking out early, but was pleasantly surprised by what he found instead.

It wasn’t much, but during breakfast the next morning Angelina sat with them for a few minutes to talk and while they were both busy during lunch, she did make a point of stopping to say ‘hi’ as they passed in the corridors. Later that evening, Harry saw her on the other side of the common room talking with a few of her friends that he barely knew. Hoping not to make a fool of himself, he gathered a bit of courage and heading over to talk with her. It was slightly awkward at first, but thankfully Harry calmed down after a few minutes when everyone seemed to be fine with him being there. This wasn't the first time he and Angelina talked over the years, but never before had either really gone out of their way to talk to the other.

As the week progressed though, Harry found himself becoming increasingly moody, and not even Angelina or the Room of Requirement could help. The dread of Halloween was skewing everything. When the night finally arrived, Harry wandered off to be by himself instead of going to the feast. Not only was this the anniversary of his parent’s death, but something always seemed to happen on Halloween. With Voldemort back, he really wasn’t looking forward to what it would bring this year.

“Hermione figured you’d be here,” Angelina said as she took a seat in the grass next to him. “So… Are you going to tell me what the problem is?”

“Do you really have to ask?” Harry replied, turning back toward the lake. He really wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone right then, but didn’t want to ruining things with Angelina either.

“You’ve survived Halloween before, and while I can’t imagine it’s always pleasant, there has to be more to it than that.”

“I don’t know,” he admitted with a shrug. “It’s just different now. He’s alive again, but they’re still dead and will always remain that way.”

“Besides,” he added a moment later, “you know what Halloween has been like the last few years. I just keep thinking about what’ll happen tonight.”

“You just haven’t had the right kind of experience on Halloween, Harry. Who knows, after tonight you may even find yourself looking forward to it.” That said, Angelina took his head in her hands and kissed him, effectively erasing any depressed thought from his mind.

Harry’s first instinct after returning her kiss was to feel her chest like he’d been thinking for the last week, and he did just that. Even over her shirt, Angelina’s large breasts felt incredible underneath his hands, just like he remembered. After a few moments though, his mind caught up to him. Harry wanted to do this right and didn’t want to appear to be some little kid. It was hard – difficult - to think while kissing her, so he stopped and brought his mouth down to her neck, alternating between kissing and licking, like Marietta did to Cho; and biting, like Bill did to Fleur.

He had thought kissing Angelina’s neck would be easier and allow him to concentrate on the rest of her body. He was wrong. The taste and texture of her skin was amazing, and the soft moan Angelina made when he lightly bit her, even more so. He never realized something as simple as a neck could be this amazing, but it was.

It took a lot of concentration, and more will power than Harry thought he had, but he managed to stave off his instincts and took his time to thoroughly explore Angelina’s body instead of just grasping her wonderful twin orbs like he wanted. He even managed to tease her a little as he went. It was nothing compared to what either Marietta or Bill would have done, he was sure, but Harry loved the sounds of the few moans and even hisses that were coming from Angelina; loved that he was the one causing her such pleasure.

There are a few memories that Harry will always carry with him. The memory of Hagrid telling him he was a wizard and taking him away from the Dursley’s. The first time he ever rode a broomstick. And, the first time he caught the snitch to win the Quidditch match against Slytherin. Now, on the 14th anniversary of his parent’s murder, Harry had another couple memories to add to that list: the first time he ever made a girl orgasm, and the first time another’s hand caused his own. Halloween would now no longer only be associated with death and pain to Harry, but with life and love as well.