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Chapter 19 - Kiss Me Awake

Harry was half sitting, half lying on the bed with young Narcissa, his expression one of joyful bemusement. Narcissa wasn't aware of Harry, as she was still in her enchanted sleep - and no one else noticed given the situation.

Healer Natalia Duperies had been told the whole story of Lady Helena's resurrection, and was assured that the former ghost could safely pass from corporeal to non-corporeal and back again with no ill effects whatsoever.

When it came time, however, for Helena to discorporate, she found she couldn't.

She'd taken off the locket and handed it to Harry then waited for something to change. When it didn't she blushed furiously.

Susan placed a hand on Helena's shoulder and asked Poppy, "Will you perform the enlightening charm, please?"

Both healers pointed their wands at Helena's abdomen and intoned "revealo".

A faint, pink glow issued from Helena's middle.

"It's a girl."

Harry sat, hard, on the nearest bed, beaming.

The not-quite-a-ghost-anymore smirked and said, "I certainly hope the rest of the coven is practicing contraceptive charms, or we're going to need to open a whole new wing in Hogwarts just to care for our growing brood.

Astarte flitted over to Harry's shoulder, kissed him on the cheek and said, "Congratulation, again, /Dad/!"

Helena turned to Madam Pomfrey, "I'm sorry, Poppy. I didn't know, well, obviously."

Healer Duperies suggested,"Perhaps we can find a Dream Walker in the Alley?"

From her seat on the brass bed frame Astarte announced, "That won't be necessary."

Everyone looked at the tiny goddess.

Harry asked, "Goddess, can you help?"

"Of course," she said, and then directed her comments to the two healers in the room. "I can take two people with me into dreamscape; I'd like Harry to be one, and Madame Pomfrey, if you would please join us?"

The matron nodded and asked, "What do I need to do?"

"Put the two beds together, Iwill be in the middle between the two sisters, you, Madam Pomfrey need to lie next to one girl and Harry will "spoon" with the other.

"We all need to be touching skin. So Harry, Poppy and the girls should be naked - topless at least."

"Not so fast," Poppy protested,"all that is required is skin-to-skin contact; we can lie next to each other and hold hands - that will be sufficient."

Harry smiled and snapped his fingers in mock disappointment, to which Poppy smirked, "Not this time, my youthful Lothario!"

The healer placed the two single beds side-by-side, then performed an enlarging charm so that Harry could lie next to Narcissa and Poppy could settle next to Bellatrix.

Astarte pulled the two girl's hands together, then said "Harry, Madam Pomfrey, give me your hands." She placed their hands on those of the girls. The goddess drew the four joined hands in atight embrace and whispered, "/dormamus/."

And Harry and Poppy were asleep.

)O(

Harry found himself standing in afamiliar place. The trio had materialized in the great hall at Hogwarts. He stood with Astarte, grown to full size, and Poppy Pomfrey, looking thirty years younger.

"Now I really wish we'd been starkers!"

"Mister Potter!"

"Oops! Did I say that out loud?"

Astarte chuckled, "There are no"private thoughts" in dreams Harry, just be careful what you think." Having said that she cast a glamour so that she would appear to be a typical sixth-year student. Well a sixth-year student with a skirt so brief that the whole of her legs were exposed and a blouse three sizes too small so that her ample cleavage was on display for all to see.

"Yes," Poppy said, "it wouldn't do for you to know that I want to take the rejuvenation curse so that I can have a bit of you."

Harry looked gobsmacked at Poppy's frank confession.

The school matron put her hand over her mouth and glowed scarlet.

"No private thoughts, eh?" Harry smirked.

"I suppose not." Poppy said, resignedly.

"I wonder where the sisters are?"

As if to answer their questions the great hall began to fill with noisy, hungry students.

"Oh good," Astarte enthused,"we're just in time for lunch!"

"I guess we need to look for them."

Harry nodded in agreement, then spotted a full head of raven hair two tables over. "Bellatrix is sitting at the Slytherin table, and look, here comes Narcissa."

He could hear the sisters talking, Bellatrix was gesturing theatrically while telling her sister, "Bella is such a common name, but Bellatrix, sounds erudite and sophisticated, don't you know. From now on I think I'll introduce myself as "Bellatrix, /Dahling/, Bellatrix Black" and all will be in awe of my innate superiority."

Grinning, Harry led Astarte and Poppy over to the table, "Hello, ladies, may we join you?"

Narcissa and Bellatrix sat in stunned silence. Finally Narcissa spoke, "Potter? Wait, no, you're not James Potter, but you could easily be his brother, I didn't know James had abrother." She looked at Poppy, "And you look a lot like Madam Pomfrey, but you can't be, she's, well, older and you're our age."

Harry smiled, disarmingly, "I'm sorry, where are my manners?" he extended a hand, "Harry Potter, I'm, um, related to James, but don't ask me to explain just now, it's complicated. This lovely creature is Astarte, she's a kind of cousin on my mother's side, and this is our good friend Poppy.

Narcissa took Harry's hand and executed a cute little curtsey, hard to do while seated, but she managed,"Narcissa Black, Cissy to my friends, and this is -"

"Bella," her sister interrupted,"Bella Black."

Harry, still holding Narcissa's fingertips lifted Bellatrix's lithe hand to brush the back of her knuckles with his lips, "I'm very happy to meet you, Bella."

Narcissa saw her sister's eyes go slightly unfocused, smirked and held up her own hand, which Harry kissed,"Likewise, Cissy."

"Please be seated," the dark haired which said, sliding just enough to allow Harry to wedge between her and her sibling.

Harry sat in the proffered spot, Poppy and Astarte flanked the trio on the long bench.

"What can we do for you, Harry?"

"Well, first I wanted to meet you both, and second, if you don't mind, Poppy has an assignment you can help with."

Poppy smiled, "I'm training to be a healer, too. Could you help me with my studies? I need to run a few basic diagnostic charms on siblings - nothing too invasive, just some crystal work.

Narcissa shrugged, "Can't be any worse than what our father has been making us do. I swear, if that crone of his tries to feed me one more of her foul brews . . ."

"No potions or brews, Ipromise." Poppy held up an amethyst crystal.

Harry, who had been studying Bella, remarked, "Same color as your eyes."

Bellatrix smiled, and Harry was captivated by her innocence, her fresh faced beauty, so full of life. Bella was obviously besotted as well.

"He looks enough like James for me, Cissy." Then her expression fell. "But look, he's already married."

Narcissa noticed the gold ring on Harry's left hand for the first time. She also noticed that neither of the girls with him wore matching rings.

Astarte grinned and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, "Actually, ladies, our Harry is the Warlock of the Coven of the Four Houses; he's hand-fasted nineteen witches and is hoping to add at least two more."

Bellatrix half-smiled and tried to say something, but could only manage a strangled "Urk?"

Cissy laughed, "I think you broke her."

Bella shook her head, "Please, /please/tell me you're not just having us on - we're desperate here!"

"What do you mean, desperate?"Harry asked.

"Our father has betrothed us to the Malfoy and Lestrange families, supposedly to strengthen the alliance. Have you seen the Lestranges?"

"Yeah, I have." Harry admitted, then turned to Narcissa, "But Lucius isn't so hard on the eyes, is he?"

"You are joking now, aren't you?" She asked, incredulously, ""Lucy" seeks for the other team. Unless you're built like a boy he won't even look at you!"

"Can't you just say no?"

"You're not from around here, are you, Harry?"

He leaned in conspiratorially,"would you believe me if I told you I'm from the future?"

)O(

Astarte released the sleeper's hands, waking Harry and Poppy. Harry smiled at Madame Pomfrey, who blushed furiously and tried to pull away, but Harry held her hand firmly.

"Remember, we aren't responsible for anything we say or do in our dreams."

Poppy nodded her head but wouldn't meet Harry's eyes.

Astarte whispered her assurances as well, "You should also know, some of your more libidinous thoughts are because of my influence."

Healer Duperies quietly cleared her throat, "Poppy?"

Madame Pomfrey gave Harry's had areassuring little squeeze and carefully got out of bed to confer with her colleague.

"I detected resonances from all five of you while you were in dream-space, they were in perfect harmony."

"Excellent!" Poppy enthused,"that means we were all having the same experience." Then the two healers put their heads together and began to interpret their readings.

Meanwhile Harry had pulled Helena into a tight embrace, "How do you feel, Luv?"

"Not much different, Lord Harry, and yet, more . . . alive somehow."

"You look wonderful!"

Helena smiled, "Glowing?"

Harry kissed her, "Oh yes."

"Well I hope you still think so when I'm huge, bloated, overstuffed, and bursting at the seams with your baby."

Harry's eyes went slightly unfocused at the mental image.

"Oh, my Goddess, you like that idea, don't you?"

Harry nodded, sheepishly.

Helena placed her hands around his neck and kissed him tenderly, "then we shall have to be sure that at least one of us is always in the pudding club so that you can have your Earth Mother fantasies come true. I shouldn't be hard to do; there will soon be twenty-one of us."

Harry looked confused.

"The Black sisters, Harry. They're already smitten with you. You are, in fact, the man of their dreams!"

)O(

Natalia and Poppy were pouring over a small stack of scrolls and magical medical tomes.

One book in particular contained the formulae, runes and incantations required to create a homunculus - what the mundane world would call a clone.

The first potion was a fertility brew that caused the witch to produce additional eggs. After one full lunar cycle on the potion a specially designed flexible wand, charmed to seek out the additional eggs, would be inserted into the young witch's vagina.

Nine out of ten of the eggs harvested needed to be transfigured into male gametes, in fact turning eggs into sperm. The fertilized eggs would either be placed back into the donor mother or transferred into a birth mother - either a witch or any compatible magical creature; centaurs and unicorns had been popular in the twelfth century when the process was first perfected. Goblins were willing to have their women host homunculi, for a fee of course.

Once born, the homunculi would be magically aged until they were the same, physically, as their donor mothers. Asimple memory transfer spell would make them exact in every detail.

Save for the dependency factor.

Simply stated, the dependency factor meant that a homunculus needed her donor mother, but not vice versa. If the mother stubbed her toe it would hurt both of them, if the donor mother, or"original" died then the magical clone would die at that same instant. The reverse was not true.

Poppy rubbed her eyes, "The question becomes, are the two girls in our care originals or are they homunculi?"

Natalia sat, picked up a quill and began to write, "Let's look at this logically. If our girls are the originals they would be the sum of their experiences and upbringing to the age of fifteen or sixteen."

"Yes," Poppy agreed, "but memories can be transferred from one person to another."

"Not muscle memory."

"Well then, we'll just wake them up and have one of them sign their name to something, oh wait, we can't -they're asleep!"

Natalia sighed in frustration,"Two sleeping virgins, like something out of a children's tale."

"So we need to break the enchantment - any ideas."

"Well . . . there is the Snow White method."

"Harry will never agree to that."

"What if we don't use Harry?"

"Natalia, if I were you, I'd forget that you even had that thought."

"What we really need is one of the "current" sisters. It might be possible to get Narcissa; I wouldn't have Bellatrix within a league of Saint Mungos. There is a simple test to determine which is the original and which is the copy."

Poppy looked pensive, "Does it matter, really?"

Healer Duperies looked scandalized, "Of course it matters; these two may be magical constructs -soulless automatons."

"Or perhaps the adult versions are the constructs, which would explain much, don't you think?"

)O(

Harry stepped into the room where the two sleeping girls lay, looking furtively over his shoulder.

"Cissy, I know we don't really know each other, and this may be crazy, but I saw it in a video once."

He leaned down and gently kissed the sleeping girl.

)O(

In the dreamscape Hogwarts Cissy Black felt something. Her face flushed and she touched her lips with her fingertips, smiling. A few moments later Bella did the same.

)O(

Harry stood at the foot of the two beds and called gently, "Cissy? Bella?"

Both girls smiled sweet, innocent little smiles and breathed out cute, contented little sighs - but continued to sleep on.

"Oh well," Harry said to the otherwise empty room, "it was worth a shot."

)O(

In the old Riddle House, in asmall room off the kitchen, Narcissa sat reading as Draco polished shoes. One of Draco Black's duties was to make sure all the senior death eaters had well-shined shoes. That burden had been lightened recently as the two Lestrange brothers had managed to get themselves killed in such a spectacularly stupid manner.

Narcissa felt the light touch of lips against hers and an unexpected warmth in her magical core. Bemused, she touched her lips with her fingertips.

At that moment her broach began to buzz insistently, five buzzes, then four, then three . . .

"Come, Draco. We're leaving!"she took her son by the arm, lifting him off the stool, scattering shoes everywhere.

. . . two buzzes, one, and Narcissa and Draco were ported away from the Riddle house.

)O(

Bellatrix stood naked in the basement of the old manor, a knife in her right hand and her wand in her left as she practiced casting deadly spells at the stone walls and throwing her knife at wooden boxes set about the room for that purpose.

She felt a presence, a light touch on her lips and she screamed, turned and blasted all four stone walls with disemboweling curses, trying to treat the invisible intruder to a lingering, painful death. But there was no one, and whatever good feelings she might have gotten from the phantom kiss were consumed by her paranoid psychosis.

Somewhere in the house an alarm bell sounded, someone had portkeyed out through the wards, shattering them in the process. She also felt a slight tug from that part of her that she shared with her sister.

"Narcissa," she hissed, "Sister, what have you done?"