FicWad

Chapter 32 - Horcruxes

Dumbledore's portkey returned Harry and his Witches to the Headmaster's office. Where they peeled out of their parkas, but kept the basilisk-hide armor.

"Harry," Daphne suggested, "while we're here, perhaps we can find Rowena's Diadem?"

"Sounds like a good idea, lets go see Helena - she may be the last person to have seen it."

The group entered the hospital wing, where Poppy insisted they remove their weapons and armor.

"Any excuse to get me undressed, eh Poppy?"

But the nurse was well prepared for Harry's teasing today, "Yes, yes, sparks fly and I swoon at the thought of your god-like form. Now, lose the sword and armor, dear."

"Well damn, I guess the honeymoon's over. Is that your idea of foreplay now?"

Poppy smiled and shrugged, "Whatever works."

It took a few minutes to remove the reptilian scabbard, cuirass and greaves. The gauntlets and boots, once unbuckled, simply slipped off. This left Harry and the witches in their close fitting, black vests and trousers.

"Alright then, Poppy milove?"Harry asked.

"Once you've all washed your hands, yes."

The group crowded around the infirmary sink, laughing and splashing like children until everyone was clean and, with the help of a few air-blowing charms, dry - well, drier.

Harry took little Lily from Helena as he sat on the side of the bed.

"She's soooooo beautiful. Takes after her mum, thank Goddess."

"Yeah, but she has your eyes, /Daddy/."

"Daddy. I think I like the sound of that."

Little Jimmy was being handed from Witch to Witch, and thoroughly enjoyed the attention.

Helena, like most mothers-to-be, had been a little concerned that Harry wouldn't take to fatherhood, after all, her father had barely given her the time of day as she was growing up, but that was then and this was now and her husband would definitely be a "hands on" dad. She practically glowed seeing how much he loved their little Lil.

Harry, for his part, was having so much fun with his daughter he'd almost forgotten the other reason for his visit, "Do you remember anything about your mum's diadem?"

If there could have been a sound associated with the abrupt change of Helena's expression it would have been one of shattering glass.

"Helena, milady, did I say something wrong?"

"No!" She looked up at Harry and smiled weakly, "No, nothing wrong, just unexpected. Why do you need the Ravenclaw Diadem?"

"Apparently, Riddle got hold of it sometime in the past forty years or so and made it into a Horcrux."

"That's oddly appropriate, here, let me take Lily."

Harry gave up his daughter to his wife and prompted her, "There's a story here, isn't there?"

"Oh yes. You see, milord husband, you've gone and married a thief. No, don't look that way, it's true. I was so jealous of my mother that, on the night I eloped with Lord Grey, Itook my mother's diadem - it was said to impart wisdom, I supposed it was why my mum was so scary smart. Turns out it was just a circlet, like any other -but its theft gave the Bloody Baron an excuse to pursue me. Of course, he had ulterior plans for me. When I refused his advances, well, he brought me back to Hogwarts and the rest, as they say, is history."

"That was when he murdered you."

Helena nodded and smiled wistfully, "I got better."

"Any idea where the "come and go"room might be?"

Rocking little Lily she cooed,"Third floor, near that dreadful tapestry of the trolls in tutus."

"I don't remember a room there."

"That's because it comes and goes, hence the name."

"How do I get it to come?"

Helena smiled and looked Harry in the eye, "I could say something truly vulgar right about now."

Harry groaned, "You've been hanging around Myrtle too much!"

She laughed, her earlier sadness forgotten, "Just pace, back and forth, in front of the tapestry and say, "I need to find that diadem, I need to find that diadem, three times should do it, and a door will appear."

Harry kissed both new mums then retrieved Fang from his neatly stacked armor, placing the long scabbard across his back and fastening the buckle on his chest.

He headed to the third floor corridor, flanked by Daphne and Tracey, who were belting their basilisk fang daggers around their hips as they walked.

"I'm not allowed to go anywhere alone, am I?"

"Nope, you'll always have at least two of us with you."

"Even in the loo?"

"Up to the door, but if you have any difficulties in there we'll be right in."

"No thanks, I can manage."

They found the tapestry, Helena/ was right, who would weave such a monstrosity? / Harry thought.

"I need to find Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, I need to find that diadem, I need to find that diadem."

And the door was there, like it had always been there, but they had been too preoccupied or too thick to see it.

Entering the room they were amazed at the size of it, and at the nature of the things within. Every sort of contraband imaginable, broken or otherwise vandalized furniture, empty booze bottles; feebly fluttering, Fanged Frisbees; cauldrons melted or tainted with the remnants of potions projects gone awry, shelves and shelves of banned books, Playwizards dating back fifty years. And, on one battered shelf, the bust of awigged man wearing a thin gold circlet, the diadem.

Harry knew better than to try to touch the cursed object so he drew Fang from his over the shoulder scabbard and allowed a single drop of basilisk venom to drip to the end.

"All too easy." He mused, bringing the point of his sword to the golden circlet.

"Harry, look out!" Daphne screamed.

He threw himself to the left just as a gigantic fist made up of a conglomeration of contraband items smashed into the floor where he'd been standing a second before.

He looked up and saw a golem, twice as tall as a troll, made of broken furniture, coils of wire, bookshelves and empty bottles.

"Get to the door!"

"We're not leaving you, Harry!"

"I'm not asking you to, just get to the door and hold it open, I'll be right there, now go!"

Harry summoned a tall pile of what looked like scrap metal in such a way that it teetered and fell, knocking over and trapping the golem. He grabbed the bust of the wigged wizard and placed it on the floor in front of him.

Harry had only played snooker once in his life, when it was obvious he was naturally better at it than Dudley the Dursleys had made sure never to take him near a felt covered table again. But Harry still remembered, hit the ball in precisely the right place with just the right amount of force and it would go where you wanted it to.

"Come /on/, Harry!"

He lay on his belly on the floor and lined up his wand, like the stick he'd used to propel the balls and judged the proper spot, then sent a silent banisher that shot the bust, with diadem, through the door and into the hallway.

Harry scrambled to his feet and was amazed to find himself flying toward the door.

But he hadn't banished himself, had he?

That's when the first pain hit. The second pain was brief, caused when he ran into the tapestry of the ballet-dancing trolls, and the stone wall just beyond.

Then everything went painfully black.

)O(

He woke up face down in afamiliar looking bed.

The infirmary.

Poppy was doing interesting things to his back.

Snap!

Harry hissed in pain.

"Oh, good, you're awake."

Snap!

"What in the he . . . "

Snap!

". . . arrgh! Are you /done/?"

"Almost." Poppy said, the smile evident in her voice.

Snap!

"Jeayzussss Christ, that hurts!"

"Alright Ladies, it's your turn."

The snapping, popping pains in his back were replaced by the soothing application of a wonderful salve that warmed and relieved and, whoa!

"Not there, Luna!" Tricia admonished.

"But I read somewhere that some men like having their sphincters lubricated."

Pansy guffawed, "I like the sound of that, here, let me try."

Harry tried to move but found he could not.

"No, Harry dear," Poppy said her voice soft and comforting, "you've had six discs in your spinal column dislocated, no damage to the spine, thankfully, but you need to be still for the next thirty hours or so. In addition to that, three of your ribs were broken; I was able to set those while you, ah, /slept/."

Minerva stroked his hair, "I've transfigured the bed so that you can rest comfortably."

Indeed, the bed was comfortable in the face down position because it conformed to his body and face with an oval hole for his face and another for his "block and tackle."

"Don't be embarrassed if you have to eliminate waste, the floor is charmed to absorb any urine and we already gave you a charmed enema, while you were unconscious so you don't have to worry about that."

"We, who's we?"

"All of us!"

Harry groaned, "I'm not going to ever live this down, am I?"

"Let's just say if you ever plan to embarrass Lily with naked baby pictures we have something to give her to retaliate." Helena said, laughing.

"I'm starkers, aren't I?"

Someone gave him a friendly slap on the bum and said, "Yup!"

"So, what happened?"

Tracey explained, "We were holding the door open, just as you asked, then you banished the bust through it, nice shot by the way."

"Thanks. And the Horcrux?"

"Tracey and I envenomed our daggers and let the basilisks poison kill the soul fragment as soon as it was out the door."

Daphne looked worried, "You said that had to be done before anything else, did we get it wrong?"

"No, killing the soul fragment disenchanted the golem, but not before it got in one good whack."

Tracey continued, "There was awisp of black smoke and a sound like a faraway scream and that was it. Kind of anticlimactic, actually."

"How did I get out of the room?"

"Well, just as we stabbed the diadem, that golem freed up an arm or leg or something and hit you from behind. It was awful!"

Daphne concluded, "You came flying through the door at about head level, I tried to cushion the wall but you were flying so fast."

Poppy interrupted, "That cushioning charm saved our Harry's life, Daphne, the only injuries I've had to treat are on his back, his other side is fine."

"Flatterer!" Harry quipped.

"Now I know he's feeling better."

Pansy seemed to have an idea,"Poppy, would you like to see the nursery? Winky's done a wonderful job. I'll stay here and watch over Harry."

Poppy smiled, knowing Pansy was up to something.

"I'd like that, Pansy; we'll leave Harry in your capable hands."

When Poppy and the other Coven Witches had left pansy busied herself in the cabinets.

"Ah, here it is."

She brought a mirror on apedestal and placed it on the floor in front of Harry, then angled the mirror so that he could see his own dangling "equipment."

"Pansy, sweetheart, what are you doing?"

"Well, I had to spend three weeks without any quality "Harry time" when I got hurt by the troll, and I thought Icould have you all to myself tonight."

"But, sweetheart, I can't move."

"That's alright, I'll move for both of us."

)O(

Harry was up and about two days later, everything back in place. Poppy prescribed a nice long warm soak before bed and when Harry teased, "Will you scrub my back for me?"

She replied, "Just tell me when."

Which is how it was that Harry found himself leaning against the side of his massive wooden hot tub while Poppy, dressed in a conservative one-piece swimmer, kneaded his back muscles and inspected his spine for any damage she may have missed. Even in the magical world, back injuries are the most difficult to treat.

"That's enough soaking for now dear, dry yourself and hop up on the table."

Harry stepped out of the tub, and dried himself while Poppy was setting up the massage table. Millicent and Hermione stood by, eager for their first lesson in magical therapeutic massage.

As Harry lay face down on the table Poppy explained.

"First you must create an atmosphere of relaxation." She lowered the light in bathroom.

"Soft, indirect lighting, fragrant candles." As she said the words tall white candles lit all around them.

"Soothing sounds." There came adistant crying of gulls and the sound of waves on a sandy seashore.

"The single most important thing to remember in massage is that you must maintain touch, that is, always keep your hand or forearm or fingers on his skin.

"The other thing to remember is that the human body is symmetrical, that is to say the right side is a mirror image of the left, usually. So what ever you do to one side you must also do to the other."

The nurse moved to the head of the table and positioned Harry's head in the "doughnut hole."

"The muscles that hold the head and neck are the ones most likely to suffer from stress, and therefore are agood place to start and finish."

Harry groaned under Poppy's strong fingers as she charmed the kinks out of his neck and shoulder muscles.

"Magic hands." He murmured appreciatively.

The lecture and demonstration went on to describe kneading techniques for the arms, hands and fingers, legs feet and toes.

Harry was reduced to a mass of contented goo.

"Poppy," Hermione asked, "how is therapeutic massage different from sensual massage?"

"Good question. Like magic, massage is intent based. In other words, it is what you intend to do for your recipient that is most important. If you wish to arouse, then find his erogenous regions and rather than sooth, you will excite him."

Millie smirked, "Could you demonstrate?"

"I'm not sure that would be appropriate."

"Maybe not," Hermione smiled,"but it would be very, /instructional/."

"Just show us as much as you're comfortable with, Poppy." Millie suggested.

The nurse looked at Harry's toned body and sighed.

"Perhaps, just this once."

On the top shelf of the bathroom Astarte was doing her "happy dance," it was working!

Poppy expanded the massage table to accommodate two people and got up to straddle Harry's bare buttocks. The music changed to smooth jazz, sultry saxophones with pulsing counter rhythm base and percussion. The room darkened a little as the nurse literally let her hair down.

She gyrated her hips, riding Harry's firm arse and whipped her hair across his shoulders and back, as if painting him with a large brush.

Poppy lay forward on Harry's bare back and whispered in his ear, "Just relax dear, and imagine that one of your beautiful Witches is doing this for you."

Harry turned his head to the side and said, "A beautiful witch is doing this for me."

He kissed her bare shoulder, the only part of her he could reach at the time.

Poppy felt her sex gush as she felt Harry's love wash over her.

She sat up and couldn't resist grinding her pudendum against his muscular butt, separated only by the gusseted panel of her bathing suit.

Timidly she pulled down the top of her swimming costume, revealing pale but full breasts, then summoned a tube of fragrant oil which she first applied to her own torso before rubbing it onto Harry's back.

Then she lay forward again, skin to skin this time, her bare breasts against his back and began to slide back and forth, up and down, covering his body with her own, kissing his neck and the shell of one ear, then the other as her full body rub became an exercise in dry-humping.

A little dazed, she levered herself up by straightening her arms and whispered, "Turn over, Dear."

Harry did, and captured Poppy's lips in a tender, loving kiss. She sat up again and groaned as she realized she was sitting on his throbbing cock.

Millie and Hermione applied more of the fragrant oil to Harry's chest and Poppy's breasts then stepped back as she leaned forward again, completely lost in the moment. She didn't notice, or care, when somebody vanished her swimmers altogether, leaving her in the, well, altogether.

Poppy's movements became sheer animal lust, and when Harry bulbous head finally lined up with her dripping-wet entrance she howled in triumph and slid back and down, capturing his entire length in one smooth motion.

"Finally," Millicent murmured to Hermione, who nodded in agreement.

"Truly, they've been dancing around each other for months, maybe years."

"Do you think she's on the potion?"

"Maybe, I don't think she really cares at this point."

Their whispered conversation was interrupted by the slap, slap, slapping of the lovers on the massage table.

Harry groaned and Poppy bellowed as he emptied himself in her.

She froze for a long moment and then seemed to swoon, gently falling on his chest.

"That was . . ." Millie started.

". . . beautiful." Hermione finished.

"You don't think they'll be all, y'know, weird about this, do you?" Millie asked, concerned.

Astarte lighted on the big girl's shoulder and, with a smug smile, said, "Never happen."

Hermione grinned, "I thought you might have had something to do with this."

"Very little, actually. These are two beautiful souls who have been attracted to each other for a long time, almost as long as Harry and you have been drawn to each other. So what if she's forty? Witches live to be two-hundred years old; she'll be of child bearing age for another sixty years at least."

Millicent grinned, "Do you think she's . . ?"

Astarte shrugged, "That'll be up to her, she has morning-after potions if she wants to use them."

What Astarte didn't tell the Witches was that Poppy kept a calendar in her office, with five days marked with red Os, for "Ovulating."

Further, the diminutive goddess knew that this was a red-letter day.

Hermione pulled a blanket from the linen cupboard and threw it over the now-sleeping lovers.

"Let's give them a couple of hours, then we need to go to Gringotts."

)O(

Harry entered the main lobby of Gringotts, Diagon Alley branch, with Bella on his arm. They were followed by Su and Helena.

Harry moved to the back of the shortest line, content to wait in queue with all the other patrons.

"No, Harry, we don't wait in line, we are major account holders here."

Lady Helena led the group to the largest, most ornate door leading away from the lobby. Knocked twice, then entered.

The well-dressed goblin sitting behind the gilded desk recovered from his shock quickly and growled, "Get out of my office!"

Helena turned to leave and said, "Very well, the Ancient and Noble House of Potter will be better served by the Gnomes of Switzerland I dare say. You need never see us or our gold or properties again."

"Wait, Lady Potter, Lord Potter, I had no idea. I-I ap-ap-a/POL/ogize for my rudeness, I spoke in haste."

It was obvious that being made to apologize to human wand-wavers was the hardest thing the goblin had ever had to do.

"Very well, /toad/. If you're sincere, the house of Potter will accept a refund of half the proceeds Gringotts has earned from investing Potter resources for the past year."

The goblin looked ready to object until Helena added, "Or we will close our accounts today."

The goblin bowed low, "How may Gringotts serve you today?"

Bella handed the goblin a key, "I need the cup of Helga Hufflepuff from this vault. Beware Master Goblin, it carries a terrible curse."

"Very well."

Five minutes later the Coven group, two goblins and one curse breaker stared at the golden goblet resting in its silk lined box.

"What is the nature of the curse?" the curse breaker asked.

"We have no idea," Harry answered, "we've had to deal with three similar objects and they've each been protected by a different curse."

The curse breaker used four different diagnostic crystals in addition to his wand and stepped back, shaking his head.

"There's a powerful /confundus/charm on this object, it's most likely cursed, but none of my tools can tell what the nature of the curse is."

"Surrogate?" the goblin in charge suggested.

The curse breaker sighed and nodded. Then turned to the clients in the room, "Lord Potter, Ladies Potter, what is about to happen may not be pleasant to look upon, if you would care to wait in the ante-room?"

Lady Helena answered, "Goblin ways are not our ways, but we will respect their laws while in their domains."

She turned to Harry and explained, "Milord, a "surrogate" is a condemned goblin, one who had committed a capital crime. If the surrogate agrees to test the curse, and lives, then he or she may return to the lowest levels of goblin society."

Harry nodded, "We'll stay."

A back door that had not been obvious opened and two guard trolls dragged a ragged-looking goblin who shuffled as quickly as possible in hobbling chains.

The lead goblin snarled, "Wench Scrunchcatch, you stand convicted and condemned. Choose now the manner of your payment, blood or sacrifice?"

Without raising his head the goblin muttered, "Sacrifice."

"So be it."

With a gesture, the condemned was directed to the cup. She reached out, tentatively, to touch the crest on the Helga's Goblet. When nothing happened she smiled an unpleasant, gap-toothed smile.

"Pick it up."

Scrunchcatch lifted the goblet and held it to her heart, smiling broadly now.

"Put it back."

Triumphant, the reprieved goblin placed the cup, with great care in the box.

"You can let go of the goblet now."

The look of triumph faded.

She couldn't release the cup.

Stretch and splay her fingers wide as she may, the cup remained fixed to the palms of her hands.

In desperation she tried to tear the skin off her hands but couldn't.

Harry pulled the basilisk-tooth dagger from his belt and envenomed the tip.

"This will release the soul fragment; it may also release the curse. May I?"

"Do what you will, Lord Potter, she is of no consequence either way."

Scrunchgrasp lifted the cup toward Harry's dagger.

The point of the dagger easily pieced the soft gold and a golden mist spread out, turning everything it touched into gold, first the dagger, which Harry dropped, then the goblin holding the goblet.

"Step back." Harry warned as the golden curse completely covered the unfortunate goblin wench.

The now-familiar scream of adissipating soul fragment echoed briefly, then all was still.

"What was her crime?" Harry asked.

"Patricide and fratricide, she killed all the male members of her house, of every generation, so that she alone could inherit."

"Well, she wanted gold. She's got it."

)O(

Harry and Glynda stepped into the warm, humid air of the London Zoo's Reptile House. It was a welcome relief from the old city's December chill. Millicent had entered before them and Pansy brought up the rear.

As Pansy closed the door she cast a compulsion charm on the only public entryway so that anyone nearing the door would suddenly remember something else, more interesting, or more important than going into the reptile house. The few zoo visitors who were already there suddenly lost interest in all things cold blooded and wanted to see the tigers, again.

Harry followed his curse-scar connection to Riddle and the one remaining Horcrux - other than himself - down the corridor, then to the right. And stopped.

"Oh this is too rich."

"What, Harry?" Millicent asked.

They stood before a large glassed enclosure labeled, /Burmese Python/.

This is the same glass I vanished when I was ten years old. My cousin Dudley fell in and pissed himself when the glass reappeared.

The python in the case was Nagini, under a glamour.

"Nagini isn't a python, she's an adder, mutated by the same soul magic that's made Riddle into the snake-faced bastard he is now. I'm going to vanish the glass, cutting curses on three . . . one," he cancelled the glamour so that the snake no longer looked like apython, "two," Harry vanished the glass, wandlessly, "and . . ."

Nagini raised her head, which was much too expressive to be reptilian. If anything she looked more human than reptile. Large, brown, human eyes, brimming with tears looked sadly at the assembled mages.

They stopped. The mutated snake seemed to radiate misery.

"Nagini?" Harry hissed in parseltongue.

The serpent nodded, "You are assspeaker."

"Yesss."

The serpent slithered toward the group but Harry could sense no danger, no malice in her as she said, "You are like my massster, but not like him."

"What do you mean?"

She coiled loosely around his feet, "He isss cold, you are warm. He wasss warm, once. He promisssed me food and warmth but in his ssservice I have only known cold and hunger and hatred and pain."

Harry leaned down to place a warm hand on Nagini's head. The great snake nuzzled his palm the way a cat would.

"Warm Ssspeaker, pleassse. Releassse me from thisss pain."

Harry nodded, feeling empathy and compassion for the reptile who, through no fault of her own, had become an instrument of evil.

He turned tortured eyes to his /Vipera/and said, in English, "No cutting curses. I'll do this myself."

The Witches seemed to understand how hard this was going to be for him and backed away a few paces to give the parsel-speakers a little space.

Harry knelt, letting Nagini slither up to and around his arm. The heartrending eyes looked up at Harry and asked, "Will it hurt?"

"No little one, not at all. You'll just go to sssleep and dream of warm meadowsss full of mice."

"Oh that sssoundsss nice."

"Now close your eyes, little one."

Harry caressed the serpent's chin as her tongue flicked out over his wrist. He touched the tip of the Elder Wand to the top of her contented head and whispered, "/Avada Kedavra/."

Both serpent and wizard fell, unmoving, to the ground.