Categories > Books > Harry Potter > Harry Potter and the Corvinus Strain
Chapter 4
The last of the Witches' Secret Trilogy. Life was good until an old world reality intervened.
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Harry Potter and the Corvinus Strain
Chapter 4
Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Friday
1 August 2003
12:06
Nym shaded her eyes and looked out at the twelve-foot high, hundred-yard wide standing wave that Harry had somehow created and was using to teach the children how to surf. Well, after Dianne Hurley Potter and Teanni Kai Potter, both from the original set of vampire mates, had some board time with him. Having the knowledge from their bond was no substitute for doing it for real, as they had found time and again.
Nym and the others had been listening to the joyous shrieks of children of all ages, including Phillip, all morning. Harry pulled the kids out in front of the wave and the flow of water pulled them up and over the wave faster and faster until it threw them off the top. The whole crowd at the beach had gotten into the act. Even the mates and vassal ladies had taken at least a turn or two.
The now traditional Harry Birthday Tour of the Realm and then Turning, by now a nine-day Turning with the mates Turning every time they came back to sidereal until they had all gotten a chance to give Harry their—erm—congratulations, yesterday should have worn Harry out completely, but something about fine weather just seemed to energize him.
“Harry, lunch. And some of the kids need a nap, I think.”
Out on the wave Harry nodded and the wave finally broke on the beach with a tremendous crash, depositing kids, mates, vassals, and citizens in exhausted, happy, sandy heaps.
Agnes, Prioress of Tabennisi, looked at the laughing Patriarchs and followed their eyes. She gasped. Harry was walking back to the beach across the surface of the water. “That’s blasphemy, that is!”
“Oh, relax, Agnes, it’s just a lightening charm. He could do the same thing on air, besides; the boy changes into Dragons and feeds multitudes on a regular basis.”
“Feeds on multitudes, more like, Jozef.”
“Agnes! That wasn’t very charitable. What’s wrong with you lately?”
Bartholomew answered for her. “These hybrids, Jozef, the same as the rest of us—except for you.”
Pope John Paul II rolled his eyes at the Patriarch, Bartholomew I. “And we’re going to do what exactly about it? We’ve been over this and over this. Harry is the logical one to stand against them.”
Bartholomew replied hotly, “But he doesn’t intend to.”
Harry had approached them by now. “Only if they violate the law, Patriarch.”
“Harry, they are a violation of the laws of nature.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “So vampires and werewolves are fine, but vampire werewolves or werewolf vampires have to die? We’ve had this discussion, Patriarch. I will not prevent nor confine them until some act of theirs violates the laws of the Realm. Now, have some chicken.” Harry indicated the plate Genistra, one of the new Potter elves, was holding out.
Bartholomew reached for the chicken and then snatched his hand back. Harry chuckled and walked away. Bartholomew took some chicken and Hyacinth brought him a glass of iced tea.
Phillip watched and muttered, “Abomination that is, iced tea.”
“Phillip, really! You say that every day before you drink a gallon of it.”
“Never said it wasn’t good, Liz.”
“PHILLIP!”
“What, dear? Need the lemon?”
Chuckles arose as the Queen grumbled.
Andromeda Tonks née Black finished drying herself off and looked at Ted. “Put your eyes back in, Ted.” She smiled, though; it was very nice to be appreciated that much. “Nym, is there anything Harry can’t do? I mean, that wave is great but it’s a little bit conspicuous in its use of magic.”
Nym smiled and shrugged. “He doesn’t even notice causing it. It’s really a series of little spells all built into the wave. Of course, his little is a different than our little.”
Andromeda looked at her daughter. “And wildly different from the norm. Nym, most of us wouldn’t have even conceived of that wave, much less attempted it.”
Nym gave a little shrug. “It’s Harry, Mum—what can I say?”
The women all turned and looked at a smiling Harry as he sat in the sand eating cold chicken and playing with his kids. It was an image distinctly at odds with His Highness, Duke Potter. Here was a happy young father. His Highness was a tough taskmaster and a merciless enforcer.
“Harry, how long are we going to be going to the beach everyday?”
“Why, Sirius, got an appointment?”
Sirius grumbled something about lack of clothes hindering things. Hermione and Susan’s mutual spit-takes could have been a tragedy if not for Daphne and Ginny’s stones.
Harry looked back at Sirius, smiling after catching Hermione and Susan’s thoughts. “Well, we have the Corps exercise from the fifth to the eighteenth and then we have to get the schools ready, plus we’ll have to begin containment and observation operations, so after Tuesday we’re done with the beach—well, except for the weekends. You might want to lay in some essence of murtlap.”
Sirius blinked and Remus and Rose Lupin rolled on the sand laughing. “Yes, well, just wanted to make sure, Harry. Pass me some chicken?”
Harry tossed Sirius a drumstick and smiled.
Father Jozef smiled at the activities of his personal parishioner. Harry had turned out very well, he thought. Six feet two inches and one hundred kilos of twisted steel and sex appeal browned to a deep, deep golden tan surmounted by that honest, open, expressive face containing those burning copper-green eyes and surmounted by that still out of control black hair. The scar had faded to a white lightning bolt, as it did not tan. Harry smiled more than he used to and was generally at peace with himself and his power. He was shy and retiring still, but that was part of the package. He was faithful to his mates and children as well as his vassals. No one could complain, at least not legitimately.
And the mates, paragons of their somatotypes, all refined in the fire of their mates’ all-consuming love. Other women could only hope to reach this level.
They might not be dogmatic followers of the Church, but they were believers in a higher power, this, his personal parish, and Father Jozef was satisfied. Of course Pope John Paul II could not be until they were confirmed Roman Catholics and Warriors of God, but that didn’t look as if it would be a possibility.
The Pope had not noticed the Clan drifting to a halt as Harry picked up these thoughts until Harry stood, bowed slightly in his direction, and then ambled off to Sandlandia under tow by Nym’s Lily and Min’s Carmen, signaling the end of lunch and the beginning of another campaign in the land of sand and children of all ages.
Ruth Holt Potter, Commander 1st Mage Regiment (+) (US) (Separate) leaned over and gave Father Jozef a quick buss on the cheek. “The Clan loves you too, Father.” Ruth then strolled over to the other ladies as Bartholomew rolled in the sand laughing at the Pope’s blush, and Prioress Agnes shook her head.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Saturday
2 August 03
09:00
The beach officially opened and a veritable horde of children swam out and took their first ride over the wave. Harry and the mates and children had been wowing the crowd with a surfing demonstration for a half-hour already.
The section of grass and sand over which Harry had cast the charm was only open to Potter bonded or children and a select few others, however. It was like the Ducal box, only flat. The edges of Harry’s ward were soon clearly defined by a path trodden by every girl on the beach and most of the boys as they walked nonchalantly by, ogling.
The mates and their friends hardly noticed any more. That the parade of the curious had never stopped over the six years the Clan had been public was more of a conversation item than them coming to look in the first place.
Beatrice, lying next to Zsuzsa and forty or fifty other young mates—all of them brown as nuts, soaking wet, dressed in what amounted to three rubber bands and a peanut shell, or the sartorial equivalent Parvati had come up with—and being built for sin was almost too much for the boys today. Several mates were having to occasionally wrestle with their Harry-eyed-green diamonds off and on to keep the stones from lashing out. Harry came in from the wave and a single snort of that odd green fire cured the problem instantly, sending boys scattering over the beach. The mates laughed.
Hermione was lying in the sand and her frustration was obviously mounting as the poor tablet PC was taking a beating. Harry swooped in on her and rolled her over and away from the PC and gave the crowd something to watch.
Nym finally cast an obscuring dome over them when Harry took a handful of breast. The crowd grunted and then muttered its disapproval. The Potter daughters rolled their eyes and then flipped over so the other side could tan a while.
Harry had faded Hermione away to the roof garden of Potter Castle; as soon as they landed in the grass Hermione twisted and rolled Harry under her and pinned him. She didn’t know why, really, but she called her vampire and bit Harry.
On the beach the bonded froze as Hermione, charged with Harry’s blood, took what she wanted. Harry gave it to her and allowed her to dominate him. “Allowed” was perhaps the wrong word; with the charge she received from Harry’s blood he was hard pressed to hold off his Primary wife, and the bonded were lending her power. They felt Harry wanting her to win.
Today suddenly turned into a grandmother’s day out with the grandkids as the mates faded to the roof garden. As they arrived Nym turned her head sideways to look at the position in which Hermione’s actions had put Harry and herself. “Well, that’s a new one.”
Rita nodded and conjured parchment and charcoal. “Yes, but it looks like fun.”
Bellatrix, with her head almost upside down, added, “Only for the young. I don’t think my feet will go behind my head like that.”
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Saturday
2 August 03
10:43
Lily was extremely put out with her dad—Hermione-mum too. They had left her and Carmen here alone defending against her troublesome brothers. Things were not going well. Hmmm...Daddy had told her about that desert creature. Let’s see, now how did that go? Oh yes. Daddy said think hard and focus and then make what you want to happen, happen.
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Potter Castle
Roof Garden
Saturday
2 August 03
10:44
Harry’s eyes popped back open seconds before he faded away, going to his terrified children. Something had to die now.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Saturday
2 August 03
10:45
Harry faded into view on the beach to find a shrieking, fleeing crowd, the Court of St. James and his vassals, led by the Queen, holding the children behind them and preparing to fight a truly gigantic Nundu. Wait—what? Nundu? Where the hell had that come from?
As the mates faded in the Nundu took a breath and started to roar. It finished its roar in the southern reaches of the Sahara with a very nice male Nundu standing there watching from his green eyes.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Saturday
2 August 03
10:46
“Well that’s sorted then. Everyone okay?”
Elizabeth eyed Phillip. “And what about Harry, Phillip?”
“Well, he’ll be back in a few minutes, then we can ask him where all that blood came from.”
Elizabeth was distracted by this almost random thought and spun on Nym and the other Alphas. “Yes, exactly how did my liege get covered in blood?”
Nym blinked. That was a seriously evil glint in the Queen’s eye. She was saved by Hermione’s blush, which included her hair going a deep red. Elizabeth oriented on Hermione and narrowed her eyes. Hermione’s mouth and neck were covered in blood smears. Daphne’s quick Scourgify came seconds too late. “Hermione?”
“Errrh, well you see, we—ah, that is, Harry and I, well, we....”
Hermione’s blush became so spectacular that the assembled adults wondered if she needed medical attention. Nym’s Lily saved her. “What happened to my desert cat thingy? It was winning!”
The crowd oriented on the petulant, nearly-seven year old. Phillip sat in the sand next to his grandchild. “Yours, Lil?”
“Mine, Granddad. I made it.”
The bond held its breath. “How, Lil?”
“Da said you just think about what you want, and focus, and then make it happen. The boys were winning so I thought of something that fought in sand and—and—well, then the big cat appeared and stomped all the boys’ armies to pieces.”
The bonded sat in the sand and held their heads. The combination of Hermione’s—erm—activities, Lily summoning a Nundu, a fully grown Nundu, and now Harry apparently being Harryistic with said Nundu somewhere in Niger was a little much.
Mothers blinked and then moved to their daughters. Elizabeth moved to the Alphas. “Nym?”
“Its fine, ma’am, just been a busy morning.”
Elizabeth gave her a raised eyebrow and Nym couldn’t help it; she started laughing. When she finally regained control she looked at her daughter, who was sitting in Great-Grandpop’s lap pouting. “Lily. that was a Nundu. They are horribly dangerous and they live in Africa. Don’t summon any more of those, please.”
“But Mum!”
Phillip smiled and stood Lily up. “Come on then, Lily, let’s go try again without the Nundu.” He stood and led the parade of kids and dads, uncles, and older brothers back to Sandlandia. The older sisters stayed firmly planted right by their preferred mums.
“All right, Hermione. Now that the little ears are gone, what exactly were you doing?”
At Emma’s question Hermione’s spectacular blush, which had faded to a bright pink, deepened again. “Well, Harry got all grabby, and I was working, and it made me mad, and then, well—when he faded us away I bit him and...erm...it got a little rough after that. Next thing I knew we were, erm, resting and Harry snaps to full alert and fades away. We followed.”
Hermione conveniently left out the part where she had fully changed to her vampire and that the “rough” part was her holding Harry down and taking him to her satisfaction multiple times, any way she wanted, before finally letting him finish in her as she sat on him and bit him again.
Emma looked at her very embarrassed daughter. “All right, dear, sometimes they all make us mad. Usually we don’t bite them, but if that’s what it takes. You might think of clothes before you just up and fade back to the beach.”
Hermione’s blush reached new and epic proportions as she looked down and realized she was wearing the tiny little red-leather bikini she usually only wore in the Dragon’s Den. Daphne looked at her co-Primary and shrugged. “It was the first thing I thought of.”
Hermione was suddenly wearing a much more modest bikini as her sister wives laughed.
The hilarity became general as Harry appeared in a black leather breechcloth and fell into her lap. He was suddenly wearing floral print surfer shorts.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Sunday
3 August 03
09:15
Harry stood literally steaming on the beach “No, George, and I don’t care how much people will pay. Those magic-powered surfboards will not be ridden on my wave. If people like them so much they can go ride them up a waterfall. They’re just surfboards with a broom buried in them, anyway.”
“You’re just being a surfer purist, Harry.”
Angelina looked at Fred, knowing he had lost his mind. “Well, looks like I get to join the Clan after all. Go ahead, Harry, light the idiot on fire.”
Fred paled. It was so hard sometimes to remember that Harry was His Highness. “Uh…no need to be hasty, Your Highness, beg pardon…heat of the moment and all that.”
Harry opened his mouth to reply hotly when he saw Molly bearing down on Fred and George at flank speed with Arthur, Bill, and Charlie in line abreast, neatly crossing the twins’ T as it were. Harry simply smiled and turned away. He leapt onto his board and paddled out to his wave. Fred and George drew their heads in and then turned toward the shade awning, finding Alicia and Angelina standing there tapping their feet in the sand as their reinforcements arrived behind them.
The production powered surfboards, unlike the prototype, would come with a warning and a rune-driven charm to keep them from being ridden on Clan Potter-created waves.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Monday
4 August 03
08:30
Nym flopped ungracefully onto the sand and Na Wen, Sarah, and Lilith joined her. Their mates smirked at them and then took pity and took care of the kids. Melinda walked over and passed them all the “overdone it” potions. The rest of the mates had already taken theirs. It had been a wild Turning, with Harry on full broadcast and the mates stimulated until they were finally forced to Occlude the bonds and the multiple takings of the Alphas, which uptime felt as though it was one long, continuous orgasm. Three days of that had been a little much for all of them. Harry was not slowing down. The wave was an eight-meter-tall monster today with a fully formed pipe. Harry was already crouched on a board deep inside the roaring pipe. The boys were waist-deep in the water fighting the suction and cheering while the girls hung at about knee-deep and looked wide-eyed at their all-the-way-on, insane, risk-taking father.
The Realm entire seemed to have descended on the beach and lake by ten a.m. and the mates did not put up the shield. The lake and surrounding grounds were a riot in progress.
Harry was out in the lake, dragging random females under and taking them on tours around the lake bottom. Universally they came back smiling. Some came back and joined the mates for a few moments’ earthy conversation. Two joined their new mates.
Even though the personnel portion of the ward wasn’t up and every mate soon had a circle of admirers, none approached closer than a few feet and no males were closer than a body length away. This was new and thrilling, but His Highness was near; besides, those looks from the Veela, Goblin, and Mage…no sense dying painfully on a beautiful summer day.
Elizabeth arrived at two in the afternoon to find these types of activities still going on and, after she made her way through the respectfully parting crowd, the Alphas napping. “Hestia, what in the world is going on?”
“Harry is storing up the good times, we think. The WARNO and troop movement order went out this morning and the exercise starts tomorrow.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “It isn’t the end of the world.”
“For some of these it might be, Mum. The Magical Corps starts operations tonight with reconnaissance troops going in.”
The Queen looked over the crowd sadly for a moment and then smiled. They were young, as other generations going to war before them had been; they would be fine. There were sure to be some regrets from today and this evening at the rate they were going, but that was part of growing up too. She nodded at Andrew. “Thank you, dear, even I need a reminder on occasion.”
“Oh, stop that, Andrew. You’d think one had never said that before.”
Andrew’s fish impersonation carried on, much to the Queens disgust and his bonded’s amusement.
“Errrk! Harry Potter, what is it that you think you’re doing?” Harry was carrying the Queen, now attired in a modest bathing suit, down the sand and onto a surfboard.
“Harry James Potter, I demand you unhand me this instant! Phillip, you great dolt, don’t just stand there! Get your son under control!”
Phillip actually looked around at the shocked, silent mob on the beach. When he looked back it was too late. Elizabeth stood on the front of the surfboard with Harry behind her, riding the monster wave at breakneck speed. She was just smiling at the corners of her mouth. “Well, that’s sorted then. Care for a go, Fortune?”
Fortune Fitzroy, Duchess Grofton, Mistress of the Robes, turned to Phillip. “Not with you Highness. I’ve seen you surf.”
“Oh, I say, Fortune— a bit harsh, what?”
John Hendricks Potter, seventh year Hufflepuff and Potter son, stepped up. “I’d be glad to take the Duchess out.” And he offered his hand.
Fortune contemplated a moment and then took the offered hand. She, like Elizabeth, found herself in a modest bathing suit. She looked down at herself and then around. She nodded at the smiling Parvati and continued out to the wave with her escort/instructor.
Joeseph Murphy Potter, Myrridin Uni freshman, looked around at his brothers. “Well, Da and John have torn it now, brothers. Come on, pick a lady and let’s get it over with.”
The Brothers Potter each picked a lady from the Court of St. James and escorted her out past Parvati, who was Transfiguring clothes to beautiful if modest swimwear, and then onto the massive wave which Harry and the Queen had cleared of all surfers.
Not to be outdone, Rebecca Corky Potter, Myrridin fifth form intent-bonded Potter daughter/mate, took her grandfather/future father-in-law by the hand. “Come on, GrandDa, let’s show ’em.”
Phillip beamed at her. “Oh, good show.” They skipped the line for the clothing Transfiguration as Phillip simply removed his very nice track suit and was already in his trunks. They joined the crowd on the wave. Phillip’s yells of joy and Elizabeth’s “PHILLIP!” could clearly be heard and seemed to unfreeze the beach.
The Alphas sat up and watched the show.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Monday
4 August 03
11:30
Harry had brought the Queen back in after an hour or so and now, wonder of wonders, she was lying on a towel in the sun with the Alphas.
Rebecca had swum in, leaving Phillip to rule the wave, as it were. He was really very good and a real crowd pleaser.
“Geoffrey?”
“Master?”
“How would the elves feel about laying a barbecue for this lot?” Harry indicated the crowd of thousands.
Geoffrey smiled. He had been afraid the Master was going to give them time off. “Very pleased, Master.”
Harry smiled, and Geoffrey faded away as silently as he had come.
Almost immediately Harry smelled smoke and his smile broadened.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Monday
4 August 03
19:44
Harry stood on a table and shouted, “Well, have we had a good time?”
A disjointed and slightly slurred “Too right!” came back.
Harry smiled. “All right, then. Summer is over, I’m afraid. Please report to your units at 03:00 tomorrow morning ready to go to work. Oh, one last thing.” Harry raised his arms and called the Realm. He released a massive sobering charm. “There—now nobody violates the eight-hour bottle-to-throttle rule.”
Elizabeth smiled; maybe not too many regrets, then. Or maybe not. “Phillip! People can see!”
Phillip waggled his eyebrows and Geoffrey faded Phillip and Elizabeth to the Royal suite.
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Godric’s Hollow
Corps Slab Field
Tuesday
5 August 03
03:49
It was as dark as the inside of a coffin. Fifty-five percent illumination, but that wasn’t taking into consideration the low overcast. Harry hoped it was better in the exercise area. The Wargs, werewolves, and vampires wouldn’t be bothered but the technomancers’ thermal night-vision monocular didn’t give depth perception. There were always lots of broken ankles and wrists on bad illumination nights.
Harry continued stalking through the units here, and then trotted to a slab off to the side. The Mage, Goblin, Guards, and Veela Regiments watched the giant Warg go. His Highness hadn’t said a harsh word, but there was something tense in that trot and sergeants turned back to their soldiers and checked them again.
The mate unit commanders and officers checked themselves and their units; they could feel Harry’s disquiet.
At 04:00 Nym stepped across the event horizon of the slab designated for the Corps HQ use. Across the field her mates led their units across the event horizons of their designated slabs. The exercise was truly underway.
Dan, Phillip, Peter Inge, and Sergei Plotempkin had designed the exercise first to conform to the visions of Luna and Li. Once they designed it they handed it off to the most evil men they could find, and Tim Spicer and Pitior Romanovskaya had twisted the thing out of all recognition with twists, turns, traps, and above all, foreknowledge of the Corps plan. This exercise was not designed to train the Corps; it was designed to test it to the breaking point—what Lieutenant General Ham called an MRX (Mission Rehearsal Exercise).
The Corps would act, then be evaluated, then act again until they had each task down to perfection. The culminating exercise would be the attack on the remaining “hybrids” after Selene and Michael (in script only) took down Marcus and William. The command trainers would be commanding the “hybrid” forces.
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800 Kilometers North of Chita
Monday
11 August 03
23:30
Harry saw the opportunity again but this time he hesitated and let the situation develop further. This was the fifth time they had run this particular portion of the exercise and it had beaten them every time so far.
They had finally drilled down to this decision as being the breaking point. Harry had pushed too hard trying to relieve Camille Sherwood Potter’s platoon and it started a chain reaction, causing them to have to kill all the hybrids by the bonded reverting to their Dragons.
The decision, however, was a knifeblade poised at Camille’s throat. If Harry hesitated too long to commit the reserves to relieve Camille, she and her platoon would die. If he committed too soon again, well, then the gloves would have to come off…again.
Harry focused and signaled Nym. The Corps staff faded away and arrived in the warehouse just in time. A round of those infamous super-powered Stunners and it was all over.
Dan stepped from behind a pillar. “Very good, Harry. Now back to the start position and let’s do it again.”
Harry nodded and Nym and Sarah started returning the Corps to start positions. They knew Harry would do it at least three more times.
Leaders had complained in the early part of the exercise and then several major accidents had occurred, and now the Corps truly trained as they would fight. Rest periods were rigorously enforced, with Stunners if necessary. Even Harry had found himself on the end of a Lilith Stunner. There was no arguing with all four Alphas so he just let it take effect—well, after some whinging. Nym had taken command of the Corps for the next eight hours. Then Sarah, as Nym, rested. Na Wen had had a go and finally, despite the fears of the Patriarch, Lilith took the reins of the magical Corps. Bartholomew found himself slightly disappointed when what he was sure was the first being created by God and then turned evil simply moved the magical Corps through its planned training and then lay down for a nap. The Pope and Dalai laughed themselves ill when he told them. Prioress Agnes threw up her hands and rolled her eyes as she stalked away muttering.
Harry went back to his cot in the tent attached to the Corps Field HQ and found Marcia Braithwaite Potter lying there awake beside the sleeping Lilith and Na Wen, waiting for him. He smiled and crawled in. “Marcia.”
Marcia smiled; good, he wasn’t too tired. “Harry.”
“Is there something I can do for you?”
“Why yes, there is, Harry.”
Harry smiled. “Marcia, before we start, how has it been on the medical side of things?”
Marcia blew at her bangs. “Well, it’s steadied down to the exercise casualties now. It seems we got over our clumsiness, or stupidity, or whatever that was. The odd boo-boo here and there and the witches are driving us insane, but that’s normal.”
Harry looked at her. “Normal?”
“They’re all breeding age, Harry. God may be great, but He was a mediocre plumber. There’s always something going on with breeding-age women. It’s not their fault, and it wouldn’t be bad but we’re having to retool the medical section. We set up along guidelines for U.S. Army medical units not realizing that slightly more than half the Corps would be female.”
Harry still looked puzzled, so Marcia gave him a quick burst of her eight-hour shift as the Chief Medical Officer for the Corps. Harry cringed and said, “Oh! We have to get more, errh, OB-GYNs.”
Marcia smiled. “If there were more, we’d have more. And no, we don’t actually need more; we just need to tighten up the medics’ training and they can take most of the burden. A lot of times a girl just needs an ear and an opinion.”
“Harry, what I really want to talk about, if we have to talk, are the combat casualties. The numbers are very high. Are the troops just not able to get it this year?”
Harry shook his head. “Like you, we have a new paradigm. These hybrids are unbelievably fast and powerful, and one mistake ends up with a whole squad being taken down.”
“They’re the devil to treat, too, Harry. We normally have to give them blood and let their natural healing do it. The hybrids, that is.”
“Yes, I know. We’ll have to do better, though, Marcia. I mean, the fifty volunteers were sworn to me before they turned hybrid so I’m not sure they’re fighting as hard as they can.”
Marcia shook her head. “I don’t think that’s true, Harry. The ones we get for treatment collapse, exhausted, after they get some blood. I think they’re giving you everything they have. I think you’ll find the unsworn hybrids won’t fight as hard. They’ll try to survive. The vassal hybrids know you’ll do your best to save them, so they’re not as inhibited. Mmmm, yess, like that—well, not like that for them, but very nice...mmph.”
Harry had taken advantage and a mouthful of Marcia and then kissed her quiet. Lilith and Na Wen smiled at their bedmates. Na Wen grunted, “Finally. I thought they’d never shut up,” and closed her eyes. She laid her head back down on Lilith’s breast.
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912 Kilometers North of Chita
Monday
17 August 03
14:27
Harry was exhausted. He and the mates were all that were left on their feet, but the Corps had won this time. All the hybrids were captured and no Corps troops KIA, three times in a row now.
Dan walked up. “That’s it, Harry, enough. Everyone is exhausted.”
Harry smiled at Dan. “My thoughts exactly.”
Harry passed a change of mission instruction to the mates. “AAR time?”
Dan looked at Harry. “16:00 tomorrow.”
Harry kept issuing instructions to return the Corps to quarters with his thanks.
At dusk Harry gathered the mates on the Corps temporary transport point and they faded off the field, the last of the Corps to go.
Lieutenant General Ham looked at his senior fellow O/Cs Dan, Tony, and Sergei. “Well, if they aren’t ready no one is.”
Tony nodded. “Yes, quite. And the reports from the reconnaissance companies are very good. They’ll have a complete picture in another week.”
Sergei grunted. “Time to change the reconnaissance elements, then. They’ll get complacent.”
The senior Command trainers nodded.
Phillip stepped from the shadows with Andrew. “Should we change them before then?”
Alastor answered as he stepped in. “No, sir, they have a good rhythm going. I’ll monitor them. If I see something going badly we’ll let His Highness know.”
They all nodded.
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Potter Castle
Roof Garden
Monday
18 August 03
20:54
Harry sat in the roof garden looking west at the setting sun, or his body did. His mind was hundreds of miles away with the now eighteen-year-old Shelby Miller Potter, one of the Great Massacre chattel mates. Her Company was on Lucian and he was up to something.
Luna huffed and got a hug from Lilith. “You know he trusts you, Luna, he just worries so.”
“Well, if he’s going to be like this for the next year, he should realize that the hybrids won’t survive. I’ll kill them all myself.”
Lilith chuckled. “Just give him a minute, Luna. He’ll realize you’re naked soon.”
“He’d better. While we’re waiting, though, how did you like the non-mates’ response to the AAR?”
Lilith frowned. “I think they’re getting carried away. I mean, they were hypercritical and all of them have those training plans that go well beyond the pale.”
Hestia nodded. “Yes, we may have to do something about that. Ah, there—Shelby has sprung the trap. Those two will have to be dominated or killed.” Hestia paused as Harry came back to himself and folded Luna into his arms in his lap. “There is in fact such a thing as overtraining.”
Ruth Holt Potter nodded. “Yes, they’ll get in a rut, so to speak, and not be able to react to the situation as it exists, only to what they’ve trained to. I would suggest battle drill training and platoon force-on-force exercises. It will keep them thinking up new things. We could make it a competition.”
Hestia nodded enthusiastically. “That’s a great idea, Ruth!”
The bond was suddenly full of schemes and schedules as company and battalion commanders thought their way through platoon schedules, regimental commanders or G3s worked on intra-regiment schedules, and Hermione worked on inter-regiment schedules.
Their thoughts were interrupted by a mental howl from Luna followed by a truly epic orgasm as they had forgotten to Occlude at all and the orgasm went looping through the bond, gaining strength as it went.
Winky appeared with the ladies’ maids and a smirk and began putting the Clan to bed. All the female elves would be pregnant again after that demonstration. It was great to be bound to Harry Potter. Now get them to bed and find Dobby so she could finish what the Master had started.
“Winky, what will you do when the Master finds out?”
“Harry Potter will be happy he makes us able to be pregnant. He loves babies, Geoffrey.”
“I think this will go badly if he ever finds out, Winky.”
“Then don’t tell him. We certainly won’t.” The ladies’ maids, who had paused to listen, nodded furiously.
Geoffrey nodded but was still perturbed. He didn’t like keeping secrets from the Master. He was the Overlord of the East, the first in three ages and the first generally white-sided one ever. The Portal to the West had judged him and found him worthy, so who was he to doubt the combined will of the Elf Lords?
Winky looked at Geoffrey. “You don’t tell him we exist outside of time either, Geoffrey. Don’t worry about it—if he needs to know he will. Lilith will tell him.”
Geoffrey nodded. “I was sure he’d figure it out when he started fading through time like we do.”
Winky laughed. “He’s a little busy, Geoffrey. When he slows down in a few thousand years he’ll think his way through it.”
“What makes you think he’ll slow down?”
Winky rolled her eyes. “There won’t be any females left that aren’t his daughters. He has a serious block about the daughters. It will take many, many years to break it.”
“Not if one of them is found.”
Winky shuddered. “Lilith will prevent it, I hope, until he’s ready.”
“Your trust in her is commendable, but she hasn’t had a body in four ages. I think she’s distracted.”
“Not when it comes to anything involving her Harry, she isn’t, Geoffrey. She’s as omniscient as she ever was, and as inscrutable. She also tolerates no interference; serve the Goddess as we elves always have.”
Winky faded away with a smiling-in-her-sleep Lilith, and Geoffrey stood in quiet contemplation. Serve the Goddess, yes of course, but she would never tell them what she was really doing. Well, at least she never had before; not even the High Elves had known.
Oh well, it was a good life with the Master. Plenty of power, and he was “kind” to a fault. If he came up with one more excuse for the dreaded “time off”, though, they would have to speak with the Goddess. Elves could only get in trouble with spare time on their busy little hands. Especially these young ones; it was enough to drive a Seneschal to drink.
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Godric’s Hollow
Potter’s Field
Monday
18 August 03
20:54
“’Ere now, Ronniekins—”
“—why the long—”
“—face?”
“Leave my Ronnie alone, you two scoundrels. Alicia, you and Angelina haven’t broken them of that yet?”
“Why no—”
“Lavender, we—”
“—haven’t. We—”
“—kind of like it—”
“—sometimes.”
Lavender Weasley rolled her eyes. “You four have been spending too much time experimenting again. One of these days something will go wrong and Hu Jin will find you all dead in that manky old lab.”
Alicia smiled. “Well, Molly could have her wish then and have six kids back in the house at once. Eight if it’s after Angelina pops these two.”
“Well, if you Weasley girls would stop visiting the Duchesses so much, maybe you wouldn’t have twins all the time.”
“Kathleen Conrad! I resent the insinuation that I would crawl in the Duke’s bed.”
Kathleen blinked at Alicia’s outburst, but then Alicia continued, “Run and jump in it maybe, as soon as George pisses me off again, but never crawl!”
The table, Ron’s Auror peers and Fred and George’s Regimental peers, broke up laughing at George’s expense. George just continued to sit there being purple with yellow polka dots. No one knew what he had done this time, but it was a record. Home less than a day and Alicia had turned him colors again.
Fred rose to his brother’s defense. “Yeah, well, laugh now but I’ve seen you all checking your twins’ eye color.”
Lavender nodded. “Well, it is unusual. I mean, I talked to the Senior Auror Healers and every one of us having twins is unprecedented. Marcia, Jennifer, and Melissa are relieved, though. Marcia was getting worried about intermarriages too close to the main line. Jennifer thinks it’s something to do with Harry, but there’s no empirical evidence, only anecdotal. Well, other than the fact that we all started having twins after Nym had Lily and James.”
Ron shrugged; Lavender had turned out to be a great Healer and one of the few field-qualified Auror Healers herself. “Twins run in the Weasley line, so what could you expect?”
“Oh, so it’s you Weasleys’ fault then! Good, I can quit blaming Nev.”
Neville had walked up with the heavily pregnant Romilda on his arm. The table’s occupants turned to them. “Nev! And Romy!”
Romilda rolled her eyes. “Budge over, Lav, me feet’re killin’ me.” Lavender scooted down and Neville lowered Romilda into her seat and then hovered nervously.
“Neville, sit down. Merlin’s flaming penis, you should have gotten over this by now, you Harry-like thing.” At Romilda’s barked instructions Neville sat, obviously on pins and needles, and got another eye roll for his trouble. Romilda turned to the table. “Okay, so which of you has tried this water birthing thing the Duchesses do?”
Alicia, Angelina, and Lavender each raised a hand shoulder high. Lavender smiled. “It’s dreamy.”
“That’s not very helpful, Lav; care to elaborate?”
“Nev, come on, we’ll buy you a pint.” Ron led the males’ retreat to the bar.
Romilda looked at them and sighed. “I hope Neville gets plastered.”
“Romilda Longbottom!”
“Kathleen, it’s horrible. Nervous as a cat in a rocking chair store he is, and I don’t think he’s slept in three months. He’s driving me crazy. Wait till you get your mating from Harry and drag a set of these around with Himself dogging your every step before you judge me. What’s the holdup on that, anyway? Still being power mad, are you?”
Kathleen smiled sympathetically and hugged Romilda. “No, you mean thing. It just isn’t time yet. Hermione will say when.”
Lavender cleared her throat. “Well, the water birthing is great. Harry was there but he was this giant squid thing and he gives the best massages.”
Lavender never noticed the three silencing charms that went up from Kathleen, Alicia, and Angelina.
Romilda, however, had started. “Harry what? And where the hell was Ron?”
Lavender blushed. “Well, Ron can’t look at blood, see, so he was out in the private sitting room with his dad.”
Romilda looked at Lavender, gobsmacked. “So big bad Senior Auror Weasley, the scourge of the criminal world, can’t stand the sight of blood and leaves his bonded mate in the hands of another wizard when she’s in a life-threatening situation for both her and her unborn children?”
Lavender replied hotly, “He can’t stand blood, Romilda—well, at least not the kids’ or mine. He took us to his liege and asked for help. You can’t imagine how much that hurt him. He’s always seen himself as beneath Harry and here it was rubbed firmly in his face. If it hadn’t been for Harry being so good about it as well as Hermione telling Ron the story of Harry before he found his—erm—well, his delivering mate form, I don’t know what we would have done. It would have destroyed him. As it was, he just barely recovered, and he’ll be in the pool for the next birth, I’m sure of it. He’s gotten better with Emerald and Tim around. He takes care of their hurts and did the diapers and all.”
Alicia nodded and threw in, “Not every male is Harry or Neville, Romilda. They aren’t all paragons of virtue with wills of iron and their attention focused in a laser-like beam on their mates and children. My George is great and I love him, but he had the same problem as Ron. He’s over it now, but he wasn’t for the first set of twins.”
Angelina backed her friend up. “Fred’s the same. I think the only three males on the planet that have that laser-like focus are Harry, Neville, and Lyudmila’s George. The rest of them have to learn it. Not saying we aren’t fully bonded, but maybe not quite so fully as you, the Duchesses, and Lyudmila. I think our mates have more of a sense of self than yours do. Oh, that sounds bad. Sorry.”
Romilda had nodded, though, and Lyudmila had ghosted through the silencing charms. “Yours do. Ours were abused or neglected, through no fault of theirs or their parents’, but it happened. They developed that singular focus and when they bonded us we became the absolute center of their worlds. Even the children are adjuncts, really.”
The whole table jumped. Kathleen looked at Lyudmila. “How do you do that? Move so quietly like that, I mean.”
Lyudmila smiled and stayed quiet. Romilda pulled a moue of concentration for a moment. “I don’t see how that’s possible in Harry’s case, Lyudmila. I mean, there are fifteen hundred full bonded now and Lilith only knows how many mate-bound.”
“And Harry, Romilda. Never think Harry doesn’t know exactly where every one of them and the children are and what state they’re in at every moment.”
“Lyudmila, he simply can’t be that powerful.”
Lyudmila laughed and put a small knife to Romilda’s forearm. Most of the crowd in the Potter’s Field never saw Harry fade in, take the knife, give Lyudmila a raised eye, nod at her bowed head, and fade away again, or George arrive as Harry left. “Lyudmila!”
“Yes, my lord?”
“Find a better way to prove your point.”
Lyudmila rolled her eyes. “Yes, George. The wizards are at the bar, dear.”
George turned a stiff little about-face and joined the wizards at the bar.
Lyudmila turned to Romilda. “He knows where all the vassals are, too.”
The ladies sat digesting this silently.
Neville stared at George Schmidt for a moment and then shrugged. They both knew Lyudmila had to have intent behind her actions to draw Harry and that she had known this and had used it to her advantage. Lyudmila played very close to the edge.
“Was that Harry just now?”
“Yes, it was, Ron.”
“Was that boxers he had on, Fred?”
George nodded. “With little mermaids on them, I think.”
“Cor, he’s been working out hard. Did you see him? Not an ounce of fat on him. Hate to find him at the end of a dark alley.”
Fred and George turned to Ron and the whole section of the bar burst out laughing. “Tell me, brother—”
“—you didn’t find it—”
“—the least bit odd—”
“—that Himself suddenly appeared—”
“—at half ten—”
“—in his little mer—”
“—maid underpants?”
Ron looked at the laughing crowd, bemused. “Well, no. I mean, he’s Harry, isn’t he? He does own the place.”
The crowd positively roared. “What? There’s no law against not wearing outer clothes in your own place!”
Neville and George Schmidt just looked at Ron. “Your friend, you explain it to him, Neville.”
Neville shook his head. “Useless that, George. Better to just get him another pint. It will come to him eventually.”
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Hungary
Ördögház
Tuesday
19 August 03
05:40
Selene and the Death Dealers entered the sally port into the main house from the mews just in time. The sun was nearly peeking over the horizon and the lightening sky was already painful.
Kraven attempted to block Selene, but she just sneered and stepped around him. He was useless anyway. “Kahn, get those bodies down to the lab. We need to know what put them down so fast.”
Kraven caught up. “Why are you bringing these Lycan here?”
Selene ignored him and continued to her room. She was covered in blood and entrails and badly in need of a bath. Whatever had killed those Lycan had sprayed their insides over the entire den. “Because we need to find out what killed them, Kraven.”
Kraven attempted to block her path again and Selene, completely fed up, shot him twice. She continued past the slumped body as Kraven’s sycophants cowered in the shadows. “Yes, you lot taking over is going to be fine. I think I’ll just kill you all before Marcus is raised.” Selene kicked one of the cowering vampires out of her way.
Kahn watched and shook his head. It was going to be worse than ever this time, a fight on two fronts—the Lycan on one side and these useless scum of Kraven’s on the other. Selene was so moody these days. Whatever that illness had been, it had changed her; for better or worse was hard to tell, but she was not the same Selene. He turned back to the stairs and headed for the lab.
Erika was waiting for Selene with a bag of fresh blood in the bedroom. Selene pushed open the door and looked at her. “None of Amelia’s fuck toys here, then?”
Erika smiled. “No, and you should try one or two. They can be very…fun.”
Selene snorted and started stripping. “As if they’d even look at me. You, Mariska, Malika, and Kato have them completely sewed up.”
Erika pouted. “And you haven’t even tried. I’m here to remedy that—you need a good topping. Remember the dream.”
“And you are ill-equipped. I told you that that was a magnificent sire.”
Erika brought her hand from behind her and waggled a toy. “Modern technology. Besides, four hundred years ago you weren’t so stand-offish.”
Selene was forced to smile. “I’m going to shower.”
Erika watched the lithe form cross the floor and licked her lips unconsciously. Selene hadn’t changed much. That ass was still perfect, as were those deliciously upturned breasts. She rose, dropped her dressing gown, and followed Selene to the shower, still carrying her bag of blood. No reason she and Selene couldn’t eat at the same time...hehehe.
“ERIKA! Oh my, Erikmmmph!”
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Hungary
Budapest (Pesht)
Tuesday
19 August 03
05:40
Genesis Fillmore Potter led her reconnaissance company back to their garage in the safehouse, a medium sized four-story palazzo on Kmety Gyorgy Utca north and west of Hero’s Square, and sent them to rest. She had already briefed her replacement, Tímea Vágvölgyi Potter, for the daytime hours.
It had been a hard shift and those Lycans had worn them out, chasing all over the city and transporting anyone they had bitten to the dungeons under Potter Castle for processing. Finally they had had to take steps. Unfortunately Selene had appeared after the snipers had pulled the triggers on the M95s. Selene had looked very funny shocked out of her wits when those fifty-caliber bullets tore through the Lycans after the hollow points peeled the jackets away and deposited one hundred grains of silver nano powder in them. Useless against vampires, except for a head shot, but deadly against Lycans. Of course they had the UV chemlight rounds for vampires.
Hmm, something wrong with the whole setup there. Oh, that’s it—ammo change. The M95s used a box magazine. Each sniper team would have to carry separate boxes for UV (Ultraviolet) and NS (Nano Silver) ammunition.
“Or another rifle already loaded, Genesis.”
“The things weigh ten kilos, Ginny.”
“Another sniper, then. He or she can load UV and the other can load NS. The same spotter can control both and add one troop to the team for close security.”
“Yes, Harry.”
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Godric’s Hollow
Corps exercise ground
Tuesday
19 August 03
05:50
Harry smiled at the chorus that answered his thought and sent them all quick caresses; he chuckled at the pleased little mental squeals that answered.
Harry continued his workout as everyone else arrived.
“Nym, we have to force a routine back on him. He’s hardly sleeping.”
“We’re only back one day, Na Wen, and he’s in fight mode. He’ll settle into a rhythm soon. I’ll warn you that it will be a very high rhythm. Last time he was like this was with Xi Shi, and while it was fun it did take us a long time to slow down again. The Ugandan thing you’re remembering was an aberration—Harry just ran amok. He took six months to get back to strength after that one.”
Sarah and Lilith were nodding. Na Wen went along grudgingly.
Chapter 4
Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Friday
1 August 2003
12:06
Nym shaded her eyes and looked out at the twelve-foot high, hundred-yard wide standing wave that Harry had somehow created and was using to teach the children how to surf. Well, after Dianne Hurley Potter and Teanni Kai Potter, both from the original set of vampire mates, had some board time with him. Having the knowledge from their bond was no substitute for doing it for real, as they had found time and again.
Nym and the others had been listening to the joyous shrieks of children of all ages, including Phillip, all morning. Harry pulled the kids out in front of the wave and the flow of water pulled them up and over the wave faster and faster until it threw them off the top. The whole crowd at the beach had gotten into the act. Even the mates and vassal ladies had taken at least a turn or two.
The now traditional Harry Birthday Tour of the Realm and then Turning, by now a nine-day Turning with the mates Turning every time they came back to sidereal until they had all gotten a chance to give Harry their—erm—congratulations, yesterday should have worn Harry out completely, but something about fine weather just seemed to energize him.
“Harry, lunch. And some of the kids need a nap, I think.”
Out on the wave Harry nodded and the wave finally broke on the beach with a tremendous crash, depositing kids, mates, vassals, and citizens in exhausted, happy, sandy heaps.
Agnes, Prioress of Tabennisi, looked at the laughing Patriarchs and followed their eyes. She gasped. Harry was walking back to the beach across the surface of the water. “That’s blasphemy, that is!”
“Oh, relax, Agnes, it’s just a lightening charm. He could do the same thing on air, besides; the boy changes into Dragons and feeds multitudes on a regular basis.”
“Feeds on multitudes, more like, Jozef.”
“Agnes! That wasn’t very charitable. What’s wrong with you lately?”
Bartholomew answered for her. “These hybrids, Jozef, the same as the rest of us—except for you.”
Pope John Paul II rolled his eyes at the Patriarch, Bartholomew I. “And we’re going to do what exactly about it? We’ve been over this and over this. Harry is the logical one to stand against them.”
Bartholomew replied hotly, “But he doesn’t intend to.”
Harry had approached them by now. “Only if they violate the law, Patriarch.”
“Harry, they are a violation of the laws of nature.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “So vampires and werewolves are fine, but vampire werewolves or werewolf vampires have to die? We’ve had this discussion, Patriarch. I will not prevent nor confine them until some act of theirs violates the laws of the Realm. Now, have some chicken.” Harry indicated the plate Genistra, one of the new Potter elves, was holding out.
Bartholomew reached for the chicken and then snatched his hand back. Harry chuckled and walked away. Bartholomew took some chicken and Hyacinth brought him a glass of iced tea.
Phillip watched and muttered, “Abomination that is, iced tea.”
“Phillip, really! You say that every day before you drink a gallon of it.”
“Never said it wasn’t good, Liz.”
“PHILLIP!”
“What, dear? Need the lemon?”
Chuckles arose as the Queen grumbled.
Andromeda Tonks née Black finished drying herself off and looked at Ted. “Put your eyes back in, Ted.” She smiled, though; it was very nice to be appreciated that much. “Nym, is there anything Harry can’t do? I mean, that wave is great but it’s a little bit conspicuous in its use of magic.”
Nym smiled and shrugged. “He doesn’t even notice causing it. It’s really a series of little spells all built into the wave. Of course, his little is a different than our little.”
Andromeda looked at her daughter. “And wildly different from the norm. Nym, most of us wouldn’t have even conceived of that wave, much less attempted it.”
Nym gave a little shrug. “It’s Harry, Mum—what can I say?”
The women all turned and looked at a smiling Harry as he sat in the sand eating cold chicken and playing with his kids. It was an image distinctly at odds with His Highness, Duke Potter. Here was a happy young father. His Highness was a tough taskmaster and a merciless enforcer.
“Harry, how long are we going to be going to the beach everyday?”
“Why, Sirius, got an appointment?”
Sirius grumbled something about lack of clothes hindering things. Hermione and Susan’s mutual spit-takes could have been a tragedy if not for Daphne and Ginny’s stones.
Harry looked back at Sirius, smiling after catching Hermione and Susan’s thoughts. “Well, we have the Corps exercise from the fifth to the eighteenth and then we have to get the schools ready, plus we’ll have to begin containment and observation operations, so after Tuesday we’re done with the beach—well, except for the weekends. You might want to lay in some essence of murtlap.”
Sirius blinked and Remus and Rose Lupin rolled on the sand laughing. “Yes, well, just wanted to make sure, Harry. Pass me some chicken?”
Harry tossed Sirius a drumstick and smiled.
Father Jozef smiled at the activities of his personal parishioner. Harry had turned out very well, he thought. Six feet two inches and one hundred kilos of twisted steel and sex appeal browned to a deep, deep golden tan surmounted by that honest, open, expressive face containing those burning copper-green eyes and surmounted by that still out of control black hair. The scar had faded to a white lightning bolt, as it did not tan. Harry smiled more than he used to and was generally at peace with himself and his power. He was shy and retiring still, but that was part of the package. He was faithful to his mates and children as well as his vassals. No one could complain, at least not legitimately.
And the mates, paragons of their somatotypes, all refined in the fire of their mates’ all-consuming love. Other women could only hope to reach this level.
They might not be dogmatic followers of the Church, but they were believers in a higher power, this, his personal parish, and Father Jozef was satisfied. Of course Pope John Paul II could not be until they were confirmed Roman Catholics and Warriors of God, but that didn’t look as if it would be a possibility.
The Pope had not noticed the Clan drifting to a halt as Harry picked up these thoughts until Harry stood, bowed slightly in his direction, and then ambled off to Sandlandia under tow by Nym’s Lily and Min’s Carmen, signaling the end of lunch and the beginning of another campaign in the land of sand and children of all ages.
Ruth Holt Potter, Commander 1st Mage Regiment (+) (US) (Separate) leaned over and gave Father Jozef a quick buss on the cheek. “The Clan loves you too, Father.” Ruth then strolled over to the other ladies as Bartholomew rolled in the sand laughing at the Pope’s blush, and Prioress Agnes shook her head.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Saturday
2 August 03
09:00
The beach officially opened and a veritable horde of children swam out and took their first ride over the wave. Harry and the mates and children had been wowing the crowd with a surfing demonstration for a half-hour already.
The section of grass and sand over which Harry had cast the charm was only open to Potter bonded or children and a select few others, however. It was like the Ducal box, only flat. The edges of Harry’s ward were soon clearly defined by a path trodden by every girl on the beach and most of the boys as they walked nonchalantly by, ogling.
The mates and their friends hardly noticed any more. That the parade of the curious had never stopped over the six years the Clan had been public was more of a conversation item than them coming to look in the first place.
Beatrice, lying next to Zsuzsa and forty or fifty other young mates—all of them brown as nuts, soaking wet, dressed in what amounted to three rubber bands and a peanut shell, or the sartorial equivalent Parvati had come up with—and being built for sin was almost too much for the boys today. Several mates were having to occasionally wrestle with their Harry-eyed-green diamonds off and on to keep the stones from lashing out. Harry came in from the wave and a single snort of that odd green fire cured the problem instantly, sending boys scattering over the beach. The mates laughed.
Hermione was lying in the sand and her frustration was obviously mounting as the poor tablet PC was taking a beating. Harry swooped in on her and rolled her over and away from the PC and gave the crowd something to watch.
Nym finally cast an obscuring dome over them when Harry took a handful of breast. The crowd grunted and then muttered its disapproval. The Potter daughters rolled their eyes and then flipped over so the other side could tan a while.
Harry had faded Hermione away to the roof garden of Potter Castle; as soon as they landed in the grass Hermione twisted and rolled Harry under her and pinned him. She didn’t know why, really, but she called her vampire and bit Harry.
On the beach the bonded froze as Hermione, charged with Harry’s blood, took what she wanted. Harry gave it to her and allowed her to dominate him. “Allowed” was perhaps the wrong word; with the charge she received from Harry’s blood he was hard pressed to hold off his Primary wife, and the bonded were lending her power. They felt Harry wanting her to win.
Today suddenly turned into a grandmother’s day out with the grandkids as the mates faded to the roof garden. As they arrived Nym turned her head sideways to look at the position in which Hermione’s actions had put Harry and herself. “Well, that’s a new one.”
Rita nodded and conjured parchment and charcoal. “Yes, but it looks like fun.”
Bellatrix, with her head almost upside down, added, “Only for the young. I don’t think my feet will go behind my head like that.”
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Saturday
2 August 03
10:43
Lily was extremely put out with her dad—Hermione-mum too. They had left her and Carmen here alone defending against her troublesome brothers. Things were not going well. Hmmm...Daddy had told her about that desert creature. Let’s see, now how did that go? Oh yes. Daddy said think hard and focus and then make what you want to happen, happen.
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Potter Castle
Roof Garden
Saturday
2 August 03
10:44
Harry’s eyes popped back open seconds before he faded away, going to his terrified children. Something had to die now.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Saturday
2 August 03
10:45
Harry faded into view on the beach to find a shrieking, fleeing crowd, the Court of St. James and his vassals, led by the Queen, holding the children behind them and preparing to fight a truly gigantic Nundu. Wait—what? Nundu? Where the hell had that come from?
As the mates faded in the Nundu took a breath and started to roar. It finished its roar in the southern reaches of the Sahara with a very nice male Nundu standing there watching from his green eyes.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Saturday
2 August 03
10:46
“Well that’s sorted then. Everyone okay?”
Elizabeth eyed Phillip. “And what about Harry, Phillip?”
“Well, he’ll be back in a few minutes, then we can ask him where all that blood came from.”
Elizabeth was distracted by this almost random thought and spun on Nym and the other Alphas. “Yes, exactly how did my liege get covered in blood?”
Nym blinked. That was a seriously evil glint in the Queen’s eye. She was saved by Hermione’s blush, which included her hair going a deep red. Elizabeth oriented on Hermione and narrowed her eyes. Hermione’s mouth and neck were covered in blood smears. Daphne’s quick Scourgify came seconds too late. “Hermione?”
“Errrh, well you see, we—ah, that is, Harry and I, well, we....”
Hermione’s blush became so spectacular that the assembled adults wondered if she needed medical attention. Nym’s Lily saved her. “What happened to my desert cat thingy? It was winning!”
The crowd oriented on the petulant, nearly-seven year old. Phillip sat in the sand next to his grandchild. “Yours, Lil?”
“Mine, Granddad. I made it.”
The bond held its breath. “How, Lil?”
“Da said you just think about what you want, and focus, and then make it happen. The boys were winning so I thought of something that fought in sand and—and—well, then the big cat appeared and stomped all the boys’ armies to pieces.”
The bonded sat in the sand and held their heads. The combination of Hermione’s—erm—activities, Lily summoning a Nundu, a fully grown Nundu, and now Harry apparently being Harryistic with said Nundu somewhere in Niger was a little much.
Mothers blinked and then moved to their daughters. Elizabeth moved to the Alphas. “Nym?”
“Its fine, ma’am, just been a busy morning.”
Elizabeth gave her a raised eyebrow and Nym couldn’t help it; she started laughing. When she finally regained control she looked at her daughter, who was sitting in Great-Grandpop’s lap pouting. “Lily. that was a Nundu. They are horribly dangerous and they live in Africa. Don’t summon any more of those, please.”
“But Mum!”
Phillip smiled and stood Lily up. “Come on then, Lily, let’s go try again without the Nundu.” He stood and led the parade of kids and dads, uncles, and older brothers back to Sandlandia. The older sisters stayed firmly planted right by their preferred mums.
“All right, Hermione. Now that the little ears are gone, what exactly were you doing?”
At Emma’s question Hermione’s spectacular blush, which had faded to a bright pink, deepened again. “Well, Harry got all grabby, and I was working, and it made me mad, and then, well—when he faded us away I bit him and...erm...it got a little rough after that. Next thing I knew we were, erm, resting and Harry snaps to full alert and fades away. We followed.”
Hermione conveniently left out the part where she had fully changed to her vampire and that the “rough” part was her holding Harry down and taking him to her satisfaction multiple times, any way she wanted, before finally letting him finish in her as she sat on him and bit him again.
Emma looked at her very embarrassed daughter. “All right, dear, sometimes they all make us mad. Usually we don’t bite them, but if that’s what it takes. You might think of clothes before you just up and fade back to the beach.”
Hermione’s blush reached new and epic proportions as she looked down and realized she was wearing the tiny little red-leather bikini she usually only wore in the Dragon’s Den. Daphne looked at her co-Primary and shrugged. “It was the first thing I thought of.”
Hermione was suddenly wearing a much more modest bikini as her sister wives laughed.
The hilarity became general as Harry appeared in a black leather breechcloth and fell into her lap. He was suddenly wearing floral print surfer shorts.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Sunday
3 August 03
09:15
Harry stood literally steaming on the beach “No, George, and I don’t care how much people will pay. Those magic-powered surfboards will not be ridden on my wave. If people like them so much they can go ride them up a waterfall. They’re just surfboards with a broom buried in them, anyway.”
“You’re just being a surfer purist, Harry.”
Angelina looked at Fred, knowing he had lost his mind. “Well, looks like I get to join the Clan after all. Go ahead, Harry, light the idiot on fire.”
Fred paled. It was so hard sometimes to remember that Harry was His Highness. “Uh…no need to be hasty, Your Highness, beg pardon…heat of the moment and all that.”
Harry opened his mouth to reply hotly when he saw Molly bearing down on Fred and George at flank speed with Arthur, Bill, and Charlie in line abreast, neatly crossing the twins’ T as it were. Harry simply smiled and turned away. He leapt onto his board and paddled out to his wave. Fred and George drew their heads in and then turned toward the shade awning, finding Alicia and Angelina standing there tapping their feet in the sand as their reinforcements arrived behind them.
The production powered surfboards, unlike the prototype, would come with a warning and a rune-driven charm to keep them from being ridden on Clan Potter-created waves.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Monday
4 August 03
08:30
Nym flopped ungracefully onto the sand and Na Wen, Sarah, and Lilith joined her. Their mates smirked at them and then took pity and took care of the kids. Melinda walked over and passed them all the “overdone it” potions. The rest of the mates had already taken theirs. It had been a wild Turning, with Harry on full broadcast and the mates stimulated until they were finally forced to Occlude the bonds and the multiple takings of the Alphas, which uptime felt as though it was one long, continuous orgasm. Three days of that had been a little much for all of them. Harry was not slowing down. The wave was an eight-meter-tall monster today with a fully formed pipe. Harry was already crouched on a board deep inside the roaring pipe. The boys were waist-deep in the water fighting the suction and cheering while the girls hung at about knee-deep and looked wide-eyed at their all-the-way-on, insane, risk-taking father.
The Realm entire seemed to have descended on the beach and lake by ten a.m. and the mates did not put up the shield. The lake and surrounding grounds were a riot in progress.
Harry was out in the lake, dragging random females under and taking them on tours around the lake bottom. Universally they came back smiling. Some came back and joined the mates for a few moments’ earthy conversation. Two joined their new mates.
Even though the personnel portion of the ward wasn’t up and every mate soon had a circle of admirers, none approached closer than a few feet and no males were closer than a body length away. This was new and thrilling, but His Highness was near; besides, those looks from the Veela, Goblin, and Mage…no sense dying painfully on a beautiful summer day.
Elizabeth arrived at two in the afternoon to find these types of activities still going on and, after she made her way through the respectfully parting crowd, the Alphas napping. “Hestia, what in the world is going on?”
“Harry is storing up the good times, we think. The WARNO and troop movement order went out this morning and the exercise starts tomorrow.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “It isn’t the end of the world.”
“For some of these it might be, Mum. The Magical Corps starts operations tonight with reconnaissance troops going in.”
The Queen looked over the crowd sadly for a moment and then smiled. They were young, as other generations going to war before them had been; they would be fine. There were sure to be some regrets from today and this evening at the rate they were going, but that was part of growing up too. She nodded at Andrew. “Thank you, dear, even I need a reminder on occasion.”
“Oh, stop that, Andrew. You’d think one had never said that before.”
Andrew’s fish impersonation carried on, much to the Queens disgust and his bonded’s amusement.
“Errrk! Harry Potter, what is it that you think you’re doing?” Harry was carrying the Queen, now attired in a modest bathing suit, down the sand and onto a surfboard.
“Harry James Potter, I demand you unhand me this instant! Phillip, you great dolt, don’t just stand there! Get your son under control!”
Phillip actually looked around at the shocked, silent mob on the beach. When he looked back it was too late. Elizabeth stood on the front of the surfboard with Harry behind her, riding the monster wave at breakneck speed. She was just smiling at the corners of her mouth. “Well, that’s sorted then. Care for a go, Fortune?”
Fortune Fitzroy, Duchess Grofton, Mistress of the Robes, turned to Phillip. “Not with you Highness. I’ve seen you surf.”
“Oh, I say, Fortune— a bit harsh, what?”
John Hendricks Potter, seventh year Hufflepuff and Potter son, stepped up. “I’d be glad to take the Duchess out.” And he offered his hand.
Fortune contemplated a moment and then took the offered hand. She, like Elizabeth, found herself in a modest bathing suit. She looked down at herself and then around. She nodded at the smiling Parvati and continued out to the wave with her escort/instructor.
Joeseph Murphy Potter, Myrridin Uni freshman, looked around at his brothers. “Well, Da and John have torn it now, brothers. Come on, pick a lady and let’s get it over with.”
The Brothers Potter each picked a lady from the Court of St. James and escorted her out past Parvati, who was Transfiguring clothes to beautiful if modest swimwear, and then onto the massive wave which Harry and the Queen had cleared of all surfers.
Not to be outdone, Rebecca Corky Potter, Myrridin fifth form intent-bonded Potter daughter/mate, took her grandfather/future father-in-law by the hand. “Come on, GrandDa, let’s show ’em.”
Phillip beamed at her. “Oh, good show.” They skipped the line for the clothing Transfiguration as Phillip simply removed his very nice track suit and was already in his trunks. They joined the crowd on the wave. Phillip’s yells of joy and Elizabeth’s “PHILLIP!” could clearly be heard and seemed to unfreeze the beach.
The Alphas sat up and watched the show.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Monday
4 August 03
11:30
Harry had brought the Queen back in after an hour or so and now, wonder of wonders, she was lying on a towel in the sun with the Alphas.
Rebecca had swum in, leaving Phillip to rule the wave, as it were. He was really very good and a real crowd pleaser.
“Geoffrey?”
“Master?”
“How would the elves feel about laying a barbecue for this lot?” Harry indicated the crowd of thousands.
Geoffrey smiled. He had been afraid the Master was going to give them time off. “Very pleased, Master.”
Harry smiled, and Geoffrey faded away as silently as he had come.
Almost immediately Harry smelled smoke and his smile broadened.
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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Monday
4 August 03
19:44
Harry stood on a table and shouted, “Well, have we had a good time?”
A disjointed and slightly slurred “Too right!” came back.
Harry smiled. “All right, then. Summer is over, I’m afraid. Please report to your units at 03:00 tomorrow morning ready to go to work. Oh, one last thing.” Harry raised his arms and called the Realm. He released a massive sobering charm. “There—now nobody violates the eight-hour bottle-to-throttle rule.”
Elizabeth smiled; maybe not too many regrets, then. Or maybe not. “Phillip! People can see!”
Phillip waggled his eyebrows and Geoffrey faded Phillip and Elizabeth to the Royal suite.
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Godric’s Hollow
Corps Slab Field
Tuesday
5 August 03
03:49
It was as dark as the inside of a coffin. Fifty-five percent illumination, but that wasn’t taking into consideration the low overcast. Harry hoped it was better in the exercise area. The Wargs, werewolves, and vampires wouldn’t be bothered but the technomancers’ thermal night-vision monocular didn’t give depth perception. There were always lots of broken ankles and wrists on bad illumination nights.
Harry continued stalking through the units here, and then trotted to a slab off to the side. The Mage, Goblin, Guards, and Veela Regiments watched the giant Warg go. His Highness hadn’t said a harsh word, but there was something tense in that trot and sergeants turned back to their soldiers and checked them again.
The mate unit commanders and officers checked themselves and their units; they could feel Harry’s disquiet.
At 04:00 Nym stepped across the event horizon of the slab designated for the Corps HQ use. Across the field her mates led their units across the event horizons of their designated slabs. The exercise was truly underway.
Dan, Phillip, Peter Inge, and Sergei Plotempkin had designed the exercise first to conform to the visions of Luna and Li. Once they designed it they handed it off to the most evil men they could find, and Tim Spicer and Pitior Romanovskaya had twisted the thing out of all recognition with twists, turns, traps, and above all, foreknowledge of the Corps plan. This exercise was not designed to train the Corps; it was designed to test it to the breaking point—what Lieutenant General Ham called an MRX (Mission Rehearsal Exercise).
The Corps would act, then be evaluated, then act again until they had each task down to perfection. The culminating exercise would be the attack on the remaining “hybrids” after Selene and Michael (in script only) took down Marcus and William. The command trainers would be commanding the “hybrid” forces.
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800 Kilometers North of Chita
Monday
11 August 03
23:30
Harry saw the opportunity again but this time he hesitated and let the situation develop further. This was the fifth time they had run this particular portion of the exercise and it had beaten them every time so far.
They had finally drilled down to this decision as being the breaking point. Harry had pushed too hard trying to relieve Camille Sherwood Potter’s platoon and it started a chain reaction, causing them to have to kill all the hybrids by the bonded reverting to their Dragons.
The decision, however, was a knifeblade poised at Camille’s throat. If Harry hesitated too long to commit the reserves to relieve Camille, she and her platoon would die. If he committed too soon again, well, then the gloves would have to come off…again.
Harry focused and signaled Nym. The Corps staff faded away and arrived in the warehouse just in time. A round of those infamous super-powered Stunners and it was all over.
Dan stepped from behind a pillar. “Very good, Harry. Now back to the start position and let’s do it again.”
Harry nodded and Nym and Sarah started returning the Corps to start positions. They knew Harry would do it at least three more times.
Leaders had complained in the early part of the exercise and then several major accidents had occurred, and now the Corps truly trained as they would fight. Rest periods were rigorously enforced, with Stunners if necessary. Even Harry had found himself on the end of a Lilith Stunner. There was no arguing with all four Alphas so he just let it take effect—well, after some whinging. Nym had taken command of the Corps for the next eight hours. Then Sarah, as Nym, rested. Na Wen had had a go and finally, despite the fears of the Patriarch, Lilith took the reins of the magical Corps. Bartholomew found himself slightly disappointed when what he was sure was the first being created by God and then turned evil simply moved the magical Corps through its planned training and then lay down for a nap. The Pope and Dalai laughed themselves ill when he told them. Prioress Agnes threw up her hands and rolled her eyes as she stalked away muttering.
Harry went back to his cot in the tent attached to the Corps Field HQ and found Marcia Braithwaite Potter lying there awake beside the sleeping Lilith and Na Wen, waiting for him. He smiled and crawled in. “Marcia.”
Marcia smiled; good, he wasn’t too tired. “Harry.”
“Is there something I can do for you?”
“Why yes, there is, Harry.”
Harry smiled. “Marcia, before we start, how has it been on the medical side of things?”
Marcia blew at her bangs. “Well, it’s steadied down to the exercise casualties now. It seems we got over our clumsiness, or stupidity, or whatever that was. The odd boo-boo here and there and the witches are driving us insane, but that’s normal.”
Harry looked at her. “Normal?”
“They’re all breeding age, Harry. God may be great, but He was a mediocre plumber. There’s always something going on with breeding-age women. It’s not their fault, and it wouldn’t be bad but we’re having to retool the medical section. We set up along guidelines for U.S. Army medical units not realizing that slightly more than half the Corps would be female.”
Harry still looked puzzled, so Marcia gave him a quick burst of her eight-hour shift as the Chief Medical Officer for the Corps. Harry cringed and said, “Oh! We have to get more, errh, OB-GYNs.”
Marcia smiled. “If there were more, we’d have more. And no, we don’t actually need more; we just need to tighten up the medics’ training and they can take most of the burden. A lot of times a girl just needs an ear and an opinion.”
“Harry, what I really want to talk about, if we have to talk, are the combat casualties. The numbers are very high. Are the troops just not able to get it this year?”
Harry shook his head. “Like you, we have a new paradigm. These hybrids are unbelievably fast and powerful, and one mistake ends up with a whole squad being taken down.”
“They’re the devil to treat, too, Harry. We normally have to give them blood and let their natural healing do it. The hybrids, that is.”
“Yes, I know. We’ll have to do better, though, Marcia. I mean, the fifty volunteers were sworn to me before they turned hybrid so I’m not sure they’re fighting as hard as they can.”
Marcia shook her head. “I don’t think that’s true, Harry. The ones we get for treatment collapse, exhausted, after they get some blood. I think they’re giving you everything they have. I think you’ll find the unsworn hybrids won’t fight as hard. They’ll try to survive. The vassal hybrids know you’ll do your best to save them, so they’re not as inhibited. Mmmm, yess, like that—well, not like that for them, but very nice...mmph.”
Harry had taken advantage and a mouthful of Marcia and then kissed her quiet. Lilith and Na Wen smiled at their bedmates. Na Wen grunted, “Finally. I thought they’d never shut up,” and closed her eyes. She laid her head back down on Lilith’s breast.
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912 Kilometers North of Chita
Monday
17 August 03
14:27
Harry was exhausted. He and the mates were all that were left on their feet, but the Corps had won this time. All the hybrids were captured and no Corps troops KIA, three times in a row now.
Dan walked up. “That’s it, Harry, enough. Everyone is exhausted.”
Harry smiled at Dan. “My thoughts exactly.”
Harry passed a change of mission instruction to the mates. “AAR time?”
Dan looked at Harry. “16:00 tomorrow.”
Harry kept issuing instructions to return the Corps to quarters with his thanks.
At dusk Harry gathered the mates on the Corps temporary transport point and they faded off the field, the last of the Corps to go.
Lieutenant General Ham looked at his senior fellow O/Cs Dan, Tony, and Sergei. “Well, if they aren’t ready no one is.”
Tony nodded. “Yes, quite. And the reports from the reconnaissance companies are very good. They’ll have a complete picture in another week.”
Sergei grunted. “Time to change the reconnaissance elements, then. They’ll get complacent.”
The senior Command trainers nodded.
Phillip stepped from the shadows with Andrew. “Should we change them before then?”
Alastor answered as he stepped in. “No, sir, they have a good rhythm going. I’ll monitor them. If I see something going badly we’ll let His Highness know.”
They all nodded.
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Potter Castle
Roof Garden
Monday
18 August 03
20:54
Harry sat in the roof garden looking west at the setting sun, or his body did. His mind was hundreds of miles away with the now eighteen-year-old Shelby Miller Potter, one of the Great Massacre chattel mates. Her Company was on Lucian and he was up to something.
Luna huffed and got a hug from Lilith. “You know he trusts you, Luna, he just worries so.”
“Well, if he’s going to be like this for the next year, he should realize that the hybrids won’t survive. I’ll kill them all myself.”
Lilith chuckled. “Just give him a minute, Luna. He’ll realize you’re naked soon.”
“He’d better. While we’re waiting, though, how did you like the non-mates’ response to the AAR?”
Lilith frowned. “I think they’re getting carried away. I mean, they were hypercritical and all of them have those training plans that go well beyond the pale.”
Hestia nodded. “Yes, we may have to do something about that. Ah, there—Shelby has sprung the trap. Those two will have to be dominated or killed.” Hestia paused as Harry came back to himself and folded Luna into his arms in his lap. “There is in fact such a thing as overtraining.”
Ruth Holt Potter nodded. “Yes, they’ll get in a rut, so to speak, and not be able to react to the situation as it exists, only to what they’ve trained to. I would suggest battle drill training and platoon force-on-force exercises. It will keep them thinking up new things. We could make it a competition.”
Hestia nodded enthusiastically. “That’s a great idea, Ruth!”
The bond was suddenly full of schemes and schedules as company and battalion commanders thought their way through platoon schedules, regimental commanders or G3s worked on intra-regiment schedules, and Hermione worked on inter-regiment schedules.
Their thoughts were interrupted by a mental howl from Luna followed by a truly epic orgasm as they had forgotten to Occlude at all and the orgasm went looping through the bond, gaining strength as it went.
Winky appeared with the ladies’ maids and a smirk and began putting the Clan to bed. All the female elves would be pregnant again after that demonstration. It was great to be bound to Harry Potter. Now get them to bed and find Dobby so she could finish what the Master had started.
“Winky, what will you do when the Master finds out?”
“Harry Potter will be happy he makes us able to be pregnant. He loves babies, Geoffrey.”
“I think this will go badly if he ever finds out, Winky.”
“Then don’t tell him. We certainly won’t.” The ladies’ maids, who had paused to listen, nodded furiously.
Geoffrey nodded but was still perturbed. He didn’t like keeping secrets from the Master. He was the Overlord of the East, the first in three ages and the first generally white-sided one ever. The Portal to the West had judged him and found him worthy, so who was he to doubt the combined will of the Elf Lords?
Winky looked at Geoffrey. “You don’t tell him we exist outside of time either, Geoffrey. Don’t worry about it—if he needs to know he will. Lilith will tell him.”
Geoffrey nodded. “I was sure he’d figure it out when he started fading through time like we do.”
Winky laughed. “He’s a little busy, Geoffrey. When he slows down in a few thousand years he’ll think his way through it.”
“What makes you think he’ll slow down?”
Winky rolled her eyes. “There won’t be any females left that aren’t his daughters. He has a serious block about the daughters. It will take many, many years to break it.”
“Not if one of them is found.”
Winky shuddered. “Lilith will prevent it, I hope, until he’s ready.”
“Your trust in her is commendable, but she hasn’t had a body in four ages. I think she’s distracted.”
“Not when it comes to anything involving her Harry, she isn’t, Geoffrey. She’s as omniscient as she ever was, and as inscrutable. She also tolerates no interference; serve the Goddess as we elves always have.”
Winky faded away with a smiling-in-her-sleep Lilith, and Geoffrey stood in quiet contemplation. Serve the Goddess, yes of course, but she would never tell them what she was really doing. Well, at least she never had before; not even the High Elves had known.
Oh well, it was a good life with the Master. Plenty of power, and he was “kind” to a fault. If he came up with one more excuse for the dreaded “time off”, though, they would have to speak with the Goddess. Elves could only get in trouble with spare time on their busy little hands. Especially these young ones; it was enough to drive a Seneschal to drink.
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Godric’s Hollow
Potter’s Field
Monday
18 August 03
20:54
“’Ere now, Ronniekins—”
“—why the long—”
“—face?”
“Leave my Ronnie alone, you two scoundrels. Alicia, you and Angelina haven’t broken them of that yet?”
“Why no—”
“Lavender, we—”
“—haven’t. We—”
“—kind of like it—”
“—sometimes.”
Lavender Weasley rolled her eyes. “You four have been spending too much time experimenting again. One of these days something will go wrong and Hu Jin will find you all dead in that manky old lab.”
Alicia smiled. “Well, Molly could have her wish then and have six kids back in the house at once. Eight if it’s after Angelina pops these two.”
“Well, if you Weasley girls would stop visiting the Duchesses so much, maybe you wouldn’t have twins all the time.”
“Kathleen Conrad! I resent the insinuation that I would crawl in the Duke’s bed.”
Kathleen blinked at Alicia’s outburst, but then Alicia continued, “Run and jump in it maybe, as soon as George pisses me off again, but never crawl!”
The table, Ron’s Auror peers and Fred and George’s Regimental peers, broke up laughing at George’s expense. George just continued to sit there being purple with yellow polka dots. No one knew what he had done this time, but it was a record. Home less than a day and Alicia had turned him colors again.
Fred rose to his brother’s defense. “Yeah, well, laugh now but I’ve seen you all checking your twins’ eye color.”
Lavender nodded. “Well, it is unusual. I mean, I talked to the Senior Auror Healers and every one of us having twins is unprecedented. Marcia, Jennifer, and Melissa are relieved, though. Marcia was getting worried about intermarriages too close to the main line. Jennifer thinks it’s something to do with Harry, but there’s no empirical evidence, only anecdotal. Well, other than the fact that we all started having twins after Nym had Lily and James.”
Ron shrugged; Lavender had turned out to be a great Healer and one of the few field-qualified Auror Healers herself. “Twins run in the Weasley line, so what could you expect?”
“Oh, so it’s you Weasleys’ fault then! Good, I can quit blaming Nev.”
Neville had walked up with the heavily pregnant Romilda on his arm. The table’s occupants turned to them. “Nev! And Romy!”
Romilda rolled her eyes. “Budge over, Lav, me feet’re killin’ me.” Lavender scooted down and Neville lowered Romilda into her seat and then hovered nervously.
“Neville, sit down. Merlin’s flaming penis, you should have gotten over this by now, you Harry-like thing.” At Romilda’s barked instructions Neville sat, obviously on pins and needles, and got another eye roll for his trouble. Romilda turned to the table. “Okay, so which of you has tried this water birthing thing the Duchesses do?”
Alicia, Angelina, and Lavender each raised a hand shoulder high. Lavender smiled. “It’s dreamy.”
“That’s not very helpful, Lav; care to elaborate?”
“Nev, come on, we’ll buy you a pint.” Ron led the males’ retreat to the bar.
Romilda looked at them and sighed. “I hope Neville gets plastered.”
“Romilda Longbottom!”
“Kathleen, it’s horrible. Nervous as a cat in a rocking chair store he is, and I don’t think he’s slept in three months. He’s driving me crazy. Wait till you get your mating from Harry and drag a set of these around with Himself dogging your every step before you judge me. What’s the holdup on that, anyway? Still being power mad, are you?”
Kathleen smiled sympathetically and hugged Romilda. “No, you mean thing. It just isn’t time yet. Hermione will say when.”
Lavender cleared her throat. “Well, the water birthing is great. Harry was there but he was this giant squid thing and he gives the best massages.”
Lavender never noticed the three silencing charms that went up from Kathleen, Alicia, and Angelina.
Romilda, however, had started. “Harry what? And where the hell was Ron?”
Lavender blushed. “Well, Ron can’t look at blood, see, so he was out in the private sitting room with his dad.”
Romilda looked at Lavender, gobsmacked. “So big bad Senior Auror Weasley, the scourge of the criminal world, can’t stand the sight of blood and leaves his bonded mate in the hands of another wizard when she’s in a life-threatening situation for both her and her unborn children?”
Lavender replied hotly, “He can’t stand blood, Romilda—well, at least not the kids’ or mine. He took us to his liege and asked for help. You can’t imagine how much that hurt him. He’s always seen himself as beneath Harry and here it was rubbed firmly in his face. If it hadn’t been for Harry being so good about it as well as Hermione telling Ron the story of Harry before he found his—erm—well, his delivering mate form, I don’t know what we would have done. It would have destroyed him. As it was, he just barely recovered, and he’ll be in the pool for the next birth, I’m sure of it. He’s gotten better with Emerald and Tim around. He takes care of their hurts and did the diapers and all.”
Alicia nodded and threw in, “Not every male is Harry or Neville, Romilda. They aren’t all paragons of virtue with wills of iron and their attention focused in a laser-like beam on their mates and children. My George is great and I love him, but he had the same problem as Ron. He’s over it now, but he wasn’t for the first set of twins.”
Angelina backed her friend up. “Fred’s the same. I think the only three males on the planet that have that laser-like focus are Harry, Neville, and Lyudmila’s George. The rest of them have to learn it. Not saying we aren’t fully bonded, but maybe not quite so fully as you, the Duchesses, and Lyudmila. I think our mates have more of a sense of self than yours do. Oh, that sounds bad. Sorry.”
Romilda had nodded, though, and Lyudmila had ghosted through the silencing charms. “Yours do. Ours were abused or neglected, through no fault of theirs or their parents’, but it happened. They developed that singular focus and when they bonded us we became the absolute center of their worlds. Even the children are adjuncts, really.”
The whole table jumped. Kathleen looked at Lyudmila. “How do you do that? Move so quietly like that, I mean.”
Lyudmila smiled and stayed quiet. Romilda pulled a moue of concentration for a moment. “I don’t see how that’s possible in Harry’s case, Lyudmila. I mean, there are fifteen hundred full bonded now and Lilith only knows how many mate-bound.”
“And Harry, Romilda. Never think Harry doesn’t know exactly where every one of them and the children are and what state they’re in at every moment.”
“Lyudmila, he simply can’t be that powerful.”
Lyudmila laughed and put a small knife to Romilda’s forearm. Most of the crowd in the Potter’s Field never saw Harry fade in, take the knife, give Lyudmila a raised eye, nod at her bowed head, and fade away again, or George arrive as Harry left. “Lyudmila!”
“Yes, my lord?”
“Find a better way to prove your point.”
Lyudmila rolled her eyes. “Yes, George. The wizards are at the bar, dear.”
George turned a stiff little about-face and joined the wizards at the bar.
Lyudmila turned to Romilda. “He knows where all the vassals are, too.”
The ladies sat digesting this silently.
Neville stared at George Schmidt for a moment and then shrugged. They both knew Lyudmila had to have intent behind her actions to draw Harry and that she had known this and had used it to her advantage. Lyudmila played very close to the edge.
“Was that Harry just now?”
“Yes, it was, Ron.”
“Was that boxers he had on, Fred?”
George nodded. “With little mermaids on them, I think.”
“Cor, he’s been working out hard. Did you see him? Not an ounce of fat on him. Hate to find him at the end of a dark alley.”
Fred and George turned to Ron and the whole section of the bar burst out laughing. “Tell me, brother—”
“—you didn’t find it—”
“—the least bit odd—”
“—that Himself suddenly appeared—”
“—at half ten—”
“—in his little mer—”
“—maid underpants?”
Ron looked at the laughing crowd, bemused. “Well, no. I mean, he’s Harry, isn’t he? He does own the place.”
The crowd positively roared. “What? There’s no law against not wearing outer clothes in your own place!”
Neville and George Schmidt just looked at Ron. “Your friend, you explain it to him, Neville.”
Neville shook his head. “Useless that, George. Better to just get him another pint. It will come to him eventually.”
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Hungary
Ördögház
Tuesday
19 August 03
05:40
Selene and the Death Dealers entered the sally port into the main house from the mews just in time. The sun was nearly peeking over the horizon and the lightening sky was already painful.
Kraven attempted to block Selene, but she just sneered and stepped around him. He was useless anyway. “Kahn, get those bodies down to the lab. We need to know what put them down so fast.”
Kraven caught up. “Why are you bringing these Lycan here?”
Selene ignored him and continued to her room. She was covered in blood and entrails and badly in need of a bath. Whatever had killed those Lycan had sprayed their insides over the entire den. “Because we need to find out what killed them, Kraven.”
Kraven attempted to block her path again and Selene, completely fed up, shot him twice. She continued past the slumped body as Kraven’s sycophants cowered in the shadows. “Yes, you lot taking over is going to be fine. I think I’ll just kill you all before Marcus is raised.” Selene kicked one of the cowering vampires out of her way.
Kahn watched and shook his head. It was going to be worse than ever this time, a fight on two fronts—the Lycan on one side and these useless scum of Kraven’s on the other. Selene was so moody these days. Whatever that illness had been, it had changed her; for better or worse was hard to tell, but she was not the same Selene. He turned back to the stairs and headed for the lab.
Erika was waiting for Selene with a bag of fresh blood in the bedroom. Selene pushed open the door and looked at her. “None of Amelia’s fuck toys here, then?”
Erika smiled. “No, and you should try one or two. They can be very…fun.”
Selene snorted and started stripping. “As if they’d even look at me. You, Mariska, Malika, and Kato have them completely sewed up.”
Erika pouted. “And you haven’t even tried. I’m here to remedy that—you need a good topping. Remember the dream.”
“And you are ill-equipped. I told you that that was a magnificent sire.”
Erika brought her hand from behind her and waggled a toy. “Modern technology. Besides, four hundred years ago you weren’t so stand-offish.”
Selene was forced to smile. “I’m going to shower.”
Erika watched the lithe form cross the floor and licked her lips unconsciously. Selene hadn’t changed much. That ass was still perfect, as were those deliciously upturned breasts. She rose, dropped her dressing gown, and followed Selene to the shower, still carrying her bag of blood. No reason she and Selene couldn’t eat at the same time...hehehe.
“ERIKA! Oh my, Erikmmmph!”
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Hungary
Budapest (Pesht)
Tuesday
19 August 03
05:40
Genesis Fillmore Potter led her reconnaissance company back to their garage in the safehouse, a medium sized four-story palazzo on Kmety Gyorgy Utca north and west of Hero’s Square, and sent them to rest. She had already briefed her replacement, Tímea Vágvölgyi Potter, for the daytime hours.
It had been a hard shift and those Lycans had worn them out, chasing all over the city and transporting anyone they had bitten to the dungeons under Potter Castle for processing. Finally they had had to take steps. Unfortunately Selene had appeared after the snipers had pulled the triggers on the M95s. Selene had looked very funny shocked out of her wits when those fifty-caliber bullets tore through the Lycans after the hollow points peeled the jackets away and deposited one hundred grains of silver nano powder in them. Useless against vampires, except for a head shot, but deadly against Lycans. Of course they had the UV chemlight rounds for vampires.
Hmm, something wrong with the whole setup there. Oh, that’s it—ammo change. The M95s used a box magazine. Each sniper team would have to carry separate boxes for UV (Ultraviolet) and NS (Nano Silver) ammunition.
“Or another rifle already loaded, Genesis.”
“The things weigh ten kilos, Ginny.”
“Another sniper, then. He or she can load UV and the other can load NS. The same spotter can control both and add one troop to the team for close security.”
“Yes, Harry.”
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Godric’s Hollow
Corps exercise ground
Tuesday
19 August 03
05:50
Harry smiled at the chorus that answered his thought and sent them all quick caresses; he chuckled at the pleased little mental squeals that answered.
Harry continued his workout as everyone else arrived.
“Nym, we have to force a routine back on him. He’s hardly sleeping.”
“We’re only back one day, Na Wen, and he’s in fight mode. He’ll settle into a rhythm soon. I’ll warn you that it will be a very high rhythm. Last time he was like this was with Xi Shi, and while it was fun it did take us a long time to slow down again. The Ugandan thing you’re remembering was an aberration—Harry just ran amok. He took six months to get back to strength after that one.”
Sarah and Lilith were nodding. Na Wen went along grudgingly.
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