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Harry Potter and the Corvinus Strain
Chapter 5

Godric’s Hollow
Corps Exercise Ground
Thursday
21 August 2003
05:55

Harry smiled as he started his routine. Erika had Selene in the bed after a rough night killing Lycan and they were being very busy girls.

The crowd of unbonded females was not getting much working out done while Harry was this “on”. Nym looked at the daughters. “You have to pick up the pace, girls. It was your turn last night, and look at him—he’s all the way on again.”

Cherwyn spoke for her sisters. “Well we’re going to have to have some help, Mum. I mean, you said he got this way when you were fighting Xi Shi, but I think six or eight mates a day for six years, almost seven, has brought his level up.”

Su piped up, “Well hell, why didn’t you say so? We can fix that easy!”

“Not and leave him the time he wants for other things, Su.”

Su rolled her eyes at Padma. Padma said, “Oh, Turning.”

“Thank Morgana, I was afraid you’d damaged yourself getting Harry to bang your head into the headboard like you do.”

Padma gave her a delicate pink tongue and got a chuckle in return. Padma had developed a penchant for—errh—vigorous lovemaking. It was not unusual for her to bump into the headboard of the comically huge bed, sometimes very hard.

“You know, we could tie your feet to the footboard, then you wouldn’t hit your head.”

Padma sat thinking over Hannah’s suggestion while she did her incline presses, as her mates chuckled.

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Hogwarts
Thursday
21 August 2003
09:00

Harry, the Alphas, and the Primaries including Zemfira/Katharina, Minerva, and Chu, walked through the school with Hermione/Rowena leading the way.

This was the second school tour of the day, a day that was going to be thirty-six hours long as they transited every time zone in the realm.

Harry was having a lot of fun, though. He always enjoyed seeing the schools and the changes in them. Rowena was positively glowing, as was the castle. No longer the dark place it had been, illusioned windows brought in daylight everywhere. At night and in overcast conditions, daylight colored direct-current neons hidden in crown moldings cast a warm daylight type of light across the ceilings, illuminating the rooms. The Great Hall was, of course, still illuminated by thousands of candles; tradition had to be observed, after all.

“Very nice, Rowena.”

“Thank you, Harry.”

“Any thing else you need?”

Hermione/Rowena blushed and Harry rolled his eyes. “Besides that?”

Hermione gave a little head shake as Nym rolled her eyes and faded the group to Rowena’s Heart chamber.

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Chita
Thursday
21 August 2003
09:00

Four sidereal hours later in Katharina’s Heart chamber Harry smiled and snuggled into Zemfira/Katherina’s belly with his arms wrapped around her hips. Zemfira huffed and then smiled as she felt his contentment. She chuckled at his gentle snoring and was pleased when Nym took her head in her lap. “It may be time for a break.”

“You think?”

“Hush, Daphne.”

“Grrr. No arguing; nap now.”

“Oh hush, Harry, we aren’t arguing and you know it. Go to sleep.”

Harry gave a funny little mental start and then his consciousness sank, with a few grumbles, as he drifted back to sleep after Sarah’s comment.

“Nym, all the schools are in good order, you know; we can go home if we want to.”

“Susan, you know he wants to see them all. Every year it’s the same thing.”

“Well, just let him rest. He’ll be fine. Give us another Turn, Hestia.”

Hestia nodded at Sarah’s suggestion and handed the Time-Turners’ chains round. She gave one turn and Turned them all back two hours.

“At least he’s finally getting tired and sleeping.”

Everyone nodded at Ginny’s comment. The Alphas and Primaries went back to the discussions of the mates’ business as Harry napped

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Potter Castle
Thursday
21 August 2003
19:00

“So—everything in order, Harry?

“With the schools, yes, Andrew.”

“So what’s out of order?”

“Nothing very badly. The Corps is task organized and getting used to it. Summer has been great. The exercises are very specific and the chattel hybrids are helping out a lot. Suzanne has the Patriarchs coming over to bless the vehicles. Chu worked out the silver plate for the vehicles and they make the Lycan mates very, erm, nervous perhaps. It’s just that summer is truly over now. We have this and next weekend and then term starts.”

Andrew laughed. “Harry, you all enjoy term too.”

Amy Ullman Potter, seventeen, former ward and now wife, threw herself in Harry’s lap. “Yeah, Da, we love term. Now take me to bed.”

“No distracting, Amy, we have to talk about the start of term wake.” Jean Orso Potter, fifteen, Myrddin intent-bonded admonished. She got a pink tongue and Harry got a delicious little wriggle.

“Too late, hehehe.”

“Amy!”

Andrew smiled at the clan as they played.
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Godric’s Hollow
Corps Training Field
Saturday
30 August 2003
06:00

Harry arrived and dropped into his routine immediately. Several smiling young mates who had faded in with him started their stretches while looking at each other and giggling.

Sarah, Nym, Na Wen, and Lilith watched and chuckled. The girls had decided there wasn’t enough angst to keep a teenaged mate happily depressed and moony, so they had tried to create a little melodrama. It had failed spectacularly, but all’s well that ends with a belly full of Harry.

Harry was a little grumbly about the whole thing but he was happy enough. Once he understood it was a tempest in a tea pot he had used his normal method of distraction. The girls had been momentarily shattered.

“Girls!”

“Oh come on, Harry, a girl needs a little drama.”

“There isn’t enough real world drama, Lilith? I mean, we are fighting a war still.”

“But that’s business, Harry, it’s what we do. They want a little harmless fun.”

“Strange definition of fun, and since when is inventing a complicated little web of reasons to be mad fun? Can’t they read some of those paperback beach books you girls do? Watch the telly even, those ‘soap operas’ from the U.S. are full of that kind of crap. Pregnant, that’s the answer. Babies seem to cure the need for drama. I’ll just have to keep the younger mates pregnant all the time.”

The Alphas looked at each other and laughed. The newest mates had immediately begun calling dibs on the first efforts at Harry’s new drama reduction scheme.

Harry had been working out the whole time he was talking in the bond and he was working at his maximum capacity this morning, still working off the adrenalin from waking to find his mates fighting in the bedroom. The tussle had been all words and pouts and hurt feelings, or so Harry thought until he touched Rebeca Linares and Lindsay Peterson to separate them. He had immediately penetrated their shields and found the truth. They had been contrite and their act of contrition had spread quickly. Harry’s workout brought the whole very full training field to a halt.

His dive into the lake woke everyone again and got them moving.

Jean was seriously put out when Harry sprang from the lake, like a dolphin after a mackerel, in his merman and hit the beach running in his human form, scooped up Pansy, and faded from view.

Cherwyn looked at her sister. “It’s fine, Jean. We’ll still have the barbecue. You know Da wouldn’t miss a day at the beach.”

“That is so confusing!”

The Potter daughter mates and intent-bonded turned to look at Carolyn Jessup Wesson Potter. “Don’t go all Harryistic, Carolyn, just go with it.”

All heads swiveled to Suzanne. “What? Seriously, you all need to let that go! How long am I going to have to hear about that?”

“Oh, a thousand years or so ought to do it.”

Frieda got the de rigueur pink tongue and chased Suzanne into the lake.

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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Saturday
30 August 2003
09:00

Harry eyed the breakers critically and thought about the seventh waves again. He watched and counted as the waves mounted from a one-meter swell through an eight-meter monster, followed by the one-meter swell again. Satisfied, he grabbed Nym and faded her and himself across the lake onto the rising seventh wave. They raced, sizzling, across its surface as Nym snuggled her rump back into Harry and leaned back into him.

Harry smiled and lightly gripped Nym’s waist and nuzzled her neck. Nym’s shriek as they reached the end of the wave came just in time and Harry carved a one hundred eighty-degree turn and headed back the other way.

Harry, now paying more attention, watched for the wave to rise and curl, and as it did he turned again and put himself and Nym in the pipe of the breaking wave.

They ended up standing on the board on the sand in front of the applauding student body of the realm, a significant portion anyway. They took a little bow and Nym squawked as Harry faded them to the next big roller. This time they were not alone as mates and children joined them.

Jean grinned like a madwoman and chased her mother and father across the wave. This was going to be the most spectacular start of term wake ever. Sergeants Major Jones and Lyles had told the head chef, Stock, how to cook a pig in the ground and then proceeded to show that worthy how it was done. They, the three of them, had been up since last night “cooking” and assured her the pigs would be ready by lunch. Jean had been nervous; the pigs weren’t the only thing those three had cooked last night, but the Sergeant Major’s wives had assured her it was always like this and the pigs would be great. Jean had nodded and then Harry had raised the waves. He had caused them to roll from one shore to the other, about 1100 feet, and Jean just couldn’t resist. Besides, if the food was wrong Geoffrey would fix it.

All of the Potter children had invited their friends and acquaintances from all over the realm and their families to this private party. It was private only in the sense that if you had never attended school in the realm you didn’t get invited; the Hollow was packed!

Harry finally had enough surfing by 10:00 and sat for about three seconds before Lily and Carmen came and got him and he began his defense of the youngest Potter daughters’ realms in Sandlandia. Soon there were multiple dragons rampaging around under the girls’ direction. Well, sort of—it was a kind of chaos hardly ever seen outside of a real battlefield. Squeals of glee filled the air.

“Jean, your dad is dreamy!”

“Trust a Hufflepuff to come up with that! Of course he’s dreamy, Charlotte, he’s Harry Hotter.”

“Irma, be nice; curb your inner snake.”

Jean’s group giggled as she established control over one of the three Slytherins.

Ewa Wolkowycka Potter, Jean’s partner Warg, nodded. “I think she meant the whole package, not just the way he looks.”

Charlotte grinned impishly. “Boy, wouldn’t I like to know! Think your mums would loan him out for an hour or so for some package checking?”

Irma Cranston gasped. “Charlotte Camp, you bad girl you.”

“Hope springs eternal.”

The group laughed. They knew Charlotte was mostly kidding—well, somewhat kidding. It had been a common theme since the girls started Hogwarts together and formed their group. At first it had all been mostly innocent, Harry as Prince Charming to their Cinderella’s, but once they seriously got into puberty and then with first Jean’s and then Ewa’s intent bonding, the group focused on Harry as their male ideal. The wizards in the group rolled their eyes but worked hard to be as like Harry as they could, what they thought was Harry-like and what the girls all swooned over anyway. Fitness, proficiency and kindness seemed to be the main drivers. Charlotte was only half kidding, if that. The instant one of the Wargs said okay she’d be on Harry like a rash. She wasn’t sure if she was found by Harry, but you didn’t have to be found to have fun.

Rosalie Jackman, Ravenclaw, rolled over and smacked Charlotte semi-gently on her butt. “Hush, horny cow.”

Charlotte’s “MooooOOooo” broke the group up.

Gerald Crittenden, Gryffindor, snorted and said, “Must be something in the air in the Badgers den. I mean, look at the Head Girl. If she doesn’t quit stalling and get bonded soon her head is going to explode.”

Connie Frank, Gryffindor, followed everyone’s eyes to Rose Zeller and said, “Yeah, the little one anyway. Morgana, why doesn’t she just jump him right here—and that bathing suit! Or two bandanas, whichever!”

Ewa chuckled. “Eeeuuuw, Connie. Perv much?”

Jean assumed a superior air. “One must make allowances for one’s Head Girl.”

“Feh, bother that. She has NEWTs and Head Girl duties this year. That on top of the finding is going to drive her straight out of her mind. I don’t know why she doesn’t just go ahead.”

Ewa shrugged. “Me either, James. She has this urge to prove she can make it on her own without the bond. I personally don’t see her lasting past Christmas hols, at least without an intent binding.”

James Winslow, Slytherin, nodded. “All that ’Puff determination getting the best of her. His Highness should just take her. He has every other Head Girl for the last five years anyway. We all know it’s going to happen. What’s the value in holding out?”

The wizards looked around at the witches, who shrugged helplessly as the Secret kept them from talking about the power gained by holding off. “James Winslow, you did that on purpose just to see us shrug.”

James didn’t even blush. “And it gets better every year!”

James found himself buried in the sand to his neck. “Prat!”

Connie gave Ewa an opera clap. “And wandless, too. We must talk, I think, my dear.”

The boys rolled their eyes and grabbed their boards. They would be excluded by the Silencio momentarily anyway. “Fellas, oy mates, don’t leave a bloke helpless!”

The boys paused and found their wands and spent a few minutes digging James out.

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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Saturday
30 August 2003
12:00

Rose Zeller lay in the sand face-down next to her lifelong friend Daryl Savage Potter and eyed her conspicuous bump. Daryl sighed. “If you’d stop being an idiot about it you could have one of your own.”

A soaking wet Harry appeared levitating three plates and pints of butterbeer. “Leave Rose alone, Daryl. She’ll come when she’s ready.”

“You mean more than she is now, Harry?” Daryl laughed as she looked at the shivering Rose. “If you want her to eat you’ll have to leave, Harry.”

Harry nodded, leaned over, kissed Daryl and Rose, and left. Daryl put a warming charm on the plate Harry had brought for Rose. It would be a while before she recovered.

Harry faded back to the edge of Sandlandia and sat eating, surrounded by his children and youngest mates.

“Harry, you have got to stop kissing Rose. She’s going to be unconscious for half an hour.”

“It’s not my fault, Marcia. She just won’t come in for her binding. You don’t think that’s hurting her, do you?”

Marcia shook her head. “Nothing permanent…yet. We really do have to talk to her, though, Nym. She’s cutting it really close now.”

Lilith looked at Harry, exasperated. “You should just go take her, Harry.” She huffed at his horrified face. “Will you never learn? She is yours—you are hers. You wouldn’t be hurting her. Besides, it would decrease the chances of her jumping you in some hallway in Hogwarts. Just think where that could lead with all those witches about. All we need right now is for you to intent- or fully bond seventeen hundred odd witches from eleven to eighteen.”

“It wouldn’t be all of them, Lilith, not all of them are compatible.”

“Harry, if you get started in public they’ll all want a turn. It will cascade out of control.”

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Godric’s Hollow
Duke’s Beach
Sunday
31 August 2003
17:43

Harry sped across the wave with Muriel in her human form on the board in front of him. It had been a grand last day but now everyone had left the waves except for them and the exhausted realm was gathering itself to go home.

The two hit the beach and Muriel faded Harry and herself to a secluded glen just behind the vale. She turned in Harry’s arms, slid to her knees and took him gently in her mouth. This was the first time she had done this as a human, and her mates were encouraging and coaching in the bond.

Shortly Harry tried to pull back but Muriel gripped lightly with her teeth and then swallowed, smiling. That was very nice.

Harry pushed her gently to her back and returned the favor.

“Harry, fade yourselves to the water. The moon is rising.”

Harry nodded at Nym’s comment and faded himself and Muriel to her quarters in the palace in the lake without missing a stroke and while emplacing a Bubble-Head charm on them both.

Muriel lost her human as the orgasm raced through her and Harry reluctantly pulled free of her, changed, cancelled the Bubble-Head and drove back in.

Nym smiled and continued packing up the kids and the beach things.

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Severo Kurlisk Region
Royal Academy of Magical Rus
Kurile Campus
Monday
1 September 2003
14:00

Harry, the Alphas, and the Primaries stood watching with their mates as the train appeared on the far side of the circle of tracks exactly opposite them and began braking into the station.

Agnes McNeil Potter shuddered as Harry played with her in the bond. “Harry!”

“Yes, Nym?”

Nym gave him a glare. Harry smiled and turned his attention to the arriving train after promising Agnes some time tonight.

“Nym ,we have the feast here and then the one at the Woolerbilla Campus. How are we going to do both?”

Hestia held up her Time-Turner. “We’re already there, Harry.”

“Oh. You know, I really have to work on making some more of those rocks. We really couldn’t manage without them.”

Hermione grinned. “Yes we could, Harry, we’d just have to change the start dates for some of the schools.”

The mates chuckled at Harry’s outrage. Hermione sighed. “Harry, you have mates of almost all species, you create waves that just stand there in the water, you can change night to day and vice versa, and this bothers you?”

“Well, school is supposed to start on September first!”

The laughter became general.

Sarah shook her head. “Harry, you and Andrew do try to not eat so much this year, please. Having you running around complaining about your stomachs hurting for the next three days will not be tolerated.”

The little chorus of “Yes, dear” from Harry and Andrew and Sarah’s angry foot stamp broke the mates up as the train pulled into the station. Every year was the same. Harry and Andrew over-ate horribly by the end of attending every opening feast and then moaned about it endlessly for the next three days.

Anastasia cleared her throat and the mates ordered themselves and smiled and waved at the curtsying or bowing students and parents as they disembarked from the train.

After the opening day everyone would use the Portkeys, but they loved the train for the opening days of term and returning home before holidays.

Trains, really, as Cho kept building them and the Knight buses and making improvements. Besides playing for the Tornados off and on she had made magical mechanical transportation her forte. Her broom company, Lucky Dragon Brooms, was going great guns. Harry was her very enthusiastic test pilot. Well, he and Katie. The top model Black Dragon brooms were a favorite of the professional Quidditch leagues for those that could stay on the super-cruise-capable “death traps”, as the Nimbus, Cleansweep, and Firebolt companies styled them. The beautifully styled Green Dragon brooms, with their layers of safety and security charms, expandable handles and cushioning charms, were a favorite of families everywhere, the minivan of the wizarding world, replacing the stodgy old Bluebottle and giving the Quidditch mums a status symbol of their own.

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Hungary
Budapest
Pest near the Danube
Tuesday
2 September 2003
06:00

Selene kicked in the door of the palazzo and Erika immediately dragged her inside. Kahn and the rest followed. “Well, that was fun.”

Selene looked at Erika. “Strange idea of fun, Erika. We lost Stephen and Karl.”

Erika took a Tokarev from her waistband; she dropped the magazine and was examining the ammo with her back to Selene. It glowed with an odd purple light. Some kind of UV round like the silver nitrate or silver nano powder, except pointed at us. Erika shrank and dropped the Tokarev and its ammo in a pocket to be handed off to a contact for transport to Marietta’s lab later.

Selene watched her curiously and knew she would be talking to Amelia’s vampires soon. “So where are we, Erika?”

“A safe house of Amelia’s. We can wait for dark here. There is blood, and the windows in the apartments are blacked out.”

Erika didn’t say that Tiara Degan Potter and her company had directed her here and covered their flanks. The target had been a big interconnected den close to the heart of Lucian’s pack territory. The Lycan had defended it heavily.

“What the hell was that that we found?”

Kahn looked at Selene. “I don’t know, but we aren’t going to get into it that way.”

Selene nodded; they would have to watch this place and be very careful.

Erika, satisfied that Selene was distracted from her activities with the weapon, grunted. “You don’t say, Kahn. I’m going for a shower, some blood and bed. The sun will be fully up soon and we can’t really go anywhere anyway. Coming, Selene?”

Kahn smiled as Selene nodded and followed Erika. She was almost back to normal. She was still subject to flying into a rage, but less likely to take it out on those around her, except Kraven. Kahn chuckled. Kraven flinching every time Selene’s hand strayed toward one of her Glock 18 pistols was an endless source of amusement. Erika fucking her mindless was another. It was good to see Selene relaxing. Hmmm, speaking of which, Kahn turned and looked around at the grinning Death Dealers. “Two on guard. The rest, well, let’s get a shower first.”

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Hungary
Budapest
Pest near the Danube
2 September 2003
Tuesday
06:00

Lucian was furious. Not only had the bloody vampires found the lab, they had come very close to getting in. Singe had been just about to throw the acid on his notes. Fortunately the UV bullets had worked and they had driven the Death Dealers off. Fucking Selene—that bitch was dangerous. Time to add up the butcher’s bill. Lucian shook his head. It was going to be large. Why wouldn’t the other European packs help him? He had to have more recruits! Whatever the Death Dealers or whoever those people in the tartan were had discovered was universally fatal to Lycans like the UV rounds were on vampires. Lucian smiled; Singe was to be congratulated. Tannis, well Tannis had been compensated.

Now to get that idiot Kraven to tell him what the Death Dealers were using. Plus he had to have the date of the Coven meeting. Kraven’s plan for ambushing the train was brilliant, but they couldn’t hang about the Budapest Haupt Bahn Hof, erm Main Train Station waiting.

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Royal Academy
Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park Campus
4 September 2003
Thursday
09:00

Harry wandered the halls of the Pentaflake as awed students watched and tried to be inconspicuous about watching. Ann Morely Potter smirked and led Harry to the Technomancer section of the school.

The mates were back on schedule now, teaching and lecturing as well as pulling shifts as Battle Captains and doing their work as officers of the Corps. Of course the Potter children were getting their share of mommy time too, and it never failed to amuse the officers and troops of the Corps HQ to have a mate sitting as Battle Captain while wiping runny noses or helping with school projects.

Harry was off on a new quest with Lilith, investigating mines and kimberlitic pipes in Canada and the rest of North America.

“Arkansas? Are you sure, Lilith?”

“Yes, Harry, after we look at the school and check the pipes north of here.”

“Uh, why, Lilith?”

Lilith suppressed the urge to grind her teeth. This having a body thing was fun but sometimes.... “So you can get a feel for the schools and feel which stones will fit them, Harry.”

“Oh, why didn’t you say? I can do that now. I built a lot of them, after all.”

Lilith just stared at Harry. He smiled, stepped into her, and they faded away with the mates accompanying them. Lauren faded back and picked up twelve-year-old Sarah Ramos after she fainted and faded away again, setting every female in the hall tittering and whispering fiercely. Not a few in horror, as they realized that Sarah was found and they had treated her badly.

Harry, lump that he was, wouldn’t notice the group had grown by five girls as they looked over the schools until late that night after they found four stones in or near the Arctic and one spectacular yellow diamond in Arkansas. The underage girls were very disappointed that Harry wouldn’t even touch them until after their parents had been spoken to. Harry was not taking any chances on binding a girl before speaking to her parents. They did have fun watching their compatriots who were above the age of consent get taken straight to exhaustion in the Dragon’s Den before the mates took over and reestablished order and the order. Sarah Ramos also enjoyed practicing her dancing with Lilith in a corner with Julie Stratton and Jo Ann Compton.

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Royal Academy
Godrics Hollow Campus
5 September 2003
Thursday
12:34

“Irma, get off!”

“What, Charlotte? I barely touched you!”

“You jostled her and interrupted her Harry-watching.” Rosalie nodded at the screens where the bonded, eating lunch and talking to Harry in the Hold turned dining hall, were displayed.

Jean and Ewa snorted. “Found. I told you. Another year and she’ll be flinging her panties at Da.”

“Eeeeww, Ewa! I’m eating.”

“Yeah, sure, like you’re bothered.”

Jean giggled.

Rosalie looked at Charlotte critically. “I just think she’s horny.”

Ewa leaned up and put a hand on Charlotte’s forehead. She gave a little Mona Lisa smile and said nothing.

They waited as Charlotte ignored them.

“So what are the bonded up to this week?”

Ewa shrugged. “Same old thing, Da’s all worked up about the Hungarians. We found new stones and added a couple mates. Other than that it’s work, school, or....”

Charlotte sighed. “I’d like some of that dot dot dot, please.”

The table of girls cracked up.

Jean finally managed, “Irma, where are the boys? James should have been looking down your top by now.”

Irma giggled. “I know. I’ve spent a fortune on these bras—you’d think I could get at least a peek or two out of the boy. Apparently they have a chance to go to Canada for some classes and they’re all off trying to figure it out.”

Rosalie frowned. “What are we, then, chopped liver?”

Connie finally contributed, “Oh, I don’t mind. They all want to see if there are any witches out there that their magic finds. I was planning on taking a few classes at the other campuses myself.”

Jean frowned. “Is this always how it was? I don’t remember Mum saying anything about witches checking to see if they were found.”

“It was normally done semi-surreptitiously. Balls and parties were a big part of it in my day.”

“Really, Alesshandro? We did the same kind of thing in the clans. Everyone knew what was going on, though—well, all the women did anyway.”

Jean nodded at Allessandro and Minerva’s comments and Irma huffed at her. “And for those of us not bonded by Harry Hotter?”

“Oh, sorry, the mums say yes, it’s not unusual and they used to do it at parties and dances.”

Connie looked thoughtful. “So another sign we’re returning to pre-Dark Lord and Lady days then. You know what? We should put together some intra-school events. I mean, if this is how it used to be done, anyway....”

Rosalie smiled. “And any excuse for a dance, eh?”

The other girls nodded.

“Harry?”

“Yes, Min?”

“Is this all right with you?”

“Oh sure, Min. Perhaps we should get parental permission and assistance in chaperoning, though. What do you think, Nym, weekends?”

“After the sport on Saturday; that way they won’t have quite so much energy.”

The mates all giggled at Harry’s confusion.

“They’ll be easier to chaperone, Harry. The parents won’t have to chase quite so many of them out of broom closets.”

Now the mates laughed at Harry’s mental start. And Nym, who happened to be walking with Harry, pulled him into the next one they passed and gave him a lesson in what the possibilities of a broom closet really were. Of course she had never taken her broom closet activities past snogging before today. It was delightfully naughty.

Harry thought so too, especially the holding Nym against the wall with the tops of her thighs on his shoulders while he was standing part. It was decidedly relaxing making Nym scream—well, hum loudly.

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Godric’s Hollow
Corps Training Ground
City Mock-Up
5 September 2003
Thursday
16:38

“Sergeant Weasley, what exactly do you call that spontaneous abortion I just witnessed?”

The female troops of George’s squad cringed and a couple grabbed their lower bellies. The Sergeants Major were just nasty, that’s all there was to it.

Fred got his back up. “Better than last time, Sergeant Major.”

SGM Jones smiled. Yes, finally SSG Weasley was taking ownership of his troops. “Well, that’s true, but it still looked like a monkey fucking a football. Try it again and let’s try it with a little snap if you please, ladies.”

“I’m sure you meant boys, Sergeant Major.”

Fred braced for the onslaught of a pissed-off Sergeant Major. “No, Private Krajchek. It may be that you and your squaddies could turn out to be worthy of the uniform and the title after all. Maybe, in ten or twenty years. NOW MOVE!”

Fred smiled and led his troops back to the start point at the double. Lester looked at his partner. “Little rough on ’em, weren’t you, Jimmy?”

Jimmy Ray nodded. “But Weasley finally got his back up and took ownership.”

“That’s both of them now, then. I wonder what took Fred so long.”

“What’s are the three things that get a soldier in trouble, Lester?”

“Drugs, money, and the opposite sex.”

Jimmy Ray looked at his friend and waited. He didn’t wait long. “One of his squad?”

“Yep, Private Wheelwright. It’s plain as day if you watch; Angelina Weasley caught it right away.”

Jimmy Ray watched Lester Lyles struggle with it. This went against everything he had ever learned in the U.S. Army. NCOs did not become romantically involved with subordinates. Sure, you loved them, and most would lay down their lives for their troops, but a romance was a unit killer. Finally Jimmy Ray took pity on him. “It ain’t our Army, Lester, plus it’s apparently one of them witch and wizard things.”

Lester nodded and turned to watch the next squad assault the defended building. “What about the other Weasley, Jim?”

“Well, watch this iteration and tell me what you think, Lester.” Jim smiled and never told Lester his wife had originally pointed it out to him. And it was both Weasley boys. Odd that they would both pick up females out of their first all-female cycle, but there it was.

Another thought occurred to Jim. “Lester have you seen the new dogtags?”

Lester nodded. “Yeah, that ‘species preference’ line is freaky.”

Jim nodded. “Yeah, but if it works....” He shrugged. “So what do we advise them to do? Private Bains asked me and I told her a half-life was better than none.”

Lester thought about it. Dead was very permanent, and from what he understood the Clan was working hard on the cure to this virus that changed people. The plan was apparently to “turn” any casualties that could not be saved through normal medical means to either vampires or werewolves to save them. The leadership was leaving it to the soldiers to decide which. The troops could select vampire, werewolf, or No Preference and it went on their dogtags just like what religion they preferred. The religious preference was so the Magical Forces knew which Chaplain to have conduct the funeral. “I’d go with vampire myself; that werewolf thing looks painful even with that medicine they have. And the vampire troops are issued those stones to protect them from daylight.”

Jim nodded. “Yeah, but what happens when the stones’ batteries run out?”

“They ain’t got no batteries, Jimmy.”

“You know what I meant. It will be just like the GPS thing—as soon as these new troops run out of batteries they can’t fight any more ’cause they don’t know how to navigate without the GPS.”

“That’s an NCO failure, Jimmy. We’ve had this argument every week for ten years.”

“’Cause you can’t see I’m right, Lester.”

The technology Vs. technical expertise argument proceeded as George led his squad over the start point.

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Godric’s Hollow
Sports Ground
7 September 2003
Saturday
10:07

Harry snickered as Demelza cursed, “Hush, Harry, it’s not funny. This lot can hardly stay on their brooms. Hell, we only graduated three but it seems they all forgot how to fly over the summer.”

“Demelza, that’s it! Start at the basics and let’s go through it. Then we’ll try out for the positions next week.”

Demelza nodded. “Okay, Harry.”

“Thank Morgana, I thought it was just the ’Claws.”

“Me too, Cho—well, except the Badgers.”

“Well, we noticed Hannah; I mean, flying into a goalpost is a bit extreme.”

“I wonder why they’re all like this?”

“They didn’t practice over the summer. Some of them may have not been on a broom since last season ended, Daphne.”

“I wonder why, Hermione?”

“Too busy sniffing around our daughters at the beach.”

“Harry! Eeeewww.”

“True though, and not just the daughters. They need to go find their own.”

Gwenog swooped up out of the Harpies’ practice and leapt to Harry’s broom facing him. “It’s a compliment on your taste in women and your ability to make them, Harry.” She gave him a huge kiss.

Harry only managed to stay grumbly a few more moments. Gwendolyn shook her head; it was going to be another one of those years, just like the last five. She would have to speak to the witches about timing pregnancies again.

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Potter Castle
Public Sitting Room
8 September 2003
Sunday
20:32

Emma Granger leaned in. “Questions, ladies?”

Maria Ramos, staunch Roman Catholic, turned to Emma. “He is a good man?”

Emma thought a moment. “He is what you see, Maria. A young man in love.”

“But so many! Madre de Dios. How can he keep up? Will my Sarah not be…well, bored? Marriage is sacred to us; she will only marry once and if she is bored she will wander, and, well....”

“Find something to occupy her time; probably a boy,” Melissa Compton finished for her in her genteel southern drawl. Ann Stratton nodded.

Emma chuckled. “Well, first there will be the bond. They’ll have their mates in their heads. Then there’s Harry, who will be doing his level best to keep them—errr—entertained; then there will be school and sport and babies.”

“BABIES!” Maria dissolved into machine gun Spanish interspersed with English, the gist of which seemed to be something about not being a grandmother at thirty.

Emma cringed. “Not necessarily hers, but her sister wives’. The children call the bonded ‘the mums’; they don’t make much distinction between them.”

Maria looked around the huge room wide-eyed. There were hundreds of children present from newborns to six-year-olds. “I don’t think so, no.”

Harry was suddenly standing there. “As you wish, Señorita Ramos. We will give Sarah special instruction and watch her closely.”

Ernesto Ramos, who had walked over, shook his head. “No, Sarah will stay here. If we could perhaps get a house in the village we will move nearby. I will not take the chance of her being driven mad.”

Maria turned on her husband, prepared to deliver a blistering round of displeasure, and was cut off. “Maria, you know what will happen. We have no reason to doubt she is found. The Duke does not lie, and even if you don’t trust him your own mother told you the child was found. There can be no other outcome. She will bond or be driven insane. I cannot imagine a better mate for her. Sure, she won’t be Alpha, but neither will she ever be alone.”

Maria clapped her mouth shut and sat thinking. Was that really it? Sarah would not be an Alpha? Yes, it was. They had worked so hard and Sarah was so very beautiful and bright. She sighed and nodded. Sarah popped out from behind Harry, squeeed happily, and leapt into her mother’s lap.

Maria spluttered, “This will not be like the kneazles, Sarah. I won’t be around to feed and water this one and you’ll have to empty your own litter boxes.”

“Mother!”

Harry smirked and, morphing to a spectacular green-eyed kneazle, leapt lightly into Sarah’s lap.

Even Maria had to laugh as Harry rubbed his head in Sarah’s lap and kneaded her thigh. Crookshanks was not amused and stalked from the sitting room with his back firmly up and his ruff puffed magnificently, the mates’ laughter tinkling after him.

Harry sat in Sarah’s lap napping as Maria, Melissa, and Ann were firmly inducted into the mother-in-law club, with Emma as their sponsor.

Ernesto retreated to the game room again with Edward Compton and Charles Stratton. Andrew was their escort.

“Will that work, Ernesto?”

“Yes, Highness. Maria holds high expectations of Sarah. She just hasn’t realized Sarah has more than exceeded them.”

“Andrew, Ernesto, we’re all fathers-in-law together.”

Edward Compton took the opportunity. “Or ex-husbands.”

The game room froze. Andrew had wondered when someone would say something. “Well, it’s a little different with Harry and me. Perhaps because of Sarah and the girls’ bond with me, whatever the reason, Harry and I are very closely tied and, well, my bonded keep me busy enough. Sarah and I are still bonded also; she just focuses the physical aspect of the bond on Harry now.”

“Well, that’s a part of the secret they didn’t share.”

Andrew smiled. “I don’t think they knew it was possible, Charles, and it may be unique. Sarah and I were being pushed apart by societal pressures and, well, things just kind of worked out this way.”

Phillip, who had been watching and listening, changed the subject slightly. “So what do we do when a Squib or non-magical mother objects and doesn’t know the secret?”

Arthur Weasley grimaced. “Pray the mothers-in-law can work it out. I can’t believe it hasn’t happened so far.”

Frank Longbottom nodded. “It actually has but there seems to be a different mindset at work. So far the mothers have been won over when their daughters were happy and continued to be happy. Emma Granger is an example. No one knew she was a witch until the bond woke her power. She was simply concerned that Hermione was happy at first.”

Dan Granger nodded. “Myself as well. First the magical world gets sprung on us and then the Secret. I was just glad she wasn’t found by some evil git or user.”

Charlie Weasley grinned. “Well, our little Harry cured that soon enough. Those stones of his are merciless, like him really.”

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Godric’s Hollow
Sports Ground
10 September 2003
Wednesday
18:00

“And there we are, Glenda, the first balls of the new season released and the Peewees are underway here at Godric’s Hollow.”

“And obviously the Social season is under way too, Percy, as it’s a packed grounds we’re looking out on.”

Bruce Titterhorn smiled as he watched his sometimes fractious but always entertaining, now bonded pair of anchors start another season of Sport, Court, and Royal coverage.

“Now give us a kiss, Percy, and go talk about your Quidditch while the ladies and I talk about the important things, like fashion!”

Percy chuckled and leaned over and pecked Glenda on the offered cheek as the cameras rolled.
“Yes, dear.”

Percy then waved his wand and put the Silencio up between himself and Glenda and got down to the Quidditch as Glenda’s camera crew turned their lenses on the Ducal box and Glenda began her commentary.

“And its all inter-house tonight, witches and wizards, with all five pitches in play.”

Bruce did his little dance in the technical booth out of camera range. Then he turned to the row of monitors and watched Lisa Cole and her team do the Quodpot coverage, which was being simulcast onto one of the Jumbotrons.

Bruce looked closer and rolled his eyes. She was pregnant again! Lisa Cole, my ever-so-sexy rear end. When was she going to admit she was fully bonded to his Highness? None of the other matebound got pregnant every eleven months like clockwork and then had little green-eyed twins to show off, four sets so far, and very few lived in Potter Castle. Morgana, she drew the ratings though. Lisa had to be the sexiest pregnant witch alive and she knew how to tastefully (barely) display it to her advantage, or her dresser did.

Bruce tittered behind his hand. The Mundane never did figure out that she was pregnant—all those glamor charms—but they were fascinated by those huge breasts. Lisa’s coverage of American professional football was as popular as her Quodpot coverage.

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Godric’s Hollow
Sports Ground
12 September 2003
Friday
18:00

Harry sat in the Ducal box watching the JV teams and individual athletes compete, completely at peace with himself and the world at large. Things were going very well. Sure, they were killing Lycans every night, but only those in commission of a capital crime, and the stones would have picked those up eventually anyway.

Merlin’s flaming penis! “Hestia—”

“Hundred thirty-four, Harry.”

Harry watched Hermione frown and hand Hestia a Galleon. “Hey, that’s not cricket, Hermione, betting on how forgetful I am!”

“Oh no, Harry, we bet on when you would remember. I said tomorrow.”

“Same thing.”

The mates laughed and Harry continued, “So just those run of the mill ones? No surprises?”

Luna and Li concentrated a moment, then Luna answered “Nope. Eighty-six capital crimes and forty-eight for lesser offenses.”

The mates sat as Harry digested this. Elizabeth eyed Harry. “You can’t really be unhappy that your plan is working.”

Harry blushed. “No, ma’am, but I find myself—errr—disappointed, perhaps.”

Elizabeth did a fish impersonation and Phillip beamed at Harry. “That’s twice you’ve done that, lad. Good show.”

“Phillip! Really!”

The mates covered their mouths as Elizabeth lit into first Phillip and then Harry. Nym installed a little privacy bubble around the three of them.

Sarah eyed Andrew. “What, not supporting your twin?”

“No, actually I’m with Mum on this one.”

Sarah leaned forward and put the back of her hand to Andrews’s forehead. Her mates laughed some more.

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Godric’s Hollow
Sports Ground
14 September 2003
Sunday
21:00

Hestia opened Court and the prisoners appeared in the dock. The prisoners were then brought forth and the charges against them were read. A team of mates applied the Veritaserum and questioned the prisoners publicly.

If the prisoners were apprehended by the Aurors instead of the stones, the Aurors’ testimony was verified by certified projecting Pensieve and then Harry would look at the assembled Wizengamot. The boards would light and the votes were tallied and then Harry would offer single combat or execute sentence, binding them to his or the offended’s House.

Na Wen gathered up the eleven new female slaves, and Narcissa took the thirty-seven male bondsmen and departed with them as Hestia closed Court.

The crowd left, satisfied that all was right in the Realm.

Griselda turned to Augusta. “So he was right about that recidivism thing? We’re working our way through the truly evil gits.”

Augusta nodded. “So it appears. I wonder how those ‘crime of passion’ ones’ will do, though.”

Duke Hamilton leaned forward. “Not like we’ll ever know. They’re sentenced to life at hard labor in the deepest hold of that dungeon of his. They’ll never see the light of day again.”

What really happened was that they were enslaved to the Potter house and given rune-driven glamor charms. Narcissa then found them work and they worked. Some had even married and had children but they were slaves, never to be free again. Their kids were as free as the breeze.

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Potter Castle
Dragon’s Den
14 September 2003
Sunday
23:20

Harry leaned back and smiled. He watched through hooded eyes as Jean and Ewa gave some very nice support to Sarah Ramos for a couple of numbers. Sarah looked down and saw Pansy’s dreamy smile of contentment. Jean leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Very nice. Pansy hardly ever looks that dreamy that fast.”

Sarah pouted and Ewa laughed. “It’s Pansy’s club, Sarah. You have to pay the owner. Besides, wait till she dances. It’s hot and Harry will take whoever is near. After this number, go give Harry a kiss and Pansy will dance for you as a thank-you.”

Sarah nodded and finished her routine. She scampered off the stage and to Harry with a smiling face, shining eyes, and a sweaty body. Dancing was harder work than it looked.

Pansy grabbed her and gave her a kiss as she rose from Harry’s lap and then planted Sarah there. Pansy gave a couple of waves, Scourgifying herself and then Harry, and then went around to the steps of the stage.

Sarah Ramos had kissed Harry and gotten well lost in it. She relaxed into his lap and found him positioned against her entrance. Well, after she slid herself up his length by pulling her hips forward. Sarah smiled, pulled herself tight to Harry, and slid down his length. Harry swallowed her shocked little squeal and held her still. “Hold still, Sarah; get used to it.”

Sarah nodded furiously. Books were one thing. Having a boy in you was something else. It was actually nice, though, and hurt less and less very rapidly. Morgana, this was very much different from fingers, hehehe. Oh, what was that? Oh, his pulse. I can feel his pulse. Oh, I like that. Mmmmhmmm, okay, enough of this. What happens if I do this? Sarah concentrated and clamped down on Harry inexpertly but very tightly. Harry smiled and swelled a little. Sarah was tight and wet and hot as hell and Pansy was doing her level best to make Harry come. The dance was hypnotizing, and combined with Sarah it all had Harry sweating.

Sarah leaned back, looked at Harry, smiled and looked over her shoulder. Pansy was gorgeous and very sensuous. Sarah picked up the rhythm of the dance with her hips and Harry followed in counterpoint. The first couple of strokes threw Sarah but soon she was lost in it. Harry actually didn’t know where to look for a moment. Pansy smiled, danced to the edge of the stage leaned forward and turned Harry’s face to Sarah. She then recovered and entertained her mates as Harry occasionally cast glances her way, read Sarah and held her squealing at the ragged edge of orgasm as long as he could. As the song ended, Pansy, on her knees now, leaned forward and licked the back of Sarah’s neck, launching her into a convulsive orgasm and taking Harry and herself with her. The mates Occluded heavily and shielded their eyes. When the glare receded they all smiled and clapped. Sarah ran around in the bond, naked and happy, while in the physical world she collapsed on Harry, sandwiched between him and Pansy.

Nym smiled. “Well, that was different. Pansy met her match, I guess.”

Cho’s “Ha, finally one of you has to deal with it!” was smothered in a kiss from Victoria followed by “Hush, you know you like it.”

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Potter Castle
Dragon’s Den
17 September 2003
Wednesday
22:07

Erika appeared suddenly, and very upset. She moved straight to Harry and crawled into his lap behind Cinqudea, displacing her. Her mates sifted her thoughts and sent her all the support and sympathy they could muster.

“It’s fine, baby, I’m not mad at you.”

Erika looked at Harry and smiled weakly. “I know, and thank you. I just can’t stand his hands on me.”

Harry leaned down and kissed Erika. “Be a little more discreet, then, and don’t let him get in a position to touch you until you’re alone. Then you can Stun and memory-charm him.”

“And when I am supposed to have slept with him? How am I to wake up in his arms if I can’t stand him touching me?”

Harry morphed to Kraven and while Erika shuddered slightly, she smiled brighter and slapped him lightly in the chest. “I know it’s you, Harry. It’s not his shape I hate, although that isn’t very pleasing. It’s his nasty mind and attitude I can’t stand.”

Harry contemplated a moment and then Erika broke up laughing. “You can’t even think mean. What kind of vampire are you?”

“Erika!”

“Erm, sorry, Amelia.”

“You should be, I taught you better. I can see this has gone on too long. Harry, just kill them all besides Selene. We have enough now outside the Balkans.”

Harry blinked at the dichotomy of Amelia Fastida’s statement and then demand as the mates guffawed. The belly laugh was infectious and helped Erika immensely.

Pansy waved and the music started again.

Erika snuggled in and prepared to defend her chosen lap. Her mates smiled at her and left her to it, her mental screaming in revulsion from earlier still fresh in their minds.

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Potters Field
20 September 2003
Saturday
23:11

Angelina looked at Fred trying not to look at Tracy Wheelwright and shook her head. She stood, grabbed Fred’s hand, and dragged him out, pausing to grab Tracy’s hand and take her in tow as well. Hoots and wolf whistles followed them out.

Once outside Fred managed to extricate himself. “Angelina, what are you doing?”

“Heading off years of stupidity and angst. Come along, Fred.”

“Angelina!”

“What? She’s found, she’s cute, fit, and of age. I assume she’s intelligent; I mean, all those tricks she’s pulled in Basic? She’s fully qualified as magical infantry and there’s no question she’s found. What else could you possibly want?”

Fred, almost running to keep up, replied hotly, “Well, knowing her opinion of the matter would be nice.”

“Trust me, Fred, if she had objections she would have hexed me by now.”

Tracy suddenly laughed. “He’s not very bright, is he?”

“No, but he’s ours.”

“True. Where are we going, Angelina?”

“Home, unless of course you’d rather find a nice bush.”

“Oh no, home is fine.”

Something about the way she said it sent a shiver down Fred’s spine, a shiver of anticipation and fear.

Back in the Potter’s Field Alicia looked at George. He shook his head almost imperceptibly. Alicia frowned and lay her hand on Kristina Flack’s bare arm. Kristina felt the tingle and looked at Alicia; she, too, gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. Alicia shrugged and went back to talking to Lavender. They would discuss this later. George cringed and Kristina smiled.

Romilda, who had been uncomfortable all night, suddenly paled dramatically and she and Neville disappeared.

Lyudmila raised a brow at her George, who shrugged and then nodded.

“Damn, he’s fast, Lester.”

Lester nodded at his partner. “Yeah, too bad we can’t teach that.”

Jimmy Ray snorted. “Like they’d spend enough time to get in that kind of shape.”

“Yeah, not like it used to be in our day.”

Janean Lyles had had enough. “Yeah, or they’d all be coming home falling down drunk after marching fifty miles uphill both ways all day in the burning hot dark of the night during a white-out blizzard.”

Janean and Martha Jones looked at their husbands and burst out laughing at their shocked, offended faces. Martha added, “After licking the road clean for chow and painting it green for the first shirt all for a dollar a day and all the ammunition you can use.”

The troopers and patrons at tables near the Sergeants Major and their wives sputtered and then finally roared with laughter.

Meanwhile Romilda found herself naked in the grip of some thing and in a pool of warm water. “Neville, kill it!”

“Steady on, Romy, it’s just Harry. Remember, we talked about this.”

“Oh yes, I remember. Oh, that’s marvelous. The small of my back, Harry, it’s been killing me for a month. Ohhh, yesssss.”

Marcia, Melissa and Jennifer entered the birthing room and climbed down into the pool in their bathing suits. Marcia transfigured Neville’s clothes on the way past. “Come on, Lord Longbottom, don’t make Harry do all the work.”

Neville nodded. “Yes, sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Nev, just come here!”

“Coming. Romy.”

The medi-mates rolled their eyes at each other. At least he’d got right in, not like a Weasley.

Nym and Sarah faded in with Alice Longbottom, who Transfigured her own clothes and joined the crowd in the tub, and Augusta who took a seat on a marble bench by the wall.

“Your father’s in the game room, Neville.”

“Okay, Mum. Look, Romy’s having a baby!”

Alice looked hard at the glassy-eyed Neville. Nym and Sarah chuckled.

Alice sighed. Not as bad as Harry, but still.... “Yes, dear, we know. Now why don’t you be a good boy and go hold her hand?”

Neville nodded and moved back to Romilda, who took one look and laughed then grunted and squeezed the glass right out of Neville’s eyes by crushing his hand.

Not much later Harry, human Harry, fell into his comically huge bed chuckling. “Was I as bad as Neville?”

Nym stared at him. “Oh yes, my lord. As always, you exceed all comers by miles. At least Neville stayed human. Better than the Weasleys, though.”

“Hey!”

“What, Ginny? It’s true.”

“Only the younger Weasleys, thank you very much! Bill, Charlie, and Percy have been right there for Fleur, Dana, and Penelope.”

Sarah nodded. “That’s right. What is it with the younger ones, I wonder?”

Ginny opened her mouth to answer and then smiled at Harry’s gentle snore. They shifted their conversation to the bond and mostly Occluded Harry.

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Godrics Hollow
Sports Complex
21 September 2003
Sunday
09:00

Harry beamed at the beautiful weather and sat back in his chair. It was going to be a beautiful day. Romy, Frank Jr., and Neville would be fine, the Quidditch was on. Erika was better and working a plan, now with several compatriots stationed at the Ördögház permanently with her. Of course that meant Harry had to travel to the Plazzo in Pest every once in a while, but he needed to do that anyway. Tomorrow he would be in Kunming with Na Wen for a Turning or ten as catch-up, and last but not least only six to judge today as the rest had been handled by the Wizengamot.

“Harry?”

Uh-oh, that was the bad news “Harry” from Amanda. “Important?”

Amanda smiled. “Yes, Harry, but not earth-shattering, just something you should know. There’s a faction rising in the U.S. Religious fundamentalist, mostly. They’re attempting to discover things.”

Harry sat for a moment but failed to make a connection. “And?”

“Things about you, Harry—well, you and the magical world. Some of them are magical and the oaths are holding so far, but it looks to be a problem for later.”

Harry sighed. “Any chance the leader could be swayed?”

Amanda giggled. “Every chance, Harry. She is reportedly very easy to talk to. You should write to her.”

Harry turned to Amanda, who smiled brightly at him. The mates giggled some more.

Harry rose stiffly. “I will be dueling.” He threw Amanda a quick wink and a smile and then stalked off. The males joined him, including his James and his brothers.

Nym looked at Amanda. “So we turn Harry into a gigolo?”

“No, Nym. It really could develop into something serious but right now, at least to outside observers, it looks like a bunch of religious nuts burning books and trying to start witch hunts. It hasn’t even reached the level of a political groundswell. Rita and I are watching and will continue to let them paint themselves into corners with their ridiculous rhetoric. In their way, though, they’re as dangerous as the ‘Islamist’ fanatics. It’s inside the realm of possibility that we’ll have to do something about them eventually.”

Nym nodded. “Hopefully a few years from now.” The mates nodded with their primary Alpha.

Lauren piped up, “On another note, Shelia reports that the Lycan in Budapest are turning Hungarian women and girls at a high pace. I think we should stop that if we can.”

Hestia frowned. “How? I mean how are they turning them? We’ve been stopping every party of Lycans we find out of their dens.”

“Male Lycan parties, Hestia. Apparently Lucian has a few loyal females and they’re working overtime.”

Hestia’s cursing in the bond was blistering. Finally she calmed “I knew I was forgetting something.”

Lauren nodded and sent her sympathy. “Yes, well, I wouldn’t feel too bad as I forgot it too. I suggest that I take the Lycan mates and see if we can track down the females and transport them here. Harry can then dominate them on the full moon on the tenth of October.”

Nym nodded and Hestia, Lauren, and Hermione began to plan. Sarah looked thoughtful; she Occluded the bonded and Harry. “Nym, Miriam and the other Warg daughters are mature. If they run with us Harry will cover them eventually.”

Nym put her mental shields up. “I know. I wanted to bite her last full moon, waving her little bottom at her father!”

“So what do we do then, O Mighty Alpha?”

“Me? Why me?”

“As soon as your’re done channeling Harry, dear....”

“Oy, no need to be mean. I was just thinking. I think Harry should bang the hell out of them.”

“What? You can’t be serious!”

“Think about it, Sarah. There are only their brothers and them. There are no other male Wargs or we would have found them in the last five years. So their half or full brothers can mate them or Mr. Change My Genome To Fit The Occasion can knock their bellies full.”

“And their humans, Nym?”

“Well, in their case it’s a transformation like our Wargs, and so far their only one. I’m not sure they’ll want a human male, but if so they can go find one or take Harry. I’m fairly sure he’ll be all right with it if he mates them as Wargs first.”

“Golden and I have had the same thought.”

“Melinda?” Nym asked in the bond, feeling Golden and Silver, the Unicorn mares, there too.

“Yes Nym. We, that is the equine mates, have been considering this issue for some time. Golden, Silver, myself and the Centaur Alpha have come to the same conclusion. Harry will need to alter his genome slightly for each daughter to increase the gentic diversity of the species involved.”

“Does he have the knowledge to do it?”

“I do, Sarah.”

“Eeeep, Lilith! Lilith, warn a girl!”

The impromptu breeding council chuckled at Sarah’s swearing on Lilith at Lilith.

“Yes, yes, very funny. Now who’e going to tell Mr. High Moral Tone?”

“Tell me what?”

“Harry! No eavesdropping.”

“Sorry Nym, now tell me what? Oh, that. Yes, I was going to talk to you all about that.”

“Nym? Sarah?”

“Give them a minute, Harry. I think your being all reasonable and logical took their breath away. Oh, don’t pout.”

“Well, I don’t see why it should surprise them, Lilith. I’ve been getting better. Hey, while we’re waiting, what about you changing their brothers’ genomes slightly? That way they’d have a mate their own age.”

“Eeeeewwww, Da, no!”

“Miriam!”

“Yes, Mum?”

“@#%&*@!”

“While your mothers recover their thought processes, Miriam, why not? Don’t you like your brothers?”

“Well sure, Da, but as brothers, not as my pups’ sire.”

“I could find you a nice human and change him for you. How about Lyudmila’s George?”

“One that you can’t dominate? If I’m going to do this it’s going to be with the Alpha male or not at all. Lyudmila’s George is a possibility but he still wouldn’t be able to beat you. Besides, Lyudmila isn’t exactly amenable to sharing. We asked.”

“We?”

“The other beta bitches and me, Mum.”

“Okay, ladies, I’ll think about it some more but for now I need to get back to this duel.”

Harry’s presence faded and the mates turned their eyes to the dueling area in time to see a brilliant flash and Fred’s squad get laid out in a neat little Stunned row.

Nym finally recovered .“Okay, so what did I miss? When did Harry suddenly get all pragmatic?”

“He always has been, Nym. He’s just come to realize there isn’t a lot to be done about some things. By the way, he’ll never take the daughters as humans. Well, unless they’re found, and even then he’s going to be a problem about it.”

“Going Seer, Lilith?”

The bonded all looked at Lilith’s little Mona Lisa smile after feeling her smug little shrug in the bond.

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Potter Castle
Dragon’s Den
21 September 2003
Sunday
23:51

Susan lay panting in Hermione’s arms. Arm, rather; the other was wrapped around Harry who was resting after Susan and he had just finished double-teaming Hermione—again. “Harry, why are we shagging Hermione stupid every day?”

“Birthday present.”

Susan’s brow wrinkled. “In addition to all the other stuff? And that was the nineteenth. Not that I’m complaining, mind.”

Harry grinned mischievously. “Well, what I really want to do is tie her to a rack and see what we can do to her, but I don’t have a rack.”

Susan smiled broadly as Hermione groaned and shuddered. “I’ll work on it. I know just who to ask. Shag her again while I hold her down.”

Sarah watched with Sarah a moment and then turned to Pansy, who was dancing. “Come on, Sarah, let’s double-team your partner.”

Sarah the younger grinned and Pansy flew off the stage squealing and landed in a bean bag. Cinquedea joined in the fun.

Andrew had withdrawn when Harry took Hermione down in the corner, and his bonded insured he had no interest in returning.

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Potter Castle
Operations Theater
30 September 2003
Tuesday
09:00

Hestia cleared her throat as she checked the VTC screens. Both Imperial Palaces’ Operations Theaters were on, up and running, and packed with unit leaders. “This is an update briefing concerning ongoing operations vis-á-vis the Balkan vampire and Lycan conflict.

“In the last fortnight we have established the cordon around the AOR and mined it heavily. Contact has been established with the principle players and observation has been made and is being undertaken.

“Several new key locations have been identified and are highlighted on the maps. Please note that additional reconnaisance troops are being committed to those locations.

“Operations are proceeding as expected and we will now begin second phase operations in preparation for the Coven meeting on Wednesday, fifteen October. This meeting and Amelia Fastida’s travel to it are the trigger behind the events that will unfold fifteen through twenty October, and the Guards Magical Corps will be in the field during that period to assist Selene and Michael as clandestinely as possible.

“Our primary concern right now is facilitating the meeting of Selene and Michael on the night of fourteen October.

“To date we have killed sixty-three Lycan in and around Budapest and captured 123.

“All units are reporting they are currently appropriately manned. Now we will field your questions.”

Harry sat listening as Hestia and Hermione fielded questions and the appropriate staff mate handled them. A lot of the questions were seemingly mundane and directed at Ginny. Harry knew, however, that logistics for an army in the field on a winter campaign had always been a limiting factor. All classes of consumables, from fuel to water, were used faster in winter operations and were crucial to the survival of the units, much less the effective function of those units.

Harry had to smile, though. Under Daphne and Susan’s direction the mates watching Michael were steering him ever closer to Selene’s known areas of operations and Michael was seeing Selene everywhere and in various states of dishabille. Harry had questioned Daphne closely but that had turned out to be Susan’s idea. Susan claimed she was “habituating” Michael to Selene by using glamors on the watcher mates. Apparently it was a technique of Lavender’s. Chu backed Susan up and made some changes to the program. Poor Michael was panting for Selene by now. Harry felt slightly dishonest about the whole thing. Lilith laughed at him and faded him away to her Heart to discuss wiles.

The meeting finally broke at noon and Nym sat next to Sarah and leaned her head on her shoulder. Belltrix, Amelia, and Allison assumed their places and the mates had a very nice homey, still moment. “Lilith took Harry?”

Sarah nodded. “Yes, Nym, he was guilting up over us teasing poor Michael.”

Beatrice snorted. “Poor Michael, my ass. It’s like being trapped in a phone box with an octopus if you get within arm’s reach of him. Such a horny little boy he is. I’ve never been so glad of tight pants in my life. At least then I have a layer of cloth between me and him. I can’t imagine what Selene is going to see in him.”

Amelia Fastida nodded. “You know, I can’t either and I’ve known her for ages.”

“Literally eons.”

“Su!” Amelia pouted as her mates chuckled. “Anyway, I think it may just be one of those love at first sight things.”

Nym pulled Amelia’s head back and put a hand on her forhead. “Nope, must be a translation thing then. Lust at first sight, you mean. He is pretty, but I have some doubts about him being able to go the distance.”

“THAT’S IT.”

The mates turned to look at Luna, who was rocking back and forth with her eyes completely white. Very confused images were passing through her mind and it wasn’t clearing up. Li, Luna’s sister Seer, sat with her adding even more confusion along with a few details to the picture. Finally their mates Occluded them.

Nym held her head a moment. “Well, whatever it is we’ll apparently be waiting a bit while they sort through it.”

The mates nodded and went about their business as Marcia, Jennifer, and Melissa faded Luna and Li away to the mates’ sitting room and a comfortable oversize wingback by the fire.

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Potter Castle
Dining Room
30 September 2003
Tuesday
13:02

Harry stood smiling as everyone filtered in for lunch. Harry would never sit and eat until the last of his daughters and mates had been seated. The sons and sons-in-law followed his example.

Finally seated and enjoying his lunch, Harry felt a growing discomfort. Nym, Sarah, Na Wen, and Lilith felt it too and were searching for the source when Agnes groaned. Harry changed and flowed out of his chair and down the table, scattering dishes and spraying ink everywhere. Agnes was suddenly gone and Nym picked up her napkin and wiped the ink off her face. “I don’t know if I can go through another, even worse, loss of his mind over pregnant daughters. None of you can ever have sex again.”

“Mother!”

“What, Bettina?”

“The B-O-Y-S are right here.”

“Yes, and they can spell too, Bettina.”

Nym’s James’s comment brought down the house. After several Scourgifies and the elves relaying the table lunch continued, albeit somewhat nervously and without the medi-mates, Harry, and the Alphas. Hestia finally sighed, smiled, leaned back and reported the arrival of Henrietta, Nymphadora, and Sarah Crumfield.

Cherwyn growled. “Agnes always has to be different. Triplets! Poor Reggie.”

Her sisters and mates laughed.