My new bed was comfy but I had trouble sleeping that night.
I kept thinking about the things the Sorting Hat told me. Tons of famous mortals were actually demigods if you knew what to look for, so it wasn't shocking that the same would be true for wizards. I wondered what kinds of things the founders might have left behind in this castle. If the Mist was used, it wouldn't be impossible to hide something from regular wizards for centuries.
That wasn't the only thing on my mind. I kept going back to when I found Harry on the train. I had a wand, but right now it was just a glorified stick of wood.
It was my job to keep Harry safe. At first, I thought trying to learn magic would be a waste of time. The other kids in my year had been studying full-time for six years and they were still considered students. There was no way I could learn enough to beat adult wizards in a magic battle after a few weeks of practice. So I stuck to what I was good at. Like in Brighton.
Now, I was starting to think I had the wrong approach. Even if I couldn't use magic as well as a real wizard, there were certain things worth learning. If Tonks hadn't been there on the train, I would've been stuck carrying a paralyzed Harry all the way to the castle. I needed to be able to undo simple spells like that if I wanted to keep people around me alive.
I woke up early and wasn't able to get back to sleep. Eventually, I grabbed my wand from my bedside table and rolled onto my back. I ran my thumb along the grooves in the wood.
Because I was awake, I was the only one in the dorm to hear the startled gasp from the bed next to mine.
Harry shot up, grabbing his sheets and heaving for air. His skin looked clammy. He grasped at the table next to his bed until his fingers closed on his glasses. Placing them over his nose, he sat there staring at his lap. It was hard to see since it was dark, but I wasn't sure if it was just sweat running down his cheeks or if there were some tears mixed in.
"You okay?"
Harry flinched. He hadn't realized anyone was awake.
"Fine," he grunted. "Just a dream."
"I know the feeling."
He looked at me, his eyes clearly saying, I doubt it. But it was true.
"Want to talk about it? It feels lame, but it can help. Trust me."
"You wouldn't believe me if I—" Harry stopped. I wasn't sure what made him change his mind, but he said, "I guess it won't hurt. Meet me downstairs."
Our voices were making some of our roommates toss in their sleep. I got dressed while Harry threw robes over the shirt and pants he'd slept in. One at a time, we crept out of the dorm and descended the stairs to the common room.
No one was around at this hour. It was still about half-dark. I wasn't sure what the time was. With every seat available Harry picked two burgundy recliners close to the fireplace.
"So, what'd you see?" I asked.
"That's a weird way to phrase it," Harry said. "What did I see? It's like you think a dream could be real."
I shrugged. "I'm a weird guy. But I'm a pretty good listener. So go ahead and lay it on me."
"It started out in a house," Harry said. "The walls were falling down and most of the windows were cracked. It should have been abandoned, but… something was in there."
"Do you know what it was?"
Harry hesitated.
"No. It… It was dark. And…. And I was seeing from its eyes."
"Oh. One of those," I said. "They're hard. I pushed my nephew off a cliff during one. Even though you know it isn't you, it still feels like you're the one doing it."
Harry leaned forward. "Exactly!"
For a second he was grinning, thrilled that someone else managed to put what he was feeling into words. He cleared his throat, sitting back in his chair.
"There were people in the room with me. All of them were in masks, and they were sticking to the shadows. They blended in."
"Death Eaters," I said.
"...I think so, yeah."
He paused to see if I would interrupt. If the person in his dream was surrounded by Death Eaters, it had to be Voldemort. But I waited so he went on.
"There was one other person. She was on the ground and she was moving, but only a little bit. It was more like… twitching. And I— The thing whose head I was inside, was laughing. They lifted their wand. Everything flashed green. And the movement stopped."
He squeezed his chair. Harry was looking down at the floor, his dark green eyes a million miles away.
"Voldemort killed someone," I summarized. "And you had to watch."
"It might not have been real." Harry's voice was glum. "Voldemort can send me fake visions. He did it once last year, and I got my friends together and led them into a trap at the Ministry like a—" He took a deep breath. "Anyway, it could have been fake. Just a way to get into my head."
"Even if it was real… it doesn't change anything, does it?"
"It would mean I watched someone die!" Harry snapped.
I wasn't offended by his tone. If someone wasn't at least a little angry after seeing what he described, I don't think I could trust them.
"I'm not saying you should be happy it happened, or that any murder doesn't matter," I said. "But we knew he was killing people. That woman wasn't the first, and realistically she won't be the last. Especially not if Voldemort keeps living. That's why we're going to kick his ass."
After sitting in silence for a bit, Harry managed something approaching a smile. "We?"
"Well, you're the chosen one. You've got a prophecy and everything. They don't give those to just anyone— trust me, I'd know. And my job is to guard you. So I guess it looks like we're doing this together."
"I'm the one who has to kill Voldemort," Harry said. "That's how the prophecy goes."
"Then I guess I'll be slashing his Death Eaters instead. But you better win."
Harry laughed. "You're a little bit crazy," he decided, but he made it sound like a good thing. "Slash? Don't you mean that you'll curse them?"
"I don't know how."
I took my wand out of my pocket and waved it around. Naturally, nothing happened. Harry frowned.
"I have my own tricks," I said. "But right now, I don't really know magic. Like, any magic."
"Will you be alright in classes?" he asked.
"Will I do well? No," I said. "But I'm used to disappointing teachers, and it's not like Dumbledore would ever kick me out. I don't really care if people make fun of me, I'm used to that kind of thing. But I'm realizing there are some things I really should know."
"Like how to undo a Body-Bind."
I winced. "Yeah. Like that."
"You really don't know the countercurse," Harry said. "You weren't exaggerating yesterday."
"Believe me, I didn't want to leave you lying on the compartment floor. That was kind of a wakeup call."
I might be able to get away with dodging everything that was thrown at me, but I couldn't guarantee the same for the people around me. Staying ignorant was putting them at risk.
Harry put his elbow on one of the armrests and rested his chin on his knuckle. Something about his vibe changed. It felt like I was a newbie camper sitting in front of my counselor, watching them brainstorm ways to bring out my powers.
"You should start by learning a few simple charms," Harry said. "Those are the easiest things to learn. Even if you don't use the Color Changing Charm or Folding Charm, knowing them will make learning other spells easier. All the first years start that way. You said that you have talents, and you seem sure that you can fight Death Eaters with them. What are they?"
"I'm really fast. And strong. I'm good with a sword, too. And I'm not sure how many curses work on me."
Harry gaped. "What?"
"I've got some special blood," I said, and left it at that.
It's not that I didn't trust Harry. The opposite, actually. He reminded me of myself in a lot of ways. This just wasn't the time to dive into the Greek pantheon and the existence of gods. I was liable to make his head explode if I pushed things too fast… or convince him that I was crazy.
"Okay. Like Hagrid," Harry said. "Honestly, he's one of the scariest people in the order when he gets mad. It's like trying to curse a boulder."
I tried to imagine Hagrid angry but couldn't. The closest I \ got was picturing him anxious, distraught over the newest trouble that Harry's gang had found their way into.
"Oh, one more thing," I said. "Tonks made water appear. I want that spell."
"Aguamenti?" Harry said. "I mean, I can teach you, but… why that one?"
"Water is my thing. Any spells to do with it are right up my alley."
Harry shrugged as if to say, Whatever you want.
I was starting to hear voices upstairs. It wouldn't be long before we didn't have the common room to ourselves.
"Do you have experience teaching?"
"What makes you say that?" Harry asked.
"You're good at this."
It was the way he brainstormed exactly what I needed most. He came up with a tentative lesson plan over the course of a single conversation. I could tell he was curious about my special blood but he didn't linger on it. He just found a similar example he was familiar with and moved on until I was ready to tell him.
"I ran a club last year," Harry said. "Well, we called it that, but it was basically just extra defense lessons. The professor that year wasn't teaching anything, so I did as much as I could."
"Are you going to run it again? You didn't look happy about that Snape guy taking over."
Harry grimaced. "I have personal issues with Snape, but he'll probably be better than the woman before him." I could hear how hard it was for him to admit that. "I won't have time to teach this year anyway, now that we have NEWT classes. The club was shut down pretty nastily, too. I doubt anyone wants it to start again."
Ron appeared on the stairs. He wasn't quite dressed and his ginger hair was at a crazy angle. When he saw Harry, I watched him relax. I wasn't the only one keeping an eye on the chosen one's whereabouts.
"Morning," Ron said.
"You're up early," Harry said.
"Not as early as you," Ron grumbled. He came to stand next to Harry's seat. "What were the two of you doing?"
"Talking. I couldn't sleep. Dreams again."
"Ah."
Ron stood there for a second, then turned around and walked back the way he came.
"Where are you going?" Harry asked.
"Back to bed. You're doing fine now, and I can get another fifteen minutes if I'm quick!"
I remembered Mrs. Weasley's comment about her sons and early mornings not mixing.
"He's not a morning person, is he?"
"We'll probably see him in an hour," Harry said. "Maybe two."
Other students were starting to arrive downstairs, and unlike Ron they didn't head back the way they came. The common room started filling around us. Hermione arrived fairly early, followed by her roommates Lavender and Parvati. We headed to the Great Hall as a group of five.
I answered a lot of questions about where I was from. Lavender and Parvati were curious about Manhattan. When they asked about Ilvermorny, I made up things that sounded fun. They were amazed to hear that we rode pegasi to breakfast every morning and that our school uniforms were bright chartreuse.
"That isn't true," Hermione finally said. "Ilvermorny doesn't have anything like that."
The other girls looked at me.
"Maybe," I said. "But wouldn't it be really cool if it did?"
Parvati pinched my arm for that one. It was worth it.
True to Harry's prediction, Ron Weasley arrived fashionably late at the end of the meal. He tried to make up for lost time by fitting spare bites into his cheeks like a chipmunk. Hermione wrinkled her nose.
"Would it kill you to have some manners?" she asked.
"Mannerth are fur whe ur full!" Ron said, which I think meant, "Manners are for when you're full!"
The way that things worked out, the first day this year was a Sunday. Classes would begin the following day, but for now we were free to explore the castle. I wasn't the only one thinking along those lines.
"We should show Percy around," Hermione said. "He'll need to start getting his bearings early. Otherwise, he'll keep getting lost."
"Good idea," Harry said. "We have all day."
Lavender leaned over, smiling brightly. "I can do it!"
"Really?" Hermione said. "We don't mind, though. We can take care of it."
Ron swallowed the food he'd stuffed into his mouth in record time.
"C'mon, Lavender's offering!" he said. "If she handles it I can finish my meal in peace, and you can go to the library. Think about how many pages you could read in the time it takes to tour the castle."
Ron nudged me and winked, inclining his head toward Lavender subtly enough for Hermione to miss it.
"You're up to something," Hermione said.
"Oh just let me handle it, Hermione," Lavender said. "I want to do it anyway!"
That's how it was decided that Lavender would help me get the layout of the castle.
"That worked out well," she said, leading me out of the Great Hall. "Let's get the basics into that noggin of yours."
Given our conversation the night before, I thought Lavender might be using this as a pretense to get me alone. And maybe she was, but she was still giving her all as a tour guide.
Hogwarts was the second most confusing place I'd ever been, only beaten by Daedalus's Labyrinth. The staircases moved, the paintings talked, and for some reason a quarter of the students lived in the dungeons.
"I've heard that Slytherin rooms are full of luxuries," Lavender said. We were standing above a staircase that you could feel damp air wafting up from. "No one actually knows, though, because they're the only ones who can get inside. I know that I would take Gryffindor Tower every day of the week! Sleeping up there makes me feel like a princess…"
While Lavender giggled, I looked at the cobblestones below us and tried to imagine a girl like Daphne Greengrass living down there.
We worked our way up the castle from the dungeons. Lavender showed me the major locations, including the classrooms I'd need to find tomorrow. I appreciated it, but I was going to be sticking to Harry and Ron for a while that was for sure. There was no way I could navigate Hogwarts after just one tour.
After we knocked out the most important places, Lavender started showing me her favorites. There was a lounge room on the fifth floor for studying, with baby-blue walls and beanbag chairs. The next stop was an old classroom that wasn't in use. Its windows had (according to Lavender) the best views of the Forbidden Forest from anywhere in the castle. Looking at the sun shining on the tips of the trees, my eyes were drawn to the Great Lake, reminding me that I had a squid to visit sooner rather than later.
When it was getting close to lunch time I noticed that we'd been climbing stairs for a while. I hadn't seen anyone else around, either.
"This is the West Tower." Lavender's hands were behind her back as we climbed. "Ravenclaw's common room is somewhere around here. Professor Flitwick's classroom isn't far either."
"And what are we here for?"
Lavender looked back at me with a smile. She took a sudden right when we reached the next landing. We were in a short hallway that had a single door all the way at the back of it.
"This!" Lavender said. "It was supposed to be a study room, but no one ever used it. Eventually, it was abandoned."
"So how do you know about it?"
"I make it my business to know about all the places in this castle that no one visits," Lavender said. "They come in handy."
She reached out and laid a finger on my chest. When I didn't shy away, she curled her finger and added the other four, holding the front of my robes. She had to go up on her toes to get her face close to mine.
"I've got a question," I said seconds before our lips touched. Lavender stopped. "Why me? We met yesterday."
"Does that need to stop me?"
"No. But it does make me curious."
Lavender tilted her head. She had big, glossy lips. "If I tell you, will you give me a smooch?"
"I'll probably give you more than that."
She giggled. "You know how to get a girl excited. Alright. I'll bite."
She shifted her body so that her buxom chest rubbed on me. She was really well endowed, even compared to many of the demigod girls I'd charmed.
"When I hit puberty, my chest started growing."
She giggled again. Grabbing my wrist, she placed it on one of her tits, her eyes imploring me to squeeze. I did, and a brief moan paused her story.
"As you can feel, it grew a lot," Lavender said. "I love my tits. When I look at them, I feel sexy. But all of a sudden rumors started spreading. I was easy. I'd been with every boy in our year, including the ugly ones. I love a bit of gossip, but when I'm the last one to hear about the things I've supposedly been doing… Well, that sours it a bit, doesn't it?"
"So people lied about you."
"Repeatedly. But would you believe me if I said I was grateful for that? Because it dawned on me one day. If people are going to chat shit anyway, I might as well do whatever I want in life, right? They already call me a slag, so what's the harm in snapping up the sexy new student before anyone else can? Even if I didn't they would still say that I spread my legs. And then I wouldn't even get to experience the fun part. That doesn't seem very fair."
I moved forward, making Lavender tiptoe back. With each step she took her grin grew until her back hit the wall next to the door.
"That's a neat attitude."
"Thanks," Lavender said. "I came up with it myself."
Then we were kissing.
Her lips were as soft as they looked like they would be. With her back to the wall and my chest on hers, I could feel her breasts in even greater detail than before. Lavender ripped off the outer layer of my robes. I shoved my hands up her shirt. It was all very frenetic.
My hands slid under the bottom of her bra. Her breasts seeped between my fingers when I pressed down. Pinching my middle and index fingers, I managed to trap her nipples. Lavender's moans echoed down the hallway.
She shrugged off her own robes. Underneath she was in a blouse to go with her Gryffindor skirt. I dragged one of my hands out of her bra and shirt, reaching up the bottom of her skirt instead. I put two fingers on the cameltoe of her panties, rubbing her harder than a mortal man could.
Lavender let out an exclamatory breath. "You're a brute!" she said, laughing with pleasure.
She pushed her hands under my shirt, returning the favor I'd shown her. I could feel her fingers and nails moving over my body, groping my abs. Instead of kissing her on the lips, I bit her neck. Lavender shifted her hands and pushed my head away. When I willingly retreated, she latched onto me above the collarbone, sinking her teeth in.
"There!" Lavender said. "Now we match. If they're going to keep my name in their mouths, I might as well give them something to talk about.
I spun her around, earning a happy yelp. With her back to me, I kept my arms wrapped around her, one on her crotch and another on her tit. I had groped her hard enough to slide her bra up underneath her shirt, shunting it over the top of her funbags.
Lavender moaned and grinded her ass against my crotch. She even bent her knee and stuck one leg up, using her heel to fondle balls. It felt… surprisingly good.
Lavender shot a hand out and scrabbled against the handle of the door in front of us. In our rush we hadn't even gotten into the private place she brought us here for. The staircase was right behind our backs— anyone could walk by at any time.
Lavender's fingers found purchase. She twisted the handle and yanked it open. We stumbled in together, hitting the ground as we tripped over each other in a bundle of limbs. Both of us laughed, Lavender reacting first. I rolled onto my back and let her climb on top. She grated her throbbing cameltoe onto my bulge, grinning with delight. Her face really was pretty, with round cheeks, soft brown eyes, and a sharp jaw. She smashed her lips onto mine, kissing me like she was trying to save a drowning sailor. I kicked the door with my foot, shutting it with a resounding bang!
Lavender kissed me, still moving her hips, until she sat up and dragged her shirt off. Her bra was still pushed up on her cleavage, leaving wide inverted nipples staring at me like eyes. I wanted to bite them.
I would have, too, if someone didn't say, "Hi Percy."
Lavender screamed. She covered her nipples by crossing her arms over her body and huddled down, trying to hide her bare skin. I wasn't undressed yet, but I was underneath Lavender with my clothes skewed and a big splotchy bruise on my neck. We'd been caught in the act by none other than a barefooted Luna Lovegood standing beside a tall mahogany dresser.
"What are you doing here?" Lavender yelled.
"Me?" Luna said. "I'm here quite often. There's a particularly high density of Wrackspurts in this room. I think it might be where they breed. They're always taking items and stowing them in high places that are hard to reach."
Lavender was trying to calm down. "Where are your shoes?"
It was kind of hypocritical for us to question the skin that Luna was showing in this situation, but Lavender wasn't thinking logically.
"Looted. By the Wrackspurts," Luna reported. "They plan to use them as nests, I think. That might explain why they take them so often. I was in the process of retrieving them when you arrived. Are the two of you here to have sex?"
"I—!" Lavender stuttered.
"That's right, Luna," I said. There wasn't any point in hiding it. "I can help you get your shoes down, if you want. That wardrobe looks pretty tall."
"Oh. Thank you," Luna said. "That will be very helpful after we're done."
She took off her shirt.
"What are you doing?" Lavender demanded.
"You're having sex, aren't you?" Luna said. "I'm joining in. Sex is fun. Especially with Percy."
Like that, Luna popped her bra, letting it fall to the floor, showing us every inch of her petite breasts. Unlike Lavender, she didn't seem the slightest bit embarrassed, and promptly started dropping her skirt.
Lavender's resounding shout of, "Wait!" pinged off the walls of the small room.