If someone had told Harry he could have a better winter hols than the previous year, he would have laughed at them. The previous hols were the first one he was welcome by anyone…anywhere. This one blew that one away, as Harry was now part of an extended family with three mothers, two fathers, a grandfather, a grandmother, and many siblings.
The time at the Grangers was fun. Hermione realized having sex, even just oral, in her bedroom with her parents down the hall, was deliciously naughty. Luckily Harry could cast silencing charms…and air freshening charms, as going down on Hermione for an hour a night definitely created a distinctive funk. Hermione was also really working on her gag reflex, though she expected it to take a couple of years until she could deep throat Harry without gagging. It broke the mood for both of them, as Harry didn't enjoy choking her.
Going to the Malfoy Ball was much more fun with Hermione on his arm. As his betrothed, she definitely belonged there. Hermione danced with Neville, Draco, and Cedric enjoying herself immensely, though she always, gladly returned to Harry's arms. Since it was a family ball, Harry was required to play host and dance with other girls too. He enjoyed dancing with his friends Susan and Hanna, and his sisters Chastity and Tonks. Family matrons were able to orchestrate the occasional dance with other fine young ladies, but while he was always polite and kind, it was obvious he had little interest. Many of the matrons who saw the look in his eyes and remembering the bonding ritual, realized messing with the Potter Foible was too risky…especially with those rumors of the madness going around. 'Though he was too young for THAT, wasn't he? most thought.
Having the Grangers join the Tonks for Yule gift giving, was fun too. The Tonks and the Grangers enjoyed merging the families, and since Harry and Hermione were obviously here to stay, it just made sense. Stephen and Ted were determined to get Harry into footy, which Hermione grudgingly tolerated. She did put her foot down on any mention of golf, as there wasn't that kind of time available. Andy, Tonks, and Juliet thought the whole thing was hilarious as Hermione wasn't even 14. Yet, she was already acting the dutiful wife, while keeping her wizard on his toes, and doing it well.
Soon it was time to return to Hogwarts. Despite both Harry and Hermione really wishing the holidays were longer, they knew it was time to return to work. Harry, Hermione, and Chastity were being dropped off by Tonks since she would continue back to the academy. They popped over to Kings Cross and were talking to other kids before entering the train. Harry was wearing his school uniform this time.
Suddenly a firsty named Roger Malone, a first-gen Hufflepuff, asked for help with his trunk. Evidently, his parents could not get through the wall. Harry said, "Hermione, Chas go get a cabin, I will help Roger with this." Harry then took off his robe, tie, and vest and handed them to Hermione. He now looked like any muggle student in dress shirt, and slacks. Hermione, "Slick. We will save a spot." And kissed Harry before getting on the train.
Harry walked with Roger to the muggle side. While walking he asked, "How was your vacation, Roger?"
Roger started to relax, now that he had someone to help him, and answered "It was great Lord Harry. I missed my parents so much during the year; it was good to see them. I wish I could show them what I learned, but we aren't allowed." Roger looked really disappointed about the restriction.
Harry, seeing Roger's distress, firmly replied, "No we are not. It does make things hard on the 'rents. As they can't see if we are a good student, or shirking off." As they went through the wall, "So where are your parents?"
Roger looked around for a minute until he saw them. Roger pointed and exclaimed, "Over there!" and waved to a nice couple dressed for a Sunday excursion in suit and Sunday dress. As they approached, Roger showed he has been paying attention in his comportment classes. He came to attention and stated properly, "Mother, Father, I would like to introduce Heir Hadrian James Potter Black, Presumptive Heir to Earl Black, Heir Apparent to Baronet Potter." He then turned to Harry and with a half-bow, "Heir Black, I present my parents Bartholomew and Adeline Malone." Harry shook Bart's hand and kissed Adeline's.
Harry said effacingly, "It's all a bit much, so just call me Harry. Now I understand Roger needs some help, and I am here to provide it." Bart helped Harry get the trunk out and Harry was soon helping Roger push it back to the train. Harry had gotten Roger to the train, when Roger suddenly said, "Oh no! I forgot my transfiguration text! I was reading it in the car on the way here, and I left it in the back seat!"
Harry grabbed Roger who started running back. He said, "I'll go back for it. Get your trunk on the train." Harry gave Roger a gentle push toward the train, then ran back to the car, catching the parents before they pulled away. Bart thanked him when he saw the book in the back seat, and Harry ran back with it. As Harry went to run through the arch, he smacked into it, almost breaking his wrist and nose. The arch was closed!
"What the hell." Harry exclaimed, as he pressed along the area where the arch should be, and nothing. Solid brick. Harry banged on it a few times and just sat down where the arch should be. Someone had to come along eventually. Leaving would make things much worse.
Sure enough, a young gentleman in a suit 20 years out of date approached Harry with some caution. "Are you OK son? Lose your parents?" he asked cautiously.
Seeing how cautious this person was being, Harry replied, "No I was going to school in the north, and had a problem with the gate. I was hoping to see an Aurora, a red one as they can be more colorful."
Taking a chance the person tried to determine if this boy was a wizard. He asked, "The north is beautiful. I have always loved the fields of Hogwarts, though obviously not this time of year."
Harry grinned and replied, "Yes, especially with the white bumblebees pollinating them."
The Auror then cast a sound dampening charm. With an embarrassed smirk, he stated, "OK that's enough with the cloak and dagger. You definitely get points for keeping the statute safe. What's the problem?"
Harry said with disgust, "Tried to get back through the arch and it was closed. I was stuck out here and missed the train to Hogwarts."
The Auror replied calmly, "No problem, that's why I'm here. We will wait for the rest of the hour to make sure there aren't any more stragglers, and get you to Hogwarts. What's your name?"
Harry stood up and apologized, "How boorish of me. I am Heir Hadrian James Potter Black, heir presumptive to Earl Black, heir apparent to baronet Potter. Please call me Harry." He said with a slight bow, then he looked at the auror with a raised eyebrow.
Surprised to be with the boy-who-lived and an Heir to the big three, caught him flat footed. He eventually said, "Oh my goodness. Pleased to meet you, my lord. I am Auror 1st class Wyatt Hopkins of House Hopkins. Call me Wyatt." And they shook hands being in a muggle area.
Harry used his grandfather's command voice, "Any new developments at Hogwarts? Have they discovered who or what petrified the student?"
Wyatt replied to the unspoken requirement and answered the question, "No sir. In fact just 3 days ago, another student was petrified with the ghost Nick. How you can petrify a ghost I'll never know."
Harry frowned, and barked out, "Who was the student?"
Still answering without thinking about it, Wyatt said "A Justin Finch-Fletchley"
Harry exclaimed, "Justin? He's a fellow Hufflepuff, my year. Any word on what is doing this?"
Wyatt said with disgust, "No ideas at all. However the Minister had to do something, so he had Hagrid arrested. Something about him opening the chamber years ago, as if Hagrid could do such a thing without being led by the nose. Every student and professor knows the surest was to spread a secret at Hogwarts is to tell Hagrid. What a joke. We are starting to look amateurish with a student spelled right under our noses and nothing to show for it. Not that the headmaster is being all that helpful."
Harry snorted and said with distain, "Dumbledore helps only himself. He does play a good game 'pretending' to care."
Wyatt looked glum, and muttered "I had thought he was great when I was a student. The truth is disheartening. Well, no one else seems to be arriving late. Let's get you to school."
Harry was then side-along apparated to Hogwarts gate. He turned to Wyatt, "Thanks for the ride, Wyatt." Holding out his hand.
Wyatt shook Harry's hand, grateful to be on the good graces with the boy-who-lived, "Your welcome Harry. Have a good year." And he apparated away.
Before Harry went inside, he summoned Mipsy. Harry said, "Please tell Hermione, I'm fine, and at Hogwarts as I missed the train. I will see her here."
He then walked up to the door and knocked. Shortly, an elf let him in and he went to the Potion College library to work on some potion transformations. After he was there for 30 minutes, Snape came into the library.
Snape walked up to Harry, and calmly asked "How are you here, now, Heir Potter?"
Harry shook his head and calmly replied, "I was helping a firstie who left a text book in their car on the muggle side." Holding up the 1st year transfiguration text. "When I returned, the arch was closed to me. I waited and an auror brought me to Hogwarts. There was no point in sitting in the great hall for 7 hours, so I came here to work on the transformations you assigned."
After a slight pause, Harry continued "Oh, Hermione discovered an issue with your special bruise balm. Hermione suspected an addictive property to it, so gave it to her parents to see what they thought. We gave it to Hermione's parents with instructions to use it after caning each other and they had an interesting concern. Juliet, Hermione's mother said the stuff was extremely addictive. She implied you had to know this, which is one of the reasons you have had a senior apprentice watching us during applications. She also supposed you aren't trying to make us addicts, so the likely scenario is you want us to experience addiction as a warning to not use our arts for nefarious purposes in the future."
Snape with an apologetic expression on his face sat down across from Harry. "It seems Hermione's intelligence is as impressive as suspected, and also inherited. Her mother Juliet, is very accurate with her conclusions. I'm going to tell you a story which involves two apprentices. One was me, and the other was your mother, Lily."
After looking into space for a second, Severus turned to look in Harry's eyes. He started quietly, "Lily was everything to me. Just as I believe, Hermione is everything to you. She was my best friend, my confidant, my conscience, my security blanket, my study partner, my rival, and my lover. Our master was less brutal than me, but still intolerant of mistakes. One day, Lily made a bad mistake and was thoroughly caned. She was still crying, even after I had treated her bottom with the bruise balm she had made. I had some ideas and decided to pursue them. On seeing her reaction to the bruise balm, I had an idea to use the synergistic magic necessary for it to work, to turn the pain to pleasure. Thus I started to create my Aphrodite Balm. It took me 6 months, but after I finished it, I was so proud. My master was most impressed and after verifying it was safe, we started using it."
Snape paused for a second and shifted in his seat, "It wasn't long before I noted the addictive properties Hermione's mum noted. My master said not to worry as they were not a concern. I disagreed, but an apprentice must do what he is told, so I did. I soon noticed Master Slughorn using the balm to seduce younger and younger students in the school. One day, I saw him looking at lily with thinly disguised lust. Lily was almost 16, and blooming into a beautiful woman. We had been lovers for near 2 years by that point. I was the younger, so Lily had celebrated my 14th birthday by giving me her virginity. We had played with hands and oral, but this was something special. Something precious. That was the happiest, and most cherished memory of my life."
Snape paused for a second, verifying Harry understood he was deadly serious. Harry didn't say anything, so Severus continued, "Anyway, when I saw Slughorn look at Lily that way, I knew he would soon make a play for her. He could not just order her to have sex with him, as masters make a vow to never force themselves on an apprentice with the bond, but if the apprentice initiated it…I then started experimenting feverishly on an antidote to the addiction caused by Aphrodite's balm. I barely created it in time as he had used it on her a few times, and she had already allowed him to diddle her. Once I gave her the potion, she was able to refuse him and was saved from Slughorn's lechery."
"What happened to Slughorn?" asked Harry riveted by intimate and personal information about his parents.
With a vicious smirk, Snape replied "Just after I gained my mastery, he was 'caught' having sex with a 14-year-old student of Hogwarts and lost his teaching position. Fortunately, there was a new master available to take the job of Potion's master. He knows I did it, but has been unable to say anything because I have all the old gossip about him, and will be free to attack him, if he attacks me."
Harry then asked cautiously, "Hermione is my everything. I don't want to intrude, but losing Hermione would end me. If I may ask, what changed with you and my mother?"
Snape just looked at Harry, and saw a desperation in his eyes that he understood very well. "It was a sequence of events. I had been lured and misled by a charismatic man who promised to change the world. He had all these wonderful ideas about fairness, equity, and honesty. He lied. I found myself trapped and branded with the dark mark of Voldemort. I had been given the choice of join, or die...slowly. Fortunately, he knew of my potion brilliance, so I didn't have to rape and kill a First-gen to 'earn' the mark. Unfortunately, he soon learned of my dalliance with Lily…a first gen. I was given a choice. Be tortured and killed, or lure her to a revel where she would be gang-raped, tortured, and killed. I could not do this, so staged a scene where I called her a mud-blood in anger, driving her away."
Snape shifted, obvious pain and embarrassment in his eyes. As he looked into the distance, he continued "I was devastated by the look of hurt and betrayal in her eyes. I hadn't realized what my sacrifice would do to me and, I found myself on the astronomy tower at 2am crying my eyes out, wondering if I should just jump. It was at this point when I found myself, suddenly surrounded. I was found by James Potter and two of his friends.
Snape's gaze then returned to look at Harry. He grimaced and said, "James was a victim of the Potter Foible and Lily was its target. Unlike you, he was an arrogant tosser, lazy, and a bully, so Lily wanted nothing to do with him. However, he still desperately wanted her, looking for any way to win her affection. When he heard what I had done to her, he came looking for some payback to impress Lily."
Severus then paused to verify Harry was paying attention. Knowing Harry was carefully listening, he continued "However, James didn't know what to do when he found me. I wasn't celebrating what I had done, but was crying, utterly destitute, and it gave the three of them pause. James came over, crouched down to next to me, and demanded 'Merlin, what is wrong with you?' I told him I had just driven away my everything to save her, and it killed me. He just sat down next to me, and said 'Explain'. I don't know why I did, maybe I was seeing what he eventually became, but I talked. I explained how I had been seduced and trapped by Voldemort. How I was now required to deliver up Lily for their entertainment, so I drove her away to no longer be able to accomplish their goal."
Looking back in Harry's eyes, Snape continued, "Potter did me the compliment of saying 'He wasn't sure he could have pushed away Lily in my place.' I told him, I needed him to protect her and warn her of Voldemort's intentions, or she will die, very badly. James then said, 'Why don't you tell her? She can pretend to hate you and you can stay friends. Not lovers, mind you, because I'm grabbing that role, but stay friends.' I said to him, 'Lily doesn't have a deceptive bone in her body.'"
Snape then grimaced and said, "Imagine my surprise when all three start laughing. I admit I was getting pissed when Black growled at me, 'Who do you think got the hair removal potion into the Snakes Quidditch shampoo? Who got the itching power into the Snakes 6th and 7th year girls' pants, and had it blamed on the 7th year boys? Lily is the Blood rose. Marauder number 5. I think we can use you as number 6, though only if you fix this with Lily.' Potter nodded at Black, then said to me, 'Yes, fix this. Lily was crying over losing her best friend, and is suffering at least as much as you.'"
Snape, shaking his head, said "I quietly explained to Lily what I did and why. When I was done being punished by her, as she is vicious with her curses, she forgave me calling me an idiot. We were able to secretly continue our friendship, but at this point the Potter Foible struck. Potter realized what an ass he had been and changed. He became truly noble, a leader. Potter worked to become beautiful, kind, generous, hard-working, and learned the value of family-first, and self-sacrifice. In short, he was now worthy of Lily, and Lily decided James was what she wanted. I then did the hardest thing I have ever done, and reduced myself to just being her best friend, giving up the roles of lover, husband, and father of her children...but it was…what she asked of me."
Harry sat there quietly. He eventually looked up at Master snape and whispered, "It is my worst nightmare, because if Hermione asked it of me, I would do it."
Snape snorted in disbelief, "Yes, but you have the Potter Foible working for you, not against you."
Harry then said with evident disgust and anger, "The day I assume that to be true, I will lose her."
Snape just looked at Harry. He eventually shook his head, and got up. As he left, Snape said with conviction, "Keep that firmly in the front of your mind, and you will likely watch your grandchildren grow up…together." And he walked slowly away.
After working another hour, Harry went to eat in the break room, thinking about what Master Snape had shared. He called an elf and had some tomato soup and a roast beef sandwich for lunch. After eating and cleaning up, he went back to the library to continue working. Sitting on his book was a parchment with a recipe. Harry read through it and realized it was the additive to remove the addiction.
It was brilliant. The bruise balm needs two people. You can't use it on yourself, it just doesn't work. It took a very small amount of magic (muggles can use it), to activate the healing for the patient. Aphrodite's balm, besides inverting the pain, builds on that connection each time it is used, and becomes similar in effect to amortentia. Use it enough times, and the patient will beg the applier to do anything to please them, and it lasted as long as a year. The antidote simply kept it from becoming addictive, and broke any residual addictive effects currently present. Great sex, but no insidious creation of a sex slave.
Harry put the recipe away to share with Hermione. Harry then finished his work; and noticing the train should soon be arriving, went to the Great Hall.
Harry arrived in the Great Hall and sat down in the Hufflepuff 2nd year section. Some of the students noticed him there, and started gossiping about Harry being there early. Maybe he was here, much earlier…as in 3 days earlier. 'Wonderful.' Thought Harry. 'Just what I was trying to avoid.' Having nothing else to do Harry opened the 1st year text and started scanning it, just for something to do.
Harry saw Darla come into the great hall, went over to visit at Slytherin. As he came up to her he said hello. "Darla, how are you doing? I hear you were stuck here, sick."
Darla's face lit up on seeing Harry, but soon made a face, "It sucked, I was only sick for a few hours, and then the train was gone. I tried to get my parents to come get me, but they said they couldn't."
Harry looked pissed off. He growled, "That sounds like a prank, any idea who did it?"
Darla replied with an irritated huff of her own, "NO! and the twins aren't likely to include their sister so have been ruled out. Nobody is taking credit, so nobody knows. And now Justin was petrified, so we were kept in our common rooms and couldn't even explore the castle. NOT fun!"
Harry changing the subject, "Speaking of the twins, how is Ginny? Her mother was concerned."
Darla snorted, and gave a look at Harry which spoke volumes, "Yeah, so concerned, she sent her daughter a howler and yelled at her for missing the train. She insisted she could cure anything Ginny might have at least as good as Pomfrey. What a harridan, comparing herself to a Master Healer. Master Ponfrey was most put out. Ginny was so embarrassed; she hid in her commons for the whole 'hols."
At this point the students started boiling in, so Harry said 'See you later.' and went back to Hufflepuff. Just as Harry got back to his table, he heard, "HARRY!" and Hermione was running over, carrying his robes, tie, and vest. Harry was putting on his uniform when everyone asked what happened. Harry told the story about not being able to get through the arch.
Susan looked concerned, "Wow, that shouldn't happen. It was good you waited for an auror."
Harry again disgusted, replied "Yes, though don't you think all the students should know there is an auror who catches the stragglers and gets them to Hogwarts? No one told me that occurs." Susan agreed.
Harry saw Roger, "Hey Roger! Here's your book." and Harry handed it to him.
Roger looked surprised, "Wow! I forgot all about that! Thank you, Harry." and he went to sit with his friends.
Once the return feast was completed, Dumbledore announced the petrification of another student during the 'hols. He said students will travel in groups and there were now twelve aurors in the school to protect the students. He then sent everyone to bed.
Once back in the common room, Harry pulled Hermione down into a love seat with him. He quietly said "I found out earlier today the aurors have no idea what is going on. No ideas of the cause."
Hermione looked excited, and squeezed his hand, "Well why don't we research it?"
Harry looked in her eyes with obvious disappointment. He said seriously, "Hermione, we don't have any spare time, I mean none. We are not losing what little sleep we allow ourselves, to do this. If I catch you cutting your sleep to do this research, so help me, I will ask to borrow Master Snape's cane, to convince you not to do it again!"
Hermione looked in his eyes, and saw no compromise. Harry was being painfully serious. Hermione dropped her eyes, very disappointed. She said sadly, "Yes, my Lord. I just wanted to help."
Harry grabbed her hand, and used his other hand to gently raise Hermione's face to look him in the eyes. Once he had eye contact, Harry earnestly said "That's one of the many reasons I love you, Hermione. But our job here is learning, and we have to trust the aurors to do their job, too." Hermione acquiesced, and nodded.