Chapter 36 (Part 1)

August 22nd.

Harry made his way down from the ravenry after Huginn and Muninn assured him that Greyback hadn't been spotted yet. Disappointing, but it had been less than a week since he had presented his werewolf legislation to the Wizengamot so it was to be expected. Still, he was feeling a bit impatient. Greyback was so much more interesting a werewolf than Lupin…

He paused and cocked his head sideways in interest as he came across Narcissa in the drawing room.

She was wearing a heavily modified set of dress robes. The base of it was clearly a black leather corset vest that did wonderful things to her figure even though he could only see it from behind at the moment, Bryanna's work no doubt, given her fascination with corsets. The sleeves and skirt were also black, though there was an occasional shimmer of dark blue. The skirt also featured a slit that revealed a tantalising glimpse of leg. Narcissa was just in the process of attaching a cloak to the outfit.

It was a sexy outfit and Harry felt himself stirring. The manor was unusually empty today; Dora was at work, Sirius had gone somewhere with Remus, Fleur had taken Luna shopping for a date he had promised to take them on… even Etal had buggered off to somewhere.

Smirking to himself, he cast a quick spell to muffle his footsteps and walked up to her.

Narcissa gasped in surprise when he wrapped his hands around her, one around her waist and the other around her neck.

"And where are you going dressed up like that?"

"I'm having tea with Daliah Greengrass, my lord." She replied with a slight waver in her voice.

"Are you now?" Harry murmured, moving the arm he had around her waist further south and slipping it under her skirt by way of the convenient slit. "What if I have some tension that needs relieving first?"

Narcissa gasped when his fingers slipped inside her and she squirmed in his grip, hands grabbing onto his for support.

"I shouldn't be late, it would be an insult." She protested weakly.

"So Greengrass is more important than me, is she?" Harry asked, twisting his fingers just so. He also wrapped her in his magic, perfoming the one-sided Joining that had made her his. Narcissa's magic, so conditioned now to respond to his, surrendered instantly.

"Never!" She gasped. "I am always at your disposal, my lord."

"Seems to me like you need a reminder." Harry purred into her ear. "I'm going to fill you up like a croissant before you go. Having to stay clenched to keep from creaming your underwear or Greengrass' chair cushions should do it."

Narcissa bit her lip but didn't resist as he bent her over the back of an armchair, lifted her skirt up and pulled down the thong he insisted she wear. There was no foreplay or teasing this time, just the sound of Harry's zipper and then penetration.

Narcissa kept her noises down to a minimum as he took her, still worried about being late but knowing deep in her bones that this was more important. She could make an excuse for her lateness, but there were no excuses for failing her lord, even if it was just to give him some relief.

"Harry, are you here?" Penny's voice was a deeply unwelcome event that had both Harry and Narcissa freezing in place.

"Fuck it." Harry muttered to himself and started thrusting again.

Narcissa couldn't believe it. They were going to get caught!

Sure enough, Penny appeared in the doorway not ten seconds later.

"Harry, I-" Was all she managed to say before laying eyes on the copulating pair and squeaking in surprise. "Sorry!"

Narcissa's face burned with embarrassment as the younger witch fled, but she didn't say anything. Harry grunted soon after and filled her up just like he'd promised. Getting caught had thrown Narcissa off enough that she hadn't been able to climax herself, but she still felt a fierce pride and satisfaction at the knowledge that Harry had enjoyed her.

Harry pulled out when he was done, pulled her thong back up and lifed her back up to their previous standing position.

"There, now you're ready to go." He murmured into her ear.

"Yes, my lord." Narcissa acknowledged shakily, clenching hard to keep his seed inside her. The underwear he had commanded her to wear felt wholly inadequate to the task of catching any leakage.

"Good girl." He said and gently patted her rear.

Narcissa took a deep breath once he was gone and used a few quick spells to fix her mussed hair and wrinkled clothing. Tea was assured to be interesting now if nothing else.

"Was there something you wanted, Penny?" Harry asked as he found his embarrassed steward hiding in her personal study. The look on her face made him break out into a grin.

"Couldn't you have found somewhere more private to do that?" She muttered with a beet red face.

"It was a spur of the moment thing." Harry explained, still grinning.

"Right." Penny said with a shake of her head. "Anyway, I had some things I needed to talk to you about."

"What things?"

"Pro… Septima sent over the final list of potential employees. She thinks it would be beneficial for you to give a short speech before putting them to work since they're coming into this from the ground up rather than coming to work for an established business."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, thinking that it was a reasonable request. He'd probably take Fleur with him too since she would have a share in the business as well, however small it was.

"Alright, set it for… the 25th."

"Alright." Penny acknowledged, making a note of the date. "You've also received some interesting mail, one from North America's Magical Congress and another from Ollivander."

"Let me guess, the Americans got word on Etal and are bitching about me 'stealing' their magical creatures or something and Ollivander wants a feather?" Harry said, amused.

"Pretty much."

"So predictable. Late, but predictable."

"What should I tell them?"

"Tell the Americans to kiss my ass, and make sure to spell it 'ass' instead of 'arse'. We don't want to confuse them."

"Harry, you can't tell North America's magical government to kiss your arse." Penny said in exasperation.

"I know." Harry sighed in disappointment. "Right, then just explain to them that he's not my pet, but a friend I made because we both speak Parseltongue and he followed me to Britain via his mysterious quetzalcoatl powers. Make sure you stress that I don't have the ability to control him. They'll still bitch about it and make unreasonable demands simply because that's how politics works, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"Alright." Penny nodded.

"As for Ollivander… well I guess you can invite him to drop by and he can ask Etal himself."

Penny nodded again, making a note of it. Then she suddenly turned nervous. "Also, um, I'm moving out."

Harry's eyes snapped over to her in surprise. "Moving out? If this is about earlier…"

"No, not at all." She was quick to assure. "I mean, it was embarrassing and you really should be a bit more discreet, but it has nothing to do with it. Being able to live here for free was exactly what I needed at the time, but… well, I met someone while you were in America and he recently asked me to move in with him."

Harry smiled at the blushing girl, older than him but more innocent than he had been in a long time. "Good for you, Penny. Is it anyone I know?"

"No, he's not even a wizard. I told him I work for some reclusive lord that I have a non-disclosure contract with."

"Not that far off from the truth." Harry snickered. "He doesn't know that you're a witch then?"

"You know I'm not allowed to tell him unless I marry him." Penny replied, sounding a bit furstrated.

"But you want to?" He prodded.

"Yes." She sighed. "I'm sure he'd be alright with it, he's very open minded, but I don't want any trouble from the Ministry."

"If you want to tell him, then go ahead." Harry suggested. "I'll handle the Ministry if they find out."

"Are you sure?" Penny asked uncertainly.

Harry noddded and made a noise of confirmation. "It's the least I can do after all you've done for me and the Ministry sticks its nose into too many things anyway."

"Had fun?" Harry asked with a smirk when Narcissa emerged from the Floo a couple of hours later.

"It was an experience." She said wryly, taking off her cloak. "Now if you will excuse me, I need to visit the restroom and then I need to talk to you."

Now Harry was curious. "I'll wait for you in my study."

"So, what did you want to talk about?" He asked a few minutes later.

"A couple of things." Narcissa began. "As you know, I've been having tea with Britain's various prominent witches every day for the past week to gauge how they and their husbands feel about the werewolf legislation you proposed."

Harry nodded. Narcissa was a socialite down to her toes and was better able to sniff out the disposition of society's elite by gossiping over tea than he could ever hope to do by asking anyone directly.

"Well, there seems to be a general consensus that you should be hosting the ball celebrating the Dark Lord's downfall this year."

"Why would they think that?" Harry asked, puzzled. He'd never given any indication that he was intending to do anything of the sort, so this was more than a bit odd to him.

"Aside from your obvious role in the event, they expect you to use it to gather further support for the legislation." She explained.

Now Harry was even more confused. "But it's going to get voted on just over three weeks from today and the ball isn't until Halloween."

"Oh." Narcissa blinked in sudden realisation. "My apologies, I though you knew."

"Knew what?"

"No legislation proposed to the Wizengamot - or indeed anything at all - is ever agreed upon that quickly unless everyone is in favor of it. It could take as much as six months or longer before a final decision is made on whether to accept or dismiss it. You will be expected to gather support for it in the meanwhile, just as your political opponents will be doing in the hopes of having it thrown out."

"Great." Harry grumbled. He absolutely didn't want to even attend another one of those balls, much less host it, but he had apparently screwed himself into doing so. Fucking politics. "You think I should do it?"

"The legislation is unlikely to pass otherwise." Narcissa admitted.

Harry sighed. While he didn't really care about the plight of the poor bastards that got infected with lycanthropy, he could hardly demonstrate that fact. Plus, Narcissa had worked hard on that legislation and it'd be a shame to let all that work go to waste just because he wanted to dodge a social function.

"I'll be counting on you to organise it." He said.

Narcissa favored him with a brilliant smile. "I won't disappoint you, my lord."

And Harry believed her. Not just because she was always eager to do her best for him, but also because she was really good at all this social crap and would take to it with enthusiasm.

"I suppose I'll need a date again?"

The blonde witch pursed her lips thoughtfully before answering. "Yes and no. The rules are somewhat different for the host."

"How so?"

"It is your home, meaning that you can get away with things that would be considered a social faux pas as a guest. You will need to be gracious and polite of course, but nobody will be able to comment on any oddities without coming off as rude. In fact, it may benefit you to use this to make a statement."

"What kind of statement?"

"What else? Power. While you could get away with staying stag at your own ball, it would also cause you problems. Unattached witches would be climbing all over you in the hopes of getting their hands on your wealth and reputation. Instead, I would propose that you use the opportunity to present all three of your girlfriends. It will spare you from the attention of all but the most unsubtle and determined attempts to seduce you and also serve as a subtle display of power."

Harry sighed, tugging at his ponytail. "Dora won't like that. She's not much for these kind of stupid parties and I don't want to leave her out while I take Luna and Fleur. Can't I just take you again?"

"It would not be advisable." Narcissa warned. "I will be there of course, but I've put in a lot of effort to imply a lot of things about our relationship without confirming anything. If you present me as your date for two of these occasions in a row it would start up some troublesome rumors."

"They already think you're my mistress." Harry pointed out.

"Yes and that is exactly as it should be. The current public perception is that you killed Lucius after he tried to kill you and took me as your mistress. That shows both ruthlesness and mercy, as you could have extended your revenge on me and Draco as well and nobody would have blamed you. If it looks like I am more than a mistress, then people will begin to wonder if you aren't perhaps just a young boy who fell into the clutches of a cunning older woman. It would work in my favor rather than yours."

Harry went quiet for a while as he considered that. He hadn't really thought about what exactly Narcissa's socialising was doing for his public image before, but it made sense. It was aggravating, having to bother with what people thought of him, but it was necessary for the moment. Thankfully it was Narcissa doing most of the legwork, because he probably wouldn't have bothered if it was up to him alone. Adrastia's advice that he take her into his service was proving to be annoyingly valuable.

"I'll talk to Dora about it and see what she thinks." He finally said.

"There is another thing you need to talk to Nymphadora about." Narcissa said cautiously.

"What?"

"I think Andy suspects that you've entered into a relationship with her daughter. She was trying to get me to slip up about it when we last saw each other."

"Great. Is this going to be a problem?"

"Andy grew up a Black just like me and should accept it without issue, but Ted is a muggleborn. He won't understand that there is nothing strange about a wizard as powerful as you having multiple witches attached to him."

Harry's lips thinned and he nodded in understanding. It wasn't exactly the same everywhere, but in most magical communities it was downright expected of the powerful to have privileges that the average didn't have. Dumbledore certainly wouldn't have been allowed to hold three such prominent positions if he was merely average. Adrastia had backed off from her murderous plans in the expectation that Harry would one day be an enemy she could not afford to have. Voldemort's minions, otherwise proud and self-important purebloods, accepted the many indignities he put them through simply because he was powerful. Those same purebloods also liked to delude themselves into thinking that they were such people and blamed muggleborns for 'stealing' their magic when it proved false.

There was always someone arguing against this particular trait of magical culture, most often coming from the ranks of the average or below average. A predictable, petty, resentful and very human reaction when faced with someone better than yourself - trying to drag the impressive down to mediocrity so that you felt better about yourself without actually having to do any work. Hogwarts was full of useless little shits like that, though it was more easily excused there since they were children. Harry also had a vague conspiracy theory idea that the Ministry bureaucrats were trying to drown magic in legislation in order to change the rules by shifting power from magic over to politics. He had no proof and it was probably just people being their usual dickish selves rather than anything intentional, but it still soured his opinion on government even further. A lot of the posturing going around in the higher levels of magical society was a replacement for intimidating displays of magical power. Even Narcissa's suggestion that he present all three of his girls at this party was one such thing.

To be fair, it happened with other forms of power as well, such as extreme wealth or a high political office. Even something as small scale as having a weapon conferred a certain privilege. It was a simple truth that any kind of power you had that others didn't meant you also had privileges that others didn't. Magic added a new dimension to it though, increased the margin of difference considerably. After all, wealth and political power was still dependent on the mob of regular people and anyone could use a gun, but a mighty sorcerer was practically an army unto himself and his power was entirely self-contained. And that wasn't even taking into account the warping influence of one's aura…

Even Fleur, with a veela's instinct for controlling their sexual partners, had eventually backed down and accepted that she wasn't going to be in charge, although she did need a sharp reminder every now and then… Actually, she could probably use another one soon and Dora would have to be shown that side of her anyway.

Speaking od Dora, if Harry was being honest he had expected more resistance from her, both to his plans for the Death Eaters and the open dynamic of their foursome. It was unlikely that he'd ever find out what combination of factors had led to her relatively easy acceptance, but he knew that at least some of it was due to his own ever increasing magical power and the lingering effects of the Joining. Harry was well aware that his use of the Joining on Dora before she was ready had shaved off some of her resistance where he was concerned, but there was nothing to be done about it now. The beautiful, quirky metamorphmagus would more than likely not be his if things were a little different, if he was a weaker wizard.

But he was digressing. The issue at hand was the reaction of her parents to Dora's relationship status. Harry did not personally think it was any of their business what their fully grown daughter was doing, but he knew that his opinion was not the one that mattered here. He would have to talk to the oldest of his girls and see how she wanted to handle it.

That evening.

There were many perks to being in a relationship with three people, but Tonks' favorite was definitely getting a massage from all three while soaking in a hot tub. She didn't even have to ask for it, all she had to do was show up after a long day looking tired and they'd hustle her into the water while dinner was being prepared. They didn't even care if she was faking it, it was great.

Sure, there was quite a bit of groping, fondling, nibbling and sometimes fingering involved, but Tonks let them have their fun even if she wasn't in the mood. She wasn't going to say no to a free orgasm even if the main point of enjoyment was whatever magic Harry was working on her left foot.

"I had some interesting news from Penny and Narcissa today." Harry was saying.

"Oh? What kind of news?" Fleur asked from her spot as Tonks' backrest, a position that she was exploiting shamelessly to explore the metamorph's body.

"The first is that Septima is finished with her list of potential employees and suggested that I come to make a short speech to them. You want to join me for that since you'll own a share of it as well?"

"Only 5%." Fleur pointed out.

"A share is a share."

"Will we get to play with Septima afterwards?" The veela asked slyly.

"I'm sure we could fit it into our schedule." Harry answered with an amused tone.

"I'll prepare the toys." Luna beamed.

Tonks didn't comment on their plans. This would be the third time that Harry brought the former Arithmancy professor to their bed. It was always him and Fleur coming up with these ideas, with Luna enthusiactically supporting them. Tonks had discovered that of the four of them, she was the most sexually vanilla and the least assertive. She could certainly be drawn into their games, but didn't initiate them. That was probably the reason why she found Vector much less interesting than the others, but she didn't really mind her occasional inclusion either.

"In other news, the Americans finally sent me that complaint about Etal we were expecting."

"Do you think that will be a problem?" Fleur asked.

"I doubt it, though we can probably expect a lot of posturing. There was also a letter from Ollivander, asking if he could have one of Etal's feathers."

"Do you think Etal will give him one?" Luna asked curiously, not stopping her ministrations on Tonks' right foot.

"Probably depends on how flattering the old man is." Harry answered wryly. "Oh, and Penny's also moving out. Apparently she got together with someone while we were in America and they're going to be living together."

"That's wonderful." Luna beamed.

"And also too bad." Fleur pouted jokingly. "I never did manage to entice 'er into our bed."

Harry sighed in exasperation. He'd never been particularly attracted to Penny. Sure, he definitely would have slept with her if she'd shown any interest, but he hadn't been willing to put forth any effort into seducing her.

"You need to calm your tits, you horny bitch." Tonks muttered with her eyes closed, still enjoying the pampering too much to really do anything more.

"Maybe you can calm them for me later." The veela whispered into Tonks' ear seductively, using her position to pinch her nipples gently.

Tonks merely let out a grumbling sound and settled more firmly into her backrest. She was far too comfortable to actually react more than that.

Fleur chuckled at the metamorph's indolence. "What of Narcissa's news?"

"That's a bit more problematic." Harry grumbled. "Apparently everyone expects me to host that blasted victory ball on Halloween and I'm going to have to go along with it if I want if I want my legislation to pass. And you can all look forward to being my dates to this one."

That finally brought Tonks out of her hedonistic daze. "Except me, right?"

"Nope, you too." He grinned at her.

"I don't wanna." She whined.

"Please?" Harry said, sounding very amused.

"Yes, Nymmie, please go with us." Fleur added her own weight to it. "I would love to see you in a dress for once."

"And I need a big, strong auror to protect me from the golddiggers."

"Fleur wants me in a dress and you want a big, strong auror." Tonks huffed. "Maybe I should show up in a frilly pink dress looking like a minotaur. With big, four-nippled breasts."

"That would be fun." Luna said perkily.

"Yes, it sounds udderly delightful." Harry snickered.

Tonks anf Fleur both groaned at the horrible pun and splashed water at him.

"Seriously though, I would like it if all three of you would be my dates to this ball." Harry said once they were done attacking him.

"But why?" She whined again. "Nobody even knows that we're a thing and I was hoping to keep it that way."

"Are you ashamed of us, Nymmie?" Fleur pouted.

"No, of course not, it's just… this is going to get so complicated once people find out." She sighed.

And it would too. As soon as word got out that she was in a relationship with Harry, one that also happened to include two other women no less, she could kiss her comfortably low profile life goodbye. There would be articles in Witch Weekly and the Daily Prophet about it, there would be speculation about Harry's harem and how big he was planning to make it, there would be reporters showing up at the Ministry bugging her for interviews, there would be hate mail…

And her parents, oh Merlin her parents. It was going to be so awkward, she could already imagine it. Mum, Dad, you've already met Harry, he's my boyfriend now and this is Luna, my girlfirend. Yes, I know she's only fifteen,but nevermind that and look here instead, this is Fleur, my other girlfriend. Well not 'mine' so much as 'our', but you get the idea. No, Dad, I haven't joined a harem.

And then Luna would point out, calm as you please, that she had in fact joined a harem. She would probably even list all the ways in which it was a harem, even if it technically wasn't. It would be hard to refute her too, since Harry was definitely the focal point, regardless of the fact that they were all free to seek out other lovers. Only Fleur seemed to have any interest in doing that anyway and even that was more of a veela thing. It still wasn't a harem though.

"Well your mother is already suspicious and is probing Narcissa to see if she can confirm it." Harry said with a shrug.

"Fantastic." Tonks groaned.

"How do you want to handle this?" Harry pressed on. "I'd say it would be best to just tell them and get it over with, but it's your call."

"I guess." She sighed in defeat. "I'll pay them a visit, sit them down and lay it all out."

"Want us to come with you?" Harry offered.

"It's probably for the best if you don't, I'll have enough trouble with my dad as it is."

"That's a relief." Harry said with much exaggeration. "I only really offered out of politeness."

"Yeah, I figured." Tonks snorted.

"Now, about that ball…"

Tonks gave him a disgruntled look. "Fine, but if I'm going to that, then you're coming to a concert with me, and you're not allowed to complain about it."

Now it was Harry with the disgruntled look. Concerts were not his thing. Still, he wanted all three of his girls at that damn ball.

"Fine."

"And if a mosh pit happens, you have to participate."

"What the hell kind of concert are you taking me to?"

"The fun kind."

"The only way I'm jumping into a mosh pit is if I'm wearing the ugliest, spikiest suit of platemail the Black vault has to offer."

"Wrong music genre, Harry."

"There's a genre that involves platemail?"

"Well, no, but there are a few where it would probably make you the most popular guy there."

August 24th. Potter Manor.

"Has your wand been serving you well?" Ollivander asked once the initial pleasantries were finished.

"As well as any, I suppose." Harry shrugged. Most wizards and witches tended to develop quite the attachement to their wands over time, nearly a dependency really. That had been one of the more problematic aspects of teaching his girls wandless magic, especially Dora, who had had the longest time to develop this flaw. His had always been just a tool and nothing more.

Ollivander merely nodded, unsurprised. "I knew there was something off about you from the moment I placed the first wand in your hand. A child who had never done deliberate magic before would have been unable to coax anything out of such a poorly matched wand."

Harry kept his true opinion on wands to himself. Had it been up to him, wands would not be sold until much later, and even then only as a supplement to a magical education rather than the main focus of it. Better to have a small pool of excellent magic users than a horde of incompetents.

"I suppose you'd like to ask for one of Etal's feathers now?" He said instead.

"I would." Ollivander confirmed. "I do not often get to work with such an exotic material. Even the phoenix feathers that some of my wands now hold are incredibly rare. For the most part, I am restricted to more easily acquired items such as dragon heartstring and unicorn hair."

"Etal is rather protective of his feathers, but I could convince him to part with one or two." Harry said.

"You want something in return." Ollivander stated rather than asked.

"Yes, I want to observe while you make a wand out of it."

The old wandmaker looked positively affronted by that. "Lord Potter, I do not make it a habit to share the secrets of wandlore with everyone that wants to know."

Harry hummed at the predictable reply and then began speaking.

"The core draws on the wielder's magic, allowing for the casting of spells. Through some means I have as of yet been unable to discern, the wand motions somehow interact with a wizard's thoughts to shape the magic as it is drawn. After much practice and repetition, a wizard's magic becomes so conditioned that it develops a pseudo muscle memory that allows them to dispense with the motions entirely. Unfortunately, this also creates a psychological block in a wizard's mind that makes them equate the wand with their magic.

"The type of wood is a negligible factor in determining a wand's characteristics and is used as a diversion to thwart anyone attempting to ferret out your secrets. The real secret is whatever you do to the wood that turns a wand from a simple stick into a precision instrument.

"Most children are matched with a wand fairly easily, the only exceptions being those that grew up in difficult circumstances that forced them to grow up too quickly. Untrained adults are harder to match than children because they are less of a blank slate. Long term use of a wand creates enough familiarity with the workings of wands that it becomes possible to use a poorly matched one. Long term use of a wand also creates a bond between the wand and its user that gradually improves its performance. One can forcibly terminate this bond and imprint themselves on another's wand if they are significantly more powerful.

"Some materials are more powerful than others, phoenix feathers for example are well suited to the explosive releases of energy inherent in combat magic, whereas dragon heartstring is better at sustained magic such as Transfiguration and unicorn hair is particularly good at precision work. Once again, whatever you do with the wood makes use of these characteristics and refines them. As it happens, that is also the escalating order of difficulty in winning a wand's allegiance, phoenix feather wands being the most attracted to power and unicorn hair ones being the most 'loyal' as it were."

Harry smirked at the stunned Ollivander. "How am I doing so far?"

The old wandmaker regained his composure quickly and sighed. "Well, I did say that we should expect greatness from you when we first met. You have managed to learn much about wandlore from very little. I would offer you an apprenticeship if I thought you were interested, but I sense that your ambitions lie elsewhere. So I must ask, why do you wish to learn about wand crafting?"

"No particular reason." Harry shrugged. "I like learning about new magic, so even though I don't want to become a wand crafter, I still want to know what makes them work. You don't even have to explain what you're doing, just let me watch."

"Normally I would tell that you wouldn't learn anything that way, but you've already managed to deduce quite a bit more than most people ever learn." Ollivander mused. "Very well, I will allow you to observe as I make a wand, if you promise not to share what you see or already know with anyone else."

"Deal."

August 25th. Potter Manor.

Septima looked over at the dozen witches and wizards spread around Potter Manor's drawing room and enjoying the refreshments brought by Harry's house-elves and felt regret welling inside her.

They were all her former students, some of her more promising ones in fact. She had been certain that they would have bright futures as spellcrafters, researchers, analysts, enchanters or any number of professions that needed good Arithmancy skills.

Wishful thinking, she realised now. Most were muggleborn, with a few halfbloods mixed in. Harry had told her to prioritise them, but it wouldn't have mattered. Her former pureblood students had all gotten good jobs, even though they weren't always qualified for them. This group on the other hand, some of the brightest students she'd ever taught, had been stuck at jobs that were well below their abilities or had moved to other countries. Two had left the magical world entirely and returned to their roots in the mundane world, disgusted by the bigotry they'd faced.

They had agreed to hear Harry out, but Septima knew that they were mostly just humoring the request of a former teacher. Still, it was more than what the others she'd sent letters to had been willing to do.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a tingle in her crotch, in her clitoris to be specific.

Her eyes snapped towards Harry, whose eyes shone with amusement at her reaction. A slight dip of his head drew her attention to his left hand, which she noticed was slowly rubbing the thumb and index finger together in a way consistent with the sensations she was experiencing.

Septima fought down the flush trying to creep up her neck.

Harry turned back to his guests and addressed them, though he didn't stop rubbing his fingers together.

"Thank you all for coming, I know that Septima's vagueness on what kind of job I want to offer you must have been off-putting." He began.

There was a murmur of agreement, but Septima was more focused on not giving away her arousal. Fleur was here too, standing next to Harry, and the veela's lustful gaze was a clear indication that she was going to be spending the night again.

It was starting to look like being shared with Harry's girls would be a regular thing. It was… not unpleasant, though she did have to say that she preferred it when it was just Harry. Fleur was creative enough, Luna was always interested in trying something new and even the more reserved Nymphadora could be fun when properly goaded by the others, but they were all women. Still, it was infinitely better than nothing and it wasn't like Harry wasn't there as well.

She wondered what kind of games they would play tonight…

She was so caught up in her pleasant little daydream that she missed Harry introducing Fleur and Penny and only snapped out of it when he adressed her.

"Septima?" Harry said, his eye gleaming with amusement and his fingers still rubbing against each other. "Could you please hand out the samples?"

"Of course." Septima said with a nod, hurrying over to the box that was set on one of the tables and hoping that nobody had noted her distraction. Or her blush for that matter.

Harry continued speaking and rubbing his fingers while she handed out the sample mirrors

"Septima tells me that all of you grew up in the mundane world, so the function of these mirrors should be familiar to you. They are voice activated and each is assigned a number ranging from one to twelve. Please give them a try." He said.

Septima watched with interest as her former students quickly figured out how the mirrors worked. She was entirely wizard-raised and had been stunned when Harry had showed her the muggle cell phone technology and how pervasive it was. For the first time, she had been able to grasp exactly how revolutionary his idea would be for the magical world.

Her former students seemed to be much quicker on the uptake than her if their excited conversation was any clue.

Septima stifled a gasp as a sudden burst of sensation cut through her thoughts. She looked at Harry and shivered at his superior smirk.

"You're intending to be a magical version of a mobile phone company then?" Dominic Moore asked. He was the oldest of her former students present, being in his late twenties. He had been one of the two that had returned to the muggle world after he had graduated rather than settling for whatever job he might have gotten in the magical one.

Harry showed no discomfort at being questioned by a man over a decade his senior as he replied.

"Essentially. At the moment, the enchantments are only good for video calls, but I intend to get an R&D branch going that will be under Septima's purview. The people working there would be tasked with developing improvements to the mirrors. I doubt they'll ever be as versatile as a smartphone, but that's no reason to not try."

Septima surreptitiously clenched her thighs together, just to feel her moist nether lips rub against one another in tune with Harry's fingers. That, added to his easy confidence, and she was having a hard time keeping her breathing even.

"And you want us to work at this R&D branch." Moore stated rather than asked.

"Some of you may be more comfortable in production or even sales, but Septima praised your skills with Arithmancy and Runes and I want to make use of those skills." Harry replied simply, waving a hitherto silent Penny forward to start distributing the employment contracts she was holding.

"Those are the terms I'm offering. You'll have noticed that each of you has received three separate contracts, all of them with different levels of benefits and restrictions. To summarise, the contract for a store clerk offers the smallest pay as it requires no skill with magic, but also imposes few restrictions. Conversely, the R&D contract has the highest pay and benefits but will also expose you to knowledge I don't want being spread around, which means non-disclosure agreements that will trigger a very unpleasant curse if broken. The production contract is for those that will actually be making the mirrors and sits somewhere in the middle in both benefits and restrictions. Septima tells me that you were some of her best students and I'd like it if you chose the R&D contract, but I gave you all three for comparison. Take them home, read them over and direct any questions to my steward. Penny can also refer you to legal counsel if you want a professional to look at them. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you again soon."

It was an obvious dismissal and her former students quickly shuffled out the door or through the Floo until it was just her, Harry and Fleur in the room.

"Well done, Septima." Harry said as soon as they were alone, putting his hand lightly on her neck.

"Thank you." She breathed out, trying to control her arousal.

"You deserve a reward." Fleur purred, seductively running her hand along Septima's arm. "Don't you think she deserves a reward, 'Arry?"

The hand on her neck tightened, making her legs quiver with excitement.

"Hmm, maybe. We'll have to test her a bit more I think."

"Alright, Septima, here's how tonight's game is going to work." Harry began explaining as he put a ballgag into the former professor's mouth. "You are going to hold on to this metal bar above your head with both hands and if you let go for any reason, playtime will be over and you'll be sent home. Understand?"

Septima, already naked and now unable to speak, did understand. They were going to exploit her desire for playtime to do horrible, wonderful things to her. She nodded.

"Good, then grab the bar."

As soon as she did so, she felt a tingling sensation go through the sensitive nerves between her legs.

"Oh, I forgot to mention something. That metal bar will transmit an echo of any friction applied to it to the groin area of any woman that touches it." Harry said with a smirk.

"I helped enchant and test it." Luna added proudly.

Septima gave Harry a helpless look, already clenching her legs together in a vain effort to give herself some relief.

"What's with that look?" Harry mocked with a smirk, pinching one of her nipples and giving it a slight twist. "I know you get off on this stuff, but it's a little early to be looking that desperate. We've still got hours of fun ahead of us after all. Of course, you can always let go and give yourself a rubbing if you can't take it…"

Septima moaned something into the ballgag even as she tried to liberate her nipple from his pinching fingers. Of course, the fact that she was desperately gripping the iron bar above her head rather limited her ability to do so.

Harry turned to Fleur and Luna, who had been watching this spectacle with eager smiles. "She's all yours, but try not to get carried away. We don't want to make it too easy on her."

With that settled, he walked to the bed, where a nude Dora was already waiting.

"Where'd you get that idea?" She asked, amusement coloring her tone.

"It's not that hard to come up with stuff once you know what she likes." Harry replied and ended the brief conversation with a kiss.

He reached out with his magic, feeling her smile into the kiss as she did the same and completed the Joining.

Harry moved slowly down her body, first nipping at her neck in that one spot she liked and then spending a couple of minutes on her breasts. Her ticklish stomach he only pressed light kisses to and then he was at her core.

Dora enjoyed receiving oral a lot more than Fleur or even Luna did, so Harry took his time and made sure to give her the best possible experience. Given that it was one of his favorite activities, the Joining allowing him to clearly sense what she liked best and his ability to use minor spells to make it better, he was able to make it very good indeed.

The metamorphmagus spent a good twenty minutes moaning in pleasure, his own enjoyment of the act echoing in her soul and allowing her to surrender completely with no need for superflous thinking. When the climax finally came it made her whole body shudder, her hips bucking almost violently into his mouth as he eagerly lapped up her discharge.

Harry looked at his blissed out lover with a self-satisfied smile. Dora looked quite out of it, with her skin glowing from a light sheen of sweat and her hair was going through a spectrum of colors ranging from deep pink to a very dark blue, a sure sign that she was well out of it. His recent teaching's had allowed her to gain greater control over her special talent, so this kind of random morphing was becoming rare.

He brought her back to reality with a deep kiss, which she returned eagerly.

"Mmm, I love it when you do that." She murmured.

"I know." He replied smugly.

Dora huffed with a large smile playing on her lips, then she pushed him onto his back.

"Your turn."

He wasn't going to argue with that, so he settled himself into the pillows stacked against the headboard of the bed and let her do her thing.

Dora gave him another kiss, re-established the Joining and moved down his body in much the same way he had done to her, though it was faster.

Harry sighed in pleasure when her mouth engulfed him. He wouldn't say it, but of all his girls Dora gave the best blowjobs. Fleur could certainly bring him to orgasm faster, but she tended to rush it in her haste to get at the prize and Luna still had a few issues with her gag reflex.

Of course, just because he didn't say didn't meant that Dora couldn't feel it through their bond. There was nothing definite, but she could certainly sense the vague impression of being his favorite, which only galvanised her to do even better.

Harry sighed again and ran his fingers over the gently bobbing head of radiantly peacock blue-green hair, a sure sign that the metamorphmagus was basically preening with pride.

The position had other benefits as well, allowing him to see what Fleur and Luna were doing to poor Septima.

Apparently the two of them had decided that a ballgag wasn't enough and added an blindfold to it as well. Someone had also taken it upon themselves to attach a pair of nipple clamps connected by a weighted chain to Septima's nipples. This ensured that her squirming tugged on her nipples and made the whole experience even more torturous.

Harry suspected that Fleur was the culprit behind that idea given the fact that she was also occasionally smacking the older witch on the bum with a riding crop to force a her to jerk and send the weighted chain jangling and pulling on her nipples.

Needless to say, the former Arithmancy professor was painfully aroused by this treatment, her legs running with the evidence of it and her hands gripping the iron bar above her head as if her life depended on it.

Fleur was pretty aroused herself, with her head thrown back and eyes closed. Of course, that could also be due to the fact that she was holding Luna's mouth to her crotch.

Harry decided to remind the veela to let others have some fun too and sent a Nipple Pinching Hex at her.

Fleur yelped at the unexpected pain and shot him a dirty look, though it quickly passed when she saw what Dora was doing. Her eyes lit up with a familiar avaricious gleam and she nearly skipped her way to the bed, leaving Luna and Septima behind.

"Can I take over?" She purred into Dora's ear.

The metamorphmagus was not interested in letting her do so however, and merely moved so that her body completely blocked access to Harry's groin area.

Harry felt Dora's mix of amusement and determination to keep going and smirked at the pouting veela.

"Please?" Fleur tried again. "Nymmie?"

The only response she got was a throaty grumble that could have meant literally anything, though Harry could feel that it was basically a 'piss off'.

"At least don't swallow and save some for me." Fleur muttered sulkilly.

That was the wrong thing to say, as Harry could clearly sense the minor irritation and mischief Dora was feeling. She redoubled her efforts, now no longer performing to prolong his pleasure but to bring him to orgasm as quickly as possible.

Less than a minute later, he was groaning his release, buried in her mouth up to the hilt and discharging down her throat.

Fleur momentarily gaped at being robbed of her prize before she glared at the smug metamorphmagus.

"You greedy bitch, I wanted that!"

Dora wiped her mouth and her smug smile widened. "Tough."

Harry smothered a grin. He knew that Dora had done that specifically to spite Fleur.

Fleur looked like she was about to say something uncomplimentary again, but Harry cut her off by grabbing her by the hair, not painfully, but firmly enough that she couldn't escape his grip.

"Looks like someone needs another lesson." He said sternly.

Fleur's eyes widened and her demeanour changed completely, the pride and indignation vanishing like smoke.

" Non, there is no need for that, I will be good." She was quick to say.

"Oh, but there is a need for that." Harry countered, slowly moving off the bed without letting go of her hair. "You've been getting more and more uppity lately, so a reminder is definitely in order. Look, Luna even got everything ready."

Both Fleur and Dora turned their heads to see the short, smiling blonde standing next to an unremarkable vault horse that wouldn't be out of place in a gym. Well, it wouldn't be out of place if it didn't have restraints attached to the legs.

"'Arry, please, don't do this." Fleur pleaded.

"I'm sorry, Fleur, it's for your own good." Harry replied and marched her over to the vault horse.

"Uh, Harry, what's going on?" Dora asked a bit awkwardly as he and Luna bent the protesting veela over the piece of gymnastic equipment and restrained her arms and legs.

Harry smiled reassuringly at his metamorphmagus lover and began explaining. "Nothing to worry about, Dora. As you know, Fleur is a veela and has a veela's instincts, this includes a persistent desire to be in charge during sex. Unfortunately, I like to be in charge during sex as well and don't much appreciate her attempts to usurp control, so I have remind her of her place every so often."

"All she did was throw a playful insult at me and I did provoke her into it." Dora tried to argue, a bit disturbed by Fleur's pleas for mercy.

"No, Nymphadora, Harry is right." Luna piped up. "If he doesn't keep her in line, Fleur will just keep getting more and more demanding until all three of us are doing exactly what she wants all the time. It isn't her fault really, all veela are like that. Take just now for instance, I wanted to play with Septima too, but Fleur insisted that I lick her vagina. And she knows that Harry's penis is on a 'first come first serve' basis, she didn't have any right to complain if you didn't feel like sharing."

Harry decided that a quote was in order. "Everything is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power. Fleur here…" He punctuated his words with a slap to the veela's rump that made her yelp at the slight sting. "… is practically a living embodiment of that little saying. If I don't put her in her place, she'll put me in mine."

Though she still looked unconvinced, Dora nodded anyway.

"So, how do you even go about 'putting Fleur in her place'?" She asked.

"First, I need to get her desperately horny." Harry answered, amused.

"Just let him show you, Nymphadora." Luna chipped in. "We can play with each other in the meanwhile since Harry needs to stay close to Fleur to make sure that she doesn't set anything on fire."

"On fire?" Dora repeated in alarm.

"Yes, now tell me what you're in the mood for, sixty-nine, strapless dildo or futa play?"

"Isn't it nice to see them getting along so well?" Harry asked the bound veela, giving her rear another light smack.

"'Arry, let me go." She whined.

"You know I can't do that. You've been a bad girl, Fleur. Just look at what you've done to poor Septima."

Fleur looked sideways at the gagged and blindfolded witch, seeing that she was practically shaking with arousal and panting through her nose. She was also keening into the ballgag and using her legs to try pulling Harry towards her, clearly desperate for attention. The arousal wafting from her, both the physical sense of smell and the saturation of it in her aura, was starting to drive her instincts crazy.

It was about then that she realised something important.

"You set me up." She whispered. "You aren't doing this over what I said to Nymmie, you were going to do it anyway."

"Very good." Harry praised, running his fingers gently over her back. "Not entirely correct though. I was certainly expecting you to do something that needed correcting and prepared accordingly, but I wouldn't have done it if you had behaved yourself."

"I will get you back for this." Fleur promised.

Harry leaned down to whisper into her ear. "You'll try, and then we'll do this again."

Fleur shivered, aroused in spite of herself. She wanted to ride Harry until he was looking at her in glassy-eyed devotion, but she also loved his strength. It was a terribly confusing situation for a veela to be in, but she wouldn't trade it for the world.

Seeing that she wasn't going to reply, Harry turned his attention to Septima, stepping closer to her and placing his hand on her cheek.

The former professor rubbed her face against his hand like an attention starved kitten, even mewling almost like one. Her legs went around his waist and tried to maneuver his member inside her.

"None of that now." Harry chided as he sidestepped her grasping legs, eliciting a pitiful whine from the gagged witch. "I'm sure you heard what we were talking about just now, Septima. I could really use your help to discipline Fleur. There's a reward waiting for you at the end if you agree."

Septima nodded frantically without even pausing to think.

"I'm going to need some of your blood, is that alright with you?"

Septima nodded again. She knew full well that letting someone take her blood was incredibly dumb, but she also couldn't help the excitement she felt at being put even further in Harry's power.

"Such a good girl." He cooed, giving the chain connecting her nipple clamps a light tug to make her squeal.

Harry used a pre-prepared syringe to draw a little blood and then he used a knife to cut a small lock of Fleur's hair. With the material components prepared, he forged a powerful, one-way connection going from Septima to Fleur, far stronger than the Sensation Link he used so frequently because it had a much firmer anchor.

Fleur immediately jerked in her bonds with a soft cry as her body was assaulted by the sensations that Septima was feeling.

Harry moved until he was behind the former Arithmancy professor and pressed himself up against her, making sure that she could feel his erection throbbing against her lower back.

"These must be making you sore." He murmured into her ear, tugging on the nipple chain again. "Would you like me to take them off?"

Septima nodded vigorously and nearly cried out in relief as her sore nipples were released from the pinching hold of the clamps and the weight pulling on them.

"Better?" Harry asked, using his hands to gently massage the recently freed nipples, adding a little touch of magic to cool them.

Septima shuddered and gurgled helplessly in his grip, already on the verge of orgasm from the stimulation and nobody had even touched her between the legs yet.

Meanwhile, Fleur was trying to control her breathing, but it was a failing effort. Her body was being overwhelmed with sensation, which would have been fine if they weren't empty sensations. Veela needed magical partners to feel fulfilled, otherwise it was just frustrating.

Harry knew this of course, and was exploiting it to the fullest.

"You've got a choice now Septima." He whispered, taking her blindfold off and going back to massaging her breasts. "I could give you what you want right now. I could fuck your hungry arse until you spray girlcum all over Fleur over there, or…"

Septima was nearly hyperventilating in excitement at the imagery invoked by his crude language. Her, hanging from this iron bar while he pounded into her from behind until she came and drenched the veela now looking at her as best she was able from the bound position she was in… Only the promise in Harry's last word kept her from nodding immediately.

"Or, you could hold on a little longer and prove to me how strong you are. There might even be a reward in it for you."

Septima desperately wanted to pick the first option, but Harry knew exactly how to push her buttons. It wasn't like there was anything holding her in place except the desire to impress him and get rewarded for it, so she tightened her grip on the iron bar and planted her feet more firmly, choosing further torment over immediate gratification.

"Good girl." Harry said approvingly and moved away from her.

"You see what a good girl Septima is, Fleur?" He asked the veela once he was back at her side. "Maybe if you were that good, we wouldn't have to do this."

"Hmpf." Fleur snorted, though the disdain it was supposed to convey was rather ruined by her lusty panting. "Even like this, I still get what I want."

"Maybe you do," Harry agreed. "but you get it on my terms."

Fleur looked away and tried to focus on her breathing instead of on the maddening male musk so close to her face or the powerful magic emanating from him.

"Ah ah ah! You haven't earned that yet." Harry chided, stepping away.

Fleur snapped back to awareness and realised that she'd been straining her neck in an attempt to get his erect member in her mouth. She shook her head in an attempt to clear away the fog of lust and instinct that was creeping into her consciousness, but it was useless. The blood anchored Sensation Link was still feeding her Septima's excitement and Harry's proximity was doing the rest of the work. Soon, she'd lose control entirely.

Harry saw the downy fuzz appearing over her body and smiled, running his hands across the stuff and occasionally sending a jolt of feeling into Fleur's with a small spell.

"What's happening to Fleur?" Dora asked from the bed a couple of minutes later, finally noticing the transformation.

Harry turned to look at her and Luna, noting that they had apparently moved from sixty-nine to doggy-style, though there were no metamorph shenanigans involved this time. Rather, it was Luna wearing a strapless dildo, enchanted to stay put and vibrate of course.

"She's transforming." Harry explained, casually pressing on Fleur's anus with a knuckle and making her jerk in place as the nerves there were stimulated. "Veela can transform into a pseudo bird creature when angry as you know, but what you may not know is that it also happens if they're horny enough and don't get satisfied. The latter is far more dangerous. If I let her go now, she'd do her level best to fuck every single one of us until she was satisfied, whether we wanted to or not."

Dora took a look at the bound veela and could believe it. Fleur was covered in a coating of white and pale yellow fuzz like a newborn chick and her face had lost the ethereal beauty it usually possessed in favor of sharp, almost cruel features. She was also panting and stuggling wildly to get free of her bonds and her aura was flaring violently.

"Of course, the transformation isn't quite done yet." Harry continued. He stepped behind the veela as if he was about to stick his member into her flodded entrance, but he only placed his tip to it and stood still.

This seemed to be some kind of breaking point for Fleur as she started thrashing violently and bucking backwards, clearly desperate to have him inside her, but Harry still didn't budge.

The transformation continued to progress with the veela's rising frustration. The fuzz covered her completely, her arms sprouted feathers, her hands and feet turned taloned and her face sharpened further until it became a curved beak.

Then, with a loud shriek of frustration that was charged with magic like phoenix song, a pair of white wings burst from her shoulder blades.

"Whoa…" Dora said in an awed whisper, staring at the new appendages with wide eyes.

"So pretty…" Luna said at the same time, having never seen the transformation go this far before.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Harry grinned, acting as if he wasn't actually focusing most of his attention on blocking the transformed Fleur's attempts to conjure fire, free herself and rape them all.

"Now what?" Dora asked, still staring at the beating white wings.

Both she and Luna had were thoroughly distracted from their own play and simply settled in to watch what Harry was going to do next.

"Now I fuck her silly, obviously." He smirked and thrust forward, sinking himself into Fleur's gushing, scorching hot entrance in a single motion.

The transformed veela gave another avian shriek that was something between triumph and frustration.

Harry knew that words would no longer reach Fleur, but that was alright. He had a more primal means of communication in mind. She had been grasping at his soul for some time already, trying to Join with him and compel him to fuck her, but he had resisted it thus far. Now he reached out himself, wrapping the wild blaze of her magic in his own and pushing down on it, making it clear that he would be setting the pace and tone of their coupling.

She fought him of course, it was in a veela's nature to do so, to dominate and control those they had sex with and Harry had deliberately brought that nature out into the open instead of allowing it to stay hidden behind the deceptive beauty and grace. The transformation was so advanced now that her human mind was little more than a distant whisper in her subconcious, but she recognised the powerful magic of the wizard that was trying to tame her again and struggled with all her might to prove herself the stronger.

But no matter how much she fought, struggled and screeched, Harry held on, kept her magic contained and refused to move beyond that initial thrust.

It wasn't an easy thing to do. He was damned horny himself and the heat around him was incredible. Worse, she could feel his lust and was pulling on it like a champion, her magic promising pleasures untold if he would just give in.

But he had done this before and was far too attached to his self-control to surrender it, so they simply stayed in place for several long minutes until Fleur's instinct for control lost the battle against her desire and she slumped on the now sweat soaked vault horse with a defeated warble.

Harry groaned in relief as he was finally able to start moving. Holding back had been excruciatingly hard in more ways than one and he was glad he didn't have to anymore.

Fleur no longer struggled after admitting defeat, the primal mindstate she was in didn't allow for that kind of deception. She simply settled down and let herself be fucked, waiting for the prize she could feel would be coming soon.

And indeed it did. Harry couldn't possibly hope to last long with the tight grip her furnace of a vaginal canal had on him and found himself groaning his release in short order.

Fleur trilled happily as she felt the powerful seed flooding into her, triggering her own orgasm and causing her to clamp down even more tightly, not wanting a single drop to escape.

Harry was perfectly happy to stay buried inside her while he emptied the load all this teasing had built up in him.

The transformation started reversing soon after, the large white wings giving a final beat before they vanished, the beak and talons receding, the fuzz disappearing. Harry destroyed the blood and hair and undid her bindings as soon as this process began.

"Whoa…" Dora whispered again, having watched the entire spectacle with fascination.

"It's such a shame that only Harry can play with her like that." Luna sighed in disappointment.

"Huh?" The metamorphmagus asked.

"You remember how Luna said I have to stay close to prevent her from setting fire to anything?" Harry asked, casually moving to Fleur's side and letting the dazed veela clean him with her mouth.

"Uh-huh?" Dora nodded, idly wondering at how weird it was that it wasn't weird to have a conversation with someone that was having his cock sucked.

"Well that was quite literal. The real battle for dominance was in the Joining. The physical restrains were only there to keep her from shredding anyone with her beak or talons, but if I wasn't nearby to destabilise her attempts to use magic, she would have easily burned herself free and then we'd all have been fucked, first literally and then figuratively."

"And we aren't strong enough to fight Fleur like that." Luna added.

Dora was both skeptical and slightly offended by that. Not that she had any particular desire to dominate Fleur, but she was a damned auror! Surely she could handle one measly veela?

"Well, nevermind that now!" Harry said cheerfully, pulling his once again erect member out of Fleur's mouth. "Who wants to go next?"

Septima screamed into the ballgag as loudly as she could, gyrating violently in place.

"Uh, I think you might want to take her of her first." Dora suggested, staring at the veritable river of sexual fluids running down the former professor's legs in shock. She'd heard of hosepipes, but damn .

"She does look like she needs it." Luna opined.

"You hear that Septima? I guess it's your turn." Harry said, smiling at the middle-aged witch.

Septima sobbed with relief and hopped in place from foot to foot as if she desperately had to visit the restroom, though peeing was the absolute last thing on her mind right now.

Later .

Post-coital cuddling worked slightly differently with multiple partners. Generally it just happened to be between whoever was still awake at the time.

At the moment, that was just Harry and Dora. Septima had orgasmed so hard after the prolonged teasing that it had knocked her out, Fleur had been docile as a kitten for the remainder of the fun and had curcled up with a tired Luna a short while ago, leaving only the two of them left awake.

"I forgot to ask, how did your parents react when you told them about this?" Harry murmured, running his fingers through his lover's currently dark blue hair.

The metamorphmagus blew out a breath of air, feeling too comfortable and relaxed to tense up.

"I haven't told them yet."

"Didn't you say that you'd do it today?"

"Yeah, but I didn't."

"Okay."

"I'll do it tomorrow, I swear."

"No rush."

"Cool." Dora murmured and promptly fell asleep, the scalp massage proving too great a foe in her current condition.

Harry smiled slightly to himself and shifted the two of them into a more comfortable position. If there was one downside to having this many women, it was the fact that the bed was never big enough. It could take up as much space as a football field and it would still be too damn small since everyone would just crowd the same spot.

August 26th. Tonks residence.

"Alright, Nymphadora, what did you have to tell us?" Andromeda Tonks asked as she set down the tea.

The metamorphmagus didn't even bother getting annoyed anymore. Much as she disliked the stupid name her mother saddled her with, anyone would get a bit desensitised after having that sore spot poked constantly the way that Luna and Fleur had been doing.

So she just took a deep breath and looked her parents straight in the eye.

"I'm in a relationship with Harry."

"I knew it!" Andromeda crowed triumphantly.

"What?" Ted spluttered, having known nothing. "I thought you said he was sleeping with Narcissa?" He asked of his wife. That had been hard enough for Ted to wrap his mind around.

Andromeda rolled her eyes at her husband's cluelessness. "Narcissa is just his mistress. Isn't that right, Nymphadora?"

"Yeah… and since we're getting it all out into the open, it's a four-way relationship that also includes Luna and Fleur."

"He's got a harem?!" Ted exclaimed in shock.

"No, Dad, it's not a harem." Dora said with an eyeroll every bit as centrifugal as her mother's had been. She'd known he'd react like this. "It's a multiple partner relationship where everyone except Harry happens to be bisexual."

"Lucky him." Andromeda mused.

"But-but…" Ted stuttered, not sure what to protest about first. "But you're all so young!"

"I'm twenty-three." Dora said irritably.

"What about the others then?" Ted challenged, latching on to that argument. "Harry would have just turned sixteen last month, wouldn't he?"

"Yes, and Luna is still fifteen, big whoop."

Ted spluttered again, thrown off by his daughter's dismissive attitude. "They're still kids!"

"Ted, there are no laws on the age of consent in Magical Britain and Harry is legally an adult." Andromeda reminded him.

"That doesn't make it right!"

"No, but it doesn't make it wrong either. I seem to recall giving you a very special birthday present in an empty classroom during our fifth year to get your mind off the impending OWL examinations."

"Andy, you're not helping." Ted protested, heat creeping up his neck.

"Helping you make an arse of yourself in front of our daughter? I should hope not." Andromeda smirked. "Fact of the matter is, it's none of our business what age they want to have sex at. I'm actually far more concerned about the fact that one of Nymphadora's harem sisters is a veela."

"It's not a harem." The metamorphmagus insisted.

"Why does it matter if one of them is a veela?" Ted asked, baffled.

"Ted, honey, veela are sexual predators ." Andromeda explained patiently to her clueless husband. "They've been known to turn men - and some women - into their willing slaves in the past."

"I find that a bit hard to believe." Ted said skeptically.

"It's true, Dad." Dora backed up her mother. "If Harry wasn't as powerful as he is, he'd probably be living in France right now."

"I take it that her… charms are not an issue then?" Andromeda questioned.

"Eheh, no, Harry has Fleur well in hand." After what she'd seen last night, that was an understatement if ever there was one.

"I thought so, it takes a powerful wizard to keep a harem of witches in line, powerful enough that a veela wouldn't be able to have it all her way."

"It's not a harem!" Dora repeated hotly.

"I can't believe you're okay with our daughter being part of some boy's harem." Ted butted in, throwing his wife a betrayed glare.

"It's not a harem!"

"Oh for the love of…" Andromeda said in exasperation, ignoring her daughter. "Ted, it's really quite simple, power is is attractive. That's pretty universal, but it's especially true in the case of magical power. Harry is a very powerful wizard; magically, financially and politically. It would have been strange if he didn't have a harem-"

"It. Is. Not. A. Harem."

"-I know you think that our daughter deserves better than having to share a man with two other women, but she's a smart girl. She wouldn't have settled for being part of a harem if it wasn't a good deal."

"IT'S NOT A FUCKING HAREM!"

"Mind your language, Nymphadora!" Andromeda reprimanded sharply. "And don't shout, it's rude."

The metamorphmagus threw up her arms in disgust.

Nodding to herself as if to confirm that her daughter had been properly chastised, Andromeda turned back to her husband. "Besides, you did hear her say that she's bisexual, yes? That means she's not exactly getting the short end of the stick in any case."

"Dumbledore is a powerful wizard and he doesn't have a harem." Ted muttered sulkilly, deciding not to reply to that.

"Putting aside his age, maybe he's mourning some lost love or asexual or something. Either way it's his prerogative and he's an exception. Powerful wizards and witches have historically had many lovers, simply because they could. Andros the Invincible, an Ancient Greek wizard famous for his skill with wandless magic just like Harry, was rumored to have had dozens of lovers, both men and women and even some magical creatures. It might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it makes a good example nonetheless - power is attractive, always has been and always will be. That's just how it is."

"I thought you of all people would know that 'it's just how it is' isn't a good argument, or else you'd have hated me for being a muggleborn like your family wanted you to." Ted countered.

"Those are two completely different things." Andromeda protested irritably. "One is ignorant, self-entitled stupidity with no basis in reality, and the other is simple facts. Hell, if I was in Nymphadora's place and had a wizard like the one Harry is shaping up to be interested in me, you can be damn sure that I would have seriously considered sharing him. This is all academic anyway since our daughter is an adult and fully capable of making her own choices."

"But…" Ted slumped slighty, sensing defeat. "I just don't want my little girl being some kind of third wife, and with a husband that has God only knows how many mistresses on the side."

"Dad…" The metamorphmagus sighed in exasperation. "First of all, nobody said anything about marriage." Though she was honest enough with herself to admit that it wasn't an unappealing prospect for the future. "Second, it's not like that. There's no heirarchy and Fleur and Luna are as much my lovers as they are Harry's. I'll admit that it isn't what I pictured my love life to be, but that's how the cookie crumbles. If I'd been the first girl that Harry got together with, then it would probably be just him and me. As it was, Fleur and Luna were first and turned Harry over to their way of thinking, I could hardly join up and demand they change things to accomodate me."

She didn't allow herself to feel any regret about breaking things off when it actually had been just her and Harry. It had been the right thing to do at the time and the current situation was not without benefits.

"Why would you even agree to join up when it was already a three-way?"

"Alright, Dad, try picturing this. You're a red-blooded man in your early twenties and every relationship you've ever had was mediocre at best and plain bad at worst. There are a trio of incredibly beautiful girls that you are good friends with, who also happen to be in a three-way relationship with each other. You know that all three of them find you very attractive and constantly make invitations to join up with them. There are no laws against it, you have no personal objections to multiple-partner relationships and the only caveat is that two of them are also getting a little action on the side and might sometimes bring in another woman to play with. Are you going to say no?"

Ted looked away from his daughter's raised eyebrow, knowing perfectly well that there was practically no man alive that would refuse that kind of deal. How could he expect his apparently bisexual daughter to refuse when he couldn't honestly say that he would? Still, it was hard to let go of the idea that his little girl should have a man - or woman he supposed - that was completely devoted to her and her alone.

"I assume that one of these 'other women' that are occasionally brought in isn't my sister?" Andromeda asked pointedly, breaking Ted out of his thoughts.

"Merlin,no!" Dora said, face screwing up in disgust. "I know that Harry and I are related to some degree, but that doesn't mean I'd shag my aunt too."

"Hey, that's right, I completely forgot that they're related!" Ted exclaimed to his wife, grasping at the last hope he had for convincing his daughter to back out of this in spite of the resolution he'd almost come to five seconds ago.

"Yes, Harry and I share a great-grandparent, Cygnus Black II, making Harry and Nymphadora second cousins once removed." Andromeda nodded. " I checked once I started getting suspicious of how much 'magic practice' she was doing at Potter Manor according to Cissy."

"Huh… thanks for clearing up that up, Mum. None of us could ever be arsed to figure it out."

"You're welcome, though you could have just asked Narcissa."

"Yeah, well, we didn't. And just for the record, the 'magic practice' thing is real. Harry's been teaching me wandless magic."

"Really?" Andromeda asked with raised eyebrows. "That's quite a lot of trust he's showing you. You'll have to show us what you've learned later."

"I can't do anything amazing yet, but sure."

"You see, Ted? Our little girl isn't just some trollop throwing herself at a powerful wizard. Harry wouldn't be teaching her something that powerful if he didn't care for her."

"Doesn't being related to him bother either of you? At all?" Ted demanded, ignoring his wife's question.

Andromeda merely shrugged. "There's no reason why it should, they're far enough removed for it to be safe - doesn't even count as incest really. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip have the same relation actually and their kids are fine."

Ted briefly considered pointing out that taking royal families as an example on marriage practices was probably not a good idea, but was cut off by his daughter.

"We're not planning to have kids anytime soon." Dora said quickly, not at all sanguine about the direction her mother's thoughts had gone in.

"Aw, and here I was hoping that you would give me some grandchildren to spoil."

"I'd rather not be a grandfather just yet though." Ted muttered.

"You won't be."

"That's too bad." Andromeda sighed theatrically, but her teasing smirk gave her away. "On the upside, a harem means three times as many grandchildren."

"Not a harem." The metamorphmagus muttered, but only to herself since it was clear that her mother wasn't listening. It was times like this that made her wonder if Harry didn't have a point about parents being troublesome.

When they agreed between each other that they needed to meet Harry again, this time as their daughter's boyfriend, as well as Fleur and Luna, she decided that he was definitely right.

August 30th. Potter Manor.

Dinner with the elder Tonkses was an odd affair, with varying levels of tension existing between the participants like a layered cake.

Andromeda, Narcissa and of course Luna were the most comfortable by far, chatting with each other and everyone else without concern.

Sirius came next on the scale, clearly able to sense the tension but being mostly just amused by it since it didn't involve him.

After him came Fleur, who was clearly doing her level best to make a good impression on Ted and Andromeda like most people would when faced with their love interest's parents.

Harry endured the small talk and pointless niceties with the grim resolve of the choiceless.

Ted was trying to relax, but was obviously distracted by the purpose of the entire ordeal. As a father, he was the one that was supposed to be making his daughter's love interests nervous, but that was hard to do when you were outnumbered. Not to mention that he was essentially in 'enemy territory' so to speak and the main target of his intimidating father routine was a wizard far more powerful than him. Plus, he was a rather mild-mannered man and Harry was… not.

The most uncomfortable by far was Dora, who appeared to be stuck in 'fight or flight' mode. She knew that her father didn't like her relationship and she knew that Harry wasn't going to give an inch. Then you factor in Fleur's unapologetic sexuality and Luna's bluntness… it was a shouting match waiting to happen from her point of view.

The dinner progressed well enough despite the slight tension, but something had to give eventually and it happened to be Andromeda's patience.

"So, Harry, Nymphadora tells us that she's become part of your harem." She said casually, hiding her amusement.

"It's not a harem!" Dora protested hotly.

"Andy, you know perfectly well that it isn't a harem." Harry said, giving Andromeda a deadpan look.

"It isn't?" Luna questioned looking honestly puzzled.

"No, a harem would imply that I control you girls."

"Oh, you mean like you do with Narcissa and Septima?"

Sirius started coughing a cough that sounded more like a laugh and Harry simply sighed, slowly pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Septima?" Ted repeated, the name being very familiar. "As in Septima Vector?"

"Yes, we play with her sometimes." Luna chirped before anyone could stop her. "She has a submissive fetish that goes wonderfully with Harry's domination one."

Sirius 'coughed' again.

"Come on, Siriurs." Narcissa said firmly. "I think we need to get that cough looked at."

"No, no, I'm fine." Sirius said, face red and eyes shiny from trying to keep his laughter down.

"I insist." The youngest Black sister said frostily and all but dragged him out of the room.

Harry decided that he would have to do something nice for Narcissa.

"Well, this is awkward." Fleur said once they were gone, amusement coloring her tone.

"Tell me about it." Dora muttered.

"Harry dear, how do you find the time for all these women?" Andromeda asked, her eyes gleaming.

"A bit of a hassle to be sure." Harry replied with a humorless grin, deciding to simply plow through it. "To manage them all requires careful scheduling, a clear hierarchy of priorities, a high-functioning libido and a firm hand to keep the more willful ones in line."

"And you said it wasn't a harem." The middle Black sister jibed.

"Sounds like a 'arem to me." Fleur added, still vividly recalling the recent 'corrective lesson' she'd received. The worst part was that it was very much like something a veela might do, which meant that Harry was beating her at her own game, the damned sexy man.

"If it quacks like a snorkack…" Luna chimed in cheerfully.

"Snorkacks quack?" Dora asked incredulously.

"They very well might." Luna answered with authority.

"What the hell is a snorkack?" Ted asked, baffled. A quick glance at his wife told him that she was just as baffled as him, so that was something at least.

"Nothing you need to worry about." Harry jumped in before the conversation could go even more off the rails. "Let's just get to the point. You're here because Dora told you about us and you wanted to see for yourselves what it looks like."

Ted and Andromeda both nodded. While Ted was still holding out some faint hope that his daughter would change her mind and pick a more traditional relationship, Andromeda was more interested in seeing the dynamic between the four of them. Despite being supportive of her daughter's choices, she still wanted to make sure that she would be happy.

"I have to say that I'm not too happy about my daughter being part of a harem, especially after what you just said about 'managing' it." Ted said.

"Well there's nothing I can do about that." Harry shrugged. "Calling it a harem gives the whole thing some bad connotations, which is why I've tried to avoid using the word, but Dora is free to break things off at any time, just like with any other relationship."

Said metamorphmagus took Harry's hand in her own in a silent declaration that she wouldn't be doing that.

Ted didn't really know how to respond to that. He almost wished that Harry were more confrontational about it.

"What I'd like to know is if you're ever planning to marry my daughter." Andromeda said bluntly.

"Mum!" Dora groaned, hiding her face behind her hands. "Why do you have to be so embarrassing?"

"It's a legitimate concern, Nymphadora." Andromeda justified unrepentantly and turned back towards Harry. "I might not be surprised or upset at what the four of you have going on, but I would like some assurances that my daughter isn't just another warm body for you."

Harry leaned back into his chair before replying.

"I don't have much respect for the institution of marriage." He began levelly. "It always seemed like a pointless formality to me, hollow and worthless. Where does some stupid priest or government official get off telling me that my relationship is now 'legitimate'? Piss on that. I know it may not look like it from the outside, but these three girls represent the majority of what I genuinely value in my life and I don't need outside confirmation for it."

Andromeda chewed on that for a while, carefully noting the way that all three girls straightened proudly at his words. It wasn't the response she'd been expecting or hoping for, but she kind of liked it all the same. Still, there were other concerns that needed to be addressed.

"What are you going to do about your position then?" She asked. "You are both Lord Potter and Lord Black right now. If you don't want the succession of those titles to become a confusing - and possibly bloody - mess you're going to have to designate a Lady Potter and a Lady Black if you intend to keep the lines separate, or just one if you intend to merge them. It means marriage either way."

Harry had known this already thanks to Narcissa. It was hardly the first time that two bloodlines had converged and ended up bestowing two lordships to a single wizard. When this happened, the wizard usually elected to have two wives and give each one ladyship of one House so as to separate the bloodlines again. It had happened with a female head of House a couple of times as well, which was slightly trickier and more time-consuming to resolve, but was done in much the same way.

Narcissa had suggested that he do this as well, making Luna Lady Potter and Dora Lady Black. Fleur was unsuitable since she was a veela and could only produce more veela, but a veela third wife would be quite a status symbol. She had laid out some well-prepared arguments for it as well, though Harry suspected that some of her reasoning for it was rooted in a desire to have Andromeda accept a reinstatement into the Black family and figuring that she would be more willing to do it if her daughter was made Lady Black.

Harry knew that Narcissa wanted to help, but he wasn't willing to use his girls as chess pieces to secure a legacy he found hard to care about.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Luna and Fleur don't care about marriage any more than I do, but maybe Dora will. I might even say yes if she proposes properly." He finished with a grin

"You prat!" Said metamorphmagus huffed, slapping him on the shoulder and then crossing her arms.

Harry grinned at her some more before turning back to Andromeda. "If push comes to shove and marriage becomes a necessity for some reason then I'll do it… or maybe I'll just say that we're married since I doubt anyone has the balls to call me out on it, but in the context of providing you some proof that Dora isn't just a warm body marriage is useless."

"I see." Andromeda wasn't sure what to make of Harry's attitude. It was decidedly unorthodox for the lord of a Noble House to be so… dismissive. It was starting to become clear to her just how much Harry must be relying on Narcissa to uphold his public image.

"I'd like to know why you need to sleep around with more women if these three are so important to you." Ted jumped in with his own question.

"Need?" Harry repeated with a sardonically raised eyebrow. "I don't 'need' to sleep with them. As Luna blurted out despite a talk we had yesterday on appropriate dinner conversation, Septima has a submission fetish that makes her fun to play with and Narcissa likes to be rewarded for the work she does for me. Both would mope if I stopped fucking them."

Ted shook his head, simply not understanding it.

"And you three are okay with this?" He asked of the girls.

"Of course." Fleur said, looking at the man as if he was mad.

"It would be awfully mean of us if we demanded that Harry stop having sex with them." Luna nodded.

"It's cool." Dora shrugged. She wasn't going to mention that it had bothered her at first. It would just give her father more straws to grasp at.

"Well if it doesn't bother you, then I have no choice but to be okay with it too, don't I?" Ted said reluctantly.

"I have suggestion." Andromeda piped up, dark eyes gleaming with mischief. "Why don't we have ourselves a little get-together with Fleur's family? We're going to be sort-of-in-laws if this is as serious as it seems after all."

" Bonne idée! " Fleur exclaimed, forgetting to use English in her enthusiasm. "My parents would love to meet you."

That it would also be a good opportunity to improve relations between Harry and her parents went unsaid. While she sometimes took Luna on her periodic visits back to France, they had not seen him since the last time they'd spoken. A group occasion like this would hopefully show her parents the parts of Harry that they hadn't been able to see the last time, the gentler parts.

Harry observed with a blank face as Fleur and Andromeda started planning out this family get-together that nobody had even agreed on. He had the distinct impression that he would be agreeing to it though. Fleur clearly had her heart set on it already and he didn't want to spoil it for her by anti-socially refusing to participate.

Instead, he turned to an equally blank-faced Dora.

"See? I told you parents are troublesome."

September 15th. Potter Manor.

Today's Wizengamot session had been even more irritating than the last by Harry's reckoning. At least the previous one had given him a vague feeling of things getting done, but true to Narcissa's word, the vote on the legislation he had proposed had essentially devolved into a pissing contest between him, Nott and their respective supporters. Dumbledore, useless as always, had only been there to make sure it didn't escalate to actual violence. Harry really didn't get that, the old man was clearly in favor of the legislation, but he didn't use his position to help getting it passed, either by supporting him or undermining Nott. True, the Chief Warlock was only supposed to chair the meetings and stay neutral unless a swing vote was required, but since when did politics work that way? And what was the point of sticking to the script when two thirds of the Wizengamot or more was as corrupt as it got? This was why Lawful Good characters were stupid.

Harry had just finished venting his frustrations with the day to his girls when Huginn flew into the room and onto his shoulder. Before the raven even opened his beak, Harry already knew what he would say.

" The wolf-man is here, at the cave to the east. "

That was very close, less than twenty kilometers as the raven flies. Harry didn't think it was just a coincidence that Greyback would pick that place to bunker down, especially seeing as it was the day before the Full Moon.

" Alone? "

" Yes. "

Well that was dumb, but neither unexpected nor unwelcome. Greyback clearly liked to settle his vendettas personally if what happened with Lupin was any clue.

"Alright, girls, time to suit up." He said to the other occupants of the room.

"He's finally slowed down then?" Tonks asked grimly even as she went for her basilisk hide coat along with Fleur and Luna. Harry's ravens had sighted Greyback some time ago, but he'd been moving about too much to get a fix on his location.

"He's come to us actually."

"Truly?" Fleur asked in surprise. "Was 'e intending to force 'is way through the wards or something?"

"Maybe." An important fact about wards was that they couldn't prevent anyone from actually physically crossing through them. Attempting to do so with the more reactive sort of wards could have dire consequences depending on how the ward scheme was set up, but Greyback might very well have been counting on them not being raised to full power, or perhaps he figured that his werewolf magic resistance would let him tank through. It was one of the reasons why giants were so feared by wizards - their immense constitutions and high magic resistance rendered directly defensive wards useless against them. Even the vaunted wards of Hogwarts would fail to keep a determined giant out, only hiding worked. Fortunately, giants were very, very dumb.

"Reckless." Tonks muttered.

"Could have worked if we weren't expecting him though."

"Are we taking Etal with us?" Luna asked once she was done putting on her coat and boots.

"I'll ask if he wants to come." Harry said with a shrug and hissed a call out to the empty air, confident that the quetzalcoatl would hear it, wherever he was.

The feathered serpent had taken to vanishing randomly and exploring the world since they had arrived back in Britain. Harry also suspected that he was a bit sulky over his inability to help find Greyback, forcing Harry to rely on the ravens instead of him. For all his ability to track magical signatures over ludicrous distances, Etal needed a close up taste first so that he knew what to look for, otherwise it all blended into the vast amount of information the wind brought him.

Sure enough, Etal flew in less than a minute later, throwing Huginn a glare and forcing the raven to seek another perch as he coiled himseld around Harry's shoulders.

" What is it? " The quetzalcoatl asked.

" Greyback has been found and we are going to hunt him. Do you want to come with us? "

" Yessss. " Etal hissed with muted excitement. He also gave Huginn as smug a look as a snake could, knowing that the raven wasn't good for anything other than scouting.

Harry knew about the place that Huginn was talking about and side-along apparated his girls into the vicinity. Etal elected to fly since it was so close and rejoined them well before they made it to the cave that Greyback had holed up in.

"Remember, we take him alive if possible, but don't take any risks." Harry said quietly as they approached.

The girls nodded silently as they spread out, wands drawn and aimed at the mouth of the cave.

Harry took a few minutes to set up a few wards to block any attempts at escape via apparition or Portkey.

Just in time as it turned out, as Etal hissed a warning almost as soon as he was done.

" He approaches. "

"Well if it isn't the great Harry Potter himself come to greet me." A growling voice drawled mockingly as the werewolf stepped out of the shadows of the cave. "And you even brought your pack of bitches with you. Ain't that cute?"

He was a big man, with long, matted grey hair and malicious amber eyes. Unlike Remus Lupin or most other werewolves, his lycanthropy was plain to see, from the fur growing all over his body and face to the claws on his hands and the fanged teeth his smirk was showing. This was a werewolf who reveled in his inner beast.

"How could I do anything else after the effort it took to lure you here?" Harry replied calmly, already preparing a powerful stunner.

Surprise flickered in Greyback's eyes for a moment before his smirk widened.

"Most people try not to get my attention." He said.

"Most people aren't looking to kill you." Harry riposted.

"Hah!" Greyback barked in laughter, grinning widely. "I like you, Potter. You'll make a good werewolf, if you survive."

"And you'll make an interesting subject of study, if you survive." Harry retorted mockingly.

There was a moment of stillness as everyone realised that the pre-battle banter was over. The air was heavy with tension and the promise of violence.

Then the tableau was broken as Greyback roared, his body rippling and transforming even as he charged towards Harry.

Harry's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, not having thought that a werewolf could transform at will like this. Everything he'd ever read on the subject said that the change was always involuntary, but clearly the authors of those books had never encountered someone like Greyback.

Sirius and Remus had spent several Full Moons in the forests around Potter manor and Harry had spied on them his raven form out of curiousity. Even as a werewolf, Lupin looked weak and kind of sickly, starved almost, with thin limbs and a long body that was just shy of emanciated.

Greyback was very different. His arms were thick and muscular, his shoulders broad and his barrel chest rippling with muscle visibly even under the coat of grey fur. His legs were similarly powerful looking, though they were leaner and had the characteristic canine joints. His beast was clearly well fed.

Harry's surprise was not enough to stop him from casting the powerful stunner he had weaved while they were talking. It hit Greyback dead center and caused him to briefly stumble, but the powerful werewolf was able to shake it off and keep going.

By then, the three witches had also reacted and cast spells of their own. Luna conjured ropes to bind him, Fleur lashed him with a flaming whip and Tonks transfigured the dirt under him into a muddy mire, having incorporated that particular dirty trick of Harry's into her own repertoire.

Greyback managed to dodge the ropes, but the flaming whip hit him in the side and made him roar in mixed fury and pain. He immediately changed direction towards Fleur, intending to rip her apart in retaliation. The mud slowed him down a little, but he was still dangerously fast.

Etal reacted immediately and shot towards the veela like a missile, wrapping around her and carrying her away to a safer distance.

Harry had seen Greyback's intent and felt a surge of fear and protective anger. As he had taught himself to do through years of practice and meditation, he immediately used those emotions to fuel the power of his next spell, a fire whip just like Fleur's, burning red hot. The difference was that his was more controlled and wrapped around Greyback's right ankle. He immediately pulled on it with all the force of his mind and will, making the burly werewolf topple to the ground like a felled tree.

Greyback howled at the searing agony in his foot, thrashing desperately in an attempt to throw it off, but Harry held on grimly, making the whip coil even tighter.

While this was going on, all three girls continuously fired stunners at Greyback until he finally slumped into unconsciousness.

All four of them were breathing hard from the adrenaline rush as they watched Greyback revert to his relatively human form, watching warily for any sign of movement.

"I think he's out." Tonks said cautiously, but didn't lower her wand.

"Yeah." Harry agreed, slowly stepping closer. He was no less wary than his metamorphmagus lover.

"Thank you for the 'elp, Etal." Fleur cooed at the quetzalcoatl.

" Yes, Etal, thank you. " Harry added, pausing to give the snake a brief nod.

Etal didn't reply with words, but with a musical hiss that somehow managed to convey pure pride. That impression was reinforced by the way he sat around Fleur's shoulders with all the air of a king being carried on a palanquin.

"He transformed without the Full Moon." Luna noted.

Harry nodded absently. "The curse is very strong in him, apparently strong enough to bring out the beast at will, but I think he can probably only do it close to the Full Moon."

"So… what do we do with him?" Tonks asked uncertainly. "Cuz I have to say I don't feel comfortable trying to hold him prisoner if he can transform into that thing at will."

She had a point, Harry conceded. They had expected to fight against a trained adult wizard who happened to be a werewolf, something that he was reasonably sure he could have done by himself. Greyback's ability to transform had been a nasty surprise, but given that they'd had him surrounded from the start and with Etal acting as an emergency escape had not been too dangerous. Trying to keep him confined indoors was a different story however.

Still, he wanted to take his time examining Greyback.

His eyes then fell on the werewolf's mangled ankle, burned nearly all the way to the bone by his flame whip, and he had his solution.

"He wouldn't be much of a threat without his limbs." He said quietly.

Tonks looked at him in shock. "You want to cut off his arms and legs?!"

"Why not? It's not like we were going to leave him alive anyway."

Tonks had no response to that, though she was still unsettled by the casual brutality of the suggestion.

"He would have killed or turned us all if he had the chance." Luna pointed out calmly.

"I say we do it." Fleur added her own two cents, giving the downed werewolf a hard stare. Veela couldn't become werewolves, so she had no illusions about what this beast would have done to her and had correspondingly little sympathy.

Tonks was still uncomfortable with the idea, but she nodded anyway, unable to find any good argument against it.

With that agreement reached, Greyback was treated to another round of stunners to make sure he didn't wake up and then they went about the grim task of dismembering him. Harry used an impractical combination spell, a fire infused cutting curse that cauterised the wounds it made while the girls kept their wands trained on Greyback with more stunners at the ready to be fired at the slightest twitch. Once that was done, Kreacher was called to collect the severed limbs, which the slighly unhinged house-elf did with a smile.