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.
XXXXX
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 conversation 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."
XXXXX
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.
XXXXX
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.
XXXXX
Basement of Grimmauld Place.
"That just looks so wrong." Tonks said, shaking her head.
Harry glanced at what was left of Greyback, basically just a chest with a head and four stumps where his limbs used to be. They had amputated his arms and legs just above his knees and elbows respectively and put him into a rope harness so that he hung upright on the wall. Harry had to agree, it did look rather wrong, or perhaps disturbing was the right word.
"It's the only practical way of keeping him upright." He shrugged.
Tonks shook her head and changed the subject. "What are you going to do with his limbs?"
"I want to study them for a bit. They have an unusually high magic concentration for a wizard's body parts, but I suppose that's only to be expected given Greyback's condition. I've never heard of lycanthropy getting to the point that it affects a person's untransformed appearance like this, but I have some ideas as to how he managed it." Harry answered.
"Oh?" Fleur asked curiously.
"The werewolf is a very odd creature, it hates humans and will attack them on sight even if they're normally friends, but it doesn't care about animals at all. For the curse to be this strong, Greyback must have gone to great lengths ro reject his humanity in favor of the beast. Simply letting it do whatever it wanted while transformed wouldn't be enough. No, he had to have been acting like a werewolf even when he was human."
"But that means...." Tonks said, looking a bit nauseated.
"Yes, he's probably been eating people, and eating them raw at that." Harry nodded. "The psychological impact of cannibalism would weaken his connection to humanity and make the beast that much stronger. It would certainly explain why Lupin is so weak in comparison – he hates and fears his wolf, fighting it at every turn. It could also be that eating the magic infused flesh empowers the curse in much the same way that sex and blood does to veela and vampires respectively, but that's an educated guess at best."
Tonks shook her head in disgust. The clinical, detached way that Harry dissected the reasons behind Greyback's appearance only made it sound more horrible. Any objection she might have had against killing the monstrous werewolf were evaporating quickly.
"Do you think he ever gets indigestion?" Luna asked morbidly.
Harry choked on a cough that sounded suspiciously like laughter.
"Luna!" Tonks exclaimed.
"What?" Luna inquired cluelessly. "I don't think raw meat is good for your tummy."
Harry and Fleur both snickered at the strange juxtaposition between the topic and the language Luna had used.
"You guys have a really fucked up sense of humor." Tonks said with a shake of her head.
"But I wasn't trying to be funny." Luna protested, which only sent Harry and Fleur into another round of snickering. Even Tonks felt her lips twitching.
Etal, who was also present and had been merely observing silently thus far, hissed in confusion.
"I do not understand, what is it that you find so amusing?"
Harry opened his motuh to explain, but was Greyback started stirring and cut him off. It was worth noting that he should have been unconscious for a long time still given the amount of stunners he'd taken. Actually, he should probably have been dead from the amount of stunners he'd taken, but that was werewolf constitution for you.
The werewolf attempted to lunge at them as soon as he saw them, which was when he discovered his new state.
"What did you do to me?!" He howled in horror, looking at what remained of his limbs.
Etal hissed at the unpleasant noise.
"Disarmed you." Harry deadpanned.
"Dislegged him too." Luna added cheerfully.
Fleur and Tonks snorted, both thinking that Luna was simply not cut out for gallows humor.
Greyback didn't reply with words, but merely screamed his horror, rage and despair, thrashing violently the whole time.
"So loud." The quetzalcoatl complained again.
"Are you done?" Harry asked unsympathetically once the werewolf slumped brokenly in his rope harness.
Greyback didn't answer, merely glared at Harry with such hatred that all four of them and even Etal felt nauseated by the way it poisoned the werewolf's already vicious aura. But it was a defeated sort of hatred, the kind you felt when you knew that you were beaten.
"You won't have to live like this for long if it's any consolation." Harry said. "You were one of Voldemort's allies, a dangerous one that I can't afford to leave alive. The advanced state of your lycanthropy presents an interesting opportunity however. Who knows, I might even discover a means of curing the infection by studying you. Wouldn't that be great?"
Greyback's glare somehow managed to become even more baleful.
XXXXX
September 16th. Grimmauld Place basement.
"Begin dictation. Chapter: curses, subsection: lycanthropy, subsection: werewolves, specimen: Fenrir Greyback, true name unknown, gender: male, age: estimated to be between sixty and eighty years." Harry said to the enchanted quill, a plain looking thing made out of a long raven feather, causing it to scratch out the words into the floating notebook, more of a personal grimoire really. The grimoire was also heavily enchanted and connected to the quill so that the topics of research were kept in order. That had taken quite a bit of effort to make properly, but it was worth it to keep his various interests organised.
"How can you be sure that isn't his real name?" Dora asked skeptically.
"Pause." Harry said and turned to her with a deadpan look. "I refuse to believe that any man could be named so appropriately. Lupin was bad enough, but Fenrir Greyback? If that was the name his parents gave him I'll eat my socks."
Luna and Fleur giggled, causing Tonks to roll her eyes and wave her hand to indicate that she was done talking.
"Resume. New paragraph. Subject shows werewolf traits even when not transformed, visually observable traits are: change in eye color, heavy hair growth all over the body, sharpened teeth, claws on the hands and toes and increased muscle mass. Magically observable traits include: a sense of wildness in the subject's aura, high magic resistance even in human form and magic infused in the body in ways consistent with magical creatures more than human magic users.
"New paragraph. subject has demonstrated ability to transform at will. Speculation: subject is only capable of this feat close to the Full Moon. Fact: a Full Moon triggers the transformation regardless of a werewolf's wishes. Fact: moonlight is reflected sunlight. Theory: reflection changes the magical properties of sunlight. Theory: duality of the Moon, refer to chapter on the connection of celestial bodies to Light and Dark.
"New paragraph. Speculation: subject is capable of transmitting a limited degree of lycanthropy to others when not transformed. Further testing required.
"New paragraph. Speculation: subject practices cannibalism as a means of rejecting his humanity and strengthtening the beast within.
"New paragraph. Subject refuses to answer questions and his intense hatred of me combined with the strength of his beast curtails my ability to read his aura. Subject's magic resistance and strength of will has also proven great enough to resist the Imperious." That had been another long conversation with Dora on the nature of the Unforgivables before she would let him use it. Irritating, but not unexpected, she was an auror after all. "As it is inadvisable to use Legilimency on a werewolf and the subject's high magic resistance would negate Veritaserum, I am unable to confirm my speculations directly. Corroborative study of other subjects required to confirm or refute. Skip to next page."
"Wait a second, 'other subjects'?" Dora interrupted again. "You planning on snatching more werewolves for your science experiment?"
"Pause." Harry turned back to look at his most troublesome girlfriend. "I won't grab just anyone, but my enemies are fair game. I doubt I'll ever find a werewolf quite like Greyback again, but there are bound to be others that don't reject what they are. I saw a few at Bjomolf's Christmas party that looked very powerful in their own right, but not so inhuman as him."
Tonks pinched her nose and her hair cycled through a variety of colors before settling on a subdued mahogany. "Just...don't get carried away, alright?"
"I'm sure you girls will keep me in line." Harry said with his most charming smile.
Fleur snorted derisively.
Greyback, who had been hanging from the wall in his rope harness in sullen silence the entire time, spasmed and began transforming. It was much less intimidating than the last time now that he had no limbs.
"Resume. Subject shows no discomfort during his forced transformation, in stark contrast to Remus Lupin, who shows great pain even with the aid of Wolfsbane. Theory: acceptance of the beast within eases the transformation.
"New paragraph. Subject is snarling angrily and his aura has become even more wild since his transformation, but he appears lucid. Fact: Wolfsbane weakens the beast within, allowing the human mind to assert control during the transformation. Theory: it is possible for a werewolf to retain their mind without the use of Wolfsbane."
Harry spent a long minute staring at the suspended werewolf, ruminating on what he could perceive through the wild haze of Greyback's aura.
"Chapter: curses, subsection: lycanthropy. Skip to end.
"New paragraph. Fact: demi-humans can become neither animagi nor werewolves. Fact: humans are animals, demi-humans are magical creatures. Fact: the Animagus Transformation ability is rooted in humanity's connection to the mundane animal kingdom. Speculation: lycanthropy hijacks this connection and forcibly alters whatever form the victim would have if they were animagi.
"New paragraph. Fact: the beast hates humans, but is indifferent to animals.
"New paragraph. Hypothesis: The creator of the lycanthropy curse hated humans but was indifferent to animals. Plausible, but insufficient information.
"New paragraph. Alternate hypothesis: The beast hates humans because it is in conflict with its host, who is a human. Plausible – animagus training requires one to accept their inner animal as part of themselves, failure to do so results in loss of self. The werewolf is unnatural and much more powerful than a mundane animal, the forced nature of the transformation and the hosts' resentment of their affliction compound the issue.
"New paragraph. Speculation: resolving the conflict between the host and beast would allow a werewolf to become a pseudo-animagus as in the case of Subject Greyback. Addendum: Subject Greyback is violently psychotic and thus unsuitable as a control subject, the vampires I saw at Bjomolf's Christmas party were nearly as strong but retained their fully human appearance. Paranoid conspiracy theory: the vampires know a method of taming the beast within and use it to bring werewolves under their influence. The beast may be inherently too violent for the method used when learning the Animagus Transformation. Note: research the connection between the wolf and the Moon more closely. End dictation."
"What a strange practice, to write things down." Etal commented, rousing himself from where he'd been silently wrapped around Harry's neck. "Would you not remember it if it was important?"
"Maybe, but I like having things written down to better keep my interests ordered." Harry explained.
"Will you kill him now?" Etal changed the subject.
"Yes."
"Good, he tastes of angry dog."
"Now what?" Dora asked uncomfortably.
"Now we kill him." Harry replied, drawing his little used wand.
He felt the encroaching Dark as soon as he resolved himself to making the kill. He had made an effort to be more cautious about touching it ever since Etal had warned him away from it, but it was harder than he expected. He had never bothered trying to keep the Dark away. It had always been useful – it made his aura far more intimidating, allowed him to think with an unsurpassed sense of cold clarity and gave all his spells a little extra oomph whenever he was in mortal combat. Now he was finding it hard to keep it away. It coiled around him like a thick mist, hungry for the life he was about to give it.
Etal hissed in warning and Harry lowered his wand.
"'Arry?" Fleur asked gently, touching his arm.
Harry looked at her and shook his head, trying to clear away the cobwebs around his mind. "I'm fine."
Fleur didn't look like she believed him.
Harry raised his wand again, but did not cast. He lowered it again with an irritated grunt.
"Harry, it's okay if you can't bring yourself to do it." Dora said, just as gently as Fleur.
"It's not that." Harry shook his head again. They didn't understand. It was too easy. He wanted to kill Greyback so badly now that it was all he could do to hold back. Amazing what a man can overlook when he fails to question.
Luna suddenly wrapped her hands around him from behind in a tight hug. "We're here for you, Harry."
He smiled, patting the short girl's arms and once again appreciating her odd perceptiveness. "Thanks, Luna."
Fleur and Dora silently joined in, taking an arm each and reaching out towards him with their magic. Their bright souls, whole and strong and lacking a direct link to the Void, were proof against Dark and focusing on that instead of how much he wanted to kill Greyback slowly cleared his mind.
"The Darkness has gone." Etal sounded curious, but satisfied.
Harry took a deep breath to center himself. I'm doing this for myself and for them, for a future without the shadow of Voldemort hanging over us. I won't kill for the sake of killing, I can't afford to.
He raised his wand again, and this time he was able to cast the Killing Curse without feeling as if he was not entirely himself.
XXXXX
Two hours later.
Harry carefully shelved the last jar from the day's work. It was labeled 'werewolf teeth, Fenrir Greyback' and now sat next to a long row containing similarly labeled jars containing the now deceased werewolf's various organs and fluids and whatnot. All the jars were enchanted with powerful preservation charms to keep their contents fresh.
He had saved the skin as well, but would not be attempting Skinwalking with it. Attractive as the idea of being able to take the form of a werewolf on demand was, there were too many variables. Lycanthropy was only partially a physical thing, so there was a distinct chance that attempting to Skinwalk with a werewolf skin might infect him just like a bite and that wasn't even mentioning all the other variables like Greyback's own spirit and how violent the wolf spirit might be. Definitely better to stick to fully mastering a regular wolf.
The girls had left some time ago, being rather more squeamish than him. Etal was the only one still here with him.
Harry took another long look at the many jars containing Greyback's viscera. All of it was teeming with magical energy and would undoubtedly make for some interesting material for Potions research.
There was a problem however.....
"I need to find a new lair." He hissed at his serpentine friend.
Grimmauld Place was all well and good, but it was primarily meant as a family residence and call him old fashioned, but Harry didn't feel entirely comfortable doing this kind of thing in the middle of London, concealment spells or no. And what about long term prisoners?
"This one does seem ill suited to this purpose." Etal agreed. "Where would you make it?"
Harry considered it for a few moments before replying.
"How do you feel about the cold?"
XXXXX
October 1st. Potter Manor.
"Honeys, I'm home." Dora called out sarcastically as she apparated into the foyer.
Not ten seconds later, a grabby veela crashed into her and attempted to shove her tongue down the metamorph's throat.
"Fleur, take it easy for pity's sake, some of us need air to live." Dora gasped out once she managed to disengage. "I take it that Harry still hasn't stopped vanishing off to parts unknown then?"
"Non." Fleur huffed.
"Right." Dora sighed, recalling a bit of wisdom she'd heard somewhere.
Everyone wants a nympho girlfriend until they get a nympho girlfriend. Never had she understood that adage so clearly.
Ever since they'd taken out Greyback, followed by Harry's clinical observation and subsequent dissection of the werewolf, Harry and Etal had been going somewhere that they wouldn't talk about. They came back every day of course, but it was mostly just to sleep or bathe and no amount of nagging on the part of herself, Fleur and Luna would get Harry to reveal what he was up to. He'd always just tell them to wait and see and that he would be done soon. Teeny and Kreacher might know but they weren't talking either.
This was naturally quite frustrating, but the only veela in the foursome was frustrated in another way as well. Tonks had had no idea just how demanding Fleur could get when it came to having her needs met. Well, she certainly did now that Fleur had decided that she and Luna would be picking up his slack since Harry wasn't meeting them anymore outside of a quick shag every few days.
Even after seeing the transformation, she hadn't really understood what Harry meant when he said that he had to keep Fleur in her place. Merlin, how could one woman be so demanding.....
"Come, dinner is already prepared." Fleur said, grabbing the metamorph's hand and leading her to the dining room.
Dora held back a sigh. Quite honestly, she wasn't in the mood for sex right now and just wanted a break. Oh, to spend an evening watching a movie or playing a game of Exploding Snap....
Dinner was delicious as always, but Dora found it hard to focus on the moment and properly enjoy it. It wasn't that having sex with Fleur was an unappealing prospect, but the veela just didn't know when to stop and neither she nor Luna had the disposition and force of personality necessary to force her compliance the way that Harry could.
She thought she'd be able to when seeing Harry do it, but now she was finding herself overwhelmed by human-Fleur. What bird-Fleur would have done to her didn't bear thinking about.
And it wasn't even as if Fleur was using force or anything, but it seemed that no matter how 'not in the mood' she or Luna were, the veela would find a way to seduce them. Might as well just switch to male bits on a semi-permanent basis until Harry stops doing whatever the fuck he's doing.
Dora ate as slowly as she could manage, finding an odd sort of amusement in Fleur's impatient fidgeting.
And then Harry walked into the room, completely casual, as if he hadn't caused a veritable domino effect of problems with his absences.
"Hey, girls." He greeted. "You almost done eating? I have something to show you."
"Can it wait until tomorrow?" Fleur asked quickly, looking at Harry with such intensity that Tonks almost expected his clothes to catch fire.
"It could, but it won't take long." He assured. "Aren't you curious about what I've been doing?"
"Of course we are." Tonks said, quickly wiping her mouth and rising from her seat.
"Show us, Harry." Luna added angelically.
The two of them exchanged grins at Fleur's disgruntled look.
"Come on then." Harry said, beckoning them to follow before turning to Narcissa. "I'll come talk to you after we get back, Cissy."
"Of course, my lord." The blonde witch acknowledged easily, making no protest to her obvious exclusion.
He led them down into the basement, towards the space he had reserved as his workshop.
Only, it was cleaned out now. The only thing left was a very large mirror, it had to be close to seven feet tall. The giant thing had an ornate wooden frame and stood on wide, sturdy legs.
"Please don't tell me you've been admiring yourself in the mirror for the past two weeks." Tonks deadpanned.
Harry merely smirked and ran his fingers over the mirror's surface. All three of them could sense a subtle spell trigger being used and the mirror rippled like a pool of water. When it settled, it no longer showed their reflections, but an unfamiliar room made entirely of dark grey stone.
"It's a portal like the one that leads to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters." Harry explained without being prompted. "I've found that mirrors make an excellent medium for this kind of spell, much better than brick to be sure."
"Where does it go?" Luna asked curiously.
"Step through and find out." Harry invited.
After a short exchange of raised eyebrows, all three women stepped through.
XXXXX
As soon as all four of them were through, they looked back to see that the mirror they'd stepped through just now was identical in appearance to the one they'd entered into.
"That was way more comfortable than the Floo, Portkeys or Apparition. It didn't feel like anything at all." Tonks said admiringly.
"I know." Harry said smugly.
"Does it 'ave a range limit?" Fleur asked curiously.
"Nope, it's subject to pretty much the exact same restrictions as the communication mirrors."
"You could market this too then." Fleur said in realisation. "People would be glad to replace the Floo with something more comfortable."
"I could." Harry nodded. "But I won't. The Mirror Walk is far too useful an advantage to be spread around to everyone."
"So you've left Fleur unsatisfied for so long to make this pair of mirrors?" Luna asked, somehow not sounding accusatory.
"Ah, sorry about that, but I really got into this project." Harry said a tad sheepishly. "And no, it wasn't just the mirrors. Come on, let me show you the rest of it."
He led them from the room, through a barren stone hallway and into a central staircase that was a lot like the one in Hogwarts, minus the random movements and trick stairs. There were no windows and the only illumination was provided by sporadic floating magelights.
"Did you build all this?" Tonks asked. She'd noticed that everything they'd seen so far was made of unnaturally smooth stone, as if the entire construction had been carved from a single block and then sanded to perfection, a surefire sign of magic being used to reshape the rock into the desired form. The dimensions of the whole thing also hinted at extensive use of Expansions Charms.
"Yes, although this central stairway is the only part of the inside that could actually be called anything near finished. Most of my time was spent on the outer shell and the spells necessary to keep it secret. It's got every concealment spell short of a Fidelius on it."
"What is it though, and where is it?" Luna asked curiously.
"You'll see, we're almost at the top."
True to Harry's word, they only needed to climb two more flights of stairs and go through a very short hallway before they reached a dead end. There, Harry cast a simple animation spell and made the stone wall open like a door.
The first thing to register was the brightness, which was in stark contrast to the gloom inside or the after-sunset twilight of Potter Manor. The next was a blast of shockingly frigid air, again a stark contrast to the late summer of Britain, causing all three women to quickly apply warming spells to themselves.
"Did you bring us to the fucking North-" Tonks cut off her grousing as she stepped out of the newly made doorway and saw the view.
Rocky, snow-capped mountains, a narrow fjord with large chunks of ice floating in it and in the distance, an endless plane of blinding white. On the other side were two mountainous peninsulas hugging another fjord between them, and the ocean further out.
The view was almost completely unobstructed, except for the four large, stone spires spread equally around the platform they were on. They had come out of one of them, but Tonks could also feel magic imbued in them, probably to block out the wind.
"Not the North Pole, no, but we are a ways into the Arctic Circle." Harry answered the unfinished, sarcastic question. "This is Ymer Island, located on Greenland's eastern coast, about half way up the landmass. This was the place I was thinking about moving to originally."
"It's so pretty." Luna said dreamily, looking around with interest. Something caught her suddenly eye as she pointed and giggled. "What a funny looking mountain."
Tonks followed Luna's pointing finger, presumably west across the fjord, and decided that 'funny mountain' was a good description. It was a conspicuous, vaguely rectangular thing of reddish rock with a lighter stripe running diagonally across it.
"Interesting that you should notice that actually. It's called the Devil's Castle, or Teufelschloss in the original German. I was seriously considering building on it, but I settled on this unnamed mountain range instead in the end. Makes the concealment spells more effective."
"Congratulations on finally getting your wizard's tower either way." Luna beamed, now looking over the edge of their platform.
"Thanks, Luna."
Tonks went to take a peek of her own and quickly took a step back as she saw the immense height they were at, though that had been clear enough since they were looking down on the surrounding mountains.
"I thought you were just joking around when you said that one of your goals in life was to have a personal wizard's tower, and you actually went and made it in Greenland of all places too." She huffed.
"Maybe you'll think twice about doubting me in the future." Harry replied smugly.
Tonks rolled her eyes.
"I'm pretty sure that Saruman would be upset about you stealing his design though." Luna commented.
Now that she mentioned it, the four stone spires did give it a rather Isengard-ish feel....
"Fortunately, Saruman is a fictional character and thus unable to protest." Harry said airily. "Besides, he'd have no right to complain. It was the Dúnedain that built Orthanc, he just moved in after it was abandoned."
"So if I understand you correctly, you 'ave spent the past two weeks playing with rocks?!" Fleur's voice was sharper than the arctic wind whipping around them.
"It wasn't supposed to take this long." Harry said apologetically, though his twitching lips ruined it. "Originally, I was only going to carve a few rooms out of the mountain so that I'd have a private place to keep all my more questionable research, a day's work at best. Then I remembered how much I missed my favorite thinking spot on top of the Hogwarts Astronomy Tower and decided to make one of those instead, but to do that I needed a lot of spells to conceal it from the handful of people that come through here. Then I felt that the whole thing looked a bit plain and decided to add some artistic touches. One thing led to another and.....yeah."
The furstrated veela closed her eyes, took a deep breath and then gave Harry a flinty look. "We are going back 'ome now, where you will be making up for your neglect."
"You really should." Luna chimed in. "It wasn't very responsible of you to leave poor Fleur unwatered for so long."
Tonks wasn't sure if she should groan or snort at Luna's turn of phrase. She was sure that she agreed though – Harry needed to thoroughly fuck Fleur's brains out, coincidentally giving herself and Luna a break from the lusty veela's attentions.
Thirty minutes later, Dora and Luna were happily playing a game of blessedly non-sexual Exploding Snap in Potter Manor's drawing room while Harry and Fleur went at it like rabbits in the master bedroom. Neither of them doubted that Fleur was being fucked back into submission again and were happy to leave Harry to it. Balance was restored.
XXXXX
October 20th. Ymer Island, Ravenhead Tower.
"How are you feeling today, Gregory?" Harry asked politely.
"Fuck you, Potter." Gregory Goyle Sr. spat back.
To be fair, Goyle had good reason to be angry. Harry had kidnapped him and his friend Vincent Crabbe from their homes and imprisoned them in his new stronghold after all.
Crabbe and Goyle were another two examples of 'low hanging fruit' where Death Eaters were concerned – their affiliations were something of an open secret, their homes sported no wards worth mentioning and they were terribly predictable. The only reason that Harry hadn't taken them sooner was because they weren't particularly valuable. Once he had werewolf parts to experiment with though, they had suddenly increased in value.
His girls had helped in the abduction and Dora had stuck around at first to make sure that he was not being excessively cruel or something like that. Unfortunately for Crabbe and Goyle, she had stormed out in disgust after they had been forced to confess to their many crimes under Veritaserum, no longer caring what happened to them. Harry couldn't say he was surprised, Crabbe and Goyle had done some fucked up shit.
He had alredy injected them with Greyback's blood and confirmed that it had some effect. Nothing obvious, but if Harry had to guess, he'd say that their inner animal had been affected. Unfortunately, it seemed that you needed an actual living werewolf to enact a true lycanthropy infection, as even injecting them during the Full Moon hadn't sufficed. He'd needed to transport them back to Britain for that one, since Full Moons were a decidedly different kettle of fish so far north. It was too bad that there was no real way to force them to learn how to be animagi so that he could see what that would do. Ah well, there were still other experiments that could be run.
"I have a potion for you to drink."
"Fuck off."
Harry sighed. Honestly.
"Imperio. Drink the potion."
Goyle drank the potion.
And immediately began clawing at himself, as if there was some monster in his chest trying to dig its way out. Harry was reminded of the chestburster from the Alien movies, oddly enough.
There was no toothy little creature exploding through Goyle's ribs, but there was something similarly dramatic. The death eater began growing fur and his agonised screaming became roaring.
Then he suddenly dropped dead, looking slightly more werewolfish than Greyback had in his untransformed state.
Harry took a deep breath and drew in some power from the Sun to drive away the lingering sense of Dark. This was an issue that he would struggle with for the rest of his life, this urge to kill and send more life into the hungry Void. He'd always have to be careful to not kill for satisfaction or risk yielding more ground. Nothing else for it though, much as he sometimes longed to wrap himself in the peaceful darkness, it was not for the living and he had lost too much of himself already. If it was just him, he might not have cared if he lost the ability to feel anything but the cold, but for the girls.....
"Begin dictation. Chapter: experimental potions, subsection: Wolfsboon Potion, test subject: Gregory Goyle Sr. Skip to end.
"Variation two, potion brewed during the Full Moon proved to be more potent, but still fatal to a partial werewolf. Possibility exists that such a potion may allow full werewolves to temporarily transform without the presence of the Moon...."
Harry hadn't really intended to make such a potion and he had no particular use for it in mind, but that's what had come out of his experimenting. He'd been aiming for some kind of cure or perhaps something that could permanently weaken a person's inner animal as a means of deactivating lycanthropy, but all his dabbling so far had only resulted in effects that made the beast stronger. At this rate he was more likely to discover a potion that induced lycanthropy than anything else. Of course, he'd only had two people to test it on.....
He was no Potions master, he did not have that innate knack for understanding the interactions between ingredients, but he did have a very precise magic sensing ability that allowed him to feel how stable or powerful a given potion was. Given enough time and resources, he could muddle something together.
And wouldn't you know it, the Halloween Ball that he would be hosting was in ten days. The ball that would be full of 'retired' death eaters doing their best to show what upstanding members of society they were. Since he'd been planning to kill them anyway, he might as well do it this way.