To my loyal and existing rabid readers hello and welcome to part 2 of HP and the Jade Dragon.

Chapter 101 – The Who, The How and The Why

23:36hrs Friday 2nd September, 11th Year Boy's dormitory, Turtle Island, Mahoutokoro

Hero was asleep in his bed when he was awoken by what he thought were voices. Raised voices…. He raised his head off the pillow and looked sleepily around the boys' dorm and saw the rest of the guys were asleep, but the voices he was hearing were getting closer and louder.

Hero rubbed the sleep from his eyes and picked up his wand holster from the nightstand beside his bed. He'd taken it off for when he had a shower the night before. He remembered his father chastising him whenever he saw Hero didn't have it on and every time he forgot to put it back on, he mentally kicked himself. This was due to his uncle's home being attacked in the night a few years ago by the Jade Dragon, when Hero had been staying there in the summer of his sixth year.

Hero could remember how mental his father had gone when his uncle had told him about how Hero had emerged from his room in the middle of the night straight into a fight and hadn't had his wand to protect himself because it was in a holster he had taken off. Hero scolded himself for forgetting that his new holster was water proof and didn't need to be taken off.

He attached the holster to his wrist, watched the straps and buckles secure themselves, stood up and dry washed his face with his hands as he moved closer to the sound of the disturbance that was coming from Harry's open trunk.

The trunk was stood on the end and as Hero became more awake he could definitely hear Harry, who sounded pretty angry, and a female voice that sounded like she was crying almost pleadingly with Harry.

Hero was just about to duck into Harry's trunk that was stood on its end when he heard Harry's voice shout "GET OUT NOW!" and the next thing he knew a body came running out of the trunk at speed clattering straight into Hero's bare muscular chest, but the force of the impact knocked both Hero and his assailant to the ground with a clatter.

As the female body landed on top of him, he thought he saw blonde hair in the darkness of the room as the Trunk made a creaking noise and slammed shut, the two lock clasps closing with a loud snap as the trunk for a fraction of a second seemed to shimmer white.

"Who's that?" Hero whispered loudly to the girl on top of him, who was trying to hurriedly push herself up off Hero and make a quick exit. Hero, with his quick reflexes however, caught a hold of the girl's ankle who let out a yelp as she clattered to the ground with a bang, knocking into Hero's nightstand sending a lamp toppling on the ground with a clatter.

"Get off me, your big ape." the female voice called out almost as a scream, kicking her legs furiously, and with a note of panic in her voice because she couldn't loosen Hero's grip on her ankle as he moved with the reflexes of a cat and moved his body over hers pinning her to the ground.

"Huh, wazz goin on?" a sleepy Omori called out sitting up in bed suddenly.

"We've got a visitor. It's alright Omori go back to sleep, I've got this sorted." Hero replied as he shifted his body on top of the girls. He pushed his legs down onto hers and hooked his feet around her ankles, pinning her to the ground and moving her legs apart. His privates were pressed up against the girls wriggling bottom as she tried to twist and break free frantically.

Her hands were almost clawing at his face over her shoulder trying to get a grip, and Hero was having to move his head out of the way to avoid her grappling fingers. Hero, with the strength to overpower the girl, grabbed her wrists and pressed them to the floor leaning his weight on her.

Hero affectively pinned the intruder to the ground spread eagled with his well-built body immobilizing her. The girls struggling was starting to lessen as her strength seemed to wane.

"There's no point fighting. I've got you now and you're not going anywhere." Hero whispered into her ear feeling her straight hair tickling his cheek. Under normal circumstances the girl would love to be trapped under Hero Takahiro as she was loving his body pressed against her while basically handling her like a puppet, his strength easily dominating her.

Right now though, there was nothing she wanted more than to escape and get away from yet another embarrassing situation. "Please just let me go Hero." she said softly and barely above a whisper, a pleading and whiny note to her voice.

"Lucy is that you?" Hero asked a little shocked.

"Yes, it's me, no get off me your big oaf." Lucy replied as she felt Hero's powerful grip lessen on her wrist.

Hero let go of Lucy and started to move off her but as she started to get up she felt Hero's muscular arm wrap around her waist and lift her bodily from the ground. He pushed the boys' dormitory door open and walked them both through it.

"Will you get off me…. Put me down." Lucy whined, her temper flaring as her legs kicked out and her arms flailed, trying to get enough grip on Hero to push herself free but he kept swatting her hands away with his other hand before he tossed her onto one of the sofas.

Hero fired his wand into his hand and cast a binding spell at Lucy as a series of ropes shot out of the tip of his wand and wrapped themselves around Lucy's wrists individually, before the rope took on a life of its own pulled her wrists together and then snaked round them quickly tying them together. Three more ropes did the same thing to her ankles, thighs and then around her arms effectively tying Lucy up.

Lucy was just starting to scream out when Hero whispered "Gayuhanu", which was a spell he had read in the book in the room he had gone into with his name on it in the Turtle's Nest. Lucy's eyes bulged for a second as she looked for a fraction of a second like she was choking when suddenly a ball gag appeared in her mouth and two thick leather straps shot out of it and wrapped around Lucy's head effectively gagging her.

She started mumbling and screaming against the gag, her screams being completely muffled by the rubber ball blocking her mouth. Her eyes looked at Hero defiantly as he laughed softly to himself. "I bet lots of people here would love to do that to you." he said cheekily as Lucy stared daggers at him. With three flicks of his wrists as Hero sent silencing charms at the girls' dorm door, the boys' and the door to the stairwell.

"Now then Lucy. We can't be overheard now but I've got a couple of questions that I'm going to ask you and you are going to answer them honestly, otherwise I have a way of finding out if your lying to me.

If you start screaming and shouting or anything like that then the ball gag will go back into your mouth and then I'll go and get Master Bo and you can explain to him what you were doing in Harry's trunk and in the boys' dormitory." Hero said while taking a seat on the coffee table and he saw the flicker of panic in the younger girl's eyes.

"You going to stay nice and calm?" Hero asked like he was talking to a child, getting an energetic and vigorous nodding of the head in return. "Ok then." Hero said softly as he took his wand and cancelled the spell on the ball gag, which vanished.

"So, what were you doing in Harry's trunk?" Hero asked her calmly.

"Please Hero. Look I'm really sorry, I was stupid and I promise not to do it again." Lucy said with desperation evident in her voice.
"What were you doing in there?" Hero asked again flatly.

"I just wanted to speak alone with Harry about tutoring me in a couple of subjects." Lucy answered, desperate not to have to tell the truth about what had happened and what she had done.

"You expect me to believe that you sneaked into the eleventh-year boys dorm, into Harry's trunk this late at night, to ask him to tutor you?" Hero asked pulling a face at the young girl who was looking at the floor while her cheeks getting redder. "Please don't insult my intelligence Lucy. You know I'm not stupid enough to buy that. You're telling me you asking Harry to tutor you resulted in him shouting at you to get out and throwing you out of his trunk and activating its wards?" He added, his voice laced with clear skepticism.

"Alright fine I wanted to spend some time alone with Harry and you know… have some fun with him." Lucy replied.

"So, you snuck in here and into his trunk to fool around with him? Ballsy Lucy…. stupid but ballsy." Hero said shaking his head not believing that she could be that stupid. "I mean you've already broken three school rules in sneaking into an older year's dorm uninvited, sneaked into a boy's dorm and then into another student's property…. But go on, you snuck through here and into his trunk. Then what happened?"

"Well he wasn't there when I got there, so I decided to wait for him for a little while. I was just about ready to leave when he came back. I don't know where he'd been because I couldn't find him anywhere in Turtle Island." Lucy said recounting what happened.

"Yeah well Harry was at the Dragon's Lair because they were having a party tonight as… never mind. So, Harry gets back and then what happened?" Hero asked Lucy who argued that she'd rather not say causing Hero to have to remind her that she was in enough trouble as it was and that he would just find out from Harry himself so she was better fessing up now.

Lucy let out a sigh knowing that she couldn't get away with not telling Hero and she really didn't want to have to explain herself to Master Bo because it could put her scholarship at risk. She asked if Hero could at least un-tie her and she promised not to leg it or anything. Hero agreed and with a wave of his wand removed the bonds securing Lucy. She reached forward rubbing her face and sweeping the loose tendrils of hair back out of her face.

"Well I sort of threw myself at him and then we started kissing and wow can he kiss and…." Lucy started explaining as she felt herself getting wet remembering the encounter.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa hold up. You're stood in Harry's trunk uninvited and he comes back from the Dragon's party and just starts kissing you? He doesn't even really know you and you don't know him… I find it hard to believe he'd just come in and start kissing you like that Lucy… I mean no offence but he's got most of the girls in our year flirting with him and trying to put themselves into a position for some alone time with him. Why would he pick you and just start snogging you?" Hero asked finding the scenario as Lucy had told it extremely unlikely having observed Harry at Mahoutokoro so far.

Yes, Harry flirted and bantered with girls and yeah Hero knew some of the girls were being very out of character and going after Harry quite openly. Even the girls in his clan who he knew were normally happy to let guys pursue them like Yoko, Gwen, and Akiko seemed to be really into him. Yes, Lucy was attractive but not as much as the other three girls in his year… or so he thought anyway.

"I'll tell you if you'll stop interrupting…. Oh, Buddha... this is so embarrassing…" Lucy said putting her face into her hands and her elbows on her knees.

"More embarrassing then telling Master Bo instead?" Hero asked sitting back in the seat and putting his foot up onto the coffee table. "Look its late Lucy… I'm tired and want to go to bed, so you'd best start making some sense and quickly. Tell me what happened and don't leave anything out." Hero said firmly looking at the younger witch seeing her go pale as she could see that the normally friendly and cheerful Hero was in Head Boy mode, wasn't happy about being woken late at night, and to have her dance around the issue.

Lucy took a deep breath, mortified that she had to explain this to a boy that she had fancied for nine years. She wished that if she had to be caught she'd much rather have been caught by one of the female prefects as they would at least understand.

She let out a sigh and sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. "Alright I'll tell you but please promise me you won't tell any of your friends alright." Lucy said balling her courage as he agreed and began to tell Hero what had happened a short time ago in Harry's trunk.

Hero listened completely shocked and bewildered by Harry doing what Lucy said they were doing as she explained in a little more detail than he expected before she said about how she told Harry that she wanted to have sex with him. Hero could only remember a few times Harry and Lucy had actually spoken to his knowledge so he was shocked that Harry would mess around with her as he seemed so into Hermione.

"So yeah, it was going incredibly well until the potion wore off and then he just started going mental at me." Lucy said now having explained what had happened, she was feeling a little aggrieved by how Harry had literally thrown her out of his trunk with a powerful banishing charm before pulling the locking chain at the entrance to the trunk and closing and securing the trunk.

"Potion?" Hero asked. "What potion?"

"Well I kind of wasn't me." Lucy replied while her cheeks turned pink.

"What do you mean 'I kind of wasn't me'?" Hero asked wondering what she meant until the penny dropped. "Shit, you used polyjuice potion" Hero groaned, shocked that Lucy had omitted the taking polyjuice potion before throwing herself at Harry till now.

"Yeah I took some polyjuice potion that Harry had and was putting back in a locker in Master Po's potions class room earlier on. He hadn't managed to do the Runes cluster locking the locker very well because he was giving me and a couple of others, who were talking to Master Po, advice about the Draught of Living Death and he wasn't really concentrating." Lucy said before stopping and looking thoughtful for a moment.

"Hmmm I suppose there goes my chance of him tutoring me in potions now though…Although… maybe after he's calmed down and realized how good we were together he'll reconsider" Lucy rambled on until Hero stopped her.

"Never mind the tutoring get back to the polyjuice potion!" Hero said his patience starting to fray a little.

"Right, well… yeah… so, I managed to get one of her hairs as I was passing her and well I added it to the potion and as soon as I took the potion I managed to get him going through her form. I thought if it had worn off when we had got into it he'd have been so horny anyway it wouldn't have mattered but he went mental when it wore off." Lucy continued giving a little shiver as she had witnessed a side to Harry Potter than made her understand how he had defeated the darkest wizard ever known.

"Fucking hell Lucy are you retarded?" Hero asked aghast.

"What do you mean am I retarded?" Lucy retorted clearly shocked at the accusation.

"I really can't believe you'd do something so stupid. You used polyjuice potion to trick him into fooling around with you by way of seducing him in another person's form." Hero said loudly, jumping to his feet in anger at the thought of his newest friend getting tricked so horribly making him feel ill. "That was completely out of order. Why would you do that do him? He's never done anything but be nice to you." Hero started chastising the younger girl before a thought hit him and he stopped for a moment."

"Shit… This is bad… really bad." He added as he started to pace, thinking about the implications if Harry decided to pursue the matter.

"Come on, it's not that bad… I know it was a bit naughty of me to trick him like that but there was no malice behind it and besides he likes a good prank or joke. It was only a bit of fun and believe you me he certainly wasn't complaining while he was going down on me or while I was sucking his co…" Lucy started reasoning.

"I don't need to hear the explicit details thanks" Hero said holding his hand up and turning his head to the side.

"Well you asked what happened and I'm telling you. Listen if the potion hadn't worn off he would have happily had sex with me… God it was so hot and great to have a place to fool around uninterrupted with him."

"For the love of all that is magic in the world don't you get it? It's still a massive betrayal of his trust as a person." Hero told Lucy.

"I wasn't trying to do it horribly or anything Hero. It was just a bit of sexy fun and we both got off… I really can't see why he'd be that upset about it. I mean I just rocked his world like he rocked mine." Lucy said giving a little smirk remembering how hard Harry had cum in her mouth. "I don't understand why he got so bent out of shape about it." Lucy said thinking back and wishing the polyjuice potion hadn't worn off because she really wanted to shag Harry Potter.

"Can't see why he's upset… You can't can you!…" Hero said his anger really starting to build. "How the hell would you have liked it if… I don't know Miguel Fu took polyjuice potion to make himself look like Harry and then he had sex with you and then you found out you'd been tricked and he'd just used that to get what he wanted and deceived you? Huh would you think it was just a bit of fun?" Hero snapped at the younger girl.

"Well no because Miguel Fu is a right minger." Lucy said her face pulling into a look of disgust. "You don't think I'm a minger, do you?" Lucy said with a playful and sexy little pout.

"Buddha's bollocks Lucy …Will you stop messing about, don't you understand how serious this is?" Hero asked stopping his pacing in front of the younger blonde girl and looked down at her.

"What? Don't you start as well." Lucy said rolling her eyes. "Look it was just a bit of sexy fun Hero, nothing major. Nothing bad would have happened. I mean I'm on my contraceptive potion so it's not like I'd have got pregnant or anything." Lucy said rolling her eyes wishing

"You really don't get it do you…. You could get arrested for attempted line theft you stupid girl. He's head of four houses and you used someone else's form to seduce him." Hero said bluntly starting to pace the room again thinking about the trouble Lucy could get into if Harry wanted to press charges.

Lucy's world seems to stop spinning at that point as Hero's point and the reason why Harry would have been so upset came on her like a tidal wave. She felt like she'd had a bludger to the back of the head as the realization of what she had done dawned on her.

"Line theft? I wasn't trying to steal a family name or anything Hero I just wanted to have sex with him!" Lucy said the words line theft rattling around her head like a bell vibrating as her stomach dropped and she started to feel very sick all of a sudden.

"You can't be such an idiot surely. Don't you understand that by using someone else's form it could be argued that you were deliberately disguising yourself so as to not get caught in the line theft. A prosecutor would argue that you were using any means necessary to try and have sex with him rather than just honestly presenting yourself and giving him the choice. Whose hair did you use anyway?" He asked wondering who Lucy had transformed into in order to seduce Harry.

"Erm, Hermione Granger." Lucy said sheepishly.

"WHAT!" Hero shouted loudly causing Lucy to jump in her seat. "Please tell me you're fucking joking, please?" Hero said rubbing his temples as he started pacing again.

"Um... no." Lucy said sheepishly and almost feeling dizzy with what Hero was saying. "I was passing her outside the library after getting the polyjuice potion and making my way up to Turtle Island and I thought, well having seen the way they were looking at each other while they were both in Turtle Island that… well I just think it's obvious they fancy each other." Lucy said fumbling over her explanation.

"Well I just thought maybe he'd be quite receptive to snogging Hermione Granger. I mean what guy is friends with a girl for years and doesn't want to get in her pants?" Lucy asked, rolling her eyes as every guy she had been close friends with had always wanted to get into hers. "So, when I saw her I got a flash of inspiration, so I stopped her and told her I loved what she had done with her hair and ran my fingers through it and one strand caught on my ring and success, I had a hair to put in my potion."

Hero stopped pacing at this point and buried his head in his hands and omitted a muffled scream of frustration into his hands before rubbing them hard over his shaved head. His eyes turned and met Lucy's and he moved with such speed she yelped as he bent down his hands on the air of the sofa and the back of it effectively trapping her.

He bent his face down towards her and she thought for a moment that Hero might kiss her and held her breath staring into his eyes. She could see the intensity and barely suppressed anger in his gaze and she gulped nervously.

"Do you have any possible idea of stupid and reckless you've been?" Hero asked as Lucy's cheeks colored. "So now you've manipulated a Lady of two other famous and illustrious houses and stolen one of her hairs in order to manipulate the Lord of four others." He said in disbelief at what she had done as Lucy's face dropped and all the colored drained as quickly as a bucket being turned upside down.

"No, no, no you're twisting it all. I wasn't doing it with like evil intentions or anything. Come on Hero, you know me, I wouldn't hurt a bowtruckle." Lucy pleaded with Hero, panic setting in that Harry might have thought she was trying to get pregnant by him in order to have a child that would inherit his family name.

"I know you wouldn't, but Harry doesn't, and a prosecutor certainly doesn't know you either and wouldn't care. All they would do is just go for the jugular and really go to town on you." Hero said thinking out loud.

"What am I going to do Hero? I could get expelled" Lucy pleaded with tears forming in her eyes causing Hero to look up as she gave a sob.

"It's worse than that Lucy. You could end up getting your wand snapped and getting sent to prison for attempted line theft and robbing a lady of a Noble and Ancient house if they decide to press charges and take you before the council of elders." Hero said soberly.

"Prison… My wand snapped." Lucy moaned in despair before the tears started to fall down her cheeks and she started sobbing into her hands. "Oh my god… What am I going to do?" Lucy sobbed into her hands. Her tears coming in great heaving sobs as she bawled, thinking about how twenty minutes of fun was going to send her life falling apart and worse bring dishonor to her family.

Hero watched the young witch crying her eyes out and couldn't help but be moved. He knew Lucy well, having had her as back up Seeker to Yoko for years, and having seen her in the reserve games over the years. Not to mention the amount of times he'd caught her in broom closets with boys or sneaking off somewhere on Turtle Island for a little quiet time.

He knew Lucy was normally a very smart girl, friendly and cheerful… the sort of girl that everyone liked and took to instantly. She was very highly sexed though as she seemed to constantly be thinking about and fooling around with boys, and Hero knew from experience that Lucy loved being the center of attention and wanted to be at the very top of the social ladder in the school.

He'd become friends with Lucy because she had throughout the years, pretty much every year, asked him on a date at least twice. He'd always shoot her down. While she was very attractive she just wasn't for him. She was never shy of any takers though when she went on to pursue another boy. It had kind of become an ongoing joke between them after Lucy's fifth year of asking and Hero had politely explained she wasn't his type.

He took a seat next to her and put his arm round her shoulder and Lucy fell into Hero sobbing against his chest and he felt her body heaving in sobs and he rubbed her back and tried to comfort her. "Look it's alright…. You're going to have to apologize to him the first chance you can. Harry values trust and loyalty really highly Lucy and you've got a hell of a long way of going to earning that trust back." Hero said thinking about his new friend and what he had deduced about his character so far.

"Look I'll talk with him as well… I'll tell him you're sorry and that it was just a stupid mistake and that you didn't mean anything by it. That was a serious error in judgement and you saw it as a one chance to be with him and that it won't happen again and… I don't know. I'll think of something." Hero said as he ran out of steam as he couldn't really think of a way of justifying Lucy's actions either as he felt her slender body tense beneath his arm and her crying stop and her face lift up her eyes streaming tears but looking panicked and scared.

"Oh shit… Oh shit… Oh shit… shit… shit… fuck" Lucy said in blind panic. "Hero it's even worse than that." She said panicking. "I can't believe it! I'm going to go to prison!" she wailed as she started crying again with renewed sobs.

"I'm sure we'll work it out Lucy… Harry is a good guy and I'm sure he'll at least be prepared to listen." Hero said seeing that the reality was biting in and biting in hard.

"No…" she said as she turned to look at Hero and sniffed loudly. "No, you don't understand its worse than that… It's not the first time I've been with Harry." She confessed feeling horrible with herself for violating him. She'd been so blinded in trying to get with Harry and fool around with him that she thought being sneaky and naughty about it was a way of making it more exciting, which is had but she'd never stopped to think about how she was taking his choice away at least on the first occasion. She hadn't thought about the damage that she could cause not only to her life but also to Harry's and Hermione Granger's as well. She would be apocalyptic with anger at Lucy basically using her form to get together with Harry. Lucy hadn't thought about whether she was wrong about Hermione and Harry and the way they felt about each other.

She hadn't stopped for a minute to think about the damage it could have done to their friendship by instigating sexual contact between the pair if the feelings she thought they had weren't reciprocated. Well at least she knew for definite that Harry was seriously into Hermione Granger now.

"What do you mean it isn't the first time you've been with Harry?" Hero asked completely dumbstruck.

"I… I was… with him first Bazaar weekend." Lucy replied in a small voice looking down at the ground wishing it would open up and swallow her whole.

"What? But you can't have been with him then because he was with us and the Tigers the whole time as we…" Hero said as memory hit him like a train. "It was you…It was you that snuck into Harry's tablet at The Rack Shack! That was why he has been asking the girls in my year about whether it was them." Hero stated trying to think how she'd managed to do that and the implications of this as it now looked, or could be seen by the prosecution, that she'd attempted to commit line theft twice.

"Yes." Lucy said having heard the older students talking about it on the train back from the Bazaar that weekend. She'd thought she had been so clever managing to deactivate the Rune cluster lock on the tablet. She'd learnt how to do from Michi Yoshirou who was a former prefect in Tiger Clan. They'd been on a few dates to the Bazaar together a few years previous and he had snuck into her tablet one night and she'd asked him how he'd got in and he'd told her. She'd made sure she rewarded him for the knowledge afterwards.

"Was it you who spiked his drink at The Island as well?" Hero asked feeling disappointed and angry that Lucy would go to the lengths she had just to try and have sex with a boy.

"No, I didn't. He asked me that as well. I didn't even go to The Island that night. I was on a date with Sandip Rashmi, you know the Indian boy whose one of the reserve Dragon Chasers. Well he'd asked me out and I thought why not as I thought it would be fun but he ended up taking me to Haji's for some fast food and then said he had a surprise of where we were going.

I thought he was going to take me dancing or something but we ended up at Knights and Kings on Healer Street as he thought me watching him playing in a wizard chess tournament would impress me or something. Well after about two hours of trying to get him to actually take me somewhere else I got fed up and decided to go back to The Rack Shack and see whether any of my year were there. That's when I saw you and Goro Jing walking along with Harry between you all swaying along together entering The Rack Shack.

So, I thought why not come and spend some time with you guys because it's rare to get close to you or Harry without a crowd of people around you or the rest of your year except for Quidditch practice, but we hadn't had a Clan practice by that time. I ran down the street and got in there as the lift doors were closing and I knew if I lost sight of you all I wouldn't know where the lift was taking you.

Well I sprinted through the access door into the pod housing just as your lift was moving away and I jogged underneath it trying to keep up. It started going quicker than I could run but I managed to keep it in sight and got to the end of your row to see you putting him into his pod." Lucy explained as she saw Hero watching her intensely and she was starting to feel sick about what she had done under his gaze.

"Right ok… So, you've followed us to our pods to hangout and then what?" Hero asked wondering where this was going and needing to hear it from the younger witch as he felt she needed to hear herself confessing to what she did to let it really register in her brain about how stupid she had been.

"Well your years pods were only two rows away from ours so I ran back to my pod to change into something a little more… Comfortable because I wanted to tease the three of you with my outfit." Lucy replied while feeling her cheeks color at the confession and saw the slightest coloring of Hero's cheeks and smiled internally knowing that she had at least got the muscular and good-looking Head Boy thinking about her just a little bit inappropriately.

"So, I got changed quickly, checked my makeup, grabbed a bottle of elvish wine I'd managed to get from Liquor Lickers, my scarf and coat, and threw them on just in case I bumped into someone else. Then when I got back to your row and couldn't see you all so knocked on Harry's pod but didn't get an answer. I was about to knock a second time when I heard the lift you'd got out of starting up again and saw you and Goro Jing in it going back out again.

Well I assumed that Harry was staying in and I thought that it was a perfect opportunity to spend some time with him alone, to get to know him, see if I could get him to like me, and maybe fool around a little bit." Lucy said feeling her cheeks burning with embarrassment and finding herself getting turned on at the memory of sneaking into Harry's pod.

"And then well I got into Harry's pod because I was shown how to deactivate the runes cluster from the outside and I snuck in and well…the rest is sort of similar to what happened tonight except he was pretty pissed and wasn't really talking much sense and kept saying about it being amazing, so I thought… no I knew he was liking it." Lucy said as Hero's eyes opened wide in surprise.

"Not that I really want the specifics but tell me exactly what you did in there and what was said between you both." Hero said finding himself shocked and begrudgingly a little turned on as Lucy started explaining that Harry was sort of semi-conscious and how she had gone in asking him if he'd had a nice night and whether he fancied a little innocent fun.

She told him how Harry hadn't really said much but had kicked at the blanket a little and she assumed that was him indicating he was up for it as it came away from his lap. So as a result, she had pulled the quilt down more and asked him if he wanted to get a little kinky and that he'd just mumbled a response. She told him how she had tied Harry's hands up with her scarf and how she had gone down on him.

Hero was shaking his head as the story was retold and by the time she had finished his head was in his hands with his elbows resting on his knees. "Fucking Hell Lucy this just gets worse… Don't you understand this looks like you've really tried to steal his family line as you broke into his pod, incapacitated him by tying him up, and then sexually assaulted him?" he said trying to keep his voice calm.

"Oh no, Hero it wasn't like that at all… I really wasn't trying to do anything other than have a little naughty fun with him." Lucy said while the panic bubbling up inside her like a wave as the impact of Hero's words weren't lost on her.

"That's not an excuse that will wash if he decides to press charges with the ministry. You'd be looking at full criminal trial." Hero said honestly as the ramifications of a trial went through his mind. It would be the biggest scandal in Japan for years and it would literally ruin Lucy's life as it would reverberate around the world. Harry, being Harry after all, it would be massive news.

She started feeling dizzy and like she was going to be sick at Hero's words, "What am I going to do Hero?" Lucy pleaded as tears started coming fast and heavy as the reality and potential to end up in prison for attempted line theft settled into her brain.

"The only thing I can think of Lucy is to beg, plead, and ask for forgiveness from him and Hermione. You polyjuicing yourself into her makes it even worse as it has ramifications on her." Hero said thinking that Lucy's options were literally just that.
There was no trick, task, or anything else that could get her out of the situation and she would have to throw herself on Harry and Hermione's mercy and hope and pray that they don't take the matter to the ministry.

Lucy thought trying to clear her panic riddled mind "I'll have a word with him tomorrow and apologize and… I don't know. I'll have to beg his and her forgiveness I suppose and pray that… Well … that neither of them wants to take the matter further… Fuck I can't believe this!" She wailed finally breaking down in to rasping and loud wailing sobs as the reality of her stupidity sunk in and she buried her face in her hands and bawled away.

Hero hated seeing Lucy like that as for all her faults and blatant stupidity in this case, he knew that she was a harmless girl really and wouldn't have done any of this with malice. That she would have as she had said been doing these things with Harry for a little bit of kinky fun. He knew that she liked getting with the more popular or attractive guys in the school, having resisted her advances himself over the years. She had a reputation with the lads that Hero knew she had been with as being a bit wild from the stories he'd overheard.

He'd always assumed it was just lad's bravado and they were just overly inflated stories, but after her confession this night he wasn't so sure that they were exaggerated now. Letting out a sigh he moved closer to her and put his arm around her shoulders as she fell into his shoulder bawling away.

Hero tried his best to comfort her and said "Look they are going to the Bazaar tomorrow so won't be in school this weekend. I'll make sure I'm up early to have a word with him since I'll see him leaving the dorms and I'll try and talk to him about it and explain the situation a bit." Hero said trying to think what he could say to try and calm Harry down about it as he couldn't imagine that Harry would be happy about being deceived at all.

He'd learnt that about his new friend already that he didn't like to be lied to or deceived and that trust was very important to him. "I don't know what I'll say to him but I'll see what I can do. Even if it's just to let you try and plead your case with him or find out whether he's going to need more time to calm down or what. I'll let you know tomorrow more about what to do, but Lucy I can't make you any promises that he or Hermione won't take this further. I don't know what will happen, but I'll try my best to help alright." Hero said honestly feeling a little lost as he didn't know how Harry was going to react or what Hermione would say.

Hell, he didn't even know whether Harry would tell Hermione right away or whether he'd wake up in the morning to find the Grandmaster and Master Bo here with some aurors or something ready to take Lucy into custody or anything. Lucy however was only thinking about her wand being snapped, life in prison, and the shame and dishonor she had brought onto herself and her family. She felt absolutely awful about what she'd done to Harry even though they'd both physically enjoyed it at the time.

Hero had made her realize that she had been completely stupid and now she'd managed to mess her whole life up. 'How could I have been so stupid?' She kept repeating to herself again and again as she sorts of heard Hero's words but they sounded like he was calling them from a long way away. She just nodded on, stunned at the impending shit storm she'd brought onto herself and for what?

To raise her social status in a school? Because she'd fancied a boy and thought that she could have some fun and get him to like her? Because she liked sex? Because he was famous? Because he was sort of untouchable and every girl in the school wanted a piece of him?

She sat there as Hero looked at her too stunned to speak as a whirlwind of thoughts attacked her brain making her feel completely overwhelmed. She was staring at the floor thinking about what her life would be like if they did snap her wand or put her in prison. She started thinking about whether they'd let her friends and family come to see her. Whether they'd want to see someone in prison who'd disgraced themselves.

She felt tears welling up in her eyes and saw Hero's large hand appear in front of her face as he snapped his fingers and breaking her out of her rapidly increase panic like trance. "What?" she asked him completely gone. Her brain felt like it had an alarm going off in it and she could barely organize her thoughts as she just stared at Hero and she saw that his handsome face was looking at her with a cute sad little expression on it. Pitying even.

"I said that I think you should go try and get some sleep and we'll talk about this in the morning and I'll speak with Harry when he gets up." Hero said gently patting her on the back.

"To be honest I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight." Lucy said honestly and gulped and then sniffed loudly trying to hold back the tears. She had to stop looking at Hero as the look he was giving her was making her impending doom seem even more real as he was normally so cheerful and he was looking at her like he would a niffler that was about to have all the treasures it had taken shaken out of it.

Hero nodded, thinking that he could more than understand that as he could see how conflicted and torn and cut up about the seriousness of the situation was. "You might be right. Wait here a second." he said getting up and making his way into the boys' dorm as he heard an almost wail like sob come from Lucy as the doorclosed and he felt bad for her even though he was pretty appalled at what she had done he knew that she wouldn't have done it with any ill intentions. Misguided and stupid yes, but not cruel or evil.

He tips toed through the boys' dorm to the bathroom and went to the medicine cabinet that was under his sink. He went down on his haunches and opened the door by pressing and holding his thumb on the little tarnished bronze shield just on the door of the cabinet that had 'HB' on it. He heard a tumbler like sound and a click and the door popped open a little and he pulled open the cabinet and started looking through the little phials of potions until he found the one he wanted.

He closed the cabinet and walked quietly back through the dorm into the eleventh-year lounge and saw Lucy with her head in her hands. She looked up on sensing the movement in the room and Hero saw her wipe her eyes with her hand quickly as she sniffed gently and tilting her head back shaking it gently trying to stop the tears falling. He stood in front of her looking down and held out a phial of potion and said "Here this is a phial of…."

"Dreamless Sleeping potion." Lucy said recognizing the potion by its distinct purple color and she saw her response from Hero.

"Yes, if it wasn't due to the situation I'd award you a clan point for getting that right." Hero joked trying to make her smile but failing.

"How the hell did you get this Hero? Master Zuki doesn't 'give' these out easily and I don't want to get into any more trouble." Lucy replied seriously thinking that the last thing she needed was the school's healer thinking she'd been stealing Dreamless Sleeping potion as Master Zuki normally reserved them for students injured or having complete meltdowns over exams and even then, she administered them personally.

"Perks of being Head Boy I suppose, help to combat the stress of the job." Hero said shrugging his shoulders and assuming that was why he had access to certain potions in his head boy locker. "So, don't worry, you won't get in trouble. So, I suggest you go straight to bed now, knock that back, and it should knock you out for a good nine hours or so. We'll talk again tomorrow and you can come out with me on patrol as I'm on tomorrow." Hero said seeing Lucy nod sadly.

"Thanks Hero. If all this goes…well as bad as it can go, I won't ever forget that you tried to help me. It will be a nice thing to remember in my prison cell." She said glumly the tears starting to fall again and she started sobbing into Hero's broad and toned chest as he pulled her into him and enclosed his arms around her. "I'm sure it will be okay. Just try and get some sleep tonight and we'll see what happens once Harry's calmed down." Hero replied while patting her back as she stepped back and gave a loud audible sniff and watery eyed smile.

"Thanks Hero, I'll see you in the morning." Lucy said sadly as she headed for the exit door to the stair well and gave him a sad little wave before going through the door and Hero thought he could hear a sob as the door closed and he felt for her.

He removed the charms on the doors again and made his way back into the boy's dorm and saw Harry's trunk still firmly closed. He moved over to his bed and climbed under the quilt lying on his back looking at the ceiling and put his hands behind his head and let out a sigh and closed his eyes and tried to get to sleep not sure it would come. 'What a fucking mess.' He thought to himself.

23:44hrs Friday 2nd September, Sitting Room of Hermione's trunk, Tiger Land, Mahoutokoro

Hermione was sat on one of the sofas in her trunk's living room with Mio and Li laying down on their sides on two of the other sofas reading through their scroll viewers and scribbling away on their assignment scrolls. After Healing class, the Tigers had taken Hermione into the Tiger Library and showed her a secret compartment in the back of one of the book cases that led into another small chamber, like a broom closet, with small shelves that housed the clan's private earth elemental magic books and scrolls.

Mio and Goro being the clan's senior prefects had told her that now that she was part of Tiger Clan, she was entitled to learn all about earth elemental magic and the Clan's secret combat spells. They'd explained to her that in combat, due to the books at their disposal, that if she could master the spells she'd have a huge advantage in a fight because of the use of elemental magic that only Tiger students had access to.

Hermione had been engrossed in the books and scrolls straight from the off and had been given permission to take one of the combat spells she found particularly interesting by Goro as he was heading out on patrol. Hermione along with Mio and Li, who had recognized the scroll in Hermione's hands, had gone back into Hermione's trunk and Li and Mio had explained all about the clans having their own affinity with elemental magic and how the magic created certain strengths in combat.

Hermione had started reading the information and history of the magic at her disposal with gusto and had started making notes to herself from interesting passages and sections she wanted to try first. Her mind however wasn't allowing her to focus properly and kept drifting back to that morning with Harry.

Hermione had been staring off into space, her quill's nib long since dried of the ink she'd put on it. She couldn't stop the smile that kept slipping onto her face and giving little chuckles to herself as she was almost giddy with happiness.

It had been the best day at Mahoutokoro for Hermione so far. Hell, it had been one of the best days of her life so far. Harry had asked her to the ball. Her! Plain old Hermione Granger, asked to go to a ball by the man of her dreams. She felt like she just wanted to burst out singing with happiness from the things that Harry had said to her.

She was delighted that they had discussed things a little and how he had really opened up to her like never before. From what he had said, Harry had admitted that he'd pictured himself settling down with her if he had the courage to ask her to the Yule Ball and that he would have probably kissed her.
Unable to comprehend that if she had just held her nerve and waited, things could be so much different now. If only she hadn't been so rash and agreed to go with someone she hadn't even known for fear of not being asked at all.

She was kicking herself for not thinking properly in fourth year and agreeing to go to the ball with Viktor rather than holding out and being patient in the hope Harry would choose to or pluck up the courage to ask her to go with him. She hadn't thought he was going to ask her and that he had his choice of pretty much any girl in the school after managing to beat a dragon in the first task.

She and the other runes girls had heard the rest of the female population talking in various bathrooms throughout the school and knew he could ask anyone he wanted and they'd agreed to go with him. She hadn't told him that of course as she had secretly hoped he'd ask her, even if just as friends.

She had thought at the time there was no way Harry, the boy she was crazy about, would ever want to go with her, and while she should have just asked him herself, every girl wants to feel pursued and be asked out and she was no different in that regard. She'd needed that confidence boost and had wanted to know how it felt to have a boy want to date her.

She'd never experienced that before until Viktor has started trying to get her attention by being in the library all the time, watching her study and things. Hermione thought Viktor wasn't bad looking but was a bit of a jock really. Not the brightest, nice enough, but unlike most of the Quidditch players who were on the house teams, wasn't full of his own self-importance such as Cormac McLaggen and Hermione had found this quite endearing.

Like Harry, Viktor had seemed to resent his fame and only played Quidditch for the love of the game to begin with rather than the accolades. She and Viktor had remained in touch and he'd kept asking her over the years to come and stay with him or go on holiday with him but she'd always politely declined.
After his performance in the world cup and the following years she noticed that Viktor was happier with being famous and recognized and found like lots of people do when they become famous that it had changed him. She had realized at the time that this was yet another thing that made Harry so special.

She'd been practically floating on clouds all day after Harry had told her about how he'd always wanted to go out with her and had pictured them being married. Hermione had done the same since first year. Whenever she pictured herself standing at the altar and her dad giving her away, she always pictured it being Harry who was stood there waiting for her.

Hermione wasn't a girl who was prone to day dreaming because she tried to focus as much as she could on whatever she was doing. However, there had been so many times over the years when they'd been studying together or just sat chilling out in the common room, and she'd find herself staring at Harry when he wasn't looking and picturing what their lives would be like if they were together.

When they had been sat around chilling out in the common room for an evening, Harry always took his usual spot on the left-hand end of the sofa in front of the fireplace. His left arm would be on the arm of the chair and his right across the back of the sofa and she would be sat at the other end, with Ron sat on the carpet or in the armchair next to it. She'd lost track of the amount of times she'd wanted to, and been tempted to, move across the sofa, snuggle into Harry's side, pull his arm down around her shoulder, and cuddle in against him.

Having heard Harry talking about how he'd pictured him and her being married, having a future, and also finally letting out things he'd been holding inside for years, it made her heart swell with love and affection for him. She just wished the bravest man she knew had had the courage to say these things years ago or more importantly that she'd had the courage to say something herself.

Hermione was so wrapped up in her thoughts about herself and Harry that she didn't notice Li and Mio exchanging looks at each other and trying to get her attention. In the end Li had grown impatient and with a nod of agreement from Mio picked up one of the tassel end sofa cushions from the settee she was lounging across, threw it, and hit Hermione on the head.

"Huh. What was that for?" Hermione inquired while picking the cushion up and throwing it back at Li who caught it easily enough being one of the best chasers in the school.

"Oh, welcome back Dolly Daydream, nice of you to re-join us." Li smirked at Hermione.

"Dolly Daydream?" Hermione quipped.

Mio rolled her eyes and say up on her couch, "You've been off in your own little world all day. What's going on with you? You seem really distracted."

"Oh, well I just had some good news this morning. In fact, it was really good news and I can't stop thinking about it." Hermione replied quietly, unable to stop the smile creeping back onto her face and breaking into an ear to ear grin.

"Wow, look at the face Li. Clearly this is boy related." Mio commented to Li who grinned back at her.

"Come on then girl, spill." Li commanded while clicking the save button on her assignment scroll and rolling it up before doing the same on her scroll viewer, an action matched by Mio.

"Yeah come on Hermione, tell us everything because you've had that silly smile on your face all day and you're practically glowing. I'm starting to guess that Hermione got her some." Mio joked getting a giggle from Li and a harrumph from Hermione.

"I most certainly didn't 'get some'." Hermione replied then rolling her eyes wondering why all the students at this school seemed sex mad.

"So, what's got you smiling so much then?" Mio asked.

"If you must know I got asked to the ball today." Hermione answered letting out a contented sigh.

Li slapped the couch cushion in triumph, "Ah ha so that's it. Go on then, who asked you?" she asked excitedly jumping up onto her knees.

"Why are you so excited about who asked me?" Hermione laughed as Mio looked on expectantly.

"Well… because I'm not going to have the fun of boys pursuing me and asking me out, am I? I've got to live this year's ball courting experience through you two and the others." Li said a little glumly, the smile leaving her face.

"What do you mean living through us and the others?" Hermione asked

"Basically, Li has missed on the last two years of getting pursued and asked to the ball as well as all the following dates, mini romances, and flings that it sparks off because she's with Poro and will be going with him." Mio explained.

"Ah, I see." Hermione said nodding her understanding. "Still best to go with someone you really want to go with, rather than just a shot in the dark or worse the wrong person." She added trying to bring comfort to her new friend.

"It's still nice to feel pursued and desired though, you know?" Li said thoughtfully, "Sometimes with Sapporo, it's like he thinks because we're together than he no longer needs to put the effort in." she added thinking about the last couple of years with her boyfriend.

This statement more than anything struck a chord with Hermione because it immediately made her think about Ron and how he had seemed almost blasé about their relationship and how everything with Ron had been a battle over the summer. Trying to get him to spend any time with her had been a battle and then when they were together all he ever did was either moan about where they were, if it wasn't somewhere he wanted to go, or just be all distracted like it was an inconvenience spending time with her.

The worst times were when they went somewhere quiet as Ron always tried to maneuver the situation so that they'd be somewhere they could kiss or he'd cop a feel. Hermione managed to escape the situations for the most part but when he did trap her in a situation she couldn't say no to she'd reluctantly relented, well to a point a least.

Ron grabbed and groped her in places she liked touching herself, but when Ron did she didn't like it. It felt weird like she was getting felt up or kissed by her brother or something. It was at those times when it really struck home to Hermione that she had been a fool all these years trying to convince herself that she loved Harry like a brother.

It was since her kiss with Harry and how her body and magic reacted to him that she started realizing that it was in fact Ron she felt like that about.
Her and Ron didn't have anything in common really other than Harry and their previous adventures. Ron didn't have the slightest interest in anything muggle and wasn't prepared to learn. Plus, she fought and argued with Ron like siblings do, constantly at logger heads and nit-picking at the other. It was like Harry was her brother's best friend who she had an immense crush on and who always seemed to bring the waring siblings back to realizing they cared about each other.

Well that was it to start with and the more time she'd spent with Harry, the more her feelings had grown. It really was like one of those cheesy romance novels she read or one of the chick flicks she had as part of her film collection. She'd had a taste of what a relationship could be like with Ron and had been disappointed with his lack of effort and seemingly no desire to want time with her.

It was ironic that after all the years he'd said that he fancied her that when they had ended up together, just like with his homework, he didn't seem bothered to put the effort in with her either.

"I understand what you mean Li. It's nice to know that you're desired and that someone is prepared to take a chance and try and win your affection or keep it." Hermione said smiling again thinking about all the wonderful things Harry had done for her throughout the time she had known him and how all he ever managed to achieve was making her love him more and more each day.

"So… go on then, who asked you?" Mio asked eager and almost impatient to find out some juicy gossip.

"Oh, well Louis Marcel in Turtle Clan asked me just before lunch." Hermione said casually, grinning internally to herself and she saw Mio and Li exchange a look both looking slightly crest fallen.

"Oh…" Li replied her shoulders sagging in disappointment. "So, Louis Marcel has got you smiling like that? I mean he's kind of cute, in a puppy dog sort of way but don't you find he can be a bit…" Li said trying to think of a polite way of saying something negative.

"Smarmy?" Mio put in helpfully.

"I think that's a little harsh Mio." Li replied, "He's nothing like Emre Efe in Dragon Clan who fancies himself as a gift to witches and certainly nothing like Egg, that boy just oozes sleazy. No, Louis is more kind of suggestive." She put in by way of an explanation.

"He seems nice enough to me." Hermione said thinking that Louis wasn't that bad although not really her type.

"So, what did you say to him?" Mio asked.

"I told him it was very nice of him to offer but I couldn't as I was already going with someone else." Hermione said the grin spilling onto her face again.

"What?! You've agreed to go with someone else already and we are only hearing about it now!" Mio and Li said sitting up excitedly.

"Well, it's the first time my brain has been sober enough to talk about it. I've been so happy all day because of it." Hermione replied honestly, which was sort of true as she had been walking around daydreaming about what might happen at the ball almost all day, whether she and Harry would have another kiss like they'd had in Tiger Land, and what might happen if no house elves were there to stop them.

"Tut, tut, tut Hermione holding out on us like that. Come on don't keep us in suspense who did you agree to go with?" Li chastised her playfully.

"Oh, I don't think you'll be that bothered it's really not that big a deal." Hermione fibbed trying to keep her composure at seeing the two Asian girls getting more wound up about her stalling.

"Damn it Hermione! Just tell us will you." Mio demanded playfully slapping the cushion besides and grinning at her.

"Ok fine, if you must know Harry asked me this morning." Hermione replied, the smile steeling back across her face. her cheeks coloring slightly as her two friends let out twin high pitched squeals, jumped up to their feet, both dived onto Hermione wrapping her in a hug, and knocking her backwards onto the sofa where the three of them landed giggling.

"You're total bitch!" Mio practically shouted and giggled, "How in the hell did you keep that from us?" She asked in mock outrage and gave Hermione a playful whack.

"This is massive news Hermione! How have you not told us about this already? You must have been desperate to say something to us." Li asked sounding more like an excited squeal.

"I've sort of been in shock most of the day because I couldn't believe he asked, but I can't stop smiling about it now." Hermione replied honestly. "I haven't said anything yet purely because I'm still pinching myself that Harry actually wants to go with me, but that's not all he said to me..." she started saying.

"What else did he say?" Mio and Li asked together excitedly and the three of them giggled. Hermione then started telling them bits of what Harry had told her and found it great to have girl friends that she could talk about Harry with again. She missed her friends from her Runes class because that was always her time to drop her guard a little and really open up about herself and Harry, but the Tiger girls were all sweethearts and really seemed to be routing for her and trying to help her.

"Wow!" Li said looking slightly dazed after Hermione had finished telling them about what Harry had said about everything they talked about.

"He's completely smitten with you Hermione. I really don't think you need to use the truth or dare turns from the rest of us to find out more about it now." Mio said honestly.

"I don't know. It's taken me a long time to get that sort of information out of Harry as most of the time he can be quite a closed book about his feelings" Hermione said thoughtfully.

"And we already know how you like to read." Li teased earning a laugh from Mio and a roll of the eyes and smile from Hermione who took the ribbing good naturedly.

"Well we can keep using the T or D turns if you want, but I know that Sapporo has never even talked about stuff like that with me before. He's never really talked to me about anything in the future before you know, let alone the future for me and him." Li said a little disappointedly.

"Well Harry hasn't either Li, but then again he's not like most boys, he's special. Sorry, that sounded horrible didn't it, I wasn't saying Sapporo wasn't special. It's just that with Harry he's spent so much of his life with a death threat hanging over him. He said that he never really allowed himself to think about a future beyond the final battle with Voldemort but deep down he always had a dream of a future and a life." Hermione explained with a smile as she recalled the words he said about wanting a big family and thinking how much Hermione wanted to give it to him.

"He really isn't like most boys as he has this aura and way about him. He clearly doesn't understand the affect that he and his magic have on witches." Mio said recalling how Hilde had come into Tiger Land polyjuiced as Yoko Hami, and had plonked herself down at the eleventh-year table and just started helping herself to lunch as the Tigers all turned their stunned faces towards her.

Hilde had gone into a big elaborate story about how she, as Yoko, and Hilde had decided to transfer clans as they fancied a change of scene for the final year at the school, which she and her Clan mates found odd to say the least. All the tables sat around them were looking at Hilde or Yoko throughout lunch until she started laughing at them and they all watched her body transform back to herself.

With sighs of relief she'd explained about her pranking them along with the rest of the potions group pranking their own Clans as they all grilled her about how she'd pulled it off and she'd told them all about the polyjuice potion that they were working with for potions class. As Lunch continued with Hermione telling them all the story about their second-year adventure and her polyjuice mishap in second year with Millicent Bulstrode's cat, Mio had a quiet conversation with Hilde.

She'd asked why she had done it and Hilde had explained about Harry wanting them to understand the effects of the potion in order to see the biggest problem with it. Hilde had practically been like goo when explaining about how she'd been used as a shield and wrapped up in Harry's arms as he'd demonstrated his dueling skills when disarming Yoko, Trixie, and Rosa.

Mio saw the flushed blush across her normally calm and collected Norwegian friend when she told her and could see that the display of magic as well as being pressed up against Harry's developing and hunky body had her friend rattled. She could sympathize as she'd kept her own attraction towards Harry at bay because of her blooming friendship and developing closeness with Hermione.

Ever since she'd playfully squeezed his bum on the train and snogged him during their game of Pocky in the bath she'd been starting to think about him more and more. She still really fancied Goro but she couldn't lie to herself about how physically attracted she was to Harry and how much he was growing on her all the time especially with Hermione telling her and the rest of the Tiger girls more about him.

She could understand why Hermione's friends from the other houses back in Hogwarts started fancying him as the way Hermione talked about him it was hard not to start noticing all the things she said about him in real life. There were only so many decent wizards worth pursuing a relationship with at the school and Harry looked to be amongst, if not the best of them.

He was the complete package really. He was good looking, modest, intelligent, wealthy, kind and sweet, and seemed to always put others before himself. She could understand why most of the girls wanted a shot at him. He was the most eligible bachelor in the wizarding world and seeing him first hand and in action was something else. Seeing a wizard with that kind of power was a massive turn on.

"I think he's getting more of an idea of the affect he has now if I'm honest. I've never seen him so flirty with girls before or at least reacting to them. Harry was normally so shy around most girls except me that he'd normally blush if they spoke to him or he'd go really shy." Hermione explained a little bitterly thinking back to their time in Hogwarts whenever a girl used to get slightly flirty with Harry in her presence. "Now though he is a lot more confident around them and it's my fault really." She added getting a raised eyebrow from each of her two new friends.

"How's it your fault?" Li asked curiously.

"Well I told my friends after he'd split up with Ginny, his ex, that if they wanted to get to know Harry then they should feel free to approach him. I don't know why I did it other than I'd seen him so miserable for so long and assuming that he didn't see me as anything other than a sister to him…I kind of told my other friends to maybe approach him." Hermione explained sheepishly recalling the letters she'd sent her friends after the will reading and she'd explained all about the multiple houses that she, Neville, and Harry were now head of.

"Right… So, you basically told them to feel free to make a move on him?" Mio asked wanting clarification and shaking her head surprised at Hermione's foolishness.
"Well not technically, no. I just said that if they wanted to get to know Harry then they could as he wasn't with Ginny anymore. I didn't expect them all to go after him at the same time though. I was kind of hoping, foolishly, that they wouldn't go after him and I just thought that Susan might be the only one to do it because I can see that she's really liked Harry for years.", Hermione explained blushing slightly at the admission.

She'd seen from the first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson when the other girls in Gryffindor had shared tables in pairs and Hannah and Megan Jones had shared a table leaving both Hermione and Susan as a loose end. Susan and Hermione had shared a desk with each other and it became obvious quite quickly that Susan clearly knew all about Harry and had obviously read up about him. Susan had peppered her with whispered questions about what Harry was like and whether Hermione spent any time with him.

Hermione, not being friends with Harry and Ron at the time, had only been able to give her little titbits of information that Susan had drank up eagerly. Susan had asked if they could share a table more often so they could talk more. Hermione had eagerly accepted as she was quite lonely at the time in Gryffindor as Lavender had paired up with Parvati and Fay Dunbar and Eloise Migden had paired up as well.

Hermione had been eager to have a friend even if they weren't in the same house. Over the course of the year Hermione and Susan had got to know each other better but as Susan and Hannah became better friends, things naturally changed and Susan sat with Hannah more often than Hermione.

This left Megan with Hermione a lot of the time and, while nice, Megan was more focused on her work, whereas Susan had chatted about Harry and other things making lessons a lot more pleasurable. Then in their first class in November after the troll incident Susan had slid into the chair next to Hermione asking if she was ok after the troll attack.

Hermione had been touched that Susan wanted to check on her wellbeing and she was surprised that Susan hadn't started her questions about what had happened or more specifically how Harry Potter, the hero, had acted. Subtly over the year, Susan started asking more and more about that night and Harry, as she could see that Hermione and Harry's friendship was growing.

Hermione found that she wasn't annoyed about having to talk about Harry with Susan but in fact enjoyed discussing her newest and best friend. Susan, Hermione found, was a really good help when it came to explaining about the magical world and events happening in Hogwarts.

She enjoyed sitting next to her throughout their first year but was really happy in second year when Harry started sitting with herself and Ron in different lessons so as to try and spend time with them both equally. It was a really sweet thing for Harry to do and Hermione started seeing just how considerate and kind Harry was straight from the off in second year and how he tried to balance his time so she didn't feel excluded.

Hermione found that after first year, lots of people wanted to sit next to her in class as they knew that Hermione was top of most of the classes in school and the females in particularly wanted to find out more info about Harry, and herself and Harry.

"Dearie me, Hermione." Li said exasperatedly and shaking her head, "You've got a lot to learn about the affairs of the heart."

"What do you mean?" Hermione replied stung by the comment.

"No wonder you're bloody suffering seeing Harry and all these other girls as you made the mistake of pushing other girls on him." Li replied with a shrug.

"I've not pushed them towards him." Hermione said defensively not believing her own words. She should have known better to put Susan, Daphne, and Tracey towards Harry, and Pansy to a lesser extent although Pansy had gone after Harry without any comment from herself.

"You did Hermione." Mio said flatly, "Look, I know it's hard to hear but you love Harry and shouldn't have even told any of your friends that he was single or that they should approach him until you'd sorted out your own mess with Ron."

"I… I guess you're right, it's just that I was thinking ahead and thought that I could help Harry and me, and well maybe get ahead of the situation a little bit." Hermione said thinking about how her plan while seeming to have worked had been seemed like it was back firing and that when the music stopped she was going to be the one without a chair next to Harry.

"What do you mean get ahead of the situation? How?" Li asked confused a puzzled look reaching both the girls faces.

"I don't get it either… Look Hermione you said that Harry is a survivor, right?" Mio asked getting a little nod from Hermione in response. "Well, maybe the reason he's being all flirty with girls and stuff this year is to defend himself from their advances. I'd imagine most girls would crap themselves if he actually said 'alright then let's get it on' and so maybe he's just calling their bluff." Mio said thinking how some girls might panic if Harry Potter started coming onto them.

"Pffffft," Li scoffed causing both girls to look at her. "Sorry but I can't imagine any girl would turn down Harry's advances at the minute. Well present company excluded of course because I've got a boyfriend and I know how much you like him, but IF I was single, you were with him, and he came onto me talking about possibly being in one of those wife slots well… I don't know if I'd have the resolve to say no." Li said feeling bad about admitting that to Hermione.

"Really? You'd get together with Harry?" Hermione asked Li surprised as she'd never have guess that Li fancied Harry as she only seemed to have eyes for Sapporo.

"Only hypothetically speaking Hermione. Like I said, I might possibly approach him if I wasn't with Poro and wouldn't do so anyway knowing how much you care about him because I wouldn't do that to you. I'm just saying that there are plenty of girls who'll go after him whether he's with you or not. The whole world now knows that he's got the potential to have multiple wives, just like you've got the potential to have multiple husbands so if you are with him or it gets to the point where he's serious enough about getting married to you then you'll at least have some control over things." Li retorted seeing Hermione flinch at the last comment.

"Course I keep forgetting that you're the head of two magical families. You know Hermione if you wanted to you could technically not have to break up with Ron and could get together with Harry anyway. I mean you can have more than one husband and that's something we haven't discussed before." Mio pointed out thinking how exciting it could be for Hermione in bed at night with two wizards to pleasure her and finding herself getting aroused at the thought of it.

Hermione's stomach churned at the thought of having more than one husband. She didn't think she could do it even if she wanted to as she couldn't see how she could possibly find another wizard that could measure up to Harry or capture her heart as much as he had.

After this morning though, it seemed like Harry was possibly willing to stick a reserved sign on the cushion for her and that thought caused her to smile to herself again. Mio's comment about sorting her own mess with Ron out sobered her instantly as she knew that if there was any real chance with Harry and if she wanted to have the night at the ball she wanted to have with Harry, she couldn't do that while being with Ron.

Just then an owl looking tired and a little ruffled came swooping into the trunk and dropped a letter into Hermione's lap closely pursued by Lulu. Lulu was making a right racket and Hermione suddenly recognized the other owl as Tracey's owl Belle.

Belle dropped the letter and landed on the sofa cushion next to Hermione who immediately started checking over the panting owl that looked completely landed next to Belle and hooted at Hermione in what she gathered to be a concerned hoot.

"Belle. What are you doing here? Why aren't you with Tracey in England? Did you fly all the way from England?" Hermione asked with concern while Belle gave a tired hoot of acknowledgement.

"You poor thing, you must be exhausted. Do you want some water?" Hermione asked getting another weak hoot from the owl who opened its mouth as Hermione held the tip of her wand just above the tired owl's mouth and thinking the incantation for 'aguamenti' pushed the tiniest bit of magic into the spell so that the water emerged in slow fat drops into the owl's mouth allowing it to drink slowly.

After several minutes of Belle drinking, Hermione told Belle to rest and that she'd sort some food out for her, but in the meantime, Li had rushed off to get some food for the tired owl and came running in carrying it along with a stand for the owl to sleep on.

"You read what's so important that this owl flew from England and I'll look after him, okay?" Li commented kneeling next to Belle and started breaking off little pieces of chicken from a chicken drumstick.

"Thanks Li." Hermione replied and for the first time looked down and saw that it wasn't in a letter tube like most of the post in for long distance mail but was just being carried like it was in England.

Hermione wondered why Belle had flown here rather than her just sending the letter through Gringotts and having Lulu deliver it with her morning mail. "What can be so important that she needs to send her owl half way round the world to tell me?" Hermione inquired with panic rising in her chest as she knew Tracey loved Belle and that it must be important.

She tore open the envelope and pulled the parchment out started reading.

To Hermione,

I hope this letter finds you well and that Belle has got there safe and sound. I did tell her to take her time and I hope she hasn't gone flying too hard to reach you with this. I've a bit of a confession to make in that I firstly didn't want to be the one to write this letter to you but we pulled straws and I was unlucky enough to lose.

I'm sorry this news took so long to get to you but I didn't want to send it via Gringotts as… well… I didn't want it to get to you too quickly because it's not great news at all. The other reason is that it took me a while I've tried to master the memory removing spell as well. You'll find a phial in the envelope so that you can see what I saw in your pensieve. I think I've managed to do it right.

Anyway, here goes… So, you know how Pansy wrote to you a couple of weeks ago with her suspicions that Ron might be cheating on you with Lavender Brown but we couldn't be sure? Well, I'm afraid to say that we had it confirmed last night when we went to The Spiny Serpent.

Ron made his full debut for the Brixton Bulldogs yesterday and ended up throwing a party at The Spiny Serpent for what he assumed would be a victory party. Anyway, we'd bumped into him earlier in the day and he'd given Susan, Hannah, Pansy and I some spare tickets in the players' friends and family box.

Pansy and Susan are Wimbourne fans as you well know, so they were completely engrossed in the game and didn't really notice anything else. Hannah and I however noticed that along with the rest of Ron's family there was another person sharing the box with us and it was none other than Lavender Brown.

Hannah thought it might just be coincidence as Lavender and Ginny Weasley became quite good friends last year when Susan and the others were all hiding out in the Room of Requirement. Anyway, after the match Susan, Hannah, and I went to The Spiny Serpent.

When Ron arrived, he had Lavender Brown on his arm and they were parading around like they were a couple. Ron came and said hello and when he got talking about Quidditch and saying that he wished the other boys in his dorm were there to watch his debut.

We asked him what about you and he said that you weren't really interested in Quidditch and wouldn't have been bothered. We then emphasized that he should really have his girlfriend on his arm while he had Lavender practically dry humping his leg as she played with his hair in front of us.

He didn't look at all uncomfortable with having her running her fingers through his hair and when we pushed him a little about you he made his exit to go and talk to his family. I know that all sounds pretty petty and not really anything heavy but it basically pissed us all off as they were blatantly walking around like a couple. So, Ron went off to talk to his parents and Lavender went to the loo and Pansy and I went to have a word with Lavender to find out what she was playing at.

Susan and Hannah went to have another talk with Ron about why he was doing what we believe him to be doing. Anyway, I couldn't find Lavender and came out of the bathroom to see Mrs. Weasley having a right go at Ron with Lavender looking on sheepishly. We couldn't hear what was said, but I've since found out afterwards through one of the girls, who used to be in my house in the year below, that Mrs. Weasley was telling him that she found his behavior disgraceful. She apparently was shouting at him that, 'She couldn't believe he was doing that to you and how that's not how she expects a son of hers to behave.'

Look it's all in the memory, you'll see it all for yourself, and can make your own mind up from it. I'm really sorry Hermione but it looks like Ron is two timing you for real and not even being discreet about it anymore. I'm so sorry. You really don't deserve that from someone who's meant to be your friend let alone your boyfriend…

Please let me know that you're ok and that you aren't angry with me for telling you. Like I say its shit news and that's why I took so long to write. What can I say I'm not brave like you are and the sorting hat was definitely right to not put me in Gryffindor.

We're heading off to Beauxbatons tomorrow and we're all going to send you a big joint letter when we get there. Looking forward to seeing what it's like and I'm quite excited to be going with the rest of the girls. I just wish that you were coming as well.

Miss you lots and please write back soon.

Love,

Tracey
x-x-x

Hermione sat there stunned for a few moments, her brain not wanting process what she has just read, and she reached into the envelope and her fingers closed around the small glass memory phial.

She pulled it out, started at it, and saw a label in Tracey's hand saying "See what you think… and sorry. Tracey x" written on it. She felt Mio's eyes on her, so she asked the girls to excuse her for a moment as they both looked at her seeing her face had lost its smile and they exchanged a concerned look.

Walking on slightly shaky legs, she made her way to her bedroom and walked towards the wall where she kept her memory phials behind the large picture of herself, her parents, and Harry. She pulled the picture forward and put her hand on the plate of the safe as it opened to her touch.

Sat there next to the memory phials was the pensieve that she had purchased, no bigger than a small side plate. She took it out, feeling the cold and harsh metal that was surprisingly light. She turned away from the safe and gently threw the pensieve like it was a Frisbee and it magically expanded until it was the size of a car tire and started filling on its own with a clear and shimmering liquid that was back lit and cast a shimmering rippling effect on the walls

Hermione approached the pensieve, looking into swirling and cloudy depths, as she unstopped the memory phial and poured the contents into the pensieve. Hermione sat down on her bed as the rippling of the light against the walls started moving up and down quicker, the wiggly lines of light expanding with each slither on the walls.

The glowing bright light from the pensieve kept increasing as the slithering lines of light on the wall and ceiling started connecting getting bigger and bigger until there was no room between them and they formed a solid wall of light projected all around Hermione.

She was transported into Tracey's memory and her heart gave a little tug as she looked around herself recognizing The Spiny Serpent from the one time she had been there. She looked around her table and looked straight into the faces of Hannah, Susan, and Pansy.

She thought they all looked beautiful in their outfits and had all done their makeup perfectly. She looked around the table noticing that there was no Daphne and wondered where she was and wished that she could see Tracey, but she was watching events through her dark-haired friend's vision.

Hermione saw through Tracey's drunken eyes with her friends listening to them talking about Ron and how he gave interviews and made public speeches as much as he could. Hermione had received letters from all of her friends and even her mum who, living at The Badger's Nook, now had access to the Daily Prophet as Hermione's housekeeper was a regular reader and always relayed the recent magical news to keep her parents informed.

Hermione was surprised to hear that Ron was giving interviews on things he didn't know anything about as she listened to Susan saying about Ron speaking in response to a question about the irrelevance of cinqulatic qidrolusions in Ancient Runes.

Just then there was a general increase in the hubbub and excitement in the place and Hermione saw Ron enter The Spiny Serpent to a hero's welcome, which Hermione found surprising as she knew that they had lost the game and according to the match reports it was down to Ron.

The memory was really hazy and it kept clouding and shifting a little and Hermione was worried that Tracey hadn't done the spell correctly. Thankfully as Ron approached their table the memory sharpened up and became less cloudy.

Hermione watched the exchange between Ron and her other friends as well as observing Lavender was running her fingernails up and down Ron's neck and into his hair affectionately with a really soppy face on her. She'd seen that look plenty of times during sixth year, well at least when she wasn't snogging Ron's face off.
Ron wasn't stopping her from touching him like that and was dismissive and uninterested when the girls were asking him about her and just brushed off her not being there as though it wasn't important to him. That hurt Hermione, after all the years Ron had said that he fancied her he was now seemingly not bothered about their relationship at all.

She watched and heard Ron say that he was going to go and speak to his parents and asked for Lavender to come and speak to them with him. That was suspicious in its own right as Lavender as far as Hermione knew had never even said two words to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley before, so why would Ron suddenly want her to come and meet his parents.

It seemed to Hermione that Ron was in fact at least getting more personally acquainted with Lavender again on a romantic level if the way Lavender was acting towards Ron in the memory was anything to go by. Ron hadn't actually done anything to reciprocate Lavender's affection other than not stop him, but her friends' suspicions as well as the flirting back and forth of Ron's interview in Witch Weekly certainly pointed towards that Ron and Lavender had taken things to a romantic level again.

Hermione thought back to what Pansy had written in her letter to her about seeing them give each other a more than friendly hug and kiss in Madam Padfoot in Diagon Alley. Something that Hannah had confirmed when Hermione had written to her about it to clarify what Pansy had seen.

She was really making progress in her friendship with Pansy and now felt bad that she hadn't given her old nemesis the benefit of the doubt in her recollection of what she had seen. She'd written to Hannah to clarify if what Pansy had said was correct and Hannah had replied that Pansy was recounting the same thing she had seen and that Pansy really didn't hold any animosity towards Hermione anymore.

Hermione was beginning to see that their suspicions about Ron were looking to be founded on solid footing and at a minimum he was demonstrating extremely suspicious behavior. Hannah had recounted what they had seen the night they thought they saw Ron and Lavender coming out of one of the side alleys in Knockturn Alley and, unlike her other friends, Hannah didn't jump in without knowing all the facts. She just wasn't like that.

Susan, Hermione knew, was sweet and kind and would do anything for her friends and normally was quite a calm presence unless her blood was up. Then she was like a blazing fire of anger and tended to then rush in. In Hermione's opinion, Susan really was a perfect example of sugar and spice because she was incredibly sweet but look out if you angered her.

She saw through Tracey's memory that Susan was getting agitated because she was staring angrily at Lavender as was Pansy who had pointed out to Ron that as his girlfriend Hermione should be the one there on his arm. Ron seemed to ignore the comment as he looked around distractedly before spotting his parents' arrival and then made his exit, while the girls sat around looking at each other and then the memory disappeared in a swirl of cloud and Hermione found herself back in her room.

'So, he really is having something with Lavender… He's not even being discreet about what he's doing and is making me look a right idiot.' Hermione thought to herself. She couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe that she'd wasted time this summer with Ron. She couldn't believe she'd been so stupid to not just end things with him immediately before things had got started.

Hermione had always had a feeling that Ron liked her as he was always mean to her when they growing up… hell he was still mean sometimes even though they had come of age. She'd put up with a lot of the time as her grandmother had always teased Hermione when she'd told her about her time at Hogwarts that Ron clearly had a fancy for her.

'Treat them mean, keep them keen', she used to say while chuckling to herself while making tea. She would then howl with laughter when Hermione's nose would crinkle in disgust and she'd then point out that she wasn't keen and that she liked Harry. Hermione missed her Grandmother Margaret since she died at the end of fifth year.

Her Grandmother was her best adult outlet for telling her secrets to that she didn't want her mum and dad to know growing up. It was her Grandmother that Hermione used to go to whenever she was angry at her mum and dad for something or other and her grandmother would talk to her and calm her down.
Oh, how she wished she had her to give her advice on this Ron situation over the summer. As Hermione thought about her Grandmother and the advice she thought she would give her she realized that her Grandmother would have always told her to try and follow her heart and not her head.

Hermione had been following her head for so long thinking about things logically and even applying this to her love life. She'd always reasoned that she wasn't good enough for Harry. That he should be with someone prettier, funnier, more popular and desired by other boys. Someone like Ginny, which was possibly why Hermione had always begrudgingly helped Ginny in her pursuit of Harry.

Hermione had never seen herself as pretty and had always considered herself very plain looking compared to most of the other girls in school. She'd started trying to make little subtle differences to her appearance over the years to try and make herself look more attractive to the opposite sex… well… to Harry.
She'd never thought that he had noticed but then to have had Harry make comments like he thought she looked sexy when they were in Madam Malkins before the will reading or seeing the way he had looked at her as she had come down the grand staircase before the Yule Ball in fourth year never ceased to make her heart flutter.

Today had been amazing with Harry asking her to the Halloween ball and how much closer they seemed to be becoming. Hermione had dressed to try and impress Harry for the Yule Ball and really wished she hadn't said she would go with Viktor now. She couldn't believe the night, or the potential night, she had denied herself with Harry by saying yes to someone in desperation to not have to go alone.

She remembered that night at Hogwarts so vividly. She'd been so worried about Harry. Given the tournament, Ron being a complete arse, and Harry being a figure of dislike for almost everyone who thought he'd cheated to get into the tournament.

She'd been dancing with Viktor, while watching Harry over his shoulder, seeing Harry sat with a grumpy looking Ron who was staring daggers at her. Harry looked distracted and miserable and Hermione had asked Viktor if he would mind if she danced with Harry for a little while as she'd built up her courage and had decided she wanted to dance with him.

Then, just like every other time Hermione could think of, Ron had spoiled the whole evening and Hermione never got to dance with Harry. Ron always seemed to do something to spoil everything especially when it came to Hermione having any real time alone with Harry.

Hermione sat on the edge of her bed thinking about Ron and the mess she had got into with him as a result. She wasn't in love with Ron… She never had been and she'd always known that. She couldn't believe that he would do this to her though…. She knew Ron was petty but never thought he would be so cruel. She'd put his parading his and Lavender's relationship around in front of everyone in sixth year down to his inexperience and emotional immaturity.

She would never have thought that Ron would see someone behind her back and it made her really angry. After all the help that she had given him over the years with his homework. When she had worked tirelessly to help him and Harry reconcile after yet another one of his many stupid jealousy spats, which he'd taken out on Harry. After all the things that they had been through together, he would do something like this to not only his girlfriend but to someone who was meant to be his best friend.

She sat there feeling hurt and very low as she heard Mio and Li knock on the door "Hermione… are you alright in there?" Mio asked tentatively through the door.

"I'm…. I'm alright…" Hermione replied and hearing her voice come out like a choked sob, causing Li and Mio to exchange a look.

"Are you sure? Is there anything you want to talk about?" Li asked softly figuring out that whatever Hermione had gone into her room to look at had clearly upset her.

"I… really don't know…" Hermione said starting to cry gently, sniffing, and trying to keep her emotions in check. Hermione hated crying and she hated crying even more because of something Ron had done or was doing. He'd been so horrible to her over the years she really wondered why she still was friends with him at times.
She knew the reason was because Harry and Ron were really close. Ron was Harry's first friend and as a result was very important to Harry. Through the years she'd seen the effect Ron had on him and it showed how special Harry was because he kept forgiving Ron just like she did, even when he didn't necessarily deserve forgiveness.

She knew more than ever how she felt about Harry. She wanted so desperately to tell Harry how much she loved him and wanted to be with him… 'I do love him' she thought to herself as she looked towards the wall of photos on her bedroom wall looking at the photos of herself with Harry in them and the smiles they both had.
She looked at the large picture of her mum and dad with herself and Harry and she couldn't help smiling at it. They looked happy… all of them like… like a proper family. Hermione thought to herself as suddenly she found herself with fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.

'What a fool I've been.' Hermione thought to herself sadly.

01:12hrs Saturday 3rd September, 11th Year Boy's dormitory, Turtle Island, Mahoutokoro

Harry had been tossing and turning for the last hour and he couldn't get to sleep. His mind was racing and he was still angry, no he was fuming at what Lucy had done to him both at The Rack Shack but even worse what she had done tonight.

He couldn't believe that she had manipulated him like that by using Hermione's form and taking advantage of his feelings towards Hermione. 'How did she even know that I fancied Hermione anyway? How did she know that I'd go with it?' He thought to himself before a little voice in his mind shouted out that everyone has been saying it's obvious ever since he'd come to Mahoutokoro.

He was incensed by the absolute nerve of the girl to do that to him and worse to use Hermione's identity to do it. He had thought Lucy a nice girl from the little time he'd spent with her teaching her some dueling techniques and spells on the beach and during Quidditch try outs. He never would have suspected that she'd break into his tablet in The Rack Shack and tie him up and go down on him.

He'd been wondering for ages who had snuck into his room that night and had given him such an amazing blowjob. He had convinced himself that he had imagined it to be better than it was in reality given how drunk he'd been at the time but after tonight's events…well.

Harry had put so much thought into it and had been racking his brains trying to figure out who it was that he'd never even thought about one of the younger years or a stranger doing that to him.

He had been convinced it was one of the Turtle girls who had snuck in or one of the Tigers, and he could only thank his lucky stars that the only people he'd embarrassed himself enough to ask about it was Gwen and June and that the girls had taken it so well. Gwen especially giving some very interesting results as he'd been treated to a delightful sight of Gwen's body on the beach during their dueling tutoring.

When he had started thinking about whom it possibly could have been he had started analyzing in his head who the possible suspects could have been. He'd even built up a fantasy in his head that it had been Hermione who had snuck into his tablet that night and had a couple of nights fantasizing about that since.
After all she certainly had the brains to decrypt a runes cluster locking mechanism, she, he also knew, would also have had cause of concern to come and check on him and would have known which tablet Harry's was. He knew that she had the same color bra as the panties because he'd seen her in it and had started secretly hoping that it had been Hermione that had snuck in that night, as stupid as the thought was, as he knew she wouldn't do something like that.

He had to begrudgingly admit that Lucy was certainly good at oral sex though as she had been driving him crazy just over an hour ago and he felt sick now thinking about what would have happened if the polyjuice potion hadn't worn off. He could have ended up having sex with her and then what? The whole school find out about it as she told him what she had done and him be a laughing stock as a result.

It was no worse than what Marco Ronaldo and his cronies had in store for him except Lucy hadn't planned on photographing it. At least he hoped she hadn't and Harry found the thought of it turning his stomach and his anger bubble up again.

When he'd pranked the Clans with Rosa, Yoko, Hilde, and Trixie's help he found the use of polyjuice funny and had used it himself to great affect sneaking into the Slytherin common room and the ministry. Now however, he was thinking that maybe the use of polyjuice potion should be listed as a banned substance and have more tightly regulated controls over it like veritaserum did.

As Harry lay there thinking about how delighted he'd been thinking that Hermione had instigated the night's events, he couldn't help be gutted that it wasn't. He, despite his anger, found himself getting aroused as he had actually seen what Hermione's naked form was like and touched her, felt her skin and the lightly tanned perfection of her. He unconsciously found his hand grasping himself as his lust flared at the recollection of her body that he had fantasized about for such a long time.

Harry was just starting to recollect the events of the evening and the look of Hermione's pleasure filled face as he was licking her and started to stroke himself as he was picturing what would have happened if the polyjuice hadn't worn off when he heard the slightest tapping noise making his eyes snap open.

He stopped what he was doing and heard the noise again coming from his trunks living room. He wondered whether it was coming from the outside of the trunk and if it was the lads from the dormitory knocking. He really wasn't in the mood to explain why he'd magically thrown Lucy out of his trunk and into the boys' dorm but he was sure that they'd have a clue if they had woken up to find a girl in the dorm, maybe the damage had already been done.

As he listened to the knock he recognized it as he'd heard it a thousand times before at Hogwarts when Hermione would knock on the boys' door as she waited patiently for one of them to open the door. It was normally himself or Neville who opened it as Ron, Dean, and Seamus normally slept in until the last possible moment before having to get up.

Harry was up and out of his bed before he realized it and he grabbed his dressing gown from the back of his bedroom door and was throwing it on as he made his way to the door that lead to the corridor connecting their two trunks. For the first time he could remember he didn't know whether he'd actually be able to look Hermione in the eye and let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding as he opened the door.

There stood Hermione in a pink flannel dressing gown with her shapely legs sticking out the bottom of the dressing gown with her arms crossed over her chest hugging herself and was biting her lip nervously in the way that Harry loved. He in the semi darkness thought her eyes looked a little puffy like she'd been crying but he couldn't be sure.

"Hermione… hey…Are you ok?" he asked her tentatively.

"I'm alright… I just couldn't sleep and was wondering whether you were up… Did I wake you? I'm sorry if I did." Hermione said feeling foolish now as Harry had clearly been in bed given the wildness of his hair, which most likely matched her own from all the tossing and turning she'd been doing.

"No, you didn't wake me. I've been trying to get to sleep for an hour but haven't been able to because I'm too wound up." Harry replied honestly, "Sorry, come in." he said realizing he was blocking the door way and moved to the side allowing Hermione access into the trunk's living room. She gave him a small smile and moved past him closing the door behind her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Hermione asked hopefully that whatever was bothering Harry would prove a decent enough distraction from her own thoughts and allow her to escape her own thinking and over active brain.

"Erm… Not really." Harry said surprising both of them. Hermione most likely because he wasn't divulging a problem he was having as he would normally have just told her Hermione about anything serious. He surprised himself as he supposed he didn't know what to do about Lucy yet and needed to process what had happened still with a clear head rather than discussing it with Hermione when he was still angry and when she was tired.

He had learned through the past experiences of his life that to go steaming in and going into action wasn't always the best thing to do. The painful memories of Sirius' supposed torture during his History of Magic exam being the case in point. No matter what anyone said Harry still blamed himself for leading his friends, Sirius, Remus, and the other members of the Order into that trap.

"No?" Hermione asked surprised that Harry didn't want to talk about something that was causing him to have trouble sleeping with her. It made her feel a little sad inside and that maybe he didn't want her knowing everything about him anymore.

Harry could see Hermione's smile waver as she looked a little hurt as she looked down at the floor between them as he closed the door with a click. "Not yet anyway, I'm still trying to figure it out myself but I promise I'll tell you and when… just don't worry about it for now though" Harry said honestly hoping that that would appease her curiosity for the time being because if pushed he wouldn't lie to her about it but he knew an angry Hermione Granger was a formidable force and he wanted to decide what he was going to do first.

Hermione looked up at Harry's reply and the sad feeling inside her started melting instantly and she smiled. "Well whenever you're ready. As long as you're ok that's the main thing." she said sincerely as she watched a tension leave Harry at her reply.

"I'm alright just a bit… well I don't know what I am and that's the problem I guess. Anyway, enough about me, what's keeping you up at this time of night?" he asked curiously as Hermione wasn't the sort to stay up late into the night as she normally went out like a light and kind of recharged her batteries through sleep before getting up early and attacking her day with a sometimes-scary energy.

"Oh…" Hermione said thinking about her own problems with Ron and not really wanting to get into it with Harry now as it would most likely keep them both up all night and they needed to sleep soon and besides she wanted to take her mind off it. "Oh, nothing that can't wait for the morning… I don't want to think about it really and was kind of hoping that you can distract me from what I'm thinking about." Hermione said honestly rubbing her arms as she felt a little chilly.

"Alright… sure. ok well do you want to sit in here or…" Harry started to reply as Hermione suddenly interrupted him.

"Well actually I was wondering, and you don't have to if you don't want to, but I thought maybe we could go to your bed. I mean… at Potter Manor and we shared a bed I always managed to have a good sleep." Hermione said the words coming out of her mouth and making her want to slap herself in the forehead as he was going to think she was a complete weirdo.

Taken a little by surprise Harry wasn't going to complain as they had actually shared a bed together plenty of times in the past and he'd even found that for the most part he didn't have flash backs to the battle or any of the other horrible events of his past when they had shared a bed together. "Sure, that would be fine. Come on…" He said reaching for her hand and feeling like he had a jolt of electricity vibrating up his arm as she took his offered hand and he led her to his room and through the open door.

"Do you want me to get Bonzo or one of the elves to bring you a cocoa or something?" Harry asked and without realizing it he was undoing his belt of the dressing gown and had shrugged it off his shoulders and caught it as it slipped down his arms and body and turned to hang it up on the hook on the back of the door.
He turned around to see Hermione looking him up and down with that strange look on her face again and he looked down and realized that he was just stood in front of her in his boxer shorts again and started feeling a little awkward.

Hermione watched as Harry shrugged off his robe, completely confident and apparently at ease with his appearance or so it seemed. Hermione found her breath catching and her heart beat quickening as Harry's lean and almost sculpted frame came into view and she saw that Harry was really starting to develop some muscle. Nothing crazy but his arms, chest, and his stomach were looking a little toned when he moved in certain ways.

Her eyes feasted on him as he stood there in his underwear and she couldn't help but drink in the sight of him as she replied "No I'm alright thanks and besides it wouldn't be fair to the elves waking them up at this time as they need their rest as they work hard enough as it is". She realized she was staring when her eyes had wandered up Harry's stomach and chest for what was probably the fourth time in a few seconds and saw him stood there watching her assessing him and looking a little awkward.

To try and cover the fact that she was staring Hermione biting her lip and balling her courage started undoing the belt on her own robe and quietly took a deep breath and held it as she started peeling the robe off and watched for Harry's reaction. She wasn't feeling anything like as confident as she had in his bath when she had given him the rub down and she assumed that was because she wasn't horny.

Although looking at Harry now and effectively if only literally going to bed with him she couldn't find herself getting a little turned on at the naughty thoughts running through her head about the situation. As she allowed her robe to drop to the floor leaving her in a skin tight yellow cotton crop top with black piping on the edging and straps that didn't really leave too much to the imagination and a pair black cotton boy short pantie with a yellow trim and the reverse of the top.

"I see you really are Lady Hufflepuff now." Harry said his eyes unable to stop roaming over her body. "I've got to say I always thought red and gold were good colors on you Hermione but black and yellow really does suit you." He added honestly blushing a little.

She smiled shyly at him and replied "Well I have to represent the family at every opportunity, don't I? I'd imagine that you'll have more than a few other accessories for your own houses." Hermione said having seen nods to Harry's family lines in some of his clothing and finding the conversation very strange for the pair of them as they'd never really spoken like this in terms of houses or family lines and things before.

"True… But that's the advantage of being a Black" Harry said pointing at his boxers before realizing and feeling his cheeks color a little. "It's erm… easy to find clothes in black I mean." He said feeling silly and giving a little laugh to try and cover his embarrassment at basically drawing her attention to his crotch.

"I suppose it is." Hermione said rubbing her arms as she was getting goose pimps and Harry being Harry picked up on her discomfort and simple said "I bagsy that side of the bed" he said pointing to the side furthest from the door and he took two quick steps and dived onto his bed twisting in the air so that he rolled as he bounced off the bed and came to a stop on the far side of where they were stood.

"Do you find you tend to sleep on one side of the bed even though you've got like a huge bed to sleep in?" he asked her as Hermione smiled at him and with much more decorum moved to the side of the bed and slipped under the quilt.

"Mmmm I can't say I've ever really thought about it. I mean I've been so used to sleeping in a single bed at Hogwarts I never really noticed." Hermione said honestly as she noticed how Elliott has given them the same quilt and she noticed that Harry's bedding was as soft as hers.

"Well I have. I've found I've been waking up on this side of the bed." He said as he shuffled under the quilt on his back as they both lay on their backs with the quilt pulled up so only their heads were poking out from under it. "So, are you sure you don't want to tell me what the real reason you came knocking on my door is?" Harry asked her quietly.

Hermione was quiet for a few moments and turned on her side so that she was facing Harry and he matched her movement so that they were both facing each other with their arms tucked under their pillows. "It's Ron." Hermione simply said looking at Harry in the darkness their eyes attuned to the lack of light having not had a light on since Hermione knocked on the door.

Harry shifted in the bed and his breath seemed to catch for a moment thinking that something was either wrong with him or he'd done or not done something by her tone. "Is he alright? He's not hurt or anything is he? I've not heard from him for ages." he asked tentatively feeling a knot developing in his stomach.

"Oh, he's more than fine. Don't worry about that." Hermione responded irritably as her anger at Ron came bubbling up to the surface.

"Okay…" Harry replied a little tentatively from Hermione's snapped retort. "So, what do mean by 'more than fine'?" he asked her feeling that this conversation wasn't going to be a good one.

"I just mean that the reason that you've not heard from him for a while is most likely because he's been too busy spending his time with other more meaningful pursuits than committing to relationships he's already got." Hermione said starting to feel her anger bubbling up inside her.

"Huh? More meaningful pursuits? I don't understand what you mean… you mean like he…" Harry started to ask her as Hermione let out a sigh of frustration.

"I'm sorry but I really, really, don't want to talk about it or HIM right now." She said sadly and with feeling as she really didn't want to spend any more time getting upset with Ron 'the arse' Weasley as she'd already dedicated enough of her time that evening being upset with him.

Harry seeing that Hermione really didn't want to talk about it nodded and agreed that he wouldn't mention it again unless she brought it up. Harry had always decided that he would stay out of Ron and Hermione's relationship and not get involved because he didn't want to be made to choose a side like Hermione had when he and Ron had fallen out in fourth year and when they had gone hunting Horcruxes.

He didn't want to be in that position because he knew in his heart that if push came to shove that he would side and choose Hermione. Their friendship was important to Harry and if things worked out as he hoped they would, he wanted to try and still have Ron be close to himself and Hermione.

Maybe despite his better judgement he decided that it was time he and his oldest friend corresponded again and he decided that he'd write to Ron at some point over the weekend asking what he was doing to make Hermione so upset.

"Talk to me about something else." Hermione requested almost pleadingly.

"Like what?" Harry responded his mind not kicking into gear quickly enough to grasp a safe subject.

"Anything… Tell me something about what you've been up to. Something I don't already know." Hermione asked wanting a distraction.

"Erm... ok." Harry said thinking for a subject about something she didn't already know about and remembered something that he been wanting to tell someone for ages. "Right ok I'll tell you something but it's a Turtle Clan secret and you can't tell anyone not even the Turtles in our year as the only people that know about it are Hero and myself… Hmmm it's probably best to not let onto Hero that you know either" Harry said propping his head up on his elbow as Hermione settled in and got comfortable and they found their knees innocently touching and coming to rest on each other.

"Oh, this sounds interesting come on then, you should know I won't say anything Harry. You tell me not to say anything to anyone, then I won't." Hermione stated matter of factly.

Harry couldn't help grinning and started to tell Hermione all about the Turtle's Nest and about how he had found out about it from a person in Scribes and Scribblers in the Banzai Bazaar. Hermione listened to Harry talking enthusiastically about The Turtle's Nest and found herself getting more and more relaxed listening to Harry as he started describing in detail about how to get into 'The Nest' and couldn't help the sleepy smile that started spreading on her face as she started to try and stifle yawns.

"Am I boring you with this?" Harry teased her as he saw Hermione try and suppress and cover up a yawn for what was like the fifth time.

"No not at all. I'm just starting to relax and I'm getting pretty sleepy" she replied as she started thinking about how this was really nice, just lay with Harry talking just the two of them. "This is really nice…" Hermione said as Harry shifted a little.

"What's nice?" he replied quietly.

"Just this. It's really nice and feels like we haven't done this is ages. It reminds me of staying at Potter Manor." She said sincerely and saw Harry nodding along as she recalled the memories of living with Harry in the Potter family home before moving to the Badger's Nook and how much she had enjoyed it.

"I know. I guess we both just get very busy. I think it's important to always have time just the two of us. I mean the Turtles are great and the Dragons are all really nice but I do miss it just being the two of us some times. I mean it was always me, you, and Ron and that was pretty much it. I'm not really used to being surrounded by large groups of people all the time and… well I guess I find it a bit much some times." Harry said sincerely.

"That's probably because you aren't used to being so popular. Hell, I'm not used to being popular and having a big group. It's nice and I like it but its taking some getting used to. I still find it odd doing homework and having my evenings with the Tigers and you not being there." Hermione replied as she watched Harry nodding along.

"So, carry on. It sounds pretty interesting so you and Hero started swimming out towards this shaft of light coming from the water. What happened when you got there?" she replied snuggling down into Harry's bed a little more an inadvertently their legs intertwined a little more.

Harry started explaining about the Turtle's Nest and the Hilaria LaMoremotis that seemed to activate Hermione's brain as he was treated to her encyclopedic explanation about its qualities and uses amongst other things. Harry couldn't help grinning at the slight coloring of Hermione's cheeks when she talked about its aphrodisiac qualities.

After that he explained about the sitting area and finding a load of books about water elemental magic and his and Hero's theory about how they believed it was why Turtle Clan had probably slid down the dueling tables over the years.

"It would make sense as Goro and Mio earlier tonight showed me a secret hidden section in Tiger Clans library that has books on earth elemental magic. Goro explained that each clan has one. Dragon is fire, Phoenix is air, Tiger has earth, and the Turtles is water clearly. It makes sense that if the books were taken in there that the clan would be missing that magic." Hermione explained to Harry.

"I know. Hero said that a lot of the time when they have the dueling tournaments here that if the matches are close, especially amongst the older students that it's normally a clan secret elemental spell that's tipped the scales and decided the outcome.

He said that from the tournament archives that Turtle Clan haven't won it for over twenty years now." Harry explained as Hermione nodded along.

"Well that's really good and at least you and Hero can bring the books back now and the rest of the clan can benefit from them and it will make the dueling tournament a much fairer competition." Hermione summarized wishing that she could tell the Tigers that Harry and Hero had discovered a potential game changer.

"Ah well that's where the difficulty comes into it. How to get the books back out of The Nest." Harry replied seeing Hermione's face scrunch up a little in confusion.

"Well the thing is you can't take anything out of The Nest through the air bubbles according to one of the scrolls I read in my room.
The only way that something can apparently be returned to its owners if left in there by accident is through this kind of wishing well thing and even then, we don't know if it works" Harry said feeling like he was doing a bad job explaining things to Hermione.

"What do you mean you don't know if it works?" Hermione asked a little mystified as to why they hadn't experimented with it.

"Well we put something in the well that the last person who had used it had left behind but we don't know who they are or whether their even still alive to try and find out if they received it." responded Harry.

"And you haven't thought to get something of yours or Hero's and put that in it to see whether it finds its way back to you?" Hermione replied her eyebrow arching in surprise that the two boys hadn't just tried the simple experiment to see if it worked.

"Of course, why didn't we think of that? How can I be so thick sometimes?" Harry asked mentally kicking himself for not having thought of something so simple.

"One of life's great mysteries I suppose" Hermione teased in response.

"You see what happens when I don't have you around with me… It's like losing the common sense and logical part of my brain. I think you need to transfer into Turtle Clan so I can get to be whole again." Harry replied smiling at her and not knowing that Hermione's heart and stomach did a little somersault at him saying she'd make him whole again if she transferred Clans.

They just stay there in silence for a few moments the silence stretching out between them as Hermione tried to form the words she wanted to say. She couldn't argue that she was tempted as she missed spending most of her free time around Harry but after hearing about the Turtle's Nest she wondered whether there was something similar in Tiger Land.

She missed Harry a lot of the time but was starting to feel a home in Tiger Land with Mio, Li, and the others and felt like she was almost fully integrated into the Clan now. "Tempting Harry, very tempting." She responded while trying to stifle a yawn unsuccessfully.

"We've always made quite the team Harry…" Hermione said looking into his emerald eyes thinking about all the things they had managed to pull off together since they had known each other.

"The best. It's a bit strange being competition to each other now. I mean we have always worked together in everything and it worked because…" Harry started explaining before Hermione finished it quite eloquently.

"Normally I'm the planner and you're the man of action. I'm the stress head and you're my calming influence, well most of the time. Sometimes you've been known to get me into trouble." Hermione finished teasingly for him getting a nod and a smile from Harry in return.

"Well I was going to say that you're my rock… No matter what's going on in my fucked-up life I can always depend on you being there helping me out of whatever mental problem is going on. I want you to know I'm here for you and you can talk to me about anything. I just hate seeing you upset Hermione, it's the most horrible thing in the world seeing you hurting." Harry said sincerely and blinked a few times quickly as he found for some reason he was starting to feel emotional about her.

It was something that was happening all the time with her these days and he could only assume it was his true feelings for her was coming up to the surface. Maybe it was them being alone and nothing more serious than homework happening to them was giving him time to really try and think about what he wanted and how he felt about her.

Maybe it was them nearly getting killed and Hermione getting tortured and the thought of losing her that really had unlocked these emotions and feelings for her that he'd always squashed bringing up.

"Thank you, Harry. I feel the same way. I'll be alright." Hermione said a little sadly as the sincerity of Harry's words made her heart start thumping in her chest as she'd dreamt of Harry talking to her like this for so long.

"You're not alright though are you." He stated matter of factly and ran his fingers gently over her cheek and used the action of pushing a few loose tendrils of hair behind her ear as an excuse to touch her.

"I… I will be," she replied having thought for a moment feeling better from just being with Harry as she saw him start and then swallow a yawn he was trying to hide. She smiled at him warmly as she'd seen him do it so many times before when he'd wanted to go to sleep but had stayed up with her while she was working on her homework or reading and didn't want to be sat in the common room alone. "But for now, I think we should try and get some sleep as we've got to get up early tomorrow as we're meeting Master Kuzuko in the Grandmasters office, is it alright if I sleep here? I'm nice and comfy and don't want to move." She inquired snuggling into her pillow a little more and ran her foot along the inside of Harry's foot.

"You do look very comfy. Course you can sleep here." Harry replied without pause.

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Hermione replied biting her lower lip gently.

"Of course, I don't mind. In fact, I insist you stay with me tonight." he smiled at her thinking how cute she looked all tucked up and cozy beside him and biting her lip in that way he loved.

"Thanks… well sweet dreams Harry." Hermione said before balling her courage and leaning forward gave Harry a gentle kiss on his lips. This had the reaction of making her feel tingles all over her body. She felt her magic flare within her and run around her body like an over excited niffler. She felt a strong and familiar pulse between her legs as her arousal rocketed.

With a massive effort of Hermione's part, she turned over quickly so that her back was to Harry. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding and was thankful he couldn't see her cheeks burning or the effect the gentle kiss had had on her. She felt her chest rising and falling and her body miss the contact of their legs together.

She lay there looking towards the door debating with her mind about whether she should make a bolt for her own trunk as her body and her heart and her magic were pulling at her resolve to just turn over and throw herself at him. 'Maybe this wasn't my smartest idea. I really need to show some control here, but merlin's beard I want to feel those lips on me again.' She thought to herself and found her hand come to rest on the inside of her thigh as her wrist brushed against her sex.

She had to stifle a moan that she turned into a pathetic attempt at a cough as she battled with herself internally and her restraint. She lay there a moment trying to slow her heart rate down when she heard him.

"Sweet dreams Hermione." Harry said quietly his own lips tingling from the contact with Hermione's. Harry lay there looking at the slow and steady breathing of the witch next to him and felt his magic zipping round his body. He felt a force inside himself, pressing his lips together, and tried to not worry about what she might say to him as on instinct he shuffled forwards cuddling up into Hermione's back and spooning her.

He could feel the heat coming from her body and was trying to think of anything that would stop him getting hard in such close proximity to her. He found his hand work its way across her side as Hermione's arm shifted and her arm moved up from being straight in front of her as her warm hand moved onto Harry's as she guided it around her and he felt her shuffle back so that they were pressed against each other and spooning closely.

He heard a contented sigh come from Hermione as she whispered "That's better." and he couldn't help but smile to himself as his face burrowed into the back of Hermione's neck and curly hair causing her to let out a very girly giggle and he heard her whisper "Tickles".

He found that beyond cute and felt her pull his arm around her more tightly. He was now trapped and was more than happy about it. This felt right… all thoughts of what Lucy had done to him that evening had been pushed from his mind as at that moment he was with the real Hermione and there was nowhere else he'd rather be.

"Harry?" Hermione said quietly smiling to herself for the first time that night as she felt the man she loved molded against her and having initiated this delightful cuddle himself without any hesitation or apparent doubt. It made her so happy that Harry was becoming so comfortable with physical contact with her these days.

"Yeah?" Harry breathed into her hair as he settled in and hoped she wasn't planning on moving as he was very content.

"Thanks for this… you always manage to make me feel better. I've had such a rubbish night and this is just what I needed." Hermione said interlocking her fingers on the top of his hand and moving their hands to her mouth and planting a kiss on the back of Harry's hand before putting in back on her stomach just below her bust again.

Harry's heart fluttered and he kissed Hermione on the side of the head just next to her ear. "Anytime." He whispered back softly.

As he got used to the feeling of being pressed up against Hermione again before he knew it he could hear the familiar breaths of a sleeping Hermione, which caused him to relax a little more as he closed his eyes and sleep took him as well.