Chapter 25

The Second Task

Bellatrix

A few days after Christmas and Bellatrix was currently busy tracking horcruxes. The problem had been that the Dark Lord had simply made all of his traps and protections much too difficult to get past for just her. She had needed a way to check to make sure the horcrux was still intact and not harmed in any way without having to deal with the many traps by herself, her master still being far too weak and her still not at full strength to deal with them.

It had taken quite a while but she finally managed to come up with a dark spell to be able to track the remaining horcruxes much in the same way she had used Hufflepuff's cup to locate her master.

Yet when she finally succeeded she had first thought that perhaps the spell she had cast hadn't worked, as it now showed only 2 horcruxes remaining.

Unwilling to believe this possibility or upset her master at even suggesting such a thing, she had been forced to check and recheck her work to make absolutely certain she had used the spell right.

Unfortunately it appeared she had...and it now seemed to be far worse than she had ever dared fear.

The other remaining horcrux, Slytherin's locket as far as she could tell, was also not where it should be either, even though it still showed as being intact and unharmed although it was clearly under protections that made it unplottable on a map and it's location not exact. All she could really tell was that it was in London somewhere.

After flying for hours over London secretly and invisibly searching for the other remaining horcrux, the other one Hufflepuff's cup safely tucked away under her robes, the thought had finally occurred to her.

"Surely not," She said to herself.

Yet as she flew towards it, the dark spell she was using indicated that she was indeed getting closer.

She grinned the closer that she got, for some reason it was in the old Black Family ancestral home, Grimmauld Place.

Yet just as she was about to get there...the indicator suddenly stopped.

Her eyes narrowed as she cast the spell again, wondering if perhaps it had fizzled out for some reason.

Yet nope, it now only showed just one horcrux, which was Hufflepuff's cup that she still had.

She let out a howl of rage and frustration as there was only one reason that Slytherin's locket was no longer showing up. It had just been destroyed.

Despite being only minutes away, she had failed, and what was worse, her master was apparently down to only one horcrux.

He was going to be absolutely furious, she realized, even as his most trusted servant there was no way she wouldn't be severely punished.

Normally she actually enjoyed suffering such pain at the pleasure of her master but not when she so clearly failed him.

The thought occurred to her that the only tether to life her master now had was Hufflepuff's cup that she had in her possession. If she were to, right now, destroy it…

He now had a very weak and pathetic body so he might not automatically be killed but without constant care by her he would soon die.

Even being gone for this long from him was a risk.

He also only had enough left of his soul he had said to only be able to create maybe one more horcrux at the absolute most, and even that would be quite a challenge if not impossible in such a weak state.

The realization that she actually had such power over her master, a being who she had given absolute loyalty to, a being that she had always considered to be far greater and more powerful than any other, was certainly a position she had never expected to be in.

What should she do? The most obvious and honest choice was to tell her master of the destruction of nearly all of his horcruxes and face the consequences for her failure but still she hesitated.

She could simply tell her master that all of his horcruxes were safe and lure him into a false sense of security.

She had the mental fortitude she was sure to keep such a major secret from her master but why should she? She was totally loyal to the dark lord and didn't need to keep secrets from him.

Yet a particularly nasty but admittedly tempting thought crossed her mind. If she was to destroy the last horcrux she could do what so many had tried and failed to do, kill the Dark Lord.

Admittedly her Master's Dementor Plan was not going well, despite her previous confidence in him that he would succeed, he seemed to be making no actual progress in carrying it out. If he failed, then their goals of world domination were over, no matter how convinced her Master might be or how powerful he personally could be once he was reborn, the two of them could not hope to take on the entire world by themselves. If he tried anyway it would likely only cause both of them to get killed in the process and killing him now would only help protect herself. She could go into hiding somewhere far away where she wouldn't be recognized and live out a comfortable life.

No, she told herself, she was still loyal to the Dark Lord, if it had been one of the other Dark Lord's servants that she'd caught having such thoughts, she would have killed him on the spot. The Dark Lord would figure it out, he wouldn't fail, anyone who had ever underestimated the Dark Lord had not lived very long to regret it.

She would give him more time to figure it out, she decided...but what was she to do about his horcruxes?

She was still thinking about it, trying to ultimately decide what to do as she traveled all the way back to the Dark Lord's hiding place.

When she arrived her Master immediately asked, "so Bellatrix have you done what I asked? Are all of my horcruxes safe?"

She looked down at what her master had been reduced to, weaker even then a newborn baby, in fact even in her absence just for the last 6 hours he seemed much weaker.

He could be reborn at any moment and yet still his stubbornness and pride wouldn't let him, he simply had to have the blood of Potter and have his revenge.

He was crazy she thought, she had always known he was crazy but perhaps now too crazy. He might even be crazy enough to...if she told him the truth about his horcruxes...to kill her for her failure. It actually even seemed likely at this point, he'd killed so very many of his servants over the years for far less. Even if he did remember that he still needed her in order to survive as he was he might still kill her.

Finally, after realizing she couldn't delay further with her answer without it being too suspicious she made a quick decision and told the Dark Lord, "all of your other horcruxes are safe, you need not worry Master."

….

Susan

It didn't take long after Harry, Padma, and Daphne lost their virginity and had their first time for Hermione and Susan to join in as well.

Both her and Hermione were more reluctant however to have some girl on girl action, but they were eventually being worn down.

So far in Susan's case, it hadn't progressed beyond kissing, but she had found she enjoyed it more than she thought she would.

She still loved Harry, that would never change, but it was nice to have something else to do while he was busy with someone else.

You could say then that each of them were bisexual now, but such feelings were still only when they used their bond to Harry to experience what he felt for each of them.

Still it wasn't as good as Harry himself and she found she enjoyed sex with him way more than she would have thought. Her mother and Aunt probably would have preferred that she wait until she was older, but she saw no reason to wait any longer, besides she was marrying him anyway.

As much fun as she was having with her future husband Harry and her future sister wives, it seemed time went by very quickly as the 2nd task fast approached and then finally came.

Fortunately she was ready, or at least as ready as she would ever be she thought nervously as she stood in front of the lake with the other Champions, waiting for the signal to start.

There was another reason for her to do well as last night Professor McGonagall had gone and taken Harry away while they had been studying and doing last minute preparations for the 2nd task.

When he hadn't returned, she had put 2 and 2 together and assumed that he was in fact the valuable thing that she needed to rescue, which was confirmed now as Dumbledore had explained what they needed to do a moment ago.

She was sure that Dumbledore would not allow harm to come to Harry, but she still felt she had greater incentive to get the 2nd task over and done with.

As she stood there dressed in only her swimsuit, she and Fleur both got plenty of appreciative looks and even a few whistles and catcalls. Both of them had opted to wear more modest one piece swimwear but it didn't seem to matter.

Fleur of course got most of the attention as a veela, but she was also getting some attention as well, mostly directed at her very large chest.

She however ignored them, focused on just getting to Harry and getting the 2nd task over with.

Finally there was the signal to start and she first of all, cast the bubble head charm on herself before then using a nifty spell Hermione had found to turn her hands and feet into flippers to allow her to move faster in the water.

Once that was complete she then dove into the water and began swimming furiously.

She knew exactly where to go by now, having gotten close to the mervillage several times, but this would be the first time actually entering it and doing so alone.

Yet she tried to feel confident as she swam directly towards the mervillage.

However she eventually spotted Fleur swimming nearby, also having used the spell that turned her hands and feet into flippers to make herself go faster.

Fleur seemed to have spotted her too because she then started swimming faster in order to try and beat her to the mervillage.

Susan grinned a little, oh so that's how you want to play it?

They started racing each other through the water neck and neck.

No way was she letting her win, Susan thought.

However Fleur soon proved to be the slightly better swimmer as she managed to pull ahead.

Susan was already getting tired and wasn't sure she could catch up when she spotted something that Fleur didn't.

Several grindylows came up from below them, but Fleur seemed to still be concentrated on what lay in front of her as they were just starting to come in view of the mervillage.

A couple grindylows grabbed Fleur and knocked her wand out of her hand as she was forced to try and fight them with her bare hands and legs as she tried to kick and punch them away from her.

Susan wasn't sure what happened to Fleur next as a couple grindylows tried to attack her as their next target, but she managed to stop them using a couple spells that she had learned that could be used underwater.

Turning her attention back to Fleur, the grindylows now had her and were trying to pull her down deeper underwater as their prisoner as she tried unsuccessfully to stop them.

One of them held up a long crudely made stone knife, threatening her with it.

Yet before the grindylows could make any further moves, Susan cast several spells in rapid succession, the spells finding their targets and knocking them out.

The other 2 grindylows that had joined the fight gnashed their teeth in anger at her, but reluctantly were forced to flee.

Susan swam over to Fleur, asking her with some basic, crudely made sign language she hoped Fleur would understand to ask if she was alright.

Fleur still seemed a bit out of sorts but looked at her gratefully and nodded that she was fine and then began looking for her wand, which fortunately hadn't floated off too far.

At that, the two of them started swimming the rest of the way towards the mervillage.

If Susan had had time she would definitely have been curious to look around as the mervillage while rather quaint by wizard standards had plenty of interesting things about it.

Yet focused on her task and doing it quickly she passed quite a few merpeople who looked at her and Fleur, but fortunately did not attack.

In the very center of the village, she spotted 3 different human captives tied to rocks, a young woman she recognized as Penelope Clearwater, Krum's date to the Yule Ball, who was probably meant for Krum, a little girl around 8 years old who she guessed was Fleur's little sister and then most importantly was-

"Harry," She blurted out inside of her bubble, feeling overly excited to see him.

She cast a spell as best she could underwater to free him from his bonds before grabbing him and trying to pull him to the surface. She noticed Fleur had managed to free her little sister next to her and was also swimming for the surface.

Goodness, Harry, you're heavy, she thought, probably ought to lay off those desserts.

In truth Harry wasn't at all fat, in fact he was a perfect specimen of lean muscle, goodness he was absolutely gorgeous.

Focus on the task at hand, you can have Harry celebrate with you afterwards she reminded herself as she managed to finally pull him to the surface.

As soon as they did so, the enchantment on Harry seemed to break as he looked around in confusion for a moment.

"Harry, you okay?" She asked.

He grinned, realizing what was going on as he looked at her and proclaimed, "you did it!"

She beamed happily at him and said, "yes, I sure did, now you want to help me by swimming for yourself?"

He did so as they both swam to shore. She was however so exhausted from swimming so hard that she had Harry actually help her swim.

Yet as she got to shore her energy spent, she couldn't help but smile at all the many cheers for her.

Fleur however who got to shore mere moments before her and Harry went to go and talk to the judges and after a long moment of deliberation the judges announced their scores.

"Not only did Susan Bones manage to bring back her hostage in less than an hour," Dumbledore proclaimed, "but she also chose to help save a fellow competitor, so therefore I'm pleased to announce that she not only received a perfect score but also 5 additional bonus points."

At that there was an eruption of applause from all of the Hogwarts students and teachers.

Even some of the Beauxbatons students were clapping at having helped rescue their champion. Only Karkaroff, who had clearly been outvoted by the other judges, looked upset by this announcement.

Fleur had managed to get a perfect score as well but without the bonus points.

She however still came over to Susan afterwards and said, "I told the judges what happened and they felt like you deserved some bonus points, I felt like you deserved it too. Thank you for saving me."

Over time Susan had noticed that Fleur's opinion of her had gradually changed and after saving her life, she seemed to now hold her in quite high regard.

Susan was also forced to admit that she might have misjudged Fleur as well.

"No problem," Susan told her genuinely, "I'm just glad that you are safe."

Upon looking at Fleur's little sister, she added, "I'm glad that both of you are safe."

Fleur smiled and opted to give her a nice hug before going back to check on her sister.

Harry then grinned and asked, "care to celebrate having completed the 2nd Task?"

Susan grinned back and said, "I thought you'd never ask."

Susan then looked over at Hermione and asked, "care to join us?"

Hermione grinned back gratefully and said, "of course."

"No fair!" Daphne complained.

"You had your turn with Harry last night," Hermione argued, "go have some fun with Padma then if you are that eager."

"I'm down," Padma offered with a smile of her own.

Daphne still seemed disappointed, but was still somewhat happy with this consolation prize.

"Alright Padma, let's go have some fun of our own," Daphne said, offering the other girl her hand, which she took.

The 3 of them then, her, Harry, and Hermione went off to try and find one of the married couple rooms to have some privacy and where they wouldn't be interrupted.

They all quickly removed their clothes, leaving all 3 of them naked.

Susan lifted up her now naked huge breasts, knowing Harry well enough to know just where he wanted to start and offered them to him.

Harry grinned and prepared to have yet another very wonderful lovemaking session as her and Hermione prepared to enjoy it as well.

Harry

With the 2nd task now out of the way, they tried to settle back into their usual study habits until they got hit by a particularly noteworthy curveball.

Professor Dumbledore urged them to take their OWLs a year early as with their accelerated learning program, they were simply running out of material that their teachers could teach them. If they wanted to, they could take their OWLs at the end of this year and their NEWTs at the end of next year, graduating 2 years early. There was no reason not to, Dumbledore pointed out. If they wanted to continue more specialized learning however he suggested that they try an apprenticeship of some sort, either at the Ministry or to one of the teachers at school.

With some reluctance, they eventually agreed to such a plan even though Hermione fretted unnecessarily over just how much they needed to review and study just to be sure.

As for himself, Harry was feeling rather confident in each of their abilities and was sure they would do fine, probably better than fine actually, they might not all get Outstandings on absolutely everything, but graduating 2 years early certainly would help for any job interviews.

When it came to what they wanted to do however once they graduated, he still had no idea, only that he wanted to do something that wouldn't take too much time away from seeing each of the girls, who he absolutely planned on marrying. That at least was one plan for his future he was sure of.

As for his fiancees, none of them were really sure what they wanted to do either, but they still had time to try and figure it out.

While they prepared to try and figure out their future however, one particularly noteworthy lesson did however cause them to think about something else.

Professor Lupin was continuing to teach them as the Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor, but he decided to bring in a guest lecturer to cover a particular subject.

He brought in Alastor Moody, a retired Auror and personal friend of Dumbledore's who had reluctantly decided it would be a good idea to have the students learn about the Three Unforgivable Curses, in particular the Imperious Curse which had been used to such great effect against them with Bellatrix near the end of their previous year.

Moody finished explaining about the 3 Unforgivable Curses by talking about the Killing Curse.

"The Killing Curse, there is only one person known to have survived it, and he's sitting right here in this room," Moody said ominously.

At once all the girls turned to look at him as well as Moody both with his regular and magical eye.

"Several times actually," Daphne decided to point out.

That only caused Moody to study him even harder.

"I've always wondered how you did it," Moody admitted.

"Love," Harry said simply, "both the love of my mother and my fiancees."

"Is that how?" Moody said, very curious, "love I suppose can indeed be incredibly powerful but little is truly known about love magic. I know some Unspeakables at the Ministry who would love to study you?"

"I'll pass," Harry answered, not wanting to feel like a lab rat.

Moody nodded, seeming to understand before moving on with his guest lecture.

Having gotten special permission from the Ministry or more particularly Susan's aunt to use it on the older students to be able to defend themselves against it, they each took their turn trying to fight it off.

Moody had him go first and he rather reluctantly went up and did so.

"Imperio!" Moody said, looking him straight in the eyes and casting the spell at him.

For a brief moment he wanted to just look into Moody's eyes and follow whatever he asked of him, but something inside himself seemed to fight against it.

It seemed to be his own strong will fighting against Moody's.

Moody seemed surprised as he tried to cast the curse again only for Harry to rebuff it yet again.

"Jump up and down," Moody commanded him.

"No," Harry told him, knowing that he was supposed to resist what Moody was telling him.

Finally after trying a third time and being unsuccessful, Moody gave up and gave a pleased but scary looking grin as he said, "well now that's impressive! I've never seen anyone resist so easily."

Harry couldn't help but grin with pride at that.

Each of the girls took their turn after him, but all of them had difficulty fighting off the Imperious Curse, as Harry had to watch them make fools out of themselves as they jumped up and down, quacked like a duck, or went and stood on top of their chairs.

Padma was last but she had a particular strategy as Moody tried to use the Imperious Curse on her.

Just before he used the spell, Padma immediately concentrated on using their bond to connect with him and as the Imperious Curse hit her, he felt Padma's presence inside him as well as him connecting with her.

He felt the attack on Padma's mind trying to get her to sing a song, but Padma seemed to be using his strength and mental fortitude to throw off the attack.

Moody tried once more only for Padma to once again use such a strategy.

By now Moody seemed confused as to what was going on but still tried harder only to make no further ground.

Finally he gave up, still thinking before he let out a loud, booming laugh that was actually rather scary sounding as he concluded, "of course, love magic, why didn't I see it?"

"I used my bond to Harry in order to rely on his strong will to help protect me," Padma admitted.

"Brilliant!" Hermione praised, "wish I had thought of that."

"Me too," Susan agreed.

Moody looked at each of them as said, "each person can have a connection or link to another, however faint, but each of yours is much stronger than any I've previously encountered. It is a rare and powerful skill. I imagine the Unspeakables would love to get their hands on all of you actually."

"No thanks," Harry immediately declined again.

"Very well," Moody said, "but if I were you I would try and practice using it, you never know when it might come in handy again when you least suspect it. As I always say, make sure to use every tool at your disposal to defeat your enemies."

They didn't really see their bond as a weapon, but they had indeed been practicing using their bond, merely just because it made them all feel closer to each other, but each of them still nodded politely to Moody regardless.

Moody studied them for another long moment with great interest however before finally returning to finishing up explaining about the Unforgivable Curses.

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Author's Note: We are actually coming towards the end of this story with only 2 more chapters left as well as the epilogue.