Spring Equinox

Chapter 12

Although they didn't plan on telling, it was quite difficult keeping the secret, especially with Minerva looking younger every day. Dumbledore complimented her, "Married life seems to agree with you, making you look fresher."

Sirius was teasing them mercilessly, as expected. The fact that Harry was married at such a young age could have been enough. Having six wives was more than Sirius could have overlooked. Having one of them being his old teacher was incomprehensible, although he only teased Harry about it when Minerva wasn't in hearing range.

Harry accepted the teasing patiently, smiling at Sirius in a patronizing way. "When you finally find your mate, you'll understand," he told Sirius, sounding more mature than his godfather.

"That's exactly what James used to say after he got married, only you have six wives! How can you even cope?"

"I love them. That seems to be the secret that makes me able to satisfy them all as much as they want." It was said with such seriousness that Sirius was unable to laugh at it. 'Was love so powerful that it could make one do the impossible?' Sirius wondered.

As a teacher, Sirius proved to be very good, almost on par with his friend Remus. His vivacious character and his humor were put to good use in his lectures, making the students attentive and easing the learning process. Sirius also asked Harry and the other DA members to help close the gap between what had (not) been taught and what should have been. All DA members acted as assistants during the defense lessons, helping their classmates reach the required level. Harry also agreed to give two DA sessions each week, one for the upper classes and one for the lower, and open them to whoever wanted to learn. This put a lot of burden on Harry, but Hermione and Susan helped him a lot with the older students, and so did Ginny and Luna with the younger. Daphne also volunteered to help in organizing the lessons, but she needed to learn a lot before she could help with the teaching.

By mid May, Minnie's pregnancy could already be seen when nude, making Harry excited at the thought that his daughter was growing in there. Minnie was really feeling wonderful. She was full of energy and could hardly repress her smiles when with students or staff, although some students had already noticed that the Professor was easier to get along with since she became a Potter. She actually started using some makeup charms to hide the fact that her face was looking younger each day. When in bed with Harry and his other wives, she no longer felt old. She only felt a bit more mature.

Voldemort was not oblivious to the events at Hogwarts, yet his spies couldn't bring him much information. "Who owns Hogwarts?" he asked, but all he got was that Potter was now Lord Slytherin. This didn't do much good to his temper.

He was also unable to get the names of Potter's wives. The magic protecting them seemed to be very strong. One of his spies managed to find out that Professor McGonagall was now Potter's wife. He barely escaped alive, as the Dark Lord crucio'ed him to a breath from losing his sanity or his life. "How dare you come to me with such a childish joke?!"

As much as he tried to, the Potter brat seemed immune to his remote legilimancy. Earlier in the year, he found out that Potter was sometimes able to connect to his snake or even to his own mind. That was troublesome, but it could be used to further his goals. The few times he tried to influence potter before the equinox he succeeded nicely without putting too much effort into it. Now the brat seemed to be impenetrable.

"Severus, does Potter get any occlumancy lessons from somebody else?"

"There's nobody who can teach him. Black's occlumancy shields are miserable at best and Dumbledore is too busy. Besides, Potter spends every free moment with his six wives. I assume he faints of exhaustion each night, although I've not seen it." 'And I wouldn't like to, even if I could,' he thought bitterly. Just seeing the Greengrass girl all cuddly and giggling with Potter gave him shivers.

Yet Voldemort needed to do something. That prophecy – he needed to hear it. He couldn't just wait, doing nothing. The last attempt, when he had used his snake to search, failed, and it had all been due to Potter. He needed to get rid of that brat once and for all, but how? And what if the prophecy said it was the wrong way to tackle the problem?

The Potter wives also had Voldemort's threatening existence in mind. They knew they could not be really happy as long as their husband had that Sword of Democles hanging above him. Hermione had started researching the subject since the end of fourth year. Now she was joined by Susan and Daphne, yet they had nothing to show for their efforts. They were not aware of Luna doing her own research in a much less orthodox manner.

It was the beginning of June when Luna put a book in front of Hermione. "What do you think about that?"

Hermione noticed it was a book dealing with blood and s*x magic, of the kind she couldn't find in the library. "Where did you get it from?"

Luna shrugged. "Dad has many books, some quite old. I asked him to send me a few that I thought might be helpful. I think I found something that could really make a change."

Hermione checked the ritual on the open page. It was a straightforward ritual, with no obscure materials to find, no animal or human sacrifice and just some drops of blood and semen needed – and a lot of s*x.

Although she was enjoying a very active s*x life, Hermione still blushed at the idea of ritual s*x. Now, she needed to read it all and think of the implications.

A few hours later, after having also visited the Grimmauld Place library with Sirius, and consulted with Minnie, Hermione had a clear picture in her mind. "Luna, what made you think that this may help?"

Luna shrugged. "I didn't really know, but as Harry's mind is open to me, and I can access the minds of his other bond mates through him, it became quite apparent what is needed to end Voldemort."

Hermione nodded in appreciation. "I believe this may work, and the best time to do it would be the summer solstice."

"Oh, that would be like an early end-of-term celebration!" the slight blonde exclaimed dreamily.

"Maybe. It will be a few days after we finish our exams, so we'll have enough time to prepare everything without interfering with preparations for our OWLs. Minnie will also have time enough to check the exams before the ritual."

Voldemort knew he needed to act before the end of term. Once Potter went on vacation, the chances of luring him into some ambush were much smaller. Yet he was still unable to formulate a plan without knowing the prophecy, and he needed Potter to reach the prophecy for him. The dilemma didn't help his mood any. Wormtail suffered the most, but none of his inner circle escaped unscathed. Even Bellatrix had some deep cuts on her arms to show as a prize for her loyalty.

Hermione made sure that they all passed their exams with highest grades possible. She found Daphne a good ally, and between both young women, nobody would neglect studying for the exams. Despite groaning at the pressure Hermione was putting on them, Harry really enjoyed studying with his wives. Without Ron's distracting comments, he was able to study very well, catching up with material he had neglected to study before. Having Hermione's mind open for him like a book helped a lot, but his other bond-mates helped just as much.

It was also very helpful for the girls. Both Luna and Ginny decided to take their OWLs a year early, so they would skip a year and join the rest of the family in class as well, finishing school a year earlier than planned.

The exams proved easy for Harry. With access to Hermione's vast memory and Daphne's almost as extensive one, nothing seemed difficult. All his wives found the exams quite easy. Even most of the practical exams proved not too difficult, although Ginny and Luna were at a bit of disadvantage there. Still they passed these exams, although with slightly lower grades than the older members of the family.

The last exam was History of Magic. Based on his experience with the other exams, Harry didn't feel too concerned. He sat down and answered each question confidently. He was finishing the last answer when he felt a slight dizziness. 'I think Voldemort is trying something,' he told Hermione mentally.

She didn't answer, but a moment later, he felt as if his mind was closing in, disallowing any external influence except for his family. The dizziness disappeared immediately.

As they left the great hall, where the exam was taking place, Harry told Susan, "I think Voldemort is planning to do something soon, maybe even tonight. I would suggest to your aunt to tighten the security around and inside the ministry."

"I'll floo her," Susan said, leaving the group towards Minerva's office. She rejoined the group a few minutes later. "Auntie was upset that I could give her no specific reason for my suggestion. She's still going to put her most trusted aurors on guard this afternoon, though."

"Good," was all Harry said.

They had a few days free to get ready for the ritual. Hermione let Harry read the relevant pages in the book Luna had given her and a few she had found in the Black library. "You should know what to do, as it is mainly up to you to make it work," she told him.

The language was archaic, but due to his connection with Hermione and Daphne he could read it as if it was modern English.

"This ritual is intended to unite soul fragments and fuse them back together, restoring a damaged soul to its original state. It can then be healed or destroyed, as the case may be. In order to achieve that, the participants need to sacrifice a bit of their life force. For normal, healthy people, this sacrifice is negligible and is recuperated within a short time."

Harry was confused. "What is this about soul fragments?"

"Well, according to your memories of the resurrection ritual and the headaches you've got when near Voldemort, it is quite clear that he had fragmented his soul to try and gain immortality. I suspect one fragment resides in your scar. This ritual will practically make him mortal again, by uniting all fragments into one whole," Luna explained, sounding dreamy as always.

Harry nodded understandingly and continued reading.

"The ritual needs at least seven female participants and at least one male. More participants are recommended, especially males."

"I only have six wives. Where will we find a seventh female for this ritual?" Harry asked.

"I don't think you'll encounter any problem in finding a female who would agree to help you in this," Hermione smirked, "but you don't really need one. You have six wives and a daughter – seven females total."

"The daughter is not born yet, and I don't think I'd like her to participate even if she was," Harry frowned.

"It doesn't matter. She is a female soul present at the ritual. That's all that matters," Hermione assured him.

Harry nodded reluctantly, continuing his reading.

"The ritual starts by each female giving ten drops of blood, mixing all the blood in a wooden cup. Then the males should start intercourse with the females, but make sure not to spill their semen inside. Once they approach their peak they must let their semen flow into the cup with the blood and mix it well. The exact amount is not important, but none of the semen should be left inside the females, as it would seriously detract from the power of the ritual and may even cause harm, and the more females are used to extract the semen, the more powerful the ritual becomes.

The females should then form a circle around the males. The participants should dip the tips of their wands in the mixture of blood and semen then hold all the tips touching and cast the spell for restoring the soul fragments: Reunite all fragments from the soul of (insert name here).

If done correctly, the tips of the wands should light up and turn golden. By the time the light turns off, the tips should be clean. The soul fragments are now on their way to be united, though it make take a few minutes for that to happen, depending on the distance of the fragments from the main container.

If the ritual is done for healing purpose..."

Harry skipped forward.

"The soul fragments of malignant souls can now be destroyed in several ways, yet the safest way is to use the sacrifice part of this ritual for that. Unlike the healing procedure, where the soul fragments are encouraged to unite by reinforcing the vessel of the re-united soul, in this case we want to destroy the vessel with the soul fragments. This is best done as far away from the container vessel as possible, minimizing the risk of an errand soul fragment latching into one of the participants. There is no risk of the soul fragments latching to non-participants, although no explanation is known to this phenomenon.

The wooden cup is put in the middle of the previous circle, with the males joining the females. All wands should point to the cup and the spell to use is: For giving from our life force as sacrifice, let the soul and body of (insert name here) disintegrate and be removed from this world and from any other.

The spell should be repeated several times, until the wooden cup and its contents disappear in a red flash. The participants may then continue with their normal activities."

"It looks promising," Harry noted. "By which name should we refer to him?"

Hermione pointed at a footnote. "The name used in the ritual should be the one by which the subject is known. If there are multiple names, then the best is the one preferred by the subject of this ritual."

"So, I believe we should call him 'Voldemort' – his chosen name," Harry said.

Hermione just nodded.

"How can I assure that I don't spill into one of you by mistake?" Harry worried.

Hermione smiled. "Being muggle-raised, you should know. You can use condoms. They allow you to reach your peak inside us and then empty the used condom into the wooden cup. It's much safer than trying to control your ejaculation, though most purebloods wouldn't know. I've bought enough for two rituals, if you want."

"I wonder if Riddle knows about this ritual."

Hermione shrugged. "He may know, but as this requires extreme control from the male, he probably dismissed it. He will not know what hit him..."