Spring Equinox

Chapter 8

Harry woke up leisurely, remembering it was Sunday. 'No classes today,' he thought.

'But we have a lot of homework to catch up with. You wouldn't like to disappoint Professor Potter, would you?' Hermione's voice played in his mind.

He groaned and opened his eyes, forgetting homework immediately, as his eyes found Daphne looking at him, wearing only her smile. "I think, my dear husband, that you are forgetting your husbandly duties to me," she teased.

"And what might they be?" he wondered, despite having quite a good idea about her intentions.

"Well, you should give me my share of love making at least every other day, and preferably – each day."

Harry smiled. "I wouldn't dream of neglecting my duties to you."

"You're talking too much!" she said, straddling him. There was no need for talking. She brushed his crotch with hers a few times, until she was sure he was ready enough and then shoved him inside her. Harry let his hands roam her body, caressing and teasing as he liked, making sure to give her an enjoyable experience. With that help, Daphne was quick to reach her peak, dragging him to his peak as well. Harry embraced her and let her rest on his body, kissing her lightly. He knew he now loved this beautiful girl. He didn't know if that was the effect of the bond or if the bond only brought some well hidden feelings to the surface. He was just content to love her and be loved by her.

Yet he couldn't rest. Susan came into the room. "Are you up to being with me as well?" she asked shyly.

"He's up, alright," Daphne answered in his stead, leaving the bed for Susan.

It was twenty minutes later when they left the bedroom. Hermione was looking at them with a tender smile. "Do you want to go to the great hall for breakfast or would you rather have the house elves bring us breakfast here?"

"We need to continue our life and make others accept the new situation," Harry said after a short thought. "Let's go to the great hall!"

This time, Harry led his family to the Gryffindor table. He saw Ron frown, seeing Daphne in the group, but a glare from Ginny put him in his place. Nobody else seemed to mind the beautiful Slytherin girl joining their table. Harry sat down with Hermione at his left and Luna at his right, followed by Daphne and Ginny, while Susan sat at Hermione's side.

They barely sat down when Neville approached, looking very formal. "Lord Potter, ladies, in the name of house Longbottom I congratulate you all for your bonding and wish you all happiness and good luck." Harry wondered why Neville wanted to repeat his official congratulations. Neville now turned less formal. "Harry, after your performance at the equinox, you've set us all guys a difficult standard to reach."

Harry smiled. "Thank you, scion Longbottom. As for the challenge, I didn't do anything special. I'm sure you can do just as well if you put your mind to it." 'Or another part of your body,' he sensed Ginny chuckling at his side.

Yet Neville had not finished. "I also want to renew the alliance of House Longbottom with House Potter, as it has been for many generations. I hereby declare that house Longbottom will support house Potter in any way possible."

Harry was touched to his core. "I hereby accept the renewal of the alliance and I also declare that house Potter will support house Longbottom to the best of its abilities whenever needed."

He extended his hand to Neville, who grabbed it and shook his hand. A brief flash surrounded their hands, making it a magical oath.

As Neville returned to his place, the post owls started arriving. Harry saw Pigwidgin coming down to Ginny. Seeing the white envelope, Ginny seemed to relax. She opened her letter eagerly and read it quickly, her smile widening. She then passed it to Harry. "There's something for you there as well," she said.

Harry read the letter.

"Ginny dear,

We were appalled at hearing about the equinox celebration. That barbaric ritual should have been abolished long ago. I'm going to personally tell the minister what I think about his undersecretary reinstating it, and at Hogwarts, of all places.

I'm very disappointed that you chose to take part in such an event. You had no control about whom you would mate and it could end up with disastrous results for you, making you pregnant to somebody you don't even know or worse. That was a haste decision, worthy of a howler and some severe punishment.

As you can see, this is not a howler. You were lucky enough to turn this event to your benefit, becoming Harry's wife. We would have liked it better if you didn't have to share, but Magic may have a reason to give Harry more than one wife.

My dear daughter, your dad and I are happy for you and congratulate both you and Harry for your bonding. We wish you a happy marriage and many children, but none before you finish school!

Harry, be good to my little girl. I know you are a kind person, yet I don't want her to lack your attention now, with so many wives to require it. Arthur is also congratulating you for bonding with Ginny as well as bonding with the other girls.

Good luck to you all,

Love, Molly (and Arthur)

P.S. Do come and visit us during the summer vacation, please."

His other girls had also received letters. All expressed their displeasure with the equinox celebration and promised to protest to the minister, yet congratulated their daughters for marrying such a fine lad.

Harry saw the twins whispering to each other before they stood up and approached him, walking deliberately slowly to attract attention. They stopped a few paces away, coughed a little, to assure everybody's attention was on them, and then bowed exaggeratedly, once Harry turned toward them.

"Dear Lord Potter, it is our pleasure," started George, "and our duty," his brother continued, "to express our appreciation for such a..." "fine breeding stag as you."

People started laughing, yet the twins were not over yet. "In the course of four hours, you not only bonded with five fine ladies and one teacher, but you also shagged almost all girls present at the celebration, and each was smiling broadly afterward. Let us worship you, your lordship, and allow us to offer you our ever lasting alliance, especially as you are now our brother-in-law, so we really have no choice."

Ginny almost fell off her seat at their antics. Daphne was laughing so hard that nobody would have thought she was "The Ice Queen". Even Hermione was laughing, despite trying to look serious, as appropriate for Lady Potter.

Harry didn't even try. He laughed heartily and then punched the twins lightly on the shoulder. "You are impossible! Don't ever change," he said to them.

Somebody had to spoil the mood, as usual, and quite expectedly it was Malfoy. "So, scarhead, you've finally got your own bordello, I see."

Harry stood up and turned to face Malfoy, as Daphne spoke in his head, 'Insulting one's wife is considered cause enough for a blood feud. Just remind him of that.'

"I'm not sure I've heard you right, scion Malfoy. I'm sure you didn't try to insult any of my wives, bringing a blood feud on your head, did you? Now, would you like to repeat what you said?"

Draco paled considerably. He knew of pureblood customs much better than Harry, and knew very well what a blood feud could mean to him and his family. "I just wanted to congratulate you for bonding with these fine young ladies and wish you happiness with them," he back-pedaled as hard as he could.

Harry could sense both Daphne and Hermione smirk internally. "Thank you, scion Malfoy. It's very kind of you," he said politely. Draco bowed his head slightly, as if in acknowledgment, and returned promptly to the Slytherin table.

Harry glanced at the head table. Minerva was hiding a smile while the toad seemed to be seething.

Another wave of post owl arrived, carrying the newspapers. Hermione opened her paper and gasped. The front title stated "Lord Potter bonded to five girls during the first Equinox celebration at Hogwarts."

She scanned the text quickly and then smiled, passing the paper to Harry, pointing at the appropriate paragraph.

"It looks like Undersecretary Umbridge, who has now been appointed as the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts by our esteemed Minister, decided that destroying her students' chances of passing DADA OWLs and NEWTs is not enough. Keeping it a secret from the parents of the students by intercepting all outgoing mail, she forced all fifth to seventh year students to take part in the Equinox Celebration, declaring it an important part of our magical heritage. She seemed to have forgotten that it has never been a real part of it, and has always been intended only for of-age participants. One may only wonder what her real intentions were.

Yet it seems that her plans backfired. Once at the celebration, Lord Harry Potter (see page 5 for additional information) seemed to have found a few soul mates, bonding with them as soon as he did his part in that event. As these are all underage, we are not able to let their identities be known right now, but they are all respectable students who had been known to be virgins before mating with Lord Potter.

It is still unknown how many of the girls who were forced to participate ended pregnant and how such pregnancies will be dealt by the ministry. Another problem may arise if any of the girls who were forced to participate have betrothal or marriage contracts with a virginity clause. Our reporters were unable to get any response from the minister or his undersecretary, who is still cocooned at Hogwarts and not answering any mail."

Harry was surprised to find that Rita Skeeter was one of the reporters responsible for that article.

Harry glanced at the head table again, noticing that Minerva looked quite smug while the toad was looking as if sitting on a hot stove. He thought that her red face didn't go too well with her pink robes, although it was much better than seeing her naked. He also noticed Minerva mouthing "Wait for me," without letting the toad notice.

She had to supervise the students going to Hogsmeade first, though. Harry and the girls waited patiently until there were no other students waiting. They all crammed into one carriage. Harry didn't mind feeling both Hermione and Daphne pressed tightly to him, and it looked like none of the girls minded being crammed in.

"I had no time to tell you yesterday, but I found out that we can control the Daily Prophet," Minerva told them. "You've seen the result today. I'll go into details when we're a bit more comfortable."

All the girls wanted to be with Harry, yet Hermione suggested, "Let Harry spend his time with no more than two girls at once, not to attract too much attention. Although everybody at school already knows, we don't want too much gossiping, and a large group is sure to attract unwanted attention."

Harry first went with Hermione and Daphne to the book shop; he went to Honeydukes with Ginny and Luna; he visited Zonko with Susan and Ginny and then returned to the book shop with Hermione and Minerva. They assembled for lunch at The Three Broomsticks in a back room, entering it discreetly, without anybody being able to see who went there. They sat at a round table with Hermione at Harry's left and Minerva at his right.

After they all drank a bit, Minerva told them. "It is not well known that the founder of the Daily Prophet, about two hundred years ago, was a Potter. He believed in free press, so he thought that holding all the shares would not serve this ideal. He sold most of them, keeping only twenty five percent of the ownership. The rest reached different hands and was resold several times. Eventually it ended with the Black family holding twenty percent, Longbottom and Bones – ten percent each, Malfoy holding six percent, McGonagall – about two and the rest held by small shareholders. With no Lord Potter to control his share, the Black Lord imprisoned and the Bones and Longbottoms losing interest, the ministry, with the aid of Malfoy and some of his allies, was able to dictate the policy and practically control the newspaper. The equinox changed things. Potter is now in full control of both Bones and McGonagall shares and is allied with Longbottom. I was able to contact Lord Black and he gave his solicitor instructions to pass all his voting rights to Harry. We are now controlling sixty-seven percent of the shares, enabling us to assess almost full control of the paper. I made the Editor in Chief attentive to this fact and passed the relevant information about the Equinox celebration to him. He was able to verify it through his own connections and you've seen the printed article."

Her triumphant smirk could make Draco envious.

Hermione and Daphne were already thinking a few steps ahead. Harry could sense them exchanging rapid bursts of information but was not able to comprehend it. Daphne then talked. "We can now make sure that all the deeds of the toad woman are published, making the public resent her and the minister. The sooner they are replaced, the better. I believe Lord Potter has a few votes in the Wizengamot as well, and a few allies. We shall assure that the new minister will be better suited to the task and more sympathetic to Harry."

"Madam Bones could make a good Minister," Luna piped in.

"My aunt?" Susan wondered.

"She is a top official, known to be strict and efficient and doesn't subscribe to any of the preconceived notions of our society," Minerva explained.

"And she's sure to side with us, now that you're part of our family," Hermione added.

"Why don't we persuade Dumbledore to take the post?" Harry asked.

"He'd been offered the post several times and refused it each time. He's always willing to advise and help, but not to shoulder the responsibility of being the minister," Minerva explained.

"Where is he, actually? I've not seen him for a few weeks already," Daphne noted.

Minerva sighed. "He was trying his best to stop Umbridge until the Minister ordered him to stay with the British delegation to the ICU, saying that our position there is deteriorating. Had Fudge been wiser, it would have not deteriorated, but he wouldn't listen to any smart advice."

Hermione brought them all in line. "So, we basically control the Prophet and we're going to force Umbridge out and replace Fudge, eventually." She thought a bit more and then smiled. "I think we can remove Umbridge even without the Prophet."

They all looked questioningly at her.

"Well, Harry has inherited three of the founders: Gryfindor, Ravencalw and Slytherin, while the Bones are the only known descendants of Hufflepuff. We practically own the school. We can hire and fire as we like and the ministry can have no say in it."

"What about the board of governors?" Susan asked.

"According to the Hogwarts Charter, the board is appointed when the heirs cannot be found or are unable to handle the school. We can legally take control of the school whenever we want to."

"And we want it now!" Harry declared solemnly.

It took mere seconds before he felt another presence in his mind, stating, 'As you wish, my Lord!'

"Did you feel it?" he asked.

"I did," said Susan. "I think that Hogwarts accepted you and me as its masters. I don't know what it means, though."

"I think I know," Minerva said. "You now have full control of the castle and of the school. You should sit at the head table and publicly announce that you take over the school by right of inheritance. The school will probably respond in a way. You may then fire Umbridge and null her decrees. You may even set new school rules, if you choose, although I wouldn't advise changing anything before you study it fully to make sure you know what you're doing."

Harry looked around. "I'll need your help, all of you, to be able to do it right."

They all smiled reassuringly at him.

Harry wanted to drink some more. As he put his hand forward to grab his glass, Minerva noticed some scarring on the back of his hand. "What's that?" she asked.

"Oh, it's nothing," Harry said, trying to hide it with his sleeve. He should have known better.

Minerva grabbed his hand and looked closely at it, noticing the scar formed some words. She didn't have to think for long to understand what it meant. "Umbridge?" she asked.

Harry nodded.

"I'll contact Madam Bones before dinner and have her send some aurors. I can open all teacher offices due to my position and I'll have them search Umbridge's office while she is at dinner. She's going to have a few surprises for dessert." Minerva's dark looks promised some very unpleasant moments for the toad. "I'll have Poppy check your hand after dinner."