Work Text:
Meeting Luna's Pet
A Harry Potter fanfic
By Andrew yclept Aelfwine
Pairings: Harry/Ginny, Luna/Millicent Bulstrode, Harry/Ginny/Hermione, Harry/Ginny/Hermione/Luna/Millicent
Warnings: AU, Implied Nargles, Implied Hessian Squirrel-bats, Domme!Luna/Sub!Millicent, gentle and consensual lifestyle D&S, Luna quoting Eric Von Shrakenberg, Nebulous AU (post-Goblet of Fire, probably alternate Fifth Year summer) setting
Rating: PG-13ish. 8200 words
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The characters and situations of the Harry Potter series are copyright J.K. Rowling. They may not be used or reproduced commercially without permission. The use of these characters and situations is not to be construed as challenge to said copyright. They are merely borrowed for this work of non-commercial fanfiction, from which the author derives no financial benefit.
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“Dear Harry and Hermione and Ginny,
“Won't you please come to visit me today? I suppose you could bring Ronald as well, if you'd like to, but I predict he'll not wish to come near our house, remembering that incident with the Hessian Squirrel-bats when we were little. I told him they were only playing, but I don't think he believed me.
“I really do hope the three of you can come. We've ever so much to talk about. And I've a new pet I'd love for you to meet properly.
“Kisses and all my love, Luna.”
Not knowing what to think, Harry passed the letter to Ginny, who passed it to Hermione. “I've read about ordinary Mediterranean Squirrel-bats, and they sounded harmless enough. What are the Hessian ones like?”
“They're... amusing. And they don't like boys who aren't nice to their sisters and their sisters' best friends. Isn't that right, Ron? Ron?”
Ron looked up from his breakfast. "Wazzat?"
"Hessian Squirrel-bats, Ron."
He paled. "No. Don't want to think about them."
"Luna asked us over to her house today, Ron. Want to come with?"
"No way. I'm not going near there. There might be squirrel-bats. I... err, I thought I'd go in the village today. Have a look at the Muggle papers, maybe."
"Or is it a look at the Muggle blonde who works in the newsagent's? I think you said something about 'Great pair on that one, bigger than Lav's.' Am I right?" There was an air of what might be called unholy glee in Ginny's voice. Harry wondered what his girlfriend was up to.
"No comment."
Hermione rolled her eyes. Ron ignored her, returning to his second helping of bacon, eggs, sausage, and mushrooms.
"So, are you two coming?" Ginny smiled brightly. Harry didn't know what was happening. It was as if Ginny was both encouraging Hermione to spend time with them and trying to scare her brother away.
"Sure." After all, what else would Harry have done? Pretty blonde or no, going to the newsagent's with Ron sounded about as much fun as watching Flobberworms eat rotten lettuce. The girls Harry most wanted to see were right here.
"Hermione? Please?"
"Of course, Ginny."
"Excellent." Under the cover of the table, Ginny interlaced her fingers with Harry's. With her other hand, she patted Hermione's shoulder.
When the washing-up was done, Ginny cornered Harry outside Ron's room. "Hermione's getting on her walking shoes, as it's a couple of miles' walk to Luna's house. You've got a pair, haven't you?"
"Err... I've never had a lot of different shoes. But Sirius gave me a pair of self-sizing boots. Some sort of Black family tradition, he told me they were. I think they'd do."
"Oh, did you think I was talking about shoes, Harry?"
"What?" Surely Ginny wasn't making a dirty joke.
"I'm only teasing, dear. I know you've enough of that for all of us. And I do reckon the Black boots will be brilliant." She stood on tiptoe, and kissed him softly on the cheek. "If you'll put them on and come to join Hermione and me, we'll have a nice little ramble over to Luna's. I feel badly I've never taken you there before. She's a dear friend. We used to read all the Boy Who Lived books together. When we were eight or nine, we even tried writing our own one.”
“Really?” Harry wasn't sure he wanted to hear anything about this, but he had the feeling Ginny wanted him to ask. He'd found that he didn't like to deny her anything. Besides, in the end he wanted to know everything about Ginny, and he was quickly realising that what she looked like without any clothes on was, contrary to the stated opinions of Ron and the other boys, only the beginning of what a man would want to know about his girlfriend.
“It was all about the adventures of Harry Potter and how he met his two very best friends, Guinevere, whom everyone called Gwennie, and Lune. It all started one morning when a dragon attacked the girls, who were out bathing. Harry Potter just happened to be riding his customised broomstick by the river, and when he heard the dragon roar he came to save them. But by the time he got there they'd already beaten the dragon and were putting their clothes on, and he was so impressed that he asked them to come with him and rescue a herd of Snorkacks from poachers. So they asked their parents, who packed them up a nice lunch and told them it was fine as long as they were back by suppertime.” She looked Harry in the eye and gave him a little smile. “Silly, isn't it?”
He didn't know what to say. Fortunately, Hermione at just that moment came down the stairs.
“Oh, I think it's rather charming, myself.”
“Thanks, Hermione. If only we'd known you then, I'm sure there'd have been a brilliant little Muggleborn witch on the team as well.”
“Thanks, Ginny. So, Harry, ready to go?”
“I only need to put my boots on.”
“My, could we... watch?”
“Err...”
“Don't be cruel, Hermione. Everyone knows boys are more shy and sensitive than us. Doesn't our Harry deserve his privacy?”
“It's only his feet, Ginny. It's not as if I asked him to let us see anything more... intimate.”
Harry really didn't know what to say to that. Giggling, the two girls hugged him. “Sorry for teasing you so. We'll all make it up to you later.” Ginny whispered in his ear.
Hermione didn't say anything. Harry was glad of that. If she had, he was afraid he might have said something that might make both girls realise all the embarrassing ideas her simple friendly participation in Ginny's teasing were giving him. It was impossible that the girls actually might have any intention of doing anything that even remotely resembled the absurd fantasies of a bed full of warm, sweet, cuddly girls that Harry had been having nearly as long as he'd began having thoughts about girls at all. Ginny was simply doing her best to make her brother realise he had to grow up and make himself worthy of Hermione, and in the process she was doing her best to distract Hermione, whom she clearly saw as a sister, with games and banter.
Harry knew he should be grateful that Ginny trusted him with Hermione. He should do his best to see his bushy-haired best friend as a sister, just as it was clear his lovely red-headed girlfriend did. If it hadn't been for Ginny, and for Ron, Harry might have done otherwise, but as it was he knew there was only one choice. He'd do his best to work with Ginny to make his brother in all but blood into a man worthy of the love Hermione apparently felt for him, and as he was doing that he'd do his best to make himself think of Hermione as his sister, just as, he was sure, she thought of him as her brother.
And he'd better do his best as well to stop imagining them snuggled together in Ginny's bed, trading kisses and whispered fantasies. After all, he thought it was rather sick when Ron and Séamus talked about what they thought Parvati and Padma might get up to, or Daphne Greengrass from Slytherin and her pretty little sister Astoria. He should learn to not be such a hypocrite, shouldn't he?
Shaking his head, he pulled on the boots Sirius had given him. They weren't dragonhide, he thought, but he wasn't sure what they were. In any event, they fit perfectly. He'd never had shoes that fit so well. He was going to have to stop wearing his old taped-up trainers, except when he was at the Dursleys'. And if he could help it he'd never go back there again.
He was distracted from his brooding by a knock at the door, and giggles. "Are you coming, Harry? Or must I set Hermione on you?"
"I hope he's not coming, Ginny, not without us to help him with it."
"Hermione!"
When he opened the door, both girls looked rather intensely embarrassed. At least as embarrassed as he felt, he judged. They didn't say much to each other as they left the Burrow, walked through the farmyard, and headed out the gate and down the road towards the Lovegood house.
After a few minutes, Ginny took his hand. That was nice.
Hermione got on his other side, somewhat closer than he would have expected, certainly much closer than Ron would have walked. "Err... I'm sorry for embarrassing you two. That was very silly of me."
Harry didn't know what to say. Ginny, on the other hand, giggled. "Oh, Hermione, don't be sorry. It's not as if I've not been teasing Harry all this time. Not to mention how much I've teased you. It's fine."
Harry couldn't remember seeing Ginny tease Hermione. Perhaps it was something she'd said at night when the two girls were alone in Ginny's room. That wasn't a good thing to think about, he realised a moment later. He was glad his trousers were fairly loose ones, although at least these were hand-me-downs from Sirius, which had self-tailoring spells that made them an adequate fit, rather than the ones from Dudley, which made him look like an unusually drab circus clown, or perhaps one of those rapper people from the MTV whose gold chains had all been stolen by a mob of Nifflers.
"Umm... it's fine, Hermione. I... err... we're friends. Nothing wrong with teasing a bit."
She petted his shoulder, and left her hand there far longer than he would have expected her to do.
The Lovegood house wasn't anything like what Harry would have expected. It wasn't a comfortable ramshackle farmhouse like the Burrow. It wasn't a little cottage with vines and roses. It wasn't even a grand Stately Home.
It was a fortress. Or at least it was the next thing to one. It wasn't a castle on the scale of Hogwarts, of course, but a round tower of black stone, with battlements at the top, like the rook from a chess set grown large enough for human habitation. Its footprint was half again that of the Dursleys' suburban semi, and it rose three or four storeys into the air. Harry couldn't help wondering if Luna's ancestors had ever poured boiling oil off those battlements onto the heads of their enemies.
The grounds were overgrown with strange plants, and there was something about “Dirigible Plums” on the sign at the gate. He didn't remember those from any of Professor Sprout's lessons. He thought of asking Ginny or Hermione, but just as he opened his mouth a streak of yellow and gold impacted Ginny, drove her into Harry, and squeezed both of them up against Hermione. It took him a moment further to realise that Luna was hugging the three of them together.
“Oh, you came! All three of you! How wonderful!”
Ginny kissed her cheek. "Of course we did! How could I not bring my handsome boyfriend and the most wonderful girl in Gryffindor to visit my best friend?"
Hermione was blushing. Harry really shouldn't be noticing how pretty she was when she did that.
Ginny put her lips up against his ear and whispered "She's pretty when she blushes, isn't she?"
He didn't know how he was meant to respond. Could this be one of those 'boyfriend tests' that the Twins had warned him about? Fortunately, Luna chose that moment to grab Ginny's hand in one of hers, and Hermione's in the other. Ginny seized Harry's hand, and the pale-haired girl towed the threesome around the house and into the back garden.
Luna was wearing a sundress. It was made of yellow fabric with little blue specks on. It showed practically all of her shoulders and arms and a lot of her legs, which were just a little bit tanned, somewhere between Ginny's creamy skin and Hermione's healthy light brown. Luna's legs... No, think about Ginny. Ginny standing next to Luna and Hermione, none of them wearing more than--Bad Harry! Stop that! Right now!
He looked at Ginny. Wasn't she beautiful? She was. He liked her red hair, and how fresh and alive she looked in her simple t-shirt and faded jeans. He wondered if Luna and Hermione found her as beautiful, as attractive, as sweet and warm and cuddly and kissable and sweet-scented as he found her.
Wait, that was something he shouldn't be thinking about, either. Wasn't it?
He should stop thinking about things he shouldn't be thinking about, and start thinking about where they were going. They were on a gravel path, now, one that curved between flower beds and clumps of shrubbery, some of which came in colours he'd never seen before. For that matter, this was the first time he'd ever seen roses with tiger stripes of any shade, much less jade green and violet. And did the tulips have polka dots? They did, except for the ones that were paisley.
Flowers, that was a safe topic of conversation. A good way of being friendly with Luna, and distracting himself from bad thoughts about his girlfriend's best friend. "These are lovely flowers. Very unusual. Did you plant them, Luna?"
"Oh, some of them. Some of them are my father's. And some of them just decided they should grow here. Thank you, Harry. I never would have thought of you as someone who cared for flowers."
"Well, my aunt made me do all her gardening, so it was either love them or hate them. And I suppose it's easier to love them."
"A very wise, but very sad man who lived in a very difficult situation, as the leader of a country which he loved, but which he knew was dependent on an utterly evil system, once said of flowers: 'They're easier to love than human beings, and safer. And, unlike humans, they deserve it.' But I think some humans are very easy to love, and not so very unsafe to love, and, what's more, that they do deserve it. What do you think, Ginny?" Luna had brought them to a stop, but was still holding Ginny and Hermione's hands.
"Oh, I think some people are like that. Not everyone, of course: there are Death Eaters, for instance, and my idiot brother Ron. What do you think, Hermione?"
"Oh, I suppose I can think of a few people who are loveable like that. Present company very much included."
"That's very sweet of you to say, Hermione. May I kiss you for it?"
"Err, well... I..."
"Only on the cheek, of course. Ginny, Harry, may I?"
"I think it would be a sweet thing, Luna. That is, if Hermione doesn't mind it."
"Umm, Luna, I don't think it's any business of mine to say if you can kiss Hermione or not."
"If you say so, Harry."
"After all, I don't think Ginny asked Hermione if she could kiss me..." He realised that both Ginny and Hermione looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Ginny. Really, I am. I'm sorry as well, Hermione..."
"Oh, Harry, don't be. It's just, well, IsortofdidaskHermione." His girlfriend's face was nearly the same shade as her hair.
"It was a bit of a joke between us, Harry, that's all."
"Good heavens. I suppose I'm going to have to kiss all three of you, aren't I? As friends do, of course." Very delicately, Luna leant towards Hermione. "May I? On the cheek?"
Hermione nodded. Softly, Luna pressed her lips against Harry's best friend's cheek. Much to his surprise, Hermione followed up by kissing Luna's cheek. He thought that was probably some sort of French thing. Hermione had spent a lot of time there. She even had cousins there. Girls in France go topless at the beach, don't they? Wouldn't it be nice to go there with Ginny and Hermione and Luna? Especially if they decided to dress like French girls? Stop thinking about that!
"May I, Ginevra?"
"Of course, Luna. We've kissed before, haven't we?"
"Yes... And may I kiss Harry?"
"I wouldn't mind."
"Yay!" And before Harry quite knew what was happening, Luna had glomped onto himself and Ginny. She pressed a kiss against his cheek. Awkwardly, he tried to kiss her back, imitating Hermione. As he was doing that, she was already moving to kiss Ginny... on the lips. His girlfriend was holding him, and also holding another girl, who was kissing her. This was disturbingly close to being one of those things Harry knew he shouldn't think about. One of those things he, as it happened, did think about all too often, despite his best efforts.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Ginevra. Was I not meant to kiss you on the lips? I was just thinking about when we were twelve, and you said you wanted to be sure you knew what you were doing if you ever got to kiss Harry."
Thank you, Merlin, once again, that my trousers aren't tight! Harry thought.
"It's all right, Luna."
"No, it's not. It wasn't very kind of me to kiss you on the lips in front of Harry and Hermione after I'd only kissed them on the cheeks. I'm sorry, Harry."
"It's all right, Luna."
"That doesn't stop me feeling badly. May I kiss you, Harry? On the lips?"
He said the only thing he could think to say. "Ginny. That is, we're seeing each other, Luna. Ginny and I."
"Well, your eyes are working so far as I know, so of course you are, aren't you? Oh, you meant that you and Ginevra are boyfriend and girlfriend? Because of course she told me all about that. And of course I kissed her, on the lips, knowing that. I'm sorry."
"I wouldn't mind, Luna. I trust you not to steal Harry from me. And we can't have you feeling so guilty. Harry, it's up to you, but I really don't mind."
"Oh. Really?"
"Yes. Really. I don't mind. After all, you don't seem to mind that she kissed me on the lips. Do you?"
"Well, no..."
"See there? I truly don't mind. I might have a problem with you kissing some other girl besides one of my best friends, but I trust Luna. Just as much as I trust Hermione. And I trust you, Harry."
"All right. Luna, if you, err, need to kiss me in order to not feel guilty, you're welcome to kiss me."
Delicately, Luna laid her lips against Harry's. After an instant, he puckered his own lips, and they kissed. It was... surprisingly nice. He hoped this wasn't going to be another thing he was going to struggle to not think about.
"Thank you, Harry. And thank you, Ginevra."
Ginny grinned. "Any time, Luna."
The blonde girl let them go. Harry was surprised at the sudden feeling of absence. She turned to Hermione. "And I should kiss you as well, Hermione. On the lips. May I?"
"If... if you really want to. I... I wouldn't want you to feel guilty, Luna."
"If you're sure?"
"Of course."
"Thank you, Hermione." Luna threw her arms about the other girl and kissed her. On the lips.
Harry had worried about seeing Ron kiss Hermione. It wasn't that he minded, of course. He knew that he should be happy if his two best friends made each other happy. He knew that he shouldn't be greedy. He knew that there was no chance that Hermione and Ginny would ever want to share him. But all the same, he didn't want to see it at all.
Luna kissing Hermione, on the other hand... that was a lovely sight. He told himself he was only being a pervert, watching two girls kiss. He shouldn't dress it up by thinking about how purely sweet and tender they looked.
Ginny's breath tickled his ear. "Aren't they a lovely sight?"
He almost started at the sudden sound. "Should I answer that?"
"Well, I think they're beautiful. I thought it was a lovely sight when Luna kissed you. And I hope you thought it was a lovely sight when Luna kissed me, cos I'm your girlfriend and I really do hope you think I'm lovely."
"Of course I do, Ginny."
"Kiss me, Harry? Please?"
It felt funny to kiss Ginny in front of other people. Other than that one time after the match, they hadn't kissed in public. Ron would be furious, if he were here... But he wasn't. Only Luna and Hermione were. And they didn't seem to mind.
They didn't make it a deep kiss, of course. Harry didn't want to embarrass his girlfriend, who was so kind and sweet and even trusted him to be friends with girls like Hermione and Luna. But it was a very nice one. He forgot about the potential audience, and concentrated on simply kissing Ginny.
When they were done, he realised that Hermione and Luna were still hugging. That must be a girl thing. It was nice how physical they could be with each other in their friendships. Of course, they were much nicer to be physical with, so that made sense, really. Hugging, say, Ron all the time would be much less pleasant.
Well, that was probably an unfair thing to think about. Harry was doing his best to extract himself from the thicket of thoughts when Luna turned round, keeping her arm about Hermione's shoulders. “Oh, you've had a nice little kiss, haven't you? Are you ready to come and meet my pet?”
Ginny grinned at Harry. “Of course, dearest Looney. Lead on, by all means.” He let her go, or tried to; she kept her arm about him, just as Luna did with Hermione. He put his arm back round her waist, as he realised she would want him to do.
Luna led them on down the path, past more shrubbery, past a little grove of fruit trees, and out into a cleared space with a little garden house in the middle. It had a peaked shingle roof, vaguely foreign-looking, and what served it for walls were more like shutters, one of them completely open and the others let down halfway.
Harry wondered if Luna's pet was something large enough to need a stable, and if she'd converted the little garden house for that duty. Might it be a Hippogriff, or even a pony-sized Thestral? For some reason he imagined it would be a bit too small for the full-sized Thestrals he knew from Hogwarts. Then again, he didn't know much of anything about any kind of horses, so that could be completely wrong.
“Come in, come in, my dear dear friends. But please be quiet. My pet's a little shy. She's very gentle, never fear, but I've only had her a few days. And she wasn't so well treated before I bought her. And please don't worry, Hermione. I promise I'm very careful with her, and I always make sure I have her full consent before I touch her anywhere.”
Harry looked at Ginny, wondering if she understood any of this. She looked back at him, with a sweet little grin that told him nothing except that she had a lovely grin, which he already knew, of course. They followed Luna and Hermione through the open side, into the shadow of the roof.
He blinked as his eyes adjusted. And then he blinked again. Surely there wasn't a tall girl kneeling on a pillow in the middle of the floor, with her torrent of deep black hair spilling loose down her back, all the way to her heels. Surely she wasn't wearing a thin white shirt, a collar made of some black metal with silver accents, and, as near as he could tell, nothing else. And surely she wasn't someone he recognised as a Slytherin in his own year, the girl who'd tried to put Hermione in a headlock during the one meeting of Lockhart's Duelling Club.
Speaking of Hermione, she looked just as shocked as Harry felt. “Millicent Bulstrode? What are you doing here?”
“I'm waiting where my Mistress told me to wait, Mistress.”
“Mistress? Luna?”
“Yes, Hermione, Millie's my new pet. I bought her from her family last week. Isn't she pretty? Here, Millie, stand up and let them see how lovely you are.”
Millicent stood up. Harry had to admit that she was actually pretty. Well, he had to admit it to himself. He certainly wasn't going to admit it to anyone else. Not even if Ginny asked him directly. At least not if he could help it. Whoever's up there, well, I don't know how to talk to You and I don't even know anything about You and I'm really sorry if that offends You, but would You please do me a favour and not let her ask me? Cos I really don't know what I'll say if she does, and I do love her even if I am a pervert, and I don't want to hurt her. I know I don't deserve her, but I do want to take care of her, so would You please help me to take care of her?
Millicent was tall, of course. But what was wrong with that? Saying there was something fundamentally ugly about a girl who was tall would be like saying there was something fundamentally ugly about a girl with freckles, like Ginny had, or bushy hair, like Hermione had, or even small breasts, like Luna had. And Harry knew perfectly well that he'd want to kill any boy who called any of those three ugly.
Ron and Séamus had always said Millicent was fat, but seeing her like this, wearing nothing but a gossamer bit of shirt that barely reached her thighs, made him realise she wasn't overweight at all. She was big, but that wasn't the same thing as fat. She was a head taller than Harry, which he reckoned made her at least six foot two, a good foot taller than Luna. She had shoulders and, yes, hips to match her height. But there was nothing wrong with that, just as there was nothing wrong with her being tall. Actually, she was very nicely proportioned.
"Luna. You bought her? From her family?" Hermione sounded... well, actually, she didn't sound nearly as angry as he expected she'd sound if she'd just found out that a friend had bought a human being. After all, he remembered her reaction to the House Elves. Volcanic, that was probably the best description. Not that she wasn't pretty when her face went red and her amber eyes flashed fire. He really needed to stop thinking about how pretty Hermione was. After all, he had his arm round his very own gorgeous girlfriend.
"Yes, Hermione."
"You're not just talking about a scene, after you agreed to a playtime relationship with a safety word and limits which you discussed before you started the scene, are you? You bought her. As a slave."
"With respect, Mistress, I prefer the term 'pet'."
"I do as well, Hermione. And we've a special charm, a permanent one, cast on both of us, that warns me if at any time my Millicent's less than one hundred percent consenting to whatever I'm doing, and stops me doing it if I don't stop myself. It's rather better than a safety word."
"And we've never once activated it." Millicent sounded... proud. Pride was something Harry would never have associated with a girl who was apparently in one of those relationships that he'd never really believed could exist outside the dirty novels and magazines that Dudley, once he was bored with skimming through them trying to find "the good parts", would hide in the second bedroom to stop his Mum finding them and which Harry had ended up reading for lack of anything else to do.
"Yes. Her family offered a... much less restrictive contract, but their opinions didn't have any impact on the relationship between us once money had changed hands. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure they'd have been willing to deal with me at all if I'd not reminded them that my mother was a Malfoy. 'She's willful and stubborn,' they told me. 'Needs a strong hand. You can't be soft with her. Don't give her even an instant to forget she's not free.' I told them that a witch who made her own nundu hide whip needs no advice about the management of her property. Didn't feel the need to mention I'd made it from a nundu rug which my great grandparents stuck in the attic after some idiot cousin gave it them for a wedding present."
Millicent shivered. "Yes, Mistress, you were magnificent. The perfect young Dark Witch, all ready to drop her foolish mooncalf Ravenclaw mask, a far better Slytherin than anyone the Hat put in the House. If I'd not known better, I would have been terrified. In the bad way, that is. Instead of the good way. I was all of that, and still am..." The front of her shirt made it abundantly clear that she was either very cold or very happy. Not to mention that she wasn't wearing a bra. Harry tore his eyes away and stared fixedly at her face. Unfortunately, his eyes kept dropping, so he switched to staring at one little knot in the panelling of the wall behind her. He might have turned about entirely, to make sure that his gorgeous girlfriend understood he didn't want to look at another woman's nipples. The only problem was that said girlfriend had her arm round his waist and seemed determined to keep him facing in the direction he was.
"Mmm, that's lovely, Luna." Ginny was purring. There was no other word for it. "It's almost like something out of The Dread Pirate Harry Potter and the Harem Girls From the Otterside."
Hermione's lips moved for a moment, as if she was trying to make words come out and she didn't know what those words should be. "You mean... You wanted to be bought, Millicent?"
"Of course I did! It was either be sold off or take the Dark Mark over the summer hols, so I made a deliberate hash of my OWLS. I earned myself four Trolls, and the family charter kicked in. I'm not sure I would've been brave enough to do it if I'd not known my wonderful Mistress Luna was ready to step in and buy me, but, fortunately, I did."
"Oh. That's actually rather..."
"Slytherin, Mistress? I'd like to think so. We're not all Draco Malfoys and Pansy Parkinsons, after all. We're meant to be clever, not just ambitious."
"Oh."
"Although I've not always been as clever as I should have been. I didn't duel with you politely, Second Year. I should have talked with you, beforehand, instead of working myself up this silly fantasy where you'd use secret Muggle fighting techniques like those people in the pictures do and throw me on the ground and pin me there and claim me. I do apologise for that, Mistress."
"Oh. Err... Thank you. I accept."
Luna laughed. "Well, it worked out all right in the end, didn't it?"
"Yes, Mistress. It certainly did."
Hermione shook her head, as if she were trying to shake something loose inside it. "So. It's legal to buy and sell people in the Wizarding World? Why have I not heard of this before?"
"Why, my dear Hermione, that's because for most witches it's not legal. If, for example, a Muggleborn like yourself wanted to become Harry's slave, you'd have to get a specially trained solicitor to draw up a contract, and there'd be all sorts of tests and certifications to prove you were acting of your own free will, and it would be such a pain that really you'd be much better off if you simply got married and agreed between yourselves that in private you'd be Harry's pet, kept unclothed but for your collar and the brand on your thigh, getting a thoroughly tender spanking twice a day, and after each one a long session of being reassured that you're a good brave wonderful girl... My, that sounds very nice, doesn't it?"
"Luna!"
"There's no cause for alarm, Hermione. I said 'most witches' not all. I certainly wouldn't have bought Millie from her family if it weren't legal for them to sell her. If that had been the case, I would have put on my grandmother's armour, belted on my mother's sword and pistol, jumped on a Thestral, ridden to the rescue, and carried her off as my grateful prize, which would have been every bit as much fun, I should think. But you see, it's only you Muggleborns and those magical-born girls, like myself and Ginny, whose families' charters don't allow them to sell their daughters under any circumstances who can't be sold. That's the majority of Pureblood families, but there are some, like the Bulstrodes, whose ancestors wrote charters allowing them to sell their daughters off if they fail their OWLS or don't agree to the matches made for them or can't bake a perfect pie of Cornish pixies by their sixteenth birthday. You couldn't make a family charter like that today, but the old ones are grandfathered in, as it were."
"That's ghastly."
"It is. Have you any notion how difficult it is to bake a perfect Cornish pixie pie?"
"I was thinking about them being sold at all. I hope there's at least not a, shall we say, resale market."
"No, Mistress. That was banned centuries ago. My dear Mistress Luna is stuck with me, I'm afraid."
Luna sighed theatrically. "Oh, alas, woe is me. Whatever shall I do? I suppose it will have to be... this." She stood on tiptoe and kissed Millicent on the lips.
Ginny's breath tickled his ear. "Aren't they pretty, Harry?"
"Should I answer that?"
"We're going to have to teach you to stop asking that all the time, darling. I asked you, didn't I?"
"All right. Yes. I do." He waited for the explosion.
"Good. I think they're stunningly beautiful. Please don't worry, Harry. We're all friends here." She kissed him, on the lips. Much to his surprise, she didn't end the kiss. Her hand trailed up his spine, to the back of his neck. Out the corner of his eye, he noticed that Luna and Millicent were still kissing as well. I suppose I should feel sorry for Hermione, not having Ron here. But of course he'd have gone spare when he saw Millicent. Or at least he would have done once he stopped staring at her breasts and looked at her face long enough to realise she was Millicent. Which might have taken a couple of hours, I have to confess. Still, poor Hermione. It's not very nice of us to stand here in front of her, practically snogging. He resisted the urge to slip his tongue into Ginny's mouth.
Despite his worrying about his best friend's feelings, he felt a profound pang of loss when Ginny finally broke their kiss. He felt as if he should say something, but everything he could think of started with "That was nice" and got rapidly more lame from there.
"Harry?" Ginny's voice was very small and quiet.
"That was lovely, Ginny. I mean... I'm not embarrassed. I love you. I don't mind showing it."
"That's sweet, but it's not what I'm worrying about. Do you think...? I feel guilty about leaving Hermione, well, out of things."
"I'll never leave you for her, Ginny."
"Oh, Harry. I'm not afraid of that, not at all. I trust you both. But my brother is a git. He doesn't deserve her."
"But she loves him."
"I'm not sure she really does, Harry. Well, I mean, she loves him. Just the same as I love him. But she's not in love with him, not really, despite the way she's been trying to convince herself to be in love with him. She's in love with somebody else. And I think that somebody else is in love with her."
"Oh. That's good." Who was it? Neville? It can't be Krumm. From what she says, he's not written her back since the summer after Fourth Year. Who else could it be? Luna? That's rich. She's got Millicent. And besides, I can't imagine Hermione wearing a collar. I really, truly can not--well, should not imagine her kneeling in front of me. Not even with Ginny kneeling beside her. Make that especially with Ginny kneeling beside her. And both of them smiling sweetly up at me, completely willing and unafraid... Stop it!
"More than that, Harry. I know one of them is. And I'm pretty sure about the others."
"'Them'? Ginny, I don't understand."
"Us, Harry. I love you. And I love Hermione. And Luna. And I think you love them as well."
"But I love you, Ginny."
"That doesn't exclude loving them, does it, Harry?"
"It should."
"Are you saying there's something wrong with me, Harry?"
"Of course not! I'm saying there's something wrong with me. I'm the one who keeps having all these thoughts about you with Hermione and Luna. It can't be right."
"No, Harry. It doesn't work that way. Either I'm wrong for having had all these naughty thoughts about you and Hermione and Luna and me, the ones I've been having in one form or another since practically my First Year, and that's not even mentioning the naughty thoughts I'm having right now, the ones about Millicent joining us. Or else you're absolutely not wrong for whatever thoughts you've had about all of us. And I know what my answer is. You're not wrong. I'm not wrong. Hermione's not wrong. Luna's not wrong. And Millicent isn't wrong, either."
"Well, you're not wrong, and Hermione isn't wrong, and Luna isn't wrong, and neither is Millicent. So..."
"See what I mean, Harry? Now that's enough talk. We've a Hermione to kiss."
"You... you don't have to." He'd not realised how close Hermione had come to them in the past few minutes whilst he'd been distracted with Ginny. "I... I'll live."
"Hermione Jane Granger, you are every bit as bad as Harry. It's no wonder I love the pair of you, is it?" Ginny reached out and pulled Hermione into her embrace. Harry opened his arm to her, and the three of them were together in a hug for the first time in their lives.
"I think that's the most wonderful compliment I've ever had in my life."
"Really, Hermione?"
"Yes, Harry."
"I think that's enough talking for now, my darlings. Let's have some kissing." After a moment, Ginny shook her head. "You owe our Hermione a lot of kisses, Harry, but I see you're not going to start in on that without some persuasion, so I suppose I'll just have to kiss her myself. Is that all right, Hermione?"
She nodded, apparently no more able to speak than Harry was. Ginny puckered her lips, leant softly in, and planted her lips on Hermione's. Harry held them, as tightly as they held him.
And then they were done. Ginny nuzzled his cheek. "She's a lovely kisser, Harry. Please, kiss her. She's been dreaming of it ever since your Second Year."
Hermione nuzzled his other cheek. "Since First Year, even. I don't mean to force you, Harry, but..." In a heartbeat, he knew there was only one choice. He turned his face, letting their lips come together. For a moment, he was afraid he and Ginny had both mistaken Hermione's intentions, but in the next instant she opened her lips to him. It was wonderful. Just as wonderful as his first kiss with Ginny.
"Good boy. Good girl. I love you both," Ginny murmured. Harry and Hermione paused for air. Their eyes met Ginny's, and a spark of decision passed between the threesome. Harry had never really been sure if three people actually could kiss each other all at once. For that matter, he still wasn't sure how they'd managed to make it work, in the physical sense. But they had done, and he knew, in the tiny part of his mind that was capable of words and rational thought right now, he now had a new memory for casting the Patronus with.
"I think I've found something better than books."
"Truly, Hermione?" That was something Harry'd never expected to hear, not even in his wildest fantasies.
"Yes, silly boy. I do still love books, of course... after all, we can't spend all our time snogging."
Ginny nuzzled Hermione's cheek. "I'd love to try it, but I expect chapped lips would be the least of our problems, after a few hours. Do you think we could make it out to four or five? I'd not mind taking a shot at it..."
Harry wondered how long they'd been kissing. He felt as if it had already been a day or two, and a month or more since they'd left the Burrow after breakfast, but obviously that was absurd. Even in the Wizarding World, where ramshackle two-person tents regularly held comfortable three-bedroom flats, time wasn't that unreliable. Or at least he'd never heard of it being.
Was it possible that there was something in Luna's garden that made time more flexible than it usually was? Somewhere he'd read about fairy hills where that sort of thing happened, although the fairies in those stories weren't anything like the fluttering colourful mindless creatures that were sometimes used as decorations at Hogwarts feasts. He didn't know if intelligent human-sized fairies who lived under hills actually existed or not. I should ask Hermione about them, or maybe Luna. With my luck, I'll probably need to know.
He almost yelped when Ginny nipped his ear. It wasn't a hard nip, but he wasn't expecting it at all. "Enough woolgathering, darling. Look at Luna and Millie, why don't you?"
Hermione's breath tickled his other ear. "Yes. Aren't they lovely?"
"Y.. yes." The last time he'd looked, Luna had been caught up in Millicent's arms, with the tall girl supporting her tiny mistress at a more convenient height for kissing. At some point when he'd been distracted with Hermione and Ginny, they'd moved to the pile of pillows in the corner. Now Millicent lay on her back, with Luna sprawled across her. They were kissing slowly, almost lazily. Luna's skirt had ridden up, exposing the entire length of her legs. Exposing considerably more than that, actually.
"Yes, Harry, Luna doesn't like to wear knickers. She's been that way since we were little. And before you give yourself a heart attack with that charming yet overactive sense of gallantry of yours, if she had a problem with you seeing her bottom, we'd not be here."
Hermione giggled. "Judging by her lack of tanlines, I'd say there's something else she doesn't like to wear, either."
"Of course. Luna doesn't believe in swimming costumes. There's far too much risk of trapping Gulping Plimpy spawn up against sensitive parts of the anatomy."
"Do you worry about that, Ginny?" Hermione's tone was teasing, playful.
"If it suits me to worry about it, I do. Besides, I've never really got used to wearing a costume, myself. Mum thought they were a waste of money until I was maybe ten or so. And of course when Luna and I were alone it seemed awfully rude to be wearing clothes when she hadn't any on, so even after I had one I didn't use it very much."
"I think that from now on I'm going to be worrying about Gulping Plimpy spawn, myself. At least when we're alone together. After all, it's such a wonderful excuse for having Harry get a good look at us girls. It would be a terrible shame not to use it."
"Not to mention it's also a wonderful excuse for us girls to have a good look at each other." Ginny and Hermione kissed lightly on the lips again.
Harry would have tried to pinch himself, but he didn't want to take his arms from about the girls. His girls.
"Oh my, how wonderful! It looks as if the three of you have been making some real progress. I'm certainly not boasting or anything like that, but I've known you belonged together since First Year." At some point when Harry and Ginny and Hermione were distracted with kissing, Luna and Millicent had got up from the cushions and now stood side by side, almost within reach, their arms about each other.
"Really, Luna?"
"Of course, Harry. Don't be silly. Hermione's loved you since your own First Year, and Ginny adored you before ever you even met her, and when she met you, and found you were even more wonderful than the stories, and that she wouldn't have to give up being in love with other girls because your heart was more than big enough for two or even four, and that there was a beautiful bushy-haired switch who loved you as well, and that she would happily be her pet-sister when she wanted that and her gentle Mistress when she wanted one of those and her friend and lover always, well, how could she not be in love with both of you?"
"Oh."
"I'm not the only one who knows it, of course. I have a reliable report that Professor McGonagall has put thirty Galleons on the three of you being together before the end of Ginevra's Seventh Year, with or without other girls in the mix." One of the straps of Luna's dress had slid off her shoulder, which glistened with a fine coating of sweat. Millicent had been kissing that shoulder, he was sure. It would be nice to kiss Hermione's shoulder like that, or to hold her in his lap and watch as Ginny did.
Hermione had the look of a fox caught in the headlights. "Luna? How did you know? I never even dared tell Ginny all of that."
"Sometimes I just know things, my dear Hermione. Perhaps a Nargle whispered it in my ear one night as payment for the mistletoe I left out for it? Perhaps in the future we're all together, as lovers and friends and spouses--or is spice the proper plural?--or we were in a past life, or both, and the memories bled over into my present waking mind? Perhaps I saw it in the way your auras danced together one morning over breakfast when the three of you were still too sleepy to think about keeping them under control? I don't really know why, and it doesn't matter to me that I don't, because I do know the things that matter to me."
Millicent nuzzled Luna's hair. "And in my experience, those are the things that matter most to the rest of us as well. If you don't mind a pet saying so, Master Harry, Mistress Hermione, and Mistress Ginny, I think you should listen to my Mistress." Harry noticed that Millicent's shirt was now held closed by only a single button or tie or whatever it was that held it together. She didn't seem at all embarrassed. He wasn't feeling terribly embarrassed himself, either. Probably that was because Ginny and Hermione seemed to be taking it all in stride. He hugged them closer.
"Thank you, Millicent," Hermione said. "I think we will. I think your Mistress is the wisest person I've ever met, so I don't know how we could not listen to her."
Ginny smiled brightly. "Yes. We will."
There was a long pause. "Do you think the Snorkacks have taken your tongue away, Harry? Only I don't think they normally do that, so it's probably not actually them who are responsible..."
"Oh, sorry, Luna. I was just thinking that I have a new rule. If Ginny and Hermione agree about something, it must be true."
"And what about me?"
"I think you're one of the things they agree about."
"Oh, that's so sweet. Could... could Millie and I hug you as well?"
"Oh, Luna, of course you can hug our Harry! That is, if you don't mind, Harry?"
"Of course I don't mind, Ginny. As long as you and Hermione don't."
"It's fine with me. As long as you'll hug Ginny and me as well?"
"Silly Hermione, of course we will."
"Is it all right with you, Millie?"
"If it pleases you, Mistress." Millicent smiled a tiny urchin grin, and winked at the Gryffindor threesome. "And I really hope it does, because I've been wanting to hug all three of them for a long time."
"Then come, my darling pet, let us hug the pride of Gryffindor."
TBC?
I think this probably does need a bit more on the end, but I've had it lying about and getting bits of editing for long enough that I decided I should do something with it.