Chapter 26

Black Island was of an approximately circular shape, perhaps about ten square kilometers in size with thick vegetation and a rocky peak in the middle. Fine golden sand covered much of its edges and created inviting looking beaches that led into clear blue waters. The ocean floor around the island was mostly featureless sand, but it did have some interesting coral reef formations on one side. The very essence of a tropical paradise.

The party arrived on in various states of discomfort. Some merely stumbled, others faceplanted into the ground and Mrs. Clearwater had the unfortunate distinction of being the only one to vomit due to her predilection for motion sickness. Penny had anticipated her mother having problems and was able to support her while she voided her stomach.

"Well that sucked." Harry grumbled. He'd never taken such a long distance Portkey before and the sensation was a lot more unpleasant than he'd expected it to be.

"Tell me about it." Sirius groaned as he picked himself up, helping his current girlfriend do the same.

"Amateur." Tonks sniffed, having stayed on her feet. Yes, she was clumsy, but only when she didn't pay attention to her shapeshifting, otherwise she was quite steady.

"I thought it was fun." Luna said happily, being perhaps the only person alive that was able to come out of a long distance Portkey transport with a squeal and a spin.

"I'm glad someone thought so." Harry replied wryly. He wasn't even surprised by Luna's reaction.

Sirius decided that there had been enough talk about the Portkey and stepped in front of the crowd and gestured grandly. "Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present Black Island!"

Almost everyone made noises of appreciation at the postcard-like scenery.

Harry grimaced at the overly bright sunshine beating down on them. "Damn it's hot."

Most of the females look at him as if he was insane.

"You have your very own tropical island and you're complaining about the temperature?!" Bryanna demanded.

Harry grinned unrepentantly. "It's the ultimate rich people problem, I know, but I can't help it if I like cold weather. And I'll miss my ravens too."

"You are mad." Fleur declared. She was more than happy to be away from Britain and its dreary weather. She wouldn't miss the creepy birds that Harry was so fond of either, damned raven Animagus.

Sirius chuckled. "Come on, let's get settled in. I think Mrs. Clearwater could use a small rest to recover from the Portkey."

"Still better than spending six hours on an airplane." The aforementioned woman joked weakly despite her greenish complexion.

"Dibs on the master bedroom." Harry declared as they started walking towards the mansion that the Blacks had built here centuries ago.

"Oh, come on!" Sirius protested with a canine sounding whine. "Why do you always get the master bedroom?"

"Several reasons, but the most important one is that I'm just more amazing than you." Harry explained patiently.

"That is just not true!" Sirius objected. "I was amazing before you were even born."

"That's only because I wasn't around yet." Harry countered.

Everyone else just watched on with a smile as the argument on who was more amazing continued.

The mansion was quite the fancy place, situated a small distance inland on a low cliff that overlooked the the most expansive beach on the island. Surprisingly, it was not gloomy at all. It seemed even the Black family didn't want to ruin their private vacation resort with depressing decor.

It took the better part of an hour to get everyone settled in their chosen rooms. Teeny and Kreacher had popped along right after them and been eagerly getting everything in order, though the latter showed markedly less visible enthusiasm.

Harry demonstrated the typically male economy of time management by simply dumping everything he didn't need into the master bedroom and declaring himself settled. He quickly realized that the women would be a while and decided to take a peek at the island's wards, not wanting to have them fail at the worst possible moment.

The wardstone was easy to find and revealed that the wards were in good shape, if somewhat basic. They were nothing more than a collection of secrecy enchantments, with a powerful Uplottable Charm as the centerfold. Good as long as you weren't attacked, but Harry supposed that the Blacks had meant this place as a secret refuge more than as a fortress, so that was understandable. They didn't even seem to have used it much if the vines creeping up on the mansion was any clue. It would probably have been badly overgrown if not for the domestic spells keeping it safe. It was a good enough ward scheme for now, although he would improve it if he ever ended up using this place more.

Once they were done settling in, those of them that wanted to go for a swim right away put on swimming clothes and made for the beach. This group consisted entirely of the younger crowd, though Penny had to be shooed away by her parents and told to enjoy herself while they took a rest to recover from the Portkey journey.

Once they arrived at the beach, they saw that the two elves had already set up beach chairs and umbrellas. Harry turned towards his ex-girlfriend with a smirk and took an item out of his omnipresent Bag of Holding.

"Here, I got you a special swimsuit." He said, offering her the item.

Puzzled since she was already wearing a bikini, Tonks took the item and held it out in front of her. It was a white leotard with purple accents at the sides, but it didn't feel like a normal swimsuit. "Is this… spandex?"

"Sure is, She-Hulk." Harry snickered, joined by giggles from Penny, Fleur and Luna who were also in on the joke.

The Metamorphmagus groaned loudly and threw it back at him with a huff, trying not to let her amusement show.

"She-Hulk?" Tiana asked, frowning in confusion. The other three girls and Isabel's boyfriend also looked interested.

"The She-Hulk is a well known comic book superhero that gets really big and strong when she gets angry, so she needs to wear a stretchy spandex uniform." Penny explained.

Harry took over the story at that point, grinning widely at the stone-faced Metamorphmagus.

"You see, Dora here showed up at the manor about a month ago and we got into a bit of a play fight. She decided to cheat with her Metamorph powers and gave herself huge muscles. Her clothes weren't up to the task of containing her new bulk and promptly ripped at the seams. Thus, She-Hulk." Harry finished as if she hadn't spoken.

"Oh." They said in realization and started snickering.

"That sounds useful." Fleur mused. "It would keep 'Arry from taking control every time if I could do zat."

"He does that to you too, does he?" Bryanna asked wryly, Tiana nodding along. "And here I thought a veela might be able to keep him in line."

" Non, 'e always wants to be in charge." Fleur huffed playfully. It wasn't that big of a deal really, but it went against her insticts and she would've liked to be in control more often.

You try backing down with these runes carved in your back. Harry thought but didn't say. The Norse runes that he'd carved first were not as problematic as the ones dealing with Light and Dark, but they carried their own problems. Thurisaz and Uruz especially, what with their emphasis on strength, force, aggression and control, both sexual and otherwise.

"You better get used to it," Tonks chimed in, gleefully taking the opportunity to talk about Harry as if he wasn't there. "Harry is very sensitive about his masculinity. You should have seen his face when I suggested growing a cock."

"Not everyone can stretch their arsehole on command, Dora." Harry said indignantly and somewhat hypocritically. Septima couldn't do that either after all and he'd managed to anal her just fine.

"I would've stretched it for you." Tonks leered back at him.

"I'll keep it as it is, thank you very much." He retorted dryly. Pegging was not his cup of tea.

"Wouldn't your poo just slide out of you if your bum was stretched?" Luna asked pensively.

The question killed the mood so abruptly that it almost gave everyone whiplash.

"Right… I'm going to go for a swim." Harry announced, being the most experienced in pushing past the Luna Silences(™).

"Me too!" Luna said cheerfully, taking off the bikini she was wearing and running at the water completely naked. "Wheeeee."

They all stared after her for a moment and then Harry started chuckling. The chuckle turned into a laugh as he realised that he should have seen this coming. He'd never explained to Luna that you were supposed to keep your swimsuit on .

"She 'as a point." Fleur said with a nod and also took off her silver bikini, following her fellow blonde into the water. She had worn a swimsuit for the second task, but that was more at the instruction of Madam Maxime than her own preference, though she had to admit that would have been uncomfortable being stared at by all those stupid English. There was no sense in staying modest here though.

Harry smiled bemusedly and followed after them.

"Hey, Bry?" Tiana asked.

"Yeah?"

"Are you feeling overdressed all of a sudden?"

"Kind of."

With a firm nod to each other, they also ditched their bathing suits and ran to join the others in the water.

Tonks felt a bit silly staying dressed now, but she wasn't going to give in to peer pressure that easily.

Penny merely sighed and went for one of the beach chairs. The weather was really quite fantastic and she had a new book that she'd been meaning to read.

Behind them Jade, Isabel and Isabel's boyfriend Paul had stayed quiet and simply listened, thinking thoughts such as 'what the Hell is up with this conversation?'. Once the swimsuits started coming off though, Paul found his resistance to Fleur's Allure failing him and his eyes turned glassy.

A smack across the head brought him back to reality and face to face with the glaring eyes of his girlfriend.

"Sorry." He muttered, realising that this vacation was going to be equal parts wonderful and terrible.

"Why didn't you take your shorts off before coming into the water, Harry?" Luna inquired innocently

"They're not shorts, they're swimming trunks." Harry explained dryly. "And what you were wearing was a swimsuit bikini, which is generally designed to be worn while swimming."

"Oh, I thought it was just customary to walk towards the beach in colorful underwear." Luna said and then frowned in puzzlement. "Why would you wear specially designed swimming clothes to the beach if you bathe naked?"

"Modesty." Bryanna chimed in as the rest of the girls arrived.

"A silly 'uman concept." Fleur added.

"It is quite silly." Luna agreed, the notion that some body parts are private lost on her.

"Well if you don't care about being stared at…" Harry shrugged.

"You mean Paul?" Tiana asked, looking very amused. "Isabel has that poor bastard on a short leash, jealous sort that she is. They won't be sticking around for long… ah, they're already moving further down the beach."

"I was thinking of Sirius once he shows up actually." Harry said, watching as Isabel all but dragged her boyfriend away. That really was one poor bastard.

"Are you going to be jealous if he watches us, Harry?" Bryanna asked coyly, leaning forward a bit to display her breasts.

"I'm not really the jealous type." The unstable circumstances of his early years had quickly relieved him of any such problematic emotion.

"There's one surefire way to keep my cousin's eyes from wandering in this direction." Tonks said with a smirk. "Harry just has to get naked too and he'll be too scared of getting an eyefull of bollocks to look our way."

Seeing the expectant looks of the women who were expecting him to comply, Harry decided to turn things around on his ex-girlfriend. It wasn't that he had any great objection to being naked in the company of beautiful women, all of whom he was or had been intimate with to some degree, but he wasn't going to let Dora be the only one that was still dressed.

"I'll get naked if you do." He proposed. "Sirius probably wouldn't want to ogle his cousin either after all." He didn't really believe that, but it sounded reasonable.

Seeing the expectant looks turn towards her, Tonks huffed and reached back to untie her top. Apparently she would be giving in to peer pressure after all.

Fleur sighed contently where she was lying on a beach chair, nude except for a pair of dark sunglasses to block the glare of sunlight. There was a fruity cocktail and a plate of watermelon at her side just for her. Harry's elves were the best.

She'd left the water after the others had gotten the idea to use bubblehead charms and go diving. Swimming she was fine with, but no veela ever felt comfortable in deep waters.

The sound of chewing brought her attention to the left, where Tonks was demolishing a sandwich that she'd requested from Teeny. The Metamorphmagus had apparently missed lunch before their trip.

"You are going to 'ave tan lines eef you do not take zat off." Fleur commented, gesturing to the black bikini that the other woman was once again wearing.

Tonka stopped mid bite and then smirked back at her. Her skin darkened until she looked decidedly latina, albeit a pink-haired one.

"I wish I could do zat." Fleur groused enviously.

"I guess you'll just have to tan the hard way." Tonks snickered.

" Non, veela do not tan." Fleur replied, resisting the urge to pout. There were plenty of advantages to being veela, but the permanent paleness was not one of them in her opinion.

"Really?" Tonks asked, eyebrows climbing in surprise. "I didn't know that."

"Eet eez not a very important detail." Fleur shrugged. Regular witches and wizards also took much longer to tan than their non-magical counterparts and didn't suffer from sunburns either. It was another one of those minor differences between them.

"Wait, if you can't tan, then why are you going nude?"

This time it was Fleur who smirked. "Why not?"

Tonks' eyes involuntarily dipped to the veela's impressive bust. Her breasts may not be anything extraordinary as far as size went, being an upper range B-cup, but they were very firm.

"Fair enough." She said and went back to her sandwich, ignoring the way her own breasts perked up slightly as if competing.

Fleur sipped at her cocktail and wondered what she could do about the slight tension that seemed to be in the air between them. She didn't want to be at odds with any of Harry's friends, ex-girlfriend or no.

"Did you really suggest growing a pénis to 'Arry?" She asked, hoping to start a conversation.

"Yeah." Tonks snickered. "I didn't think he'd go for it mind you, but it was funny seeing the look on his face."

"I can imagine." Fleur chuckled. "'Ave you ever done it before?"

"I tried it out of course, but only by myself." Tonks admitted.

"What was eet like?" The veela asked curiously. It wasn't every day that you could ask a question like that after all.

"Honestly? Being a girl is better. With all the fuss that men make about sex you'd think having a cock feels amazing, but it has nothing on girl bits."

"Maybe eet eez better with anuzzer." Fleur theorised.

"Maybe." Tonks agreed, though her tone was doubtful.

They continued chatting for a while longer, building a tentative friendship. The two women discovered an unexpected kinship with each other due to their respective natures as a veela and Metamorph. The benefits were different, but the downsides were surprisingly similar and they enjoyed trading stories about the cringe-worthy come-ons they'd had to put up with in the past.

As the day dragged on, the vacationers found themselves hit with a truly monstrous case of jet lag, or Portkey lag as the case may be. Black Island was six hours behind Britain and the sudden leap messed up their biorhythm severely.

Except for Harry and Fleur, whose magic was linked to the Sun. They felt slightly more tired by the unusually long day, but their bodies didn't demand sleep like the others'.

Harry had been intending to do some magic practice with Luna and Fleur in the evening, but had decided to postpone it seeing as he and Fleur were the only two awake. Instead of that, the two of them sat on the balcony attached to the master bedroom and watched the sunset. It was an impressive view.

"Zis eez a wonderful place, I may not want to leave after spending a month 'ere" Fleur said, feeling pleasantly lazy.

"Heh, I expect that I'll get bored before the week is out." Harry chuckled. "Nothing to do but swim, sleep and eat."

"You forgot ze sex." She pointed out.

"Ah yes, of course, the sex. How careless of me." He replied wryly. "I'd still get bored though, and if not bored then I'd get sick of this climate."

"'Ow you can dislike zis climate I will never understand." Fleur huffed.

"The same way that you can dislike the one in Scotland." Harry chuckled.

Fleur huffed again, utterly failing to understand the appeal of bleak, gloomy and altogether miserable weather. She could only be glad that veela couldn't pale anymore than they could tan, or else she would've been like a ghost after spending so long at Hogwarts.

"You seemed to be getting along with Dora today." Harry commented after a minute of silence.

"She eez a lovely person, I can see why you liked 'er so much." She said with a smile.

"That she is." He agreed. "What did you two talk about?"

"Girl zings." Fleur teased.

Harry snorted. "Things not meant for male ears I take it?"

" Oui, eet eez a sacred covenant between women." She said haughtily.

"And here I was worried that you'd hate each other." He said wryly.

"I was worried she would 'ate' me too." Fleur admitted. "Women usually resent veela in such cases, even if ze relationship between zem was already over, but Nymphadora 'as 'ad to put up with similar problems in ze past."

Harry hadn't actually considered that, but it made sense now that he thought about it. He could easily imagine some insecure women getting angry at Fleur's literally magical beauty or Dora's shapeshifting ability because it was 'unfair'. As if the world owed them something just for existing.

They lapsed into a comfortable silence and watched as the red tinted Sun vanished behind the curve of the world.

Harry let out a massive yawn, suddenly having huge trouble keeping his eyes open. "I think it's time to get some sleep."

Fleur nodded, unable to reply over her own yawn.

Luna gradually came awake and noticed that it was still dark out. Well, she supposed that made sense since she had fallen asleep before sunset. Penny had explained the concept of jet lag yesterday.

It was still pretty silly to be waking up in the middle of the night though.

Having nothing better to do, Luna went to the bathroom and then cuddled right back into Harry. Cuddling was always nice and she would have to get used to the new time zone anyway.

She wasn't feeling sleepy anymore though, so she sank into a meditative Occlumency trance like Harry had taught her. The skill had come easily to her and she had little trouble keeping people out, even the nosy headmaster, though he probably hadn't been trying too hard.

As dawn approached, Luna found herself being a bit too excited to continue practicing. She knew Fleur's prefered method of starting the day and was eager to see it again. Heat pooled in her loins from the anticipation and she blinked slowly in thought.

Maybe it was time to move things forward again? Harry had been uncomfortable with her interest in sex and she had thought that she would need to wait until she was older for him to relax, but Fleur had proposed a different plan. She had said that Harry might be uncomfortable being watched, but he would be less reticent if she participated. That hadn't made a lot of sense to Luna, but she trusted the veela's expertise. Fleur had also pointed out that the promise she'd made to her father prevented her from interacting with Harry's penis, but not anything else.

Unlike Harry, Fleur had no issues with her age and had demonstrated quite thoroughly that a penis wasn't necessary to have fun.

Course of action determined, Luna settled in to wait, the heat between her legs staying at a low simmer.

The horizon began to brighten shortly afterwards and her bedmates began to rouse with it like a couple of roosters.

She saw Fleur open her eyes and smiled at her across Harry's chest. The veela returned the smile and slid down, grabbing the half-erect target of her attention.

Harry breathed deeply as the silver-blonde head began bobbing over his crotch.

Luna watched in fascination for a few moments as the male member disappeared into Fleur's mouth, wondering what it would be like to do it herself. Then she gave her head a slight shake. This was no time to be getting hypnotized by the beautiful act of fellatio.

She sat up, meeting Harry's awkward look with another smile and swung one leg over his head.

"Luna?" He questioned, grabbing hold of her hips to keep her from moving. "What are you doing?"

That was a silly question. She was quite obviously intending to sit on his face so that he could lick her vagina.

Still, it was possible, though unlikely, that he didn't know. "I want you to lick my vagina."

"BuUUUt!" He started to say only to trail off into a surprised hiss/yelp.

Luna looked back down to his midsection. Fleur's bobbing head naturally blocked most of her view, but she thought she could see the veela's hand firmly gripping his scrotum. She couldn't help giggling. Fleur had him literally by the balls.

Fleur lifted her eyes and smiled around the thing in her mouth. Luna was glad to have a friend like her. The veela had always encouraged her interest in sex instead of trying to tell her that she was too young.

With his protests firmly 'in hand', Luna was able to lower herself onto Harry's face with little resistance. He did nothing at first, but she soon felt the first tentative pass of his tongue. Just like Fleur had said would happen, he seemed to shrug and began licking in earnest.

Luna braced herself against his chest and let out a quiet sigh of pleasure as Harry plied his hard earned lingual abilities on her. The angle was a bit awkward, so it wasn't quite as good as the times when Fleur had done this to her, but it was still very nice and there was the added bonus of watching Fleur fellate him.

A minute or so later, Harry tensed and Luna watched her friend pump his penis while her mouth was clamped tightly around the crown, obviously working to milk as much sperm out of it as possible. It must have been quite a bit given how Fleur's throat was contracting.

The sight was a bit much for Luna in addition to the licking and she quickly climaxed, curling her fingers into Harry's rune scarred chest and gasping quietly for air.

Fleur rose into a sittting position, eyes closed and tongue moving across her mouth with rapturous look on her face. Her hand was still fondling Harry's member and her groin glistened with evidence of her arousal.

Luna was transfixed. The Allure was so much stronger now and she'd never felt it so keenly before. It wasn't the first time that she had watched Fleur give Harry a blowjob, but it was the first time that she had participated in any way. How she wished that she hadn't made that promise to her father. Waiting another year and a half before she could experience it fully seemed like an eternity right now.

The slight daze didn't vanish as Fleur positioned herself over Harry's member and sank down on it easily. Luna felt hands gently grip her face and she was pulled in for a kiss. The taste of Harry's sperm still lingered in Fleur's mouth and she found herself liking it. If only the greedy veela hadn't swallowed all of it already.

Harry's tongue started moving again and the fun continued.

"So, that happened." Harry said blandly a while later.

Fleur was one side of him and Luna on the other, both looking terribly pleased with themselves. He hadn't been intending to do anything sexual with Luna until she was sixteen, which was as much delay as he had expected her to tolerate, but the threat of having your nuts squeezed had a way of shifting a man's priorities. He wasn't so principled that he would risk calling Fleur's bluff on that .

"Eet did." The veela in question said with a decisive nod. "And eet will 'appen again."

"Is that so?" Harry challenged. He may have stayed still and let the two of them run the show this time, but that was only because he honestly had no idea how Luna would react if he pushed her off. And the grip on his nuts of course, can't forget that.

" Oui ." Fleur said firmly, staring him in the eye. "Eet would be cruel to deny Luna now."

"Did my vagina taste bad, Harry?" Luna asked, big blue eyes wide and innocently curious. "I can change my diet if that's why you don't want to lick it."

Harry's face twisted into some indecipherable expression at the sheer inanity of the question paired with the innocent look of a five-year-old. He knew that he was a bare few months older than Luna, but he still wasn't too enthused about this. This would be so much easier if she didn't look so damn innocent all the time.

"No, your vagina doesn't taste bad at all." He finally sighed.

"Then you'll lick it again?" She chirped happily.

"Are you sure you want that?" He asked lamely, already knowing the answer. "You're still so young…"

Fleur interrupted him with a snort. "As opposed to you, Elder Potter?"

"Don't poke holes into my hypocritical logic." Harry said sullenly, fully aware that he was losing this argument. "I'm at least artificially older."

"Honestly, 'Arry, eet eez just a little cunnilingus." Fleur said in exasperation, not understanding what the big deal was. It barely even counted as sex, being more in the realm of foreplay.

"I'll stay away from your penis until I'm sixteen." Luna promised. "But I really would like you to lick my vagina until then."

Harry wanted to slap a palm over his face, but the girls were in the way. He smacked his head against the headboard instead. Fleur was a terrible influence on a pubescent girl.

Come to think of it, I'm probably a terrible influence on a pubescent girl too.

"Fine." He grumbled, knowing with absolute certainty that the two of them would continue to pester him until he gave in. Not to mention that he'd already done it once, so it was a bit late to protest.

"Yay!" Luna cheered, planting a happy kiss on his lips and then another one on Fleur. "Now we can all have fun together."

Harry sighed and tried not to smile at his friend's obvious happiness. There was something seriously wrong with this situation, but there was no arguing with Luna's beaming expression. She wasn't the most expressive of people, usually just looking a bit dazed or quizzical, so this was especially noteworthy.

Life on Black Island settled into a sort of routine.

True to what Harry said to Fleur, he got bored of the routine within a week. The water was great and he decided that Potter Manor needed a pool, but he was still bored. There were three women to have sex with plus Luna, but he was still bored.

Harry had made a resolution to not focus on anything too serious during this vacation, but he still found himself sitting in his room and puzzling out a new spell. It wasn't an especially groundbreaking spell, but it was an interesting application of a modified compulsion charm.

A knock on his door nearly interrupted his spellcasting and he irritably called on the knocker to enter.

To his mild surprise, there wasn't just one knocker, but six of them; Tonks, Luna, Fleur as well as Bryanna and Tiana and even Sirius.

"Harry, you've been sulking in here all day. It's time to have some fun." Sirius declared.

"I am not sulking, I'm making a new spell." Harry said with dignity and continued before his godfather could retort. "And it's almost finished. Want to help me test it?"

"If it gets you out of this room." Sirius agreed.

"I need a female test subject though…" Harry said, peering at the gathered females in search of the best one. They were all in bikinis already so the view was exquisite. "She-Hulk, how about you?"

"Agree to have an unknown spell cast on me? No chance, I graduated from the Moody school of paranoia." The Metamorphmagus refused. "Also, if you're asking for a favor you may want to lay off the nicknames."

"Alright, fair enough." He nodded. "What about you, Bryanna?"

"Will it hurt?" The former Ravenclaw asked.

"You won't feel a thing." He promised.

"Okay, I guess." She agreed uncertainly.

"Please stand still." Harry requested and carefully crafted the spell. "Alright, here goes…"

True to his word, Bryanna felt nothing. Looking down at herself, she couldn't detect anything out of place or different.

"What was that supposed to do?" She asked, confused.

"Give it a little while to start working." Harry said uncertainly, unsure if he'd flubbed it.

They all waited, staring at the now embarrassed girl to see if anything would happen.

Fleur scrutinised the dark haired girl. She had always thought Bryanna was beautiful with her slight olive complexion, which was nicely on display today, especially over the expanse of her breasts.

Tiana checked out her best friend and occasional lover, but couldn't detect anything in particular. Her chest looked quite fabulous in that purple bikini though.

Sirius knew that he as a male had less staring privileges and tried to be more discreet, though his eyes slipped towards that fantastic cleavage quite often.

Tonks also stared and noticed that Bryanna was developing a very nice tan already. Her breasts also seemed unusually firm today and she slowly adjusted her own to match, though it still didn't feel quite right.

Luna stared unabashedly at the girl's breasts. "You have very nice breasts, did you do something different with them today?"

"No?" Bryanna answered uncertainly.

"Aha, it works!" Harry crowed in triumph.

"What works?" Sirius asked, tearing his eyes away from the nubile young boobflesh.

"My new spell, Captivating Cleavage." He explained.

"You made a spell specifically to draw attention to breasts?" Tonks asked, very amused. "That seems kind of redundant."

"It was more of a mental exercise in casting targeted compulsions." Harry explained, just a little bit defensively.

"Uh huh." She replied skeptically. "And you picked boobs at random?"

"Well no. See, it isn't like a regular compulsion charm, but more of a manifestation of my own fondness for a nice pair of tits that affects the minds of everyone that looks upon the bespelled boobies." He admitted, deciding not to mention the alternate version of the spell called Hypnotic Rump.

"Why did you not pick me to cast it on zen?" Fleur asked with a pout, holding up her breasts. "Do you not like zem?"

"I like them a lot, but your Allure would mess with the results."

"But Bryanna already has lovely breasts." Luna pointed out. "I have the smallest ones, so you would have gotten the best results if you cast it on me."

"You're right." Harry realised. "Can I cast it on you now and then we can document its effects on both those who already know you have the spell on you and those who don't?"

"Do I need to keep my top on for the cleavage or can I let them go free?" She asked.

Harry gave it some thought. "Lets try with the top on first. Maybe I can make a nipple specific spell?"

"If you do that, make sure it makes them hard first. They'll draw more attention that way." Luna suggested.

"Like a precisely targeted cold spell?" Harry mused. "Ray of Nipple Hardening?"

"That would be a pretty good prank spell." Sirius interjected. "Imagine casting it on Amelia Bones."

"Bonesy would murder you if you did that." Tonks said dryly.

Harry tried to keep the amusement off his face, but the thought of Amelia Bones walking around with chilly, rock hard nipples was a bit much.

"Maybe we should go to ze beach before 'Arry can zink of any more silly spells." Fleur spoke up, her own amusement clearly audible.

Later that same day.

Harry's brow furrowed as he looked at the girls walking back to the mansion beside him, wondering if he should ask what he was about to ask. It was kind of taboo.

Ah, screw it. "Girls, how would you like to help me with a little magical experiment?"

"What kind of experiment are we talking about?" Tonks asked suspiciously, garnering nods of agreement from the others.

"The kind that requires you to give me a lock of hair or a vial of blood, preferably both."

"Sure thing, Harry." Luna said without concern.

"Luna!" Tonks exclaimed in alarm. "You can't hand out your blood or hair to just anyone that asks!" There were any number of nefarious things that a skilled wizard could do with those.

"But it isn't just anyone, it's Harry." Luna replied, confused.

That threw the Metamorphmagus off her stride. "Yeah, but…"

"I'm sure he wouldn't use it to cast any curses on me." Luna reasoned.

"Err, well, actually…" Harry interjected awkwardly.

"Whoa, hold up a second." Bryanna butted in. "I know we've been warned to never leave our blood lying around, but nobody ever told us why ."

"That's because they don't want to give people ideas." Tonks explained with a slight scowl at Harry. "If someone with the necessary skill gets hold of your blood, they can curse you from the other side of the world. And there's no easy way to break that curse if you don't retrieve the sample either."

Harry didn't bother to correct her and say that it worked with any part of a person, though blood was among the best mediums, with only body parts being better. The Black library had such interesting books.

"'Arry, why would you want to curse us?" Fleur asked in exasperation. His openness on the matter probably meant it was nothing too terrible, but it was still not something to just agree to blindly.

"I just want to see if I can." He admitted honestly. He had tried all manner of such magic on the Horcrux, but that thing had its own identity and didn't transmit the effect to the original Voldemort. "It would only be a curse in the technical sense."

"What would it do then?" Bryanna asked with narrowed eyes.

"I can't tell you, it might throw off the results."

"I'll agree to it, but only if the samples are kept in my room and can be destroyed at any time." Tiana said after a long few seconds of thought.

Bryanna agreed under the same conditions.

"I'm fine with that." Harry assented easily.

Fleur sighed in resignation and also agreed to it. Harry could be such a mad scientist at times.

That left only Tonks, who stared at him while worrying at her lower lip. She really wanted to trust him, but everything that she had ever learned from Moody screamed at her that only idiots agreed to things like this.

"When you say it would only be a curse in the technical sense…" She said slowly.

"A persistent magical effect that has specific conditions to undo, but it would be harmless." Harry explained.

"Define 'harmless'." She pressed.

"Severely distracting."

"So it's another sex spell?" She asked dryly, oddly enough feeling reassured by that.

"You'd all be getting a different one, so it's more like several sex spells, some of them more distracting than others." He elaborated grudgingly, not happy that she had guessed correctly.

"And it can be broken by destroying the focus?"

"Mhm."

"I guess I can agree to that…" Tonks said uncertainly.

"You don't have to force yourself if you're not comfortable with this, Dora." Harry said, clearly seeing how troubled she was.

She was tempted to take the out he was providing, but she knew he was a decent guy despite that mess with the Joining. She didn't want to end up like Moody, glaring suspiciously at everything. "No, it's okay… I trust you to keep your word and not to take advantage of this."

Harry looked over the four samples of hair and blood, all carefully marked so that there would be no mix-ups. He could do so many things with these, but it was mostly just proof of concept with a dash of fun added in. The more malicious uses for another's blood or hair would be reserved for enemies.

He was alone in his room for a change, having asked the girls to sleep alone today so as to get the clearest results. They were also to endure his spellwork for as long as they could.

"Alright, let's do Bryanna first." He muttered to himself, taking the lock of dark hair and dipping it into the appropriate blood sample. It should be more effective than just one or the other.

Harry had long been puzzled about the way that wizards and witches classified spells. Curses as he understood them were, as he had explained to Dora earlier, persistent magical effects, usually detrimental, that could be cast over a great distance or on an object.

Why was the Killing Curse a curse? All it did was kill people. That was more along the lines of battle magic or perhaps Necromancy. The other two Unforgivables were similarly non-sensical, as was a slew of other spells. That was sloppy classification it was.

Well no matter. What he was casting now was definitely a curse, even if it wasn't directly malicious.

" Orgasmic Vibrations. "

Bryanna lay on her bed, waiting tensely for whatever spell Harry was casting to take effect. She would be lying if she said that she wasn't nervous, but she trusted him.

She gasped as her lady parts started vibrating without warning.

A quiet pop made her turn her head to the side.

"Here is being your blood and hair, Missy Bryanna." Teeny said and popped away.

Bryanna was understandably distracted by the buzzing in her clitoris, but she saw the hair and blood vial on her night stand.

Reassured, she closed her eyes and settled in to enjoy herself.

"Now for Tiana…"

" Wet Dreams. "

Tiana waited for something to happen just as tensely as her friend, but nothing did. Teeny delivered her hair and blood and still nothing happened.

Pouting in slight disappointment, she went to sleep. She was assaulted by intensely erotic imagery almost immediately.

"I hope Dora won't kill me for this one…"

" Unseen Lover. "

Tonks paced across her room nervously, too wound up to lie down and wait for whatever it was that Harry was going to do. She trusted him not to do anything nefarious, but it wasn't easy to shake off Moody's countless bellows about CONSTANT VIGILANCE. Her old mentor would have screamed himself hoarse if he knew what she had agreed to.

She reflexively drew her wand when Teeny popped in, making the house elf squeak in terror.

"Sorry." Tonks apologised and put the wand back into its holster.

"Is okay." Teeny nervously. "I has your blood and hair."

Tonks nodded and gestured at the night stand, a bit of tension draining from the set of her shoulders as the elf deposited them and popped away.

"I guess it didn't… work?" She trailed off, eyes narrowing as she felt… something.

The ghost of a touch across her arm or leg, a teasing tingle on the back of her neck, a pleasant feeling on her lips and tongue, phantasmal teeth scraping over her nipples and making them harden.

The little sensations began to escalate and Tonks found herself disrobing and lying down on the bed to properly experience it. It wasn't long before her eyes flew open with a gasp of surprise as it felt as if she'd just been penetrated.

Feeling around her groin with her fingers revealed nothing and there was no sense of being stretched, but other than that it definitely felt as if there was a man thrusting into her.

The feeling was decidedly average, almost bland even, but Tonks had been on a dry spell for months. She closed her eyes and relaxed, hand drifting southwards again to help it along.

Harry hummed as he looked at the last two locks of hair and vials of blood. Maybe something a little different for Fleur and Luna?

Fleur was a veela and her hair retained a much stronger magical imprint than a regular witch, which was no doubt the reason why it could be used as a wand core. It shouldn't require dipping it into her blood to get the desired effect. To be honest, he wasn't sure if soaking the hair in blood was strictly necessary, but it undoubtedly made the curses easier to apply.

He would have to be careful if he wanted this done right.

Carefully, he crafted the curse and applied it to the silver-blonde hair gripped in his fingers, making sure that the magic would propagate back to the source.

" Touch of Frustration ."

Once he was sure that it had taken hold, he twined it with Luna's hair and dipped it in her blood. This was the tricky part now, weaving the next bit of magic into the twined hair so that it would affect both of them but stay focused on Fleur as the primary.

" Body to Body. "

Fleur squirmed on her bed in frustration and growled.

Teeny had come to deliver the hair and blood over half an hour ago. Half an hour of utter torment as Harry's spellwork kept her on the edge of orgasm and didn't allow her to go over the edge no matter how much she fingered herself. This was a curse indeed.

She had said that she would endure it for as long as possible, for research purposes, but enough was enough. She grabbed her wand and incinerated the blood and hair.

The constant tingle in her crotch vanished and the feeling of a pending orgasm began to subside, but she was not going to be having any of it. Harry was going to take responsibility for what he'd done.

She stomped out the door and made for the master bedroom.

Luna had also been frustrated by a constant feeling of being one good finger flick away from orgasm, but had been handling it much better than Fleur.

Then it had suddenly stopped, leaving her blinking at the wall in a confused manner. Had Harry's spell failed? She hadn't touched the blood and Teeny hadn't delivered any hairs. The others would have been alarmed by this, but not Luna. She trusted Harry absolutely.

Her confusion didn't last long as she suddenly felt a burst of pleasure from her vagina, making her gasp and tilt face forward into the bed, arse pointed skyward. The sensation continued, a quick thrusting rhythm that she easily recognized as penetration despite having never felt it before.

This was nice.

The next morning, they all gathered in a room to discuss the results of the experiment.

Everyone seemed fine, except for Tiana, who was glaring at him with dark bags under her eyes. She looked exhausted and even her glare lacked energy.

"Alright, let's do this in order." Harry said, ignoring the look. "Bryanna, how was it?"

"Well it was definitely a curse." She said wryly "It was great at first, but the problem was that it didn't stop at just one or two orgasms."

"That makes sense." Harry nodded, having expected the constant stimulation to become unpleasant in short order. "What about you, Tiana?"

"What does it look like?" She asked crabbily. "I woke up soaked and I feel like I haven't slept a wink."

"Huh, I was only expecting you to wake up horny as Hell." He said, scratching at his chin. "A bit more effective than I thought it would be."

"Dora?"

"It was alright." She said with a shrug that hid the minor embarrassment she felt. "Kind of bland and it got annoying pretty quick. Reminded me of you actually."

"Me?" Harry blinked, not sure if he should be offended by that. He was not bland!

"Oh yes, you also had a habit of sticking your cock in without asking if it was alright." She smirked.

"You never complained." He snarked back. "I'll just mark that one as 'inconclusive'."

"Fleur has already made it exhaustively clear what she thought of hers, so let's move on to Luna."

"It was really frustrating at first because I couldn't orgasm no matter how hard I tried, but the second part was great." She chirped. "Was that your penis I was feeling?"

"Actually, you were feeling an echo of what Fleur was feeling." Harry corrected.

"So I was feeling your penis?" Luna pressed.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, you were feeling my penis. Indirectly."

"Neat."

Harry had a sudden thought that needed testing. He reached over and pinched Fleur on the arm. Both Fleur and Luna yelped in pain.

"'Arry!" Fleur protested, glaring at him.

"Luna, you didn't destroy the blood, did you?" He asked in exasperation, giving the veela a conciliatory rub on the arm.

"Why would I?" She asked, puzzled.

"Because you can't go around with a permanent sensation link to Fleur." Harry explained.

"Okay."

Though the vacation was set to last until the end of August, not everyone could afford to spend over a month in the tropics.

Penny's parents were the first to go as their vacation time at work ran out and they needed to go. There was something that they needed to talk to their daughter about first though.

"Honey, are you happy working for Harry?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Penny asked back, bemused by the question.

Sarah and David Clearwater exchanged glances, now looking a lot more brown than when they had arrived.

They weren't the sort to judge other people's lifestyle, but they weren't blind and their host had made no effort to conceal his sleeping around. They were worried about their daughter living in the same house and working for a rich womaniser. When Penny had told them about his age and circumstances, they'd pictured a young orphaned noble that needed a trustworthy adult to help take care of his holdings until he grew up. They'd been so proud of their daughter then. The man they met bore little to no resemblence to the mental picture they had built of Harry Potter.

They hadn't interacted with him much, not because of any dislike on their part, but because Harry always seemed to have something better to do than talk to them. Penny had apologised for him, explaining that Harry wasn't good with new people and prefered to keep to himself. They weren't really offended since they hadn't expected a fifteen-year-old to find a middle aged couple like them interesting in the first place, but it didn't change the fact that they knew virtually nothing about the man their daughter worked for.

"We just don't want you getting hurt." Sarah said delicately.

"Why would I get hurt working for Harry?" Penny asked, baffled. Seeing her parents' awkward expressions made something click in her head though. "Wait… you think I'm sleeping with him?!"

"No, no." David was quick to reassure. "It's just that, well, you're a beautiful young woman and he doesn't seem to think much of bedding every woman he comes across."

Penny flushed in embarrassment, wishing that they hadn't brought this up. "It's not like that, I just work for him."

Sarah and David were still worried, but also unwilling to push any further. Penny was an adult now and they had already incurred her displeasure once when they tried to set her up with the son of some friends of theirs. They would just have to trust that she knew what she was doing.

"What?" Penny asked blankly.

"We wanted to know if every third day with Harry was okay with you and if you have any objection to extra female company." Bryanna repeated patiently.

"… What?" Penny was still not computing.

"Penny, you are sleeping with Harry… aren't you?" Tiana asked, starting to get the feeling that they may have made a terrible mistake.

"No, I am not sleeping with Harry." Penny's calm reply was at odds with her tense expression.

"Oh. We just kind of figured… with you living with him and all." Bryanna said awkwardly, looking towards her equally awkward friend for help.

"Yeah, we thought that you were just holding back because your parents were here." Tiana said. Awkwardly.

"I'm not sleeping with Harry." Penny repeated very calmly.

"Yeah, sorry about that. We'll just… be going now."

The two women fled and left Penny standing there alone, still trying to process what had just happened.

It had barely been a day since her parents had gone home she'd already been asked about reserving days for having sex with Harry, as if he was some kind of popular ride in an amusement park. She'd known that he was sleeping with Fleur, Bryanna and Tiana, as well as whatever was going on with Luna, but this was ridiculous.

Has she become so desensitised to all the sex going on around her that she had stopped registering it? No wonder her parents had been worried.

Penny could privately admit to herself that she was curious about sex. She was nineteen years old and still a virgin, it would be hard to not be curious. She could even admit to having a few dirty thoughts about her employer.

That was kind of problematic because it would be terribly awkward to give out any signals like that after working for him for a year now. It would make their relationship really weird.

And then there was the fact that she wasn't looking for just a quick roll in the hay, no matter how curious she was about it.

Tonks was oddly nervous as she followed Fleur to the secluded spot where Harry taught magic. She had wanted to learn from him too once, but that had fallen by the wayside with the end of their relationship. It had just been too awkward to ask if he'd still be willing to teach her and she'd stayed away.

She'd gone and mentioned that to her new friend and now she was being led along. Hopefully, Fleur was right and Harry wouldn't mind having her there. She knew how stingy he could get with information sometimes.

Harry and Luna were already there when they arrived.

"Oh, is Nymphadora joining us today?" Luna asked curiously.

Tonks muzzled her irritation at the use of her full name. Now was not the time and Luna seemed impervious to her displeasure on the topic anyway.

"Fleur invited me." She said, perhaps unnecessarily.

"I'll have to start you from the beginning then." Harry said, his brows furrowed thoughtfully but making no objection to her inclusion. "Fleur, you and Luna will need to practice by yourselves."

"We will manage." Fleur smiled and went to sit with the girl in question.

"Come with me." Harry said, drawing Tonks' curious gaze away from where the two blondes settled into a crosslegged position with Luna almost sitting in Fleur's lap.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"Somewhere a bit more private, I don't want my rambling to distract them." He answered.

The more private place turned out to be a small cliff that overlooked the ocean. It was a beautiful place, especially with the stars reflecting off the water.

"So… now what?" Tonks asked, idly kicking her legs from where they were hanging over the cliff.

"Well, first we're going to need to have a little philosophical debate." Harry said. He sounded amused.

"How is that going to help me learn about wandless magic?" Tonks asked skeptically.

Harry merely smiled and pointed towards the ocean. "Cast a spell for me, a stunner for example."

With a shrug, she did so. " Stupefy. "

"What color was the spell?"

"Red."

"Why was it red?"

That left Tonks stumped. Everyone knew that Stupefy was red, but she'd never heard anyone ask why.

"It just is."

"That's not an answer." Harry still sounded amused. Tonks got the feeling that he'd had this conversation before. "Can you make it green?"

"I don't know how." There was no reason why it should be impossible, but why would anyone waste time figuring out how to do something so pointless? A stunner was a stunner whether it was red, green purple or pink.

"Try."

She still thought it was pointless, but did as he said anyway. The stunner still came out red.

"What color did you expect it to be?" Harry asked.

"I tried to make it green like you said."

"But what color did you expect it to be?

"Red." Tonks mumbled, now seeing where he was going with this. She may have tried to make it green, but she had still expected it to be red. "Are you telling me that wandless magic is that simple? I expect to need a wand, so it doesn't work?"

"Oh no, it's not nearly that cut and dry." He chuckled. "Let's move on to something else, a hypothetical situation. You just had dinner and are left with a bunch of dirty dishes. What do you do?"

That situation wasn't all that hypothetical. "I clean them."

"How?"

"With magic."

"Why?"

Tonks looked at him funny. What kind of question was that? "Why not?"

"You have the power to alter reality and you use it on something as trivial as cleaning a plate. Why not wash it by hand?"

The way he asked made her sound terribly lazy, as if she was too good to do any work. But she figured that there was a trick in here somewhere like there had been with the stunner. "Because it's easier to do with magic."

"So it is." He agreed. "Do you know Percy Weasley?"

Tonks blinked at the abrupt change in topic. "Yeah, I know him." Irritating shit he was too. He'd been a snotty little brat back in her Hogwarts days as Charlie's little brother and had grown up into an even bigger pain as an adult.

"Can you imagine him without magic?"

She tried and found it to be surprisingly easy. Percy Weasley, just another faceless bureaucrat working for the muggle government. Even Percy himself probably wouldn't notice the difference. "Sure."

"Don't you find that odd? He's a wizard that might as well not be one."

"Not everyone can be like you or Dumbledore." Tonks shrugged.

"Since you mentioned me and Dumbledore, what do you think the main difference is between us and someone like Percy?"

Tonks gave it careful thought. She could say it was power, but that was too obvious. "You wash your plates by hand?"

Harry laughed. "No, but good one. I can already imagine Teeny's scandalised look."

"What is the difference then?"

"Percy… he takes his magic for granted. There's no wonder in it for him, no mystery. He has the power to alter reality, but pays it no mind, focusing instead on cauldron bottoms or whatever. People like him will go through their whole lives without once questioning where their abilities came from."

"No one has ever been able to find out where magic comes from, not even the Unspeakables. It just is." Tonks said.

"Or maybe nobody has shared that knowledge yet." Harry smiled.

"You talk like you've got it all figured out, oh mystical sage." She said jokingly.

"I have theories."

"Alright, this I have to hear."

"Like I said, they're just theories. I don't want to say anything until I'm sure."

"Oh come on, you can't tease me like that." She protested, pouting at him.

"You'll be among the first I tell when I have it figured out." He promised. "For now, answer me this, what would Penny's parents see if you cast a stunner in front of them?"

"Muggles can't see spells." It made the job of obliviators a lot easier. Strange things happening were easier to hide without streaks of multi-colored light added to it.

"Why can't they see spells?"

This one was easy enough.

"Because they don't have magic." It was also the reason why they couldn't see dementors, boggarts, lethifolds and any magical creature with even a token skill at concealment. It was the reason why spells of hiding were as effective as they were.

"And why don't they have magic?"

"I don't know, that's what you're supposed to be telling me." Tonks said peevishly, displeased by his circular talk.

"Putting aside the issue of magic, how are magi different from the mundane population?"

Now there was a loaded question. A question that had a war fought over it not that long ago.

"They aren't."

"Are you sure?"

Tonks had been sure before, now she wasn't. The smile on his face seemed to say that he knew some big secret.

"Can you tell me how Penny is different from her parents for example?"

Tonks considered it carefully, but could think of nothing aside from the obvious.

"I don't know."

"Did you know that I can't perform the Joining on muggle women? That they don't feel a veela's Allure?"

Tonks was startled by that. She'd figured that it would be more effective if anything. Most spells were. "Why not?"

"Think about it."

She was tired of thinking about it and just said the first thing that came to mind. "Because they need magic for it."

"Yes, that's correct."

"The next word out of your mouth had better not be 'why?'." Tonks warned.

Harry grinned, amused by her irritation. "Sorry, but you'll never learn how to use magic properly if I don't get you thinking."

"And here I was convinced that you were having fun by jerking me around." Tonks muttered.

"Well, I was also having fun by jerking you around." He admitted. "But I still have to ask you why you think magic in both parties would be a requirement for the Joining to take place. Think about what you know of it."

Tonks huffed and did as he said. She had to hand it to him, he had the cryptic wizard routine down pat.

"You told me that the Joining is a communion between two souls…"She started, encouraged by his nod. "Is magic a medium of some kind?"

Harry pursed his lips. "That's a massive oversimplification but essentially correct. You know about auras?"

"Of course, powerful enough wizards and witches sometimes manifest them when they feel strong emotions."

"No, all magi have auras that are active at all times, you just can't see or feel them most of the time. The aura is a tangible manifestation of one's soul. Think of it as kind of like gravity, an invisible force acting on everything around it. The more massive the object, the greater the gravity. The greater the soul, the stronger the aura."

"That's ridiculous!" Tonks protested. "By that logic, muggles don't even have souls."

"Oh they have souls alright, but they're isolated, cut off, closed, mute. I think that's the reason why they can't do magic actually."

"So what makes our souls so different then?"

"Let me show you something." Harry said and closed his eyes.

She looked at him quizzically, wondering what he was talking about. Then she felt a sudden heavy dread creeping into her mind, making her stiffen with the bone deep certainty of a nearby threat. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as if there was some wild animal breathing down on it. Her head snapped towards Harry and then it was gone as suddenly as it had appeared.

"What the Hell was that?" She demanded.

"That was me projecting hostility in my aura. You felt it and reacted whereas a muggle would feel nothing. That's what I have Fleur and Luna working on now, learning how to become conscious of their auras and how to manipulate them."

Tonks was starting to get a headache from this conversation. No wonder Harry had never fit in with people his own age if this was the kind of shite he thought about all the time.

"Alright, but how does any of this connect to doing magic without a wand?"

"What is a wand? What does it do?"

Tonks glowered at her ex-boyfriend.

"It's important." He defended.

"A wand is a magical focus that allows us to channel our magic." She said after taking a deep, calming breath.

"A wand is a shortcut." He said bluntly. "A shortcut that allows even people as dull as Percy Weasley to cast spells. You're probably wondering what the point was in me asking about dish washing earlier?"

Tonks nodded.

"It was to illustrate what wands have reduced magic to. A thing to make chores easier. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with using magic to clean up after yourself, but you should always keep in mind what exactly it is you are doing."

"So you're saying that I have to respect magic more if I want to use it without a wand?" Tonks asked slowly, uncertainly.

"First you have to understand that magic done with a wand is barely scratching the surface. Any idiot can say some gibberish and wave a stick in certain pattern if he's told that it will clean up his plate. But the food stains don't disappear because you waved a wand over them, they disappeared because you wanted them to."

Her face scrunched in thought as she chewed over that sentence, trying to figure out whatever deeper meaning Harry was getting at. She herself didn't need incantations much anymore and could do plenty of spells without the proper wand motions, she had a few favorite spells that she was so good at that all she needed to do was point the wand and it would be cast. But take away her wand and she knew that she couldn't do anything.

"Children do magic without a wand all the time, why do you think that is?"

"Because they don't have control?" Tonks said uncertainly.

"Control of what?"

"Their magic?"

"That's true, but you don't have control of your magic either, Dora. You only have control of your wand. Children do magic without a wand because they act with their hearts instead of their brains, something that changes over time. Adults only act with that kind of pure purpose in circumstances where all falsehoods have been stripped away, when everything they hold dear is at stake, in the moment between life and death."

That brought to mind a particular event. "Your mother…"

"My mother knew what was coming. She created a ritual pact that Voldemort unknowingly agreed to when he killed her, her life for mine. She may not have been able to outfight him, but in that one moment she was more powerful than he could ever hope to be."

"A regular Obi-Wan Kenobi." Tonks regretted the thoughtless quip as soon at it flew off her tongue. "Sorry."

Fortunately, Harry was one of those rare weirdoes with a very cavalier view of death, even death that affected him personally. "Heh, I'd say she was a bit more succesful since Darth Voldemort actually got fried, unlike Vader."

"So, what do I have to do to learn wandless magic?" She asked after a few moments of silence.

"First you need to learn truth of spirit, young padawan, or relearn it as the case may be. For now, you should meditate on this conversation carefully and consider what we talked about. We'll get you started on some exercises next time. Be warned that it's going to involve a lot of sitting around and talking though."

Tonks grimaced but agreed. She had no idea what 'truth of spirit' was supposed to mean and wasn't generally one for this kind of philosophical instrospection, but the lure of learning how to do magic without a wand was too tempting. Hard work wasn't only physical and she hadn't been sorted into Hufflepuff for nothing.

"This was a fantastic idea." Sirius declared.

"Despite my initial reservations, I have to agree." Harry replied.

"I wonder which part of it you two like." Hestia muttered, looking over the sight before them.

"I like it too." Luna added her own two cents.

The sight in question was an impromptu volleyball tournament currently underway. Fleur had mentioned that a particular stretch of beach would be perfect for it, with Tonks agreeing immediately. Almost suspiciously so in fact.

Several people had never played or even heard of the game before and Harry had been reticent merely on the premise of it being a sport. Counter-suggestions had been made about setting up a quidditch pitch, but Harry liked that idea even less and the two of them had gotten their way in the end.

Transfiguring a net had been easy, the ball not so much. Turns out that modern balls were just a tad more complicated than they looked. Harry had ended up needing to make a short jump back to London to buy a couple.

They had separated into teams of two, the current players being Tonks and Fleur versus Bryanna and Tiana.

Bryanna and Tiana weren't bad for beginners, but Fleur and Tonks were clearly doing better. The veela and the Metamorphmagus had become fast friends over the course of the vacation and Harry suspected that they had pushed for volleyball with the intention of destroying the opposition.

"Look, even the gods approve." Sirius said dramatically, pointing at the sky.

They all peered at the passing clouds, trying to discern what exactly he was getting at.

"That one does look like a head." Luna agreed with Sirius' interpretation of events, pointing at a particular cloud.

Harry squinted at it and snorted. "Yeah, if the head had horns."

The cloud then tore in such a peculiar way that it looked as if its 'mouth' was bisected by a massive fanged grin.

"I think it's laughing at you." Luna observed.

"It could also be demonstrating approval of the way that Fleur just slapped Tonks on the arse." Sirius offered, staring at the women in question.

"I wonder if you're even registering that one of those girls you're currently ogling is your cousin." Harry said idly.

"I'm only ogling the other three." Sirius defended, somewhat unconvincingly to Harry's ears.

"Those are my women, Sirius. You've got yours right next to you."

"Don't be so damn stingy. I'll let you ogle mine if you let me ogle yours."

"How about you two alpha males not talk about us as if we're a herd of cattle?" Hestia interjected, starting to get genuinely offended.

Harry and Sirius exchanged glances, silently communicating a wealth of male exasperation with the woman that couldn't recognise a joke.

"But they weren't talking about you as if you were cattle, they were talking about you as if you were women." Luna said with a confused frown.

"It's just an expression, Luna." Harry explained without missing a beat, well used to his friend's occasionally too-literal understanding of things.

"Oh, is it because cows have udders?" Luna asked excitedly, face lighting up in realization.

"You know, she might actually be on to something here." Sirius noted conversationally.

"It's amazing how often that happens." Harry replied.

"It's not because cows have udders!" Hestia snapped, trying to inject some sense into the conversation. "It's because men sometimes talk about women like they're perusing meat at the market."

"What kind of meat?" Luna asked, head cocked quizzically.

"What does it matter what kind of meat?!" Hestia asked incredulously.

Harry and Sirius were making no effort at hiding their grins.

"Well I don't like pork much and I've always thought that chickens are too cute to eat, so I would prefer to be talked about like a piece of beef than either of those." Luna explained.

Hestia had to take a deep breath. "Fine, wouldn't you be bothered if someone talked about you like a side of beef?"

Luna frowned in confusion. "What does this have to do with Harry and Sirius enjoying the sight of some bouncing boobies? I know that Harry said it was just an expression, but you're really not making any sense."

"Argh!" Hestia said, looking a bit wild eyed. "It's just disrespectful, alright?!"

"Looking at something they enjoy is disrespectful?" Luna asked, her confused frown deepening further.

"Yes! I mean, no! The problem is that they were staring and how rude they were about it."

"But if it's rude to look at people you find attractive and make jokes, then why were you with the rest of us a few days ago when we were spying on Harry with omniculars? I thought your comments about his penis were really funny too."

Hestia could only stare speechlessly at the petite blonde that had just completely destroyed her. The worst part was that Luna only looked genuinely curious and not the slightest bit smug.

"I'd be happy to give you a closer look at my penis if you want." Harry offered, unable to help himself with such a beautiful opportunity present. His private skinny dip apparently hadn't been as private as he'd thought, but he really couldn't muster any irritation over it.

"Hey, who's poaching whose women now?" Sirius protested.

"It's not my fault if they want my meat sausage."

"Maybe I should go talk to your women then and find out if they want a better seasoned meat sausage."

"Honestly, Sirius, if I wanted my own comeback I would have wiped it off your girlfriend's chin."

Sirius grimaced. He'd have to remember that one for the future, as he couldn't think of anything to retort with that wouldn't sound petulant.

Fortunately he didn't have to as Hestia had by now recovered from getting owned by Luna and took renewed offense to their conversation.

"Are you going to let him talk about me like that?" She demanded, staring at her boyfriend.

"Calm down, Hestia, it's just a joke." Sirius said. A really crass joke admittedly, but still nothing to get so fired up about.

This was apparently the wrong thing to say as Hestia gave him a furious glare and stomped off.

"I think you just became single again." Harry commented.

"I think you're right." Sirius agreed and then a thought occured to him. "Crap, this means that we've just been disqualified from the volleyball tournament. And we were going to win it too."

Harry was about to shatter his godfather's delusions of victory when an enraged female yell resounded over the beach.

"HAVE FUN STARING AT HER THEN!"

Everyone stared after the retreating form of Isabel as she stomped away from her grumpy looking boyfriend, surprised but not too surprised. Paul's weakness to the veela Allure was well known to everyone by now.

"I guess you aren't the only one who just became single." Harry observed calmly, vastly amused by all this jealous drama. Life was so much less aggravating when you didn't sweat the small stuff.

"It's a good thing I brought booze for the victory party, seems like we're going to need it." Sirius said.

Harry stepped quietly out of the master bedroom, making sure not to wake the girls still sleeping in his bed. The mildly sloshed Bryanna and Tiana had insisted on a consolation prize after losing the impomptu volleyball tournament. Luna had skipped along with a similar excuse, though she was obviously unconcerned about the loss.

His intention to go for a morning run and swim was forgotten as another room door opened. Wasn't that Isabel's room? Her boyfriend had asked to be sent home, along with Hestia just before the party that Sirius had insisted on had started.

And wouldn't you know, it was in fact Sirius coming out of the room. There was only one reason why a man would be sneaking out of a girl's room at the crack of dawn.

"You didn't." Harry said flatly.

"I did." Sirius admitted.

"Really, Sirius? A nineteen-year-old girl that had been drinking and just broke up with her boyfriend? Really?" Harry was not overly impressed with his godfather right now.

"I was just trying to tell her that her boyfriend looking at a veela wasn't an indication that he didn't love her." Sirius defended.

"And you somehow ended up sleeping with her?" Harry asked incredulously.

"I think Paul's fascination with Fleur's tush was the least of their problems." Sirius shrugged. "She said she wanted a quick fling and far be it from me to object."

"If you say so." Harry shrugged as well. Truthfully he didn't care too much. He'd never gotten along well with Isabel anyway.

Whatever Sirius might have said in response went unsaid as another door opened and another person snuck stealthily away.

"Fleur?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Oh, boy." Sirius muttered.

The veela had been backing into the hallway and hadn't expected anyone to be there, so she jumped in fright.

"'Arry!" She exclaimed, quickly regaining her composure.

"Isn't that Dora's room?" Harry asked.

" Oui ." Fleur said with her spine as straight as an arrow. She was clearly not intending to apologise or make excuses.

"So, you and Dora…?" Harry probed. The two of them had been getting very friendly ever since they'd come to this island but he'd never thought they were sleeping together.

"We can talk about eet on ze beach." Fleur said and started walking.

Bemused, Harry followed.

"Can you get me a pensieve memory?" Sirius asked hopefully.

"As if I'd share a treasure like that." Harry snorted.

"So… you and Dora?" Harry prompted once they'd gotten settled into beach chairs.

"We 'ad been drinking." Fleur shrugged. "She eez easy to like and I got carried away."

"No plans to make her your mate then?" He would have to object to that. Strangers were one thing, but he hadn't told Dora about the Joining only for her to get wrapped around a veela's little finger, even this veela.

"I would not be opposed to it." Fleur admitted. "'Er ability makes makes 'er as good as a man in all ze ways zat matter and wiz all ze benefits of being a woman. She would be an excellent mate."

"I'm sensing a 'but'."

"But I know you would not like eet." Harry was still the greater prize. She would pursue Nymphadora as well if she thought he would allow it, but as appealing as the prospect of having them both was, she was not that greedy. Or, to be more precise, not so willing to take the risk.

"You're right about that." He confirmed.

"I should get back to 'er. Zis will be complicated enough wizzout 'er waking up alone ze morning after."

"Alright." Harry nodded, knowing it was true. He had some concern about letting Fleur get into the same bed as Dora again, but he had the sense that she was sincere and wouldn't try to ply her charms on the Metamorphmagus behind his back. "A word of advice. I know how you veela are when it comes to the Joining, but I think you should tell her about it."

Fleur gave him a considering look. "I will think about eet."

Despite her choice of career, Tonks was an exceptionally deep sleeper and would happily snooze until noon if given the chance. On the first day of this vacation, she had taken advantage of the time delay and slept for twelve hours straight.

She was also very slow to wake if left undisturbed and would linger in that peculiar state of half-sleep for as long as possible.

The feminine fingers that trailed gently over her bare back sent a pleasant shiver up her spine, but did not wake her. Instead, it only caused her hair to blaze pink and her lips to turn into a smile as she dreamed of feathers caressing her.

Pleasant though it was, even Tonks couldn't stay in that state indefinitely.

Her eyes opened with a content sigh that quickly froze as full coherence returned.

She had been a quite tipsy last night, but not nearly enough to affect her memory. Just enough to have her inhibitions loosened.

And loose they had been. She remembered gloating with Fleur over their victory and being presented with a cup that had been transfigured from a rock. The small party had eventually died down and people drifted off to their various rooms. Bryanna and Tiana had dragged Harry off while she and Fleur had gone to her room to continue their talk.

There hadn't been much talking though, as the beautiful veela had kissed her almost as soon as the door was closed.

Tonks liked men better, but she wasn't averse to women. Having a constantly shifting body did strange things to one's hormones and a certain level of bi-curiousity was unavoidable.

And Fleur was so intoxicatingly beautiful. Tonks wasn't sure if that was the Allure doing a number on her brain, the alcohol, her own lack of bedroom action or some combination of the three. Either way, she hadn't put up much of a fight as she was manouvered towards the bed.

"Nymphadora, are you awake?" Fleur asked teasingly, pressing herself against the tense Metamorphmagus.

"Don't call me that." Tonks mumbled, mostly just to stall for time. Her hair turned a darker shade.

"Why not? Eet eez a beautiful name." Fleur purred, nibbling on whatever skin she could reach while her hands wandered.

Tonks let out a shuddering breath at the pleasant sensations and bit her lip. She was clearly the only one that felt a bit uncomfortable now that it was the morning after.

She turned around with a small grunt of effort until she was facing Fleur. The veela greeted her with a bright smile.

"Well, this is awkward." Tonks said after a long minute of failing to come up with anything to say.

"Eet doesn't 'ave to be." Fleur replied, still smiling.

"How can it be anything else?" The Metamorphmagus groaned. "I had sex with my ex-boyfriends girlfriend."

"So?" Fleur shrugged, looking amused. "'Arry and I do not 'ave zat kind of relationship."

"What kind of relationship do you have then?" Tonks asked. It was a question that she had been wanting to ask for a long while now, but politeness had stayed her tongue. Harry was clearly sleeping around all over the place and Fleur didn't seem to mind, but…

"Mostly, we are friends who 'ave sex."

"That's all?" Tonks asked in surprise. "But you're living in his house!"

"I am living in his 'ouse because 'e invited me to go with 'im when 'e travels and I accepted. 'Arry… I do not zink 'e eez ready for anuzzer commitment."

And that was the truth. Two months of regular sex with the Joining being performed pretty much every time had only served to tell her that Harry was comfortable with things as they were right now. He did care for her, that much was true, but as a good friend rather than as a lover. That was alright though. She would have honestly been surprised if he'd been ready for something more permanent at his age without magical coercion.

"Oh, you mean he's still… what, pining after me?" Tonks asked quietly, feeling a mixture of flattered and guilty. It was nice to hear that he still cared, but she didn't want to be a chain around his neck. Not when she had been the one to end it between them.

"I would not say pining, 'e eez just… well you know 'ow he gets when somezzing vexes 'im. 'E turns eet over in 'is mind until 'e resolves eet. 'E eez not ready to let go."

Yes, Tonks did know that. "Right, so he won't care about this?"

" Non. " Fleur confirmed, and then smiled mischievously. "Besides, it would be quite silly to be upset about it wiz Luna insisting that we will be a ménage à trois ."

Tonks gaped at her in surprise for a moment and then snorted. "Figures."

"We could make eet a ménage à quatre if you wanted to join us." Fleur suggested with a lewd smile. "I was impressed wiz your performance."

Tonks flushed all the way to the tips of her hair. Yes, last night had been… interesting. She could now conclusively say that while there was definitely more potential pleasure on the girl side of things, she also understood why men were so enamoured with their willies. spearing a girl on one's cock and hearing her moan in response was an oddly satisfying experience.

"I think I'll give that one a miss." She said, stoically forcing the blood back below her neck and her hair to a less embarrassed shade of pink.

"Eet eez for ze best I suppose." Fleur sighed, making a decision. "At least until 'Arry teaches you enough to resist ze effects of ze Joining."

Tonks tensed. "He told you about that, did he?"

"'E did not 'ave to. All veela instinctively perform ze Joining during climax."

Tonks' expression hardened and she sat up, feeling strangely betrayed. "You… !"

"Zere eez no need to worry." Fleur cut her off, also sitting up. "Eet would take much more to leave any lasting effect.

Tonks wasn't sure what to say to that.

Fleur gave her a hug, ignoring how stiff and tense the Metamorphmagus was. "'Arry advised me to tell you about eet. I 'ope we can still be friends."

Tonks still said nothing, only watching in confusion as the veela quickly got dressed and left the room. Why did everything that happened around Harry have to be so bloody complicated? Even an alcohol induced one night stand.

"You want me to what?" Tonks asked, looking down at Harry skeptically.

"Come sit between my legs." Harry repeated patiently, patting the ground in front of him to put some emphasis on it.

"And why do I need to do that?"

"To learn magic."

"Is that what we're calling it now?" Tonks snarked.

Harry cracked at grin at her attitude. "I know what it looks like, but it really is about learning magic."

"Fine." Tonks sighed and settled herself between his legs. "Alright, now what?"

"Now I'm going to be poking at you with my magic while you try to sense it."

She craned her neck around to give him a dubius look. "And how am I supposed to do that?"

"Try not to think and just feel. Your body's instincts are reflected in the soul, it's only a matter of becoming conscious of them." He explained.

"I guess…"

They stayed like that for over an hour, with Harry making metaphysical pokes at her aura in the hopes that she would become aware of it. Tonks meditated and tried to keep her mind as quiet as possible.

"This isn't working." She sighed.

"Don't be so quick to give up, Padawan She-Hulk." Harry quipped. "Rome was not built in a day and other such trite sayings. Learning how to control the impulses of your spirit is no simple thing."

"How did you learn it then?"

"I was six when I figured out that the weirdness happening around me was magic, starting out is much easier at that age."

"Yeah well I was three, so how come I can't shoot fireballs from my hands?"

"I was in an orphanage getting bullied by all the other kids and magic was the road to salvation. You had your parents tell you not to worry because it was just magic. Just. Magic. They probably gave it about as much weight as they would to a bruise."

Tonks sulked, because that was pretty much exactly what happened. Sure, they'd been proud that she was a Metamorphmagus, but they'd still treated it with the same cavalier familiarity that one might indeed give to a bruise.

"Back to practice then?" She asked.

"You seem unsettled." Harry noted. "Is there anything you want to talk about?"

"Not really." Tonks grumbled.

"It's about Fleur isn't it?"

"What part of 'not really' do you not understand?"

"Sorry, but she's been moping for the past few days and I feel like I need to say something despite my desire to keep out of it." Harry said.

"Fine, say what you want to say then." Tonks grumbled some more.

"She's not like me you know, or like you for that matter." He said mildly. "Veela are creatures born of Sex Magic, they can't help being what they are. I'll teach you how to perform the Joining yourself so that you never have to fear it again, but please talk to Fleur before you leave. I don't know how to deal with depressed women."

Tonks couldn't help snorting at the end. Typical man.

"Fine, I'll talk to her." Fleur had become a good friend, but learning that she'd had another brush with that insidious bit of magic had shaken her. She had to go back to work in a few days though and it would be dumb to leave things unresolved.

There were only five people left on Black Island, the others having left for one reason or another.

After Penny's parents had needed to go back to work, Hestia and Paul had left due to the abrupt end of relationships.

Next had been Isabel and Jade. Upon waking up the morning after the party, Isabel had decided that she regretted sleeping with Sirius and blamed him for it. Jade, ever the short-tempered Gryffindor, supported her friend. That had been the cause of some very stupid drama, which Bryanna and Tiana had quickly put and end to by bustling their friends home.

Tonks had been the last to leave, her vacation time used up. She did patch things up with Fleur before she left though and the veela's mood had improved with the knowledge that she hadn't lost her new friend.

Harry was just happy that she wasn't moping anymore. Give him a complex magical problem over an upset female any day…

The rest of them would be leaving the next day, but for now they were sitting around a fire and roasting marshmallows for some reason. That was probably Luna's doing, or maybe Sirius.

Penny had just asked where Harry was thinking of going for his first trip out of Britain.

"Well my first trip out of Britain is going to be to Austria, but I don't really count that as part of my plans." Harry said, grumbling slightly.

"Why not?" Fleur asked curiously. She wouldn't mind seeing Austria, thought it wasn't as far afield as she had expected.

"Because it literally isn't my plan to go there." He grumbled some more. "It was Adrastia who told me that Malfoy was the one trying to kill me, and she demanded that I be her date to some kind of private party in Vienna on Christmas as payment."

Of course, Harry didn't for a moment believe that it was that simple. Adrastia had a habit of introducing new variables into his life every time she showed up and he didn't expect this to be any different. He might have chanced going on his first trip before Christmas if his promised date was with someone more benign.

"You didn't tell me about this." Sirius said, mildly accusing.

"Because you always make a fuss when Adrastia is mentioned." Harry retorted.

"I do not." Sirius protested. "I just don't trust her."

"You think I do?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Where are we going after that then?" Luna asked.

"I was thinking America, either South or North." Harry mused. "I really want to get a look at the remains of the Aztecs."

"I've always wanted to go to Vegas." Sirius chimed in.

"Of course you did." Harry didn't have much interest in gambling or strippers or whatever else happened there, but he could easily imagine Sirius going there.

"I would like to see eet too." Fleur said.

"See, we could go there to play a few games of Blackjack and you'll have the best arm candy in the place."

"Hmph, I would not go zere only to be arm candy." Fleur said with her nose in the air, though she didn't take much offense.

"I could be arm candy." Luna offered.

Everyone paused for a moment in consideration before Harry spoke. "You know, I forgot that Luna's age might actually be a problem here. Penny, do you know if Las Vegas has any magical oversight?"

"Not a clue."

"Something to look into then."

"Where else do you want to go?" Penny questioned. "I might as well take a closer look at all of those places so that you don't end up getting screwed over by some minor detail."

"Australia maybe, I'm not sure about that yet. Egypt definitely, though I'd want to speak both ancient and modern Egyptian before going." Bloody sphinx had set that destination in stone.

"I think the Department of International Magical Cooperation offers a magical means of learning languages quickly, though the price for non-employees is pretty steep." Sirius said and then scowled. "That bastard Crouch supposedly speaks over a hundred and fity languages. He probably got those lessons for free since he was the head of that department."

"That's good to know." Harry said, dismissing the price as irrelevant, though he would still probably bully whoever was in charge of that into lowering it for him. No sense in paying more than you had to.

"Where else do you want to go?" Fleur prodded, very interested in hearing this. Egypt sounded like quite an adventure.

"India." Harry mused. "I know that our stupid ancestors did everything they could to ruin the country's magical heritage, but there has to be something left." That had been surprisingly difficult to learn.

India's magical side was modeled to closely resemble Britain these days, due to the fact that it was British wand-wavers that had gone there first and started enforcing the Statute of Secrecy on it. Based on his research India's magicals had probably been much more heavily integrated in the day to day life and religion of the society than the European ones. That sounded like something that would have given the weenies in the ICW a heart attack and caused them to start liberally applying memory charms and forcing the local wandless magicals to conform to their ways. Still, Harry was hoping that they had failed to destroy it completely and that some remnant yet remained. It would be pretty sad if a culture that was thousands of years old had been altered into some kind of pseudo-Britain.

"Can't you pick somewhere more fun to go to?" Sirius asked in exasperation.

"Well I'm also planning to buy a flying carpet from there if I can't get my hands on one before then. Is that fun enough for you?"

"Better, but only if there's belly dancers involved."

"You never know, there might be."

"I'm all for it then."

"Anything else?" Penny asked, fully recovered from the near centrifugal forces generated by her eyerolls at this conversation.

"Greece? I've always wanted to go to the top of Mount Olympus and throw a few lightning bolts around, confuse some people."

"Now we're talking." Sirius said enthusiastically, always up for a prank. "Err, can you throw lightning bolts though?"

Harry brought his hands together, palms a few inches apart and put a look of concentration on his face. Arcs of electricity began to spark between them. Then it got out of control with a loud 'fzark' sound.

"Yow!" Harry yelped, shaking out his hands. "As you can see, it's a work in progress. Fucking lightning is even more wild than fire. A lot more."

"Maybe you should stop playing with it then?" Penny suggested.

Harry merely stared at her blankly. Stop playing with lightning? Stop playing with lightning ?

"Nevermind." She sighed at the look on his face. "How silly of me to suggest you stop playing with dangerous natural forces."

Damn right it was silly. The Sunlight Spear wasn't going to invent itself.

After leaving Black Island and her dog of an ex-boyfriend, Hestia Jones wasn't too surprised to receive a dinner invitation from Emmeline Vance. She'd been friends with the older witch for many years now and they got together fairly frequently.

She was surprised however, when Albus Dumbledore showed up as well. While she had known that Emmeline was on good terms with her old headmaster, she hadn't really expected to have him show up for something so casual.

Still, it was nice to be in the presence of the powerful old wizard and listen to his rambling stories about what he'd been doing over the summer. She found herself sharing her own summer before she knew it.

Albus gently skimmed Hestia's mind while she talked about her holiday on Black Island, subtly directing her to talk about Harry as much as possible. He did not get as much as he would've wished since Hestia and Harry had not interacted much, but every bit helped.

Harry would always have to be watched for as long as the prophecy was in play and Voldemort was still alive.