She sighed, "I'm Daphne Greengrass," She said with a helpless smile, "I appreciate your help, Harry Potter."
"Not a problem, but I have a question," He said.
"I apologize, but it won't be possible for me to tell you about Astoria's condition," Daphne answered preemptively.
"Oh, it's not that," Harry waved it off, "I was more curious about why they were after her."
Daphne's face developed a wry smile, "Why else?" She said, "They want leverage on our family to pull us toward their side. Nott and Zabini are too dumb to realize that things aren't as simple as that and their actions are meaningless."
Her answer was enough for Harry to confirm his thoughts, "Well, I'll be off then," He said before turning around with Gabrielle.
"Wait!" She grabbed his shoulder, stopping him.
"What is it?" He asked.
"I don't feel right just to thank you and let you go," She said, "I would like to treat you to a meal at Hogsmede sometime."
Harry noticed the light blush on her face and the glint of cunning in her eyes and knew exactly what she was playing at. To an extent, that was what he had planned on when he dispelled the concealment charms when he approached her, "I'll have to take a rain check on that," He said. Sadly for her, a date with him wasn't on the table, "You may remember seeing me with my girlfriend. She can be a bit possessive at times."
"Oh," Daphne said with a sigh that conveyed her immense and painful disappointment, "I understand," She acted like a puppy who had lost its owner and turned around, much to Harry's amusement. He knew she was just pretending and definitely had something she wanted from him. Just as he had used her and Astoria to make it seem like he was making allies, she most likely also had certain motives.
When Harry felt a light yank on his sleeve, he sighed inwardly, knowing that unlike him, his innocent little sister-in-law had been deceived by Daphne's acting. He looked at her, "What is it, Gabi?" Seeing the expression of pity on her face, Harry already knew what she was going to say. He thought about interrupting her but decided otherwise. The two Greengrass sisters had managed to somewhat pique his interest and he wouldn't mind befriending them. Especially since they were one of the few people who weren't contacting him because of certain feelings toward Fleur.
Harry had only ever had women approach him with the intention of stealing him away from Fleur so that they could spite the most beautiful girl in school. That was why he didn't have any real friends in Beauxbatons. By now, the status quo had been set and even if he wanted to make friends with some people, there was already quite a bit of history with everyone to be able to do such a thing.
Fleur went through a similar thing. The only people who approached her were either men who were enamored by her beauty, or women who were trying to look down on her and pull themselves up the social ladder with their peers. Just like Harry, she was never able to make any friends due to various reasons that left her and Harry forming a literal magical shield around themselves and coming up with spells that would keep people's attention away from them.
"Harry!" Gabrielle shook Harry's arm, pulling him out of his thoughts.
"My bad," He said, "I was lost in my thoughts." He noticed that Daphne's lost puppy expression had disappeared and she was looking at him with curiosity. He asked Gabrielle, "What did you say?"
Gabrielle sighed with mock exhasperation, "I said, that you can just hang out with her as friends," She said to him, "If you think Fleur wouldn't like it, bring her." Gabrielle then turned to Daphne, "You can bring your little sister, the four of you can hang out."
Harry sighed before turning to look at Daphne who had a light smile on her face, "I don't mind," She said, "Treating my sister's savior and his girlfriend to a meal is the least I should do."
Harry couldn't decipher the emotions behind her words but didn't feel malice, which was enough for him, "Sure, then," He said, "I will talk to Fleur and let you know."
"Sure," Daphne gave him a bright smile, "You can usually find me most mornings in the Great Hall, this is my usual spot. Just let me know, okay?"
Hearing her words, Harry gave her a note and said, "Sure."
"Great," Daphne said, "I'll be off then," She then grabbed her little sister's hand and brought her out of the Great Hall.
"Let's follow them," Gabrielle said while pulling Harry's hand.
"Gabi, stop," He didn't follow along with her, "Explain to me what's going on first. Then I will think about whether to follow them or not."
"But then we'll miss it," She jumped while swinging his arm throwing a mini-tantrum to get him to agree, "Please~" She looked at him with big pleading eyes that were almost impossible for Harry to resist.
He resisted the urge to groan in annoyance and reluctantly agreed, "Fine," He said, "But once we get back to the dorm, you are explaining the reasoning behind every single thing that you're doing right now. From having me 'save' Astoria to forcing me to agree to Daphne's invitation and then this. You are explaining everything."
"Done," Gabrielle nodded sincerely, "Promise, I will explain, but we should really follow them quickly."
Harry shook his head, "Fine," He allowed Gabrielle to pull him out of the Great Hall and to the Grand Staircase as they started quickly ascending the floors.
"Honestly," Harry sighed to himself, "I would rather not be found chasing two girls through Hogwarts." Thankfully for him, after his first weird incident with Professor Snape, Harry was ready for something weird to happen. He now always carried his Invisibility Cloak alongside some other miscellaneous items that would make sure that in case he was ambushed again, he wouldn't have to stew in worry until he got that stuff.
Harry draped the cloak around himself and Gabrielle while grabbing her, "Walk slowly and steadily," He told the girl, "I don't want you tripping on the cloak."
Gabrielle already knew about Harry's magical cloak and nodded. She stepped closer to him while walking so that they could comfortably share the cloak without the risk of getting revealed.
Soon, the two girls came into Harry's view. Astoria didn't seem to have been healed just yet and her pain and weakness seemed to have returned as she leaned on Daphne. When they reached the third floor's landing, they turned to the corridor and started walking through it as Harry and Gabrielle followed suit.
After a few turns, the two sisters entered a classroom as Gabrielle quickly pulled Harry and increased her gait, "Gabi, wait …" Harry spoke to her — he had already enchanted cloak to prevent their voices from leaking out as long as they were below a certain threshold — but Gabrielle singlemindedly pulled him into the room just as Daphne closed the door and locked it. "What is wrong with you?" Harry asked, "Now we're locked in without any way to leave without alerting the two of them."
"Shh!" Gabrielle seemed to have done a complete shift of her personality as she shushed him instead of acting the spoiled little girl she always acted like. She spoke, "I can feel a unique connection between the two of them and I want to see what it is." She then came in front of him while looking at the two sisters through the cloak and stepped back, causing him to lean against the wall with his hands on her shoulders.
Harry was a little taken aback at her words and frowned, 'Is she being affected by some kind of magic?' This was the first time that he mildly regretted delaying Gabrielle's Occlumency training. He knew just how difficult and uncomfortable learning to create mental barriers was and wanted her to be a few more years older before she started her training, 'Whatever this is, I need to get Gabi started on Occlumency training as soon as possible.' He decided, "Calm down, Gabi," Harry didn't want the situation to get out of control and put his hand on her head, "You are letting your emotions get to you," He grabbed his wand in his other hand and pointed it at Gabrielle's head, immediately causing a cooling sensation to waft through her mind and body.
"Sorry, 'Arry …" Gabi said in a small voice, her tone returning to what it usually was, albeit with a hint of guilt in her tone, "I don't know what got into my head."
"It's okay, honey," Harry comforted her, "We'll talk about this situation extensively once we can leave this place."
"Okay," Gabrielle nodded, her cheeriness returning, "I'm sure that this is going to be an important thing to see."
Hearing her words, Harry turned his attention back to the two sisters. He wasn't as excited about the situation as Gabrielle, but he was indeed curious to see what kinds of unique spells the two Greengrass sisters had in their arsenal. Harry rested one hand on Gabrielle's head and kept the other on her shoulder with his wand clasped in between his fingers. He didn't know if the weird unknown influence would return and wanted to be ready for anything that might happen to her.
Gabrielle, clueless, was just excited to see whatever was about to happen as if she knew something that Harry didn't know. As a plus, she got to enjoy Harry's gentle caresses on her hair, making her lean against him, making herself comfortable.
A loud, pained groan from Astoria made Daphne frown. She quickly pulled two tables together and said, "Quickly, lay down."
Astoria, seemingly having experienced his before, nodded while biting her lower lip and agreed, "Okay ..." She groaned out before stumbling to the table with Daphne's support and sitting on top of it. Daphne grabbed her wand and took a few seconds to cast a softening charm on the desk so that Astoria was comfortable.
"Take this off," Daphen helped Astoria take off her cloak and sweater, leaving her in a thin button-up shirt and skirt alongside stockings.
"Cold …" Astoria groaned out while hugging herself after Daphne took off most of her warm layers.
"Just, give me a minute, please," There were hints of desperation in Daphne's tone as she kneeled in front of Astoria and helped her take off her shoes. She then pulled out her wand and started casting a spell that Harry was familiar with — The Atmospheric Charm. He could only think that she was going overkill when she could just cast a more convenient spell to warm up the desk instead. It took the older sister more than five seconds to cast the spell with all the chants and wand movements.
'Not bad … Considering the others the same age as us need at least ten to fifteen seconds to cast this kind of a spell,' Harry thought. He could cast it in less than a second nonverbally, but verbally, it was difficult to finish the complex chant within five seconds. This meant that Daphne was actually very proficient with this basic household spell.
Just as the chant finished, a long bolt of magic escaped Daphne's wand and struck the ceiling of the class, instantly increasing the temperature of the classroom by many degrees. Moments later, Daphne also disrobed and was left wearing the same clothes as Astoria, merely her necktie had green textures for Slytherin while Astoria's had blue ones.
'Why the hell would you cast the spell to such a potency?' Harry complained as he felt sweat creeping all over his pajamas and the cloak that he was wearing over it as Gabrielle wiggled uncomfortably. Looking at Astoria's face, he understood why Daphne had raised the temperature by so much. Astoria was still cold as she kept her arms wrapped around herself.
"'Arry …" Gabrielle called him.
"I know," He said and took his hands away from her shoulder and head, "You can give me your cloak and robes. This cloak doesn't have temperature enchantments …" Harry decided to add some more enchantments to his Invisibility Cloak alongside his sound-suppressing enchantment. Gabrielle quickly followed along with his words and handed him her layers, left in just her pastel blue silk button-up shirt dress that went down to her knees.
At this time, Daphne looked at Astoria, who had a pained expression, "I know, honey," She cupped her little sister's cheek and gave her an encouraging smile, "Just this once and we'll be done for the month." Astoria nodded with pain marring her features as she rested her hands on the table and put some weight on them, unable to support herself completely. "Lie down, Tori" Daphne told her with a gentle, comforting whisper, "We'll be done in a jiffy."
As Astoria listened to Daphne's words and lay down on the softened desk cum bed, Daphne moved to her bag and pulled out a knife and goblet, and rested them on the table beside Astoria.
'She's preparing a ritual …' Harry thought to himself with a frown as he noticed the two things, 'And it's probably one related to blood considering the ritual knife … But what's the goblet for? Making her drink the blood?' Harry instantly dismissed the notion. Rituals based on blood had extremely strict rules surrounding them. Even if blood was utilized, it was usually the catalyst for the main ritual or a sacrifice. If Daphne truly made Astoria drink the blood, the reaction that Astoria's blood would have against the foreign substance could be catastrophic and would most likely kill her. In the best-case scenario, the girl would be left mutilated and crippled.
After pulling out the two tools, Daphne looked at Astoria and started unbuttoning her shirt, making Harry raise a brow in suspicion. As the shirt was taken off, Harry realized the reasoning behind the removal. Astoria's entire skin torso was full of black veins, ranging from the thinnest lines for her capillaries to thick black ones representing her arteries. He realized that her blood had completely turned black and it was spreading very fast, originating from her heart. Recalling the words of the students from the hall, he deduced that Astoria truly was cursed; and it was a cruel blood-based curse that destroyed her from the inside out.
Daphne made Astoria sit up and took off her shirt, leaving her wearing a sports bra that kept her assets in check and even somewhat compressed. Harry's attention was very far from her busty chest that was barely held back by the tight sports bra and instead, he was examining the state of her skin that was crawling with those spreading black lines. They still hadn't reached her legs, which was why the stockings were enough to hide the spreading curse.
Daphne was trembling as she cast the same spells as before on Astoria, slowing down and eventually stopping the black lines from spreading.
"Daph ..." Astoria was finally in less pain as she gave her older sister a concerned look, "It's okay," She said while holding her hand.
Daphne felt Astoria grabbing her hand and calmed down, "Quickly, before it starts spreading again." She said, almost to herself, before grabbing the knife. With a deep breath, Daphne cut her wrist with the ritual knife, allowing the blood to fall into the goblet. The girl groaned in pain as Astoria looked at her concernedly. Then, a jewel that was embedded at the top of the hilt started glowing. It made Daphne's pained expression get softer as the flow of blood from her wrist slowed down. The goblet collected every single drop of her blood, not allowing any to be lost and just as it was filled to the brim, her wound closed completely and the ritual knife stopped glowing.
"Quickly," Daphne hurriedly put the knife at the side and grabbed the goblet before detaching the stem from the base of the goblet, "Stay still, Tori." Holding the base of the goblet like a pen, Daphne brought it to Astoria's stomach.
'But …' Harry was very concerned about the process of the ritual. Although Daphne wasn't making Astoria ingest her blood directly, the whole process seemed very eerie to him. He thought of something and realized that Gabrielle hadn't asked him about anything, "Gabi …" Harry said, "Aren't you curious about what's going on?"
"It's a blood ritual, 'Arry," She said distractedly, "What am I going to ask?"
Hearing her tone, Harry realized that she was in some kind of a trance and frowned, "Gabi," He shook her, all his attention that was previously on Astoria and Daphne moving to Gabrielle, "Hey …"
"Stop, shaking me, 'Arry …" Gabrielle said with her usual tone, "I'm just fascinated by that ritual." Her words didn't make Harry feel very calm. He cast the same spell on Gabrielle's head that called her down. She leaned against him even more comfortably, "I'm fine, 'Arry," She said, "I am quiet because I want you to see this ritual."
"Why?" He asked.
"I don't know," She said with a confused tone, "But I know that it's important for some reason."
Harry sighed at Gabrielle's weird actions. He knew that he would need to spend some time with her to see exactly what was going on with her, so he just turned his attention back to the two sisters.
Daphne had drawn a complex ritual circle on Astoria's stomach that looked like a pentagram but with many more intricate lines and murals added to it. Harry assumed that the base of the ritual circle was a pentagram to which the actual magical runes and connecting nodes were added. Something weird that he noticed was that the blood, which should have a running, almost watery consistency was perfectly still, acting as actual ink to draw the ritual circle on Astoria's body without actually being absorbed by her skin. It stayed in a perfectly liquid state while holding itself together.
As the minutes passed, sweat dripped from Daphne's brow, but she kept going without stopping for even a second. It was as if she was in a trance that would only break once she finished drawing the circle. The manner in which she drew the circle reminded Harry of Fleur when she was in a zone and lost herself in her paintings. He felt a little mesmerized by the older sister's dedication and drive.
During the time that Daphne was working on drawing the ritual circle, Astoria was lying perfectly still on the table, her fists clenched in nervousness as she kept her focus on Daphne's tired face. Harry noticed hints of guilt in Astoria's eyes, but that felt natural to him. Daphne had lost a full goblet worth of her blood for the ritual — losing a couple hundred milliliters of blood was bound to make anyone pale and weak — but she was still focused and working on the complicated and intricate ritual circle that encompassed Astoria's entire belly.
Eventually, the circle finished, and Astoria heaved a sigh as Daphne rested the goblet — that was suspiciously still filled to the brim as if not a drop of the blood had been used — on the table beside Astoria. She then pulled out her wand and started waving it all over Astoria while chanting some unknown spells that kept going. In fact, the chant was so complex and long that it took Daphne a whole minute of constant speech to finish it successfully, and she wasn't even able to take a breath in the middle.
Daphne's effort was understandable, however. Harry had seen his mother cast much more complex rituals with even more fluidity. Unlike spells, rituals were supposed to be cast with the assumption that the caster had time and patience. They could take from a couple of minutes as with Daphne and Astoria to hours and even days as one moved into more complex territory.
When Daphne's chant finished, the tip of her wand started glowing with a bright beautiful green. She then pressed the tip of her wand on Astoria's belly button, making a light groan escape Astoria's mouth as she squirmed in her place. As for the ritual circle, Harry realized that the blood that had been perfectly liquid until now instantly completely solidified when Daphne's wand was placed within Astoria's belly button. The blood then started growing faint as it got absorbed into her body.
"Shh," Daphne's voice came out as a weakened whisper, "Calm down, honey," She gently caressed Astoria's cheek with her other hand before guiding the girl higher, "We still have the last step." She said as Astoria nodded while squirming with a blush on her face. She didn't say anything and slightly sat up while Daphne made sure that her wand's tip was placed correctly in Astoria's belly button.
Daphne then grabbed the goblet that was still fully filled with her blood and brought it close to Astoria's face.
Harry had been curiously examining Astoria's expression and felt that she looked like she was feeling a sense of arousal from the spell on her belly button. His thoughts instantly froze at what he saw, 'No!' He frowned, 'That's not right …' He felt a fundamental rule of magical rituals was being violated right now. It was as if he was seeing someone walking off of a cliff while telling him that gravity wasn't real. His first instinct was to interrupt the ritual and stop it, but that was when Gabrielle grabbed his hand that was resting on her shoulder.
"Don't worry, 'Arry," She said, "I can feel that they are both completely confident in the result of the ritual."
Gabrielle's words did little to quench Harry's concern, but he then recalled Daphne's words to Astoria where she said that this was a monthly ritual to suppress the curse. Ultimately, after a brief inner contemplation, Harry decided to let things play out. Even if something happened, these two girls had virtually nothing to do with him. And he would get to see something that would counter his mother's words, 'I will write to her about it so that she explains to me what could possibly be happening here …' He thought inwardly as Astoria started drinking the blood from the goblet in Daphne's hands.
"Don't," Daphne said as she saw Astoria trying to bring her hands up to the goblet to hold it, "It has to be me. You know it." Astoria gave Daphne a guilty look but brought her hands back down while allowing Daphne to hold the goblet as she drank her blood.
Harry visibly noticed the effects of Astoria's curse receding with each gulp of blood that she drank. Harry could tell from the effects that whatever that ritual was, it allowed Daphne to use her blood to suppress the curse on Astoria, 'Maybe it's because they are sisters … But blood has much more than just that. A ritual is not like a simple transplant where matching blood groups would be fine. Blood has a person's magical signature and so much more …' Harry realized that he had a lot of things to talk to his mother about if he wanted to understand this ritual.
Once the goblet was completely finished, Astoria's curse seemed to have all but disappeared as she smiled at Daphne cheerily, "Sis~" She hugged her older sister in a tight embrace as Daphne weakly leaned into Astoria's arms.
"Mm …" She smiled and lightly rested her arms on her younger sister's thighs.
'All right, finally, we get to leave.' Harry thought to himself. As interesting as the ritual was and allowed him to realize something new, he wasn't truly interested and could not give two fucks about the two sisters. Now that it was over, he just wanted to disappear without being labeled as a creep or worse, a voyeur.
"Arry," Gabrielle said, "I think it would be better if you put me to sleep now." She told him.
"What?" He was confused, "Why? We're about to leave."
"It's going to be a while," Gabrielle said, but Harry still didn't understand. He was about to look around the room, but his gaze instantly honed in on the two sisters.
"My big sis~" Astoria cooed lovingly and cupped Daphne's cheek gently before making her raise her head. The two sisters looked into each other's eyes, one shining with a tired yet happy glean, while the other was energetic and excited. Moments later, their lips touched.
'Oh no … ' Harry couldn't believe it. This was the farthest possibility that had come to his mind, 'No wonder Daphne is so irked at Astoria's situation. I'd just thought that they were very close siblings …' As the thought rang through his mind, his wand instinctively moved as he nonverbally cast a spell that put Gabrielle to sleep. She was right about him not wanting her to see such an explicit scene.
As the two girls started full-on making out with each other, Harry conjured himself a seat and sat on it while putting Gabrielle on one of his thighs as she leaned her body on him while in a deep sleep. He could've sat on one of the chairs in the room, but that would make a seat disappear and would cause suspicion. Even if the two girls were otherwise 'occupied' he didn't want to risk it. Especially now.
'I want to apparate away from this room …' Harry thought to himself, 'If only it was that easy … This isn't exactly an emergency, and I don't want to explain to Mum that I ran home because I was scared of seeing two lesbian sisters sharing a passionate embrace. Maybe they aren't even sisters …' Harry decided to ignore the scene to the best of his abilities and turned away to look outside the room.
(A/N: I cut out the main erotic parts of the scene between Astoria and Daphne because I don't want people commenting that I'm writing incest and shit. If you want to see it then leave a review. If there are sufficient reviews asking for the scene, I might post it. Otherwise, it's already on my Patrèon if you're really curious.)
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