Bear's Beauties: Existential Crisis 16 (Patreon)

[center]<<Bear Sandosen>>[/center]

The look of shock and reverence on Dubledore’s face as he beheld the cup was… honestly rather amusing. It was just so different from the dignified, grandfatherly air he usually had. Gingerly, Dumbledore pulled out the elder wand and tapped the cup, before blinking in confusion.

“Are… are you certain this is the right cup? Not a fake?” he asked, starting to grow frantic as he started to cast spell after spell on the cup.

“Well, seeing as I watched Nikhol pull a soul fragment out of it, as certain as I can be,” I answered, doing my best to keep my amusement from my face.

“I see… but… it is said that Hufflepuff’s cup possessed a great many magical abilities, yet I can detect nothing on it.”

“I actually had a talk with the Gray Lady, the ghost of Ravenclaw’s daughter about that when Nikhol couldn’t sense anything after she removed the horcrux and the other curses on it. Her response to that question was to laugh, rather hysterically I might add. Turns out there were never any enchantments on it, it was just Hufflepuff’s favorite cup. I think the tales of it possessing magic came after, once the Founders became seen in a more mythic light.”

Dumbledore considered that for a minute, before sighing, “I suppose that is a reasonable conclusion. But I must admit I am disappointed.”

I gave a nod, it was like when everyone eventually realized that the people they adored were flawed human beings. I made to get up, when Dumbledore spoke again, “There is something else I wished to discuss with you.”

He then held up a copy of The Daily Prophet, with the front page headline showing a picture of Taylor’s swarm face in Gringotts and reading NEW DARK LORD SKITTER ATTACKS GRINGOTTS.

Glancing back up at Dumbledore’s blank face, I sighed and said, “She improvised. It was supposed to be a vague warning about the goblins having broken the treaty, but… being perfectly blunt, Taylor doesn’t do small or subtle very well. Her response when dealing with those that she considers enemies is always to escalate. But don’t tell her I said that.”

“I find myself conflicted,” Dubledore said as he set the newspaper down. “I understand that you needed the distraction to obtain Tom’s horcrux, but I cannot condone scaring the populace like this.”

Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair, “In moderation and properly directed, fear is a good thing. Fear is a warning system that something is dangerous and should be avoided. In the worlds Kara and Harley come from, there’s an individual that has weaponized fear against the criminal element to protect the common person. Plus, this way, there’s no way for Fudge to deny that there’s someone that’s a threat even if it isn’t Voldemort.”

Dumbledore continued to stare at me, and I met his gaze. I wasn’t one of his students, nor a member of his Order. We were allied, but I wasn’t under him. In the end, a chime over the door to Dumbledore’s office broke our little staring contest.

“Come in Hagrid,” Dumbledore called out, prompting the half-giant to burst into the office.

“Perfess’r Dumbledore! Thar’s a girl headin’ towards Aragog’s part o’ tha forest! I called out ta her, but she didn’t seem ta hear me,” Hagrid panted out, leaning on his knees as he gulped down big breaths of air.

“Take a deep breath Hagrid, tell us what she looked like.”

“Brown ‘air, like ‘ermione’s but darker and curlier,” he began and I had a sudden bad feeling about where he was going with it. “Tall too, but thin. I couldn’t be sure, but I think she ‘ad glasses.”

My palm met with my forehead and I groaned, “Dammit Taylor, would it kill you to warn me?”

“Well Mr. Sandosen, I believe we’ll have to continue this conversation at another time. Shall we go save Aragog from Miss Hebert?” Dumbledore asked with a hint of amusement.

“What?” was Hagrid’s eloquent response as Dumbledore and I headed down the stairs to go retrieve Taylor.

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[center]<<Hermione Granger>>[/center]

‘The most basic of the coven spells deal with the binding of two or more witches in united purpose. With such a bond, a group of witches are capable of performing feats far beyond what a single witch or wizard is capable of, in early civilizations it was not unheard of for a sufficiently large coven to utilize a ritual that would cause terrible storms or sink islands.’

That had been the introduction to one of the books I’d gotten in my first year for additional reading. To say the least, the potential it had described was fascinating, and I desperately hoped I’d be able to find some other girls my age with which to form a coven. For the first two months, I thought my hope had been in vain, the kids at Hogwarts seemed to be just like those at primary school.

Then the troll happened and a few weeks later, Rhonda, Hyacinth and I formed a coven. In retrospect, we weren’t ready for it. The forced bonding of our magic at such a young age… according to the nurse, we were lucky to come out of it as unscathed as we did. The book on covens that I’d gotten the ritual from really should have included the warning about forming a coven bond before the age of fourteen in front of the ritual instead of after. After that, I made sure to check after a ritual to see if there were any extra warnings. There always were. Like this one I’d just found in the Black Library.

“So what’s this new coven spell you’ve found?” Harry asked as she and Rhonda sat down at the table.

“If I’m right, it’ll make us immune to the Unforgivables,” I said bluntly, catching both of their interest.

“… go on,” Rhonda said as she leaned forwards, lacing her fingers together in front of her mouth.

“It describes a ritual sacrifice of a coven member’s virginity, and when properly channeled allows the participants full immunity to a single spell. The more virginities sacrificed, the more spells, and it applies to everyone in the coven who’s participating. There’s three of us, three Unforgivables, so we’d be able to ignore them.”

“If this ritual is so good, why isn’t it commonly used then?” Harry asked.

“Well, that’s the tricky part. There needs to be two virginities offered per witch and the man needs to orgasm twice per, well, opening. Fortunately, it doesn’t count anything we’ve done in the past so we can stick to oral for the second. On top of that, no potions or anything to enhance performance. Then the part that trips up most from what I can tell, the man can’t have any magic.”

“So a muggle, or something like a centaur or a goblin?”

I shook my head, “It has to be a muggle, the magic inherent within a wizard or magical creature would ruin the ritual. From the book I read, I’m not sure it’s ever been done. But if we’re able to pull it off…”

“Mione, I know you’re brilliant, but the only muggles that we know that could possibly qualify are either your family or Harry’s. There’s no way I’d let any of Harry’s family get anywhere close to her, and I rather doubt you have a fetish for incest after some of the rants about Malfoy you’ve given over the years,” Rhonda pointed out, making me shake my head.

“We do know another muggle,” I said, making both of my covenmates blink. “Bear’s technically a muggle, remember?”

I didn’t resist smirking in amusement at the blushes that prompted from my covenmates. I was probably blushing just as badly, but pressed onwards, “His world didn’t have magic, so he should be even more of a muggle than a random muggle off the street but from what Nikhol’s told us he’s more than up to the task of ‘performing’ for the ritual. I honestly don’t think we’ll find someone who’d be a better fit.”

“Plus the fact that he looks like he’d live up to his name in bed?” Rhonda mused aloud, her gaze half vacant.

Yeah… that too… big, broad hands holding me up in the air, my arms around his broad shoulders…

“Stop drooling, Hermione,” Harry’s voice pulled me from my daydream, and I hurriedly wiped at my mouth with the back of my hand. “There’s something rather important you’re forgetting: what about Luna?”

I couldn’t help but wince. Yeah, that was a mistake on my part. After the fiasco with Voldemort’s Diary that had been slipped into her school supplies her first year, we’d offered to let her join our coven when she turned fourteen.

“Her birthday’s the seventh of October,” Rhonda said in a considering tone. “We could admit her into the coven that weekend, then have the ritual with Bear on Halloween. That’d give it a boost, wouldn’t it?”

I pulled out a piece of parchment to take notes. Halloween was always a potent day to do a ritual, but when to get the best effects depended on what time you started and how long it took.

“Wait…” Harry said, pulling my attention from calculating the best time to do the ritual. “You said no potions, does that include… well, our monthly potion?”

…

…

My head dropped to the table and I groaned. How had I not considered that?

“Yes it does. And since the ritual requires that he… well, shoot inside us, there’s a chance we’ll end up pregnant. Are both of you okay with that?” I asked, doing my best to ignore the nervous pit that had formed in my stomach.

“I… don’t know,” Rhonda admitted.

Harry, on the other hand, refused to look at either of us, and her cheeks…

“Harry? Would you be okay with the risk?” I prodded.

“I… wouldn’t mind,” she quietly admitted, making both Rhonda and I blink in surprise.

“I know you said you dreamed of having a big family with lots of children,” Rhonda said, referencing the times we’d considered what we wanted to do out of Hogwarts. “But this soon?”

Harry glanced at me before taking a breath, “I know I’ve always been vague about what kind of job I’d get after Hogwarts, but to be honest I was never really interested in anything like that. I wanted to be a mother and I wanted to do work in researching how spells worked. Like Luna’s mum did, only with more safety precautions. I didn’t want to say it because…”

I got up and hugged Harry, letting her cry into my shoulder as all the bottled up emotions came out. I knew how I could get, especially on my rants about the injustice of Wizarding Society in encouraging witches to be trophy or housewives. But I never meant to make Harry think I’d care if that’s what she wanted. I never meant to make her think she had to keep secrets.

“I’m sorry Harry,” I whispered as I hugged her.

[hr][/hr]

[center]<<Taylor Hebert>>[/center]

“Say it,” Bear said with the tone of a disappointed parent.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, I turned to the bushy bearded giant and said, “I’m sorry for taking control of your pet’s children.”

“And?”

“And I won’t do it again… unless Voldemort attacks Hogwarts.”

Bear rubbed at his face with a groan, and I barely heard him mutter something about a drink, before he turned to the giant, “I’m sorry about Taylor. I think she heard about the acromantula and since her thing is that she controls anything that can be described as a ‘bug’…”

“It’s alrigh’, jus’ don’ go inta tha Forest like tha again, y’here?” he asked me, giving me a significant look.

“Alright,” I agreed. Next time I’d bring someone from the Family with me. I think Nikhol would be interested in some of the things I saw there.