Bear's Beauties: Existential Crisis 19 (Patreon)

[center]<<Harleen “Harley” Quinzel>>[/center]

“So… Ah gotta admit, Ah was expectin’ ya ta start blushin’ last night,” I told Hot Pants as we were gathering in the mess hall for breakfast.

“Why?” she asked, blinking in confusion.

“Weeelll… ya got supah hearin’, and wit’ Fuzzy and Cammy gettin’ it on alone last night…” I trailed off, pouting when Hot Pants just gave me an amused smirk instead of blushing like she was supposed to.

“Did you not hear my threat to Kal about telling him about my first orgy? I’m not a blushing virgin, Harley,” Hot Pants said while gently patting my cheek.

“Spoil sport,” I grumbled, causing Hot Pants to laugh as Fuzzy and Cammy came over to the table, Fuzzy with some OJ to go with french toast and bacon, Cammy with a boring bowl of oatmeal. “Yoink!”

“Sure, have a piece of bacon Harley, it’s not like your plate isn’t covered in it,” Fuzzy drawled as I munched on the piece I yoinked from his plate.

“Thanks, Fuzzy!”

Fuzzy just shook his head with a smile and a chuckle, as conversation petered out in favor of food. Yummy, delicious, bacon-y food! Unfortunately, the pork goodness disappeared far too quickly, like it always does, and by then Fuzzy’d wised up and eaten all his, so I couldn’t yoink any more.

So there I was, staring at my empty plate, waitin’ for everyone else to finish. I just know Fuzzy was taking his time on purpose, there was so much to do today! I wanted to snuggle with Hya-darlin’, and maybe borrow the shuttle to take her shoppin’ in my old stompin’ grounds… not Gotham, that place is shit, if it even exists on this Earth.

“So… I have to ask,” Tonky said as the rest of the slowpokes finally started finishing their food. “What exactly is your plan for dealing with You Know Who and how did causing a panic in Gringotts factor into that?”

“Nah, I don’ know who,” I quipped with a grin, making both Tonky and Fuzzy groan.

“In answer to your first question,” Fuzzy said, ignoring my input. So mean. “There’s not a lot we can do at the moment, since we don’t know where Riddle is and we don’t know if he’s made the last of his tools to cheat death. As for Gringotts… it’s twofold. The first is a way to get Wizarding Britain ready for Voldemort should the worst come to pass and out efforts to make him fully mortal fail. The second… I’d been putting some thought into it, and talked to Nikhol to get a second opinion, but I think Gringotts is to blame for the state of the Wizarding World and it’s centuries of stagnation.”

Wha?

“Watcha talkin’ about?” I asked, looking over to Fuzzy.

“I can’t speak for the rest of your worlds, but something I’d noticed in mine is that when you have a society that is isolated with a single authority in full control of the economy, that society doesn’t advance. The greatest advances and discoveries happen when there’s a freedom to experiment and a freedom to fail. With Gringotts in complete control over the entire economy of the Wizarding World, the only businesses that succeed are the ones that they approve of, the innovators that they don’t want to succeed find themselves facing taxes and fees on their accounts and loans that drive them under.

“So while there’s the appearance of a free market, in truth Gringotts has a tight grasp on the Wizarding economy, and like the old saying goes ‘money makes the world go round’.”

“Ya mean like North Rhelasia still looks ta be in tha Fifties?”

Fuzzy gave me an odd look for slowly saying, “If it’s the same place I’m thinking, yes. But my Earth didn’t have anywhere called Rhelasia.”

“So the second goal was to, what, scare the goblins?” Tonky asked.

“Honestly, it was mostly a distraction so we could steal one of Voldemort’s cheats from the Lestrange vault. But there was a side goal of dealing with some goblins that, had Dumbledore not been there, would have taken us into the depths of Gringotts before killing us and eating us.”

“WHAT?!”

“Ah, right, well you see…”

[center]<<Rhonda Weasley>>[/center]

I was browsing through the Black library a few days after Mione told us about that coven ritual, not really reading the titles of the books, just using the act of moving as a way to distract myself from the way my thoughts kept going in circles. I’d admit, the prospect of immunity to the Unforgivables was incredibly tempting. When we’d had the Imperius put on us last year… I couldn’t do anything, no matter what I tried, my body just did whatever it was told to do. Harry managed to resist on her first attempt, but after two weeks I couldn’t manage even that much.

Neither Harry nor Mione had said anything about it, but I couldn’t help but think about if someone put me under the Imperius and told me to hurt or betray my coven… I don’t think I’d be able to resist. That should make the choice easy, but… a witch giving her virginity was a big deal, even without a ritual like what we were considering.

On top of the potential ritual sacrifice, there were a myriad of other associations with a witch’s virginity. Much like how some potions required specific phases of the moon at key times, whether or not a witch was virginal could influence the production of a dozen different potions, and those were just the ones I remember Mum mentioning before I first went to Hogwarts.

I’d just looped around a bookshelf and only just managed to snap out of my mental musings to avoid running into a girl I vaguely recognized, “Oh, sorry.”

“It is alright,” the girl said in a flat, almost monotone voice.

I blinked, puzzled. Something about her was familiar, but I was having a hard time placing why. It was only as she turned to face the bookshelf that it hit me, “You’re with Bear’s group, aren’t you?”

She turned back to face me, her face expressionless, “Yes. My name is Cameron.”

I felt like hitting myself, Mum would have my hide for not introducing myself yet, “I’m Rhonda, Rhonda Weasley. I know what Taylor and Harley can do, and Miss Diomedes and Beniko are basically witches, what about you?”

“I am a Terminator. Living tissue over metal endoskeleton. I was created to be an infiltration unit by Skynet in the year 2021, shortly before the development of Chronal Displacement technology.”

I stared blankly at her for a moment, before saying, “I think I understood about half of that. Could you possibly dumb it down for me? I’m from a pure wizarding background.”

“I am a created machine assassin designed and made to kill humans by looking and acting like someone that needs to be protected. I was later modified by humans to serve as a protector before being sent back in time to stop the end of civilization,” she explained, this time in a way I understood.

“So… you’re like a nonmagical golem. Sorry, I don’t mean any offense, but… how? How is that possible without magic?”

She stared at me for a moment, before she answered, “It is a highly complicated matter, made more so by the fact that different realities have different underlying rules. The human body produces minute amounts of electrical energy, similar to the shocks you sometimes get when you touch a metal doorknob, my systems use larger amounts…”

As Cameron explained, simplifying concepts so that I could understand them, I grew more and more fascinated. Not just by Cameron herself, but by the sheer possibilities. What else existed in worlds that Bear and his family would travel to? My mind pulled up images of strange beings, wearing metal armor unlike the decorative suits that lined the walls of Hogwarts, carrying weapons that were a mix of wand and staff, requiring two hands to hold but shooting beams of energy like the toy wands that could only shoot sparks. The thought of all these things, developed without the use of magic… I think I finally understood Dad’s fascination with muggles, and the hesitance and anxiety I’d been feeling earlier had faded.

I don’t know how long Cameron talked, but by the time her explanation wound down, we were sitting at one of the tables, and I was about ready to burst with curiosity, when she asked a question that took me from the myriad of possibilities dancing through my mind, “What was distracting you earlier?”

Oh, right, that, “‘Mione found a coven ritual that has a lot of benefits, but there’s a serious sex-based part… okay, it’s a virginity ritual, one that requires sacrificing two virginities twice by each coven member.”

“Forgive me, but don’t you only have three virginities to give?”

I blinked, going over what I’d said, and realizing the mix up, “Oh, I mean that the, erm, the man involved would… well, cum in me in, well, two places, twice each… how’d ‘Mione explain this without breaking down?”

“Are the benefits worth the cost?”

“That’s just it, there’s no way I can look at it and say that it’s not worth it, but… how would ‘Mione put it… wizarding culture puts a lot of seriousness on a witch’s first time. There’s not really any one way it’s supposed to be done, but there’s the understanding that a witch’s first time has a significant impact on her magic, same with menopause.”

“Why?” Cameron asked, her head tilted slightly. Her face remained just as impassive, but I’d swear I saw a hint of curiosity in her eyes.

“A witch’s magic doesn’t get stronger, or they suddenly have more of it, or anything like that. But when a witch loses her virginity, it affects how her magic reacts to other magic. It’s like… like when making oatmeal. You mix the oats with milk, but the temperature of the milk matters, so does how old it is. Mum can probably explain it better, but a witch that’s no longer a virgin can do things that a virgin or one that’s gone through menopause can’t, while the reverse is also true.”

“Is the same true for wizards?”

“Yes, but not to the same degree. For wizards, it’s more about whether or not they have a child.”

“How so?”

“When a wizard’s magic is regularly around the magic of a kid, combat magic comes easier to them. Not specifically spells for fighting, but the magic they’re using while they’re focused on protecting the kid their magic’s used to being around. What’d ‘Mione call it? ‘Paternal protective instinct’ or something like that.”

“Fascinating. Who have you been considering to serve as the male participant in your ritual?”

“Well,” I scratched the back of my neck nervously. This was going to be awkward, to say the least. “The thing is… you see… because of the specifics… there’s… oh Merlin. Pretty much the only person we think can do it is Bear.”

I closed my eyes and braced myself to be slapped. Only for my eyes to snap open as I heard what sounded like giggling coming from Cameron. There was no giggling when I opened my eyes, but there was a gentle smile on her face. It was a simple thing, just barely an upturning of her lips, but the significance of it… I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I forgot to breathe for a moment, when Cameron’s words brought me back to the moment.

“I have found Bear to be a very attentive and skilled lover. You would be extremely fortunate to have him for your first time,” she said.

“Oh?” I managed to squeak out.

“The other night…”

[hr][/hr]

The blush has to go away at some point, but until it does I just know that I’m going to be looking like a tomato after listening to Cameron talk about her night with Bear. It’s times like this I hate my imagination being so vivid. Yes it made considering the possible worlds out there amazing, but Merlin was it going to be forever be…fore…

My thoughts stalled as I watched Lana go through an elaborate series of jumps, flips, and spins that should have been impossible. The only way I could think of to jump from the floor to the ceiling, then off of that to a wall was to be on a broom. They’d been saying that her and Miss Diomedes’s abilities made them like witches, but there wasn’t a spell that could do that, not that I knew of…

Thinking back to everything I knew, I remembered some potions that Mum would make when we were sick, the way they directed our magic to make us healthier… maybe I could pester Mum for some of those, or the potion recipe. If I could duplicate that without a potion, then maybe I could do the same, but for other things besides general wellness…