Professor Potter Ch. 18 (Harry Potter AU) (Patreon)

A/N: Having fun incorporating these gals into HP lore. In this chapter we explore more about Raven's circumstances~

-x-X-x-

Coming to a decision, Harry inclines his head towards the Arithmancy Professor.

“You have yourself a deal. A mutually beneficial alliance then. I’ll help you and Raven out, and in turn you’ll help me out.”

There’s a brief pause after he speaks, with Zatanna staring at him for a long moment in silence, before cocking her head to the side.

“… Is that it?”

Harry cocks HIS head to the side in response and lifts an eyebrow for good measure.

“Yes…?”

Zatanna legitimately looks surprised.

“That… that simple? You aren’t going to ask for anything else more specific? Just… just the nebulous concept of mine and Raven’s help in exchange for access to your libraries in search of the cure?”

Harry smiles slightly and shakes his head.

“Not quite. We’ll all, the three of us, travel to the libraries I have access to together. I’ll be assisting you and your sister in your research personally. After all, if I can’t help you both, well then… I won’t have any right to call upon your assistance going forward, now, will I?”

Zatanna blinks, opens and closes her mouth a couple times, and then ultimately slumps back in her chair, looking positively gobsmacked.

“You… do realize you have us over a barrel, don’t you?”

Harry just raises an eyebrow at that questioningly. Zatanna flushes, and squirms in her seat. Despite being older than him, she’s actually acting quite differently now, in the face of his easy agreement.

“I… you could demand practically anything of me. Of both Raven and I, in fact. And… for the slim chance of finding a cure, we would do it, you know? We would do anything.”

Chuckling, Harry shakes his head.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. In the upcoming conflict I intend to instigate with the Lodge, I will undoubtedly require your assistance. As for what I’m going to ask of you then, I don’t even know how far I’ll need you to go just yet. So, in that regard, you’re not incorrect.”

“But… you could make demands now as well, and force us to do things for you before you even hold up your end of the bargain…”

Harry peers at Zatanna from across his desk, blinking owlishly at the American Witch.

“Professor Zatara… are you TRYING to get me to take advantage of you?”

It’s a legitimate question, at this point. Given his interactions with certain witches since arriving at Hogwarts, he’s actually got to ask. Is this another case similar to Daphne Greengrass, perhaps? But no, Zatanna blushes but also goes wide eyed as she shakes her head back and forth rather… vehemently.

“N-No! I… no, apologies Professor Potter. I just… I’m not used to dealing with good men such as yourself. Not in the least.”

Well, that was… telling. Harry smiles thinly, shaking his head.

“I don’t know anything about that, or if I would even call myself a good man. But… from what you told me, your sister did nothing wrong. She has done absolutely nothing to deserve a life of persecution and discrimination as she’s suffered. It’s wrong, and since I have the ability to help her… I would be a monster not to.”

Letting out a shuddering breath, seeming to gaze upon him in a new light, Zatanna abruptly stands and holds out her hand to him.

“S-Shall we shake on it, then?”

Standing up, Harry takes her hand and nods as they both pump a couple of times before letting go.

“Does this upcoming weekend work for you and Raven to be away from Hogwarts? Admittedly, it will be a bit short notice, but I should be able to get everything done ahead of time anyways. I’m just not sure if your Arithmancy Classes are any more difficult to handle.”

Startling all over again, Zatanna just nods with wide eyes.

“I… y-yes! Yes, Raven and I will be ready. This… this weekend then…”

With that, the American Witch departs, and Harry has to admit, he both hates to see her leave and loves watching her go. Zatanna’s body in that… interesting attire of hers, really gets his blood rushing down to his groin. For a split second, he regrets not going for the Hard Sell. Zatanna would never know it if he could help it, but he HAD briefly considered it.

He was still going to help them out personally with their research, to be fair, but Harry wouldn’t deny… he’d been tempted. Still, you caught more flies with honey, or something like that. At the end of the day, Harry wasn’t going to hold a potential cure for Raven’s ailments over her and Zatanna’s head, full stop.

That said, if he wanted to secure them as allies in whatever the fuck was going to happen next here at Hogwarts, then Harry would just have to help them out.

-x-X-x-

“T-Thank you, Professor Potter. This… you are being more than generous, with us.”

Raven, the Assistant Professor to Zatanna’s Arithmancy Classes, is certainly a… unique individual. Admittedly, Harry had been a little TOO distracted by his own issues and settling in to teaching DADA over the past few months, because one would think he would have noticed the grey-skinned young woman before now. Though, in all fairness, Raven apparently didn’t take meals at the Staff Table, preferring to keep to herself and avoid being around any grouping of people larger than… well, a classroom’s worth.

Still, the gray skin combined with the violet eyes and violet hair… they’re certainly distinctive, inhuman traits. No wonder she’s been persecuted her entire life. Humans were already prone to tribalism as a matter of course, and the Us versus Them mentality was an ingrained part of the human psyche in a big way. Raven though, didn’t even have a tribe. She was a unique existence, a one of a kind woman, and she was just lucky to have Zatanna in her corner, because otherwise she would have likely lived a hunted life or been killed by now.

Still, Harry just gives her a smile and bobs his head, as he leads her and Zatanna into the Potter Family Library. While he would eventually want to ACTUALLY combine the libraries of both House Potter and House Black into one place, right now they were still very much separate. And perhaps that was for the best. As much as Harry would always love and appreciate his godfather for all Sirius did for him and left behind for him, the Black Library was… well, dangerous.

Unfortunately, that meant the information behind Raven’s condition and a potential cure was actually more likely to be in the Black Family Library then in the Potter one, but… Harry figured it was still better to start here, in the safer repository of knowledge. After all, it wasn’t like House Potter’s Library was completely bereft of dark tomes and forbidden texts. They were just a little less likely to try to bite your head off then the ones in the Black Library.

“Of course, Assistant Professor. It’s my pleasure. We may not find what we’re looking for this weekend, but I have high hopes that we’ll eventually locate something regarding your condition.”

Raven blushes and glances away, averting her eyes oddly enough. Harry just raises a brow, before she finally mutters something under her breath just loud enough for him to pick it up.

“… y-you can call me Raven.”

He grins and gives her another nod.

“And you can call me Harry.”

“And you can both call me Zatanna. Now, if the two of you are done flirting, shall we get to work?”

Zatanna’s voice doesn’t quite have the reprimanding tone her words might seem to convey. Instead, she’s got a teasing grin on her face as she plants her hands on her hips. The American Witch is dressed the same as she had in his office earlier that week, and her fishnet stockings are fairly distracting, Harry will admit. That said, dear Raven isn’t much better. While her dark, navy blue cloak is seemingly all encompassing, whenever it opens even a bit, Harry gets a view of the leotard she prefers to wear underneath, which shows off quite a lot of her long grey legs and her thighs.

Must be an American thing, or maybe its just a Zatanna and Raven thing. Either way, Harry just chuckles and shakes his head at Zatanna as he pushes open the double doors to the Potter Library and escorts them both inside. He’s not all that put out by her teasing, though he notices Raven’s reaction is much more pronounced, with the witch shrinking in on herself in embarrassment.

He supposes it makes sense. He and Raven are the same age, while Zatanna is the older sibling. Still, if she thinks to play matchmaker… well, it’s not that Harry would mind it, but it’s also not really why they’re here, now is it?

“You both know more about this than I do, of course. So… you tell me where we begin, and we’ll get started.”

“Right. Let’s do this thing.”

Cracking her fingers noisily, Zatanna takes charge, and they get to work. It is, of course, impossible for Harry to not learn more about Raven’s… circumstances as they begin to search out books that might help them find a cure and start reading ancient texts and dusty old tomes.

As Zatanna had previously stated, Raven’s mother had made a poor choice in lovers. Raven’s father, who Zatanna and Raven refused to name, had been a monstrous man indeed from the sound of things. He’d seduced Raven’s mother fair and square at first, albeit under incredibly false pretenses, but once he knew that she, Arella, was pregnant… all bets were off, apparently. Arella had spent her pregnancy in the clutches of the man she thought she loved and who she thought loved her in turn.

While Raven was growing in her mother’s womb, this Dark Wizard had performed rituals upon the fetus, changing and altering her. He had, in fact, contracted with a Lethifold, and then went about splicing the Dark Creature and an unborn Raven together. Lethifolds, also known as Living Shrouds, were incredibly dangerous magical beasts from what Harry knew. They were carnivorous and had a taste for human flesh.

Frankly, in his humble opinion, Raven was lucky to have come out as whole and human-looking as she had, now that Harry knew the same story. Still, it was a bit of a shock to find out her cloak was in fact a manifestation of her true nature as a hybrid creature, rather than simply a fashion statement. And she had an affinity for dark magic that ran deep… very deep.

In all honesty, Harry wasn’t entirely sure what sort of cure Zatanna and Raven were hoping to find. It seemed like… well, it didn’t seem like something that COULD be cured. Raven was half-witch, half-Lethifold. Half-human, half dark creature. If they took away the Dark Creature part of her, would there be enough left to even create a full being? Or would she die from the experience? Possibly even end up alive, but a shell of her former self?

Zatanna and Raven were determined, so Harry wasn’t necessarily inclined to bring up the idea… but as Saturday came to a close, he did call for an end to their research and make sure the both of them ate dinner and got to bed at a good time. There was some grumbling, but they went along with it anyways. His house, his rules after all.

It was the next day, Sunday, when things took a sudden… turn. The three of them were back in the library, and back to researching Raven’s dilemma and a potential cure. That was all well and good, but Harry would have to be blind or an idiot to not notice the slow change coming over the young woman. Especially when Zatanna had clearly noticed as well and was getting antsier and antsier about it.

Whether she thought it would just blow over on its own, or perhaps believed they could get through the rest of the weekend without incident… she was wrong. As evidenced by the sudden scream of rage that came from Raven out of nowhere about halfway through Sunday. Suddenly standing up from her seat and tossing the no doubt priceless tome she’d been reading across the library, Raven shrieks as she slams her fists into the table in a sudden temper tantrum that surprises Harry. On the one hand, she was such a quiet young woman normally. On the other, she’d been growing more agitated throughout the last few hours.

“IT’S NOT ENOUGH! NOTHING! THERE’S NOTHING!”

Slowly bookmarking his own book and closing it, Harry watches Raven curiously, even as Zatanna jumps from her seat and rushes over to the other witch.

“R-Raven! Please, Raven calm down, I-!”

“DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, Z! THERE’S NOTHING HERE! HOURS AND HOURS, AND NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT!”

“Raven, we told you, I told you already, it wasn’t likely to be done in a single weekend! This is one of the best libraries we’ve ever had access to! PLEASE, you have to stop, you’re leaking magic all over the place!”

And indeed, she was. Dark wisps of raw power and energy, wafting off of Raven in waves. Harry can only watch as Zatanna, seemingly uncaring of the potential danger, rushes in and hugs Raven to her chest. Despite seeming like a foolhardy move… it’s the right option. Raven almost immediately deflates once her adoptive older sister is holding her close like that. Her screaming and shouting stops, to be replaced by whimpering and sniffles.

And then, to Harry’s astonishment, something else happens. Raven’s hand comes up, and before Zatanna can do anything, she flicks it… and a burst of dark energy tears Zatanna’s top away, exposing the American witch’s breasts right then and there. Zatanna gasps, blushes, and looks over at him… but doesn’t stop Raven as she all but attacks the older witch’s tits with her mouth, latching onto a nipple and suckling… suckling like a newborn babe.

“R-Raven… please, d-do we have to do this now?”

Harry raises an eyebrow at that, even as Zatanna continues to stare at him, mortified and embarrassed. Unfortunately, her pleading tone has no effect on the suddenly ravenous half-Lethifold. In fact, Raven seems to get more insistent, and Harry can see the girl’s tongue lashing this way and that across Zatanna’s breast, as well as hears the older girl’s soft moaning as Raven growls needily.

It would seem that Harry had… stumbled into something. From the look of things, this wasn’t the first time this had happened. Zatanna and Raven’s relationship was… different than he’d originally been led to believe. And Harry… Harry was finding it hard not to stare at the display the two beautiful women are putting on before him.

He should probably leave, but while Zatanna was still looking at him in shame and embarrassment, she hadn’t asked him to go. He could stay and watch and… be available if they needed him? Or he could take a more proactive stance and offer himself up directly. Of course, that might be perceived poorly by the territorial Raven. While she seemed to have forgotten he was there, there was every chance that if he drew attention to himself, she’d attack him… and not in the fun way that she was currently attacking Zatanna’s breasts with everything she had.

Hm. Leave, stay… or act. Three options, and only a limited time to decide what he was going to do.