Cultivating Pleasure Chapter 6 (Patreon)

Harry had struggled to fall asleep last night; his mind had been filled with thoughts of his kiss with Hermione and the realisation that he needed to come clean with her. She was his best friend, and he couldn’t just not tell her that he’d slept with her mum.

But no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t find the right way to express what he wanted to say.

‘Hey, Hermione. I know I’ve been fucking your mum for the last few weeks, but I think there might be something special between us. Wanna give it a shot?’

She’d probably hex him. Or hit him. Or find a nice ditch to dump his body in later.

The worst part was that Emma seemed to have noticed the connection between Harry and her daughter long before he did. All of her little jokes seemed much more poignant now that he saw the truth of the matter. He couldn’t help but wonder if she wanted Hermione to walk in on her fucking him just to see what Hermione would do.

It was a mess of a situation, and Harry felt like a man at sea without any land in sight. He was so nervous that when Emma called to ask if he’d be free this afternoon, he came up with a terrible excuse that he wasn’t feeling too well. 

A part of Harry wanted to hide from the world in his bedroom and swear of witches forever; this was too complicated to deal with. However, fate refused to let him have his peace.

A little while after he’d eaten breakfast, his mum knocked on his door.

“Sweetie?” She called out.

“Yeah, mum?” Harry replied.

Lily opened his door and swept in with a sweet smile on her face. It was the kind of smile that she always put on whenever she needed a favour from him.

“I don’t know if you had any plans today or not,” Lily said casually, tiptoeing around the subject. “But if you didn’t, I was wondering if you might be able to help me out.”

Even though Harry didn’t necessarily feel up to doing much today, he didn’t want to leave his mum hanging. “Sure, I’m free to help out. What do you need?”

“Well,” Lily smiled. “It’s actually not for me. You see, a few days ago, Narcissa Malfoy came calling—” Harry let out a loud groan, only for Lily to hush him. “I know you and her son Draco don’t get on, but—”

“That’s the understatement of the century,” Harry snorted. “Draco’s a spoiled brat who takes too much after his dad.”

“Yes, yes,” Lily rolled her eyes, having heard the stories of Harry’s conflicts with Draco a hundred times. “But Narcissa is a nice woman, and she’s Sirius’s cousin.”

“He doesn’t like her either,” Harry pointed out.

“That’s just how Sirius is,” Lily retorted. “He doesn’t like anyone who doesn’t like pranks.”

“Ah, so Narcissa’s just another woman with a stick up her—”

“Don’t you finish saying that,” Lily said warningly. “Narcissa has been nothing but kind and polite to me for as long as I’ve known her, and she’s even helped me acquire funding for my potions research.”

“That’s only because you were improving grandpa Fleamont’s Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion and Scalp Treatment,” Harry argued. “You know how the Malfoys are; they use so much product in their hair that it’s greasier than their cu—” Harry trailed off at Lily’s furious look.

“All I’m asking is that you go over and help her out,” Lily said pleadingly. “Her house-elves haven’t been able to deal with whatever has the ground around her pool in a tizzy, and she’s at her wits end. I told her that you’d be happy to help her out.”

“You can’t just volunteer me for things like this,” Harry whinged.

“You haven’t complained about it before,” Lily retorted. “Besides, think about how important this connection could be for when you graduate. You never know what doors this could open for you.”

“I don’t know if it’d be worth it if I have to deal with Malfoys all day,” Harry grimaced.

“One Malfoy,” Lily corrected him. “Draco and Lucius are off in Europe somewhere, and Narcissa is the only one you’ll have to deal with. Please, Harry?”

Harry made sure to groan as much as possible as he flopped out of bed. “Fine,” he begrudgingly agreed. 

Lily rushed up to him and wrapped him in a tight hug before she gave him a big kiss on the cheek. “You’re the best son a mother could ask for,” she gushed.

“Yeah, yeah,” Harry rolled his eyes. “You know my usual fee.”

“There’ll be a fresh treacle tart waiting for you when you get back,” Lily beamed.

At the very least, he’d have that to look forward to. Draco Malfoy was the biggest arse Harry had ever come across in all his years. He seemed to think that the world revolved around him and his family, and nothing would disabuse him of the notion that everyone should bow down to him and his whims. 

Naturally, he and Harry hadn’t gotten on. From the first time they met aboard the Hogwarts Express, Harry had hated Draco with a passion. First, it was the casual mention of Voldemort’s title as the Dark Lord and how the world would be better off if he was still around. Harry had taken that personally given the fact that his father was the Dark Lord’s last victim before Albus Dumbledore arrived at the Potter home and vanquished Voldemort once and for all. Draco had taken great pains to express how James, as a pure-blooded wizard, should have bowed down before Voldemort. The scuffle that ensued landed both of them in detention for a month once they arrived at Hogwarts.

From there, everything just seemed to get worse. Draco exhibited bigotry towards half-bloods and muggleborn students regularly, especially towards Hermione, and regularly made inappropriate remarks about Harry’s mum and questioned the legitimacy of his parentage. Yearly fights were common, but they’d gotten better at hiding it out of sight of the professors.

The last time they’d fought had been during the last Quidditch game of the season. Despite being a devoted Herbologist, Harry loved flying like his dad did; he even took after his dad and became a player on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, though he was a seeker instead of a chaser like James was. Draco had been harassing Harry that entire game, constantly jostling him and trying to get Harry riled up enough to make a foul. Thankfully, Harry kept a level-head and instead focused on catching the Golden Snitch.

When Harry had finally spotted it, he’d shot right after it. Although it was supposed to be enchanted to stay without the bounds of Quidditch Pitch, the Snitch left it behind and took off elsewhere. Harry chased it back to the castle with Draco hot on his tail. Harry suspected that there was some sort of foul play involved, but he’d never been able to get an answer as to why the Snitch behaved the way it did.

After several minutes of weaving through the courtyards and around the towers, Harry finally cornered the snitch near the greenhouses. That was when Draco made a desperate play to knock Harry off of his broom while they were out of sight of the officials. He charged right at Harry’s side, intent on spearing him with the front of his broomstick, but Harry spotted him out of the corner of his eye and rolled over on his broomstick so that he was upside down.

Draco ended up colliding with the castle wall instead and took a sharp tumble down into a patch of Devil’s Snare that Harry had been helping to take care of. Harry had left the struggling boy there and caught the Snitch and returned to the stadium instead.

A few nights later, the Devil’s Snare was burnt down by someone in the middle of the night, along with several of Harry’s plants within Greenhouse Five. 

The smirk on Draco’s lips that morning at breakfast told Harry everything he needed to know about who did it.

Revenge had been percolating in Harry’s mind ever since. He knew he had to do something big, but he wasn’t quite sure what. Although he was reluctant to go over to Malfoy Manor, perhaps he might spot something that could give him a clue as to how to get back at Draco.

After getting changed into some casual working clothes and gathering up all of his normal Herbology supplies in a bag, Harry went downstairs to use the floo. They had one just beside their kitchen, where his mum was already working on the pie crust.

“Have a good day, sweetie,” she beamed at him.

“I’ll be back in a bit,” he replied with a wave before he stepped up to the fireplace. 

He grabbed a handful of floo powder and hurled it into the flames. 

“Malfoy Manor,” he said with a slight grimace before stepping in.

Harry stumbled as he was spat out of the fireplace inside of the entry hallway of Malfoy Manor. He’d always wondered where Draco had grown up, and he was unsurprised to see the grandiose building around him. An elegant carpet covered the stone floor of the manor while many portraits of aristocratic-looking figures lined the walls. The wood-panelled walls and elegant baseboards with tiny etchings of runes in them completed the look.

A grand window above the front door let in a tremendous amount of natural light, and that light seemed to be shining right down on a woman Harry assumed to be Narcissa.

Harry instantly recognised the familiar high cheekbones and pale colouring in Narcissa as also belonging to Draco, but that was where the similarities ended. To put it simply, Narcissa was beautiful. She was tall and still but still had noticeable curves underneath the loose green robes she was wearing. Her long blond hair was pinned up on top of her head, with a few curls falling loose to frame her pretty face. Her makeup was subtle besides the deep red lipstick she was wearing.

Almost immediately, Harry forced his raging hormones to get under control. He’d been having so much sex lately that it was hard not to start looking at other women as potential partners like that.

“Hello, Mrs Malfoy,” Harry said politely. “I’m Harry Potter. My mum said that you’d asked for me.”

“Please, call me Narcissa,” she replied in a clear, elegant tone as she held out her hand for him.

Despite not being as deeply rooted in pure-blood customs as most important magical families were, Harry had still learnt all of the formal practises he’d need to know to operate in upper society. He bowed his head lightly as he accepted Narcissa’s hand before bringing his lips to her knuckles. He let his lips barely brush across them before lifting his head back up and then releasing her hand.

If she seemed pleased by his efforts, she didn’t show it. For all her beauty, Narcissa had a perfectly neutral expression on her face. But Harry could still feel her eyes watching him appraisingly as he spoke again.

“Narcissa,” Harry repeated. “I’ve been told that the ground around your pool has been causing some problems?” He posed it like a question, hoping she could elaborate some more on it.

Finally, Narcissa’s expression broke as visible annoyance showed itself. “Yes,” she sighed. “My beautiful grass has been dying, and the ground has been shifting unnaturally too.”

“Unnaturally how?” Harry asked curiously.

“Like there’s something moving beneath it,” Narcissa explained. “My house-elves assure me that there aren’t any magical creatures causing the problem, but none of them seem to be able to explain it. I figured it’d be best to have a Herbologist take a look next.”

“And you asked for me?” Harry asked, a little surprised. “I mean, I’m flattered and all, but wouldn’t you prefer a professional Herbologist?”

“I’ve been assured that you’re more than competent,” Narcissa replied smoothly before raising an eyebrow in his direction. “Or is that incorrect?”

Harry bit back a snort. There was that Malfoy charm he hadn’t missed over the summer break. “I’ll fix whatever issue you’re having,” he assured her.

“Then follow me.”

Narcissa led Harry through the opulent manor. Wealth screamed out all around him, not that Harry wasn’t accustomed to seeing such things from time to time. Both his godfather, Sirius, and his friend Neville had very nice manors themselves, but neither were quite as grand as this one.

Regardless, Harry did his best to just begin thinking about the problem. Something was moving beneath the ground and the grass was dying. That could be a great number of things, but if the house-elves didn’t think it was a magical creature causing the issue, then that narrowed things down considerably.

It could be an invasive species, a mundane parasite, or perhaps some strange magical resonance that was causing unusual vibrations in the earth that were disrupting the ground. All seemed plausible, but he’d only know for sure once he was out there.

After a surprisingly long walk, Narcissa finally let him outside a back door of the manor and into the expansive gardens beyond. Yew hedges sectioned off large swaths of the garden, and stone walkways led off in various directions. Harry could faintly hear the cries of birds and other animals somewhere in the garden, but no creatures were in sight.

“This way,” Narcissa gestured down the central pathway. It was a short walk down the winding path before they reached an arched trellis that led to the pool.

The water of the massive stone-tiled pool sparkled in the morning sun. It was quite a nice day out: hot and sunny. However, the landscape around the pool was not quite so nice. The grass around the pool was yellow and brown, and that discolouration was starting to reach the bottoms of some of the yew hedges. In fact, there were already a few hedges that were entirely browned and withered. Additionally, Harry could clearly see several spots in the ground that looked like a bubble had started to form beneath it.

“As you can see, it’s a disaster,” Narcissa said sourly.

“Don’t worry,” Harry assured her. “I’ll spend some time looking into what the problem is and, if it’s within my power, I’ll fix it.”

“Good,” Narcissa nodded sharply. “I’ll be waiting by the pool for when you finish.”

Harry figured that was his cue to get to work, but before he could move a muscle, Narcissa started taking off her robes.

The shock of what he was witnessing kept Harry frozen in place. Narcissa pulled her arms out from the sleeves of her robes and then shimmied them down to the hem of her dress robes. She grabbed the base of the skirt and steadily lifted it up until she revealed the green bikini bottoms she had on underneath.

More of Narcissa’s creamy, delicate skin was revealed as she got the robes past her belly. Despite being just over forty—though looking much closer to being in her late twenties thanks to magic—Narcissa didn’t have an inch of unneeded fat on her belly. Her stomach was flat and smooth, and the visual feast only continued as she lifted her robes past her bust.

Like her bikini bottoms, her bikini top was a beautiful green colour and covered everything up while still revealing quite a bit. The triangular top covered her ample breasts nicely, but there was only a thin string connecting the two triangles, revealing the bountiful valley between her breasts. Harry could just faintly make out her nipples making visible points in the fabric.

When Narcissa lifted her robes up around her head, Harry took his chance to get one last good look in before he turned away. As hot as she was, Harry didn’t want to get caught ogling her when he was supposed to be working. Though, some small part of him wondered what she’d think of his wandering gaze.

As Harry pretended to examine the grass, Narcissa dropped her robes casually on a small table beside a white pool lounge chair and then laid down on it. She was lying on her front, and Harry was treated to the sight of her plump arse jutting out and the back of her bikini being wedged in between her tight arsecheeks.

“Focus,” Harry murmured to himself as he forced himself to stare at the ground in front of him. This was a job like any other, and he needed to get it done. 

So, doing his best to ignore Narcissa, Harry pulled out his wand and got to work.

His standard set of diagnostic charms revealed exactly what the house-elves had said; there were no magical creatures here causing the issue. Next, Harry tried a spell that specifically identified non-magical creatures. Again, nothing came up.

His next concern was checking for any signs of ambient magic causing issues. Witches and wizards naturally tended to settle in areas with higher concentrations of magical power. Sometimes, this natural, ambient magic could cause issues with wards or other magical things that people set up. Harry ran through a gamut of tests, examining how the ground and air around him responded to several spells. Surprisingly, nothing he did seemed to trigger any unusual response.

That was curious. At the very least, if there was something inherently magical causing the issue, he should have at least gotten some feedback from his tests. However, that wasn’t always the case. Some non-sentient things could lock down their magical auras so to speak. It was like a wizard who used up too much of their magic. Potions and charms wouldn’t work on them if their magic was too low. If this was something non-sentient that was using its magic to cause these issues, it could be that it was just too tapped out of magic right now to respond to what he was doing.

This would be easier if he could see below the ground. Unfortunately, there was only one way to go about that.

“Narcissa?” Harry called out as he turned back towards the woman.

She blinked open her eyes and looked over at him. “Yes?”

“I’m going to have to use a Gouging Spell to open up the ground,” Harry told her, doing his best to keep his gaze focused on her blue eyes instead of her body.

“If that’s what you think is best,” she said before she stretched out her arms above her head. Slowly, she rolled over onto her back, making her breasts jiggle nicely on her chest. As she stretched out her legs, her bikini bottoms got caught under her, and Harry swore that he caught a hint of pink before she adjusted herself to be modest again.

Ignoring how tight his trousers were feeling, Harry turned back to his work.

“Defodio!” He called out loudly, pointing his wand directly at one of the bubbles beneath the ground. 

The spell struck the ground, and several massive clumps of dirt exploded upwards. Harry was quick to summon them all back to him in a neat pile before they could fall in the pool behind him. With that out of the way, he turned back to the hole he’d made.

Instantly, Harry recognised the issue. It had been a long time since he’d handled this plant, but he remembered it distinctly.

“Shrivelfig,” he muttered to himself.

Shrivelfig was a magical plant most commonly used in potion making. The purple liquid from the fruit of the plant could be used in the Shrinking Solution, the Elixir to Induce Euphoria, and the Thunderbrew. Its leaves were also used for several healing potions, though more effective, modern recipes typically called for other ingredients in its place.

The Shrivelfig’s roots pulsed with life as they fought to dig back into the ground. They were known to be especially aggressive, allowing the plant to survive in almost any climate. The roots would overtake and destroy competing plant’s roots and even release special sap that would gum up other plants and prevent them from receiving the necessary nutrients they needed to thrive.

Despite all this, Shrivelfigs were safe to have so long as their roots were kept in check. Clearly, this wasn’t the case here.

“Have you happened to get a Shrivelfig plant recently?” Harry called out to Narcissa.

“A few months ago,” she replied casually. “Why?”

“That’s what’s been causing you so many issues,” Harry explained. “Its roots haven’t been kept in check, so they’ve been spreading throughout the garden and stealing nutrients from your other plants.”

Narcissa suddenly shot up in her seat. “I told Draco he needed to keep it maintained,” she exclaimed angrily. “He said he’d tell the house-elves to do it, but he clearly forgot.” She got up out of her chair and hurried over to Harry’s side. Harry tried, and failed, to not watch her breasts bounce as she stormed over.

“Ugh,” Narcissa groaned as she bent over in front of Harry to examine the hole closer. Her arse was barely half a metre away from his crotch, and her cheeks looked so touchable.

Harry sucked in a deep breath and stepped around to the side. “I can take care of the roots for you, but you’ll need to maintain them weekly.”

“Dobby!” Narcissa called out.

An honest-looking house-elf appeared, wearing a fine smock with the Malfoy family crest on it. “Yes, mistress?” He asked politely.

“Add pruning the Shrivelfig’s roots to the list of weekly tasks for you and the others,” Narcissa told him dismissively. 

“At once,” Dobby replied before disappearing.

Narcissa blew out a deep breath. “Thank you, Harry. You’ve been a tremendous help. I can’t believe such a stupid problem caused all of this.”

It really was a stupid mistake, and Harry was glad that Draco was the idiot who made it, but he wasn’t going to say that to her face. “It was an accident,” Harry shrugged. “Magical plants are more complicated than people give them credit for.”

“Yes, they can be, but it was laziness that caused this,” Narcissa huffed. 

“Well, I’ll have it all fixed in just a few minutes,” Harry told her.

“Do you mind if I watch?” She asked him kindly. “I have a feeling I will need to instruct my son on how to properly care for his plants when he returns.”

Harry desperately wanted to volunteer to be the one to give Draco a lecture, but spending several minutes in close proximity with his half-naked mother seemed like a fair enough compromise.

Narcissa watched carefully as Harry set about fixing the mess. He explained the spells he was using to her as he went, ensuring that she understood exactly how to prune the Shrivelfig’s roots and get rid of all of its unwanted secretions. Once he’d fixed that, he’d gone around to the other side of the hedge to where the plant itself was. He carefully removed it from the earth and set it up in a temporary pot where its roots wouldn’t be able to continuously expand.

From there, it was a simple matter of repairing the ground he’d destroyed and using some of his special alchemical concoction, a silvery powder he hadn’t quite figured out a name for yet, to revitalise the soil with nutrients that would magically make their way into the nearby plants.

“The grass and hedge should fix itself up in a matter of days,” Harry explained to Narcissa as he stowed away his supplies. “As good as magic is, even it can’t completely overwhelm nature.”

“Thank you so much,” Narcissa gushed. “You truly are as good of a Herbologist as people say you are. Far better than most of the imbeciles peddling their wares in Diagon Alley.”

“You’re very welcome,” Harry replied kindly. “If you need any other work done, you’re always free to call me.”

“I will,” Narcissa told him with a slight purr to her tone. “And I’ll be sure to tell all of my friends who to call if they need a strapping young man to take care of any problems in their gardens.”