Dueling Heart Ch. 20 (Patreon)

The next morning, the four of them were sitting around Lily’s coffee table. Daphne and Lily’s hair looked an absolute frazzled mess, while Harry and Bella’s looked just like they always did, an absolute frazzled mess.

The two older women were sipping on coffee while Daphne and Harry nibbled at the breakfast the elves had prepared for them.

Harry swallowed a mouthful of eggs and bacon before he spoke, “So, err… how do we proceed from here?”

“We fuck each other every single night for the rest of our lives, duh!” Daphne said as she stabbed at one of her roast potatoes.

Bellatrix readily agreed with that logic, while Lily rolled her eyes, “I think what my son means is, how do we proceed in consecrating the coven. Thankfully, we have this book.”

Lily pulled out a thick black book from under the table, with the simple title of Covens.

“Huh.” Daphne mused. “I swear I got conked in the head with something that looked just like that a few weeks ago.”

“What does the book say, mum?” Harry asked.

“It goes into a lot of detail, actually, but for our purposes, the most salient points are that the coven ritual must occur on one of the solstices, the winter solstice in our case.”

“There’s a whole ritual and everything?” Harry asked, having not thought of that part.

“Of course there is. Otherwise, we’d just be a bunch of freaky people that have sex with each other. The ritual ensures the coven is tied together, mind, body, soul and magic.” Bellatrix explained.

That brought up some questions for Harry. If they were connected, would that mean sharing magic? What would that mean for his future in dueling? Would he still be allowed to compete?

“How many do we need in the coven?” Daphne asked.

Harry decided he’d need to inquire about that at another time.

“Seven.” Lily said firmly. “Or well, it's kind of vague, but arithmancy wise, seven makes the most sense.”

“Is that seven, or seven plus me?” Harry asked.

Bella and Lily shrugged noncommittal, “Not sure, either way, right now what we need to focus on is recruitment. We already have Angelina in our sights. Lily and I don’t exactly have many female friends, and definitely none that we’d want to bring into this. Do you two have anyone in mind?”

Harry looked over at Daphne, who’s eyes narrowed slightly before she nodded.

“I do have someone, though it’s kind of complicated. I’d rather continue working on it on my end for a bit.”

“Come on now, Harry, let's try not to keep secrets.” Lily urged.

Bella shifted uncomfortably in her seat as Harry sighed. “Its Fleur Delacour,”

“The crazy bitch from Durmstrang?” Bellatrix asked. “That’s a good one, very good one indeed.”

“What’s the issue with her?” Lily asked.

“We could be here all day.” Daphne said, “Let’s just say, Harry needs to convince me she’s worthy, otherwise, there’s no chance in hell she’s getting in. And that’s non-negotiable!” Daphne added seeing that Lily and Bella were about to continue questioning her.

“Well, I guess for now, we should just focus on snatching those two up. Bella and I will work on prepping the ritual, and we still have one to two more slots open, so keep your eyes peeled. We need to have this all set before the solstice.”

…

The true beginning of the Inter School Tournament was finally upon them one chilly October evening. The entire castle was buzzing with excitement as they all headed off to the Quidditch pitch.

For the first time in Hogwarts history, there was a mid-week Quidditch match.

It sort of added to the atmosphere, since the match had to start at seven, which meant it was the rarest of rarities, a night match at Hogwarts.

The twins had snuck in fireworks. They were also selling many assorted noisemakers and enchanted devices that would light up in Hogwarts colors during the match. The tournament organizers seemed miffed that they hadn't thought to bring some themselves.

The Beauxbatons contingent, not wanting to be outdone, had enchanted many of their banners to light up, and one section of students were singing some sort of fight song. It was in French, so almost no one from Hogwarts understood it.

“That is quite inappropriate!” Hermione gasped as she heard the song, glaring at the Beauxbatons section.

“Fuck, we should come up with a footy chant to counter them.” Dean snapped.

There were many food vendors arrayed around the outside of the Quidditch pitch. For their group, Harry and Blaise were tasked with getting the concessions, and so the two boys returned with arms full of sausages, belgian fries, salted peanuts and surprisingly, garlic naan (apparently the Patil twins’ father had secured one of the vendor spots).

"Finally back, was the food down in Ipswich?" Bellatrix asked the approaching duo.

"The lines were insane, alright?" Blaise grumbled, more than a bit irritated.

Harry had to marvel at their little group. Well, most of it wasn't really that crazy. The newly minted coven was all together, along with Astoria and Hermione. Hannah and Susan had joined them as well. Ron wasn't with them, still committed to his role as he sat with Malfoy's group.

It seemed that Draco had decided if he couldn't be rid of Ron, he could still create some sort of distance between them. This led to Malfoy having Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy as a buffer between him and the redhead. Pansy was the one stuck next to Ron, who was loudly explaining to her what each Quidditch position did.

Harry gave Daphne, Lily and Bella their food and sat down with his own fries in between Lily and Daphne. Bella decided to move around, shoving a group of third years aside so she could sit directly behind Harry. Susan was sitting in front of him, and Harry gulped as he realized he was getting an inadvertent view down the shy girl’s shirt. For the first time, he had the realization that Susan would be great to have in the coven, but he pushed that thought aside. Susan was such a shy, innocent girl, it would be very difficult to convince her to join their coven.

The thought of her ending up with another boy made his blood boil, enough for Harry to decide that he might need to put the effort in, even if it was likely to be futile. He wasn’t even sure if Susan liked him like that!

No, right now the focus would need to be Angelina and Fleur. Then, he would try and get the others to figure out how to approach Susan.

Harry looked away and made eye contact with Fleur, who was sitting alone, with a five foot radius of empty benches around her. Fleur smirked as she gestured towards Daphne with her eyes, reminding Harry of the reward he was yet to bring her.

Ludo Bagman's voice rang across the stadium as he announced the opening match.

It was Hogwarts vs Beauxbatons, and the home team was feeling very confident about the whole thing.

The two teams flew into the pitch. The Beauxbatons contingent was clad in powder blue uniforms while the Hogwarts team was wearing a monstrosity that proudly displayed all eight of the primary house colors.

"Good lord, that is gaudy." Astoria exclaimed, face scrunched up in disgust.

"Who designed that thing?" Asked Bellatrix, almost wanting to shield her eyes from the clash of colors the affront to fashion created.

"The Beauxbatons team seems to hate it too, maybe it'll throw them off their game." Harry said in a weak defense of the uniform.

Hogwarts was fielding its starting team, with the flying foxes and the twins along with the older Ravenclaw keeper. The only exception was that Tracey was starting at seeker instead of Ginny.

"I thought Ginny was the starter?" Lily asked Daphne, who responded with a shrug. "It's up to Hooch to set the lineups."

Madam Hooch was standing in a separate box, arms folded as she wore a finely tailored muggle suit complete with snakeskin shoes. The reserves sat behind her. On the opposite side of the same box was a bald frenchman clad in a black turtleneck and wearing overly large, square glasses.

The whistle blew and the quaffles, bludgers and snitch were released. The game was on.

The Beauxbatons team surprised everyone. The Hogwarts and Durmstrant students were expecting a bunch of prissy, delicate flowers that would treat their brooms more like hobby horses.

In fact, it was quite the opposite. From the first moment of the game, one of the Beauxbatons chasers shoulder checked Alicia, sending her on a tailspin for a few meters before she could readjust her flight. The French seeker was harrowing Tracey, constantly tugging at her broom and cutting her off whenever she tried to fly off. The beaters seemed to ignore the bludgers completely, using their bats to instead try to maim the twins.

They made the Slytherin team look like a bunch of cub scouts.

The referee, an actual professional referee from Spain, called fouls and awarded Hogwarts a few penalties, which Katie and Angelina promptly scored, but as the game progressed, Beauxbatons continued with their tactics, and the referee slowly began to let things go.

"Is that how they play in France?" Hermione yelled indignantly after yet another infraction from the French team. The score was tied at 40-40, and the rough tactics had definitely shaken the Hogwarts team up.

"They're playing murderball out there." Blaise shook his head slowly as the game continued to devolve into an ugly mess.

"If only quidditch was always like this." Bella sighed as she absently took one of Harry's fries.

"Hey!" Harry complained, glaring over his shoulder at the violet eyed witch.

"What?"

"You guys keep stealing my fries!" As if to highlight his point, Lily and Daphne both reached in and took from Harry's rapidly depleting basket of fries.

"But they're soooo good Harry." Daphne said as she stuffed a handful of fries in her mouth.

"You could have gotten your own!" Harry snapped trying and failing to shield his fries from the three witches' combined assault.

“Y-You can have some of mine, Harry.” Susan turned around, offering Harry some of her own fries, which looked to be completely untouched.

Bellatrix raised an eyebrow at this, but none of the others seemed to notice the interaction as Harry thanked Susan, taking a few of her fries.

A whistle blew and their attention returned to the pitch, where Katie was holding onto her side as she slowly descended onto the ground.

"HOGWARTS CALLS TIME OUT! BELL IS INJURED AND HOGWARTS LOOK TO BE IN SHAMBLES AFTER BEAUXBATONS' ROUGH TREATMENT!"

Madam Hooch had flown down on a broom, yelling animatedly every step of the way as her Beauxbatons counterpart did the same, a self-satisfied smile on his face.

"LOOKS LIKE BELL WON'T BE ABLE TO CONTINUE! HOGWARTS IS GOING TO NEED TO REGROUP IF THEY WANT TO WIN THIS ONE!"

"Bloody Bagman." Bella grumbled from behind him.

The Hogwarts team was huddled up, with Hooch gesturing wildly at some of the players. At one point, Harry saw Tracey whisper something to Hooch, who looked thoughtful for a moment before she nodded.

She flew over to the ref, having a quick conversation that ended with a nod and a blow of the whistle as the referee flew over to Bagman.

"AND WE HAVE A SUBSTITUTION. NUMBER FIVE, BELL, IS OUT. IN FOR BELL IS… OH MY! NUMBER SEVEN! WEASLEY!"

There was a roar in the crowd, mixed in with a good amount of confusion as instead of subbing Roger in, Ginny was added as the third chaser.

"Can they do that? Ginny's the seeker." Harry asked over the angry yells from the Ravenclaw contingent who'd wanted to see Roger in.

Lily shrugged. "The referee allowed it, I guess they can."

Ginny flew in, sharing a smile with Tracey before she joined Angelina and Alicia.

After the time out, things changed dramatically.

For starters, Hogwarts adjusted to Beauxbatons’ tactics. They made exaggerated jumps and dives at the barest amount of contact, forcing the referee to start awarding them penalties again.

But Ginny was the real game changer. The way she was playing was bizarre. Sometimes, she would join in on the other chasers' attack, but other times she would fly off on the opposite side of Tracey, joining the search for the snitch.

This left the Beauxbatons team scrambling, unsure of what to do with such a strategy.

Hogwarts began to score in earnest as Beauxbatons was forced to ease off due to Alicia and Angelina's diving. Meanwhile, Tracey shot off after a speck of gold, the Beauxbatons seeker hot on her heels.

Tracey had the snitch in sight. She had a good broom-length on her opponent, and there was no way he was catching up to her.

She saw the bludger coming out of her peripheral vision. She made to lean away from it when she felt a tug on her broom.

The beauxbatons seeker had caught up just enough to lunge at her and grasp her broom. Tracey hissed as she was forced to turn fully away in order to avoid the bludger.

The other seeker yelled triumphantly as he used Tracey's broom to propel himself further ahead, now in sole pursuit of the snitch.

He didn't even see the quaffle that smacked him in the face, hard enough to almost throw him off his broom, and definitely hard enough for him to have to stop.

Ginny looked back, winking at the mass of angry Beauxbatons players and happy teammates as she wrapped her hand around the snitch.

The whistle blew and the crowd roared in elation. Hogwarts won, 220-50.

Tracey flew over to Ginny, wrapping the smaller girl in a tight hug as their teammates piled around them.

The rest of the school stormed the pitch, and it was the wildest celebration anyone had ever seen at a Hogwarts Quidditch match. The entire student body was celebrating in unison for once, Everyone was hugging,

Harry caught Angelina’s eye. For a moment, the girl beamed at him, but when her eyes fell on Daphne, her smile morphed into a guilty look.

“Daph, I think we need to clear things up with Angelina. All of us.” He said, looking over to the stands, where Lily and Bella had stood back.

“First order of coven business, let's do it.”

Harry and Daphne managed to wade through the crowd. Angelina’s attention was drawn away by her teammates and a few of the other Gryffindors congratulating her on the win, so when she turned her head and saw the couple only a few feet away from her, she jumped.

“Harry! D-Daphne!” Angelina gulped as she looked at the blonde. “You guys enjoyed the match?”

“You were all brilliant.” Daphne said.

Harry grabbed onto Angelina’s arm, “Actually, Angie, Daphne and I wanted to talk to you about something, in private.”

Her brown eyes widened, “A-Are you sure?” She glanced between the two of them, wondering whether Harry had just up and told Daphne about everything they’d done.

Angelina found herself following behind the couple, wondering why exactly she was subjecting herself to this. She should have just pulled Harry aside and let him know that that night had been a mistake. She’d been so blinded by lust, she didn’t even think about poor Daphne.

It would hurt to have to give Harry up, but it was the right thing to do.

Once they were away from the crowd, Angelina realized they were making their way towards two women, one of whom she was very intimately familiar with.

When they stepped over the stands, Lily waved her wand and a privacy bubble formed around them.

“Alright, now, no one will be able to overhear us, so we can talk freely.” The redhead assured.

“What’s going on?” Angelina asked as the other four stood around her. Professor Potter’s presence threw her off, casting doubt on what exactly this discussion was about.

“Well, let's not dilly-dally. Daphne and Lily know about what the three of us did the other day.” Bellatrix began.

Angelina reared back, her hand instinctively going to a non-existent wand as she expected Harry’s mother and girlfriend to want to hex her into next week.

“The truth of the matter is, we’ve formed a coven, and we want you to join.”

Angelina’s mouth gaped open. “Wait, you formed a sex cult?”

“It's not a sex cult, it's a coven.” Daphne corrected her.

“What’s the difference?”

Daphne opened her mouth to respond, but it snapped shut as she couldn’t really come up with anything.

“So wait.” Angelina spooled up as her eyes darted between all of them, “You’re all fucking each other? Including Harry and his mum?”

“Yes, that’s what a coven does, girl.” Bellatrix said, sounding a bit frustrated, “And we want you to be a part of it.”

Angelina was very used to being recruited by now. She knew she had a future in professional quidditch, and scouts from multiple teams had been by since her sixth year to try and get her to sign for them.

She never thought she’d be recruited by a sex cult, of all things. But, taking the lessons she’d learned from her previous experiences to heart, she knew what her answer had to be.

“Can I think about it?”

“What?!” Bella hissed.

“Bella, calm down.” Harry held the woman back.

“Y-You don’t want to be with us?” Daphne asked, her eyes glistening as she looked to be on the verge of tears due to the apparent rejection,

Angelina put her hands up defensively, “I’m not saying that! It's just… this sounds like a pretty big decision. You’re all very attractive, but, If I’m going to be joining some freaky incestuous sex cult-”

“Coven!”

“Coven. If I’m going to be doing that, I need to put some thought into it.”

“It's alright, Angie, take all the time you need.” Harry assured her with a smile.

“I promise I won’t be long. I just… need to weigh the pros and cons of this. Like, are we gonna have to do a ritual?”

“We are, but it's not one of those, murder a baby deer situations.” Lily assured the girl.

Angelina sighed, “Alright, I’ll give you my answer soon, I promise.”

…

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

On his way up to the Gryffindor Common Room, Ron stopped by Randall’s quarters.

Dean’s dad was sitting by the fireplace, cigar in one hand and a glass of whisky cupped in the other.

“Glad you could make it, kid.”

“I’m a hard worker, sir, always dedicated to the business.” Ron assured him.

Randall placed his whisky on the table and dug around in a paper bag by his feet, until he finally pulled something out.

Ron wasn’t what the small piece of cloth was supposed to be, until Randall stretched it out in front of him, and Ron’s eyes widened.

It was a mask, green and red with white accents. There were two large, rectangular eye holes and another one for his mouth, and there was a golden silhouette of a weasel in the middle of the forehead.

“Your last name’s Weasel, right? Pretty clever, isn’t it?”

Ron was in complete awe, “That’s… for me?”

“Of course it's for you, lad, now take it and scram! That sexy librarian of yours is coming over any minute.”

Ron rushed over, grabbing the mask reverently, refusing to take his eyes off of it.

“T-Thank you, sir, I promise I won’t disappoint you!”

“Yeah, whatever. Now get out of here.”

Ron didn’t know how long he walked through the halls in a complete daze, just staring down at the mask, his mask.

He should stash it away somewhere, make sure it was nice and clean for his match!

No, wait, what was he thinking? He couldn’t stash the mask away. He needed to become the character, to immerse himself completely in his role, otherwise, he might lose his spot on the card.

Ron took a deep breath as he turned the mask around and began to fit it over his head.

It was like a new world was opening up for him, his life was beginning anew. He was reborn. He was no longer Ron Weasley, dashingly handsome redheaded stud. He had a new face. Scratch that, he was finally donning the face he had always been meant to wear.

Ron Weasley had been the mask all along.

The door to the Gryffindor Common Room swung open. There was a relaxed atmosphere, with everyone minding their own business as they still chatted excitedly about the previous day’s quidditch match.

Ron stood by the open doorway, hands at his hips as he surveyed these unsuspecting children.

“Could you hurry up and go in? I hate having to make eye contact with Prunus.” The Fat Lady chided him.

Ron stepped in through the portrait hole and the door slammed shut behind him. The small commotion was enough to draw a few people’s attention.

Silence dawned as everyone stared at Ron Weasley, wearing a weird mask and standing dramatically by the entrance.

Dean stood up. “I see my dad gave it to you, how does it fee-”

“SILENCE!” Ron bellowed.

Dean stopped in his tracks, glancing at Ginny and the twins. Ginny was shaking her head, while her older brothers were grinning broadly.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am the man with no name! I am… The Masked Weasley!”

The common room filled with laughter. Ginny groaned, the twins looked as if Christmas had come early, and the Masked Weasley preened proudly, soaking in the adulation.