Harry wiped away the blood trickling from his nose with a shaky hand. The tremors hadn’t left his body entirely yet, but they’d mostly subsided as the ritual came to a close. He was still lying on the floor now, feeling utterly drained as though he’d spent countless days running through training and drills without reprieve.
But none of these aches and pains could compete with the deep sense of satisfaction he felt at finally knowing where Voldemort’s horcruxes were.
“We’ve got them,” he murmured, smiling. He’d knocked his glasses off of his face, rendering the world a blurry mess, but he couldn’t mistake Daphne’s blond hair that loomed over him for anyone else’s.
“You prat,” she sobbed as she slapped her hand lightly against his chest. If he’d looked any better than he did, he was certain that the blow would’ve been far worse. “You promised to stop this ritual before it went too far.”
“I didn’t let it kill me,” Harry replied, still smiling.
“This isn’t a game where you can keep pushing yourself to your limit,” Daphne told him, wiping away at her eyes.
On that much they could agree. This wasn’t a game where he couldn’t take things seriously. He needed to be fully committed, willing to do everything short of giving his life. That obviously wasn’t what Daphne had ever intended with her words, but he couldn’t imagine himself offering anything less in this situation. It wasn’t what he’d want Daphne or Astoria to do were they in his place, which was why he kept up with these white lies.
“I didn’t reach my limits,” Harry said weakly. “I would’ve stopped it before then. Just like I trust in you to do what’s right, I need you to trust me. I wouldn’t ever go beyond my limits.”
Another lie. If Voldemort were here right before him and killing him for good meant sacrificing his own life, Harry would be sorely tempted to do it. Ultimately, he wasn’t certain if he’d be able to go through with it or not, but there was a strong part of his heart that wanted him to do it so that he could save those innocent people who could so easily be killed in Voldemort’s wake.
“I want to be here for the victory party after all,” Harry grinned up at Daphne. He had to wipe his nose again. Most of the bleeding had stopped, but there were a few drops that kept creeping down onto his cheek. “Voldemort will die before I do, and now that we know where his horcruxes are, we’re one step closer to achieving that.”
Suddenly, Dumbledore’s face appeared overhead. “I know this will be hard right now, but I’d like you to write down everything you can remember about what you saw.”
“Albus!” Astoria suddenly exclaimed as she crossed the room angrily. “This isn’t the time—”
“Unfortunately, this is the exact time that this needs to happen,” Dumbledore insisted. “It won’t be long before the memories fade from Harry’s mind, and while he’s given us a good start, any extra details may be crucial in identifying exactly where these horcruxes can be found.”
“I’ll do it,” Harry said, trying to push himself up. It was hard at first, and when he was nearly halfway up, the world swam around him. It felt like he was atop a sphere being rolled around as the floor tilted in countless different directions. No one’s faces remained in the places he assumed they were, but he was still coherent enough to pluck out a quill from Dumbledore’s hand and dip it into the inkwell that’d been sitting on the floor beside him.
Daphne came up behind him and placed her legs on either side of his, letting him rest his back against her chest to stabilise himself a bit better. It helped, and Harry quickly started scratching whatever details down that he remembered onto a blank scroll of parchment.
The Gringotts vault was dark and dank, far worse than the one that his gold was placed in. He wrote down many of the objects he saw from silver swords to books on the dark arts. The Hogwarts-like room had so many odds and ends in it that Harry ended up writing everything down from broken broomsticks to old uniforms. The room with Voldemort and the marble floor didn’t have much of note besides the wood panelling on the walls, and the fact that his vision came from down low on the floor rather than upon a heightened place of importance. He was a snake on the ground and—!
His head throbbed painfully as he tried to recall any more details. Without Daphne holding onto him, he would’ve fallen over by now.
“That’s everything I can remember,” Harry told Dumbledore.
The old wizard quickly snatched up the piece of parchment and scanned Harry’s words upon it.
“The first horcrux is likely in an old Gringotts vault on the lowest levels where the high-security wing is. The vaults there tend to become wet from condensation building up upon the stalactites. The second one I’m uncertain about. Are you sure that it appears to be inside of Hogwarts?”
“I think so,” Harry answered, feeling confused as he tried to conjure up the memory of the location. But no matter how hard he tried, the vision was gone from his mind. “The ceiling and distant walls look like those in Hogwarts, but I’ve never seen a room like this in the castle before.”
“Neither have I,” Dumbledore admitted, “but it could still exist. There are many strange areas in the castle. For instance, there was one chamber that was only reachable from May of 1954 to July of 1956. We were lucky that it was summer break when it disappeared since no students ended up trapped inside.”
“What about the third horcrux?” Harry asked anxiously.
“I fear that I only have speculations to offer,” Dumbledore replied. “The image that you’ve painted in my mind reflects one of many pure-blood estates that I’ve visited in my time, but it’s not clear to me as to which one it is. What is more worrisome is that you claim to have been a snake.”
Harry nodded his head. On that fact, he was utterly certain of what he’d been. He’d slithered across the ground and come right up to a mirror and seen himself within.
Dumbledore stroked his long beard and stared distantly in thought. “It was my understanding that horcruxes could only be objects, not living beings. Any records I’ve found on the subject have detailed things like books, artefacts, or even furniture as being horcruxes. The idea that a living being could be a horcrux is deeply concerning. It means that this snake could slither away and hide at our approach. We’ll have to be most careful in dealing with it. It would be good to record this information in a text so that future generations could find it. If living beings can become horcruxes then…”
Dumbledore paused mid sentence as some thought overtook his mind. Even though Harry’s world was still spinning around him, he could see the old man’s eyes darting back and forth as he processed something.
“We will need to explore this further at a later date,” he finally said. “For now, we have two leads to follow. While I begin an investigation at Hogwarts, it falls unto you to begin preparing for one at Gringotts.”
“The goblins won’t take kindly to any questioning of any vaults that don’t belong to us,” Daphne wisely pointed out. “And it isn’t like there are any maps available that we can use to uncover Gringotts’ secrets.”
“Then the identity of the vault owner must be uncovered first, yes?” Dumbledore said. “Based on some of the descriptions that Harry has given us, it is possible that some may recognise these esoteric objects. I will reach out to some of my own colleagues to see if any of them know of any of them. In the meantime, your parents may know better than I.”
That’s right. Despite not being dark-aligned pure-bloods, Anastasia and Cyrus nonetheless had deep connections with the pure-bloods in Britain. They were more likely than not to offer some good information about who could possibly own this vault that Harry had seen.
Just as everything started coming together, Astoria pointed out something they were all forgetting.
“What about the ring?” She asked as she stared malevolently at it.
Dumbledore grimaced. It was clear that he wanted to say something, but he was holding himself back. Harry still remembered the way he’d tried to put it on back at the Gaunt house, but Dumbledore seemed different now. There was an acceptance in his face that there hadn’t been back then. Dumbledore sucked in a deep breath and then took a couple of steps away.
“The ring must be destroyed,” he finally said. “There is no other option.”
A wash of relief fell over Harry. For a second there, he’d feared that Dumbledore would try to claim the ring again.
“I’ll go get the sword then,” Astoria said.
“Actually, I had Kreacher bring it down from your room,” Dumbledore told her. “I apologise if I was overstepping my bounds, but I believed that we’d need it after this.”
Astoria narrowed her eyes on the man. “I’d prefer if you didn’t send anyone into my private room without my permission. Did you hear that, Kreacher?”
The door to the room suddenly creaked open, and Kreacher was standing there, clutching the Sword of Gryffindor to his chest. It was wrapped in a towel so that the blade couldn’t accidentally pierce Kreacher’s skin, and the blade itself stood taller than he did. Still, Kreacher carried it in before laying it down on the floor before them all.
“I will only follow the orders of House Black,” Kreacher told Astoria, somewhat regretfully.
“What about me?” Harry asked, knowing of Kreacher’s continued mutual animosity between himself and Sirius. “I’m Sirius’ godson.”
“That is good enough,” Kreacher told him dutifully.
“Then I order you not to enter Astoria or Daphne’s bedrooms without their permission. And even if you’re granted entry into their rooms, you’re not to do anything within them that you have not been granted permission to do by Astoria or Daphne,” Harry continued.
“Of course, Master,” Kreacher bowed lowly before disappearing with a pop.
Everyone watched as the sword clattered to the floor, but the magically-imbued goblin-wrought silver prevented any damage from being done to it. Harry tried to stand up to go get it, but even though his dizziness was improving, he still struggled to stabilise his footing. He ended up sitting back down with Daphne cradling him as Astoria walked over and grabbed the blade.
Untouched, the ring sat in the middle of the ritual circle. It showed no sign of having been disturbed throughout the ritual process despite Harry seeing it bounce wildly on the floor minutes ago. Regardless, Astoria gripped the hilt of the blade with both hands and raised it high in the air. She carefully stepped up to the perfect position and then swung down harshly.
As the silver blade clanged against the ring, a painful screech shot through everyone’s ears. It reverberated around the room as the ring thrashed about unstably.
“Get down!” Daphne shouted at Astoria and Dumbledore as she threw herself over top of Harry.
Ultimately, her gesture was unnecessary even though it was incredibly romantic. The ring started throwing itself from side to side as black smoke evaporated from its form as the squeal continued to ring out for several seconds more. Then, there was a loud snapping sound as the ring broke into two, splitting along the band and leaving the cracked, black stone in the middle of the setting untouched.
“You did it!” Daphne exclaimed excitedly as she leapt to her feet. Astoria was still staring dumbstruck at the broken ring as her sister embraced her lovingly.
“Is it really gone?” Astoria asked mutely.
Dumbledore was the one to go over and inspect the ring. “It appears as though it is,” he said before recoiling backwards as though he’d been struck by an electric shock. “I should… no… all of you… but…”
“What is it, professor?” Harry asked.
The old man shook his head clear. “Nothing. Nothing at all. I’d suggest taking this ring and hiding it someplace safe. It may still come in handy in the future if we need to repeat a ritual like this.”
“I know of just the place,” Astoria suddenly said as she bent over and snatched up the ring. “I’m guessing that you don’t want to know where it is, do you?”
Dumbledore hesitated before answering. “No, I don’t.”
“Then just imagine it’s gone for good,” Astoria told Dumbledore.
“I will do exactly that,” he promised her with a wistful look towards where the ring had sat. “I… should return to Hogwarts now. I will return when I am able to. In the interim, do whatever you can to investigate the Gringotts’ vault.”
“We will,” Harry promised him.
Dumbledore left promptly, leaving the three of them in the room alone together. Astoria still wasn’t quite looking at either of them, but Daphne was fussing over Harry.
“Let’s get you back up to my room,” she said. “You need to rest.”
“I’ll take him up to mine,” Astoria suggested instead. “It might be better if you ask our parents about the artefacts Harry saw in his vision. I know that things are better between me and them now, but you have an easy rapport with mum that’ll make things go smoother.”
Daphne hesitated slightly. The turmoil between Astoria and Harry hadn’t gone unnoticed. “If you think that’s best.” She looked down to Harry for his opinion on the matter, but he just gave a subtle nod in reply. Astoria had tried to apologise to him before the ritual, and it was better to deal with this issue sooner rather than later.
Astoria crouched down beside Harry and, with Daphne’s help, hoisted him up to his feet. His dizziness was lessening much more quickly now, which he was grateful for. After a few moments where he was unsteady on his feet, he managed to take a couple of steps forward with Astoria clinging to his arm.
“Just take it slow,” she murmured to him as she helped him out of the room.
Harry could only really grunt in reply; all of his focus was spent trying to not tip over in any one direction.
Climbing the stairs was much easier thanks to the railings that he could hold onto, and by the time they reached Astoria’s bedroom, Harry was feeling much better. The world wasn’t spinning anymore, and he had only the slightest wobble in his vision.
As Astoria gently helped Harry down onto her bed, he smiled up at her. “We’re so close to finishing this. We’ve seen where his horcruxes are.”
“I know,” Astoria assured him, “but I hate to see how much you’re hurting yourself in the process.”
“I—”
“Stop,” Astoria held up her hands. “I don’t need you to try to rationalise it to me or Daphne any more. We know that this is how you are, and we’re working to accept it, as much as it hurts.”
They knew how important stopping Voldemort was. Couldn’t they see that even if things were bad right now, it would be good in the end? Harry believed in himself that he could defeat Voldemort when it came down to it. Even though their fight in the graveyard hadn’t entirely gone his way, Harry had grown so much since then. And he needed to keep his loves safe.
“Okay,” Harry said, unwilling to argue.
Astoria sat down on the edge of the bed, fiddling nervously with her fingernails. “You know how Dumbledore mentioned that horcruxes could cause bad feelings in people?”
Ah, so they were getting to the crux of Astoria’s behaviour these past few days. Harry had already pieced it together, but Astoria clearly wanted to say her piece.
“Yeah.”
Grimacing, Astoria ran her fingers along her neck where the ring had sat upon its chain. “I had all of these awful feelings. I kept getting so angry with you over the smallest of things, and I was worried that you were going to leave me for Daphne.”
“I would never,” Harry said quickly.
“I know that,” Astoria nodded. “But I couldn’t see that at the time. This horcrux… it made me irrational. I acted in ways that I wouldn’t normally, and I took out all of my feelings on you. I’m so, so sorry for that.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Harry said as he reached out to touch her hand. “You said it yourself that the horcrux was causing this.”
“Even still, I should’ve been stronger,” Astoria insisted.
Harry sat up then, needing to look Astoria directly in the eyes as he spoke. “You’re one of the strongest women I know. There’s no accounting for the power behind Voldemort’s evil magic. I don’t blame you at all for what you did. After all, it’s not like you did anything really heinous. You were a bit moody, and it’s not like I haven’t noticed certain times of the month when you—”
Astoria promptly picked up a pillow and smacked Harry across the head with it. He had a bright grin on his face as he wrestled the pillow from her hands and tossed it aside.
“I still love you with all my heart,” Harry told her sincerely. “You put up with me and all of my quirks, as difficult as they may be. If I can’t deal with your being influenced by a horcrux, then what kind of boyfriend would I be?”
“A shite one,” Astoria smiled lightly.
“Exactly! So don’t feel bad about how you acted. If anything, we can chalk those difficulties between us up to Voldemort’s influence and choose to instead focus on how we actually feel for one another.”
She leaned over and kissed him sweetly, and, to her surprise, he grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her back down onto the bed with him. Within seconds, the two of them were snuggled up against each other, just basking in the comfort that they each provided.
“I love you so much,” Astoria whispered into his ear.
“Not as much as I love you,” Harry said as he squeezed her tightly.
They kissed again, and again, and again. Somehow, Astoria ended up on top of him, snogging him senseless as she rubbed her body along his. He quickly got lost in the pleasure of it all, just holding Astoria’s soft body against him and doing his best to let his tongue dance against hers.
“I love you,” Harry repeated as Astoria wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. She was trying to shuffle his head back onto the pillows behind him, and as he jostled along the bed with her, he felt her hot core land atop his cock.
Suddenly, his entire body tensed as he thrust up against her. Astoria gave him a lewd smile as she leaned down to kiss his neck.
“You like how I feel on you?” She asked rhetorically as she grinded her hips against his. Her body rocked so perfectly that his cock stirred to life in an instant, begging for more of her touch. It was as though their horcrux-induced conflict and its resolution had made all the more attracted to her. Love truly was the greatest cure to all of the world’s ails.
“So much,” Harry groaned, grabbing her waist and pushing her down on his cock.
Astoria grabbed one of his hands and slipped it beneath her short robes, letting his fingers trace up her inner thighs until he found her cloth-covered pussy. “Can you feel how wet I am for you?”
“Yes,” Harry practically moaned.
“Wouldn’t you love to be inside of me?”
“Yes.”
Astoria giggled. “Good boy. That’s just what I wanted to hear.”
They both roughly went for each other’s clothes. Astoria’s fingers found his trousers quickly and unbuttoned them before unzipping the last bit so that she could pull them down along with his pants to free his cock. Harry lifted Astoria’s robes up to her waist and simply pulled her panties to the side, letting her wet pussy land atop his cock.
Just the barest touch was enough to make them both moan loudly. The heat on heat was an intoxicating concoction that would leave anyone with an overwhelming desire for more. But all they did was keep teasing each other more and more, rubbing themselves against each other to drive the other to beg for more first.
In the end, neither of them gave in. Astoria’s wetness that coated Harry’s cock caused her to slip too far forward as she grinded against him, and as she tried to pull back, the tip of Harry’s cock speared into her core.
Pure wet warmth surrounded him. It was the most heavenly texture that he could ever imagine, and yet it was magically enhanced by having one of the two loves of his life wrapped around him. His legs trembled as Astoria sank down completely around his thick length, leaving the rest of his body buckling from the pleasure of it all. Even now, after all they’d been through, she felt utterly unique around him.
“You feel so fucking incredible,” Harry said, his voice thick with arousal. He helped lift her up until the tip of his cock was barely inside of her and then let gravity drop her all the way back down. There was nothing so perfect as feeling his lover drop all of her weight onto him, forcing his cock into the deepest recesses of her pussy.
Astoria cried out like she’d received the greatest gift of her life. Her walls collapsed around him as though they were trying to map out every contour of his cock. She squeezed him so tightly as she dragged her pussy back up his cock. Her juices flowed freely down his shaft, lubricating him for what more was to come.
Kissing him, Astoria bounced wildly atop his cock. He so desperately wished that he could see her ass jiggling as it bounced up and down as she rode him but having her kiss him was enough of a compromise. He reached up and squeezed her breasts through the fabric of her robes, imagining them too bouncing in his mind’s eye. It was almost like a dream.
Faster and faster, Astoria kept riding his cock like it was the only thing that mattered in this world. Her nails dug into his robes, clawing down his chest to his abs, and her tongue became more uncontrolled as it battled with his.
It was the most intense, sublime feeling that could ever be experienced. Being with someone that you truly loved could never compare to any meaningless, random fling. Astoria knew his body better than anyone, perhaps save Daphne, and she knew how to give him the most amount of pleasure that he could handle. And he liked to believe that he was doing the exact same thing with her. He certainly knew how to fuck her to maximise the amount of pleasure that he extracted from her body.
The faster they moved, the more that Harry started bouncing Astoria atop his lap rather than her bouncing on him. He used the power of his upward thrusts to send her up into the air, only for her to fall back on him again half a second later and wrap him in the tightest embrace as her silken walls clung to him like nothing else. She threw her head back in sheer delight, and Harry grinned as he watched her cloth-covered breasts bounce freely. Even though she was wearing a bra, she still looked heavenly above him.
“Please,” Astoria whimpered as she shook. “Please…”
“What do you want?” Harry asked her as he slammed up into her sweet, tight pussy again.
“You,” Astoria exclaimed breathlessly.
He gave her exactly that. His body worked in perfect unison with hers until they both trembled uncontrollably with the most primal need to ever exist. Astoria ended up halfways sank down the length of his cock when her entire body began to shake. She planted her hand firmly upon his chest to try to stabilise herself, but her walls kept quivering around his cock despite her not moving any further up or down.
She was so close that Harry couldn’t help but gently press his thumb against the side of her clit, and she suddenly came undone.
It was like a rushing torrent as Astoria screamed his name and collapsed on him. Her walls squeezed him so tightly that he couldn’t help but buck up against her, forcing that last bit of sublime pleasure to send a thick torrent of cum into her womb.
Harry gasped as he sprayed his seed deep into Astoria again and again. Each breath seemed to send another spurt into her, and her swollen, wet pussy took every last drop until they were both gasping for air.
In the minutes that followed, they both clung to each other as though they were adrift at sea. Even as Harry’s cock softened, he felt their combined liquids drip down his cock and onto his balls before they stained their bedsheets. It was a sign of the love that they held for one another.
“We’re going to get through this together,” he promised her.
“I know,” Astoria said before she kissed him softly. “We’ll kill Voldemort together, and then we’ll live the life we’ve always been meant to have together.”