A great deal of relief washed over Harry as he followed Rhys and the others back to the Ministry Atrium. They were so arrogant, so sure of their grand plan on election day that they didn’t even consider the fact that if they were to attack all those gathered in the atrium right now, no one could stop the massacre that would follow… except maybe Harry himself.
The Lestrange lad still remained under Harry’s imperious just as Aurors Farley and Stebbins were under Rhys’. Harry intended to keep him that way until he was no longer useful, which, given the timeline of Rhys’ plan, wouldn’t be much longer. Election day was less than a week away.
Rhys and the others easily blended into the enormous crowds that swelled the atrium to its limits. Daphne and Amelia were up on stage now giving their all in the final debate. Daphne was delivering the same messaging that’d been so effective for her throughout this campaign, looking so dignified and beautiful with her violet robes and her blond hair hanging over her shoulders. There wasn’t a single hint of exhaustion in her visage, but Harry couldn’t say the same for Amelia.
Everyone knew at this point that Amelia was bound to lose the election unless something drastic happened. Something like a false story designed to besmirch Daphne and make the public question her trustworthiness and ability to lead. Amelia was, ultimately, a moral woman. She believed in right and wrong with no space in between. For her to even consider using the story that Dawlish and Proudfoot concocted together was a step further than he ever imagined that she’d take, and the inner turmoil she had to be facing was reflected in her somber eyes and the way the skin on her face seemed to sag. But even now, she wasn’t giving up the fight. She was articulating her points clearly and differentiating herself from the politicians who’d come before her.
Harry couldn’t pay much attention to them though until he saw these villains out. It was too crowded for him to try to navigate underneath his invisibility cloak, so he hid in a tiny alcove and quickly applied a glamour to his face to disguise his appearance before he slipped out from underneath his cloak and reentered the crowd.
Thankfully, he was able to follow Rhys and the others all the way back to the fireplaces at the far end of the atrium. He watched carefully as they entered into the flames one by one until only Lestrange was left.
At the last moment, he gave the man some instructions: Act normally.
It was the simplest instructions that worked best with the Imperius Curse. Few would have the wherewithal to counteract an instruction that they were so likely to follow without Harry’s interference. After the First Wizarding War in Britain, this was the argument that many Death Eaters used to get out of being convicted for their crimes. They argued that they were put under the Imperius Curse for so long, following simple instructions like this, that it became impossible to ignore the more radical ones when they were eventually ordered.
Well, Harry was going to use this curse for a much better purpose. He was going to save the Ministry from being blown up and expose Rhys’ plans all at once.
Lestrange disappeared in green flames, and Harry happily returned back to the crowds by the stage.
“—without which, Britain would be no safer than it was during Voldemort’s reign!” Amelia shouted, trying to incite the crowd with the name of a dead wizard that so few dared to mention even years after his death.
“It is exactly as Madam Bones says,” Daphne interjected in the midst of the cheers from the crowd. “Without her efforts to keep Britain safe, Britain wouldn’t be any better than it was all those years ago. But what about since then? Has Britain changed since stability was returned to it? Or has it remained the same, with pure-bloods still reigning supreme over everyone else? That isn’t the type of world I want to live in! What about everyone else here?”
There was an enormous roar of support. Clearly, Daphne and her staff had managed to bring in a large number of supporters into the atrium to cheer at her every word. It was the type of thing that was excellent at swaying those who remained uncertain by catching them up in the fervour that came with supporting someone new, but Harry understood that this wasn’t even Daphne’s main strategy.
Her focus was on Amelia’s support base.
“But what about all of you who have worked in the ministry for so many years? What of those families who’ve been the proud supporters of our government for decades, putting their hard work to help support a government you hoped would support you?” Daphne shouted. “Has the previous administration done enough to keep all of you here happy?”
Angry shouts rose from the crowd.
Of course Kingsley hadn’t done enough. No one could have. That was the fun of politics. It didn’t matter how much you tried to do or even succeeded at; there would always be a significant portion of your voter base that would feel failed by your efforts. Whether it was due to you not doing enough to placate their needs, focusing too much on topics that didn’t affect them, or aiding newcomers to political institutions, many would find reasons to support other candidates, even if their needs would be better met by the faction they supported all along.
Daphne understood that perfectly. She was railing against Amelia’s stalwarts. Those who claimed to be unwilling to ever change their political allegiances, even if they remained not entirely satisfied with what Amelia offered.
“My late fiancé, Harry, knew that change needed to happen. Why else would he have fought so much with the entrenched witches and wizards in the Wizengamot?” Daphne asked the crowd rhetorically.
Murmuring built up all around him, and Harry smiled as he witnessed their final plan coming into place.
Daphne continued on, trying to rally those that Amelia depended on most. She went after those voters who merely supported Amelia due to her tenure as the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and made them question their trust in the woman who’d led a department that’d allowed multiple Death Eater attacks to take place across British and French soil. Rebukes from the crowd were shut down by a calm, confident voice that demanded that they rethink everything that they’d ever considered about the Ministry of Magic.
The tactics worked well, and Amelia fell apart quickly. Even as Harry listened to her impassioned words, recognising just how many of them were truly meaningful and valuable in the years to come, he could see that Daphne had done enough to turn the public’s trust away from her.
And Amelia saw it too.
Her opportunity was floundering before her. If she allowed Daphne to become the next Minister for Magic, she might be seen as too old the next time that an election came around.
Despite his distaste for politics, Harry understood plainly that there was only one option for Amelia to take.
She had to besmirch Daphne in a way that would make her an untenable option for voters.
And she had the perfect means of doing so with the plans that Proudfoot and Dawlish had concocted.
Daphne finished her speech and handed things over to Amelia. She stepped back up to her podium, hesitating as she waited to give her last, final push to try to sway voters over to her side.
Would she do it? Harry wondered. If she went through with it, she’d be desecrating her own name, which she valued so highly. Even if no one else found out the truth, she’d know that she’d be lying to the world, and what would that mean for her own sense of self worth? Would she even be able to respect herself after this?
Harry knew the answer even before Amelia went up to speak.
In the end, nothing more came of her words. Amelia retrod the same ineffectual lines that she’d been delivering. Her supporters cheered her on, but the support from the undecided and tentative supporters remained weak.
Everything was set. Daphne was primed to win the election.
“And with that, the final debate has come to a close!” Doge announced loudly to the audience. “Election day is this Thursday, so be sure to come into the ministry to cast your ballots! Once the polls close, the results will be tabulated within minutes, and we will announce the winner live right here!”
The crowd roared, and Harry smiled to himself. Everything was working out perfectly.
As the stage cleared and everyone began making their way back to the fireplaces to take themselves back home, Harry hurried through the crowd and was one of the first to get there. He took the floo back to Le Bistrognome. Eloise was still cooking in the kitchen alongside her two chefs while a couple of servers brought the dishes to hungry diners. With a subtle nod, Harry hurried upstairs into his room and waited.
Lying back on his bed, Harry ended up dozing off momentarily. He dreamt of a life in which he was with Daphne back at Greengrass Manor, staring on at their three children as they ran through the grassy fields that stretched out beyond his sight. Daphne was stood next to him, his arm around her waist, and they were happy together.
And then, suddenly, he awoke to a shift in weight atop his bed.
He sat up straight with the tip of his wand pointed right at Daphne’s chin.
“It’d be a real shame if you killed me now,” she joked.
Harry relaxed immediately and set his wand on the bedside table. “You scared me.”
“You didn’t scare me,” she reassured him. “Were you in the crowd tonight?”
“At the end,” he answered. “Rhys is planning something big on election day.”
“And you have it all well in hand, I assume?”
“Hey,” Harry playfully pushed her. “What kind of fiancé would I be if I didn’t?”
“A shite one,” Daphne giggled. “So, there won’t be any surprises?”
“No,” Harry confirmed. “Rhys has been dealt with, and from what I saw tonight, Amelia has no chance for victory.”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear,” Daphne said before she kissed him.
In an instant, Harry’s entire body relaxed as he leaned into Daphne’s touch. Her lips were so simple and yet so divine that he couldn’t help but fall completely under her spell. She was the only woman for him and with all the distance that they’d had between them these past few weeks since his supposed death, all it took was these little moments to make the spark between them turn into a burning flame.
Harry grabbed Daphne’s shoulders and pulled her down onto the bed with him, still snogging her with everything he had. His lips melded with hers perfectly, and his tongue danced inside of her mouth, teasing her tongue into something so beautiful that left Harry reeling.
Daphne’s hands went right for his crotch, pulling at his waistband to unveil his cock. It was barely out when she quickly grabbed it with both hands and started stroking him to life.
“I hate having to be away from you,” Harry groaned as his hips jerked forward, bucking into Daphne’s hands. “When this is all done, we’re going to have to make up for lost time.”
“Agreed,” Daphne grinned. His cock reached its full length in her hands, and now she was giving him these long, slow strokes that made him want to beg for more. “You should’ve seen me last night. I couldn’t sleep, so it wasn’t long before I started touching myself. I ended up on my knees with my face buried in our pillows with three fingers pumping in and out of my pussy. It wasn’t enough; what I really needed was your nice, thick cock to fill me up.”
“Fuck, Daphne,” Harry groaned again. “You’re going to drive me wild if you keep this up.”
Her eyes sparkled in amusement. “Maybe that’s what I want. For you to be a big brute and take me—”
In an instant, Harry flipped Daphne onto her back and pinned her wrists above her head. Her cheeks flushed as he roughly tore open her robes, tearing the fabric as he freed her two glorious breasts from the confines of her bra. Her little pink nipples were begging to be sucked on, but Harry needed to be inside of her. He couldn’t wait a second more. He kept tearing open her robes until they split in two right down the front, finally revealing her panty-clad pussy and her long, stocking-covered legs.
Yanking her pink panties to the side, Harry easily lined up the tip of his cock with her sopping-wet pussy and pushed inside of her. Her raw pussy always felt so divine, so perfectly molded for his cock. Daphne was a better lover than he’d ever had before, and their bodies truly knew how to drive each other wild.
“That’s what I’ve been missing,” Daphne moaned as Harry’s cock sank deep inside of her. Her walls writhed around his cock as they adjusted to his girth. She was nice and tight without it being too much, and once every inch of his cock was inside of her, Harry truly felt complete.
But Daphne wasn’t patient enough to let him linger inside of her without moving for long. She wrapped her legs around his waist and drove her heels into his ass to spur him into motion.
And so, Harry started fucking her.
He pulled her in close for a messy kiss as he started to move his hips. Their tongues danced together again as his cock slid in and out of her pussy. She wanted him to take her like a brute, and that was exactly what he intended. After the first couple gentle thrusts, he quickly picked up the power, fucking her down into the bed and making the poor legs holding it up creak and wobble.
“Fuck!” Daphne cried out into his mouth as she kissed him again. He pounded into her pussy, driving out all of the air from her lungs. “Right fucking there! Merlin, yes! Fuck me with your huge fucking cock!”
Harry growled and started kissing Daphne’s neck. Her bouncing breasts were stopped as he pressed his chest down against them, relishing at how soft and pillowy they felt. Her pussy was squeezing his cock tight every time he bottomed out inside of her, like a little reward for fucking her exactly the way she wanted.
Finally, Daphne couldn’t stand her hands being pinned and wrenched them from Harry’s grasp. She wrapped them around his back, holding on for dear life as the bed shook violently beneath them from Harry’s powerful thrusts.
All of sudden, there was a sharp snapping sound as the legs of the bed gave out. The bed crashed against the floor, and as Harry landed on top of Daphne, his cock slammed as deep inside of her pussy as it could go. Daphne’s mouth opened into a wordless scream of pleasure, and Harry felt himself come utterly undone.
“Oh fuck!” Harry cried out as he exploded inside of Daphne’s pussy. Pleasure shot through his body like a lightning bolt as a thick spurt of cum fired deep into Daphne’s womb. Her walls kept spasming around him, massaging his cock and helping to squeeze out every last drop of cum he had.
As they both fought to catch their breaths, the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs distracted them. They both turned to look at the closed door, but it thankfully didn’t open. Instead, a voice shouted from outside.
“You scared my customers half to death!” Eloise shouted at them through the door with a mixture of amusement and annoyance in her tone. “You’d better fix whatever you two broke in there.”
Daphne and Harry couldn’t help but laugh.
“Only a few more nights here, and then we’ll be back in our own bed,” Daphne smiled at him as she brushed her hair away from her face.
“Want to try to break that one too?” Harry asked with a sly grin.
“Absolutely.”