Chapter 109: In the name of science

When Rick came back to the manor he had not expected everyone to be in a frenzy. Lily was shouting to be released and Rick immediately reached the dining room, wand in his hand, ready to act. He found the adults, minus Andromeda and Amelia, circling a sitting and tied up Lily.

“What the hell is going on?!”

They all turned to look at him, children included, and Lily called for his help before Bella gagged her.

“Lily had been hit by an unknown spell, and now she’s a happy crying mess, saying it was you who attacked her.” Dorea explained.

“As if!” Bella denied categorically.

“Was the spell like a patronus but red in the form of a wolf?” he asked and Lily  made some sound.

“How do you know?” Rose inquired.

“Because she’s telling the truth. That’s my spell.” he replied and with a flick of his wrist, released Lily from her bindings, gag included.

She was barely free that she ran to him and jumped in his arms for a very passionate kiss. The way she looked at him was full of love.

“I don’t understand what’s happening.” Narcissa said. “Why would you cast a spell on Lily?”

“I didn’t. It’s a spell like the patronus, it was supposed to come to her and deliver a message.” At this point Lily was trying to fuse herself with him. Legs around his waist, arms around his torso and face buried in the crook of his neck.

“And instead it made her scream, fall down and cry while smiling like a loony. What the heck?!” Marlene commented.

“I wasn’t hurt! I was just overwhelmed by the love!” Lily turned her head to look at the audience.

“What love?” Hermione wondered.

“Mine. I created a spell like the patronus but based on love and I finally had my first success after speaking with the Headmaster.”

“I’M NEXT!” Bella yelled and opened her arms as an invitation.

“I still need to work on it, Bella. You saw what it did to Lily.”

“Best feeling I ever felt.” the redhead commented and went back to trying to melt into her husband’s being by sheer will.

Now Bella was furious. “I don’t care!”

Rick sighed and invited his wife to follow him. “It’s lunch time and mind your own business,” he said to his children who were all curious about that new spell.

To make sure no one would follow them, he asked Karkass to keep it locked until they all finished eating. He grabbed Bella’s hand and led her to their bedroom where he had to stun Lily so she could let go then laid her down gently on the bed.

“Come on, laid down too.”

She walked to the bed, still holding his hand, their arms reaching as far as they both could until she was next to Lily. With a flick of his wand he used the spell and as expected a red wolf appeared and went straight to Bella. It went through her and disappeared but her reaction was different from the one Lily had. She blinked in confusion.

“I felt it but… that was nothing special. Why did Lily have such a strong reaction? I get you love her more-”

“I don’t.” Rick cut in. It shut Bella up on the spot. “I love you just as much as I love her. How can I not after all this time spent together? Our connection is deeper, true and that’s because we met at a younger age and grew up together. It doesn’t mean I love her more.”

“She’s the first person you think about.” she said with a slight frown. For years she  had accepted she was second in his life, that Lily would always come first. Now he was changing things.

“Out of habit. A deeply ingrained one. It doesn’t mean I can’t love you as much as I love her which I do. Lily completes me in ways no one else does but you do too. A darker part of me that I didn’t know I had. I only feel truly complete when the two of you are together.”

His revelation was so life changing for Bella that she didn’t even smile like a loony as she would have normally done. Because she had doubts. “Yet the spell didn’t work.”

“That has nothing to do with my love for you. I know how I feel, Bella.” he scowled, not at her but his lack of understanding of the spell. Dumbledore too had felt the love but not really connected with it.

He took a big breath and began to think quickly. ‘Why didn’t it work? Three subjects: one success, two failures. Albus’ failure may have been put on the intent of the spell as I made the wolf with Lily in mind and not for him. But Bella’s failure disproves that. Intent is not the reason. What was different between my first time for Lily and my second time for Bella beside the intent? Nothing. I didn’t stutter the incantation, I didn’t botch the wand movement, the wolf wouldn’t have appeared otherwise. Both times I used the memory of Lily giving birth to- Oh. Could that be? If it is, that could pose a problem regarding Voldemort. Nevermind that guy, Bella first.’

He used the spell again but this time only a red mist appeared. He did it again, and again and again but the wolf never showed itself. On the bed, Bella suddenly felt crushed. For all the words he said, and she truly believed he meant them, the spell didn’t work. His heart didn’t love her as much as it loved Lily and she felt a pang of sorrow in her chest.

“It’s alright. The heart knows better than we do.” she said and tried to get up but Rick sat next to her and with his hand pushed her back down.

“I know what I feel, Bella. It’s the memory that I used which was not good.”

“Memory?”

“It’s just like the patronus but instead of a happy memory it’s a memory based on pure love. Nothing else must be in it because love is… more demanding than happiness. For Lily I used the memory of Rose’s birth. I tried that with you in mind. Lyra, Lea, Vega but they are all memories from a time which…”

“We were different people and not madly in love with each other?”

“Ye-” Rick stopped himself mid-answer realization hitting him in the face. He began to chuckle. “I’m an idiot. I had the perfect memory but it was so recent I never considered it.”

Bella was curious and very attentive now. “What memory?”

“When we bore our hearts to each other in Albus' office, the day we fought Voldemort. That you didn’t care one bit if I had weaknesses or not, that you would never leave me. I… Just loved you so much at that moment… You can’t imagine.”

“I’ll probably know in a few seconds.” she replied with faith.

He smiled gently at her and used the spell again. This time the wolf appeared and ran around the room a bit before hitting Bella in the chest. She moaned loudly, her back arched and Rick quickly realized she was having an orgasm. A short but powerful one. When she landed back fully on the bed, much like Lily she was crying happy tears and grinning from ear to ear.

“That’s how you feel for me.” she said absentmindedly. “For me.” she repeated. “It’s…There are no… words. It’s too much and… not enough. It’s beautiful and… scary. The depth…”

“Want me to stun you like Lily?”

“I… Yes. It’s… Please.”

He did so and she closed her eyes. Waving his wand, he undressed them to make them comfortable and tuck them in. They got one kiss on their forehead each and he left their bedroom to get back downstairs. He called for Karkass and ordered him to let the people in the dining room go if they wished, then went to his lab. Feeling mischievous. He tried the spell but with a different kind of love in mind. While Lily and Bella receive his romantic love, he needed to test the other types. The first that came to mind was friendly love, one reserved for friends. The first person he had in mind was Albus. After multiple tries to find the proper memory he did succeed in creating the wolf again under the different conditions and sent it away. Quickly he pulled up his mirror and called the man.

“I have news regarding the spell.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

“First off, the wolf which I’ve decided to call the philo, hit Lily square in the chest. The feeling was so powerful she fell down and began to cry out of happiness with a goofy smile on her face. Bella did too. They were both incapable of any coherent thoughts and were clearly overwhelmed.”

“That’s both wonderful to hear and a bit worrying.”

“Yes but to be honest the philo was charged with the most powerful love memory I had of them. Which brings me to my second point: it only works fully on the person you had in mind when you cast the spell. When I tried it on Bella it failed because I had Lily in mind. I used a memory of her and she reacted as expected.”

“I’d like to hear what they felt at that moment.”

“I’m sure they would share. Finally I wondered if the spell worked for other types of love. Romantic worked but what about the others?”

Albus knew from Rick’s grin that he had succeeded in his experiment and naturally wanted to know more. “Which one of the six others did you-” He was hit by the philo from the side and froze. A short moment was all it took for him to smile amusedly and chuckle. “Philia works. Oh, my this is quite a joyous feeling. I think I’ll be in a good mood for the rest of the week. What memory did you use, if I may ask?”

“Our first lesson in alchemy. You were less a teacher and more a friend with whom I was brainstorming. Speaking of, are you teaching it this year? Rose and Hermione wish to take the class.”

“Why not? Now that I’m just Hogwarts’ headmaster I have more time than ever. I’m very glad, Amelia is the minister. She’s not asking for advice or help every other day and Tiberius is a good Chief Warlock.”

“I would have prefered Augusta Longbottom, she’s more hardass but I concede, Ogden knows how to do his job. Since we’re talking about extracurricular subjects, is Ancient magic possible?”

“Hm… Difficult. People specialising in it are usually scholars who haven’t seen the outside of a library in decades… There is perhaps… Yes… but it would be costly.”

“Since I’m the richest man in Magical Britain and you know it, that person is not interested in gold, I presume?”

“Despite all your wealth, you will never be as rich as they are.” Albus chuckled and Rick immediately understood who he was referring to.

“Flamel? You have Nicolas Flamel in mind?”

“Yes. Nicolas had been very interested when I sent him a few books of chemistry when we started our lessons years ago. So was Perenelle. I’m sure you could share some ideas or work you did over the years. The alchemical magic circle you created to remove my curse alone will be enough to make them come.”

“It’s a Black family magic but if they take an oath to non-disclosure I don't mind. The question is can you get them to Hogwarts for the start of the year? It’s in a week.”

“They won’t mind either and yes I can. This won’t be a problem at all.”

“The board won’t be problematic? I gather they won’t use their real identities.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

“If you say so. If you could try my spell so we could compare the results. I’d love to see Minerva’s reaction to it.”

“Delightful, I imagine.”

They ended the call and Rick stepped out of his lab to go to the playroom as he knew that was where the children went after dinner. This time the room was in forest mode with light rain. Immediately, he knew who got to choose the mode for the room this time. Only two of his children liked the rain. Rose and Lea but Rose had lost her privilege of choosing after her stunt with Susan earlier in the summer which left only Lea as the culprit.

He found them under a magically built wooden roof, with a big round table under it and they were either playing cards, talking or practicing magic. Narcissa had conjured a comfy recliner and was reading a book to the side.

“Dad!” Lyra got out of her seat facing Draco and rushed to her father. “Are mother and Aunt Lily alright?”

“They are. The spell was powerful however so they’re resting.” he half-lied.

“Can I be next?” Lea called out from her seat, looking up from the drawing she was making

“You’re all next because the spell is based on love and obviously I don’t love you the same way that I love your mothers. I need to experiment and lucky me I have a whole lot of family members.”

He drew his wand from its holster and grinned like a lunatic. Immediately all his children began to run away or take cover.

“You don’t run away from love, children!” He used the spell once for each one of them, including those that were not his but that he raised, like Draco and Susan. Veronica had been particularly perceptive to the magic and froze into a mess of gooey happiness.

Everyone else was just grinning and just went to hug their father, tackling down on the ground. Not the boys though but they were still pleased to know the depth of his feelings. Especially Draco who always saw Rick as his father figure but always held back displays of affection.

Once Rick escaped from the clutches of his daughters he sent a meaningful look to Narcissa as he retreated.

From there he spent the last week messing with the women he loved. Not too much as Andromeda, Nymphadora and Amelia had important jobs. But once they were home for the night? They were hit full force.