Chapter 129: Guys Talk [R-18]
“-mione?”
Alt-Hermione Granger was snapped of her thoughts when she felt a sharp poke to her side. Looking up from her open book, another textbook from Rick about advanced charms, her eyes landed on Ginny who had a worried look on her face. She wasn’t the only one. Rose and Susan were standing behind the weasley girl and had the same expression.
“Yes?”
“Are you alright?”
“I am, Ginny. Why the question?”
“You were a bit out there, not answering when we talked to you.” answered the ginger girl.
Alt-Hermione was a bit surprised by this. Usually it wasn’t difficult for someone to pull her out of her musing. “Was I?”
“Yes. But it’s like… you were in exam mode? Too focused?” Ginny replied.
For the first time Rose spoke. “The girls’ talk really did a number on you, didn’t it?”
“I… Wouldn’t say that. I’m just… It was….” Alt-Hermione couldn’t quite find the words but tried nonetheless. “My world was turned upside down, I guess? In a way.”
Susan chuckled good naturedly at that. “I guess finding out the people you look up to are not what you imagine them to be can be considered as such.”
“Ginny doesn’t seem that affected.” Hermione pointed out.
“That’s because I’m more open and social in general and more… accepting? I am affected though. I mean… your mother, Rose…” Ginny began hesitantly.
The auburn haired sighed. “A huge slut. I know.”
“Aunt Bella says every girl and woman has a slut inside of her. It’s all about locking her up or letting her out and play.” Susan commented.
The quote left the three other girls speechless and thinking about it Ginny could agree. What with the number of times when she had to restrain herself to jump Dean’s bones or Harry’s.
“Before any of you ask. No, I didn’t know how much of one she was. I always knew mom was… very affectionate with dad but not like this. She has always been open regarding sex but not… well… She wasn’t being improper. I knew she was sexually very active, I just didn’t know how and how much…”
“Even the album didn’t show us…”
““What album?”” Ginny and Alt-Hermione cut Susan mid-sentence.
“They have an album where they put important… sexual memories? Like… Mom’s and Dad’s first time. Or their wedding night or dad’s and Aunt Amelia’s or… Well you get the picture.”
Susan explained further, trying her best to lose herself in the memories of Lily and Amelia getting down and dirty together and imagining it was Rose and her instead.
“It’s enchanted so without the password you only see a normal family album but with it…” She mouthed a simple ‘Wow’.
“Do you think… nevermind.” Ginny shook her head.
“They would let you have a look at it?” Rose guessed Ginny’s thoughts. “Maybe. I think it depends on who you ask. Aunt Bella? Only if you... Submit to dad and get knocked up.”
Alt-Hermione’s eyes widened in shock and terror at the prospect. Taking that huge thing inside her and getting pregnant in exchange? Her mind nearly checked out and instead focused on the absurd size of Rick’s penis.
Ginny for her part wasn’t repulsed by the idea. Not about being impregnated. That was a big no for her. Getting a ride on that monster cock? She certainly would at least just try and know how it feels. It was obvious it must have felt quite nice if no less than eight witches were using it.
Rose continued. “She has in her head that every powerful witch must submit and be… bred by dad. To give birth to powerful magical children. It’s a power kink thing.” She shrugged her shoulders before going on. “Aunt Amelia is out and so are Aunt Narcissa and Aunt Andy. Embarrassment or propriety as a reason. I don’t think Fleur knows about it yet.” By now, her eyes were looking up, lost in thought. “That leaves only Aunt Marlene, Nymphie and mom. You don’t know Aunt Marlene but she’s all behind young teenage witches exploring their bodies and sex in general, she probably would let you have a look but at the more tamed picture. Mom… Honestly it’s a toss up. On one hand I can totally see her show you everything and be proud of it and do a lecture out of it. On the other hand… I can see her refusing on the principle that… it may not be the most appropriate thing? Talking is one thing after all but actual visuals are on a whole other level. No matter how much a slut she seems to be, she's still mindful of the effect it can have on us.”
“Your best bet is Nymphadora.” Susan cut in.
“You got that right!”
The four girls turned around to see Nymphadora stride into the room with a happy grin on her face. “I can also do more than show you.” She morphed herself into Lily, grabbing her huge tits and giving them a good squeeze while displaying her tongue suggestively.
“Can you not?!” Rose shouted in embarrassment.
“No please go on! And yes!”
Rose turned to her girlfriend in shock and outrage “Susan!”
“What?! Having a go with a MILF version of you? Like hell I’m turning that down.”
“I…” Rose didn’t know quite what to say to that. She was a carbon copy of her mother physically. Minus the curves. Hers were far smaller.
“And I’d like to have a taste of teenage Lily myself.” Nymphadora said, hugging Rose from the side, still in her Lily appearance and licking the inside of Rose’s ear. That made the teenage girl freeze.
“Only if I can watch!”
“Susan!” Rose protested.
To the side, Ginny and Alt-Hermione were looking at the scene with a different mindset. The former was a bit surprised but mostly interested in watching where this was going. The latter was horrified but also wondered if the reality the people they summoned from wasn’t just a porn version of her own.
“Two of you, Rose. Two!” Susan almost pleaded while taking her girlfriend’s hands in hers.
She was so sincere, and looked so hurt by the idea of not having two of her that Rose’s tone softened. “You’re nuts, Suzie.”
“Only when it’s about you and messing with Uncle.” Susan grinned and went to kiss Rose lovingly.
Nymphadora pulled away and turned back to her normal appearance. “You really are cute together. Really make me want to turn into Rick, drag you to my bedroom and…”
“That’d be incest!” Hermione pointed out.
“Hey! No kink shaming!” Nymie pointed her finger at Hermione with a frown. “Besides incest is only bad because of the stagnation and degradation of the DNA in the children. No children, no problem.”
Alt-Hermione opened her mouth to protest but her mind went over Nymphadora’s words. She couldn’t refute them. Sex between family members wasn’t the problem, it was mixing their DNA together which was.
“And also: I’m a Black. Sirius’ parents were first cousins. Rick, my mom and aunts are…” she calculated for a moment. “Twice removed? My grandfather and Rick are technically cousins so… Yes, twice removed.” she said with confidence. “And I’m thrice removed.”
“That is not rare.” Ginny pointed out. “Not common either. It’s rare for families and Houses to be so big that they go that route though.” She explained to Alt-Hermione who had turned to her with a shocked expression. “Not the first thing they go to either since a bigger family means more marriage and connections to other houses. But it happens.”
“There are negative effects regarding incest, true but only after repeated practice.” Nymphadora pointed and Alt-Hermione gave her a flat look.
“Bellatrix.”
“Is the result of repeated practice and… brainwashing. Grooming? If you look at her daughters, Vega or even at Atria you’ll see that they are magically very powerful for their age. Rick and Lily studied the results and consequences of incest and determined that one every fifth generation would in fact, strengthen the blood and the family magic. Less problems occurring down the line, pun intended. More? And it becomes diluted.”
Alt-Hermione’s mouth was opened but no words came out. It was Ginny who spoke up, curious about what she learned. “They really studied that?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised.” Rose let out a sigh.
Nymphadora nodded. “They did, yes. Although it wasn’t their focus. They were trying to determine the origin of muggleborns and their magic.”
“Oh!” Alt-Hermione’s brain was rebooted as she asked a question. “Did they find anything about it?”
It was Rose who answered her. “Yes. A muggleborn is either a descendant of a squib line or their DNA simply mutated naturally and are the first of their line. The latter is rarer.”
“What’s DNA?” Ginny asked, confused after hearing the word multiple times.
“Think of DNA like a tiny instruction book inside every part of you,” Rose started to explain. “It tells your body how to grow your hair, what color your eyes will be, even how tall you might get. You got half the pages from your mom, half from your dad — it’s like a recipe that only ever makes one thing: you.
But since you, like everyone else, are very complex, the book is very, very loaded with information and sometimes when a baby is created from pages from the mom and the dad there can be mistakes in the instructions which can have serious consequences like… physical malformations at birth or in case of the Blacks, you’re missing some screws up there. With me so far?”
Ginny nodded, having easily understood the explanation.
Rose went on. “What’s problematic is that the book has plenty of instructions but not all of them are used and of equal importance. Some are more dominant than others like hair or eye color. To give you an example: my dad’s parents’ hair color is black and dirty blonde. My mother’s are dark auburn and blond. I got the dirty blond from my dad and the dark auburn from mom but the latter ‘dominated’ so to speak the former in the instructions so I got my mom’s hair. The twins both got blond and it’s my dad’s color which prevailed. Veronica got our paternal’s black hair.”
“That’s a bit more complicated than that in truth but a fairly good explanation.” Hermione mused.
Rose nodded. “Yes. And that’s without magic involved. Normally, black hair dominates the other hair color instructions. No matter what you pair it with, it will always prevail. As such my dad should have had black hair. That he didn’t when grandmother instructions were both black hair is… magical. That Veronica got black hair could only be magical. Or Mom cheated on dad.”
Both Nymphadora and Susan snorted at the simple thought of that ever happening.
“Back to muggleborn now. In my mother’s case, she got a… ‘weak’ instruction on magic from both her parents which gave her a ‘strong’ instruction in the end, making her a witch. It helped that her parents were in fact both descendants of a squib line of House Gryffindor. In the case of a muggleborn without any magical ancestry…”
“The instruction was badly copied creating the instruction for magic. It’s pure luck.” Ginny cut Rose off, understanding where she was going.
“Yes.”
“That would imply that we could…” Alt-Hermione began but stopped.
“Make everyone magical if we could manipulate the DNA? Yes. But it’s very dangerous and do you really want the whole world able to do magic when the small group who already does is proving itself stupid and destructive in its use? In less than fifty years there have been no less than three racial wars.” Rose reminded her.
The alternate muggleborn witch winced along with her counterpart. “Not ideal, no.”
“Yes, it’s great but can we come back to talking about you, Nymphadora as your mom and me in a threesome?” Susan cut in, very eager to have that happen.
Rose gave her girlfriend a flat look. “Sometimes I wonder if you didn’t spend too much time with Aunt Bella.”
“Bella is probably having sex with uncle Rick and your mother right now! They know what’s important, them.” Susan protested with huff.
“Bella, no.”
“But Lily!”
“There is no ‘but Lily’. You leave Alt-Hermione alo—ahhn…Baby!” Lily’s protest melted into a breathless moan as Rick’s tongue pressed deeper, worshiping her with raw hunger. Her hips bucked instinctively, grinding down against his face, even as her hands shot out to grip Bella’s breasts.
Bella smirked at the timing, rocking herself in slow, deliberate movements on Rick’s cock. Straddling him cowgirl-style, she leaned forward, her face just inches from Lily’s, one hand kneading the redhead’s breasts. The contrast between Lily’s outrage and the desperate quiver in her voice only fueled Bella’s determination.
“Come on, Lily,” she purred between kisses along her friend’s throat. “She’s an adult. And once we leave, we’ll never see her again. What’s the harm in letting her loosen up?”
Lily’s body shuddered. The words landed in the cracks of her resistance, and Bella knew it. She pressed harder, switching her voice into a childish lilt, deliberately teasing the redhead’s weakness.
“Please? Please, please, please? With a kiss and cherry on top?”
Lily squeezed her eyes shut, caught between indignation and the relentless flood of pleasure Rick was dragging out of her. Bella’s lips trailed up to her ear, sucking lightly, and Lily’s body betrayed her with a sharp cry.
“F-f-fine! But—no games! Baby, more!” Her command dissolved into a desperate moan as she slammed her hips down, pushing Rick as deep into her asshole as she could.
“YES!” Bella’s triumphant scream rang out as she threw her head back and rode him with wild abandon, every motion matching Lily’s own frantic rhythm. Rick answered in kind, devouring Lily’s favorite spot with a ferocity that sent her spiraling.
The three of them broke apart only after the storm had passed, collapsing in a sweaty tangle of limbs. The room was filled with nothing but the sound of labored breaths, the heavy scent of sex clinging to the air. For a fleeting moment, it felt like peace.
Until Rick’s voice cut through it. Low, steady and resolute.
“I’m not sleeping with Hermione. No matter the reality.”
The finality in his tone left no room for argument. Lily exhaled in quiet relief, finally letting her body relax against him. Bella, though silent, kept her smile carefully neutral, her mind already spinning with schemes. She hadn’t gotten her way tonight, but she would. One way or another.
The next morning Rick spent time with Harry and Alt-Ron at the askance of the former. They went to the lord's office and secured it from eavesdropping.
“How did you know that… you loved m- Aunt Lilian,” Harry corrected “And how… did you… ask her out?”
Rick looked puzzled for an instant. “Never asked a girl out before?”
“I did. It just… didn’t really…”
“Stop being evasive, mate. You blew it with Cho and my sister.” Alt-Ron interjected with amusement, especially the last bit.
“Cho? Cho Chang?” Rick asked for confirmation. “Cute little asian?”
“That one, yeah.” Alt-Ron smirked while Harry sent him a glare.
Rick got to it immediately. “Okay first off. What happened with her? Let’s start with that.”
“Merlin, it was awkward. Like… We kissed once and she began to cry and… and…”
“Slow down, Harry. Being emotional right now will not help. Take a deep breath and spit facts.”
Harry did as instructed but Alt-Ron spoke instead. “Hermione thinks Cho cried because of Cedric.”
“Cedric?”
“Diggory, sir.” Alt-Ron answered.
“A bit more context, please?”
“Cedric was murdered by Pettigrew the night Voldemort came back. He was… A tri-wizard champion too. And he was dating Cho.” Harry explained with a grimace.
“I see.” Rick said simply. “She had questions about his death, was probably grieving and she was interested in you too and the mix of everything… She never asked you what truly happened with Cedric and you never talked about it to anyone, I gather?”
Harry simply shook his head as if trying to chase the painful memory away.
“No wonder you blew it.” Rick said but quickly added more. “So did she. Honestly, you, and I mean the both of you, started your relationship on very shaky and rocky ground. With Cedric’s ghost hanging around. You got together because of grief not love. Not like there wasn’t any necessarily but the relationship was doomed to fail to begin with because that was unhealthy.” He marked a pause to let that sink in for Harry. It took a moment for the young man to nod. “Do you still like her?”
“I… Well we had a falling out about her friend who sold us out to Umbridge.”
“She now has ‘sneak’ written in pimples on her face. Hermione is bloody brillant.” Alt-Rin grinned in amusement.
“Okay, first off. I hope it’s not permanent. Because one, that could be considered as assault and Hermione could be arrested for it.” Immediately Alt-Ron lost his smile and both he and Harry made very worried faces. “She needs to fix this.”
“But-”
“Yes,” Rick interrupted, raising a hand. “That young lady snitched which is bad but she doesn’t deserve to pay for it the rest of her life. She was what? Fifteen, sixteen? And Umbridge probably threatened her or her parents or a relative probably working at the ministry? Not everyone is hardcore loyal or invested in doing what’s right, like you two are. Don’t you think a permanent scarring is excessive? Do you think that’s alright to permanently disfigure someone for a mistake like this? What’s next? Are you going to cut someone’s tongue or make someone deaf, because you got caught doing something you shouldn’t have and that person reported to a teacher?”
“I… no.. but-”
“Harry. You have a permanent reminder on your hand of the kind of person who does that and what it leads to.” Rick firmly said with a non-nense tone.
Harry grabbed his right hand with his left, rubbing at the ‘I must tell no lies’ scar he got from writing so many times the lines with Umbridge’s blood quill.
“It’s not right, no.” he half said half whispered.
“Punishing someone, either revenge or justice, must be measured. The point of a punishment is to teach someone that what they did was wrong but it must be adequate. Too little they don’t learn. Too much and it’s not about making them realize they did wrong and make them feel guilty. It’s about you having your rocks off of someone’s pain and misery.
That’s the kind of thing Voldemort and your Bellatrix and probably all the rest of their fucked up merry band are into. That’s what you end up as a person. You complained about your father being a bully Harry but you’re doing the same. James didn’t just bully someone out of the blue. He inflicted punishment. At first it was inoffensive and a bit embarrassing pranks but over time it became something like what happened to that young woman. James did it for the laugh at first but at the core he was feeling vindictive. Just like you both are now. Think about that. The both of you.”
Alt-Ron and Harry exchanged guilty looks and had a silent conversation.
“We’ll speak with Hermione. You’re right it wasn’t…”
“Right.” Harry finished his friend’s sentence.
“Keep in mind that when you go for revenge, you always dig two graves. Your target and yours, because you will always twist or lose a part of yourself in it. Now, there is nothing wrong about retribution but it’s more important to learn to let go of things. Forgiveness is not about… well… forgiving and not forgetting. Forgiveness is about freeing yourself from the influence of the person who hurt you. Do you understand what I mean?”
“That…” Harry began. He was frowning in reflection. “As long as I plan to pay back, those people are always on my mind and in a way… Have a continuous impact on me and my life?”
“Exactly. You forgive but not for them, but for you and your peace of mind. Now being Lily’s son I don’t think that will come to you easily,” Rick teased. “She has the same problem. But she agreed it was worth it. I mean, why have someone you don’t like have an impact on your life when you can have someone else that you like having one?”
“That’s stupid.” Alt-Ron chimed in.
“Exactly. Now, regarding Cho. I would advise you to write her a letter. Where you apologize for being an idiot and not understanding that she too was in pain from Cedric’s loss. If you feel like you’re ready to talk about that event, tell her, she needs closure too. If you’re not, then try simply sharing in writing what happened in the letter. If you can’t do that too, and there is nothing wrong with that, Harry, “ Rick insisted on that part. “Then be honest about the fact you just can't speak about it and tell her that his murderer had been caught and would face justice soon.”
“I… I can do that. I mean… I’m not ready to talk about it but… Writing it… yeah I think I can.”
“Good. Now, if you still have feelings for her… Ask at the end of your letter if it’s alright for you to write to her more regularly. Now what about Ginny?”
“Yeah, what about my sister, mate?” Alt-Ron had turned to Harry with an obviously fake scowl.
“I like her. She’s a great gal but… She still has a bit of hero worship towards me and… I don’t know… it didn’t feel wrong when we kissed but… it didn’t feel right either. She’s… a great friend. And… I just didn’t like seeing her with Dean. Like… He’s a good bloke but she deserved better.”
Seeing that Harry was beginning to mumble, Rick intervened. “Then it’s fine. The way I see it, you see her more like a very close friend or perhaps a little sister or family member.”
Harry blinked a few times. “That would make sense. I mean…, Ron you're my brother in everything but blood and your mom and dad… they’re like my parental figures and the twins are like the annoying but cool older brothers I never had. So I guess… seeing Ginny as my little sister is not far fetched.”
Alt Ron grinned and slapped Harry’s shoulders like a brother would. “I get it, mate. Too bad for Ginny though.”
“She’s young, beautiful and smart. I don’t think she will ever have a problem finding a good bloke to make her happy.” Rick cut in in a teasing tone. “Keeping him when she has seven protective older brothers, one of them being Harry bloody Potter, that’s another story entirely.”
The joke was successful and the two young men laughed at the image.
“Better be careful because she won’t hesitate to curse us to hell.” Alt-Ron joked too.
Harry nodded quickly. “Yeah. Her bat-booey hex is terrifying.”
“Redhead women. The best and worst thing the world has ever seen. They make you unable to live without them and absolutely terrify you when you pissed them off.” Rick confessed. “Anyway, now we’ve dealt with why your previous relationships failed. Time to attack the questions you asked me in the first place, Harry.” He gathered his thoughts and spoke up. “I knew I was in love with Lily when… I realized I craved her touch.”
““Sir?”” the boys asked in confusion as Rick’s eyes seemed to have gone far away into a memory.
“I…For the first fifteen years of my life I grew up in a muggle orphanage.” Rick confessed.
“But… I thought… Weren’t you…” Harry was confused.
So was Ron. “That makes no sense, sir.”
“I’m a powerful wizard, boys. Powerful enough that when I was six months old I apparate to St James park from Potter Manor around 40 km away. I was found there by the bobbies who believed I had been abandoned then brought to an orphanage. My parents spent years trying to find me to no avail. That’s another story though.
What I’m getting at is… growing up, with my bouts of accidental magic in a muggle orphanage… I was ostracized. Badly. It was only when I started Hogwarts that I made friends. Lily… She was. She was the very first person who hugged me. It felt uncomfortable. Very. Because I wasn’t used to human contact. It felt nice though. Then one day I realized… That I wanted Lily to hug me all the time. That I wanted to be by her side all the time too. Even if we didn’t talk or did anything together. Just being there, near her.
I knew I had a crush then. Love? It grew from a simple like. As time passed I just… the way her hair shone in the sun, the way she chewed on a lock of hair, the way she smiled, or got mad, or laughed. Simple things. Stupid things that I never noticed on anyone else. Just her. She wasn’t the only redhead, she wasn’t the only girl munching on her hair while in deep thought yet I noticed her and her alone. When she talked about a spell, an equation or magic in general I found her absolutely brilliant. And that made me happy. That’s how I knew I loved her.”
The boys listened attentively in silence. Learning.
“It’s silly, really.” Rick shook his head. “But love is. Among many other things. So, Harry, how do you know you’re in love? You notice what’s normally insignificant and you watch and you could do it all day everyday and nothing else would be as important or as beautiful or as worth it.”
“That’s… I expected, heart beating faster or things like that.” Harry confessed.
“A heart beating fast or butterflies in the stomach are a physical answer to a stimulus. It’s not necessarily love. I feel exactly like that every time I’m on my broom up in the air. Anyone that gives you that answer… Well, either they don’t know what love truly is or they never experienced it. A better answer in that vein would be… When they look at their worst you still find them the most beautiful thing in the world.”
“Their worst? Like what?” Alt-Ron wondered.
“Birthing bed. When Lily gave birth to Rose… she looked like a mess. She had spent hours delivering her and she looked awful. Eye-liner ruined from tears and sweat. Her hair completely messed up and matted to her face. She looked tired as hell. She was… ugly like anyone would after a painful and continuous physical effort. And yet… When I looked at her. I saw nothing but the most beautiful woman in the world. So beautiful that this memory of her? It’s the one I use for my philo for her. That, is a sure way to know you love someone.” Rick.
“That’s… very deep, sir.” Alt-Ron commented.
“Well, that’s true love for you. Now how did I ask Lily out? I technically didn’t? She was the one who… well she didn’t ask, she just turned me around and kissed me.” he looked at the window, remembering the moment. “That said I did ask Bella out, so I’m not that ignorant about this. First and foremost, don’t go all serious like: ‘I’m going to ask her out because I love her and want her to be my girlfriend.’ That’s kind of skipping steps. Ask her if she just… wants to hang around, you know… as friends. Show that you like spending time with her without necessarily being for romantic reasons.
Keep in mind she may not feel the same way you do yet if at all. Let’s say she likes books? Find something related to it, like visiting a new book shop that has opened and you learned about. Since you know she likes books you thought she would be interested. It’s all about sharing a good time above all and not about getting your dick wet. Now after that? Whether you reach your objective or not, that’s up in the air but really asking someone out is not difficult.
It’s your mindset and how you approach asking her that is important. If you think about having a good time then you’ll see it will be easier to ask her out, because you don’t put pressure on yourself. That is if you have feelings for her. If you just want a good shag then you better ask Sirius. He’s way more knowledgeable about that than I am.”
The truth was amusing enough to get a round of chuckles.
Rick asked Harry. “Now, who’s the lucky lady you have your eye on?”
“Well… Cho, even though well… Otherwise Luna Lovegood.”
“Blimey! Mate? Luna? Of all people?”
“And what’s that supposed to mean, Ron?” Harry answered with a bit of bite and Alt-ron raised his hands defensively.
“Nothing, Harry. It’s just… well… She’s not all there. What’s with those creatures and all she’s talking about? A bit barmy.”
“They’re real, you know?” Rick interjected. He didn’t like people speaking of Luna that way. He loved the girl.
“They are?!” the two friends exclaim in shock.
“Yes. You need to be a powerful seer to see them. With my sensitivity to magic, if I focus immensely I can feel them too but it’s… hazy at best.”
““Luna is a seer?””
“I know that my Luna from my world is for sure. Yours seems to be too. Oh, and keep quiet about it please. Seers are rare and many people with no scruples try to abuse their gifts. As for the reason she’s not all there, well again I’m not sure, since I’ve never met your Luna, but mine can see the present, past and future.”
“Blimey! Is that why she’s always saying things that make no sense?” Alt-Ron interjected.
“Yes. It makes sense to her because she sees differently. Although it’s not like she’s doing it on purpose, the images just come to her in truth. The incoherence of what she says often results, most of the time, from the dissociative futures she perceives or times.”
“How come the future be…” Harry was lost.
To Rick’s surprise it was Alt-ron who answered. “Because she doesn’t see the future Harry. She sees a future. Or more. Probably more and that’s why she’s confused. Gosh now that I know she’s a seer… I guess I owe her an apology for thinking she was barmy.” the redhead said guiltily.
Harry was still confused. “What do you mean a future? There are more than one?”
“There is an infinity, Harry. I would advise you to read my textbook on divination. I’m surprised you read that far, Ron.”
“Hermione made me read the first chapter.” The boy shrugged his shoulders . “It was easy to understand, it made sense and well… It was interesting so I read a bit more here and there when I had nothing better to do.”
Harry was gobsmacked by what he just heard. His friend: Ronald Lazy-ass Billius Weasley had read a textbook in his free time and on his free will.
Alt-Ron noticed the look on his best friend’s face. “Yeah, me too, mate. But it’s really an interesting read. I guess I spent too much time with Hermione.”
“I’d like to believe it’s because I’m that good a teacher and writer.” Rick had a smug smirk on his lips.
Alt-Ron, smirked back. “That’s true.”
“Now, my Luna absolutely loves creatures. Magical or not. And from your expression I’d say yours do too. Perhaps you could invite her to spend some time at the manor, you know… to celebrate the end of the war, and introduce her to my textbook? It’s very detailed with plenty of anecdotes that only someone who truly studied creatures knows about. Now, I say my textbook but I got lots of help from Hagrid and Newt Scamander whom Albus was very kind and helpful to introduce me to.”
“That could work. I mean… I’m not that into creatures or animals in general but I like them. And while Hagrid’s classes have always been… dangerous, I always learned a lot and was glad to be there.” Harry said with hope in his voice.
“There you go. Why don’t you bring her to a muggle zoo or simply show her your philo? A penguin is quite an exotic creature. Of course don’t make it with her in mind.”
“I won’t. I’m not ready to forget what Tonks did to Remus. It may have ended well but… It was wrong of her to do it.” Harry agreed.
“Now, if you want to know more about how to prepare a date and make it enjoyable for the girl you’re going with, I’d advise you to ask a girl. A woman knows better what a woman wants than a man.”
With that said, Rick stood up and undid the privacy spells on the office. Harry and Alt-Ron didn’t step out of the room after Rick left and instead talked about what they just learned. When they got down to the living room, they saw Rick sitting face to face with Lily. He had an elbow on the table and rested his head on a raised hand. Lily had a lock of her hair between her lips and was playing with it while she was thinking of something to write on the parchment in front of her. ‘Probably something magical’ the boys thought.
“What are you two doing, smiling like two idiots and blocking the way?” Alt-Hermione came from behind them.
The boys exchanged a glance and grinned but said nothing and instead went back to look at the scene before their eyes.
““Nothing.””
With a huff, Alt-Hermione squeezed herself between the two to get inside the living room.
“Profe- I mean Mister Potter. I have a question about the combination of runes for a magical circle.” She waited for a moment and got no answer.
Rick’s entire focus was on Lily. When another lock of her red hair broke free and fell over her eye and nose, he silently extended his hand and delicately put it behind her ear. She gave him a thankful smile and a wink and went back to her parchment while he simply gave her a loving smile and went back to look at her.
“Profe-”
Alt-Ron put his hand over her mouth to make her stop talking. Harry walked in front of her and shook his head. He hushed her and grabbed one of her arms while Alt-Ron released her mouth and grabbed the other.
“What…”
““Shh.””
Alt-Hermione closed her mouth and stayed silent as she was dragged away by her best friends. Only once they were far away did they let her go.
“What was that?!” she asked, furious.
“They were having a lovey dovey moment.” Harry said.
Alt-Ron had something to say too. “And you almost ruined it. Though I’m pretty sure, Professor Potter wouldn’t have heard you anyway.”
Alt-Hermione’s eyes widened in confusion.
“You know, mate, hearing about it and actually seeing it… Quite a bit of difference.” Alt-Ron spoke to Harry.
“Yeah. But you know… It was… kind of nice to witness. Like… I felt giddy? Or just happy I guess. For them.”
“I know what you mean. Who knew you could feel like that from this?”
She couldn’t understand. “From what?! What’s going on? What are you two talking about?!”
““We’re talking about true love.”” they answered in a blasé and flat tone and at the same time. That completely short-circuited Hermione’s brain.
“Ron, I’m going to read that textbook on CoMC. Do you mind reading and telling me about seers?” Harry asked.
His friend shrugged his shoulders. “Not really. It’s an easy read so it’s fine. Besides, it's to get you a good date. Of course I’d help.”
As the boys departed, Alt-Hermione looked at their back wondering what just happened in an expression of total and utter shock.
‘Ronald Billius Weasley being sensitive in helping his friend getting a date and reading a book for it? Harry James Potter actually eager to ask a girl out? WHAT THE HELL?!’
Forgetting her question she had for Rick, she went after her friends to get answers to questions she wasn’t prepared for today.