A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next FIVE chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!
The best laid plans…
-x-X-x-
After a long moment of thought, Amelia grimaces and leans back in her chair.
"Sit."
Penelope does as she's told, sitting primly in the chair across the desk from her. Feeling the weight of her position more than usual, Amelia bites her lower lip.
"… My first instinct is to send an order to the Head Auror to muster up some of her girls and hunt down this 'Lord Hallows' so he can be put into protective custody. Talk me out of it Penny. Please."
The muggleborn witch doesn't hesitate.
"It's certainly the heavier handed option, Minister. You don't just risk alienating Lord Hallows, but you also risk upsetting the Wizengamot for 'arresting' a theoretical member of their body without cause. Not to mention that whatever has been killing wizards off all these years may not know of Lord Hallows' existence just yet… if it does have an intelligence to it, as the Department of Mysteries has speculated."
Amelia frowns, slowly nodding along with each of Penelope's points. This was why the younger witch was her Senior Undersecretary. Amelia… was never meant to be Minister of Magic. She wasn't cut out for 'civilian' leadership. No, she was an excellent Auror, an excellent Head Auror, and a decent enough Director of the DMLE, but as Minister… well, all of her instincts told her to stun first and ask questions later.
But Penelope is right, as usual in situations like this. If Amelia sends in the Aurors wands blazing, she's only going to blow up this powder keg of a situation.
"Thank you Penny. As usual, your insights are invaluable."
Penelope just shrugs.
"You would have gotten there yourself eventually, Minister. You're not nearly as prone to hasty action as you like to think you are."
'Not anymore at least' lies unsaid in the air between them. Amelia nevertheless gives her right hand woman a grateful smile. Then, she focuses back on the matter at hand.
"Still… that leaves what is to be done about this. Do we just… send an owl and hope for the best?"
Frowning, Penelope has to think about this question a bit longer. Finally though, she shakes her head.
"No, Minister. Owl mail can be intercepted, after all. Not to mention, if Lord Hallows is anything like your average Pureblood Wizard Lord, he might be offended by such a… mundane way of communication. Ah, no offense to you of course, Minister."
As a Pureblood Witch and even a Lady of her own House, Amelia just chuckles and shakes her head.
"None taken. I know exactly what you mean."
Indeed, if Lord Hallows was prone to being difficult or egotistical or arrogant, then she could see how a simple Ministry Owl would either be taken as an insult or even just be ignored entirely.
"No… if you wish to open a proper line of communication, I suggest sending someone in person, Minister. Someone who can speak with your voice and who you trust implicitly."
She says it so simply and in any other circumstances with any other witch, Amelia might have assumed that Penelope was on the verge of offering herself for the job. Perhaps out of some sense of ambition or greed. However… Amelia knows her Senior Undersecretary better than that. Penelope isn't talking about herself at all, at least knowingly. Even though she's literally just described herself in detail.
Smirking now, Amelia just nods along some more.
"That sounds like a good idea, Penny. Then it's settled and we're in agreement. You will be taking a message from me to this Lord Hallows so we can arrange a proper meeting regarding his safety as well as his plans for coming to the British Isles in the first place."
Much to Amelia's amusement, Penelope's jaw drops open in disbelief, just as she knew it would. Then, the muggleborn witch begins to blush and stammer.
"W-What? Me, Minister Bones? S-Surely not! There has to be someone else better for such an important task!"
Even now, even after all these years, even when they'd developed a rapport so strong that Penelope could tell her when she was being foolish… the younger witch still put so little stock in herself at times. It wasn't a matter of confidence, but rather a soul-deep certainty that she was just… unworthy in some ways. Amelia had done her best to try and waylay that certainty, but her best hadn't been good enough.
"Yes Penny. You. There's no one else I trust more, and no one else who can speak with my voice in the same way you can. And even if we did delegate this task to one of your subordinates… you said it yourself, the fewer people who know about Lord Hallows, the better. I doubt you're the one who's been secretly going around and killing off hundreds of wizards these past several years, and I know I'm not… so in the end, you're the only witch for the job."
Penelope had probably been about to protest there for a second… before Amelia basically throws one of her own excuses back in her face. The younger witch's mouth clicks shut then and she goes redder still. Before finally, letting out a huff.
"… You're forgetting my blood status, Minister. Sending a muggleborn witch to meet with a Pureblood Wizard Lord might just turn out to be as much of an insult as sending a simple Ministry Owl…"
That… Amelia frowns, her eyes flashing as her lips thin out into a line.
"Well then we'll learn just what sort of man we're dealing with, won't we? If your blood status turns out to be an insult… then maybe Lord Hallows isn't worth our protection anyways."
Penelope gasps in disbelief.
"Minister!"
And truth be told, Amelia knows where she's coming from. Technically every living wizard is worth their weight in gold at this point. More than that, really. The British Wizarding World is on the cusp of dying off entirely after years of death and the loss of so many male magic users. Pulling it back from the brink at this point feels all but impossible, but it becomes ever so slightly more plausible with even one wizard if they can just keep him alive longer than a week.
At the same time though, Amelia doesn't take back her words. She means what she says and she's said what she means.
"Let's get that message written up so that you can deliver it, Penelope. Time, as we both know, is not on our side."
"… Yes Minister Bones."
-x-X-x-
Fleur had started off doing as Lord Hallows, or rather Harry, had suggested. She'd gone and had an extremely luxurious bath, first and foremost. Then, she'd gone to check out the private library just to see what sort of books it might have had. But ultimately, she hadn't found much to interest her there. She'd always been studious, but not much of a reader.
Eventually, Fleur had decided that she wanted to find Harry again. Sure, she hadn't taken the entire day (she hadn't even taken a couple of hours really) but she didn't need it to know that she was going to accept Harry's offer of employment, no matter what. She owed him too much for anything less and even Fleur's magic hummed around her.
She could have sworn him a life debt at any time with the magical arrears that existed between them now. But… she got the impression that Harry might not appreciate that, so she had refrained for the time being.
And besides, it wasn't like she was particularly eager to jump into a life of servitude after just escaping the goblins. So if she could pay him back by accepting gainful employment under him and prove herself the absolute best personal assistant he'd ever had… then that's what Fleur preferred.
Still, part of her is nevertheless a little embarrassed to be seeking him out so early in the day he'd given her to think things over. Which is why, ultimately, Fleur had not asked the floating light orb bobbing along beside her to bring her to Harry. Instead, she'd decided she was going to go and search him out herself, figuring that it might take her a bit longer to wander through the mansion hunting him down.
As a result of this decision, when Fleur finally locates Harry… it's because of a heartfelt groan that stops her dead in her tracks. A moment later, his voice echoes out of the open door in front of her and into the hall.
"Fuck, Death… you're ridiculous, you know that?"
"Mm, but you love it Master. Don't act like you don't~"
She shouldn't. Fleur knows she shouldn't. And yet… she creeps closer all the same, face already pink as she peeks in through the crack in the open door to the room beyond. What she sees turns that pink in her cheeks into full blown rose red as Fleur blushes hard.
There, in the room, Harry is sitting down on a couch… and his familiar Dee has dropped to her knees before him, pulling down her gorgeous black dress to expose her large, pale tits. Fleur gulps at the sight of Dee's breasts… especially given that they're currently wrapped around Harry's throbbing cock.
He's big, that's one of Fleur's first thoughts. Big enough that at full mast he's poking a few inches out of the top of Dee's cleavage. The familiar doesn't seem to mind though, cooing over his dick and moaning happily as she slides her sizable chest up and down his shaft.
For his part, Harry looks an interesting mix of amused, exasperated… and aroused. Huffing out a laugh, he shakes his head at his familiar.
"You know Fleur could come back at any second, right? And yet here you are, unable to hold yourself back."
"Mm… only because my Master has been so mean to me since our arrival. You've been ignoring me…"
"It's literally been a day, Death. And you're the one who chose to wear a married woman's likeness. I can't help but feel a little bit like I'm betraying my friendship with Gomez right now, you know…"
Fleur doesn't understand everything Harry is saying. She also doesn't understand why he keeps referring to his familiar as 'Death'. Perhaps that's just the familiar's full name. Though, it does explain why the familiar has taken on the form of an extremely beautiful human witch. Fleur had been wondering about that, but it makes sense if the body that Harry's familiar is wearing isn't her own.
"Oh, don't be like that, Master. Gomez is long gone and you know full well that I'm not Morticia. You can do whatever you like to me~"
Punctuating that statement, Dee leans down and wraps her dark, pillowy lips around Harry's cockhead, smiling up at him as she escalates from just a titjob to a dual blowjob-titjob combo. Fleur's blush only increases at the debauchery, her body growing hotter by the second as she continues to spy on them.
"Right. And then in the throes of passion, Fleur comes back and catches me ball's deep in my 'familiar'. What will she think of me then, hm?"
Probably that he would look damned good doing it, Fleur absently thinks to herself even as her hands have already started to… wander. She knows she shouldn't. She knows she's being… naughty. But damn it all, she hasn't so much as masturbated in over seven years, let alone been to bed with a man. Her 'cell' at Gringotts was no place to invoke amorous feelings of arousal, that was for sure.
Pulling back off of his cock with a pop, Dee just giggles.
"Isn't that why you gave her that Guiding Light of yours? Whenever she asks it to take her somewhere, you get alerted don't you? That's how you're keeping tabs on her."
Fleur's eyes widen as Harry just grunts in response, not denying it. She looks over at the little light orb bobbing in the air next to her and bites her lower lip. Well… at least it didn't seem to be outright surveilling her. Otherwise, there's no way that Harry wouldn't have already called her out for spying on them.
In the room beyond, Harry just shakes his head.
"Right, and if I'm too busy fucking you to notice, if I let you distract me beyond just this much, then she still might walk in on us. So go ahead and blow me if you want Death, but no more than that for now."
Dee pouts mightily at this, but nevertheless takes him up on his offer, descending back down to continue sucking the first few inches of his sizable member while sliding her huge pale breasts up and down the rest of his throbbing shaft. Fleur bites her lower lip even harder, shuddering as her own fingers circle her slit under her clothes.
Fuck. Part of her wanted to just reveal herself and see what Harry would do with that. Maybe he'd fuck Dee right in front of her? That'd be hot. Or maybe he wouldn't be amused. That would be bad.
On the other hand… she could wait for him to finish with Dee, then seek him out and proposition him herself…
On the third hand, maybe it would be best to just enjoy the show for now. Keep things professional until she has guaranteed employment and THEN see what sort of boundaries she can get away with pushing in the future~
Ugh, actually having her own choices, while amazing, was also so damn hard!
-x-X-x-
The Vote:
[X] Fleur decides to reveal herself so Dee gets properly fucked - 73%
[ ] Fleur stays hidden so she can proposition Harry alone a bit later - 15%
[ ] Fleur stays hidden and decides to take things slow for the time being - 11%
-x-X-x-
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