In Pursuit of the Unknown Power

Harry stopped at the third floor to check on Ron. He headed down the hall and past Sirius' Room; he was not quite ready to face that yet. When he reached the end of the hall he found both suites open. Mentally flipping a coin he chose the door on the left. He knocked as he entered and found Molly arguing with Dobby. "I don't care who you work for, I can take care of my own things and I can take care of my family, thank you very much." They were currently playing tug-o-war with what looked like one of Arthur's socks.

"Is there a problem Mrs. Er Molly?" Harry asked tentatively. Dobby let go of the sock and rushed to him and began babbling.

"I is sorry Harry sir but she is not letting Dobby and Winky be putting away anything. And she says we is not to be cleaning her room or making dinner. Please make her stop Harry sir!" The little elf plead with him.

"Molly?" Harry said looking for her side of the story. She looked rather flushed as she replied.

"That thing is trying to do my job for me, I can take care of my family without any help!" She said. Harry nodded and thought hard to find a compromise.

"Dobby, if Mrs. Weasley wants to put her own things away you will let her, please to not force anyone to allow you to work for them. I will not be angry with either of you." He turned to the smug looking woman in the middle of the room. "Molly, Dobby and Winky are in my employ and they have jobs to do. As my guest please accept my hospitality. Dobby and Winky will do the Laundry and the Cooking. You may put the clean laundry away, you can try to get them to let you help with the dishes but I have a feeling they will kick us all out of the kitchen if we try to help. It's their nature just as it is yours to take care of others. Please try to compromise." His eyes were pleading with her.

After a moment she relented. "Dobby would it be ok with you if I make dinner on Sundays?" She asked. Dobby seemed about to argue but Harry looked at him and he backed down.

"I will try to tells Winky but she will not be liking it!" He said.

"You can tell her I said that was fine Dobby. She can take it up with me if she has a problem." Harry said.

Dobby nodded and replied. "But if you is making Dinner we will be cleaning the dishes and the kitchen after you is done!" He stated forcefully. Harry laughed at the situation. Only in his house would the house elves order the guests around. Apparently his laughter broke the tension in the room and soon Molly was laughing along with him.

"Thank you for clearing that up Harry, did you need something?" She asked.

"Actually I knew Ron took one of these suites and you and Arthur were taking the other. I just picked the wrong one, but it seems to be a good thing." He said and she nodded her agreement. With a smile she pointed across the hallway. "I believe he is in there now, so you and the girls will be staying on the floor above us?" She asked suddenly pensive.

"I took the top two floors for myself and my guests. I offered to have Ron stay in my suite upstairs but he wanted a little space. The girls fell in love with the bathroom and decided to share the Ladies suite. I assure you there is no funny business involved, they just happen to be the nicest rooms in the place." Harry said.

Still she was a bit apprehensive, but reminded herself that Harry was now an adult, and both girls would be soon as well. She trusted them for nine months away at Hogwarts she supposed if relationships formed and things happened at this point she would just have to advise them all to be careful. She didn't like the idea of her little girl having sex, but knew it was inevitable. Putting on a brave face she nodded. "I am trusting you with my little girl Harry. I don't need to know what is going on between any of you four since you will all be adults in the eyes of the law soon, and you have all shown remarkable maturity for your age. Just be careful." She finished.

Harry was floored. He tried to stammer out that he would never think of her daughter or Hermione that way but couldn't lie to her when she had just told him she trusted him. Instead he went with the safest option. "There is nothing going on between any of the four of us right now, that may change or it may not, but I promise we will be careful no matter what the situation." Harry mentally patted himself on the back. He had told her the truth without saying too much, and he thought he might have reassured her as well if the look on her face was an indicator. "I will just go check on Ron now. You might want to head down to the kitchen soon before Winky starts on Dinner. I don't know what supplies we have or need and the elves haven't been authorized access to my vaults yet." He added.

"I brought the supplies from the Burrow for a week of meals not knowing you had hired them. Thank you for the heads up though, you're probably right. I can just see her trying to find away around your order by saying I was neglecting you." With that she left the room and headed for the stairs at the other end of the Hallway. He wondered briefly if he should remind her of the hidden staircase but decided she would remember eventually.

Heading across the hall he knocked again and walked into find Ron lying on his bed. He had already put a Canons poster up on the wall above the bed. "Hey mate." He said.

Ron sat up suddenly and turned to hang his legs over the edge of the bed. "Sorry if I am taking too long Harry, it's just a really comfortable bed and I got lost in my thoughts. You done yet with the lesson?"

"Didn't really get started, Hermione is doing an overview on the meditation techniques. I gave her an overview of how I taught myself; actually you should have seen Hermione's face. Apparently I taught her something that I didn't learn from a book." He said, smiling along with his friend.

"That's brilliant Harry, but what could you teach her" He asked.

"I learned a lot from the book, but I threw in all my experiences and a few guesses at things that made sense to me. Hermione seemed floored and Ginny was gaping like a fish out of water. I actually was just downstairs having Dumbledore check out my shields. You won't believe what happened." He said with a grin, Ron threw him a look that said 'Well Come On!' so he told him the story and they both laughed. "I think I gave him a migraine!" They both had tears in their eyes and were having trouble breathing. As they settled back down Harry asked. "Are you sure you don't want to learn Occlumency with Ginny?" Ron nodded.

"I will follow you, I will help you, but after the Ministry I kind of decided I wanted to live life a little more you know?" He looked to Harry for understanding holding his arms up to show the faint scars. Harry did understand to a point. He wanted to live as if he was a normal fifteen year old, date girls and have his biggest worry be what his girlfriend would let him touch and when the next Quidditch match was.

"I understand, but I don't get to do that until Snakelips is gone. I am going to do my damndest to live my life without him affecting me, but there are just some things I have to do. I appreciate you saying you will be there for me, I just hope that not knowing everything doesn't affect our friendship." Harry said.

"Harry you're like a brother to me, my dad said how we all feel, you are a member of the Weasley family in all but blood. I just don't think I want to go through all the trouble to learn a secret that even you admit has already been leaked to the press. The prophecy said you have to be the one to kill him, that's good enough for me." He finished.

"Alright mate. I am going to offer the same choice to Neville and Luna. I think you deserve to know what we we're fighting for. But I won't force you." Harry said. "I'm gonna head back upstairs. Feel free to come up whenever you're ready but it's going to be pretty boring watching Ginny learn to breath properly if you aren't learning as well. If you want you can design a training area to replace the sitting room on the first half of the top floor." Ron's eyes lit up at this idea and Harry smiled. Glad he could still make his friend feel useful.

"Thanks Harry, that sounds brilliant! I'll get to work on it right away. If I don't see you before I will see you at dinner in a couple of hours." Harry nodded and got up. He waved as he walked out the door but Ron was already at the desk drawing a rough draft of the current floor plan. Remembering his mention of Hermione in the letter he asked, "Did you ask Hermione like you said you were going to?"

Ron went very still and his ears turned bright red. "Uh, I haven't really gotten the chance you know? I'll do it before school starts though." He said softly.

"All right mate, but don't put it off too long, if I am noticing she is a catch, then some other idiot might swoop in and ask her out before you get a chance." He said the last as he was walking out the door.

He turned right and opened the secret door and headed up the stairs. At the top he turned and knocked on the girl's door before entering. He quickly turned around and stammered out an apology.

Both girls were sitting in the middle of the floor in just knickers and bra with their eyes closed and breathing deeply. Hermione opened an eye and whispered so as not to disturb the other girl. "Harry you can turn around, Ginny and I are dressed like this because I found it was easier to fall into a trance with as little clothing as possible. We knew you were coming back up so we didn't get completely nude." She said softly, when he still didn't turn around she got up quietly and walked over to him. She placed a hand on his shoulder and turned him slowly toward her.

"Harry please open your eyes? Honestly I showed more skin at the beach this summer, and I am sure Ginny owns a swim costume that shows just as much if not more skin. Harry opened his eyes slowly but did not let them wander below her chin. She reached up and grasped his chin and pulled it down forcing his gaze lower. "It's ok to look Harry, besides don't you want to see my scar?" He looked up to her eyes before looking at her shoulder. He leaned in closer when he could not see the scar in the candlelight. Forgetting for a moment what he was doing he touched a finger to the faint line that marred her otherwise smooth tan skin. He traced the line down across her breast skipping over her bra, across her stomach and down to her hip. As his finger touched the material of her knickers he suddenly jumped back and quietly stammered an apology. Meanwhile Hermione opened her eyes and let out a breath she had been holding.

She put a finger to his lips and pointed at Ginny. "Don't disturb her, she picked up the meditation rather quickly, and after your explanation I think she is already sorting her thoughts. Harry why did you jump away? I thought the scar was mostly gone but if it disgusts you so, maybe I should get Madame Pomfrey to take another look at it." She stammered out.

Quickly Harry pulled her into a hug to reassure her, ignoring what she was doing to his body. "Hermione I have always thought you were beautiful. That scar is barely visible and doesn't change what I think about you at all. I jumped away because I was ashamed. I just touched in places and things on you without your permission. You're my best friend and I don't want to change that because I got stupid." He said. He felt more than heard her sigh against his shoulder.

"Its ok Harry, you didn't do anything wrong. We are still best friends and nothing is going to change that. However if Ron walked in here right now I don't think he would be too happy with us. Or Ginny for that matter. Maybe you should come all the way in and we can lock the door." She finished. He nodded and followed her back into the room, trying to keep his eyes off of her. She walked into the closet, which unfortunately left him to look down at Ginny instead.

His fifteen-year-old mind went into overdrive and he found himself comparing them. Hermione was in good physical shape but was soft and round in all the right places. Ginny was more athletic and thus lacked some of the curves and he wondered if she would feel as hard to his touch as she looked. Not that it was a bad thing. She looked just as holdable as his best friend did, just more toned. Her breasts were larger than Hermione's as well which surprised him. Though they might be about the same size and they just looked bigger on her smaller frame. A stray lock of hair was hanging in her face and he longed to brush it behind her ear. But he stopped himself and found a safe spot on the wall to stare at as he sat down on the bed.

Hermione returned from the closet in a sheer nightgown. It covered everything but left hardly anything to the imagination. He idly wondered if she was trying to kill him but decided it was better than nothing, or rather just her underwear, not that he didn't want to see her in nothing. He mentally slapped himself to stop that train of thought, 'Ron gets a shot first, I can have my pick of half the girls at Hogwarts if he is to be believed'. She sat down on the bed beside him. "I talked her through the steps and she took to it like a natural. You really surprised me earlier with your insight." She whispered in his ear. He decided she was definitely attempting to kill him.

"I talked to Dumbledore and had him try a surprise attack on my shields. He left with a Migraine and complimented me on my work. He said I was apparently a natural Occlumens. At which point I showed him all my memories of Snape's lessons as well as a few choice memories from my Hogwarts years." He said trying to keep his mind off of the two practically naked women in the room with him.

"What do you mean showed him?" She asked.

"The first time he ran straight into my shields and left immediately with a headache. I asked him to try again to actually look at what I had done. When he was examining my shields the second time I concentrated and watched him do it. He was sort of a ghost of himself or something. After talking about the material I used to shield my construct, he asked if he could see what I had done inside the shield. I took him inside and explained some of my reasoning. I commented on Snape's teaching skills and when he tried to leave he got stuck and couldn't leave without my permission. So before I let him go I sort of flooded him with memories. Then I returned both of us to our bodies. I could have sworn we were at it for over an hour but when I came to only seconds had passed. I suppose it was the speed of thought that made it seem that way." He shrugged. Hermione meanwhile was looking awed again.

"Harry the book I gave you was not the only one I have read. What you just described should not be possible, and especially not after only a week of practice!" She exclaimed softly.

He shrugged again before answering. "I'm a natural I guess. It probably helped that I was getting a little delusional at the point I got that letter from you; I stopped listening to the rules about the real world and decided that since I was the master of my own mindspace, that I could do anything I wanted inside. I sort of got the idea from the Wandless book you sent, even though I haven't gotten any of it to work for me out here," He gestured to the room. "I can do anything I want in here." He tapped his temple with a finger.

She looked stunned and finally managed to stammer out a nearly coherent sentence. Harry just looked at her funny and she took a breath to compose herself. "I think I understand; I don't know if I could just let go of the rules like that, I need definition in my life. But I understand. Now what do you mean delusional and what was that in your letter about talking to birds and having them talk back?" She whispered again. They both glanced down at Ginny and saw a tear running down her cheek. Harry could not help himself and reached out and wiped it from her face. At the contact her face lit up with a smile before she settled back into her trance. "She is probably sorting her memories from first year; I locked up my emotions first before I sorted my memories. It was much easier that way. Like watching a home video of the events instead of reliving them. Hopefully facing them this way will help her deal with them though." He said not really realizing he was speaking out loud. Hermione just looked at him.

"Anyway, I know it sounds crazy but I think it's a special ability of some sort. I have always been able to sense what Hedwig meant before, but after that visit from Fawkes I really concentrated on improving and I can honestly say I understand her now. It isn't really talking, more like expressing feelings. But I have it labeled 'Bird Whispering' in my head." He smiled at her.

She looked at him for a moment before shrugging, which did interesting things to her half bare bosom that he had to force away from his conscious thoughts. "When do you think we should bring her out of it?" She whispered the question in his ear. However he had just turned his head toward her to say something else and they bumped noses. The windows were covered over and only half the candles were lit in the room. They gazed into each other's eyes for what seemed like minutes but was actually only a second when they were fortunately interrupted by Ginny. "No need, I'm done for now." She said without opening her eyes and sounding drained.

Harry stood up quickly and turned around again. "Sorry Gin, I really didn't mean to look, and I was ignoring you for the last couple of minutes anyway so I didn't see anything, not really." He stammered out awkwardly.

Opening her eyes she saw the blush, which extended all the way down to his neck. "What's the matter Potter, am I that ugly?" She asked him feigning annoyance.

He quickly turned around having stuck his foot in his mouth for the second time in 10 minutes. "No of course not, I think you're very attractive," he slapped a hand over his mouth suddenly before trying to salvage the situation. "I mean I don't think your ugly at all, is what I mean. I just didn't want you to feel weird, like, well like I'm feeling right now." His blush had deepened to nearly the color of her hair. She stood up and walked over to him, standing on her tiptoes she kissed him on the tip of his nose. "That was almost sweet in an awkward sort of way Harry." She said. "Now why don't you head into your room while Hermione and I get dressed, then you can tell me how it went with Dumbledore on our way down to dinner?" She asked him.

He nodded and quickly fled the room through the secret passage. He could swear he heard giggling as he slammed the door shut on his side. "Yep, they're trying to kill me." He said to the empty room.