Harry and the Six Virgins

Chapter VII

Tuesday, April 8, 1913

Harry woke up the next morning, with a hand gently arousing him and lips kissing his chin line.

"So far as we know, he has no plans for me today," Daphne murmured. "Please make love with me, Harry. I might need the day to recover."

Harry smiled, and made certain she did need the day.

"Breakfasting alone, Harry?" Casey asked.

"Daphne went back to sleep for a while," Harry answered with a straight face. "We hope that doesn't interfere with your plans."

Casey leered, which Harry ignored. "Cafe au lait?" Harry asked.

Casey sat, but waved it away. "You need to finish dressing. Wear the heavy boots. We will be going out every morning to practice dueling. I shall also help you a bit with your Occlumency. After today, Daphne will be visiting a witches' coven in the mornings. After luncheon, we will be visiting Muggle Paris together for a while. Most evenings, we will either be dining in Muggle Paris and going to various performances or perhaps some in the wizarding world as well."

"I just need to do the mouth-cleaning charm, and put on boots," Harry answered.

They flooed from the entrance hall of the hotel to the dueling hall. Harry was introduced to an instructor, and had little problem in holding his own for a twenty minute session.

"Interesting," Casey commented from the side when it was over. "You have a brilliant defense, Henry. Your offense needs work however."

"Perhaps he would benefit from a demonstration?" a voice came from behind Harry. He turned, and saw the Count and Malfoy.

"By all means," Casey said. "I am certain the two of you can show can show us what proper form is."

That was clearly NOT what the Count meant. "I was hoping to see a black agent in action."

Casey sighed. "If both of you gentlemen are interested?"

"Both of us? Together, or in series?" the Count asked.

"Oh, together, of course."

The challenge had been noted, and the others in the long hall started to gather. In less than five minutes everything was arranged. The three bowed, and one of the hall officials waved a small flag, signalling the start of the duel.

And in the time it took to blink, the Count and Malfoy were laying on their backs, unconscious.

"Now that was a proper attack," Casey said with a grin. "Those two should be awake in two or three hours. Perhaps we should get Monsieur Porter started on the epee before introducing him to the sabre?"

They returned to the hotel for lunch. Harry found Daphne in her dressing room, covered with the Muggle undergarments that were the custom of the time.

"Have a good time?" she asked as Harry stooped and kissed her cheek.

"Swords are difficult," Harry admitted. "Casey took the Count and Malfoy down a few notches." Daphne looked curious, so he added, "They challenged him to a duel, and he beat them at the same time in less than two seconds."

She looked properly impressed.

"He wants us to go to tour Paris with him at One," Harry added. "Shall we lunch here?"

Daphne rang the bell, and they placed their order.

The trio walked out of the wizarding hotel and down a short arcade between two Muggle hotels. "Muggles merely see us exiting one of the two hotel entrances, if they notice us at all," Casey told them as he signaled a open horse-drawn cab. It was warm for early April, although Casey told them there would be one last winter storm the following week.

The cab made its very slow way through the sights of 1913 Paris. Harry rather wished he had paid a bit more attention to Hermione's travel talks. He half-listened to Daphne and Casey debate which performances they should take in on which night, and what Daphne might learn from the coven she would be attending in the mornings.

Daphne was an enthusiast for opera and classical music as well as ballet and drama. Harry admitted to total ignorance on all counts. Daphne had promised to make up for any boredom Harry felt, if he didn't like the performances.

It wasn't that Harry disliked high culture, he had just never been exposed to it. He was willing to try anything, and except for his dueling and Occlumency lessons and his time with Daphne, he had no other demands on his time.

Harry had asked Casey to procure a box camera for him. This would allow him to at least take some Muggle photos of their experience. He hoped he could talk Daphne into posing in the robe of the previous evening.

At 4:30, they stopped off at a cafe called the 'Dôme.' Casey introduced them to a number of German and Central European artists, and made arrangements for them to visit some of the studios over the next month.

"Most exhibited very little," Casey told them. "We can buy some good art cheaply, and store it until 1996." He took them to an excellent Muggle restaurant for an early dinner (so they wouldn't have to change into formal evening wear), and then back to the wizarding hotel by 8:15.

Every morning for the next six weeks, Harry accompanied Casey to the dueling studio. No one challenged Casey again, and in fact the Count and his friends had left Paris early rather than risk encountering him. Harry progressed rapidly in his magical dueling, although his progress with the swords, although steady, was no-where as spectacular. His Occlumency, under professional guidance and Casey's help, progressed even faster than his dueling.

In early May, the trio even attended a professional dueling tournament. To the amusement of Harry and Daphne, a sprightly Filius Flitwick, who had just left Hogwarts, placed third. Casey even arranged for Harry to have an hour of private lessons with Flitwick. Harry promised him a copy of the photo Casey took of them. Casey smiled as he clicked the camera, wondering what Flitwick would think when he received the gift 83 years later!

Other than Sunday evening dinners in the hotel, the group only made five forays into Magical Paris, mostly because there was nothing that they really needed. Harry did manage to pick up two sets of the two first great manufactured brooms (the other set was for Ron), the long-distance Oakshaft 79 and the first true racing broom, the Silver Arrow. And, although Harry didn't know it, Daphne had quickly dropped out of the coven discussions and instead had a different project going.

Three times a week, they went to different galleries and art shows. Casey picked up sixty paintings, and Daphne was allowed to get three. To Casey's slight surprise, Harry had a decent eye, and was also allowed to pick up three paintings.

Harry was even more surprised than Daphne and Casey when he quickly developed an interest in classical music and opera. No music of any kind had figured into the Dursley household. There was very little music at Hogwarts. Harry had enjoyed the rock and folk music he had been exposed to in 1969, but now he was swept away by the operatic and orchestral performances Casey took Daphne and himself to.

Harry had never really had a chance to dress up before, other than the Yule Ball in his Fourth year. He now positively looked forward to putting on his evening clothes and escorting Daphne, who looked stunning every evening. Somehow, he could envision himself escorting a beautiful, elegant witch to concerts, dinners, and other formal events. Equally, he had been able to imagine himself riding a motorcycle (or, in his imagination, a broom) with a beautiful, athletic witch with her arms around him when he had been doing so with Ginny. Harry had been brought up to go with whatever life served him. He was beginning to see, dimly, that there was a wide-range of options available to him.

The one aspect of formal culture Harry had some difficulty with at first was dancing. He had quickly mastered dances like the waltz and polka, but dancing had been starting to change over the previous decade, even in the conservative upper-crust Muggle circles Casey managed to escort them into.

Still, by the time of the Grand Balls Casey managed to get them invited to on May 23 (magical) and 24 (Muggle), Harry had reached the point where he was able to lead Daphne in a tango which, if not the best on the floor, was certainly more than adequate.

Harry had found Ginny, as a lover, enthusiastic, athletic, and slightly submissive if very demanding in terms of repeat performances. Daphne was much more sensuous, and their passions were much more the meeting of equals. On a more personal level, Harry found Daphne intelligent, and interested in ideas nearly as much as Hermione. While Harry had little to spend the allowance Casey was allowing him (other than splurging on the brooms), Daphne spent her money in magical and Muggle bookshops.

Harry started to understand the Slytherin mind-set, and encouraged Daphne to tell him about the factionalizations within her House. He tried to encourage Daphne to try for the leadership of her year. Pansy and Draco had been stripped of their prefect status, and if he did destroy Voldemort, Malfoy's faction might be ripe for supplanting. Listening to her think through the possibilities, Harry understood what Casey had meant when he had said Daphne would be his best partner if he planned a career in politics. While he saw the opportunities for himself (since Daphne was certainly interested in his pursuing them), Harry was still rather more uncertain.

For her part, Daphne hadn't taken Malfoy and Snape's opinions on Harry totally to heart, but she hadn't realized just how far off they were. Harry really was just as good, decent, honest, and above all shy as he came across. It wasn't an act at all. Nearly every day, she was reminded of some cruelty her Housemates had inflected on Harry, sometimes with herself joining in.

Her shame drove her to try and please Harry all the more. If she came away from this adventure with nothing more than many pleasant memories and some paintings and books stored away, she also would feel she better understood the errors her Housemates had made and that she had atoned for her mistreatment of Harry.

She had to fight herself more and more not to fall in love with him as well.

Slowly, the magic night approached; the night Daphne had been dreaming of since they had arrived. She and Casey had tried to explain Stravinsky to Harry, but that was difficult to do with mere words. In all honesty, Harry was a bit worried. He rather enjoyed Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and the other classical composers, but he had found he preferred the 19th century composers that had come after Beethoven, especially Berlioz and Wagner, and the then-current composers Ravel and Puccini. He had little doubt he'd be build a record collection once he came into his inheritance and made certain he'd escaped the Dursleys.

At many of the cafes and Muggle parties and balls, the new ballet was already a hot topic of disagreement. Whenever Harry stated he would wait to hear the piece before deciding if he liked it, most of the people on both sides stared at him blankly. Harry certainly wasn't used to having ideas, let alone music, causing such disagreement -- the topic was as heated on both sides as Malfoy's Pure-blooded fanaticism.

Casey had secured them tickets both for the premier and the second performance. He cast repelling spells on their clothes just before they left their rooms.

"Is that really necessary?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"That depends on what account you read," Casey answered. "Some say there was a riot, and the performance went unheard after the opening bars, with food and even fists flying. Some say there was a minor disturbance that was quickly overcome by the music. Obviously the first set of claims, being more colorful, have been the most repeated, both in tomorrow's newspapers and ever after. We shall see."

"The people who really care about the music, those in the cheap seats and throughout the audience, will love it," Daphne said firmly. "Those who are there simply because it's the place to be will no doubt be making the most noise."

Pushing their way into the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Harry could see this was by far the rowdiest crowd he had yet to encounter. People were loudly shouting opinions at each other, about Stravinsky and about the Ballet Russe and its manager/choreographer Serge Diaghilev, and their previous collaborations (L'Oiseau de Feu' and 'Petrouchka') and praise for the principle dancer Kajinsky -- and some lewd comments about some of the female dancers.

In retrospect, Harry found the stories of the riot were closer to the truth. From the opening bassoon solo, there were whistles and cat-calls. Within seconds, partisans on both sides were trading insults and shouts. That made the majority of the audience, who were not taking sides, restless and hence rather noisy. The shouting went on throughout the entire performance, sometimes dying almost out, but then rising again.

From what Harry could hear and see, it was an interesting piece, but certainly very different than what he had seen over the previous weeks. The trio retired back to their rooms, all with at least a mild headache.

"It should be better tomorrow night," Casey said.

It was. The music, now that he could really hear it (since there were almost no disturbances on the second performance), was different than anything Harry had ever heard. The dancers' movements were very different from the more formal ballets he'd seen. It was primitive.

It was erotic.

It was arousing.

After the other concerts they had been to, the trio had discussed the performances. That night, Harry said goodnight firmly to Casey, stripped Daphne roughly, and the pair enjoyed some primitiveness of their own.

Casey took them away from Paris on the Sunday. Daphne found herself back in her sixteen year old body. She stretched and reveled in her memories. Daphne rather doubted Harry would choose her, if he had to choose that day. But, with luck, Harry wouldn't have to choose for some time. She sat back in envisioned herself and Harry, the destroyer of Voldemort, dancing at one of the new Hogwarts dances Dumbledore had promised.

And who knew where a dance could lead?