Harry and the Six Virgins

Chapter XII

"Good afternoon, Hermione."

"Hello," Hermione said coolly.

"You have a question before I start preparing you?"

Hermione frowned. "I hope you won't send us too far back in time."

"You and Harry, or Harry and anyone?"

"All, I guess," Hermione answered. "I mean, you weren't clear if we are going to live as Muggles or as wizards, or a bit of both." Casey said nothing, so Hermione went on. "If we're living in the Muggle world, whole or in part, well, pre-1920, there's no real home refrigeration. Some homes only had gas lights and heat; some still used coal stoves, or wood out in the country. Before 1890, indoor plumbing is going to be rare. And, before 1930, if we're not to call attention to ourselves, we'd need, well. . . ."

"Servants," Casey supplied.

"Exactly. And the fashions before the First World War! I don't want to wear a corset!"

"Fine," Casey said with a grin, "no corsets."

"Great," Hermione huffed. "If Harry knew fluent French, you'd probably send us back to the court of Louis the Sixteenth or something, where the clothes are even more uncomfortable."

"I gave Harry fluent knowledge of several languages, including French. How about the late Consulate and early Empire, so you can show off that wonderful bosom of yours," Casey teased.

Hermione looked puzzled, and then remembered for a short time the French fashion had been long flowing dresses -- but with the breasts bared. "Please," she begged, blushing, "not that."

"I snuck a peak at your school records and some of your essays. I understand you're interested in druidism. Perhaps I should send you back to the last great justice festival, so that you can see the condemned burned alive in the wicker men? Or perhaps you'd like to see a show at the coliseum? Or a genuine witch burning, even if the poor woman was not a genuine witch? Would you care to see a slave auction in ancient Athens? I understand you love reading Plato and Aristotle. Instead of Harry's wife, you could be Harry's whore, since wives were never allowed to meet the good citizens. Shall it be a slave auction in Rome instead? Or Constantinople, either before or after the Ottoman conquest? Or in Charleston? Or in Bristol?"

Hermione, nearly in tears, stamped her foot from frustration. "Why are you saying these things?"

"Because you think you understand history, and you don't. You understand the surface, the political history and a little of the social and intellectual, probably better than any student your age. To understand history means yes, you know that political history you know so well, but you must learn to use it as a framework. You study until you know the period as if you lived in it yourself as well as understanding it through the lens of historical perspective. I'm not saying this to discourage you, but to remind you how far you have to go."

Hermione sniffled.

"Anyway, enough abuse." Hermione gave him a nasty look. "Here is you just before your twenty-fourth birthday."

Hermione circled around the figure.

"No comment?"

"I was hoping the hair would straighten out. Nice firm bust, if a bit larger than I thought I'd turn out."

Casey shrugged. "A nice full C."

"Other than that, it's what I expected, even if I'd hoped I grow more than an inch more. And I doubt if I'll be in this good of a physical condition." She turned and saw Casey staring at her. "What?"

"Why are you here?"

"What do you mean?"

"While you love Harry, I don't think you are not totally in love with Harry. You love, or claim to love, someone called Ron. You do not strike me as promiscuous; why are you here? Are you that jealous of Harry that you can't allow him to find love without you?"

Hermione flushed. "I . . . I love Ron, but I also love Harry. I can't have both. Ron would never stand for it, for one thing, even if there weren't any number of other problems. This is the one chance I will likely have to love Harry like I wish I could."

"Honest, at least to a point. I like that. So, I guess I shall have to send you to a time and place where you won't be too uncomfortable."

"Too uncomfortable?"

Casey smiled. "I can't send you to the future, and there is no time in the past where a liberated woman such as yourself could be totally content."

Hermione gave him a dirty look. "Why are you doing this? It's not because . . . I mean you seem to like Harry, but it's not because. . . ."

"Because?"

"Because Harry has to die to kill Voldemort?" she whispered.

Casey looked at the earnest young woman, tears glistening in her eyes. She was a strong, intelligent woman, who kept her emotions under strict control most of the time. But she couldn't when it came to Harry. And she was right. He liked Harry, much more than he had anticipated. "Should I find him worthy of the power I'm thinking of bestowing, Harry may die while destroying Voldemort, but the odds are very much against it."

Hermione sighed with relief.

"I'm doing it in part because it amuses me to do so. At my age, I must take my amusements as they come. I've been living as a Muggle, and so don't get to stretch my powers often. I am doing this because Harry is the first one who has come here who deserves anything from me since Merlin, and because he's had such a lonely life. And I'm doing it because all six of you want to, even if five of you think this will likely be your only chance of having Harry to yourselves, or perhaps your only chance of making Harry love you."

"So I guess I have to decide. Don't I?"

"You do. However, I remind you, this is not totally real. You will have the memories, but your bodies will be just as they are now. You are a virgin. You will remain one, except in your memories, assuming you and Harry decide to make love. Do you want the adventure, or not?"

"I have never willingly abandoned Harry, and I never will."

"Good. I tell you what. Where would you like to go?"

"Where? You mean. . . ."

"If it's any time I've lived, and near any place I've ever been, you and Harry can go. But where would you both be comfortable, and have things of interest to do?"

Hermione's face was blank. "I . . . I don't know."

Casey smiled. "You think on it, and I'll take Harry on to his next two months."

"Wait!" Casey gave Hermione a questioning look. "Where has Harry been?"

"Hermione!" Casey mocked scolded.

"well, I wouldn't want to repeat anything!" Hermione said, managing to look innocent.

"Yeah, right," Casey said with a scornful full-American accent. "Harry and Ginny were in America in the summer of 1969. They travelled from the Oregon coast to the Woodstock festival. Next, Harry and Daphne went to Paris in 1913. From my perspective, Harry is currently with Susan, on a rustic retreat. My intention was to take you next, then take Harry and Eloise to fin-de-siecle Vienna, or perhaps a few decades earlier than that. I will finish with Harry and Luna. I am still deciding between three scenarios for them. Shall I take you next, or go ahead with Harry and Eloise?"

"I can't imagine either of them in Vienna," Hermione said. "It's difficult to imagine Harry in any of those situations, which I supposed merely shows my lack of imagination."

Casey smiled. A wave of his hand brought the nude model of adult Harry into being. A second brought Ginny. A third put them into their clothes at Woodstock. "And now?"

"They do look right," Hermione admitted.

Three more waves banished Ginny's model, brought Daphne's model and dressed them for the ballet premier. A few more did the same with Eloise.

"That's Eloise?" Hermione said in amazement.

"Yes, she develops quite a bit, doesn't she? Harry will not doubt be impressed."

"Boys," Hermione sniffed.

Casey smiled. "So, no ideas?"

"Where would Harry be able to learn something about himself, and I could just learn?"

"I have an idea, but you would have to tolerate slaves and brutality." Hermione looked torn. "It will bring you little comfort, but remember, they've all been dead along time. There is little you will be able to do."

"We'd be going to Rome, correct?" Hermione asked.

"That would be about the only place you could go, unless you'd like a temporary sex change." He pulled out his wand, and with a wave Hermione became a male. She gasped.

"I don't think Harry swings in that way," Casey commented, "but if he's at all inclined. . . ." Male Hermione was youthened and feminized a bit. "I could make some general inquires."

"Rome will be fine," Hermione said in a very small voice. "As for the other . . . if you could. . . . It might be best. . . . I wouldn't want him to be . . . uncomfortable."

"I'll take care of things."

Casey disappeared. "Oh, goddesses!" Hermione wailed, switching to Latin, "what have I done?"

Hermione paced for half an hour before Casey came back. "What did he say? Does he hate me? Why did I say all that?" she nearly wailed.

Casey smiled. "This is what he said." A wave of his hand produced Harry's voice: "Interested in being with Hermione, yes. I love her and love being with her. I'll go to Rome with her as a him, but no, no sex."

"Of course he wouldn't! Who said anything about sex!" Hermione exclaimed.

Casey merely looked at her. "Oh," she said. "Alright! It was a stupid idea! You just tempted me to show me I was avoiding the issue!"

"And what is the issue?"

"That I wish Harry and Ron were bisexual, and in love with each other as well as me."

"Are you by any chance bisexual?"

"NO!"

"You don't have to be so emphatic. If you can't imagine sharing Harry with Luna, and Luna with Harry, then you shouldn't think about you, Ron, and Harry so much. I don't know this Ron at all, but I have seen no evidence of Harry having any homosexual interests at all."

"But even if I did . . . think of girls every once in a while," Hermione protested, blushing a little, "even if I could share Harry with Luna, that wouldn't help me be with Harry and Ron. If I were Harry's lover, I could never be close to Ron. He couldn't accept it. If I ever fully become Ron's, I know Harry and I can stay close."

'Fully become Ron's?' Casey thought. 'That doesn't sound right, coming from her.' He went on. "Even if you're right, and since I don't know Ron I'll take your word for it, that is not the question before us. The question is. . . ."

"Do I want to risk falling so deeply in love with Harry that I can never be happy without him." Hermione jumped in and finished.

"One possibility. Another is, getting the feeling out of your system; living the fantasy, so that no matter what happens, you will have had two months of together." Casey smiled. "Who knows, maybe you will find you don't love Harry, and can go to Ron without these feelings interfering with that relationship."

"Those are things to think about," Hermione admitted.

Casey looked at her, getting some very strange images from her. The situation was much more complex than he had realized. "Well, let me check on Harry. See you soon."

Casey was back in fifteen minutes. "Is it time?" Hermione asked in a small voice.

"Not at all. Harry has just arrived in Vienna. We had an interesting discussion." Casey waved his hand, and the conversation replayed:

"May I talk with you . . . privately?"

Hermione heard Harry ask.

"Of course. Eloise is still getting ready. What do you need to talk about?"

"Hermione. Does she want to specifically go to Rome?"

"No; overall, I would have to say no. It does meet the parameters she suggested, however. Do you have an alternative?"

"Could we go to the cabin? In the late spring or summer?"

"Hermione does not strike me as the domestic type."

She gave Casey a dirty look.

"I can do most of that. You must have a huge library Hermione could borrow books from. That's what would please her most."

Hermione had to nod at that.

"And what about you?"

"What about me? I'm sure I'll be practicing dueling here, and maybe where ever you send me with Luna, and since Luna is last, that's the most important. And I'll probably be doing at least as much practicing there as I did this last month."

"You and Susan must have had a fantastic time together, if you want to duplicate it with Hermione."

Hermione gave Casey a dirty look as Harry said, "Don't be disgusting! I can sleep on one the large sofas if Hermione doesn't want to be . . . close."

"You don't love her? You're not attracted to her?"

"I thought Hermione was attractive, if bossy, from the first time I saw her. Do I love her? That's like asking someone if they love their hand. I could not more easily live without Hermione, or Ron, in my life than I could without a hand. And she and Ron seem to belong together, as a couple. This would be the one chance we have to . . . be intimate, but THAT will be Hermione's decision."

"My gods, you're serious, are you?"

"I am. Look, I don't know how you're testing me to see if I'm worth helping, but don't hurt Hermione to do it."

"Are you sure you don't love her?"

"I think we would drive each other nuts if we lived together in a one-on-one relationship of any kind for the rest of our lives. I'd be better off with Luna." Hermione frowned. "But yes, I love her. I adore Hermione. She's sexy as hell. But tell me, does that mean we'd be good for each other?"

"Perhaps not. I shall put the idea to Hermione. I'll give her three choices: Rome as a female; Rome as a male; or the cabin."

Casey waved his hand. "Well, those are your choices. I will tell you right now, you had best plan on sleeping with Harry, unless you're male. I managed to look into his mind. He will feel heart-broken if you reject him, although he will never admit it, even to himself. Still that, like your destination, is now your choice."

"I shall give you access to my library if you choose the cabin. You will no doubt learn slightly more in terms of what you study than you would in Rome. You will learn more about life in Rome. If you go to Rome or the cabin as a male, you will learn about the male sex drive."

Casey conjured up an hourglass. "You're just putting things off out of nerves, now. So, the sand runs out in one hour. You will first say either 'Rome' or 'cabin,' then either 'male' or 'female.' If you say nothing, you will be a slave in the most disgusting dockyard brothel over the last two thousand years I can find until Harry can discover and rescue you -- and I assure you, that might not happen before the two months run out."

"Wait!" Hermione shouted, "there must be some other choice! Some place . . . where we can live like two normal people in a normal community!"

"Normal? Or Muggle? And what would Harry do there for two months, if there wasn't someplace for him to at least fly and practice his dueling?" Hermione had no answer. "If I think of someplace, I'll send you there, but you had best plan on saying one of those choices, or else you end up in the brothel." He started the sand and disappeared.

Hermione swallowed nervously, and waited for the sand to run out. After half an hour, she stopped thinking and started to argue her options aloud. As she sometimes did when she had too much time to think, Hermione's arguments became more and more baroque and more and more difficult to conclude.

Finally, as the time had nearly run out, Hermione stopped her pacing and mutterings. She looked at the ceiling and took a deep breath. "If you can hear me, you bastard, then I get it! I know you can do to me whatever you want. You can make that body, and this body, do whatever you want! But you can't really control the inner me! The only reason I'm making a choice is to prevent Harry from having to rescue me! I will NOT be his plaything willingly. I will never just be the toy of some one ever again! And even if you presented my naked body, made willing by your power, Harry would still respect my personhood!"

The sand ran out, and Hermione made her choice.

Hermione caught sight of a bare concrete floor just as her nude body hit it.