Harry Potter and the Heart of Regenesis

Chapter Thirteen

Sheri, Showers and Shocks

"You know," she said, more as a statement than a question, "You're gorgeous!"

Remus Lupin had been called many things in his life but 'gorgeous' was one thing he had neither been called before nor had ever expected to be called. He looked down at a face, which he believed would be somewhat nearer to deserving that particular description than his own, though not quite, if he were absolutely honest. Perfect white teeth shone at him through red-lipsticked lips that were smiling contentedly. Her finger traced through his short facial hair as she lay next to him on the now rather untidy bed. Her attractive long, blonde hair lay partly across his bare shoulder and his eyes diverted from her shoulder down her naked body before resting on her small but shapely breasts. He reached down and touched them with his rough-skinned but gentle hand. As the path of his finger passed her pink, erect nipple she giggled.

"Haven't you had enough, yet?" she smiled lasciviously with her eyes widening. She obviously hadn't! Then her tongue came between the gleaming teeth and licked her top lip, making him twitch with lust. She felt the shudder and giggled again, then she reached her hand lower down his body and he lay back, closed his eyes and his mouth opened as if in some sort of ecstasy. Soon he felt her lower herself tantalisingly down his torso and he became aware of her tongue stroking his own skin, making it tingle with unfettered delight.

Although it was barely ten minutes since they had last finished a lengthy, energetic love-making he felt himself harden again and after a few more moments exploring each others' nakedness he pulled her firmly to him and slid gently and easily into her as he lay on his back. They moved together again, the fingers of her right hand raking his chest hair, both of his grasping a breast each and he lightly squeezed them in time with the rocking motion.

Remus and Sheri, as she had asked him to call her, had spent the past hour and a half engaged in this particular physical activity and, it seemed, neither was ready to stop yet. Finally, after another twenty minutes or so she rose from the bed leaving her partner stretched out on top of the duvet and walked naked over to the door that led to the 'en suite' shower room.

As he watched her walk he could easily have taken her yet again but he knew it would soon be time for him to meet Ron for their pre-arranged meeting. He sighed, only partly with the frustration of there being no time for 'one more' but mostly with satisfaction. Tomorrow was the first of his 'wolf-nights' and he tried to compare how he felt right now with how he had felt on the days before a full moon so often previously in his life. There was no comparison. Today he felt alive - on so many others he had wished he were dead. 'Sheri made him feel better then anyone ever had,' he thought to himself - 'with the exception of Emil...and maybe Lily Evans' he admonished himself... but, then...could he honestly admit to himself that Lily had made him feel better than he did right now, or was it merely as good?

He couldn't stand it any more... 'Hang Ron,' he thought...then he jumped up from the bed and joined Sherilyn in the shower room. Opening the cubicle he watched the water splash and cascade down the curves of her back and bottom, now red from the hot water, then he climbed into the cubicle with her and grasped her buttocks firmly with both hands making her squeal.

She turned to face him grinning both broadly and sexily then she grabbed him, too - surprising him - and a few moments later she felt herself lifted vertically from her feet - her bottom pressed up against the wet, hard tiles and she wrapped her legs around Remus's waist, put her arms right around his back and she drew in breath sharply as she felt his, quite rough, thrust into her. Then, as the hot water continued to rain down onto them both they gasped and moaned their way to another mutual climax of relief and sensual bliss.

Half an hour later - clean, dry and dressed - they lay side by side once more on clean, dry bed linen (it had been a few blasts of 'Scourgify!' and 'Dessicatio!' as opposed to a trip to the clean linen closet, though!).

"So," he ventured, "What's the 'Z' stand for? I was just wondering," he added. Her glasses case with her initials on it lay on the bedside cabinet. She lay in thought for a few moments then sighed.

"It's for Zara," she admitted. "It's more of a muggle name I think - I've not ever heard of another witch called Zara. I think it's Russian...has an air of mystery about it, though - don't you think?" Remus nodded with a look of appreciation. "That's what's funny about the whole name thing, see?" she added.

He didn't see.

"What? No, I'm afraid you've lost me completely."

So she explained.

"My mother is a pretty poor witch. She can Apparate but - not much else. Not quite a squib but as near as dammit! When she left school with the bare minimum qualifications she as good as turned her back on the Wizarding World and became a barmaid! She worked at 'The Tarnished Tankard' for years and years. Do you know that pub?"

"I've never been there - isn't it the one you can get to through Knockturn?" She nodded. "The Slytherins used to go there when they escaped from school. We Gryffindors would never do such a thing," he sniggered. "We just headed straight for the muggle strip-clubs!"

They both laughed together. They felt so comfortable like this. Remus wondered where Sheri had been all his life!

"Anyway, that's how I came about. Some dark wizard or other came into the pub one night and took a fancy to my mum. They had a few drinks and then he..." Suddenly, she stopped and went silent for some time.

"You don't have to go on," he told her gently, placing his hand over hers.

"No...it's OK," she brightened. "It's just that I've never really known whether to believe her story, that's all.

"She says that they had a few drinks and went to bed together. It's just that - I never thought of her as that sort of woman."

Remus laughed out loud now.

"I don't think any of us like to think of our parents as sexual beings, Sheri! God, the thought of my mum bouncing up and down on top of my dad would be enough to...ugh!" He shuddered but in a completely different way from the way he had shuddered earlier in the afternoon. She slapped him lightly on the arm, in the friendliest way.

"No! No," she interrupted him, a pleading tone in her voice that wasn't there before. "It's the way she said it - like she didn't even believe it herself. I don't think she felt very comfortable telling me anything about it - but all kids want to know something about their parents don't they?"

He nodded again and she continued.

"She's never told me my father's name. I have no idea at all except that she said he was bad - but she swears she didn't know he was when they...well, you know?" she trailed off. "I always got the impression that she...she might have been - well - raped! That is a horrible thought, you know?" Her anger was clearly rising with the volume of her voice.

"That's why I...I decided when I was quite a young girl that no-one would ever do that to me. None of them would have to..." Now she was talking very fast. Remus thought she might be saying things she didn't mean to say and tried, ineffectively, to calm her.

"Remus..." suddenly she slowed to a halt. "Remus, I've had hundreds of boys. Did you know?"

"Sheri." He took her hand very tenderly again. "I didn't know and..." he looked her right in the eyes. "And I don't care. Not a bit," he smiled. She knew he meant it. He thought about letting her know that he'd had lots of boys as well but this was not the time to try to be funny, he realised in time. "All I know is we've just spent a truly wonderful afternoon together, I like being with you and...doing what we've been doing." A wicked grin crossed his lips again. "And now I'm enjoying lying here chatting like this. I won't be able to lie here this time tomorrow night, will I?"

There were a few more moments of silence before a thought came back into his head that had been pushed to the side earlier.

"What's so funny about being called Zara, anyway?" he asked in a teasing sort of voice.

"My name! My whole name! Write it down," she urged him.

He thought for a brief second about reaching to the bedside cabinet for parchment and quill but, like Harry Potter, Remus Lupin was well-practiced in crossword solving. Mentally he pictured the letters of his new girlfriend's name, made a tentative connection and smiled - then he ticked off the letters one by one in his mind's eye and gasped.

"Did she do that on purpose?" He was gobsmacked! So much so he shut up again and performed the anagram in his head again to double check.

Finally, she answered.

"She swears it was pure coincidence. I dunno, though. I've wondered all sorts over the years. It could have been that dark wizard putting a sort of 'curse' on her to get her to do it - you know, just planting the idea in her head, or something?"

Remus knew enough about wizardry to hold 'coincidences' in the same light as Harry Potter. Fine bristles stood to attention on the back of his neck as he tried to figure out what this could all mean.

Sheri took this opportunity to stand and then lean over Lupin again and kiss him goodbye. They exchanged a few more pleasant nothings and she left his apartment, leaving him to return to his musings.

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What neither Lupin nor Salt knew on that balmy evening was that many things stated as fact and many assumptions made by a daughter desperate to discover her heritage were almost entirely wrong.

On that afternoon three decades before, Lucius Malfoy had no more wanted to sleep with the popular barmaid than with his own mother. He had been the one placed under Imperius and 'raped', not her. And he was the father of the daughter, the first of six children the mother would bring up to know of - and share her delight in - Dark Magic.

For Gretchen Salt was no 'squib-like' failed witch. Gretchen Salt would not be found in the ex-pupil records of Hogwarts at all. For she had learned her skills at Durmstrang, excelling in Dark Arts (which was studied there as a subject in its own right...not 'Defence Against' as in most others.)

It was Gretchen Salt who had given her daughter the 'name' of the wizard she most admired. Gretchen Salt who had sought out a suitable husband; a husband with power and opportunity. And a husband who would not be around the house all day interfering with how she brought up her children. Gretchen Chambers had been the one who had taught the under-age Apparition and her children's familiarity with dark books, artefacts and spells. And it was Gretchen Chambers who was, therefore, almost entirely responsible for the 'Night of the Great Riddle' - for she had taught Grendel all he knew, not his father.

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Chapter Fourteen

Wands

It was Wednesday morning again and Harry's favourite class - the 1^st Year Gryffindors (with Slytherin) - arrived once more for their 'Defence Against the Dark Arts' lesson in a flurry of little arms and legs. On the front row sat the 'four musketeers' as Harry had named the Gryffindor quartet but he was surprised to see two girls mingled with them. Verity Minton seemed to be sitting very close to Chris Creevey and sitting next to her, as always, was Sheba Mason. Whether she was as pleased or not to be also sat next to Geraint Llewellyn he was not so sure - she seemed to be making very much the most of the foot or so between them while the little Welsh boy seemed to sneak further over towards her every time she edged away.

"Today," Harry began, "Is going to be a special day for us all." Any faces that were not paying attention before suddenly became rapt. He had tried in his first month or so to make sure they were as up to date on all the theoretical knowledge they would need 'in the bag' by the end of their 1^st Year. He had hated theoretical DADA lessons whilst a pupil but, even then, he had realised that they were not entirely without reason. He had always just - enjoyed - it so much more when the lesson involved wand waving!

"This," he produced a black, wooden box from his robes, "is my wand."

There was an awed hush in the room as if he were bringing out an ancient and priceless holy relic. "It is made of holly and has a single phoenix feather as its core." He put it carefully into the holster on his belt - the one he didn't usually bother wearing.

"Yours may well be birch or yew - or some other wood - who has willow?"

One hand went into the air. "My mum's wand was willow," he smiled at her. "Nice and swishy - good for Charms work!"

"That's my favourite subject," beamed tiny Katrina Slade.

He repeated the exercise with birch, yew, holly and oak and hands were raised accordingly. Oak wands were quite rare and no pupils in this class had one. Harry had seen one once in an antique shop in Diagon Alley; it had carved oak leaves and acorns on it - it was a beautiful item and the shopkeeper told him it had belonged to one Edmund A'Courne, a wizard in the court of King Charles II. With it he had changed muggle history inasmuch as he had placed a powerful 'attraction' charm on a poor orange seller called Nell Gwynn and the king had fallen in love with her. Later, he had magically led the king to the very oak from which it was made and Charles had hidden in the same tree to evade his enemies.

Harry told the pupils that that was the reason so many muggle pubs in England were called 'The Royal Oak'. Not many children brought up in the Wizarding World knew a great deal about muggle history apart from the well-known fact that Richard the Lionheart was closely related to Godric Gryffindor and his line was the last English Royal Family to have any wizard blood at all.

Harry moved on to wand-cores:

"And the core might contain any number of magical things, Harry continued. Who has dragon heart-string?" he asked.

A few little hands went into the air. Harry nodded. Then he asked the twins to stand up. They wondered what on earth he wanted at first - was he going to ask them to duel or something? Then Harry smiled at them and winked and made a gesture, which said 'don't worry' and they relaxed a little more.

"Geraint, describe your wand," he instructed the first, who he noticed was about an inch taller than his brother.

"Erm..." The boy thought for a few moments then continued. "It's mahogany, eleven inches and the core is unicorn hair."

"Well done, Harry said - perfect answer. Five points to Gryffindor! Now, Ieuan?" He urged the twin to do the same as his brother. Ieuan, however, stepped forward with a wide grin and, without hesitation, announced,

"Mine's plastic, twelve inches and has the elastic from Sheba Mason's knickers in the middle."

The whole class, except for Sheba and Verity, erupted in jovial laughter. Sheba blushed terribly and, raising her hands to her face ran from the room, closely followed by Verity - the latter throwing such a look at the giggling Chris Creevey that he, very quickly, became the third pupil in the class not laughing!

The whole class stopped laughing, though, the instant they saw Professor Potter draw his wand and hold it in front of a now trembling Ieuan Llewellyn.

"S-s-sorry, s-s-sir!" blurted the youngster. If he were perfectly honest Harry would have liked to have laughed himself; he was largely still a naughty schoolboy at heart. Also, from what he had heard about his godfather, it was a very 'Sirius' prank the boy had pulled - but Harry was now a professor and had to be seen to do 'the right thing' in situations like this. However funny the intent, and however excusable a naughty schoolboy's sense of humour might be, a girl had been needlessly upset.

"Don't worry, young master Llewellyn," he smiled. "I'm not going to turn you into a toad - today!" The boy shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. "Five points from Gryffindor!"

Geraint groaned. His good work had just been undone. He started thinking of ways to get his brother back later!

"Now, my wand," Harry continued, ushering the blushing Welshman back to his seat and the girls back in from the doorway, "has a twin, too - which is why I - foolishly!" he emphasised nodding at the boys again, "asked those two to come forward!

"Is yours the same as your brother's?" he impatiently glared at Ieuan.

"Almost, sir. Mine is half an inch shorter. Like I am," he added.

"I thought that might be so," nodded Harry. "It's not unusual for birth twins to often have very similar wands. Not always the case - not by far - but not unusual either. Remember, as Mr Ollivander probably told you - your wands chose you, not the other way round."

"There was, however," he continued, "just one other wand which had exactly the same core as mine, here." He tapped the holster again on the word 'here' before drawing out his wand again and holding it between his fingertips in front of them. He saw Chris Creevey whisper something into Verity's ear and then saw her jaw drop open. At least one person knew the secret already. He suspected that some of the Slytherins at the back might, too, as a low murmur rumbled from that direction.

"A wand as good as identical to this one gave me this scar," he said quietly, pointing the wand at the lightning shaped scar on his forehead they had all seen in pictures a thousand times.

A gasp, like one voice filled the room as it gradually dawned on the pupils who had owned the 'twin' wand. It sounded as if half the air in the room had been sucked out at once. Harry smiled.

"Yes, Lord Voldemort had the twin of my wand. I discovered a lot about twin wands when he and I tried to duel. When we each aimed a spell at each other at the same time there was an amazing effect!" By now the students were hanging on his every word - they were about to hear things Harry had never told anyone before (apart from Ginny) about the night Wormtail lost his hand and Cedric Diggory lost his life.

He told them about how the unexpected beam of green light from the Dark Lord's wand had met a bright red one from his - giving him a feeling like electricity was passing through his arm.

"Then," he told the enraptured students, "A thread of golden coloured light joined our wands together and we were both lifted off our feet into the air. When we landed the thread disappeared and became a thousand threads criss-crossing above us like a spider's web to make a dome of golden light that completely surrounded us.

"And once the dome was all around us there was music - beautiful music like you would never hear on the radio - or anywhere else for that matter. It was phoenix song - because of the feathers in our wand cores - and it filled the air. It was the strangest feeling I ever had."

Then Harry stopped. He had no intention of going on and explaining to these young children the awful things that had appeared after that - Wormtail's silver hand, Diggory's ghost and all the others - Bertha Jorkins and the old man...and his parents, of course, as more and more of Voldemort's prior spells had emerged from his shaking wand.

There was a momentary pause before Harry got his 'way out'.

"What were the spells, sir?" piped the small voice of Crispin St. John.

"Well, Crispin. I was coming to that. I'm afraid the curse uttered by Voldemort was one of the Unforgivable Curses - the worst of them - he... he was intending to kill me." There was an even bigger gasp from most of the class. Although all of them would have seen the curses written down people did not utter the incantations at all and most wizard families did not even speak about these curses at all.

Harry had heard the incantations so many times (and, in the case of Cruciatus at least, had learned to expertly resist its effects) that it wasn't a 'big deal' to him but these innocent youngsters had, of course, not been through what he had - and hopefully never would!

"But the one I tried to use on him was Expelliarmus. The disarming charm. And that is quite a simple but extremely powerful spell. Crispin, come here!" Harry called beckoning him with his left finger while holding his wand in his right hand.

"I want you to stand over there and try to disarm me." Crispin looked nervous, so Harry added,

"I promise you'll be alright. I shant be firing back at you!" Harry raised his eyebrows and smiled in a reassuring gesture to the boy who managed a thin smile and a nod back. Crispin had no idea at all that Harry couldn't have done anything even if he'd have wanted to. As far as he was concerned he was about to duel face to face with one of the most powerful wizards on the planet - it was hard for the lad to take in!

Crispin and his professor stood face-to-face, about eight feet apart and with wands drawn. Harry nodded again, several times in quick succession and finally Crispin's right arm drew back. He threw it forward and shouted,

"Expelliarmus!" Harry made a quick side step and the curse missed him by some way.

"Try again!" he encouraged - and Crispin did.

"Expelliarmus!"

This time Harry stepped the other way. Time and time again Crispin shouted,

"Expelliarmus!"

"Expelliarmus!"

"Expelliarmus!"

But each time Harry was able to dodge the curse. They stopped for a while and Harry gave some advice.

"You need to anticipate, Crispin. Most of this sort of thing is about pre-guessing things - and watching! That's the really important thing - watching your opponents' eyes, their arms and the direction of their wand flicks. Watching! Watch me moving out of the way and try to guess which way I'll go.

"Go on, try again!"

This time Harry stood stock still and when Crispin aimed a yard to Harry's left the class exploded with a roar of laughter. Harry stood shaking his head at the hapless Slytherin. But the good professor, not wanting to see one of his pupils needlessly embarrassed turned his head to the class and raised a finger to his lips to quieten the laughing, even though it was good-natured.

Crispin took this chance, though, and Harry was genuinely surprised to hear once again,

"Expelliarmus!"

He tried to move but it was too late. Harry stood helpless as his wand flew from his hand and into the air, then glided gently across to where Crispin St. John stood. He caught it and jumped for joy as though he'd caught the golden snitch in a Quidditch cup final. The other Slytherin boys ran to him and hugged him in a similar way! He had 'beaten' the Professor!

Even Harry joined in the applause.

"That's it!" he shouted over the rabble. "You saw your chance and took it - well done. Ten points to Slytherin!"

Harry grimaced instinctively. He had not been prepared for the effect that uttering those 'particular words' would have on him!

Then suddenly, and as if from nowhere, the familiar sight of Albus Dumbledore appeared next to Harry at the front of the class. He, too, was laughing and clapping and, as the pupils saw him there one by one and busy hands tapped friends' shoulders to draw their attention to the unexpected guest, there was a rapid diminuendo and within seconds, a respectful silence fell.

"Bravo, Master St. John! An excellent effort," he chuckled. "And an excellent lesson in general Professor Potter! Oh?" the headmaster acted surprised, "Didn't you know I'd been sat there at the back throughout?"

A sea of faces turned round in the direction the headmaster had pointed to and then swung back to the front again. A few faces looked very confused as if they were thinking 'If he'd really been sitting there I'm sure I'd have seen him!'

As the old wizard looked at Harry his eyes glinted and twinkled in that special Dumbledore way. Harry wondered how long he really had been there, 'presumably under an Invisibility Cloak,' he thought. 'And if he had been there throughout,' he wondered, 'how many of my other lessons has he sat through in the last month or so?'

Professor Potter ushered the children back to their seats and, as he did, Dumbledore whispered in his ear.

"I've been waiting to see you use your...magic...in the classroom, Harry. Remember - be clever!" he winked and turned to leave. As he walked away and the pupils sat down again Harry noticed the headmaster look right at him as he quietly took the holly wand from Crispin. While the children focussed again on Harry only he saw the headmaster quietly wrap the cloak around himself once more and sit down on an empty bench near the door.

Harry produced a box of ping-pong balls from a box under his desk and gave them out to pupils with the instruction to pair up and try to hit each other. For the next twenty minutes chaos reigned as the balls popped and bounced around the classroom while pupils tried, with varying levels of success, to hit each other and/or dodge out of the way.

He had to tell off Barty Bole and Katrina Slade who he caught bouncing the balls against windows and Geraint and Ieuan (again!) who he caught enjoying an improvised game of table tennis, using their copies of the Standard Book of Spells as paddles and with four desks pushed together to play on.

Then, the lesson time up, he collected the balls back into the box and told the pupils to write a half parchment on Expelliarmus for homework (groans all round). Finally, he warned them that, next lesson, their wands and real spells would replace the balls. An excited 'can't wait' sort of murmur filled the room as the students packed away their things.

Just before he told them to go he turned to the 'empty' bench near the door raised a questioning eyebrow and then pretended to look confused.

"Hmm...?" he said rubbing his chin and to get the attention of the pupils. "Did anyone see what happened to my wand?" He pretended to look all around the room although, of course, he knew full well where it was. Then, with a dramatic gesture, he lifted his right hand, clicked his fingers and called out,

"Accio wand!"

With the help of Dumbledore's trusty aim Harry's wand immediately flew through the air and directly into his waiting fingers. He didn't need to move his hand even a fraction of an inch! The pupils gasped again in awe of this sensational 'wandless magic' and Harry immediately grinned one of his biggest grins ever - he could have sworn the corners of his lips were kissing his earlobes.

After the pupils had left and Harry was packing up his own things he said, to himself but out loud,

"That felt good!"

"I told you to be clever!" chortled a familiar voice just before the door appeared to open and then close itself a moment later. Once more Harry Potter smiled.

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