August 17th.Spellhaven.
Harry was feeling frustrated. Dumbledore might be comfortable leaving Voldemort alone for months or even years at a time and only reacting to his actions, but he was not. He wanted to give the Dark Lord no peace to plan, to recruit, to do anything except die.
Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be an option open to him right now. Neither Etal or his network of avian spies could find any hint of Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
That was why Harry was resorting to a rather less precise means of tracking them down.
"Penny, I need you to start following the news from all over Europe, both magical and mundane."
"What, why?" Penny asked in shock.
"Because Voldemort is surrounding himself with killers, rapists and similar types of people. You can't have that many arseholes in one place without appeasing their urges. Sooner or later, people are going to start disappearing. With a little bit of luck, they'll be dumb enough to take their victims from the rough area of their hideout and I'll be able to track them down. What I need you to do is go over all the news for reports of unsolved murders and disappearances and collate the information into something I can use. I know it's a bit of a longshot but-"
"Harry, I don't have the time to do that." Penny interrupted, gesturing somewhat wildly at the stack of reports on her desk. "I'll probably need my own staff of assistants once this mirror business really takes off, nevermind running errands for you on top of it."
Harry frowned. She had a point.
"I don't suppose you know anyone that I could entrust this to? It's important and I can't risk giving the job to someone that would be tempted to slack off."
"I might....." Penny said hesitantly.
Harry raised a questioning eyebrow.
"There's not really much for a person without magic to do on Spellhaven and I think the lack of activity is starting to get to Melissa, Abigail and Caroline, as well as the fact that they're living on your charity. Given what happened to them, the kind of job you're describing might be, ah....therapeutic."
Ah, the three women rescued from Malfoy Manor that had asked to stay. Yes, that might work. While Harry was personally of the opinion that Abigail and Caroline were stupid for choosing to not abort their pregnancies, he was also aware that it didn't necessarily reflect on their ability to be useful in this matter. Plus, it would be personal for them, so they'd be plenty motivated.
"I like it. Go ahead and offer them the job. I can pay for them to have the required languages crammed into their heads and buy them a nice house with access to all the mundane news outlets anywhere on the Azores Archipelago for the purpose since they want to stay in Spellhaven."
As he left Penny's office, Harry's mind was still stuck on tracking people down and recalled a spell of Blood Magic that might come in handy. The Kinfinder was only powerful enough to find the parents or children of the one whose blood was used as a basis for it, but if he didn't already have the men who'd impregnated Abigail and Caroline locked up in Ravenhead by the time the children were born.....well, it was worth remembering.
It was a shame that he couldn't use the aborted fetuses of the other four pregnant women rescued from Malfoy Manor. The fact that they were conceived through rape already made the metaphysical link between parent and child tenuous at best, but abortion was an act of such complete and final rejection that it severed it completely.
XXXXX
August 20th, 2017. Spellhaven.
"You can come in now." The healer said.
Harry took a deep breath and then entered the room with his girls. How ridiculous is it that I feel more comfortable hunting Death Eaters than meeting a baby?
Aurélie was propped up in her bed, looking remarkably fresh for a woman that had just given birth. Then again, magic did allow for quite a bit of cheating in that regard. Healers specialising in child delivery were very good at precision Transfiguration and were able to open up the birth canal in a much smoother and less painful way than the natural one.
It made Harry think of how Dora would give birth. It would probably be over in ten seconds flat.The baby would slide right out.
He watched awkwardly as the girls cooed over the newborn veela, feeling entirely out of place and wishing he could flee to Ravenhead.
Alas, his attempts to impersonate furniture were for naught and he was eventually noticed.
"Would you like to hold her, Harry?" Aurélie asked.
"Sure." As if I could say no without putting myself in the doghouse with Fleur and Dora, though Luna would understand.
The newborn was deposited into his arms and immediately quieted, looking at him with big, sky-blue eyes. There was already a little silver fuzz on her head.
"She likes you." Luna beamed.
Of course she likes me, I'm the strongest source of magic in the room. Harry knew better than to voice the cynical thought in a room full of sentimental females, but it was the truth. Veela were drawn to powerful magic even before puberty activated their more carnal instincts.
"Must be the scars." He quipped instead.
"Definitely your best feature." Dora said sarcastically before turning to the abed veela with a question. "Did you decide on a name yet?"
"I was thinking Arielle." Aurélie answered the metamorphmagus, but looked towards him expectantly.
She's waiting to see if I have any objections. Harry glimpsed in her thoughts. More than that, she's subtly offering me a place – maybe not necessarily as a parent, but as something – by giving me a say in the baby's name. He could either give an opinion to accept or show disinterest to refuse and Aurélie would no doubt react accordingly. She already had three daughters who had nothing to do with their fathers after all, a fourth would be no trouble.
He looked back down at the baby in his arms, who had not stopped flailing her arms, cooing and grinning toothlessly ever since being deposited there.
Such a weak little thing. A frail body, a simple mind, a soul with almost no depth and the barest spark of magic.
Harry assumed that babies made some kind of sense to others, because he was personally mystified by them. Why did people have kids? They were loud, needy, selfish and they shat themselves whenever and wherever the urge struck them. What was the appeal? He didn't understand, procreation just seemed like such a base animal instinct designed to perpetuate one's species and bloodline, neither of which Harry cared about.
In the case of this particular baby, he was not only mystified, but also a touch intimidated, because he was going to have to interact with it. It was very considerate of Aurélie to try giving him an out and he appreciated it, but he also knew that it was a gesture made in vain.
Fleur was determined to be part of her new aunt's life. More importantly, she was determined to make him part of her life.
Luna was simply excited and had already classified the tiny veela as family, regardless of all else. Buddha, Zeus, Odin, the God -Emperor of Mankind and Optimus Prime could descend from the sky to tell her otherwise and she would cheerfully tell them that they were wrong. Knowing Luna, she'd probably win that argument too.
Dora had been initially exasperated by the fact that he'd knocked up Fleur's grandmother, but over the past nine months, that had slowly shifted into interest in the baby. Harry had the disturbing suspicion that she was planning to use the opportunity as practice.
So really, there was no option available but to push forward through the uncharted lands far beyond the comfort zone.
I guess I might as well do the same thing as Dora and treat this as practice. Harry thought in resignation. He knew that his girls would want children one day and he had no real reason to refuse them aside from not personally seeing the appeal.
"Sticking with the same theme you used with you other daughters?" He asked with a smile. "It's a good name."
Aurélie gave him a dazzling smile in return and Harry suddenly felt inappropriately aroused.
The newly named Arielle started fussing at that point and Harry could sense hunger and a desire to return to her mother. He also wondered if his sudden spike of arousal had triggered her feeding instinct. Something to test out in the future.
Feeling curious, he caressed the tiny aura with a feeling of soon. Arielle immediately stilled and started grinning at him toothlessly, radiating anticipation with none of the restraint that even young children learned.
Oddly enough, that made Harry feel better about the situation. He still didn't see much point in procreation and babies still didn't seem like something worth getting excited about, but at least this particular baby wasn't so intimidating anymore now that he could understand what she wanted.
XXXXX
September 2nd, 2017. Spellhaven.
Ever since finding the mysterious plant pod in the forest, all four of them checked up on it frequently, some more frequently than others.
It had grown considerably over the past two months. When Harry had first seen it, it had been barely larger than a basketball, now it was slightly more than four feet in diameter. The magic in it had also been growing stronger, yet also oddly more diffuse.
Not that you needed to be especially attuned to notice that last bit. The trees around the pod grew tall and strong, magical flowers and weeds were much more common here than in other parts of the island and various fairies were frequently sighted despite their generally shy behavior.
The only thing that puzzled Harry was the lack of any kind of sexual overtone to it all. He had quite deliberately set up the fertility rituals they'd been performing in such a way that the sexual nature of them would leak through.
That could mean one of two things. First, that kind of thing either didn't work on plants or trees purged the overtones, which was the same thing in the end. Second, it was something to do with the pod.
He hoped to have his answer today. There had been a rising sense of imminence about the pod lately and it seemed to be approaching resolution.
He wasn't the only one that was eager for the thing to 'hatch'. Luna had been coming by every day to stare at their 'plant baby', clearly not wanting to miss anything. She had a habit of singing to it as well. Fleur and Dora were less obvious about it, but they were also intrigued, Dora especially thanks to the minor penchant for Herbology that she got from her mother.
Seeing as they visited this place so often, they had turned these outings into picnics. That way they could enjoy themselves while keeping watch over the pod. Even with that though, they had stayed far longer today than they would have normally, but all of them sensed that they shouldn't go yet, that something was about to happen.
I was well into the third hour of their vigil for the day when there was a shift in the pod's magic and its walls began to shiver.
"It's happening!" Luna squealed excitedly, clambering forward so that she was sitting on her knees while staring at the pod with uncommon focus.
The rest of them quickly got on their feet. While none of them expected this to be dangerous, there was little sense in taking chances.
The pod slowly opened in much the same manner as a flower would, eventually revealing a humanoid figure curled into fetal position.
It was definitely female and very....green. The skin was a pale green that nobody could mistake for any human coloration. This was emphasised by the brownish patterns that decorated it, looking almost like tree bark, if less ragged.
The hair was also green, but much brighter, more like the color of the healthiest spring grass. In fact, it even looked like grass rather than hair.
"It's a dryad." Luna said in quiet awe, not moving her stare from the still motionless being. She did get up though.
"But there hasn't been a sighting in over a hundred and fifty years." Dora protested, equally quietly.
That was true. Another exclusively female species, if a species they could be called, dryads were caretakers and some said even personifications of their forest's spirit. It was extremely rare for any human to see them these days.
Not to say that dryads were extinct. It was commonly accepted that the Forbidden Forest boasted having a dryad and there were rumors of another in the depts of Germany's Black Forest and more in other locations, but nobody had seen any of them one in a long time. They tended to shy away from humans these days.
"I think Luna's right." Harry weighed in softly. "A lot of families used to perform fertility rituals and I guess at least some of them must have spawned dryads. It would even explain why they always look like women – that kind of magic leans heavily towards the female. Their numbers must have been dwindling ever since the old ways were abandoned."
"Aren't dryads immortal?" Fleur asked, puzzled.
The newborn dryad seemed to come awake before Harry could reply and slowly got to her feet.
"Oh my." Fleur breathed out in surprise, taking in the sight of her properly now that she was standing.
Harry had to agree with the sentiment. If the dryad was shorter than 7'5'', he would eat his boots. The top of his head didn't quite reach her shoulders.
Her figure was also very full and curvy, with wide hips and large, firm breasts. Breasts whose areolas he noted appeared to be imitating flowers and whose rather attention-grabbing yellow nipples were slowly oozing a thick amber nectar. Harry was reminded of daisies.
The face was beautiful ,feminine and the bark-like 'skin' patterns gave an impression of kindness, but the minute expressions that flitted over it didn't look quite right, as if the underlying musculature was a bit too stiff. The nose was just a bit too sharp, looking almost pointy and she didn't seem to be breathing. The lips could almost pass for human if not for their leafy green color, but they also had a rather leafy texture. The ears were the biggest departure from humanity, looking more like large wooden growths on the side of her head rather than functioning auditory organs.
The eyes were definitely functional however, being pools of softly glowing emerald light with no iris, pupils or sclera.
"She's beautiful." Luna said softly and scampered forward eagerly. "Hello, I'm Luna."
The dryad stared at the petite witch that didn't even reach her breasts. She didn't say a word but the forest around them whispered with a feeling of curiousity.
"Did you guys 'hear' that?" Dora asked quietly.
Harry and Fleur gave nods of confirmation, all three of them looking around warily. They suddenly felt surrounded.
The dryad looked directly at them and the forest whispered of calm-safety-no threat.
"She carries the soul of the entire forest." Harry said with interest, looking around and extending his senses as far as he could. "Fascinating. Though that would mean that wildfires or extensive deforestation would kill dryads as surely as destroying their avatar. No wonder they started avoiding humans."
"We have to protect her." Luna declared, giving the plant woman a firm hug.
The forest momentarily whispered of gratitude-happiness-care of parent and then the dryad awkwardly returned the hug.
"I am sensing this right?" Dora asked, squinting at the mismatched pair that was the tiny Luna and the huge dryad. "She thinks of us as her parents?"
"I suppose we did create her." Fleur said.
"And Luna has been insisting that she's out plant baby from the start." Harry added wryly.
The hug went on for a long few seconds before the dryad bent a little lower, presenting one of her leaking yellow nipples to Luna. A tremor of drink went through the forest.
"Luna." Harry warned. "I think you might want to step away now."
"Why?" Luna asked, puzzled. "She doesn't mean us any harm."
That was true. Harry had by now deduced that the dryad wasn't hearing their words so much as understanding the meanings behind them and was answering by projecting meaning from the forest that she was bound to. This form of communication precluded deception, but still, ingesting an unknown substance was generally a bad idea.
The dryad sensed their wariness again and gave them a look that could only be called earnest. The forest murmured assurances of good intent.
Luna naturally took it at face value and licked the nipple.
"Oooh, that's tasty." She shivered, flushing and licking her lips.
"Luna…" Dora groaned in exasperation, stepping forward to get the little witch away from the towering plant woman.
Harry also stepped forward and reached out to squeeze one of the pale green breasts. They were far too firm to be made of flesh and fat, but the amber nectar squirted over his hand as if he'd done it to a pregnant woman. The dryad helpfully gave him access, the forest suffused with anticipation.
Harry carefully sniffed at the sticky stuff. It smelled almost sickly sweet and registered as highly magical to his senses. Seeing as it hadn't done Luna any obvious harm, he tentatively poked the tip of his tongue at it and rolled it around his mouth for a bit.
Almost immediately, his mouth filled with saliva, his blood started rushing south and his muscles hummed with restless energy.
"Fleur, you know that fertility ritual we performed together?" Harry said thoughtfully, staring at the now eager looking dryad.
"How could I forget?" She replied with a grimace. "It was horrible."
"Be that as it may, I think it did actually achieve something."
"Wait….are you telling me that this dryad is part veela?" Dora asked incredulously, still holding on to a squirming Luna.
"Not exactly, but she's definitely no ordinary dryad." Harry answered, deliberately sucking the rest of the nectar off his hand. His face was flushed with arousal now and his groin throbbed with need. "This nectar of hers is a magical aphrodisiac, almost like a liquid form of the Allure mixed with a mild Invigoration Draught. I'm not sensing any compulsion in it, unless you count an extreme desire to fuck something immediately as a compulsion. I'd also bet my pinky toes that she can absorb magic through sexual discharge just like a veela."
"We should feed her then." Luna suggested.
The dryad was also clearly in favor, given the way that the forest near-shivered with agreement-anticipation-hunger.
"I was just thinking the same thing." Harry said, staring slightly hypnotized as more streams of the dryad's amber nectar oozed from between her legs. Her green lips made a facsimile of a smile, revealing a mouth as toothless as that of a newborn baby and a tongue that kind of resembled the leaf of an aloe vera plant….if said plant leaves were smoother and slimier. There was a tentacle hentai joke somewhere in there, but Harry was too horny right now to think of it.
"It could be interesting." Fleur said and scooped up some of the nectar for herself. "Mm, this is really good. You need to try this, Nymmie."
Tonks took a good look at the scene in front of her and rolled her eyes in exasperation. Fleur had already started sucking on the yellow nipple and there was stream of arousal trickling down her leg. Luna had taken advantage of her small size to kneel in front of the dryad and lick up the nectar streaming down her thighs. Harry was just watching with a small grin and stroking himself, having already divested himself of clothing.
What a bunch of weirdoes and pervs she'd fallen in with.
"I can't believe the things you three get me into." Dora sighed and stepped forward to wrap her lips around the sole available nipple.
Fleur had been right. It really was good.
XXXXX
Later.
Harry groaned with satisfaction as he came into the dryad's tight arse analogue, which was really more like a second vagina analogue since she didn't need a way to dispose waste. It even self-lubricated with more of that aphrodisiac nectar.
He briefly contemplated having another go before shaking his head and deciding to take a break, going to sit on the picnic blanket they'd brought with them.
Luna was also taking a break and immediately nestled herself in his lap.
Fleur and Dora were still busy 'feeding' the dryad, though who was feeding who was debatable. Dora was pinned under the massive plant woman in futa form, being ridden into the ground with a nipple in her mouth keeping her permanently ready for more. Harry had been in her position a while ago and knew that they'd probably keep at it until Dora's hips became too bruised to continue. Harry was glad for his rune-enhanced healing ability or he'd still be black and blue around the waist.
As for Fleur….she had previously been milking the other tit and sucking down the Allure-laden nectar like it was ambrosia while diddling herself, but had now switched to slurping his jizz out of the dryad's pseudo-arse….while diddling herself. Heh, veela, so gloriously nasty.
This had been an interesting experience. The dryad didn't seem to experience pleasure or orgasm, at least not in any way that he could perceive, but the sense of magic around her and the forest itself had thickened noticeably since they'd started boinking her.
"What should we call her?" Luna asked out of the blue.
"You want to name her?" Harry asked back, bemused. He didn't think that the lusty dryad really needed or cared for names.
"Of course." Luna replied as if it was obvious. "I'm not going to let our plant baby go through life nameless."
"Alright." Harry conceded, amused. "Feel free to name her then."
Luna spent a few minutes deep in thought, staring at the still fornicating dryad, veela and metamorphmagus.
"Marae, her name will be Marae." She declared.
"Where'd you get that name?"
"It just came to me and it feels appropriate."
"Alright then, Marae it is." Harry agreed and slipped his hand between her legs. "Now I think that you've had enough of a break."
"Doggystyle please." Luna requested politely and went on all fours." I want to watch."
"Good." Harry grunted as he sheathed himself inside her." Because so do I."
XXXXX
Even later.
Harry groaned as Marae offered him her nipple again.
"Sorry, girl, but we're done." He said apologetically. "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy and bruised."
Marae briefly pouted, the forest around them echoing her disappointment, but she quickly shrugged it off, got back on her feet and skipped merrily after a passing fairy, absurdly light on her feet for something that must have weighed a hundred and fifty kilograms or more.
"Is she gone?" Dora asked tiredly.
"Yeah, she's gone."
"Thank Merlin." The metamorphmagus sighed in relief. "One more orgasm and my cunt might have gone on strike."
"Like your penis?" Luna asked sleepily.
"Yes, like my penis." Dora was too tired to even be snarky about it.
Fleur let out a delicate snore. Harry was reminded of a bear that had gorged on honey for hours, fucked its mate and then decided to sleep it off, albeit less hairy.
XXXXX
The next morning.
"Cissy, I need you to spread some news around town." Harry began.
"What kind of news?" The blonde witch asked dutifully.
"There's a horny dryad in the forest now. Her name is Marae and anyone can go visit her if they want to take a tumble in the dirt, but she is not to be harmed under any circumstances. Make it clear that I will not be happy with anyone that tries it."
"How did you get a dryad on the island?" Narcissa asked incredulously.
"The girls and I made her." Harry answered blithely.
"Right…." Narcissa had no idea what to think about this, so she just pushed forward. "What about the werewolves and the sphinxes? The former run through the forest when they're transformed and the latter seem to wander the island at a whim."
"I'll talk to the werewolves myself and I'm sure Luna will want to tackle the sphinxes."
XXXXX
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming." Harry said to the room full of werewolves, about forty in all hailing from all over Europe. Most of them were scarred and looked perpetually tired, a clear sign of struggle against the beast within. He was intending to see what he could do about that eventually, but they were still too uneasy with the new territory for any kind of social experimentation at the moment.
There was a return murmur of greeting, but none of them really raised their voice.
"Well, I'll get right to the point. The forest has acquired a new resident that you'll need to be aware of during your monthly furry party. She's a dryad and may or may not show herself to you while you're running about in werewolf form. If she does show herself to you, there is a high probability that she will attempt to entice you into mating with her. Feel free to do so if you want, I would encourage it even."
"You want us to mate with the dryad while we're transformed?" One of them asked incredulously.
"Or when you aren't." Harry nodded. "Nothing is stopping you from seeking her out while every other day of the month after all. The reason for this is that she draws strength from sex and will in turn make the forest stronger. And don't worry about her not being in the mood, if that happens then you simply won't find her. However, under no circumstances are you to do her any harm. That would….displease me."
The gathered werewolves momentarily tensed and hunched down slightly, much like a subordinate wolf would when faced with the pack alpha's warning growl, but it passed quickly as their humanity overrode the beast within.
XXXXX
While Harry was talking to the werewolves, Luna had gone to talk to the sphinxes.
After careful consideration, Harry had brought two dozen of them to Spellhaven, three males and twenty-one females. They separated into three distinct 'prides' and claimed territories around the village. The territories actually encircled the entire village, which made people nervous as they saw the sphinxes prowling through them, but the fact that they clearly obeyed Harry kept things calm for the most part. Few were brave enough to actually go near the spots where they made their dens though.
Luna was one of these people. She liked the sphinxes, they were interesting to talk to and didn't really understand why the people of Spellhaven were so scared of them. Just because they were highly magic resistant and strong enough to knock a man's head off in one blow didn't mean they would. They were here to protect the island, not hurt the people living on it. Oh well, they were still fairly new. She was sure that people would get used to them soon enough.
"Greetings, Spellweaver." The sphinx that spoke for the particular pride that she was visiting right now said.
"Hello, Kitty." Luna said back cheerfully. If they were going to give her nicknames, then so was she.
"Our battle of wits was not to be until the next day. Did you wish to have it today, or are you here for another reason?" The sphinx dubbed Kitty asked with a smile.
Luna frequently challenged the sphinxes to contests of riddles. It was lots of fun.
"Another reason." She answered. "There's a dryad in the living in the forest now. Her name is Marae and she likes to have sex. Harry says that you can boink her if you want, but he's very protective of her, so make sure you don't play too rough."
Kitty nodded in understanding. "I will let the others know. The males may be interested at least."
"Great!" Luna beamed and gave the big human/lion hybrid a hug. "I'll be back tomorrow with more riddles."
"I look forward to it." Kitty said, smiling to herself as the small witch skipped away.
XXXXX
With timing that was almost too convenient for words, the end of the summer holidays and the beginning of the school year also marked the start of a holding pattern in the conflict between Harry, Voldemort and the various players who had stakes in it.
Dumbledore barely gave it any thought as he let himself be carried by the tide of events into another school year. To him, it was practically expected that nothing would happen for at least a few months after September rolled around.
Harry and Voldemort were both far less sanguine about the matter.
Harry wanted to capitalize on his initiative. He wanted to raid more safehouses, take more prisoners, find more horcruxes, anything except wait and allow his enemy time to recover. With no information though, that was what he was forced to do.
Voldemort too, was unhappy. He had been forced to hide in Russia's vast territories out of fear of what a boy of seventeen would do if he found him. He wanted to return to Britain as a conqueror, prove his power, sow terror and discord and once again show why he was to be feared. But with his support base largely killed, weak from a decade and a half of imprisonment or enduring Potter's hospitality, he was also forced to simmer.
With nothing else to do, he focused heavily on recruitment. The giants were nearly extinct, but they were always easily seduced with the promise of revenge against wizards and a good fight. Fenrir Greyback may have vanished, something that Voldemort correctly guessed was yet again the doing of his nemesis, but there were still werewolves of like mind out there. The dementors would surely flock back to his banner, but at the moment it would be foolish to go to Britain and treat with them.
Above all though, he needed more witches and wizards. In this, his followers proved to be unusually competent and his ranks steadily began to swell.
Unknown to Voldemort, the unexpectedly successful recruitment campaign had little to do with the competence of his minions. In truth, it was a vampire's machinations that were to thank for that.
Bjomolf had been around for far longer than the current magical society and had kept a careful eye on the situation as it developed over the course of centuries. In this time, he had amassed a vast hoard of information on just about everyone. Most of this information went unused, but now he used it to carefully pull strings and funnel support towards Voldemort.
Wizards and witches of shaky moral fiber that were easily seduced by promises of power, gold and glory found themselves encountering Death Eater recruiters, unfriendly eyes were directed elsewhere and reports of any indiscretions committed by antsy Death Eaters were smothered so as to not catch Harry Potter's attention.
On the other end of the spectrum, Harry was considerably more busy than his destined foe.
The governance of Spellhaven settled down once it was no longer so very new, but that was often his least demanding duty. Narcissa could be trusted to handle most of it without his input and the blonde witch rather enjoyed the power and prestige this afforded her.
Harry also kept an eye on several other developments around his island.
Much as he had expected, Marae happily rutted with anyone and everyone that she could. Men, women, werewolves, sphinxes, she would fuck them all. Barely a day went by where she wasn't boffing someone. Consequently, the forest exploded with growth, driven by the power the dryad absorbed from these couplings. Within a month, the vegetation was so thick in the deeper parts of it that one would be forgiven for thinking that they had somehow wandered into the Amazon rainforest. Many species of magical plants also began to thrive in this environment and caused Spellhaven to become a place of interest for the more adventurous herbologists of the world.
Interestingly enough, Marae also seemed inclined to take suggestions on where to direct growth. If left to her own devices, she would make things grow indiscriminately, but Harry had told her to keep the growth lighter around the village and she did so without complaint, the forest whispering of a child following the orders of a beloved parent.
On an amusing side note, Marae's nectar also became a rather highly sought-after commodity.
Harry had asked her to milk herself and she did so, happily filling up the containers he provided. Some experimentation revealed that it functioned as a rather effective aphrodisiac, cure for impotence and bizarrely enough, a remedy for the common cold.
While this had its uses for various fun activities on Spellhaven(the veela were especially happy to have it), Harry's mind turned to how it could be used to make a profit. Upon discovering the sadly underwhelming demand for such things in most of the magical world, he eventually began selling it for extortionist prices in the mundane black market, much to the consternation of authorities and criminals alike, neither of which could chemically analyse what made the stuff effective, nor catch the mystery supplier that was, in a very literal way, supernaturally good at avoiding attention.
Another thing that he looked in on from time to time was the veela. Harry got suspicious as Aurélie continued to bring more of them over to the château. None of them were quite as pleasant as the three masseuses, but they all had some skill or other to show off and it always ended with great sex where they were all too submissive to be for real.
The pattern took months to really become obvious, it actually started with that massage parlor that he had been so pleasantly bribed into sponsoring. Barely a day passed since its opening before it became known as a place of, heh, 'happy endings'. This was generally far better received by the men of the island than the women and caused no small amount of jealousy among the non-veela females. It eventually settled into a sort of grumbling acceptance when it became clear that he wasn't going to tell the veela to tone it down.
That implicit support made the veela bolder. Over time they stopped mimicking human courtship rituals and simply started inviting people over for sex, sometimes even couples or entire groups. After a few months it was no longer unusual for find a whole flock of veela prowling Spellhaven in search of people to fuck and it was rare for a day to pass by that they didn't have an open-ended orgy going on at their commune. They even had a massive room set aside specifically for orgies.
The fiction of marriage had long since been dispensed with at that point, with 'husbands' becoming something of a shared commodity, not that they really complained. there was some grumbling from the human population about how this kind of behavior cheapened the bonds of marriage as a whole, but it was, somewhat forcefully, pointed out to them that what other people did with their lives was none of their concern.
Harry had even managed to disperse the tension between himself and Fleur's family…..by fucking her mother. Veela were weird like that, but he wasn't complaining. It certainly beat talking.
Harry and the girls frequently participated in the veela's shenanigans, but they never Joined with any of them, reserving that privilege only for those they were in a true relationship with. Even Fleur no longer Joined with her fellow veela now that she could control it. Oddly enough, although it had been a source of tension between him and Fleur's family at first, with Fleur being a clearly equal and valued part of the foursome rather than a subjected concubine or something of the like, the veela seemed to think it sort of romantic. Their immunity to the veela brand of sexual manipulation also reinforced their position and kept the silver-haired temptresses from cooking up any schemes of becoming the power behind the throne, so to speak.
When Harry finally noticed the steadily changing pattern of behavior in the veela and called Aurélie over for a talk, they had largely cast off the trappings of humanity and he quickly deduced that the elder veela had been bringing girls over as a sort of benefits package. The two of them talked it over and Harry agreed to let them do as they pleased, but only as long as the veela didn't go back to their old ways of keeping addled harems for each of them.
Aurélie had no problem with that condition, as their own culture had evolved since those days. They were much happier living together in a commune and encouraging their human lovers to form families with other humans. That would keep both their populations sustained with the only downside being any potential jealousy from women – or the occasional man – unwilling to join in on the fun. That issue would simply have to be dealt with on a case by case basis.
The pact was sealed with a good fucking, as dictated by veela custom. Harry strongly suspected that Aurélie had made that one up on the spot.
And on the topic of Aurélie was also the daughter he'd given her.
Harry would be lying if he said that he was comfortable around little Arielle, but he did manage to painfully and awkwardly get used to her. Sort of. He no longer had to employ Occlumency to keep from fidgeting when he needed to interact with the baby veela at least. He would never be capable of acting like a father to her, but he might manage to pull off a brooding uncle that was nicer than he acted.
Fleur, Luna and Dora were clearly and obviously using the situation to torment him, the evil bitches. That it had the side benefit of desensitizing him to the worst effects of babies before they eventually demanded their own was purely incidental.
The business side of things was less confusing to Harry.
Bryanna and Tiana's clothing business had been moved to Spellhaven for their safety and continued to do well enough, but the market outside of Britain was a good deal more competitive so penetration there went slowly, if steadily. The twins' joke shop remained in Britain but his money allowed them to open a new branch on Spellhaven, and another in France.
But the greater bulk of his business was in the communication mirror venture and the related one of television mirrors. The former had already gathered quite a bit of momentum by the time the second was put forward and the success was more than even Harry had expected.
Fleur and Luna pitched in here just as they said they would, allowing the sudden avalanche of interest to be handled with something resembling order. They retained executive positions once things settled down, with Harry being all too happy that he was able to delegate to someone both trustworthy and competent.
With the mundane world as an example, it was easy to exploit the virgin market for all it was worth. News, sports broadcasts, livestreaming of band performances…..there was no shortage of opportunity and everyone that had any inkling of how big this would get wanted in at the ground level. It got even better when Septima and her people deconstructed and repurposed the recording crystals used in omniculars so that proper movies could be made instead of just streaming theater performances. Harry had no idea why nobody had done that before, but he wasn't going to look this particular gift horse in the mouth.
Since there was really no such thing as a magical movie actor at that point, those crystals only got used to record mundane TV shows or movies for the moment, which were then shown on a schedule. This upset more traditionalist magicals, but Harry paid them little mind.
With no pesky laws preventing a single person from having a monopoly over the budding industry, the Houses of Potter and Black rapidly became the richest magical families in the world, which also inevitably gave them a great deal of influence. Anyone that wanted to use Potter telemirrors would have to pay him a fee for the privilege. The fact that he was also profiting from looting quite a few of the old family manors in Britain due to his agreement with Fudge certainly helped with this. He couldn't get at their Gringotts vaults, but there was plenty of money in property as well.
This kind of overwhelming success had a few unexpected knock-on effects.
The first was that production lagged behind demand by a considerable margin. The people he had employed to actually make the enchanted mirrors simply could not keep up. This created a sudden large demand for skilled enchanters and arithmancers, especially ones that were familiar with the mundane world.
The second was that news outlets such as the Daily Prophet suddenly felt threatened by the arrival of this new type of media. That was a minor thing as they couldn't really cite any laws that he was breaking, nor were such businesses anywhere near powerful enough to do more than grumble ineffectually.
The third was that the British Wizengamot came to be rather afraid of him as a whole, though there were a few outliers with more spine that refused to be intimidated such as Amelia Bones and Augusta Longbottom. Some saw his ever increasing wealth and began sucking up even more than usual, the rest saw his decimation of the hardline pureblood families and how the ministry backed his profiteering from their downfall and decided to play it safe by simply nodding their heads in agreement whenever he spoke. Harry didn't actually attend Wizengamot meetings often, for which much of it was silently grateful, but when he did he generally got his way.
The fourth and the one that caught Harry the most off guard by far was that Spellhaven ended up becoming something of a midway point between Europe and the Americas.
The magical side of the two continents had a long history of politely hostile relations, egged on in large part by the goblins and their legendary ability to hold grudges. The cantankerous pointy-eared midgets deliberately obstructed any kind of trade between the two by making currency exchange needlessly difficult. It took an especially determined American to jump through the hoops required to get his hands on any galleons. It was somewhat easier the other way around, but still pointlessly difficult.
With Harry not really caring what kind of money he was paid in, Spellhaven became an excellent place to avoid goblin bullshit, aided by the ambiguous legal status of the island. That it sat smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic made people think it was his intention all along.
The thought hadn't even crossed his mind, but he took credit for it anyway. The goblins were furious, but dared not get too shirty with their wealthiest client.
This situation gave Spellhaven a level of influence completely disproportionate to its size and youth and attracted more people than Harry had expected. Some came in the hopes of profiting from the island's unexpected prosperity, others were drawn by the somewhat crazy rumors circulating through the world and then of course were more veela, who came because they were eager to leave behind the charade of humanity they were forced to maintain in lands ruled by fearful and unimaginative bureaucrats.
Luckily they had erred on the side of caution when setting aside land for habitation and still had room to expand, but if it kept up for too long they'd have to see about adding more land to the coastlines. Harry refused to infringe on the forest, which would have been a much easier alternative. Granted, he could ask Marae to actually move the treeline further inland, but the forest unfortunately did not have much in the way of extra space and there was only so much that it could be compressed. It would be a difficult task with relatively small returns.
Once again unknown to everyone, Bjomolf and his fellow master vampires pulled strings in the background to aid Harry's endeavours where they could. They kept their machinations too subtle to really be noticed unless one knew it was happening, but Harry had more success and encountered fewer problems than he might have otherwise.
In the meanwhile, Dora busied herself with other things. She started training up a fighting force to counter Voldemort's Death Eaters, knowing that they wouldn't always be able to rely on the DMLE or Dumbledore to back them up.
In hindsight unsurprisingly, many of the first volunteers were the more combative types among the werewolves and veela.
The former had decided that they liked their new home and wanted to protect it. Their werewolf instinct to follow a powerful alpha also helped push them in this direction. Harry and Dora might not be werewolves themselves, but they fit the archetype of a strong alpha with his mate closely enough that their instincts accepted it.
The motivations of the veela were only slightly less straightforward. They were after greater favor from the lord of their new home in the hopes of advancing Aurélie's plan and of course the sex.
Not all of those that had volunteered for training actually wanted to fight Voldemort and breathed sighs of relief when they learned that it wasn't a condition for receiving training, which many were eager to take part in even if it was only as a 'just in case' measure.
Both Harry and Dora were a bit disappointed by the small number of people actually willing to go on the offensive, but they didn't say anything about it. Instead, they simply drilled those few extra hard to make them as useful as possible. Demanding that people throw themselves into combat against a Dark Lord would only harm their efforts.
The only solid action against Voldemort that Harry was able to take was to use his newly acquired international influence to put out a reward for information that would lead to Death Eaters or Voldemort himself. He didn't want to put out bounties for actually killing Death Eaters, because he still needed information from them.
Still, despite the thousand galleon reward or equivalent amount of money for reliable information, he did not catch any Death Eaters. Plenty of false alarms and dead ends, but nothing solid.
The months trickled past in this manner.
Dumbledore oversaw his school, pondered the future and sucked on lemon drops.
Voldemort gathered followers so that his reign of terror might be properly restarted.
With all his attempts at tracking his foe coming up with nothing, Harry was left with nothing to do but expand his power base and prepare for the inevitable conflict.
When a letter from Adrastia Zabini arrived on one fine April day, asking if she could come visit, Harry knew that things were heating up again.