Harry Potter and the Charm of Venus

Chapter 5 – Arithmancy

The following day, Harry actually found himself up early. His stomach made an angry rumble and he decided to get down to the Great Hall for breakfast before his friends awoke. He hadn’t had a chance for anything after his time with Millacent the night before, and they had certainly managed to work up an appetite. He had gone to bed on a few stale crackers and a butterbeer. Not exactly the most restorative of snacks. Needless to say, this morning he was famished.

The hall was mostly empty, even though the long house tables were already being filled with all manner of breakfast foods. A few other early birds as well as two or three instructors were milling about or just taking advantage of the quiet to read the morning paper in peace. Harry glanced over to the pillar where he and Millacent had been and his mind filled with images and memories of their lovemaking. He decided that Dean Thomas was right about that too… you did want her even more after the first time.

Shaking his head to clear away the lurid fantasy he was creating involving the girl, he grabbed a plate and started stacking on muffins and sausages. It didn’t help that everything he looked at on the table was reminding him of her. The smooth surface of a loaf of bread made him think of her belly, and the decorative currants placed at the top of a pair of muffins brought up visions of her dark nipples in the magical moonlight. He was staring rather distractedly into the blueberry syrup when there was a screech and a commotion at his shoulder that almost caused him to dump his breakfast on the floor. He jumped and turned to see an owl settling down on the table, a note attached to its leg.

Frowning, he wondered who would be writing him now? The normal post didn’t arrive for hours. He carefully untied the small message from the creature’s leg and tossed it a sausage link, which it caught deftly and rose back into the air.

Harry,*

Please see me in my office first thing this morning to discuss an issue with your essay.

Professor Tonks.

PS- Sorry for the wake up call, it was necessary.

He reread the message, frowning. “First thing,”? What possible problem could she have had with his Gallimander Puff essay that would require such urgency? Had he blown it that badly? And what was that about a wake up call? Then he remembered that he was up earlier than he had been in weeks. Any other morning that owl would have found him in bed.

Something wasn’t right. He regretfully set down the plate of food in his hand and headed for the classrooms. As he climbed a long stair, he wondered what it was that his Defense Against the Dark Arts professor could really want? Surely not just an update on how it went with Millacent. Tonks might be a bit of a snoop for juicy gossip, but she respected his privacy probably as much as he did. He reached his Defense class only to find the door locked. Frustrated and starving, he was just about to give up and head back to his waiting breakfast when someone touched his shoulder and he nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Thank the stars I found you, Harry,” said Tonks pulling out her key ring. After unlocking the door, she withdrew a small glass ball from her robes and held it up to the darkened room beyond the doorway. The sphere glowed faintly blue for several seconds, but otherwise seemed completely passive. Tonks placed the sphere back in her robes and ushered Harry into the classroom while muttering, “Aduro”. The candles around the room came alight at once. Harry noticed with slight nervousness that Tonks closed and then locked the door behind them.

“Please make yourself comfortable, Harry. I’ll just be a second.” With that, the witch placed a large bag he now noticed she was carrying on the table of her desk and started to withdraw a number of books. He couldn’t see any of the titles, but he did recognize several editions of the Daily Prophet, as well as in the jumbled stack. Not knowing why he was there, he took his normal first row seat and waited while she scribbled a quick note on a piece of parchment. Then, holding the paper up she pointed her wand at it and uttered the words, “Effor Accendo!” Instantly, the note burst into flames and disappeared.

“Now,” she said turning to Harry. “Let’s talk about Hermione.”

He was a little surprised, and fervently hoped she didn’t mean in an intimate way. In a way, he was glad not to have to explain his piss-poor job with the essay. “Uh, sure Prof… er, what would you like to know?”

She dropped into her own desk chair and kicked her feet up while she pushed off a pair of heavy black boots. “You mentioned last we talked that she had blown off her arithmancy project. You expressed how unlike her that was.”

Harry didn’t like the aggressive tone Tonks was taking. “Yeah, and I also think I mentioned that it was might be due to the fact that she has pulled so much of my magical energy in the last week or so that she might not even have to try any more.”

“The transfer of sexual energy improves or hinders your magical abilities, Harry. It doesn’t make you smarter. But just on the off chance you might be right, I talked with Professor’s McGonagall and Flitwick. Hermione has been doing sub-par work for at least two weeks. Her grades have slipped to a barely acceptable status in Arithmancy, and well below acceptable in Transfiguration. She was about to be given academic probation.”

He was speechless. Hermione? Probation? “How can that be? She would never let her grades get that bad, not Hermione! Oh god… Tonks, do you think it’s me? That she’s become fixated on sex or something?”

The woman rolled her eyes. “No, Harry. I don’t think it’s you, or the sex for that matter. Anyone else, and I might have had my doubts, but in this case, I have to agree with you… Not our Hermione.”

“Then what then? The Venus Charm?”

“Possibly, but again, I don’t believe so. Harry, I think Hermione may be under the Imperious curse.”

Harry said nothing for several seconds. It frightened him to think of one of his closest friends being controlled by someone else. “Imperious… But… Who? Why?!”

Tonks shook her head slightly. “‘Who’ is a very good question Harry, which requires an answer, and soon. As for the, ‘why’… I should think that was obvious. To get at you.”

“Me?! But… but, that’s insane. Why would someone use Hermione to get to me? Do you think they could get her to kill me or something?”

She rolled her eyes. “Think, Harry. How have you felt the last few weeks?”

“Well, up until last night, exhausted.” He noticed that Tonks looked at him a little curiously.

“And why is that?”

He frowned. She knew why. “Well, heavy sex all the time has a way of doing that…”

Blushing slightly, she smiled. “No, Harry, I mean specifically.”

He was confused. Why the embarrassing interrogation if she already knew the answer. And then it hit him. “The Venus Charm!”

She nodded. “Yes. For you, sex is more than recreational. Probably more than anyone else at Hogwarts, sex for you is draining, Harry. It leaves you in an extremely weakened state magically.”

“Voldemort,” he said simply.

“Exactly. He’s tried on four different occasions to take you on, and each time he’s been thwarted. I’m sure he’s looking for any advantage he can find.”

“But then, wouldn’t he be the one behind the Imperious Curse?” He loathed the idea that his friends could be hunted in order to get at him.

“Possibly, but not like likely. It’s not how he works. He’d have one of his lackeys do it for him. A Deatheater. The question we need to answer is which one. If we knew that, we might be able to set a trap for them the next time they make contact with her.”

“Contact? With Hermione?” Harry was horrified.

Tonks face softened a bit. “Yes, Harry. The Imperious curse needs to be re-applied every so often to keep it strong. They would also want to know your status… To find out how weak you are. I just thank the stars we were able to break the Charm of Venus before the first twenty-eight day deadline. Having you under her control is almost as dangerous as if you had been Imperioused yourself.”

Something was bothering him. “Tonks, about that… uh…”

“Bother, Harry. You DID manage to hook up with Millacent last night didn’t you?!”

“What? Oh sure!”

“Then what is it?”

He frowned a little as he spoke. “Um… How would I know if the charm had been broken?”

It was her turn to frown. “What do you mean? Didn’t you see a bright orange flash while you were… you know?” She was obviously trying not to embarrass Harry too much. It wasn’t working.

“Uh… I was pretty distracted.”

“Think, Harry. It’s important. It would have been an orange flash and a loud crack. There might have even been some ash-like residue.”

He shook his head. “There wasn’t. I might have missed the flash, but not a loud sound. It was quiet in there… save for us I mean,” he answered blushing.

Tonks was lost in thought, her face looked seriously worried. “And you’re sure about three different girls…”

“I may suck at arithmancy, but I think I can count to three,” he replied a little miffed.

“I didn’t mean to imply you couldn’t, Potter. But either we’ve missed something or she…”

“What?” He asked when she faltered.

“Oh my god… if she used the permanent version…”

Harry swallowed. “She said she didn’t.”

“Yes, but she could have been lying. Okay… Wait! You said she used candles… What color?”

“Color?”

“Harry, please!”

“… white!”

She breathed a sigh and closed her eyes for a moment. “Okay… I think we’re safe. The permanent version has red candles and is a lot more complex. Too much for Hermione on her own anyway. Under the Imperious, I’m not sure.”

“So it was the… regular version, then?”

“I’m almost certain. But that still doesn’t explain why you didn’t see the charm break. Harry, I don’t mean to pry, but could you please tell me who else has, er… helped you?”

“It was… well, the Patil sisters. But they were happy to help… You don’t think they’re somehow in on it do you, or Imperioused themselves or something?”

But Tonks wasn’t listening. She was lost in thought. “I wonder…”

“Huh?”

All at once she sat up in her chair and shuffled through the stack of books on her desk. Finding one in particular she withdrew it from near the bottom of the stack which sent several others tumbling off the edge with a crash. She ignored them and flipped open the tome in front of her, searching.

“Thestrals… Toad Stools… Troll Spit… Here it is! Twins!” Harry could see that she was quickly reading from some kind of reference. She was mouthing words as she went. “… Identical… use of magic… bound from birth… reflective opposites… counted as… oh crap…” She slammed the book closed.

“What?! Don’t leave me hanging!” He was up and out of his chair.

“We have a serious problem, Harry. The charm is still intact.”

He was stunned, and the queazy feeling in his stomach was no longer related to food. “I… I thought all I had to do was, er… court, three girls other than Hermione.”

“And that’s true,” continued Tonks. “Except that two of the girls you chose are twins. Identical twins.”

Confused again, Harry shook his head. “What does that have to do…”

“Harry, in the wizarding world, identical twins are much more closely bonded. They share thoughts, emotions, even magical energy.”

“They mentioned something about being opposites on the Halvard scale.”

“That’s right. Unfortunately, twins are so close that magically, they can often be treated as a single entity.”

“Single? But then… instead of.. doing it, with two different girls, to the charm it was counted…”

Tonk’s face looked genuinely concerned for Harry. “As only one.”

He couldn’t believe it. Weeks of exhaustion and now it was all for nothing. And worse, he now knew that Hermione was being controlled by some dark witch or wizard and that any time he had sex with her, it wouldn’t really be her at all, but some puppet. “Bloody hell… I don’t think I can do it again for another month,” he exclaimed dropping back into his seat like a bag of potatoes. “Tonks, what am I going to do?!”

She didn’t answer at once, but when she did, there was a slight caution to her voice. “Harry, what time was it when Hermione placed the charm on you? When did she first have sex with you?”

He blushed heavily having been asked such a personal question, but tried to remember. “Uh… It was morning. Why?”

“I need to know the exact time…”

“We left before eight, I remember that much. It took a bit to walk down there, then we shopped for a while, say an hour. Then we had butterbeers…”

“Harry!”

“I’m thinking!” He replied, frustrated. “Probably about ten o’clock… Yeah, had to be.”

Tonks glanced over at the fireplace mantle and Harry followed her gaze. There was an ornate clock resting there which read twenty minutes after nine. When Harry looked back to Tonks, she was staring at him strangely.

“There still may be time,” she said.

“What? How?! With all respect, where am I going to find a girl in the next forty minutes that would be willing to just drop everything and jump into my lap?!”

Tonks was staring down into her lap. After a moment, she said quietly, “Right here. Me, Harry.”

He was stunned speechless.

“Look,” she said without bringing her eyes up. He could see that her cheeks were flushed red. “I know it’s weird. No less so for me, but it’s really important that we break that charm. It’s like you said, you can’t take another month.”

“Tonks… I don’t know if I can…”

“It’s got to be now, Harry. There isn’t time to find someone else. If we… act, now, we can stop it. Otherwise…”

She let the implication hang. Harry just slumped into his chair. Did he really have a choice?

“Alright then,” he sighed. “What, uh… what should I do?”

Tonks closed her eyes for a moment, then stood up from behind her desk. Walking around it, she came and stood in front of Harry, just to the side of his chair. “Um… Listen, if you’d prefer, I can change my appearance to anyone you want. Millacent, or one of the twins. It won’t make a difference what I look like…”

“NO!” The force of his answer surprised even him. “No,” he repeated more softly. “It makes a difference to me.”

Nymphadora Tonks looked as though she might be about to cry, and with a wan smile, she bent forward and closed her eyes. Not knowing what else to do, Harry turned his face up to hers and received the kiss.

She was nothing like Millacent, or the twins, or Hermione for that matter. Kissing Tonks was a unique experience altogether. She tasted slightly of peppermint, and her lips were thinner, her mouth stronger than the others. Perhaps it was her age, or maybe just the structure of her face. After all, she was only about five years older than Harry himself. Whatever the difference, he found her to be wonderfully arousing in an almost forbidden sort of way. She was his professor after all.

With a bit of hesitation, she reached out with her hands and placed her palms on his shoulders as she moved closer. As their kiss grew, she started to make little mewing sounds, which were almost desperate, but which matched the somewhat shaky touch of her fingers as she curled them around his neck and brought her whole body even closer to his. When she was literally standing over him, Harry finally worked up enough courage to reach his hands up. He had intended on grasping her waist, but because she was bending down at the same time, he suddenly found his fingers bumping into her breasts. She gasped and broke their kiss, but did not pull away. Instead, she placed her cheek against his so that he could clearly make out how intently she was breathing. From the sound of it, he figured she was even more nervous than he was.

He hadn’t pulled back his hands as he had wanted to, and instead flattened his palms over her chest. He could easily make out the bumps of her nipples below his touch, as well as the flushed warmth of her body beneath the fabric of her blouse. After a minute or so, she finally did break away, straightening up. She said nothing, but just leaned back against her desk, panting and staring at Harry who was beginning to think he had maybe done something wrong. But then her hands reached for the buckle of her belt, and after loosening the clasp, she unzipped her jeans and was urging them slowly over her hips.

He was transfixed. He had never considered Tonks as a sexual being. At best, she was the slightly rebellious and most physically attractive member of the Order of the Phoenix, but that was all. Now though, to see her peeling out of her clothes in front of him, knowing that she was doing so so that they could make love… It was almost too much. When she had stepped out of her pants, she reached for the buttons of her blouse. She opened it from top to bottom before she realized that he was just sitting there, stunned. Her face took on a slightly guilty look.

“Oh, my. Stand up, Harry. I should have guessed this might be a little hard for you. I’ll help since we don’t have much time.”

She pulled the blouse over her shoulders and tossed it aside, revealing to Harry that she too had chosen to go without a bra that day and his mouth fell open. Then, standing only in her panties, she moved up to him and reached for his own belt.

“I don’t need a bra. I’m a Metamorphmagus,” she explained noticing that Harry’s eye were transfixed on her bare chest. He blinked as she unbuttoned his jeans and and started to loosen them around his hips. Some non-sex fogged part of his brain suggested her comment made sense since she could change her appearance at will.

There was a clunk as his belt hit the floor and with only a slight pause, Tonks was dragging his boxers down to join his jeans. A moment later she righted herself, and staring at his groin, her eyes went wide in surprise.

“Uh… wow! Well that certainly explains a few rumors,” she said cryptically. When he still didn’t move, she frowned and came close again. Placing her hands on his upper arms she spoke softly. “Harry, listen to me. I’m not sure I can do this completely on my own here. I need you to… participate a bit, okay?”

He gulped and nodded.

“Good. Alright then, let’s start with that kiss again…” And once again she was leaning in towards his face. This time, however, Harry had just enough courage to slip his arms around her waist and draw her forward against him. She heard him moan softly into his throat as their tongues slipped over each other, and then her own hands were grasping the back of his head. They embraced in this way for a minute or so before Harry decided he was ready. Sliding his hands slowly down her back, he let his fingers glide down into her panties at the slight depression at the top of her buttocks. Then, moving his palms down and outward, he gradually pushed the sole remaining garment over her hips.

“Ughnn…. M-Merlin’s Beard, Harry…. ummmm…” she groaned, pulling away from his mouth and rolling her head back in obvious arousal. He continued to draw down her panties until they slipped down her legs to the floor. It was only a moment later that she scooted her left hand around and gave Harry a gentle push. He had little choice but to drop back into the chair behind him again. The next thing he knew, his Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was following him down, her thighs spreading to either side of the chair as she climbed into his lap.

He could see that she was moving her mouth toward his, but before she could shift all the way against him, he decided to take a cue from Millacent and reached down. Just as she lifted herself on her toes in order to bring her body up against his, he carefully positioned himself, and to the great surprise of both, he slipped right through her folds. She had little choice but to let herself be impaled by her own weight, and suddenly Harry found he was buried right to the hilt inside her.

Tonks was gasping and shaking at the abrupt wave of pleasure, and when her body had finally calmed enough for her to speak, she grasped the sides of his face, and still panting said, “You need to g-give a girl just a little w-warning…” And then she was laughing softly while she stared into his eyes.

He laughed as well having been almost as stunned by the pleasure as she was. “S-sorry.”

Smiling, she let her hands fall to his shoulders. “Right then…. ready?”

Harry swallowed. “As I’ll ever be.”

And then she was moving. He couldn’t quite say how because he was locked to her eyes. But it was very slow. He tried to understand what she was doing and decided that she had to be rocking just her pelvis back and forth in a rhythm that was nearly five or six seconds per beat. And as she did this, she was clutching and releasing the muscles of her womanhood around Harry’s shaft. The result was incredible. It was a bit like Millacent, only much more controlled. It was experience, he realized. There was little he could do with his hands, so he simply placed them on her hips and pulled her into him each time she angled down. Apparently, it made a pretty huge difference in Tonks, because in three or four repetitions, she was starting to make little cries of passion.

“Oh god… oh god…” she was groaning into his ear. Harry was feeling pretty close to bliss himself. In only a few short minutes he could already feel that queasy tension in his belly and he hoped he could only hold off long enough to let Tonks join him as he came. But it wasn’t to be. A few seconds later she rolled her torso against him in a way that was just too erotic to ignore. His scrotum tightened up and he gasped loudly, spending himself and bucking his hips uncontrollably.

WHOOP… BANG!

When the world returned, he was surprised to hear Tonks laughing. But it wasn’t mocking laughter, it was pure, unhindered happiness as she too was thrown into a spasming orgasm. Her hips lost all rhythm, and the rest of her body jerked and twitched in ecstasy. For his part, it was all he could do to keep pumping into her while trying not to fall off the chair. Finally, with one more mighty roar of bliss, the woman arched up, tensed, then collapsed into his arms as limp as a doll.

He just breathed for a few moments until he realized that she wasn’t moving. “Tonks?” He tried again. “Hey, are you alright? Tonks?!”

Finally, just as he was really starting to panic, his Defense teacher stirred slightly. Moaning, she turned her head on his shoulder and asked with half lidded eyes, “Did we do it?”

He laughed softly. “I’d say we overdid it a bit.”

Harry held Tonks, lightly stoking her back and sides, for the better side of a quarter hour. With the charm finally broken (it had been obvious even without the layer of fine ash that covered them both), they could relax and just enjoy the moment. He didn’t ask for a second go, and she didn’t offer. Instead, they just basked in the soft warmth of each other’s bodies while they generally recovered their strength, which for Harry seemed surprisingly lacking compared to his last encounter with Millacent Peridew. He mentioned it to Tonks and she clucked her tongue.

“Yeah, I probably should have mentioned my Halvard rating is a minus four…”

“You’re joking! No wonder I’m as tired as a dead horse.”

She laughed. “Bad analogy, Harry. Thestrals don’t even sleep.”

“Oh…”

“But if it’s any consolation, I’ve never felt better!”

He groaned and tickled her sides which nearly caused them to fall over as she squirmed to escape. Finally, he helped her up and they talked while they dressed.

“Tonks, do you think Hermione knows the charm is broken?”

She paused for a moment while pulling up her pants. “Probably, but there won’t be the same indications that we had. You’re the one the Venus Charm was cast on. The spell was strongest on you. But it does bring up a problem…”

“Oh good. ‘Cause I wouldn’t want to have it easy or anything,” he replied, ducking when her boot soared past his head.

“I’m serious, Potter. Don’t think that we’re out of the woods yet. Your classmate is still under the Imperious curse, remember?”

He stopped right in the middle of tying up his trainers. “Oh, right. Forgot about that. So what do we do? I assume it’s not like the Venus Charm?”

“No, Harry, it’s not. Unfortunately, there are only a few distinct ways to break the curse, and none of them are going to be pleasant. One involves stunning the person cursed until they are nearly dead, and the most practical of the lot requires access to the wand that cast the curse in the first place. No matter what happens, we’re going to need to know who put it on her in the first place.”

“Couldn’t we just let the spell weaken until Hermione breaks it herself?”

Tonks missed two buttons on her shirt as she answered Harry. She frowned and sighed when he pointed them out. “We could, but it might take weeks. During that time, the original caster needs only suggest that she take a walk off the top of one of the castle towers in order to solve the problem once and for all. No… It’s too risky to leave her as she is. The catch is that it’s likely that she will be called back to the caster for a re-charge and a report very soon.”

“How do you know that?”

“Think Harry. They obviously knew about the Venus Charm as they’re the ones who set it up in the first place. They know how it works, AND how to break it.”

“The twenty-eight days…”

Tonks put her index finger to her nose and then pointed it at him. “They will want to know if you missed the deadline, and if so, how drained you are.”

Harry sat back down in his chair and shook his head. “What a mess. Why doesn’t the Ministry outlaw charms like that?”

Tonks looked up from searching for her second boot. “Oh, but it is!”

“What?! But I thought you said…”

Reaching under a desk, Tonks retrieved the missing footwear, smacking her head on the underside hard enough to cause Harry to wince as she stood up. “Yes, yes, I know I said it wasn’t forbidden, and to split hairs, it isn’t. But after some digging, I found out that the Ministry was so worried about people using it that they classified it ‘unlearnable’. You won’t find that spell in any of your textbooks. It’s not forbidden because the Ministry of Magic would prefer that you didn’t even know it existed!”

“Well, if they don’t teach it here, then where did Hermione learn it?”

“That, Harry, is actually a fascinating question. If fact, it’s exactly the question I asked myself yesterday that caused me to launch into a researching frenzy. By the way, do you happen to have that book I gave you? The one with the blue cover?”

“Are you kidding? You think I’m going to leave that thing hanging around in my dorm locker? It never leaves my side.” He rummaged around in his backpack until he found the tome in question. He started to hand it to her but she stopped him.

“No, I still want you to hang on to it for a bit longer. But I wanted you to know that aside from a copy hidden deep in the Ministry, that simple book in your hands is the only other known place where a full version of the spell can be found.”

He turned the old tome in his hands with a little more reverence.

“Really? But… well, baring that Hermione probably couldn’t break into the Ministry on her own and retrieve a carefully guarded and illegal spell, that must mean she somehow managed to get in here.

“No, Harry. That doesn’t work. You see, that book is enchanted. It won’t unlock for anyone but the owner of this room, and Hermione hasn’t been under the Imperious cruse that long. But you’re missing an even stronger reason why it can’t be this book either… They’d have to break into Hogwarts. Which, I’d daresay, for a Deatheater would be quite a bit harder than breaking into the Ministry. While they might have Imperioused Hermione to try, I’m sure they realized that something of that importance would have magical protection that would be far more than a student could handle… No offense meant.”

He scratched his head. “Okay then, if not the Ministry, and not this copy, then how?”

“Ahh…” she said grinning. “Some history… Although this is one of the only known copies, that wasn’t always the case. There was, in fact, a third copy, or rather, the original copy, that surfaced about twelve years ago. It was the version penned by the witch that originally discovered the Charm of Venus, one Bromilda Bathgate, and it had been lost for quite some time. Nearly six hundred and fifty years to be exact. Until then, no one living had ever even heard of the Venus Charm, which in hindsight is probably a very good thing. When the spell came to the attention of the Ministry, they rightly declared it dangerous and illegal and after making a copy for themselves, complete with the necessary protections to keep it safe, they destroyed the original. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until a year later that they found out that the researcher who had originally found the spell had made his own copy, which he placed in a special tome of collected similar spells, and which happens to be the very book in your hands.”

Harry frowned. “But… that still doesn’t explain how a Deatheater got it.”

“Oh, I’m not finished. You see, if you check the first page, you will see that the author of that book is Samuel Peridew…”

“What? Millacent?!”

“Her Great Grandfather actually, but don’t worry. I doubt that she is even aware of its existence. Very, very few were. It was his personal collection, and not a published work. But just because it never made it into a printed book doesn’t mean that old ‘Doc’ Peridew as he was known, didn’t want credit for the discovery. But the Ministry, being the overzealous gits that they are, wouldn’t have any of it. They forbid him to even mention it. Unlearnable, remember.”

“That stinks!”

“Indeed. Mr. Peridew was rightly ticked off his rocker, and instead of doing as he was told, he took his copy of the charm and went straight to the Daily Prophet.”

“Oh no…”

“Oh yes!” Harry could tell that Tonks was really enjoying the tale. “He had them rush print the whole story, including what was suppose to be a harmless, incomplete version of the spell itself. Only, someone, by accident or malicious intent, made the mistake of publishing the unedited version.”

“Oh my god!”

“The Ministry caught up with Mr. Peridew and was able to intercept the publication before it got into the public’s hands by executing one of only three magical recalls in the whole history of the Daily Prophet. It was quite the scandal.”

“But…” started Harry. She held up a finger to stop him.

“Almost there. The Charm of Venus might have then gone into obscurity and rumor if not for one simple problem… The Ministry’s magical recall was able to return all but a single copy of the original Prophet. Unbeknownst to them, once an item is delivered to Hogwarts, it can no longer be retrieved by simple magic because of the defenses put in place to defend the grounds.”

“So,” interrupted Harry excitedly. ” All a Deatheater would have to do is have someone here at the school check it out from the reference library!”

“Correct. And since I now knew something of the Charm’s history, as well as some of the inner workings here at Hogwarts, having learned about them as an Auror, it was a simple matter to track who was the last, the ONLY person to check out that particular issue… One Hermione Jane Granger.”

“It’s amazing. And she told me she just happened to ‘come across it’.” Harry was staring at the little blue notebook in his hands. Tonks had left her boots unlaced and was once again seated with her feet up in her large padded Professor’s chair behind the cluttered oak desk. To his surprise, her hair had changed to an ultra vibrant shade of purple. He choose not to notice it… or the fact that she looked like the cat who had just swallowed the canary.

“No doubt, she was coached on what to say to you by whomever put her under the Imperious curse. Our main problem now is keeping her safe until help arrives.”

“Help? To break the curse?”

“Possibly, but more so to face the Deatheater responsible for cursing her. And get that twinkle out of your eye, Potter. I intend that you’ll be nowhere near when that goes down.”

“That’s hardly fair, after all I’ve gone through… the least you could do is let me watch you blast them when they show up.”

She laughed softly. “Sorry, Harry. You know that can’t happen. You’re the whole reason behind their plan. Having you there, weakened as you are (she gave him a saucy look), would be like handing you over to them on a platter.”

He was disappointed, but nodded his agreement. “So, who are you going to call to help?” He rather dreaded the idea of Professor McGonagal learning about his three and a half week sexual adventure.

“Oh, I already put out the call… But don’t you worry, Harry. I may have to explain about the charm, but I’ll be sure to keep the (cough) details between you and me.”

He sighed. “Thanks for that. It’s bad enough I was forced into manhood against my will without having the whole world know about it. I’m sure Rita Skeeter would have a…”

“Great dancing dragons, did she nick your cherry?” Tonks was suddenly sitting up again.

“Er… nick my…” he started confused.

Rolling her eyes, Tonks exclaimed rather bluntly, “Harry, were you a virgin?!”

Blushing, he opened his mouth but could not find the words.

“Well I’m a right git,” she said when he didn’t respond. “Of course you were. Sorry, Potter. I didn’t mean to scare you, but this might change things.” She was coming around her desk. “The notebook. I need to see the notebook for a moment if you please.”

Harry handed it to her. She set it down and flipped to the page containing the Venus Charm.

“Here we go… Extenuations. Uh, time… gender… astronomical placement… ah! Innocence.” She was silent for a time and then looked up at him, frowning. “I think we have a second problem.”

“What now? What does my virginity have to do with anything?”

Tonks took the seat next to Harry. “Well, you should understand how important innocence is. A wizard or witch has certain natural protections on them until such time as they choose to enter into adulthood and have sex. It probably aided you in the past without you even knowing. But virginity can also affect how certain spells function, and with the Venus Charm, that effect is a little more extreme because of the nature of the binding and how it’s achieved. Hermione is actually pretty lucky she didn’t kill herself. Had it been someone any older…”

“Wait, so you’re saying that my being a virgin could have an effect even now that the charm has been broken… or did we blow it again?”

She smiled at him. “Oh, we broke it alright. You’re definitely in the clear now. But not so much, Hermione.”

Slumping his shoulders he replied, “You mean, beyond being under the Imperious curse?”

“I’m afraid so. She took on a huge amount of magical energy while you were bound to her, Harry. Normally, when the the charm is broken, that energy stays with the caster and slowly fades. But because you were an innocent, all the energy she gained is going to start to feed back on her.”

“Is that dangerous?”

She tilted her head slightly. “It can be. But more to the point, Harry, in about another hour Miss Granger is going to build into the biggest orgasm she’s ever had in her life. It’ll basically be a re-release of all the energy she took from you… And no, you won’t get it back, sorry.”

“In an hour?”

“Well, taking into account the time since we broke the spell, yes. I’d say she should start feeling it about forty-five minutes from now. It’ll be like an itch that just keeps getting worse and worse until…”

Harry thought about all the orgasms that he and Hermione had shared in the last two and a half weeks rolled into one mighty erotic blast. “Oh my god…”

“Exactly. And rest assured, some of that energy is going to affect anyone in close proximity to her. We need to get her someplace safe where she can let loose. Preferably by herself, no one else around. Not even you… maybe especially not you.”

“How are we going to do that?”

“Not we… you. I need to see into that Imperious curse. And Harry, you can’t let on that you are trying to sheppard her or she may balk and run. She’s got to want to do it on her own.”

“Me?! What am I supposed to do?”

Tonks was gathering several items off the shelves and tucking them into her robes. “Oh, I don’t know… be creative. Look, I really don’t have time to work it out. It’s your job, Potter. Um… here,” she said slapping the little blue notebook into his hands. “Maybe something in here might help. Keep it safe in any case until I can re-lock it proper like.”

He stared down at the small book in his hands and his mind swam. He had read a great many of the spells the book contained. They were definitely the kinds of things that Fred and George would have given an arm each to make use of. Several ideas were already forming to get her alone. “So, while I’m herding her, what will you be do…” He cut off when he looked up and saw Hermione standing in front of him. His eyes grew wide and he had to quash the urge to run and hide.

“I’m going to pay a visit to Hogsmead, Harry,” said Tonks’ voice through Hermione’s lips as she smiled in a very Tonks-like way.

Harry was stunned. “Bloody hell…”