The Protagonist System

“You know we can't.” I said again as Harriet tried to convince me that she was ready. We had made it back to her set of rooms after saying goodbye to Greg and Luna, whom had shared their first real kiss after the song, too.

“I'm supposed to be emancipated.” Harriet said, defiantly.

“You're confusing legal mumbo jumbo with your physical well being.” I defended. “Just because the law should agree that you're an adult, and I agree with you that you've been mentally older for years after everything you've been through; but, your actual body on the other hand, cannot be reasoned with or argued against. Doing anything even close to going all the way, will mostly be painful for you and won't give you the feelings of satisfaction it's supposed to.”

Harriet let out a frustrated sound. “Why are you arguing against it? Don't you want me?”

“I do.” I answered. “I also want you to enjoy it for yourself.”

“I would!” Harriet exclaimed.

I had to sigh at that and her racing thoughts. “No, you're worried that I'm going to lose interest in you if you don't put out after I sang to you.” I said and her face went red, because she was sure that there were many other couples becoming much closer couples tonight, in a physical way, since it was such a magical night. “That's not why I did it and you should know that.”

Harriet opened her mouth, closed it, then let out another frustrated sound and walked over to her bedroom. She glared at me before she tried to slam the door, only for it to gently close the last few inches and it closed with little more than a soft click.

I heard her let out several curse words at the door, then at me. I heard some shuffling around and didn't use X-Ray Vision to peek at her to see what she was doing. I left her living room and went to my own room, locked the door, and made sure there was no way for her to enter without my knowledge or with her invisibility cloak.

I had a feeling she was going to try and sneak in at some point in the middle of the night, either through the door or through a secret passage or something, just so she could satisfy me. If that had been the only thing I wanted from her, I could have done that almost right after we first met.

Heck, I could have transfigured myself into a teenager and joined the school as her classmate and been there for her in that way, except that was not the capacity she actually needed me in. I walked over to my desk and looked through the missives from the Ministry of Magic, where they were surprisingly polite and asked to attend some of the tutoring lessons I was giving to Harriet, in secret of course.

Apparently, they had been doing the same thing to many of the classes in Hogwarts over the last couple of months, to reassure themselves that the class material and the professors were actually doing their jobs. It was just too bad they hadn't filed the sanctions against Professor Snape before his death, since they had proof of his unfair treatment of students.

They also had proof of Professor Binns putting everyone to sleep during his classes, Professor Moody providing dangerous course material that was far above some of the student's ages or year limits, and Professor Trelawney for being drunk on sherry half the time and her unstable teaching methods, most of which didn't work when used and could be interpreted in many different ways when it did.

It was kind of flattering that they wanted to see what my lessons were like in comparison, even if tutoring was a much different situation than a professor teaching a classroom full of students. I sat down and wrote out a proper response, informing them of the differences and what to expect, since I varied my teaching techniques, depending on the subject being taught.

They would appear in the classroom at random times after the new year break and I would leave the room open for them to slip in and leave without being caught. I would know they were there, even if they used magic and invisibility cloaks to conceal themselves, so I wasn't worried that they would ever catch me at anything.

That was when I realized Harriet's usual behavior during lessons was going to be a bit of a problem, since she quite enjoyed teasing me at inappropriate times and seeing my reactions. I couldn't say anything to her about it, or about the invisible surveillance, since that would defeat the purpose of it being random and getting a genuine look at both the teaching methods and the student's reactions to those methods.

I sighed and signed the letter, folded it and sealed it with wax, using the Gaunt / Peverell ring and the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. I never used its true function, since I didn't really need to. If I wanted any kind of spirit interactions, I could call upon my spirit familiar, Glaistig Uaine. I never bothered her without a good reason, though. She had helped me too much over the years to annoy her like that.

After a touch of clairvoyance power to see where it had to go, I stepped the letter to the inbox of the education department's head, Griselda Marchbanks. With that done, I changed my clothes and went to bed.

I was sure that I wouldn't have to wait long before Harriet made an appearance and I needed to keep my wits about me to make sure she didn't ruin what could be a fantastic time between us, just because she was too impatient to wait until she was actually ready.

Yes, I could have tweaked things for her to make things better; but, she had always rushed into things before and she needed to learn that sometimes rushing was a mistake. She wasn't trying to save someone, or to prevent a crime, or anything else that needed immediate intervention on her part.

As soon as she appeared, I would sing part of the song for her that she had forgotten about, the part where there was nothing for her to prove and all we needed to do was just be there for each other. It would probably make her blush and retreat, or want to cuddle like in the song. Either way, we weren't going to have sex until she was ready for it.

*

Harriet stomped back into her bedroom and threw off her cloak of invisibility. Six times she had tried to sneak into his room to give Harry a night he would always remember, only for him to sing that damn song each time and reminded her that she didn't have to do anything, because just being there was enough for him.

She let out a sound of frustration and flopped down onto her bed, her mind racing and her body tingling. Why didn't he want her? It was kind of a lame excuse that she wasn't physically ready. She felt like she was, and she sure wanted it badly after the Yule Ball, except he kept denying it and denying her.

After a few minutes of laying there thinking about it, Harriet decided that if Harry didn't want her to do anything, then she wouldn't do anything. At all. She would sit in class and do the practical lessons in the Chamber of Secrets and wouldn't be teasing him or giving him any peeks at her body anymore. That would show him for not letting her have her way with him.

With that plan in mind, she changed for bed and went to sleep with a smirk on her face. Her last thought before she lost consciousness was her wondering how long he would let himself suffer before he begged her to return to how things were before he had denied her advances.

*

Because we weren't in lessons or did any tutoring sessions until after New Year's Eve, in which Harriet graciously let me kiss her to ring in the new year, I hadn't noticed her slightly altered behavior until about halfway through our first classroom lesson.

She was the epitome of composure and focus as I taught her the more advanced version of the vanishing spell that dealt with invertebrates like slugs and snails. It was a change I was glad I hadn't noticed until then, because Griselda Marchbanks herself was in the classroom observing and I could feel her awe as Harriet performed the spell flawlessly.

I was also cheating a little, since my teaching ability was an infinity symbol on my Adventurer Card, just like everything else, actually. I could impart anything to anyone with little effort and they would learn it as if they had months of instructions after only a single lesson. That Harriet had magic power to spare and could vanish a horse if she concentrated, was beside the point.

I may have also left a spare snail or two near the corner of the room by the desks for Griselda to practice, too. She seemed surprised they disappeared just as quickly as Harriet's had.

I finished the lesson on that when it was close to lunch and mentioned the practical portion happening afterwards, just so Griselda would know we were moving to the area set up for it and she would have to wait near the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets for us. I'd make the stairs this time, since I was sure Harriet would glare at me if I tried to push her down the slide again.

I silently thanked her for being angry at me for denying her, because it made the both of us look like the perfect tutor and student that was all business and not two horny people pretending to learn as they flirted shamelessly, which as what the lessons were like before the Yule Ball.

We sat off to the side of the desks and ate, which again was all business and was nothing like our usual lunches that had Harriet showing off a lot of leg and more cleavage than she was comfortable with, just so she could get a rise out of me. It was a bold behavior that I thought she would keep doing, even if she was angry at me.

I had to cast a silence spell on the old woman secretly accompanying us when she saw the size of the rendered basilisk carcass. It was moved off to the side and it was mostly just bones, since the meat sold almost immediately and the goblins were overjoyed at having such a delicacy for such a cheap price. It was only illegal for wizards to breed them, after all.

Harriet again performed magic like it was going out of style, going through the list of spells I had given to her to prove she knew them and could perform them. That she did them all without a wand, had completely shocked Griselda to the point that she fainted.

I let her rest and watched Harriet perform the right spells and also asked her questions, so she knew what the spells were for and when to use them. The only thing she couldn't do was cast counter-curses for some of the more nasty spells, since they only worked if those same spells were cast near her. Since neither of us wanted to actually endanger her, we didn't go that far in her training. Not yet, anyway.

Harriet looked quite happy after hearing that, especially when I explained we would eventually buy a side of beef that I would transfigure into a body, which I would cast the curses on, and she would be safe to the side to cast the counter-curses, just to prove that she could do so when it was necessary.

I quietly woke Griselda when the lesson ended and the three of us walked up the stairs and out of the Chamber of Secrets. Harriet opening both the entrance and the chamber itself, hadn't surprised the old woman, though.

Apparently, she had found out a lot of things about what went on at the school over the last few months of her department's investigation of the course material. What she was going to do with it was anyone's guess, as was her own powers to actually do something about it. Would an overhaul of the school's curriculum happen, or would the professors only be given notices to fix things eventually? It was a crap shoot either way if anything beneficial happened.

Griselda went her own way when we reached the hallway outside the second floor bathroom and Harriet and I went to the Great Hall for supper. She darted over to the Slytherin table almost as soon as we entered and I held in my sigh at that. Punishing me for refusing her was one thing. Letting everyone in the school know there were problems between us by rushing off like that? Yeah, that wasn't going to cause us any more problems or anything.

I mentally sighed at all the searching looks I received as I walked at a normal pace over to the Slytherin table, only to see Harriet had wedged herself between Daphne and Tracey and hadn't left a spot for me.

Harriet gave me a quick glance and a defiant look, as if asking what I was going to say or do about it, so I did what she didn't expect. I performed a perfect about face and walked right back towards the doors without saying anything. I thought I heard a soft gasp from someone and I kept walking without looking back and left the Great Hall.

Everyone saw that she didn't try to follow me and they all started talking about it. If there was one thing the students at any school loved, it was a good gossip story about couples having troubles. That we had only just gotten together, made the entire thing that much more juicy of a story to share and speculate about.

Once I was out of sight, I stepped from there to appear near the Lovegood Rookery. It was a Castle Chess Piece that their house resembled and it fit their family's personality perfectly. I knocked and Xeno opened the door.

“Ah, welcome Harry! Come in, come in.” Xeno said and ushered me inside. “We were just about to sit down to supper if you'd like to join us.”

I smiled warmly at the man as he shut the door. “Thank you, Xeno. I appreciate it.”

“You're practically family already.” The man said with a laugh and waved me into the kitchen. “The little tykes will be happy to see you again so soon.”

“No doubt.” I said and walked ahead of him, just so he wasn't caught in the assault I was about to be hit with.

“HARRY!” Luna yelled and lunged at me to ambush me.

I caught her and swung her around, and she laughed and laughed. It reminded me of Amy and I smiled as I set her down, fixed her hair that had flown around in the artificial breeze, and then I turned her around to send her back to the kitchen table where Greg sat.

He had a similar smile on his face to mine and Luna hugged him and sat beside him. I sat down across from Xeno's seat and he served the food. It hadn't taken much magic to give the man a larder full of already prepared meals that he could easily magic up to the table with a switching spell, just like the Hogwarts elves did back in the castle.

Xeno had genuinely appreciated it and had thanked me profusely for taking care of him and his daughter, to which I replied it was my fault the girl had left school, so I had to make sure she had everything she needed to succeed in life, even if that included giving her my little brother. It had made the man laugh at the time, thinking it was a joke, only for the reality to eventually prove my words had been true.

Now I was warmly greeted every time I came here and it was almost a home away from home, not that I had much of one here besides the mansion I barely spent any time in, besides lessons with Luna and Greg. They used the floo constantly to travel between there and the Lovegood home, just because they could.

We had an enjoyable meal and shared a few stories, with Luna's being the more fanciful with added details that none of us complained about. Why would we discourage her from expressing herself? She loved having more people to talk to that didn't call her Loony or thought she was lying.

It made her happy to have us all there and she thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the evening as we spent it by the fire and talked as we ate magical marshmallows that flamed on their own and came out perfectly crisp on the outside and gooey on the inside.

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