[DanHenceworth]

“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…”