Chapter 40

“That bastard!” McGonagall raged the moment Amelia closed the door to the parlor and sealed it with a spell. “He expected those kids to fight on their own!?”

“Wherever he is, that man has a lot to answer for,” Amelia said.

She made her way over to the drinks cabinet and pulled out a pair of crystal tumblers and a decanter of amber liquid. Setting them on the table between two wing-backed chairs, she poured a healthy measure in both.

“What do we do now?” McGonagall asked, sitting down heavily.

“We need a Pensieve as soon as possible,” Amelia replied. “I want to see those memories Potter was talking about for myself. From there, we need to find out who this R.A.B. character is – or was, rather. I’ll contact one of the Aurors I trust and have them look through records for anyone with those initials.”

McGonagall drank deeply from her tumbler and set it back down with a thoughtful look.

“Who do we tell about this?”

“Only those that absolutely need to know,” Amelia said firmly. “We’re incredibly fortunate You-Know-Who is driven by ego. If the man had any humility, he would’ve hidden them in a deep, dark cave with no connection to his past. If he finds out what we know, this war is over for good.”

They fell into a heavy silence for a long moment, occasionally sipping their drinks.

“How is the Order?” Amelia asked.

“Falling apart,” McGonagall admitted with a shake of her head. “We still have our core members, of course, but without Dumbledore, most of his contacts at the Ministry and the seedier part of our society have distanced themselves.”

Amelia nodded, appearing unsurprised.

“Well, now that I’ve been effectively ousted, perhaps we should join forces,” she suggested.

“The Order was never a fighting force, Amelia,” McGonagall frowned.

“I’m well aware of that, and I’m not suggesting it should be,” Amelia said. “At least, not on the whole. But if we’re going to get through this, we’re going to need to work together.”

“Of course,” McGonagall nodded. “We’ve a meeting planned for Thursday at Grimmauld Place.”

Her lips thinned, and her brow deepened.

“We’ll need to recast the Fidelius enchantments. Now that Dumbledore’s gone, anyone who knew the secret can give it out. Thankfully, no one is living there since Sirius moved in with Hestia.”

“You should ask Ms. Granger,” Amelia said. “I believe she cast the enchantments here.”

“She did,” McGonagall nodded. “I just hesitate to involve my students.”

“I don’t like it any more than you do, Minerva, but they’re capable,” Amelia said. “You should invite them to the Order meeting. I believe they’ve more than earned the right to be involved, and as much as I hate to admit it, we need Potter. He knows You-Know-Who and has been more successful fighting him than anyone, including Dumbledore.”

“That may be true, but surely he doesn’t need to be directly involved to help,” McGonagall said.

“Do you honestly think you can keep him away even if you tried?” Amelia asked.

McGonagall paused for a long moment.

“No,” she sighed. “Very well.”

~

McGonagall returned early the next morning with a Pensieve. Harry tried to pay her for it, but she steadfastly refused to take so much as a single Knut.

For the next three days, he entrenched himself in the parlor and slowly worked his way through Dumbledore’s memories. It was a slow and tedious process. The labels were entirely unhelpful. Most were a set of initials, some were a single name written in tiny, barely legible cursive, and only a handful had dates.

Harry couldn’t even fathom the purpose of saving most of the memories he viewed. The vast majority of them were of seemingly pointless, inane conversations that seemed of little consequence. A few held memories of more tragic events, and twice, he came across memories of Dumbledore dueling a wizard he recognized as Grindelwald. While exciting, they got him no closer to finding Voldemort’s Horcruxes.

He’d made his way through a quarter of the memories in the case when Fleur lost patience with his brooding and ordered him to change into his bathing suit and meet her out on the patio. The fact that she did so while wearing a pair of blue bikini bottoms and nothing else might have contributed to his lack of arguing.

Donning a pair of board shorts, Harry stepped out onto the patio and blinked as his eyes adjusted to the bright summer sun. The ladies were already sunning themselves in lounge chairs, and very much topless, including Apolline, Amelia, June, Evangeline, and, to his surprise, Susan. Even though he’d seen her in a state of undress before, she still blushed profusely when his eyes passed over her.

Dobby Apparated in with a tray of colorful, and likely alcoholic drinks, and started passing them out to the ladies. Harry smirked when Iffy poked her head out of June’s thick curls and licked her lips. In the pool, Gabrielle and Astoria floated on inflatable loungers, whispering and giggling.

When he walked over to join the girls, Fleur grabbed his hand, tugged him into a seat, and planted herself in his lap. Grabbing a bottle of lotion for the floor, she handed it to him over her shoulder.

“Would you do my back?” she asked.

Harry took the bottle, poured a liberal amount into his hands, and spread it over her smooth, pale skin.

“Where’s Robert?” he asked curiously.

“He’s in Cardiff for the next three days at a dental convention,” Hermione told him.

“So you don’t have to feel guilty staring at June’s tits,” Tonks smirked.

Harry rolled his eyes while June snorted lightly.

“I think he has much more interesting things to stare at,” she said, aiming a playful glare at Fleur and Apolline.

Apolline smirked, and Fleur leaned back against Harry’s chest.

“Don’t forget ze front, mon amour,” she murmured.

Smirking, he bit a bit more lotion on his hands and worked his hands from her stomach up to her breasts. He made sure they were liberally covered.

“That didn’t stop him from sneaking in a good feel,” Tonks grinned.

“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?” Harry asked.

Tonks hummed and tapped her finger on her chin thoughtfully.

“No, I don’t think I will.”

Giggling, Fleur removed his hands from her breasts, turned to give him a kiss, and climbed off his lap. As she lay down on an empty lounge to catch some sun, Hermione took her place. Harry smiled as he poured more lotion onto his hands and rubbed it into her back. Once that was done, she leaned back and sighed contentedly as his hands moved to her front.

“Find anything interesting in those memories, yet?” Amelia asked.

“Not yet,” he said, massaging Hermione’s breasts. “Anything on R.A.B.?”

“No,” she sighed. “It’ll take some time to go through the records, especially since it needs to be done in secret. My contact can only work at night.”

Harry sighed and nodded as Hermione climbed off his lap, and Tonks took her place.

“I hate waiting,” he grumbled.

“If you want to be an Auror, you’ll have to get used to it,” Amelia told him.

“And paperwork,” Tonks added. “I hate paperwork and waiting.”

Sighing, she gave Harry a kiss and climbed off his lap. Without a word, Daphne took her place and glanced back at him expectantly.

“What am I, the pool boy?” he asked with a smile as he put lotion on her back.

“Consider it a punishment for hiding away in the parlor for the last three days,” Daphne said.

“I think we need to have a word with you ladies about what constitutes a punishment,” Amelia said as Harry cupped Daphne’s full breasts.

“An incentive, then,” Daphne purred, her eyes closed as she leaned back against Harry’s chest.

He’d just finished covering her front in lotion when Tonks grabbed her wrist and pulled her to her feet.

“Time’s up,” Tonks said. “Your turn, Susie.”

Susan blushed heavily as she was led over to Harry by Fleur. She glanced at him and then looked uncertainly at her aunt.

“Oh, go on,” Amelia said. “It’s just a bit of lotion.”

Nervously, she sat down between Harry’s legs and leaned forward so he could cover her back. He took a little longer than he had with the other girls and spent time caressing her sides, allowing his fingers to lightly graze the swell of her large breasts. She didn’t lean back when he finished, so he gently pulled on her shoulders. Susan allowed herself to be pulled back against his chest. Her eyes were closed tightly, her breathing was rapid, and she blushed from the roots of her hair all the way to the top of her chest.

Harry covered her stomach first, worked his way around her chest to her shoulders, before moving his hands down to cup her breasts. Susan inhaled sharply, then moaned as his hands caressed her full, firm mounds. It was fortunate that she had her eyes closed, so she missed the smirk the other ladies shared. If she’d seen it, Harry suspected she might have fainted from embarrassment.

She seemed content to let him play with her breasts as long as he liked, but apparently, Amelia had other ideas. She appeared next to his lounger and cleared her throat. Susan’s eyes sprang open, and she jumped to her feet.

“Oh! Auntie, um, I was just-”

“It’s fine, dear,” Amelia said, laying a calming hand on her shoulder. “But you’re not the only one who burns easily.”

Susan’s eyes widened as she took a seat in front of Harry and arched an eyebrow at him. Harry only hesitated for a moment before applying lotion to her back. When she leaned back, his hands immediately and unconsciously sought out her breasts. He made sure to cover every inch of her mountainous breasts liberally. Amelia sighed contentedly and closed her eyes as his slippery hands glided around her smooth mounds.

“’Aving fun?” Apolline asked, moving to stand in front of her.

Amelia cracked an eye open.

“He would make a wonderful masseuse,” she murmured.

Sighing again, she leaned away from his hands and stood. Harry blinked in surprise as he watched her kiss Apolline on the lips before the blonde seated herself between his legs. Beside him, Fleur laughed.

“You did not know Maman and Amelia ‘ave been seeing each ozzer?” she asked.

“Er, no,” Harry said, rubbing his hands along Apolline’s back. “When did that happen?”

“A couple of weeks ago,” she replied.

“You didn’t notice Amelia sneaking into Apolline’s room every night since we got back from Hogwarts?” Hermione asked, arching her eyebrow.

“I’ve been distracted,” Harry said defensively, his hands moving to play with Apolline’s breasts as she leaned back.

“Really, we hadn’t noticed,” Tonks smirked, then turned to look further down the edge of the pool. “Hey, June, Eva, you need our pool boy for anything?”

“No, thank you,” Evangeline smiled.

“Already covered,” June said. “Besides, it looks like Harry already has his hands full.”

“Mother!”

“And you girls still need to cover your legs,” she added, ignoring her daughter’s outburst.

The girls shared a look, smirked, and as one, rolled onto their stomachs.

“Looks like you’ve got more work to do, Pool Boy,” Tonks smirked.

Harry stared down the line of beautiful, glistening bums as Apolline left his chair and climbed back onto her lounger, face down. Iffy landed next to her and assumed the same position with a hopeful look. Grinning, he stood, grabbed the bottle of suntan lotion, and frowned.

“I’m going to need more lotion,” he said.