Harry was eating breakfast the following morning when Hermione sat down across from him. One look at her face showed him that she meant business.
"The D.A. is back," she said.
"Uh huh," Harry agreed, wondering where this was meant to be going.
"How well do you know its members?"
"We don't have to worry about anyone betraying us this time," Harry said. "We aren't even doing anything wrong. There's no Umbridge to punish us for studying in our free time."
"That's not what I was getting at," Hermione said, pulling a plate toward herself and beginning to pile food on top. "Voldemort is back now. We're at war. And when the time comes, these are the people who are choosing to put their faith in you."
Phrased like that, it made Harry slightly nervous. But he still wasn't sure exactly what Hermione was getting at until she explained it.
"There could come a time when these are the people you need to watch your back. It already happened last year when Neville and Luna came with us to the Department of Mysteries. I think that before that happens, you should make sure that you know every member intimately. I don't just mean me or Ron or Ginny, but the ones you might only see in meetings."
"It's not a bad idea," Harry admitted. "How do you think I should do this?"
Hermione laughed. "Just try to get close to them, Harry. These are people who voluntarily came to our meetings. They're hardly going to say no if you approach them."
Harry's first chance to follow through came even sooner than he expected. They had Herbology that afternoon, which was a shared class with Hufflepuff. Harry often worked with Neville or Ron, but today, he crossed the classroom.
"Can I partner with one of you?" he asked.
The three yellow-robed witches looked at him in surprise. One of them, Megan Jones, was basically a stranger to Harry. But the other two he knew well from the D.A.
Hannah Abott was a cute blond girl with an overbite and innocent features. Susan Bones, meanwhile, had a body that not even loose robes could obfuscate. She was gorgeous, with the kind of face perfect for breaking boys' hearts, but fortunately for the male Hogwarts population, her personality could hardly have been more different from that. She was a sweetheart, and her earnest plea had been one of the main reasons Harry restarted the D.A. at all.
When the girls hesitated, Hannah was the first to react. But rather than standing up herself, she gave Susan a push.
"You should help Harry out," she told her best friend. "Show him just how good us Hufflepuffs can be with plants."
Susan blushed, but she hurried up and joined Harry at a workstation of their own.
The work for that day consisted of planting a strange, skinny flower with blue petals and a lime-green stem. It was an ordinary plant with the exception of one quirk: when handled with bare skin, it would puff out a powder that could put a full grown adult to sleep in seconds. The whole class pulled on gloves, and once they got to work, found the lesson to be quite easy.
"So much for showing off," Susan said. "Anyone could've followed this lesson."
Her voice sounded nervous. She kept sneaking glances at Harry, seemingly to remind herself that it wasn't Hannah standing next to her.
"That's fine," Harry said. "More time for the two of us to talk."
Susan blushed again. She busily began patting down the soil in their pot, prepping it for the plant.
"I think you might be disappointed," she said. "I'm not very interesting. I don't get up to much, and I'm not very good at a lot of things."
"You talked me into restarting the D.A. That's not nothing."
"I'm not good at that either, though," Susan said. "Asking for things, I mean. It takes a lot of effort for me to work up the nerve. I think it's because…"
She hesitated, and Harry didn't press her, content to let her take her time. Eventually, Susan finished her sentence with prodding.
"I grew up with my aunt," she said. "You might know her. Amelia Bones?"
"She saved me from getting my wand snapped and getting expelled from Hogwarts," Harry said. "I definitely remember her."
Susan smiled briefly. "She took me in after my parents were killed in the first war. I was going to go to my Uncle Edgar and his family, but then he died too. The Bones Family was almost wiped out. But Aunt Amelia took me in and raised me, even if she didn't always have a lot of time."
Harry lifted their flower, placing it inside the divot Susan had hollowed out. "She's on Wizengamot, right?"
"She's a senior member. She also runs the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She's probably one of the most important people at the ministry, which is why she's so busy. I don't complain. I know she tries her best. But I had to grow up pretty quickly, because she couldn't always be there to take care of me."
"I'm not sure what this is supposed to be showing me you're not good at," Harry said. "To me, it just sounds impressive."
Susan shook her head, smiling. "I'm just not very good at asking for things I want. I was always holding back, so that I wouldn't be a bother to my Aunt, and eventually it became a habit."
"But you wanted the D.A. back."
"I wanted it back badly," Susan said. "Umbridge was awful, but I'm almost glad she came, because otherwise I wouldn't have had Dumbledore's Army. You're a wonderful teacher, Harry. You taught me more in that year than I learned over years in Defense Against the Dark Arts. I knew I needed to learn more. Because now…" Her voice lowered. "He's back, isn't he?"
The question was rhetorical, and they both knew it was the dark lord she was talking about.
"I have to be able to protect the people around me," Susan said. "I have to."
"And yourself," Harry added.
She blinked. "Oh, right. That too."
Harry shook his head. Leave it to a Hufflepuff to forget about themselves, compared to family and friends. It was an endearing trait if he ever saw one.
"What about you?" Susan asked. "Who did you grow up with?"
"Ah… My aunt. Like you."
Susan looked curious, eager to find a kindred spirit she could relate to, but Harry had to rain on her parade.
"My aunt wasn't like yours," he said. "Her family aren't good people. They ignored me a lot. I guess we do have something in common, though. I also had a lot of time to myself, and had to figure out how to grow up quickly."
Susan nearly ruined their assignment and tipped over the pot as she pulled her hands away suddenly. It wobbled, but ultimately didn't fall. She barely noticed as she looked at Harry, holding onto the back of his hand.
"I'm sorry," she said.
Hufflepuffs, Harry thought fondly. They were SO earnest. He gave Susan a warm smile.
"Thank you, but you don't have anything to apologize for," he said. "You didn't do anything, and I don't regret how I was brought up."
There was a time when he did. At one point, it was something he thought about incessantly: how much better his life could've been with his parents, with Sirius if his godfather hadn't been arrested, with Remus if the werewolf got his act together…
He didn't think about things like that anymore. He thought they were a distraction. If he grew up in a warm household, who knows how he would've turned out. There was a high chance that he wouldn't have been tough enough to make it through the trials his school life threw at him. He wasn't saying he forgave the Dursleys or that he ever would, but he had better things to regret than hypotheticals he'd never know the answer to.
He and Susan chatted for the rest of the lesson. As the minutes ticked by, she relaxed, speaking with him like an old friend. He was shocked by how well they got along. It helped that she had an easygoing personality, but that wasn't all of it. She had a sense of humor, and a surprisingly quick wit when she relaxed.
Harry couldn't help but wonder how many other members of the D.A. he might get along with this well, he just never took the time to truly get to know them. Hermione had been right. This was a great idea.
He and Susan got on so well, in fact, that after turning their work in to Sprout and leaving the greenhouse, they continued walking together all the way to the castle.
When they entered the stone halls, Harry spotted Susan's demeanor shifting slightly. She began to clam up, more like she had been at the start, before he got her to relax. Curious, Harry watched her more closely. They only had fifteen minutes to get to their next class, which for Harry was Charms and for Susan was History of Magic.
Abruptly, Susan stopped walking. They were a couple minutes' walk from where they would split off to go to their different classes. There were a few portraits on the walls, all of which were speaking, and a broom closet door right behind where Susan had stopped.
Harry's eyes flickered back and forth from Susan to the closet door as she stood for long enough to make the atmosphere awkward. The few other students in the hall had kept walking, leaving the two of them alone. She clenched her hands into fists.
"Should we?" Susan asked shyly, glancing at the door behind her.
There was only one thing students used closets for at Hogwarts, and it was nothing the staff approved of. They had to be in their next classes soon, so they could only make a brief detour…
But there was no chance Harry was turning her down. Susan had just told him how hard of a time she had with asking for things… And how badly she had to want them to ask at all.
Harry opened the door and pulled Susan inside, shutting it behind them.
It was dark inside except for a crack of light creeping under the door. Harry was fine with that. They didn't need to be able to see for this, and wedged into the cramped space, their bodies were pressed together tightly enough to know exactly where the other person was even if they shut their eyes.
Susan's lips met his, and Harry pushed her back against the wall, so that her red hair flattened against it.
He planted his palms on either side of her body, enjoying the moist sensation of her tongue. The air was dusty, but they hardly noticed, too preoccupied with each other's bodies.
When the kiss broke, Susan muttered, "Harry." softly.
It was only his name, but it lit a fire in Harry's heart. He grabbed the top of her robes.
"May I?" he asked.
She nodded very quickly. Harry wasted absolutely no time in tearing down the top of her robes, revealing her breasts in just a sky-blue bra. Harry pulled this down, too, so that it rested on her stomach.
Susan Bones had the best chest at Hogwarts. Having seen and felt both Hermione and Lavender's chests just the day before, Harry could confidently confirm it was true. Size, shape, volume; Susan was simply perfect. Harry filled his mouth like a starving sailor reaching land.
He bit and tugged at her sensitive skin. His tongue swirled along her flesh. He was gentle, but firm. His body pressed against Susan's, warm and strong and stiff, while her soft body pressed back against him. She moaned each time he bit her. Harry held back from being too rough, making sure that even the sting from his incisors was delivered in a loving way.
"I want you!" Susan cried out, repressed desires leaking out in this new positions she found herself in. "I've wanted you since last year, Harry! Please keep going!"
Harry's hands slid down her back. He grasped her bum through her robes, finding that Susan was curvy in every dimension. She might've even had a better body than Fleur. It was close, at least. He squeezed her bum, pulling her into him tightly. At the same time, he continued biting and tugging on her breasts. Between his teeth and his strong hands, Susan cried out.
By Harry's measure, they had roughly five minutes to spare without being late to class. In the interest of that, he both took his time on her chest and made sure his pace wouldn't render them late.
Finally, he couldn't hold back anymore. He bit more fiercely, relishing the way Susan's flesh squished under him, while at the same time his hands clenched even harder on her behind, her skin and robes squeezing between his fingers.
Susan released her loudest cry yet, and when Harry pulled back a moment later, she slid down the wall to end up on her knees.
It was difficult to see in the closet's low light, but from her expression and the way her body had shook, Harry was pretty sure she just orgasmed from his touch alone.
Susan looked up at him with passionate eyes.
"Let's go all the way!" she said. "You can finish as quickly as you want. We won't be late."
That was an amazing offer, and it hurt Harry's soul to turn it down.
But he pulled her onto her feet, fixing her robes with a quick spell.
"Not like this," he said.
"But—"
"This is your first time, isn't it?"
Susan hesitated. "You could tell?"
Harry just smiled.
"We will be finishing this," he said, his tone leaving no room for doubt. "But, Susan, we'll do it properly. Next Hogsmeade weekend, what do you say we go together?"
Susan was still looking slightly stunned. But she pictured it, and then she nodded.
"I'd like that a lot," she said dreamily.
Harry smiled.
They snuck out of the closet, relieved to find the coast still clear, before saying another goodbye and splitting up. Susan made him repeat that he was serious one more time. Harry did, of course, but couldn't help telling her that he was the luckier one in all of this, which only made her blush.
He even made it to charms roughly on time, sliding into his seat just before Flitwick started his lecture. The entire interaction with Susan had been sweet, and Harry was firmly looking forward to the next Hogsmeade weekend.
But his balls also ached now. He didn't regret choosing not to rush Susan, but he would have to find a way to fix this in the short term.
Luckily, there were plenty of options for that always on hand…
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