Curiosity swam through Harry's eyes. He took in the sights and the sounds of Paradise but like it or not as much as he'd like to stay and bask in the atmosphere, he was here on a mission. That mission had brought him here and Hippolyta had sounded really serious when she'd asked him to come here over the bond link.
'I wonder if this is a consequence based off my little escapades through time,' Harry commented to himself.
'It's a nightmare!' Donna screamed.
'Oh boy, that can't be good,' Harry commented. 'Um….my little trip through time, it didn't cause me to….suddenly become your and Diana's father, did it?'
'No….at least I don't think….unless you traveled back from later in the future to an earlier time in the past and did the deed then,' Donna commented taking a moment to shake her head in order to clear her thoughts.'Depending on what version of the story our mother feels like telling this week, we're either created from clay or Zeus is our father.'
'Oh….well that's interesting,' Harry commented dryly.
'And I wouldn't be upset if that was the case, because that would be hot,' Donna stated with a certain amount of eagerness in her voice to Harry.
'If you say so,' Harry offered, although given all of the taboos that he broke on a regular basis, having sex with his daughters, that would be very low on the list.
'Although you're on the right track,' Donna commented with a certain amount of coyness in her voice.
Harry was extremely curious now .
'Just come up to the palace, and I'll tell you,' Hippolyta offered her voice lacking any real hostility. In fact she was perfectly calm.
'The fact that mother's not angry, that's normally a good sign,' Diana added but she had no idea what was happening. Then again, she was with Harry the entire time that he was in the past, and Donna was apparently the one privy to inside information that she had yet to receive.
'Well, obviously, if it was me….well just see for yourself,' Donna commented and Harry could tell that his youngest Amazon wife was completely annoyed for some reason and now he was unbelievable curious as to why.
'I'll be up there in a minute,' Harry told her and there was a sense that this was a matter of urgency, although he could not put his palm on why.
"Hello, Harry," Artemis commented and she greeted Harry with a tight hug and a kiss. She pulled away. "You better get inside before the Amazons know that you're here, or you'll never get inside."
Harry smiled, amused at the thought an orgy might break out on the palace steps before he even got to Hippolyta.
Actually, for some reason, he didn't see that as a bad thing.
Never the less, Harry shook his head.
Harry stepped forward into the room Hippolyta was waiting for him and scanned his surroundings. Needless to say what he saw waiting for him, shocked the hell out of him.
He could almost hear the goddesses snickering behind his back. He turned to their display only to see that their statues were stationary.
"Yes, Harry, I realize that this is all of their doing," Hippolyta commented to Harry quietly. "It appears our little encounter in the past had certain ramifications."
Harry turned around and saw her standing there. She looked like an eleven year old version of Diana or Donna, really it was hard to tell who she took after more. Then again, perhaps an eleven year old version of Hippolyta was more accurate. She had sleek dark hair that fell down to her lower back. She had vibrant green eyes, much like Harry's although perhaps a shade or two lighter. Never the less, she had rosy red lips and it was obvious that she would grow into something amazing like her sisters and mother. Not that he didn't find her quite amazing all ready.
"This is Lyta, your daughter," Hippolyta offered quietly, though there was a quite a lot of pride in her voice.
"Hello, I'm your father," Harry said as he took a step forward, only for his daughter to respond by throwing her arms around him in a hug that had more in common with a pouncing tackle.
"I know," she said with beaming smile on her face as she stepped back to get a proper look at her Father again.
"I'm sure you're wondering why you did not know of this when you visited the island before your trip through time," Artemis, the goddess, commented.
"Yes, the thought did cross my mind," Harry said to them. "Where did she come from?"
Aphrodite could not resist. "You see Harry when a male and a female…."
"Yes, I know that part," Harry stated to her, a tiny amount of irritation in his voice as he shook his head. "But how…"
"Well you know that the goddesses are capable of a lot of reality warping, so we might have taken Lyta out of reality, for a short time, until you where able to stabilize the time loop," Athena stated to him. "That's the most simplistic answer I can give you, anything else….well it's fairly headache inducing."
"I see," Harry offered with a stiff nod. He was not about to even begin to think about the ins and outs of time travel.
"Yes, I hoped that you would," Artemis said quietly. "Lyta was born from your encounter with Hippolyta. Your natural ability to decide whether or not your partner conceives a child doesn't work when you are outside of your native time stream."
"Time dilation bubbles obviously do not fall into these rules," Harry commented.
"That's correct," Athena agreed with a bit of a smirk on her face as she stared Harry down. "So…."
"So, you're a great wizard?" Lyta butted in with a question, wanting her Father's full attention on herself after having gone all of her life without any interaction with him. "Because if you are, then you can teach me about magic right?"
"I can," Harry offered to her.
'Careful Harry, she doesn't follow direction that well,' Donna warned him.
'Reminds me of someone at that age, who might that be?' Diana commented and Donna gave her a dirty look through the bond link.
"Sure, anything that you want to know, I can teach you," Harry told her and there was a sense that things was going to be very interesting in the future.
"There must be a lot to learn, I can't wait," Lyta commented in an impatient voice.
"We're going to have to take it slow, it's going to take a lot to get your powers under control."
'Especially given that she's a combination of a Magical Kryptonian and an Amazon, hmm, that could be interesting,' Faora commented.
'Your niece is not a test subject,' Harry told Faora sternly.
'I know, I just said it was interesting,' Faora commented but she was really curious about how her niece would progress as she grew older.
X-X-X
Sersi thought that this was a long time coming, she'd spent the past three years in training for this moment. The goblin princess pondered that thought in the back of her head. It was a rite of passage for all goblins. They were trained for their role in life from the time they were born, sometimes it was as an account manager, other times a warrior, sometimes it was a security guard but never the less, they were trained with a specific purpose in mind.
By the standards of goblins, she was fairly ugly although by the standards of humans she was fairly attractive. She stood over five feet tall which was fairly tall for goblins. Her skin was a nice sexy shade of green. She had long dark hair that wrapped around elf like ears quite nicely. She was wearing tight battle robes that wrapped around her C-Cup breasts that looked fairly large on her lithe frame. She had a curved ass and long legs as well. This was considered positively putrid and not attractive to goblins, if she had not had powerful family members, she would have been shunned.
Her eyes watched the door as she waited for the man of the hour to arrive. Sersi had met with Harry many times before, naturally, but still she was more nervous than she'd even been before and she had a pretty good idea as to why.
'Okay, just stay calm, it's just Harry,' Sersi commented to herself as she tried to formulate an attitude that was more befitting a princess of the goblin nation. She was supposed to be bold, strong, and not fall to pieces, turning into a simpering fan girl whenever the man she had a massive crush on appeared before her. She pushed her head up and adjusted her posture to show off her rather proud bearing.
"He's coming," one of the goblins stated.
Sersi nearly bit her tongue to prevent herself from saying that Harry was not coming, he was here, and boy was he ever here. He made his way into the room with a presence that could not be denied no matter what. His eyes flashed with power and as the goblin princess watched him, she could have sworn that he shot up a few inches since she'd last seen him.
He was an amazing and commanding presence. The goblins even showed something akin to respect, which was really something, although respect lead to respect, that was the motto in the goblin nation. It was something that was learned and lead by example.
"Lord Potter," Sersi stated as she inclined her head and saw the young wizard walk into the room before her.
"Princess Sersi," Harry commented as he leaned towards her and grabbed her hand. His lips pressed onto her hand with a slight kiss.
Sersi closed her eyes and felt the sensations of his lips flowing through her body as she watched him. The woman's gaze locked onto the face of Harry's and she smiled at him.
"Congratulations on finally ascending to the role of my account manager," Harry told the woman before him and she nodded with a smile that crossed her face. He decided to move forward with the next step of praise. "It was long overdue."
Sersi smiled, it was long overdue indeed and she was excited about the possibilities that this arrangement would bring. "Thank you, Lord Potter."
"You're quite welcome," Harry told her, pleased to see how much the praise was effecting her and he was about ready to make his move on her. It had been a long time coming but now he was about ready to ensnare her completely within his web. "And I see that you have my latest statement prepared as always, well done."
Sersi smiled as she slid the statements over to Harry and he was able to see the numbers on them. The wizard watched her reaction and then had one of his own.
"Good, very good, very good," Harry offered as he nodded continuing to look over the papers that were in front of him. He flipped through everything and made note the profits earned during the last quarter. It would be a while before they got the levels that he wanted them to be at but they were extremely promising. He thought that things were going to kick up a notch. "Acceptable as always."
Sersi offered him a smile.
"It's not every day that you graduate into a brand new role," Sersi said with eager anticipation in her eyes and Harry could tell that she was trying to remain steady and not bursting out with obvious pride, even though it was hard for her not to show that.
"You should be proud of what you've done," Harry informed her.
"I am, believe me, I am," Sersi remarked as she tried not to gush too much because it was unbecoming of a goblin princess to do so. Yet, she had a smile across her face that could not be denied despite that fact, which Harry caught onto.
"Satisfaction of a job well done, well you should be," Harry informed her and the princess nodded as she watched Harry. "And I am confident that the goblin nation is happy with the reforms that are going through the Ministry."
"They are adequate," one of the goblins commented dryly as the others nodded. Still the truth was that magical/goblin relations were at the best point they'd been in many, many years. The relation between the two were usually extremely rocky at best but things would improve a little bit more as the Ministry continued to go through this transition period. The fact that their business relationship with Harry had been extremely profitable for both so far was really just icing on the cake.
Then again, from what Harry was able to piece together, there was a lot of snags regarding the goblin nation as well as they were going to a transition period as well. There was some racism against other species just like there was in the Wizarding World and not just humans, there was a few tense relations between werewolves, Veela, and vampires against goblins. Amongst others, although there were a few like Sersi who were trying to ease tension but there were a lot of crusty old goblins who refused to back down and respect the rights of other magical creatures.
As Sersi once mentioned, racism wasn't just a human thing and it was not entirely one sided either. It was a very delicate situation to piece together.
However, that was beside the point, it was time for Sersi and Harry to move to the next step in their partnership.
"Lord Potter, I believe we have some urgent business to attend to," Sersi told Harry and the wizard smiled at her.
"Of course," Harry commented to Sersi as the goblin princess lead him down to her newly acquired private office. With her promotion came some perks, many perks as she was going to find out as time passed by.
Goblin and mage walked down the hallways.
Harry took a look around her office and was really impressed by what he saw. The architecture around the office….well there was no other word to describe it other than extraordinary. The smile across his face widened as he saw the smooth wood and the plaque with a golden sword on it. Likely it was a replica of the real thing although a replica made by goblins was worth a touch more than the real deal made by humans.
"This has been a long time coming," Sersi told Harry and he could tell that her inhibitions were going to leave the bank fairly soon.
"Oh, has it?" Harry asked her, seeing that two could play that game and Sersi smiled at him.
"Yes, it has," Sersi told him as she watched him hungrily and placed her hands on his shoulders.
Goblins were known as fierce fighters and skilled lovers, although the line could be drawn very faintly between the two. Sersi smiled as she kept her eyes tracing across Harry, an extremely hungry gaze going across his body.
"Yes, it….."
Harry was the first one to make the play, kissing her hard the lips. Sersi closed her eyes as Harry ran his hands all over her body. He roamed his way around her short by human standards, but tall by goblin standards frame, feeling every single bit of her body.
Then things got hot and heavy pretty quickly.
Nyssa had made her way here directly after her Italian vacation and after having climbed up a mountain, she made her down a set of stone steps into a cave complex below. Her demeanor focused and calm as if she didn't have a care in the world.
'You never could do anything the easy way, could you Father?' Nyssa asked herself as she finished her descent into the mountain caves.
She saw a group of ninjas standing in front of her blocking her entrance into the area beyond.
"Allow me to pass," she stated in a voice filled with warning causing them to back off and step to the side when they recognized her, although she did not take her eyes off them once.
Nyssa made her way into the temple, dressed in dark robes, with a sheathed sword off at her side. It was important to keep herself on her toes at all time as her nerves were a powder keg as she made her way through the temple.
"So how goes the mission?"
Another female, dressed in dark robes with her face obscured by a mask stepped forward.
"The mission is not without its perks," Nyssa told her with a smile. And that was the truth, she was glad that she was allowed to get a feel for Harry Potter. "So how was…."
"The less said about it, the better," the second one stated as she shifted. "Let's just say that my subject is not nearly is attentive as yours."
"The tests have only begun," Nyssa commented and she whispered in an undertone. "Does he suspect?"
"There's always a chance that he suspects," the other woman stated and she paused and remarked. "Does yours…"
"He knows a lot more than he should but he hasn't indicated one way or another," Nyssa offered but she would be lying if she was not excited about the prospects of being punished for trying something underhanded by Harry's strong hands. "He is skilled in many ways."
"I'm sure you can give a full report later," the other woman offered to Nyssa, knowing that Nyssa had a lot more action and excitement on her mission then she did hers.
"I still don't know why you wear that disguise in the temple. Everyone knows that you're..."
"Silence!" the woman hissed through her teeth and she adjusted the mask to ensure that it did not slip off. "The walls have ears."
Nyssa nodded swiftly at that, her facial expression becoming grim. "Of course, of course."
The woman did not say anything more than what she was pondering. They slowly turned around to face their leader.
And their father.
"Report."
X-X-X
"So, I guess that as far as the public is concerned, you'll be phasing yourself out of their eye, although you will be stopping by the Ministry every few days," Amelia told Harry.
"In the present political environment, these people would fall apart without their hero," Harry commented and there was a certain amount of thinly veiled agitation in his voice but he shook it off. He managed to keep his bitterness to a bare minimum. "Even during the height of the war with Voldemort, the Minister of Magic was never publicly assassinated while in office."
"And about two thirds of the Ministry workforce has either been laid off or put on probation," Amelia confirmed to Harry as he looked at her. "And we're looking at trying to get tutoring for those who might have lost out on getting their NEWTs due to prejudice and giving them a second chance to get those scores."
"For every pureblood that's resting on their laurels, there are five or six more half blood or mundane borns that are willing to fill those jobs, and for a fraction of their extraordinary salary," Harry said to them. "Obviously there are some people who do have brains that were cut out of the loop."
'Granted, they're few and far between,' Daphne chimed in through the bond link.
'That's the truth,' Astoria remarked in a wistful voice.
'Well we weeded out a lot of the idiot population so there are a few less of them taking up oxygen,' Bellatrix said. 'And it's a state of joy when you see that the world's a male Malfoy free zone."
"Yes, thank god for that,' Narcissa remarked as she remembered her marriage. Lucius could almost pass for charming when she was younger but she did get her daughter and Lucius got his son out of the arrangement. It was not her fault that Lucius did such a shit job of raising him but that was the past, they were long buried, well what was left of them was.
It was a brand new world and one that all of them enjoyed being a huge part of, that much was for sure.
"It's just working through a lot of paperwork from Fudge, all he did was throw a lot of dinner parties for his pureblood contacts and I'm beginning to wonder how many cuts he made to the Ministry in vital areas," Amelia said to Harry and the wizard placed his hand on his chin.
"Given the taxes that were paid, one would think that he would be able to keep certain areas like the Auror Division well funded," Harry said.
Amelia shook her head, wishing that this was a case. She saw all of the tax loopholes that were in place for Purebloods to exploit. The heritage exemption was one. Muggleborns, half bloods, and other purebloods that were not as well connected or did not grease the right wheels found their gold fading off into oblivion.
There were going to be more than a few changes and they were going to be all for the better, that much was for sure. Amelia was preparing for all of these reforms, for better or for worse. The smile that crossed her face was prominent.
"One step at a time, dear Amy, one step at a time, Rome wasn't built in a day," Harry offered to her.
"Actually there's a rumor that the magical version of it was," Amelia told him and Harry raised an eyebrow.
"And how well did that work?" Harry asked to the woman as she paused and answered after a few seconds.
"It collapsed and they had to do it over in the old fashioned way," Amelia stated to him. She recalled the story as she heard it.
"Oh, that seems fun," Harry commented to her and Amelia nodded her head.
"It really was," Amelia offered to him as she filed through the most evil thing ever invented by mankind, the paperwork that was on her desk. The woman shuffled through it and severe annoyance flashed through her eyes. She kept working through it sorting it out in the order of most impotence to that with the least. "The History of Magic is interesting, if you really study it."
"Yes," Harry said with a bit of a smirk as he considered his recent part in it. He remembered Minerva's first edict as Headmistress of Hogwarts was to exorcise Binns and hopefully people would learn more about the actual history of magic rather then the goblin wars. It was a fascinating topic. "Hopefully people will learn more."
'Those who fail to learn from their mistakes, are often doomed to repeat them,' Lily said to them.
'That's a lesson many fail to learn,' Astoria remarked.
'Of course, that might work to our advantage,' Ginny commented in a thoughtful manner.
'It would take the challenge out of everything if all we had to deal with is a bunch of idiots,' Faora stated.
'Because your ego might be stricken if you don't get to prove your superiority against the strongest person out there,' Kara offered to them.
'Well, she does have a point,' Harry offered.
'You're the same way,' Faora told him and Harry offered a smile to her.
'Never said any different,' Harry said back to her with a smile that went across her face and the dark haired woman placed her hand up. 'Busy trying to get it up and running?'
'Yep, although it's not nearly as hard as the training simulator we had to set up over the last summer,' Faora commented to him.
Harry smiled, he recalled the fun that Faora had last summer. Of course, that allowed him and Kara to have some fun together and spend some time getting to know each other better. Then there was the training with a lot of perks. It allowed him to take the first steps in his life and that….well that had to make him smile more than a slight bit.
'Are we ready?' Harry asked to the woman.
'Yes, we're ready, also the two portals are set up in Gotham and Smallville, we should be good to go,' Faora told him.
'And the one in the Ministry is ready to go and as we mentioned, only able to be accessed by us,' Harry said as he moved down. Amelia had slipped by to take care of business, there was always something to do and he did not envy her in the slightest.
He was glad that the Ministry was passing that law that prevented anyone under the age of thirty five from taking on the role of Minister of Magic. He had no idea why that law was not in place already and he stood there thinking about how stupid it would be if some rich twenty year old who didn't really know his head from his ass somehow bumbled his way into the role of Minister of Magic.
Of course, there was going to be a lot of things that were going to be changing in this world. A lot of the wicked older families were going to disappear into the night, providing they weren't already taken out in the whirlwind tour of destruction that Bellatrix went on.
The wizard made his way through the Ministry corridors with some quick strides towards lift which he took down to the lowest level.
Once he reached the bottom level, he made his way towards the walls. The glowing Kryptonian symbols were only visible by those who were in the know. The wizard pressed his hand to the edge of the wall and flashed back into the castle.
Harry dropped down back into the castle and saw Morgaine standing there, looking around.
"Hello, Harry, I see that you have returned," Morgaine told Harry.
Harry smiled and he chimed in with a few words of his own. "And I see that you're awake."
"Yes, although my sleep has not been as long as it was for the others," Morgaine informed him and Harry nodded in response.
"So says the historical records," Harry said to her and Morgaine placed her hand over his.
"Yes, I got to see Camelot fall into an ashen ruin," Morgaine offered him and Harry smiled to himself, for the most part.
"It's a pity for some," Harry told her.
Morgaine smiled. "Yes, although very few; their arrogance allowed that downfall."
Harry smiled, arrogance lead to the downfall of many, that was one point that was true throughout history. Actually it was more akin to arrogance that could not be backed up by skill or intelligence. That was the dooming factor for people like this.
"And are Rowena and Helga up yet?"
"Present and accounted for."
Rowena offered this statement with a smile as she walked into the room, her dark hair framing her face as she made her way into the picture. Harry greeted her with a strong hug and pulled her into a long kiss, which she returned.
Helga stood with her arms folded and a slight pout forming across her mouth. Harry smiled and he stepped away from Rowena.
"I don't want you to think that I neglected you," Harry whispered to the blonde founder of the Hufflepuff house and Harry pulled her into a tight hug which the woman returned.
"Don't worry, I know that you wouldn't, oh this is the best," Helga moaned as his magical lips kissed down the nape of her neck.
"Hello Harry, they're settling in well, don't worry about it, we've been attending to their needs," Lara offered to Harry and he stole a kiss from her.
Lara smiled as she felt his magical mouth kiss hers, he was as amazing as always, his fingers roamed around her body and caused tingles to manifest down her spine as he touched her like no other.
"Yes, and when you get that portal done, you can attend to ours," Alura commented to Harry with a flirty smile on her face.
Harry got the implied meaning.
"Faora set up the ground work, I just need to test for stability," Harry informed them although he figured that they knew how the process went by now.
Rowena was impressed by how advanced and how smoothly the portals functioned. The security was like nothing else in the Wizarding World because despite how advanced magic tended to be, there were a lot of notable security flaws in most of it. Magic was many things and flawed was one of them, especially with those who are willing to exploit the flaws.
She actually looked forward to catching up on the advances of magic in the last thousand years and most importantly thinking of ways to improve them. She was mistress of the house of knowledge and innovation.
She prided herself in making those kinds of advances.
Meanwhile Harry made his way over to portal. Kara, Faora, Diana, and Karen were waiting on the other side for him.
'Stand by,' Harry thought to them through the link.
Diana indicated that she heard him loud and clear. 'Standing by.'
Harry prepared to take that next step through the portal. He felt the vortex of light wrap around him as he popped through the glowing hole and went out.
He was out on the other side and his face saw his beautiful Alphas standing on the other side.
"Was there any doubt?" Faora asked Harry.
"Well, there might have a little bit of doubt, but that's why we test these things," Harry informed her and he whistled.
That whistle really said it all as he took a look at the handsome sitting room that he popped out in. Granted it was not as amazing as the one that was in the castle but one had to take what they could get in times like this. Harry pushed himself forward and took a nice and hard look at everything into the room, with the nice comfortable sofas, the expensive looking curtains. The walls were sleek and dark, made of material that would not show any blemishes thanks to the magic of magic.
He saw the library on the other side or rather the preview to the extraordinary library that was upstairs.
'Oooh, can I please move in?' Hermione begged to him in the bond link.
'Hermione, you've been so good at staying on the wagon, please don't ruin that for yourself,' Harry commented and he sensed Hermione pout through the bond link. 'Hermione, if you get your degree, I might allow you to spend some time here.'
'In Library sciences wasn't it?' Charlotte asked her.
'Yes, and you better believe that I'm going to put it to use,' Hermione offered Charlotte as visions danced in her head of her plans.
'Don't get ahead of yourself Hermione, first you have to get through your mundane classes,' Harry said, although he had all of the confidence in the world that Hermione would accomplish this task, past experience told him that there was bad things that happened from him jumping the gun.
Harry stepped back through the portal quickly making sure that things worked both ways.
X-X-X
"I'm glad that you could finally come back!"
Harry smiled at this passionate greeting from Barbara and the tight hug that she gave him. He would be blind not to notice the development that she had undergone since the last time he saw her.
"Believe me Barbara, I always come when I say I will," Harry informed her as he pulled her body into a tight hug and she smiled.
"We knew that naturally, shame that we couldn't see the final task but Zatanna gave us the play by play," Pamela offered to them. She wouldn't have minded staring at a hedge that much but she has an extreme interest in plants although she could see why people would want a little more action for their Triwizard task.
"I saw more then enough action in the aftermath of the task," Zatanna commented with a shrug as she greeted Harry and gave him a tender kiss on the lips which he returned.
"Well it isn't every day you see a major government official get popped off by a psychopath," Pamela commented with a slight shrug of her shoulders.
Barbara sighed. "Gotham City."
"I meant outside of Gotham and I haven't technically seen it in person, so that it technically doesn't count," Pamela argued.
'Point to Miss Isley,' Amanda chimed in and Harry tried not to snicker because Pamela hadn't been added to the bond yet although he endeavored to correct that soon.
'Yes, she got that one,' Ginny added with a smile in her head.
"The twins send their love," Harry told Pam as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a burning kiss which he returned.
The two enjoyed the moment that they had with each other and Barbara, Zatanna, Kara, Faora, Karen, and Diana all sat down at the table outside.
"I'm glad they do," Pamela told him as she smiled towards Harry.
"Well, someone has to," Harry offered her and the smile on her face widened into a small grin.
"So how have you been doing lately?" Pamela asked him and there was a pause as Harry raised an eyebrow towards her. "I heard a lot of it through letters but I want to hear it, well most of it, straight from your mouth."
Harry smiled. "Oh where to begin."
'The beginning is normally a nice place,' Lucretia chimed in helpfully.
'You walked right into that one, Harry,' Rose added playfully through the link.
'Well yes, I did,' Harry admitted with good grace.
He decided to allow himself to take this in stride as much as he could be allowed to.
"So, I think I told you was the government was about to self implode until I set it up so a new Minister of Magic was put into place," Harry said.
"Yes, and now you're in bed with the Magical government, the Goblin nation, the Veela nation, and Prince Consort to the Queen of the island nation of Themyscira," Zatanna informed him, at least touching upon some of the rumors she heard. She smiled sweetly. "Did I forgot anything?"
Harry gave her a grin and a knowing smile. "No, Zee, I think that you just about covered it."
Barbara could not resist giving him a teasing smile. "So how many women are you willing to bed before it's all over?"
"All who are willing," Faora said for Harry and the entire group smiled.
"And that is many," Kara offered to them.
Diana decided to chime in. "Entire islands worth in some cases."
Barbara grinned at them, she got the point, oh boy did she ever get the point, as she watched the entire group and knew that her time would come sooner or later. It was all a matter of timing for sure.
"So, I moved into my new base of operations for the time being, even though I'll be popping in and out," Harry told them and Zatanna smiled.
"Right next door to me?"
"That's right," Harry offered and he could see the crestfallen expression that danced upon the face of the young magical user. It was almost amusing and also it was kind of cute in its own way.
"Just missed you then," Zatanna told him.
"Yes, you did but don't worry, there will be other opportunities, many other opportunities," Harry told her in a voice that was dripping with strong hints of what's to come.
Barbara was the one who chimed in with a response. "Well with something like that, how can you say no?"
"Kind of hard," Pamela offered them with a wide grin.
"For sure," Kara commented in a bright voice as she looked at the future Collective members. Then again she saw most attractive females as future collective members because with Har-Zod, why settle for the rest when you can have the best.
It was going to be an interesting day and rest of their life in Gotham City, that much was for sure. Harry was looking forward to the next stage of his life and what that brought.
"Did you hear the news?"
Harry could not resist firing off a teasing smile at Barbara who had piped in with this statement. "I hear a lot of news Barbara."
"Yeah, you could stand to be a bit more specific," Diana offered her as she took a drink of the milkshake that she had been served. It was one of the few nice things that she found about Gotham City, although she hoped that Kara's quip about people literally dying to make these milkshakes was completely off base.
Looking at the city, Diana somehow doubted that and that scared her.
Pamela decided to take pity on Barbara. "She's referring to the return of the golden child billionaire known as Bruce Wayne."
Harry smiled despite himself, it seemed like Pamela did not think very highly of the man. Having met the man himself a handful of times, well Harry thought that there was more to him then met the eye. The wizard watched the young woman before him.
"You'd be surprised about what's going on beneath the surface with some people," Harry offered the redhead woman.
Pamela shrugged her shoulders, perhaps it was true.
"Well it's a big to do that the golden child might be returning from his world tour, likely he's on an island somewhere," Pamela said to him.
Harry smiled. "Actually, he's at Cambridge, or was as of last term."
Pamela raised an eyebrow, slightly suspicious of these claims but she asked this question calmly and coolly. "And how do you know?"
Harry offered the statement that was going to make Pam feel quite silly in a little bit. "Well it might be because I ate lunch with him on Thursday's so we could play chess for the better part of a year, but really that's just a shot in the dark I guess."
There was much snickering from both out in the open and inside the bond link. Pam's face went red at that thought and she slapped herself. She had been so busy with her school work that she had neglected to remember that he'd mentioned as such in a letter.
'And point goes to Mr. Potter, will Miss Isley make a comeback?' Amanda commented through the link.
Vega snickered. 'Well, there's walking into something and there's falling face first into something.'
That was the latter,' Daphne offered dryly as she rapped her knuckles down upon the table that she was sitting at. 'Ah NEWTs revision, got to love it.'
'Been there, done that, don't want to do it again,' Harry told the blonde Slytherin.
'Ditto,' Hermione offered to her. A huge part of her was glad that she was done with Hogwarts, even if she feared that she was going to fail everything but it turned out that she was able to get the fourth highest scores next to Harry, Kara, and Diana.
Being behind those three were not bad, given that still meant that she was better than anyone else. Then again, Hermione felt that she could always go one step better than perfection although the vacation had caused her to unwind a little bit.
Karen smiled, she was another one that was unwinding. Jaime was taking care of the business and Doctor Swann's daughter was beginning to get to the age where she was getting trained to help out, which was good because they needed all hands on deck. The blonde thought about it and knew that Patricia could end up being quite useful in the future.
Kal was fine in Smallville, then again he was about to go into the fourth grade, so his powers weren't going to kick in a big way for the next few years or so. So they did not have to worry about that milestone. It was a good thing that Kara did not have to deal with that on her own and Karen was confident that the Kent's would be capable of handling anything that came their way.
Karen decided to ask a question that she was sure that was on the tip of all of their tongues.
"So, did you find out how you did on these exams?" Karen asked to Pamela and her eyes brightened up in excitement.
"Finally got my exams back, and I passed them with flying colors, I could get into any college in the world that I wanted to, not that I couldn't already with my money," Pamela offered to them and there was a smile that crossed Harry's face as he reached across the table to hug her hard.
"Great, great, as always, I know you could do it," Harry offered to Pamela and the redhead smiled.
"Yeah, so did I Harry, so did I," Pamela admitted to him as the redhead kept her thoughts on the exams as he brushed her hair back out of her face so he could see the bright smile on it.
It was a beautiful day, especially for Gotham City, and they were hanging out amongst friends, what more did they need?
"So….do you want to come to my house?" Harry asked them abruptly.
"Oh, grand tour time," Barbara stated but she paused. "But I have to be back by five otherwise Lieutenant Gordon loses his mind."
Pamela and Harry exchanged the same amused glance at Barbara using her father's title to refer to him but that was just the way that she was.
"Don't worry Babs, we'll get you back in time," Harry told the woman.
"Oh and how?"
Zatanna was next to chime in. "Well you see, Babs, its kind of like magic."
Kara decided to add her two cents as she looked at Barbara with a teasing gaze dancing through her blue eyes. "Yep, you'll find that it makes the impossible seem very possible."
Barbara offered a labored sigh.
"I walked right into that one again, didn't I?" Barbara asked them and Harry smiled.
"Yes, you did," Harry offered her and the redhead shook her head but Harry caught her lips twitching.
X-X-X
"It's really amazing that I've lived here my entire life but I've never seen this place," Zatanna commented to Harry and he watched her with a corked eyebrow. She offered him a sheepish smile. "Yes, I know magic, magic, magic."
"It makes the world work," Barbara offered, throwing Zatanna's past words back at her. "Seriously Zee…."
"Yeah, I know, I just had a Barbara moment," Zatanna teased back and the redhead looked indignant.
"Well you do walk into those," Pamela commented to the younger girl.
"And just think, this was the outside of the house," Harry offered to Kara in an undertone, even though Faora, Diana, and Karen also picked it up.
Diana looked at the outside of the house, it was four stories high with many rooms although it was much bigger on the inside. It looked like a manor house, something that might have been brought over from another country and reassembled in this one.
Although it had the feeling of home and the fact that the portal indicated that the Castle was one pop away, that was good. And from the castle, she could head back to visit her sisters on the island.
There was some word from her mother that Donna and Lyta might be able to head over to Man's World for a visit and Diana was crossing her fingers that her younger sisters would be privileged enough to make the trip. Although it hinged on their behavior more so than anything else and while Donna improved since Harry gave her that lesson, there was still a few times where she had her moments. Lyta apparently had moments where she was just as bad as her older sister but she also had her father wrapped around her little finger.
Although what happened with Aresia caused Donna to mature a little bit and that incident caused everyone to rethink what was happening.
Harry smiled as he sensed what Diana was thinking about and placed his hand on hers in a reassuring way.
"I wish we could find her, she's fallen off of the grid," Diana whispered to him.
'Which means that she has help because she had potential but she wasn't that well trained,' Artemis chimed in from the island.
'Yes…yes, I understand,' Diana thought to them but she grimaced at the thought, with Harry's strong hand finding hers and she relaxed, only a slight bit but she still relaxed.
'We'll figure this one out,' Harry told her in a hushed voice.
Diana's mind could not help but remain on Aresia as the grand tour of the house continued. She was one of the greatest shames of the Amazons, someone who they looked to as a sister but had betrayed them to one of their worst enemies.
Granted it all worked out as well but there was a hole in Diana's heart.
"And this is the Hermione Granger memorial library," Faora commented.
'Wouldn't I have to be dead to have a memorial library?' Hermione chimed in but there was nothing but some laughter.
'Well, I'm sure that many people who hear about you obsessing for your exams are plotting for your demise, so this could be a preemptive tribute,' Ginny teased her lightly.
'I've been better,' Hermione offered in an extremely cross voice and there was a sense that she was folding her arms and pouting.
"Okay, this is the dining hall and…."
"It's bigger than my house!" Barbara offered to him and that was not a knock on her house.
Kara offered Barbara a wink. "Well with Harry, everything's bigger."
Faora smiled. "As if it wouldn't be."
Barbara caught onto the implied meaning but Harry lead them into the sitting room, past the dining hall area before she could comment.
"Going to set up a game room in here, but we haven't got everything together but we do like to unwind," Harry commented.
"There are about nine or ten bedrooms on this level alone for staff, although there's always room for more," Kara told them.
'And there is far more in the castle,' Peve stated.
'Exactly how many did you say there was?' Jaime said, breaking her silence for the first time in a while.
Peve was prompted to answer. 'Four hundred and nine but that might be just a rough estimate. The magic adds and subtracts stuff as needed.'
Harry smiled that was a quirk of magic.
There was a lot of empty space in the house that they'd put to use later.
'Dobby and the Hogwarts house elves did a good job in cleaning this house out,' Kara chimed in.
'Dobby and the Hogwarts House Elves, that sounds like a great name for a band,' Jaime remarked to them and Karen snickered.
'Yeah, it really does,' the blonde commented through the link to them.
The tour around the house continued, with them trying to get a good look at Blackgate Manor. Blackgate prison having been named after it as the colonial Blacks that had built the manor also founded and ran the prison before selling it to the federal government for a great deal of gold in the early nineteen hundreds.
X-X-X
Aresia's eyes looked towards the figure that she faced in the shadows. Her heart drummed a steady beat up and down the inside of her chest as she kept her focus on the person before her.
"You will not hurt them, right?" Aresia asked the person in the shadows.
There was a pause before the person in the shadows responded to her.
"They will not be hurt, they will merely go to sleep for a long time whilst I accomplish my mission," the sinister voice from the shadows stated.
Aresia nodded, she felt the sincerity in his voice and while she did not want her sisters killed. She did want some vengeance on the man who had poisoned their minds.
She still felt and saw those nagging images of him doing the same thing to her that he did to Donna but she shook them off. There was something completely wrong with that thought. She shrugged off those thoughts, as painful as they were a lot of the times.
She was completely in control, her mind was hers, there was no two ways about that. She had found someone to take her in, to allow her to become stronger.
"You've done well but you still need to learn to think with your head and not allow your emotions to get the best of you."
At those words, Aresia was knocked to the ground. All she could see was a pair of glowing red eyes from behind a pillar.
"Strength is something that you need to accomplish your goals, otherwise you will be conquered by Har-Zod like the rest of them have been," the sinister voice stated to her.
"Yes….yes…I will not…," Aresia stated but she was training under a person who knew more about combat that anyone out there.
"I can see the potential that you have but unless you use it, you will be nothing, less than nothing," the voice stated crisply in a voice filled with coldness.
Aresia nodded, she would be something. She would be stronger them all, and she would lead them, lead them by example.
They allowed a man to make them weak and that was the result of everything. The result of the fact that they caved in to the first cock that they were presented with.
She tried to shake her head at that weakness, it was something that caused them to fall down to the ground. There was a yelling in the back of her head and she nearly dodge a blade behind her. She was nearly caught in the back of her head.
Aresia closed her eyes and felt the sorrow that went through her body.
"It's that easy to take you down if you don't focus," her master warned her.
Aresia nodded, she was not weak, far from it.
She would prove herself to be the strongest of them all. She was going to keep on coming, no matter how many times she got knocked down.
And she would save her sisters.
X-X-X
Pamela enjoyed the moments she could steal alone with Harry. She smiled as she looked outside of the window looking down at the rather large lake that could be seen from three sides of the manor. Barbara and Zatanna had already gone home but they would be back.
"Beautiful isn't it?"
Harry smiled as he approached her. The redhead turning around to face him. "Yes, it's very beautiful, it's like….well I've seen the gardens."
"I was wondering when you would notice that," Harry told her and the redhead offered him a winning smile.
"Well, it's kind of hard not to find them, they're so big, they seem a lot bigger on the inside," Pamela offered as she sat on the window seat, Harry moving to sit down next to her.
"Yes, it's quite a nice development," Harry told her as he smiled and took a close look at her. He saw Pamela's shirt shift to show a hint of her budding breasts.
"It seems like a lifetime ago when we first met all those year ago," Pam told Harry in a thoughtful voice.
"It really does," Harry told her as he thought of that meeting. It might seem a little absurd to say that a meeting changed his life but it kind of did.
He knew that there were a lot of things that happened since then and while he would not classify everything that he went through to be the best, there were more positives than negatives. And the few negatives that there were, they were learning experiences. There were a lot of things, adversities, whatever, that most would have cracked underneath but Harry kept himself calm and steady.
"So, there's something that I said when I first met you," Harry offered Pamela and the redhead watched him with a nervous gaze as she recalled it. It took a moment for everything to come back to her.
"Yes, I do remember," Pamela told him. "So do you…."
"Yes, I do," Harry offered her with a smile across his face. "I still want to keep you."
Pamela smiled as he put his arm around her waist and there was a second where she paused and he paused and both of them waited to see what the next would say.
"So, let's go to Vegas," Harry offered her and Pamela raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Why would we go to Vegas?" Pamela asked him but then she offered. "Oh…."
"Enjoy the ride and hang on tight," Harry told her as he placed his arm around Pamela's waist.
It was the end of one chapter of his ascension but it was just beginning. That was the final thought in his head as they disappeared into the distance.