HPPT/YuleBall - The Great Hall: Wiki

The Reveal

Waiting in the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts, Hermione Granger was becoming a little annoyed.

Her best friend in the whole world, one Harry James Potter, was being even more mysterious about his date then she had been about hers (Victor Krum, currently standing next to her) and it definitely didn't help that The-Boy-Who-Lived was running late; Professor McGonagall had already called for the Champions, and everybody else had been ushered into the Great Hall during which Hermione had seen that several girls seemed to be competing to be TriWitch Slut, but Harry and his date (or dates, she had heard him make that slip of the tongue several times but she wasn't sure if bringing two or more girls to the dance was allowed) had yet to arrive.

Did he even have a date? Ron had found it difficult to find one and in the end had accompanied one of Ginny's friends in third year, a nice (if decidedly eccentric) Ravenclaw girl by the name of Luna Dolphin Lovegood.

Eventually, Hermione spotted Harry walking down one of the spiral staircases.

The Entrance

On each arm was one of the Patil twins, whom she couldn't tell apart as they had gone with the "Double-Mint Twins" look.

In some very specific ways they must have been the most conservatively dressed female students in the room, for each wore a cheongsam, the cut of which was not quite traditional as they had a much lower neck lines then usual but it still stopped quite short of the girls breasts - but in other ways?

From what she could and couldn't see the twins possessed flawless skin in a tone just darker than Hermione herself had ever dreamt of getting, along with well toned bodies that stopped just short of being muscled complete with perfectly flat stomachs, small nipples atop their nicely developing upper B cup breasts and it was clear the twins shaved for there was not a single hair below their necks.

The reason for Hermione knowing all of this was that apart from very small patches to preserve the wearer's modesty (that judging by the way the twins moved were spell based) the outfits were completely see-through; she could just make out the visual distortion of looking through something, rendering any question of conservatism of outfit a moot point; one would be more thoroughly clad in a string bikini.

Other than the transparent dresses the only thing the twins were wearing were red stiletto heels (they looked to be about 4 inches to Hermione's untrained eye) and rather elegant chokers.

The chokers were a simple design; a tube of gold ran around the throat with what Hermione recognized as the House Potter coat of arms mounted on a disc-shaped base on the front; Hermione couldn't tell what was keeping the things so high up the twins' necks.

The only other jewellery they were wearing was a set of rather subdued stud earrings matching that which Hermione had seen Parvati wearing every day, and a navel piercing that seemed to hold a broach.

What hair the twins still had was immaculately groomed. Eyelashes had been lengthened and straightened, eyebrows had been plucked, thinned and trimmed, while the twins hair had probably received more attention then Hermione's own.

It was also the first time she'd noticed that the twins' wands were identical, just like their owners; their hair was done up into buns but instead of the usual chopsticks the girls had used their wands, all four of which were identical. She wondered where they had gotten such perfect copies of their wands made.

The twins wore very little make-up, just enough for you to know it was there and to enhance the girls natural beauty but without going overboard like the sluts and tarts effect such as Parkinson and Lavender had done.

Individually the twins might outshine Fleur, and she was a Veela; together they were clearly the prettiest girls in the room, hands down.

Whatever else happen tonight she knew this would be all over the cover of the Daily Prophet as the services of the Prophets' Photographer had been obtained as official Yule Ball Photographer and the Prophet's Social reporter, along with one from Teen Witch Weekly, had managed to acquire invites.

The Balance of the Ball

"Your friend, he is very lucky to have such beautiful concubines," Victor mused with a thoughtful little nod. Was that a touch of envy in between the amusement on the Quidditch star's face?

"How do you know that and what does it mean?" Hermione immediately asked - she had a distinct feeling that this would be some of the most important information she would ever hear in her entire life.

"Those - those - vat is the vord? Chokers? Ja, those chokers, they are concubine vones, meaning that most likely they are his concubines or are perhaps merely playing at being so for the night, as for what it means you vill have to ask your friend, I do not know the vords to propely explain it to you - my English you see, it is not perfect as yet, plus the details of any such relationship are not automatically public."

Hermione gave Victor a sharp side-on look; he responded with a slightly sheepish smile, then said something larynx-mangling in Bulgarian and shrugged helplessly.

"I vould advise that you keep your vand handy tonight, someone is likely to cause a scene and you might vant to silence them before it gets out of hand." he advised.

"Misses Patil and Patil," came the strident Dundee-accented voice of an outraged McGonagall, "You cannae be thinking of attending the Ball in those scandalous getups, and Mr. Potter I am terribly sorry but you cannae take both of these lassies to the Ball!"

"Professor, the twins are wearing outfits that cover them far more completely than many of their peers and nothing is showing that shouldn't, nor will it due to the way their outfits are charmed." Harry pointed out, in that sort of reasonable tone that can under the wrong circumstances in itself be annoying.

"Aye well," McGonagall started to admit, but Harry wasn't done.

"As to the matter of me having two companions, there are no rules prohibiting me from doing so, only one that says as a Triwizard Champion I must have a date to the Yule Ball. Furthermore, if I were to bring only one of the twins the other would have had to miss out and I am not prepared to allow that to come to pass." and as Harry said that his reasonable tone vanished as if it'd never been, replaced by the sort of glare that could've melted lead.

"Be it on your head then Mr. Potter," McGonagall conceded with a sigh; a moment later her anger faded away, replaced by an exasperated but oddly proud smile as she added in a sotto voice, "You've got stanes on yeh, laddie; see that they dinnae get you into too much trouble, aye? I'll hae yer guts fer garters if yeh cost Gryffindor the cup with any shenanigans, now."

"Fair enough." Harry said, all smiles.

As McGonagall sorted the Champions and their dates, instructing them to line up two by two (three at the point of Harry and the twins) Victor guided Hermione to the back of the line, explaining that he wanted to see how people reacted to Harry and the twins and, further to the point, how said luminaries responded.

As they entered the Great Hall, Hermione could see that many people where stunned and amazed at Harry and the twins, the drooling/ogling from the guys she had expected but the GIRLS were staring as well, it was like they were looking for something; whatever it was they soon found it and most of them stopped.

As they walked past Malfoy on their way to top table she saw Parkinson slap him, Bulstrode punch him in the face and Greengrass cast a couple of spells at him; she also saw Luna Silence Ron and say something to him, no doubt telling him to keep quiet and not ruin the evening; Hermione was thankful that Ron could not cast the counter-curse silently and made a note to learn how to do so.

It might prove useful.

When they got to the high table Percy was most put out when he was asked to relocate elsewhere to make room for Harry's extra companion. Judging by the look on his face, Professor Snape was itching to say something nasty to Harry, but ever since Harry had been selected as the Fourth Champion he had been receiving offers to transfer from schools all over and that had led to the potions' master realizing he was standing on thin ice, not just with Headmaster Dumbledore but with the other two Headmasters and the British press.

At this point Victor whispered to her that "The girls" and by this she knew he meant the twins "looked to be very much enjoying themselves vhat vith the vay they vhere smiling and preening and it" (here she guessed he meant the twins dresses and they way they came together with Harry) "vas probably their idea" as Harry looked "somevhat - how you say? Uncomfortable, ja?" well, Hermione guessed if she had brought two girls who where basically nude uncomfortable wouldn't even start to describe her state of mind.

When the dancing started Harry didn't do the silly thing and try to dance with girls at once; rather he took one out and danced with her then when the song ended he switched to the other.

Several boys who had not managed to find themselves dates tried to get the twin who Harry wasn't dancing with at the time to dance with them ,but where always refused, some more politely than others - then things started getting interesting, it was time for the Champions to switch partners; Hermione got to dance with Cedric while Victor danced with Cho, Harry danced with Fleur and strangely Roger did not dance with one of the twins but rather one of the several girls who had not come with dates or whose dates were not that interested in dancing that had taken to hanging around where Harry changed in hopes of getting a dance with him.

The next dance was her with Roger, Fleur with Victor, Harry with Cho and Cedric with one of the girls trying to get a dance with Harry, who at this had started increasing as people had noticed a pattern.

Finally it was her turn for a dance with Harry while Victor was with one of the extras Harry had picked up, Fleur with Cedric and Cho with Roger, the weird bit being when Luna came over and danced with one of the twins.

Seizing her chance she asked "Harry, what's going on? You show up with the Patil twins and they're dressed like that, Victor says something about them being your concubines and now the twins aren't dancing with any other boys but will dance with Luna?"

"Lets just say Victor was right and everything else stems from that for now. Look, I could do with a bit of a break, but only after I've given Luna a whirl for helping out Parvati, so why don't you give Victor one more dance then we'll grab some drinks and have a chat with Ron, I don't want to have to explain this more than once."

Explanations

During the next dance, which she shared with Victor and Harry shared with Luna, Hermione told Victor she she was feeling a bit worn out and wanted to take a break and could he be a darling and get them something to drink.

When she reached the area where Ron was sitting she saw that Harry and Luna had beaten her there. Just as she got into earshot she heard Harry tell Ron "Okay Ron, I'm about to lift the Silencing Spell, but if it looks like you're about to cause a scene it'll be going straight back up and I won't be taking it down until the Ball is over."

And Harry lifted the spell. Ron being Ron immediately started yelling or, Hermione would have called it yelling if Ron's voice had been raised, Harry had lifted the Silencing Spell allowing him to talk but had clearly set a limit on how loud he could get; whatever the reason for the controlled volume, Ron's rant ran to something about Harry getting all the girls and refusing to share them with him.

Hermione didn't like the sound of that one tiny little bit.

"I warned you that if you kicked up a row I'd silence you again," Harry helpfully pointed out as he restored the Silencing Spell.

At that point Victor and the twins showed up with Butter Beers for everyone but Ron.

"Ok," said Harry, "Hermione, Victor, I'm sure you want to know why Padma and Parvati are my concubines and why we didn't deign to tell anyone before the Ball. Well, there are three things that led to the twins being my concubines, the first is that due to some Indian magic it is believed the twins must share a husband, the second is that the twins father wanted to see to the arrangements for the twins before he died, and as I get the feeling from your expressions you don't know, old man Patil died two weeks after my fourteenth birthday."

"You're right," Hermione said, "I hadn't heard... I'm sorry." and that last was directed to the twins, who accepted it with sad little smiles and nods of acknowledgement.

"Anyway," Harry continued, "The third reason is that they aren't really attracted to each other and don't want to be lonely half the time, and therefore want me to have several other wives to help keep them occupied when they can't be with me, and they didn't think they could ask other girls to be my concubines, at least not with them taking that plunge first."

Throughout his little speech, Harry had been taking occasional sips from his bottle of Butter Beer.

"Now," he continued after a long drink from the bottle, "the reason why we didn't tell anyone anything before hand was that when the girls saw the dress robes requirement for this year they immediately figured out that it meant there would be a Dance or some other formal event over the course of the year. They then decided that it would be amusing if we waited until said event to revel our new status to everyone. As for the dresses, again the girls idea, they wanted to show the other girls at the Ball that I wasn't mistreating them along with teasing every boy in the room with what I got to enjoy. Now, any questions?" Another large pull at the bottle.

"Yes," Hermione asked, "why aren't the twins dancing with any boys other then you but Parvati danced with Luna?"

It was Victor who responded, "Is fairly standard Clause in the Contract, vhen the girls are sold, that they are not to be vhored out, in most cases that means having sexual intercourse vith any man other than their new husband, unless the girls are being sold to a brothel."

"... sold?" Hermione pounced, not liking where this was going.

"If," one of the twins (Hermione was fairly certain it was Padma) cut in, "The girl is being purchased to ensure to continuation of a family line there may be a Clause allowing her to have female lovers both inside and outside her husband's other wives. Ours has one of these, it allows us to offer girls who are considering joining a taste of what will be expected of them."

"Contract, Clauses?" Hermione had to ask.

This time it was Luna that answered. "Concubinage in the magical world is a form of contract marriage, unlike normal Marriage Contracts and Betrothals, it is always based on a Magical Contract, like the one that forces Harry to participate in the TriWizard Tournament. There is a physical contract written on special parchment and signed in blood, this is called the Contract. Clauses, are as you would expect the various clauses of the Contract, they define things like the girl being sold, what sexual acts are allowed and the girl's right of refusal, and usually a clause that says who the girl may and may not have sexual intercourse with. Other potential Clauses include ones relating to children and divorce."

"... Right,"

"It is important to note that some Clauses may alter other Clauses. For example a Clause relating to children may deny the girl the right to refuse vaginal intercourse at the point of highest fertility in her cycle until a set number and/or gender of children are born. Furthermore," Luna continued, "It is not unknown for more traditional marriages to use Concubine type contracts to enforce certain things. If Harry where to enter into a Lineal Continuation Contract with Susan Bones because she is the last person in the Primary line of succession to House Bones it would have Clauses stating that all children Harry fathers on Susan are to bear the Bones name instead of the Potter one, and there will likely be a specified minimum number of male children."

By this point everyone had finished their Butter Beers and the current song was winding down.

"Ladies," Harry said to the twins as he stood up, "I don't think I going to be dancing with you much any more, so feel free to find someone else to dance with. Victor, I think some of the horde over there wants to dance with you." and he angled a thumb at the crowd that had formed where he had been switching off between the twins.

"I think that you are right. Herm-own-ninny, you are free to find someone else to dance with," replied Victor, suprising Hermione by managing to make it not sound patronising.

"Luna, I don't think Ron needs to stay here any longer, could you see that he gets back to Gryffinor Tower in one piece? You can come back if you want to."

"Sure Harry, I think Ron's got a bad case of Nargle infection."