After examining Ariana and finding nothing magically or medically wrong with her, he was still not pleased.
Ariana was supposed to be this mega powerful girl. She literally had nearly all the magical skill and knowledge that he himself knew, which was probably the most substantial on earth, having dedicated 150 years worth of study to it.
Being so young, she could be considered a prodigy, and yet she felt no inclination to show off and prove herself to be the next great Dumbledore he had wanted her to be.
Instead she was actually afraid to use her powers, instead choosing to dispense knowledge to others.
Having been a teacher himself, he understood the value of what teaching could bring but it wasn't to help others learn, it was to make sure his students admired him
Ariana didn't appear to be seeking for that type of admiration, merely friendship and knowing she had done a good deed. She was only supposed to be seeking for admiration and approval from him, not anyone else though.
He had wanted her to work perfectly as his sister but he was starting to realize that just might not be the case. If he needed to however he could simply have her replaced with a perfected copy, a better Ariana, who would follow him without question.
There were bound to be problems with his first successfully made clone, and Ariana, even if she didn't work out, could help highlight her weaknesses and problems so they could be fixed when he started making more clones.
He would just have to monitor her and find out.
DUELDUELDUEL
Ariana nervously approached the two girls Susan and Pansy, who were by now in their room getting ready for bed. She selected Susan first, since she was usually the nicest of all the girls.
"Susan, can I ask you something?" Ariana asked.
"Sure what's up?" Susan asked.
"Is it okay if I start dating Harry?" Ariana blurted out.
Pansy who had been listening said, "No, I really don't think that would be a good idea Ariana."
She felt hurt, was it because Pansy just didn't like her? She wanted to date Harry more than anything and yet she was saying no.
Susan however then responded, "Why not Pansy? I have no problem with it if Harry doesn't."
"We've already got too many girls with him already, I just don't think it would be a good idea to have another. Nothing against Ariana, I just think we should keep things the way they are," Pansy responded.
Ariana felt like she might cry. They didn't want her? Was she just not good or pretty enough?
Susan looked over at Pansy again and then said, "Come on, let's go talk somewhere else."
Ariana followed her out of the bedroom, the Common Room, and then finally an empty bedroom off to the left of it.
"Why doesn't Pansy like me?" Ariana asked, now starting to cry. She'd couldn't recall ever feeling so miserable before.
"No, it's not that at all," Susan insisted, "Pansy likes you just fine."
"Then how come she doesn't want me to date Harry?" Ariana asked, upset.
"She just feels a bit threatened. The thing is when you're already sharing just one guy among six girls you end up feeling like you need to compete against one another for his attention, and Pansy already feels enormous pressure. She won't usually say anything since the additional girls that have been added so far have all been beyond either Harry's or the girl's control but she still can get rather jealous."
"She hasn't been quite able to shake the feeling that she is the most plain and least beautiful of us, which causes her to be a bit protective of Harry."
"Pansy is so pretty though!" Ariana argued, shocked that Pansy could ever feel that way.
"You know that, and I know that, but Pansy still doesn't and I don't really blame her. All of the girls are rather beautiful and for someone as insecure about themselves like Pansy it becomes an issue." Susan answered.
"I'm not trying to steal Harry away from you, I really like all of you, more than anyone I've ever known my own age." Ariana replied.
"I'm sure you weren't, but when we only have so little time with Harry anyway, some of the girls might get jealous if they find you stealing some of that time from them if you were to date Harry." Susan answered, "How about you find out if there is anyone else you like other than him that you would want to date?"
Ariana thought a moment. It just seemed like everyone else was still so scary to her or at least she felt nervous around, having never really been around much people being home schooled. She really only felt comfortable around Harry and the girls and she wanted someone like them to date.
Then she got a great idea.
"How about I date you then?" Ariana suggested.
"Me?" Susan asked, sounding very surprised.
"Sure. You're really beautiful and nice and I like you. You also apparently don't get a lot of time with Harry so maybe I could help out as his replacement when he isn't available," Ariana answered.
Susan to think about this for a moment and then said, "I thought you realized you didn't like girls?"
"I don't know what I like, but I really would like to find out if I do or not." Ariana told her.
"Well I suppose I have been a bit curious myself..." Susan confessed, "All right, I guess we could at least try it."
Ariana squealed with happiness and then asked, "Can we kiss then?"
Susan reluctantly nodded and Ariana leaned in and kissed her. She didn't feel or taste the same as Harry but she definitely still liked it.
"Ooh you feel really good Susan." Ariana commented after she had withdrawn her lips.
"So did you." Susan replied.
"You want to do that again?" Ariana asked.
"Sure." Susan agreed and Ariana happily kissed her again, this time for longer as Susan kissed back.
She could definitely get used to this, she thought. "I can't wait to tell the other girls." Ariana told her.
"I think we should try and keep this a secret Ariana." Susan confessed.
"Why?" Ariana asked, confused. She had a girlfriend now, someone to kiss and do who knew what else with, and she wanted to tell the whole world. Maybe the other girls would even want to join in so they could feel this good too with eachother, and Harry.
"I like you Ariana but I'm not sure just if we should make a big deal out of this as I'm still not sure this is what I really want. It's been nice kissing you, but I'd like to see how things go before we go telling anyone else. They might freak out or something and if I ultimately decide this isn't what I want, I want to be able to decide that privately without their influence. Can you understand that?"
She didn't really understand what the big deal was herself but if it was important to Susan then she would respect that. "Of course." She told her.
DUELDUELDUEL
The next morning after making out with Susan, Ariana woke up in pain.
It wasn't pain on her arm or leg or something, it was coming from her special area.
Reaching down and pulling down her panties, she saw that there was blood down there.
"Hey girls, I'm bleeding down here." She admitted as she looked at the other girls already awake.
"So... that happens every cycle to me." Su replied, a bit cranky since she was still half asleep.
"I've never had it happen to me before though!" Ariana confessed.
"So you're telling me that this has never happened to you?" Susan asked, gesturing between her legs.
"Is that even possible?" Gabrielle asked.
"Of course it is, plenty of girls go through puberty but don't get their first period until they're 14." Susan remarked before turning to Ariana, "Well congratulations, I suppose, for getting your first period."
"I still don't know what that is, could you explain that to me?" Ariana asked.
"Nobody ever told you?" Fleur asked in disbelief.
"No?" Ariana replied, wondering if that was somehow wrong.
"Of course, the girl who knows about everything doesn't know about periods." Pansy commented.
"I'll teach you all about it then." Susan answered.
When she was finally done talking to Susan, she was still amazed at what she hadn't known about her own body. So she would be really going through this every month? Actually quicker than every month since a cycle was faster than that.
She was grateful that Susan and the other girls were around to teach her or otherwise she would have had no clue and been quite afraid. However she wondered why nobody had bothered to teach her before.
The good thing was that Susan assured her that because of her periods that it would allow her to one day have a baby.
She decided that she definitely wanted a baby, a nice cute baby with black hair and beautiful green eyes...
Of course she had originally been thinking a baby with red hair and blue eyes like Susan but then Susan had told her that two women couldn't have a baby only a man and a woman could.
This had caused her to think of what it would be like to have Harry's baby. While Susan had persuaded her not to try anything with Harry for now she still hadn't given up on him.
As much as she liked Susan, she still really liked looking at Harry more.
The good news however was that there was apparently a Hogsmeade weekend coming up and Susan had invited her to go with her. They of course wouldn't obviously be dating, just appearing to be going as friends, but she still regarded it as her first official date so she was excited nonetheless.
All she had to do was talk to her Grandfather Dumbledore and get him to sign the permission slip allowing her to go.
When she got up to his office, Dumbledore greeted her warmly and asked how she was doing.
"I'm doing great grandfather, I'm making new friends and I can honestly say I've never been happier in my life!" Ariana replied.
"That's wonderful but how have you been doing with finding out any information about Harry, the girls, or perhaps the Blacks?" Dumbledore asked.
"Nothing yet, but I don't really see the point anyway and I really don't like having to spy on my friends. They seem like nice people even if they don't seem like you very much, but I'm sure I can make them see you're really a great man simply trying to look out for them." Ariana claimed.
"We've already discussed this Ariana, you simply just don't understand, I need you to trust me and do what I ask." Dumbledore replied.
"I think it might be a good idea for me to understand." Ariana argued, "There is just so much I've realized that I never really knew about myself and I think its better that I know about them now. How come I never knew what a period was, or liked boys, to know what it feels like to be kissed, or even have friends my own age?"
Dumbledore blushed at her mentioning her period but finally said, "You don't need relationships or kissing, Ariana. I've managed to get rid of my attraction to others and remain totally celibate and there is no reason why you can't as well."
"It feels so good though grandfather." Ariana countered.
It really did feel good and she couldn't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to have that feeling.
"I didn't make you to question my authority!" Dumbledore yelled, completely losing his composure.
Ariana was confused. She respected her grandfather but she couldn't understand why he seemed to have a problem with just about everything she did or wanted to do, after all, all the other teenagers were doing it.
Dumbledore managed to straighten himself up and say, "You don't understand now, but you'll be grateful later. I need you to get close to Harry and those girls of his to find out information, that's all. Can you do that for me?"
"Yes grandfather..." Ariana answered.
"Excellent, just let me know if there is anything I can do to help with that." Dumbledore told her.
"Well there is one thing," Ariana began, "you see I'm starting to get close to Susan and I think it might be a good idea if you allowed me to go to Hogsmeade so I could get her to open up a bit more to me."
Of course it was actually because she wanted an excuse to have him let her go.
"While I applaud your efforts, going to Hogsmeade is simply off the table." Dumbledore stated firmly.
"Why not?" Ariana asked.
"Since I said so." Dumbledore replied firmly.
"I promise to be really good there?" Ariana promised.
"No." Dumbledore said.
As she stared into his eyes, she could tell that there would just be no reasoning with him, so instead she chose to remain silent, even though she was very disappointed. "Yes grandfather." She answered respectfully.
DUELDUELDUEL
While Ariana was busy talking to Dumbledore, everyone else was currently studying in the library. Susan was busy herself when Gabrielle approached her.
"Susan could I talk to you about something?" Gabrielle asked nervously, "It's about Ariana."
Her first thought was that Gabrielle had found out about her and Ariana and while it wouldn't be totally devastating, she would have preferred to discuss that in private.
"I'm kind of worried about her. You see it just strikes me as odd that she somehow seems to know so much about everything, including super dark magic, yet knew nothing about relationships or sexual puberty."
"She was home schooled so I would imagine that it might be different for her." Susan defended.
"I know she was home schooled but even if she grew up in a convent I highly doubt that she wouldn't know that kind of stuff." Gabrielle pointed out.
"Well I understand your concern, and I was worried at first too but she just seems so innocent about it, and it's not exactly a crime not to know those things." Susan reminded her.
"What about that time that Moody taught about Inferi? She seemed to know exactly what those were and even how to make them. Not exactly you're bedtime reading for your average 14 year old girl unless they were some sort of dark witch." Gabrielle then said.
That seemed less explainable but she still was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Surprisingly it was Pansy who decided to jump into the conversation and defend her.
"To you it would seem quite unusual and alarming but in a lot of families it's more common to teach their children the dark arts." Pansy admitted, "My father actually tried to get me into necromancy when I was younger because of the amount of money they make and the value they might be to a prospective husband."
"Why on earth would anyone consider that valuable?" Fleur asked.
"It might sound really grotesque but a good necromancer can actually reanimate a person just enough to reveal bank account information, where valuables are kept, etc." Pansy replied, "The problem is usually you have to start rather young for you to be able to really learn how."
"I suppose that could be valuable, even if I personally can't see why it would be worth it." Fleur confessed.
"It's certainly not something I would recommend either, but I can at least see why Ariana might have had parents or a tutor of some sort that might have tried to teach her stuff like that." Pansy replied.
"I think we should still continue to keep an eye on her." Gabrielle replied, "There is just something off about her, even if I can't quite put my foot on it."
"I agree," Tonks said, "she seems like a nice girl but if there is one thing we should have all learned by now, its that we can't always trust everyone or believe that they are who they say they are."
Although no words were spoken, the fact that Tonks was currently still there as a spy seemed to be proof of this even if she was on their side. The fact that Quirrell, Lockhart, Lupin, Dumbledore, and even Ron's former pet rat Scabbers had all been hiding major secrets and weren't exactly who they were supposed to be also gave credibility to that.
"I'll keep an eye on her." Susan promised.
"Just make sure that you don't give out anything we don't want publicly known, particularly about me." Tonks cautioned her.
"Do you really think Dumbledore would use Ariana as a spy?" Susan asked.
"I honestly wouldn't be surprised by anything Dumbledore does at this point." Tonks replied cynically, "I'm sure I'm just being paranoid and she seems okay, but we should still be cautious as we should around anyone."
At that moment, Ariana came back in, which caused them to end that particular conversation.
"So what did Dumbledore say?" Susan asked her.
"He said no..." Ariana replied morosely.
"Why not?" Susan asked.
"He wouldn't say, just that he didn't want me to go." She answered.
"Who is he to say you can't go?" Su asked angrily.
"Well he is the Headmaster," Fleur reminded them all, "a really bad one, but the Headmaster nonetheless."
"No, don't say that, he just wants me to be safe that's all." Ariana argued.
"I still don't understand why you like Dumbledore so much," Gabrielle asked.
"He's the greatest wizard that ever lived, that's why." Ariana replied, "Just think of all the things he's accomplished."
"I'm not saying that Dumbledore hasn't accomplished a lot, but he still definitely has some major faults." Gabrielle answered.
"Why did you need his permission anyway? Surely you must have a family member or a guardian who can sign that?" Fleur asked.
"Actually no, since he's now my magical guardian, and I don't have any other living family." Ariana told them.
"Right, because Dumbledore does such a great job as a magical guardian." Harry scoffed sarcastically. It would have been funny had it not been so sad at the same time.
"What do you mean?" Ariana asked.
"Dumbledore was once my magical guardian too, and the first thing he did was put me with my Muggle relatives who proceeded to beat me. Never once did Dumbledore bother to check up on me himself, didn't even bother to talk to them first to make sure I was safe, and simply left me on their doorstep with a letter. Instead he sent a former criminal who I never met during my entire stay there and always told Dumbledore that I was perfectly fine." Harry admitted.
"I don't see why he would ever do that." Ariana asked in shock.
"Believe me, there are a lot of things about Dumbledore that he would like us not to know, and plenty more that we still don't know." Harry answered.
"I'm sorry, but I just can't believe anything bad about him." Ariana said.
"Suit yourself, we won't force you to listen, but I'm still kind of disappointed that you aren't able to go to Hogsmeade with us." Susan told her.
"I am too, but what am I going to do if he says no?" Ariana asked.
"You could always simply slip out one of the school's secret passageways." Su suggested, "You still have that map Harry?"
"I sure do, and my invisibility cloak if you need to use that." Harry replied.
"I don't think I've ever done anything like that before." Ariana confessed.
"Well then now is your chance to!" Su exclaimed brightly. Her sense of adventure and danger was already burning hot again.
Ariana seemed really nervous but finally said, "Alright, I'm in!"
Later that night Susan had finally decided that she needed to tell Harry about her and Ariana. She felt that he wouldn't really mind, in fact she knew he had had a few fantasies involving two of the girls kissing each other, but she thought that at least he should know since she was still in a relationship with him.
Finding him in his bedroom alone, she said, "Harry, can I talk to you about something?"
"Sure, what's up?" He asked, patting the side of his bed for her to sit down next to him.
"I'm hoping that it won't be a problem for you and I really don't think it won't, but I feel at least you should know." Susan told him.
"Okay." He said simply.
"I've kind of, sort of, been doing stuff with Ariana. Nothing serious, just kissing at this point, but I thought I'd like to do a bit of exploring and see just how I feel about other girls." Susan answered.
Harry blushed but finally said, "Well I guess that would be fine with me, and I can see why you might want to do a bit of exploring. Personally I would never want to try anything with another guy, but if you want to find out yourself then that's okay with me."
"You're not upset? After all I am still with you, and you should know that I always will be." Susan told him.
"I get it, it's kind of hard sharing me all the time with 5 other girls and while I don't think I would be okay with you doing anything with other guys, I wouldn't really mind other girls so long as I always come first in your heart, as your fiance and then husband." Harry replied, worried his slightly possessive tendencies weren't going to cause problems.
"Thanks for understanding, Harry." Susan said gratefully, leaning in and kissing him, "You should know that you'll always come first in my eyes. I love you more than anyone and that is never going to change, I promise."
Harry nodded and Susan felt better.
"So..." Harry asked, "I don't suppose you'd let me watch sometime."
She smiled and said, "Maybe if you're really good, I'll let you."
DUELDUELDUEL
A few days later and Harry was giving Pansy one of his by now famous full body massages on her bed much to her satisfaction.
It was then that Ariana came in and noticed them there.
She came up to them and asked, "Can I watch while you show me how you do that?"
Harry could tell that Ariana was rather curious, but he had a suspicion just why she would want to know how to give massages like this. It didn't bother him, but he wasn't about to say yes since Pansy had said no to her dating him.
Surprisingly however, Pansy said, "I don't mind if you want to watch."
It suddenly occurred to Harry that Pansy actually liked the attention she received from the other girls when they watched her get some sexy time with him. It was sort of like bragging as if to say, "I'm sexy and I'll bet you wish you were me right now since I have Harry's attention right now.
For someone who sometimes had a low opinion of just how attractive she was, this would be considered invaluable to her, and having another girl watch her and possibly be jealous was something that she simply couldn't resist.
He really couldn't blame Pansy for this, and he also didn't mind agreeing with her as it gave an opportunity to brag about Pansy's body to someone else, something he enjoyed, and so would Pansy.
"I don't have a problem with that either." Harry agreed as he began to explain what he was doing, "I like to start with the feet and then move my way up. Now some girls can have rather ugly feet, but Pansy has dainty, cute little feet so you want to be careful not to hurt them as they are truly works of art."
"I'm not a porcelain vase Harry." Pansy reminded him, although pleased nonetheless.
He massaged her feet for a bit, working in each individual toe before moving on.
"Now Pansy's legs require just as much attention. As you can tell, they are finely shaped, and Pansy has to be very careful when they aren't covered in class since inevitably guys end up staring at them and forgetting to do their work. More than one detention or loss of House Points have been caused by Pansy's legs."
"You liar Harry, that's never happened," Pansy claimed.
"On the contrary, I lost Points just last week for doing that." Harry claimed, causing her to blush.
After massaging her legs for awhile, he moved up to one of his favorite Pansy parts: her bum.
"It can be very hard to resist simply immediately starting on her bum." Harry told Ariana, "I guarantee you while it is very nice, it is also quite firm."
"Are you going to be complimenting all of my body parts?" Pansy asked.
"I sure am." Harry said, grinning.
He spent some time on her bum, because he rather enjoyed it and also because Pansy did as well.
While not as big or as firm as some of the other girls, it still ranked extremely high on the list of best bums in Hogwarts in his opinion, and he still couldn't get enough of staring at it, which Pansy milked by 'accidentally' dropping something in front of him frequently that she had stoop down and pick up.
Moving up to her back and neck before turning her around and getting her front, he started explaining again, "I usually like to start with the top first and end with her favorite spot."
He slowly massaged her face while he said, "Now Pansy's face I could go on about all day. She has beautiful eyes, beautiful cheeks, and perfect lips; perfect because they are perfect to kiss."
To prove this, he leaned in and kissed her.
After that, he moved down to her breasts.
"Now as you can see, Pansy has a very nice set of breasts." Harry began.
"Don't you start." Pansy replied even though she was blushing, "All the girls except Su have a nicer, bigger pair than I do."
"I wasn't talking about theirs, I was talking about yours." Harry gently reminded her, having long ago learned not to compare each of the girls with each other as it only meant trouble.
"What about mine? Are mine nice?" Ariana asked as she thrust out her chest.
He wasn't about to answer that question himself so Pansy said, "Sure they look nice, do you mind telling me what size?"
"I think I'm like a 30C." Ariana answered.
"That's a decent size," Pansy admitted, "nothing to scoff at at least for your age."
Ariana blushed and said, "Thanks, I hope they get really huge like Susan's."
"I'm not sure you would have the genetics for that, Susan has some really busty women apparently in her family, would you know how big the women in your family were?" Pansy asked.
Ariana said, "I'm not really sure but I don't think they were huge."
"Then probably not but if you want to have them enlarged when you get older you can, I'm probably going to do the same thing myself." Pansy confessed.
"Why though? Yours are so beautiful already." Ariana asked.
"Thanks." Pansy replied, accepting the compliment.
Harry took this as a sign to continue as he slowly massaged her breasts, carefully stimulating each nipple, which were already hard from his ministrations.
She let out a small gasp as he popped one of her nipples into his mouth and slowly began to suck on it, before turning to the other.
After finishing with her breasts, he moved to her belly, and then ended with her favorite part, where he fingered her. It had taken awhile to finally get the hang of this part, but it was turning out to be well worth it based on the girl's reactions.
He knew she had at least one orgasm before she asked him to stop.
"Okay Harry, that's enough or I won't have time to have my hair brushed." Pansy claimed.
"I can do that as well." He offered.
"Actually I was wondering if Ariana would like to do it for me." Pansy replied.
"Oh, well okay then." Harry answered, "I suppose I'll go work on my homework then."
DUELDUELDUEL
After Harry left the room, Pansy was left alone with Ariana.
She really liked having her hair brushed, but really she wanted to talk to Ariana alone.
As Ariana slowly brushed out her hair, Pansy said, "I just want to say that I'm sorry about the other day and how I said I didn't want you dating Harry."
"It's all right, Susan helped me understand, no apology necessary." Ariana answered.
"Well I'm apologizing anyway, I think you're a great girl Ariana and I really hope you find happiness with someone." Pansy replied.
"Thanks." Ariana answered.
"To be honest you remind me a lot of myself, trying to be a good person, yet sullied by a dark and sad past." Pansy claimed.
"I often feel that way, but I'm not really sure just where it comes from." Ariana confessed, "I just feel like a part of me, which comes out particularly when I'm using magic is just so sad and I worry that I might lose control and hurt others or end up a monster."
"I know what you mean, you have no idea what kind of anguish I went through before I met Harry..." Pansy replied, "At any rate, I'd be happy to help you with yours and try to be your friend."
"Absolutely." Ariana replied, smiling.