Did I just say that out loud?

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All canon characters belong to JKR.

Thanks as always to June for all of her help and suggestions.

Chapter 17 – Did I just say that out loud?

Harry finished his breakfast and decided he would fly around the area for a while, to relax. He thought that he should be back by lunchtime, as he expected Ginny might need a shoulder to cry on.

Odin and Sage scurried to their rooms. They both decided that they would be careful and act as though they could not possibly know how to find a bottle of Veritaserum in the castle, much less know the potion's uses and just how to use it. There was no way they would take the blame for anything Harry did or said.

As the morning trailed on, the rest of the houseguests finally emerged from their rooms.

Everyone was assembled in the living room and relaxing, each aware they only had a few more days left in Bavaria. Severus and Hermione were showing the children simple spells and transfiguration techniques. Knowing their children's penchant for mischief, both Severus and Hermione decided their children need not have their own wand for several years more, at least until it came time for them to attend Hogwarts. On several occasions the children showed signs of wandless magic, but they were still years away from being able to use it effectively.

On the other side of the room, Ginny was speaking with Minerva regarding the possibility of doing some part-time work at Hogwarts. Ginny was a Charms Mistress; and Professor Flitwick had a sick mother he would be attending to on and off, as he and his siblings were taking turns caring for the old witch. Ginny and Lucius hadn't really discussed any future plans yet, but she was hopeful that there would certainly be a future for them together one day. Ginny was very interested in Minerva's offer to take over for Filius the days he was taking care of his mother.

Ginny's work at the Ministry was slow going. Being the daughter of the Minister of Magic didn't keep her from having a dull position. Perhaps Lucius would support her, which was something Harry never would have done. Harry was the type who would want her to stick with her boring job, just so that she could work in the same place as him, so that when he got bored at his work he could come and waste time bothering her. She sometimes wondered why Harry took the job of Ministry Director of Public Affairs, but Harry loved the spotlight. Why wouldn't he have taken the job?

Lucius was sitting next to the fire with Albus. They decided to take each other on in a game of chess. Both men so far had proven to be very formidable players.

As everyone relaxed, Harry, having flown directly to his balcony, came downstairs from his room. He reached the bottom of the stairs and noticed everyone was in the living room. It didn't escape him that Ginny was sitting far away from Lucius and in a very intense discussion with Minerva. 'No doubt Minerva is consoling her,' thought Harry.

He tried not to look like he was gloating, as he didn't know if the rest of the group was still upset with him for what happened with Lucius' not-so-sealed transcript, something that he still had not admitted to bringing there. Harry walked into the room, having of course been spotted by everyone by now.

While no one had mentioned what happened the evening before, in their own minds most believed that – for the sake of getting along – things should be left alone for the time being. Lucius had briefly thought of hexing Harry on first sight, but stopped himself; for fear that Ginny would probably be upset. Ginny and Harry had been friends for many years, and she had been in love with him at one point. Lucius didn't want to risk her feeling sympathetic towards her ex if Harry's balls were hanging from the chandeliers.

Ginny decided to ignore Harry for the most part, as did Minerva. Minerva was still felt upset and betrayed. The fact that Harry, one of her favorite students, one of her favorite people, would do such a deed was something that she would find hard to forget – and he was a Gryffindoor to boot. It was enough to have her stomach in knots.

Albus thought much like Severus and Hermione. They knew that Harry was in need of a rude awakening, but this might not be the time or the place to give it to him. They would simply allow things to go on as they were.

As for Odin and Sage, well, they just hoped that neither one of them would give the other up for a lesser sentence, once the adults figured out what happened to Harry.

When Harry walked into the room and was met with silence, Severus decided to break the ice.

"Good morning, Harry."

"Good morning, Severus," Harry replied. He looked around the room for a place to sit, not too close to anyone in particular. He settled into a soft big cushioned chair.

Albus looked over his glasses at Harry. He wondered if his talk with the young man had done any good.

The old wizard smiled and asked, "And how are we feeling this morning, Harry?"

"I've no idea how you are feeling, but I'm a bit constipated," Harry said, then stopped and blinked several times. 'Where did that come from?' he wondered, as everyone's head shot straight up and towards him.

'All right, so the talk may not have worked,' thought Albus. "Well, perhaps you can request a bit of prune juice from the elves before bedtime this evening. Unclogs the pipes, as they say." Albus turned back to his chess game. He looked at Lucius and shrugged his shoulders.

Lucius furrowed his brow; he found rudeness such as Harry's incredibly distasteful. Thank goodness he had saved Ginny from the uncouth buffoon.

The children looked at one another with wide eyes. They had been curious to see just how the potion would work. Oh yes, they had read the description in the book, but they hadn't dreamed things would be this good.

Harry sank back into his chair, hoping he and everyone else would forget what had just happened. He briefly wondered about Obliviating the lot of them, but thought better of it. He'd already accidentally hexed Severus' cock a few days after their arrival, and he was now persona non grata in the castle. The last thing he needed was another thing to go wrong, since there was no telling which of the group would wind up hexing him.

A large black owl tapping at the window broke the tension in the room. Severus stood and opened the window to allow the bird inside. It immediately flew to Lucius, who was smiling. Earlier that morning, Severus asked Lucius to invite Draco and Cho to spend the remainder of the holidays with them. Thinking it would be a good opportunity to celebrate his happiness with those he loved, except Harry, he decided to Owl his son. Lucius knew Draco would say yes; indeed, Draco had Owled him and told him he'd missed Europe, and would most probably be coming home sooner.

"Is that from Draco?" asked Severus.

"Yes," Lucius said as he looked to Severus and Hermione. "He and Cho will be arriving here just after lunch."

"That's wonderful," said Hermione. "I haven't seen them since classes began."

Minerva had always liked Cho, who had been a good Quidditch player when she was at Hogwarts. Then Minerva remembered that Harry and Cho had briefly dated. Deciding perhaps she would try to talk to him, Minerva spoke.

"Harry, didn't you and Cho used to date after you both graduated?"

Harry turned his head and looked at his former Transfiguration professor. "We never dated, just fucked." He stopped, shocked at his own declaration, he looked around the room. There was a collective gasp, as he wondered if there was a spell for the ground to swallow you up.

Severus and Hermione immediately covered the children's ears, while Albus's spectacles fell off his nose. Ginny stood as her jaw dropped halfway to the floor. Lucius was seething over the crude mention of Draco's wife, and Minerva was hyperventilating.

"Harry Potter, that was the single most rude thing I've ever heard come from your mouth!" cried the older witch.

"Harry, she's Lucius' daughter-in-law. You apologize to him," said Ginny angrily.

"I'd rather eat my own shit than apologize to him," said Harry as he rolled his eyes, not believing he couldn't just shut up.

"How fortunate for you then that you are constipated, or I'd be serving it up to you myself," Lucius said as he approached Harry with murder in his eyes.

Severus saw this and stood, placing himself between the two men. He looked at Harry and noticed his eyes seemed glazed over.

"Harry, what the devil have you been doing? You're acting as though you're on something." Severus wondered if perhaps Harry had spent the morning gathering or purchasing some wacky weed in Amsterdam.

"I'm not on anything. I don't know what's the matter with me. I feel strange. Like I have to..." Harry stopped. He was going to tell Severus that he felt compelled to answer with complete honesty at every question.

"Like you have to what?" asked Albus.

"Like I have to tell the truth." Harry immediately looked towards Lucius. "You son of a bitch. You put Veritaserum in my pumpkin juice this morning, didn't you?" yelled Harry.

Hermione looked at Odin and Sage, and told them to go to their room.

"But Mum," whined Odin.

"Mum nothing, go! The both of you." Hermione shoved them both towards the door.

As they walked out of the room, they looked back and saw Lucius laughing. They then ran to the panel that opened up to the tunnels. They could just as easily hear from behind the walls.

"Are you deranged? Just where would I get Veritaserum?" Lucius smiled evilly, "Don't answer that. You might say something like you yourself keep a vial of it up your anal crevice, or something similarly disgusting."

"I'll bet you're loving this," said Harry.

"Harry, why would Lucius feel the need to slip anything into your pumpkin juice? You aren't trying to hide anything, are you?" asked Severus, knowing full well that it had been Harry who produced the document of Lucius' confession.

"Well, of course I'm trying to hide something!" Harry yelled as he threw his hands up in the air. "All right, that's it," Harry said as he turned and walked towards the archway. "I'm going to my room."

"To do what?" yelled Lucius from behind him. Lucius felt the need to embarrass Harry further.

"To go wank off!" yelled Harry back. "Fuck!"

Lucius turned to the rest of the group, and smiled. "I was hoping he would say something like that."