Voldemort's Blight Chapter 5 (Patreon)

Flickering orange light met Harry as he awoke. Instinctively, he stilled his breathing, glancing around back and forth for any threats. He only found darkness and shadows dancing along the stone walls.

He tried to sit up only for pain to shoot down his legs. The gasp that left his lips was involuntary, as was his head smacking off of the hard stone floor as he collapsed back down.

“Harry!”

Suddenly, Daphne’s face appeared overhead. She was knelt beside him, worry stitched across her brow. A thick line of dried blood ran down the side of her temple past her ear, but she seemed unbothered by it.

Memories flooded back into his mind.

“You used magic,” he croaked out, his voice hoarse from disuse. He coughed loudly, feeling his lungs struggle.

Daphne brought a canteen up to his lips, which he eagerly drank water from. It was cool as it ran down his throat.

“I did what I had to in order for us to survive,” Daphne replied, gently tipping the canteen back. “You were in no fit state to protect us, and there was a pack of Lethifolds descending. They would’ve suffocated us to death if I hadn’t fought back.”

“But the blight,” Harry coughed again, his throat cringing in pain.

Daphne glanced away for a moment in thought. “It didn’t come for us. Either I didn’t generate enough magical energy for it to detect us or the presence of the Lethifolds disguised my magical energy and stopped the blight from noticing us.”

There was no way it was the former. If it were true, then Ron wouldn’t have died.

“The Lethifolds did it,” Harry manage to say before he reached back for the canteen.

He drank again, but more conservatively this time. He didn’t know how much water Daphne had used since he’d been knocked out, and getting fresh water might not be the easiest thing with all of Voldemort’s protections strewn around the mountains.

Still, despite his intent, he finished off the canteen before he even noticed that he was getting close to doing so. He handed it back to Daphne, who didn’t seem to mind that he’d just finished it off. Evidently, she’d been managing well enough on her own.

“Don’t try to get up again,” she told him. “You broke both of your legs in multiple places when you saved me. Even managed to knick your femoral artery. You came close to bleeding out, but I had another Blood-Replenishing potion on me. I’ve also given you some Skele-Gro.”

“How long ago?” Harry asked.

“Nearly a day,” Daphne answered. “You’ve been in and out a bit. Before now, you haven’t managed more than a couple of words before you’re out again. I half figured that you’d be dead by now.”

From any other Slytherin, those words would’ve sounded like a mocking insult. But Daphne sounded… genuine. Sad even.

He tried to sit up again, cursing under his breath as pain shot through him again.

“Stubborn as ever. Your bones might be fixed by now, but there was still a lot of damage done to your body,” Daphne chastised him lightly. “If you try to move around too much, you’ll just end up slowing your recovery time down.”

“Our supplies won’t last us very long if we’re stuck down here waiting for me to get better,” Harry replied. “Where are we anyways?”

“A cave.” Daphne got up and walked over to the fire she had going off just to the side of him so that he’d stay warm. It was smaller than he’d first thought it was; probably wouldn’t last more than a few hours before it burnt itself down to embers. Daphne dropped a couple more thin sticks onto the pile of logs. “The hole we fell into had a few tunnels that led into the mountainside. We’re far enough down that I don’t think anything knows how to follow us. If they could track us by scent, they would’ve done it already.”

“And now that the Lethifolds are gone, we can’t risk using magic again,” Harry grimaced. Still, it was good information to have… if his hypothesis was right.

If he’d been awake and competent back then, everything would’ve been so much easier. His talents with healing magic probably weren’t better than Daphne’s, but having two people to cast spells would’ve made everything better. He could’ve warded off the dark creatures while she patched up his legs. Now, he’d have to sit and wait until he could finally walk easily again.

“I stopped your artery from bleeding out at least,” Daphne noted.

Harry glanced down and realised for the first time that he wasn’t wearing any trousers. He had the blanket from his pack over him and his sleeping bag below to mellow out the harsh stone ground. Feeling along his leg, he found raised scar tissue high up on his thigh.

“Thanks,” Harry murmured. He didn’t care about the new scar he’d have. His body was littered with enough of them already that one more didn’t change things. “So, have you just been waiting around for me to come to?”

“Pretty much,” Daphne sighed quietly. “I found a way back up to the surface. It’s a bit of a tight squeeze, but we can come out a bit higher out of the mountain.”

“That’s good,” Harry yawned loudly.

A wave of tiredness washed over him, and Daphne returned to his side.

“Rest,” she told him as she brushed his hair away from his face. “Get your sleep. I’ll wake you up again when I have food ready.”

Harry dozed off before he could reply.

He awoke again inside the walls of Hogwarts. He was dressed in fine black robes with a backpack laden with goods to keep him safe on his excursion out of the Bubble. Ron and the others were with him, giddy and nervous to save the world. But so long as they had Harry by their side, they felt invincible.

They travelled through a series of apparations, moving from city to city. They first arrived on the northern coast of Spain before continuing down to Gibraltar and then halfway across the Atlantic to the island of Santa Cruz das Flores. From there, they carried on across to Newfoundland in Canada. They trekked down the Appalachia into Kentucky where they found an old distillery. All of the alcohol had been taken by the Blight, but Ron believed that there still had to be a bottle of Kentucky whiskey waiting for him out there, the kind that Hermione’s dad used to drink. He wanted to bring it back home and share it with her and Harry.

Harry did eventually find a bottle of that stuff after Ron died. He’d smashed it against a brick wall before he’d tasted a single drop.

The sounds of glass shattering in his dream woke him. He sat up on his elbows, feeling better than before, watching Daphne carefully tend to their fire. She’d moved it closer to one of the tunnels that led upward from the small cavern they were in, and there was a hefty pile of split logs waiting to be added as fuel for the fire.

“How long was I out for?” He asked drowsily.

“Quite a few hours,” Daphne told him. The dried blood was gone from her head, leaving instead a thick red line that went from the middle of her brow up past her hairline. “It’s well past supper time now.”

“You look like you only just got back,” Harry pointed out.

“That’s because I did,” she replied, gently stirring whatever was in a small pot dangling above the fire. “There’s all sorts of creatures on patrol nearby. I spent a lot of time hiding and waiting to bring back this wood.”

Harry shifted back a bit and found the stone floor curving up behind him. He managed to rest his back against the wall, sitting up properly. His legs hurt but not so bad as before. The pain was quite tolerable.

“You shouldn’t risk your life so carelessly,” Harry told her. “We could’ve waited out a night or two in the cold darkness before my legs got back to normal.”

Daphne snorted loudly. “You were shivering when I first brought you down here. Bundling you up with blankets was a start, but I wasn’t about to risk your life on it being enough. I know you might not believe it, but I’m capable out in the field. I managed to survive days alone before we reunited again, and I got enough wood and fresh water to keep us going down here in this cave while you rested.”

“Fair enough,” Harry admitted, though he was loathe to do so. Daphne didn’t need him to stroke her ego. “But it was still a big risk.”

“One that I was willing to take,” Daphne said as she lifted the pot from the fire. She carried it over to him carefully, refusing to spill a single drop. When she pulled the lid away, Harry’s nostrils were filled with the sweet aroma of stewed beef, onions, carrots, celery, tomatoes, and plenty of dried herbs. From her pack, she pulled out a small bag and dumped the broken up pieces of stale bread within into the stew before ladling out portions for herself and Harry. “I did what I thought was right, and it worked out. I really don’t need you criticising my every decision.”

Harry bit his tongue to stop the snarky retort that was ready to go. This wasn’t the time. Besides, she’d done better in this situation than he imagined most of the people he’d travelled with outside of the Bubble would have.

“You’re right,” Harry murmured. “I’m sorry.”

Daphne’s eyes met his as she tried to uncover if he was being sincere or not. Evidently, she found the answer quickly.

“Thank you,” she replied quietly before she blew on her spoonful of stew to cool it down.

Harry did the same and took an eager bite. The liquid was still far too hot for his tongue, but it tasted absolutely delicious. His body screamed in jubilation as he finally consumed food again and demanded more, which he readily obliged.

The two of them ate in near silence, both desperate to refuel their bodies with energy for all that was still to come.

A sudden screech broke the peace that’d fallen between them.

Harry’s head snapped towards the tunnel out of the cave. “What was—”

“The wind, nothing more,” Daphne assured him as she set down her empty bowl. “It howls like a banshee through these narrow tunnels. Every time I’ve gone out, there’s been heavy snowfall and blistering winds. The chill is seeping in even down here.”

The stew in his belly and the heat from the fire was preventing him from feeling too much cold right now, but he didn’t doubt her that a chill could easily creep up on him.

Daphne collected his bowl from him when he finished eating and took it over to the far side of the cavern where a small pile of snow sat. She cleaned their dishes and the pot she’d cooked in as Harry took the opportunity to massage his legs. They were a bit stiff but even less sore now than they were when he’d woken back up. If everything went right, he should be fit enough to hike again tomorrow.

“We must be close to the source of the blight by now,” Harry commented as Daphne came back over to the fire. She carefully shifted around some of the logs and added a few more to ensure that the fire would stay nice and hot for a while yet.

Daphne looked at him strangely. “Septima said she’d honed in on it being around Mount Narodnaya. Didn’t you bring a map with you?”

“I forgot,” Harry admitted.

“Typical,” Daphne rolled her eyes. “Make some room.”

He shifted his legs a bit so that Daphne could drag her supplies right next to his. She laid out her sleeping bag and laid on top of it before covering herself with a thick blanket. Her shoulder pressed against his as she reached into her pack to retrieve the map.

As she unfurled it across their laps, Harry immediately saw several dotted lines that she’d drawn, tracking her path through the Ural Mountains. The last spot marked them just west of Mount Narodnaya.

“We’d be less than half a day away if it weren’t for the mountains in our path,” Daphne showed him, dragging her finger along the map. “It’ll be better if we go through this valley to the north-east of us and climb the mountains north of Mount Narodnaya. From there, we’ll have a much gentler trek up to the summit. It’ll add a day to our trip, but it’s the safest way up there.”

“And the most predictable,” Harry pointed out. “We’ve already run afoul of Voldemort’s traps in unlikely places. This will be where he has his strongest defences.”

“Unless you packed climbing gear, I don’t think we have much of a choice,” Daphne said. “The mountain will be too steep for us to climb unless we somehow find safe paths. And it’s quite possible that Voldemort planned for people to come in from different directions. He likely has protections put in place there too.”

Harry didn’t like it. Didn’t like any of this, really. Voldemort punished weakness and admired strength so long as none were stronger than him. The path of least resistance would be laden with traps designed to punish them for daring to think so little of him that he’d leave a path open for their success.

“I say that we should travel south-east from here,” Harry suggested, making a path with his finger. “We can follow these rivers down south and then come back up into the mountains by following this river here. The climb up to Mount Narodnaya will be steeper on this side, but it shouldn’t be much worse than the mountains I’ve already climbed on this trip.”

“Are you trying to be difficult just to spite me?” Daphne asked acidly.

“No,” Harry growled in frustration. “I just… I know Voldemort better than anyone. I’ve faced him all my life, seen how he protects the most precious things in his life. I’m telling you that if we take the safe option, we’ll regret it. There’ll be necessary sacrifices designed to weaken us and monsters that’ll prey on our vulnerabilities. Taking this path I’ve laid out may not be completely safe, but it will be the safer option.”

Daphne’s eyes met his. She was searching for something in them. Something to believe in.

“Do you trust me?” He cracked a wry grin.

“Expecting a different answer than last time?”

“Hoping for one.”

Daphne chewed on the inside of her cheek as she glanced over at the fire. Her face was glum, reluctant. She was going to say no.

“Why is it so hard to just say yes?” Harry asked gently.

Daphne took in a deep breath. “Because my mum asked me to trust her when she joined Bill’s enchanters. I knew she shouldn’t. Tried to talk her out of it a hundred times, but she was a talented witch back in her day and we needed people to keep Hogwarts safe. You remember how chaotic those first weeks were when we were struggling to find the best arithmantic formulae from which to use as the basis of the enchanters’ wards. So many people died over stupid little mistakes, and my mum was one of those people who was there to plug any gaps in the Bubble before it could break open and let the blight inside to kill us all.

“But you see, my family has a blight of its own: an old curse placed upon us by some ancient witch or wizard—we don’t even know the name of the person or family behind it anymore. It weakens us, sucks the magic right out of our body much like the blight does, only slower. My mum started being affected by it after she gave birth to me, and that led to her retiring and staying at home. After she had my sister, she came so close to dying. She wasn’t supposed to use much magic anymore, but she volunteered to join the enchanters nonetheless.

“When a couple of enchanters crumbled on the line, my mum fought to keep us all safe. She maintained three separate enchantment points for four whole minutes before backup enchanters arrived to help take over, but it was already too late. The blight had sapped her strength and our family’s curse had done the rest. She died of magical exhaustion a few minutes later, before any of us had a chance to say goodbye to her.”

Harry listened silently through Daphne’s story. She wasn’t teary eyed as she told it. Instead, it came like a rote memorisation of the facts as they’d happened, like she’d repeated them in her head so many times that they’d lost all emotional significance to her.

“I’m so sorry,” Harry murmured to her.

“I knew better and yet I didn’t stop her from doing what she thought was right. She did something heroic, probably saving the lives of anyone who was around the area that the blight was seeping into, but it cost me my mum. I loved her with all my heart, and I let her down by trusting her. I didn’t do my duty to keep her safe from harm just as she did for me. It’s why I’ve been working so hard to try to understand the blight and do whatever I can to help Bill’s enchanters keep the Bubble safe.”

“Then, back at Hogwarts when you were suggesting introducing deliberate weak points…”

“Yes. I learnt from what happened to my mum, how the blight focused in on a single weak point and converged on it, making everyone else’s jobs maintaining the Bubble easier. She wrangled the blight in those last minutes before she died, controlling it and dictating its movements even if she didn’t realise that was what she was doing. If one weakened woman could do that, imagine what we could do with three healthy enchanters. Even if we needed more of them to support that spot, the dozens of other enchanters maintaining the Bubble would get a much-needed reprieve from their endless task of funnelling magic into the Bubble.”

“I didn’t realise how much thought you’d put into this,” he admitted. “Back during that meeting, I—”

“I don’t need your apologies,” Daphne said curtly. “We were both exhausted every day back at Hogwarts. The gravity of the situation made us all impossible to deal with.”

“Even if you don’t need it, I’m still offering it,” Harry insisted. “I’m sorry for mocking your idea before I’d properly heard you out.”

“Let’s hope that it was a pointless idea,” Daphne said. “If we put a stop to this blight, we won’t have to worry about maintaining the Bubble anymore.”

That was the hope that kept them all going.

After several moments of silence, Harry cleared his throat. “Trust isn’t something that you can give out easily, I understand, but I’m asking for it anyways.”

“You have the same saving-people thing that my mum did,” Daphne cracked a small smile. “It’s one of the few reasons I put up with you. And one of the few reasons I don’t know if I can ever fully trust your decisions.”

“At the very least, you can know that if things get dire, my saving-people thing will kick in and I’ll make sure that you get out safe even if I don’t.”

He’d meant it as a joke, but Daphne’s eyes flashed with a fear that he’d never seen from her before.

He was being serious, but he didn’t necessarily want her to know that.

“I don’t want to lose anyone else I care about,” she said quietly.

Before he realised what was happening, Daphne had subtly slipped beneath his blanket and rolled on top of him, straddling his lap. Even having fucked her in broom cupboards, it was perhaps the most intimate thing she’d ever done to him.

“I don’t want to lose you,” she said, leaning in close.

Daphne kissed him.

In all their time together, Daphne had stuck hard to the rule that they should never kiss. She never explained the rule, leaving Harry to interpret her reasoning himself. He’d always assumed it was so that they didn’t get too close or maybe that she just didn’t actually care for him in a deeper sense, but this kiss was utterly romantic.

Daphne’s kiss was eager and desperate, like she’d never get a chance to kiss him again. Harry was more than eager to return it, finally feeling a taste of intimacy after these exhausting past few days. Her lips tasted of honey and the stew they just ate, not that Harry minded in the slightest. She was delightful, and he wouldn’t change a thing about their kiss. It was simply perfect.

After a moment, she pulled away from him. “If you don’t want this—”

“I do,” he interjected quickly.

Nothing else needed to be said as she leaned in and kissed him again.

Underneath the blanket, Harry grabbed onto Daphne’s hips as she rocked against him. Her heavy winter robes were getting in the way of him feeling her body, a problem that Daphne shared as she tried to run her hands along his chest.

It was an unspoken agreement that they’d both start shedding everything they had on. Daphne fell back on her ass in between Harry’s thighs and started tearing off her clothes as he removed his upper layer. She helped him get his pants down, letting his cock flop out just before she climbed back onto his lap. Her labia dragged along his shaft until she nestled into the perfect spot.

The cavern’s chill faded the moment that Daphne climbed back on top of him. Her naked body felt wonderfully warm against his, leaving every sense alight. She pulled the blanket up over her back, giving them some more warmth as she started kissing him again.

This time, Harry could truly appreciate her soft breasts as they squished against his chest. He felt them so many times before now, but this time felt different. His heart was pounding in his chest and every little soft purr she made left his cock twitching with anticipation.

Before long, he felt Daphne’s wetness leaking onto his cock. She was rocking her hips back and forth gently, letting her clit graze across his length. He throbbed underneath her as his hands roamed up and down her body, feeling her skin as though it was the very first time.

“It’s rude to tease an injured man,” he murmured against her lips.

“And what teasing do you think I’m doing?” She asked as she rolled her hips, stroking his entire length slowly with her wet labia.

“Daphne,” Harry growled, his fingers digging into the skin around her hips.

“I’ve always loved it when you say my name like that,” she murmured before gently biting his lower lip. She pulled it back before releasing it, giving him a playful smile. Then, she finally raised her hips.

As Daphne’s hot pussy sank down around his cock, Harry nearly fainted from how good it felt. The exterior chill faded into nothingness when he had this nest of heat wrapped tightly around him. The blanket slipped down her back as she sat up a bit straighter, letting him view her perfect breasts in all their glory as she started to ride his cock.

Harry leaned in and captured one of Daphne’s nipples in his mouth. It swelled and stiffened instantly as she moaned softly at his gentle touch. He only gave it a few seconds attention before he switched to the other nipple.

The heat of Daphne’s pussy felt so wonderful as it glided up and down his shaft. Every time she rose back up, he was ready to beg for her to drop back down again. She was slow and methodical with her movements, giving both of them the opportunity to truly savour this connection they shared.

“I’m cold,” Daphne shuddered. So, Harry wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her close to him. Her breasts pressed against his chest, and he pulled the blanket back over her to keep them both warm.

The flickering firelight left shadows on the wall of their coupling. Harry was torn between watching Daphne’s beautiful face and the shapes that they made as she continued to ride his cock.

“You’re beautiful,” he murmured as she leaned forward, resting her forehead against his. Her pussy clenched around his shaft, trying to squeeze his cum out.

Daphne fell down a little harder onto his cock next time. He met her movements with upward thrusts of his own even though it hurt his legs. If he had to spend an extra day in this cave with Daphne to help keep him warm, then so be it. Everything felt secondary to this pure moment of bliss.

Steadily, Daphne moved faster as their orgasms grew closer. They were both desperate for release.

Her body was trembling. As her nipples dragged up and down his chest, her legs shuddered as they threatened to give out at a moment’s notice, but her rhythm as she rode on his cock never wavered once. She was like a perfectly-calibrated piston as she bounced up and down. Her juices dripped down his shaft and onto his balls, wetting his sleeping blanket, not that he cared.

Daphne slammed down particularly hard and came to a stop, leaving his cock fully stretching out her pussy. Her lips crashed against his in a flurry of passion as her inner walls squeezed his cock rhythmically.

Harry reached behind her and grabbed her plump ass cheeks, squeezing her every time she squeezed him. He kissed her back with as much passion as she kissed him until they finally broke apart again and she went right back to riding his cock.

There was a fervour that grew in her then. She was moaning in his ear, her arms wrapped around his back, as she bounced harder and harder down onto his cock until they both finally screamed.

It was too late for him to stop from cumming deep inside of her pussy. Even if he’d managed to hold on for a few more seconds, he didn’t know if Daphne would’ve allowed him to cum anywhere else. She seemed utterly content to have his cock buried as deep inside of her as it could go as he spewed his thick seed inside of her shuddering walls. Her body trembled as she came, and she murmured unintelligible words into his ears over and over again until she finally came down from her high.

They were far away from Hogwarts. She couldn’t use any charms to keep her from getting pregnant. Maybe she had a potion or two on hand to deal with this. Maybe she didn’t.

The realisation washed across Harry in the moments after they finished. Daphne rested her head against his shoulder, enjoying the lingering sensations of his cock still inside of her pussy as he slowly softened.

Harry wanted to say something, but at the same time, he didn’t know what to say. If she got pregnant…

This wasn’t worth worrying about, he decided. There was still Voldemort’s blight to deal with. Either of them could be killed at any time, and they didn’t have enough supplies to stay out here long enough for them to confirm if she’d gotten pregnant anyways.

He didn’t know how he’d feel if she did get pregnant, but like he decided, that was only a possible problem to deal with in the future if it ever came up.

Instead, he chose to cuddle Daphne, holding her close until his cock finally slipped out of her.

It took some manoeuvring, but they managed to attach their sleeping bags together. Naked, they clung to each other as they draped both of their blankets on top of their little pile. The fire would help keep them warm for a while yet, so neither of them needed to move or do anything. They could just enjoy the comfort that they provided each other.

“Don’t leave me,” Daphne murmured against his chest.

“My legs are still bad, aren’t they?” Harry chuckled quietly. “It’s not like I could walk off anywhere.”

But they both knew that wasn’t what she meant.