Standard Disclaimer: I own nothing in regards to Harry Potter or High School DXD. All properties therein are those of their creators. I am only a writer working on my skills with worlds and characters that I love.

Note: Anyone hoping for a rating game to deal with Riser is going to be more than a bit disappointed. The Harry of this story deals with his problems directly….

Part Five - An Important Dinner

"Hm." Rias purred in Hadrian's ear to wake him from their afternoon nap. "We should really get up. Akeno and Kurumu are already showering."

"Really? Why?" He shuffled up to brace himself against the headboard so the redhead could lean her head against his chest.

"Because we have dinner planned with your parents tonight and we both need to get cleaned up first." It had been an amazing three months since Rias had joined together with Hadrian, Akeno, and Kurumu. Three months of incredible sex, emotional connection, and trust that told her for the first time in her life she was actually in love. Akeno, she knew, was in the same boat. Especially because Kurumu was more than willing to let the black haired girl let out her dominant side on the succubus while Harry played into her submissiveness. Then had come the phone call. Hadrian, wonderful man that he was, had let his mother know the morning after their first time together that he was now in a relationship with two more girls. Miki Hyoudou had gone silent for several minutes and then suddenly insisted that they all have dinner with the Hyoudous the first time they could all fit into their schedules so that she, as Hadrian's mother, could get to know them all.

Between her, her husband, and all of them, this was the first night that they could all actually get together. Rias had never met the mother of a boyfriend before, and she didn't really know what to expect. Especially with Kurumu's horror stories about the woman.

Her man's arm tightened noticeably around her shoulder. "You don't need to worry. My mother is going to love you."

"That's not what Kurumu says."

The werewolf sighed, "My mom is a very… complicated woman. She lost a child before she and my dad adopted me and it has made her very protective. I don't fault her for that, and for all her worry Kurumu doesn't really either. You just need to be your normal, amazing self, and she won't have a chair to stand on. Worst case scenario she's stubborn and you grow on her over time. We just have to make it through the night."

Rias kissed his chest and looked up into his eyes, "How are you not even the least bit nervous about this?"

"Because I 'want' to show you and Akeno off to my parents. I 'want' them to see the beautiful, talented, intelligent, and amazing women in my life." He palmed her cheek with enough affection in his eyes to nearly make her swoon, "And I want them to meet their future daughters-in-law."

At Rias's gasp he added, "Surely it isn't a surprise to you that I want to marry you both someday?"

The redhead answered him with a blistering kiss. "Not at all," she said after breaking away, "but knowing it and hearing it are too different things. I, we, feel the same thing for you." She looked down then, "I'm only sorry I can't introduce you to my family yet."

"Give it time, Rias. Eventually that bastard Riser is going to come here to push his claim on you, and when he does…. I'm going to make him suffer." His eyes glowed crimson with restrained bloodlust and the devil in his arms delighted in the rage she felt on her behalf. Akeno had been so right to push for this relationship.

"Come on, let's go join the others before the water gets cold."

Hadrian moved to do just that, but a knock at the door interrupted them. He groaned. "You go ahead, I'll deal with whatever this is."

"Don't be long." Rias teased as she dragged the sheet with her, only to let it fall seductively at the door to the bathroom, baring her beautiful posterior for all of one teasing second before disappearing from sight.

The werewolf grumpily donned a red robe and opened his door, only to find his little brother waiting. "Issei? What's wrong?" He'd immediately taken notice of the conflicted look on the younger man's face.

"Can I… can I ask for some advice, big brother?"

"Of course." Hadrian quickly stepped into the hall and shut the door, there was no one else around to overhear them. "What's wrong?"

"I-I don't know what to do."

"About?"

"Koneko and Asia." He murmured.

"Ah." Hadrian nodded. He'd taken notice of how… forward, Asia had been in regards to his little brother, as well as the cat girl's pointed interest. "What's the problem? They both seem to want to be with you, and you clearly like them? I know the multiple partners thing doesn't bother you cause you've always wanted a harem. I don't see the issue."

"But that's just it, Hadrian." Issei's tone was pure worry. "Of course I want to be with them, but I've really gotten to know them now and I'm not good for them. Asia is sweet, kind, amazing and pure. Koneko is the most loyal and down to earth person I've ever met. They're both drop dead gorgeous and deserve someone that can devote every part of themselves to them alone. In contrast I'm just… a pervert. Single minded, lecherous, and we both know my mind is always on one thing. I'll corrupt them, make them less somehow. They deserve better than me, but they keep saying they want me. I don't know what to do here."

"Have you told them all this? Explained your worries?"

"No. How do I explain that they're perfect, and it's me that's really the problem. That's the oldest line in the book. How do I tell them that they deserve more than I can be?"

Hadrian tilted his chin behind them both, toward the pair of girls that had been silently listening since the beginning, "I think you just did."

Issei spun around and beheld the peeping girls trying unsuccessfully to move out of sight at the end of the hall. When they figured out the game was up they both made their way over to a clearly panicking younger Hyoudou brother, and before he could make a run for it wrapped him securely in their arms.

"We don't want you all to ourselves, Issei, we just want as much of you as we can get." Asia spoke gently into his chest.

"You're warm, kind, and you look at us as if we're the most beautiful people in the world, even though Rias and Akeno are often in the room too." Koneko murmured into his back.

"You defended me when I didn't even know I needed it." The former nun continued.

"You told me I was capable when I was doubting myself more than ever." Koneko added.

"You don't need to be anything more than yourself and we'll still want to be with you." They said in tandem.

By this point Issei had tears falling from his eyes as he said, "Would you two like to come to dinner tonight with my family?"

Hadrian left them to it and returned to his room. He had a fully loaded shower to get to.

The Underworld

Grayfia was perplexed. The wife of Sirzechs Lucifer had not been getting any signals from her sensor runes at Kuoh for months now. What is more, all of her letters requesting Rias write to Riser Phenex to better get to know her future husband had gone unanswered. Of course she'd tried to teleport to the school in person at that point to get to the bottom of things, but none of her transportation circles would activate to that location. She'd tried talking to her husband about it, but the man was his usual close booked self when any topic relating to his sister's upcoming nuptials was brought up.

She was of two minds on it herself. On the one hand, Riser was….. definitely not an overly likable person, but she could not believe Rias' parents would betroth her to someone that was unworthy of her hand. Furthermore, the match was already made and duty dictated that the marriage would happen regardless of weather or not some of the family disliked it. She only hoped Rias wouldn't be so foolish as to challenge the man to a rating game for her own hand returned. The girl was powerful to be sure, but nowhere near her betrothed. What did it matter if you could set a man on fire if he could just heal from the wound a second or two later?

Deciding that it was finally time to lower herself to human means, she pulled out a cellphone and dialed Rias' number. Service was terrible in the underworld but there wasn't much else to be done. She needed to know what was going on topside. The longer this silence and disconnect went on the more worried she was becoming that something untoward was going on. The phone rang on and on before ending in a voicemail prompt. She quickly ended the call and stomped off toward her chambers. There was one more option left.

Her husband jumped when the door slammed open, and tried to ask her what was wrong, but she simply held up a hand to stall him, "Your personal tunnel to Tokyo, where is it?"

"I-I don't know." Sirzechs, the most powerful man in the underworld, was looking away from her with the shifty eyes of a child that knew it had done something wrong and was trying to hide it.

Her eyes narrowed. "Where is it?"

"I told you I don't know." The devil tried to leave the room but she put a hand on his chest to halt him as she stared into his face. At once she understood. "It was you, wasn't it?"

"What was me?"

"Don't act stupid with me, mister. You've been the one cutting me off from Kuoh and your sister. All my letters, you halted them. My transportation circles, you shorted them out. My calls, you told Rias not to answer them. She's up to something, probably an attempt to cancel her wedding, and you're helping her! don't you realize that it could lead to war if the betrothal is broken!?"

The stupid act disappeared like lightning and all of a sudden her husband rose to the full height and power of his position, "Do not speak to me as if I am a fool, Grayfia. I know exactly what could happen and I do not care."

"How can you say that?"

"Because unlike my parents, who refuse to see that the child of their friends could be bad, I know the true evil that is in Riser's heart. He is a monster, especially to women, and if I can give my sister any advantage to getting out from under him I will. If war follows that then I'm more than willing to fight it for her."

"She has a duty-"

"My duty is to her!" He roared, earning a shocked silence from the powerful woman clad in the vestments of a maid. In all their years of marriage her husband had never once raised his voice to her. "Everything else is second. Family is all that matters, and it hurts me more than I can ever put into words that you do not understand that." So saying he left the room, fingers crackling with repressed rage.

Grayfia watched him leave, torn down to her marrow. She hated disagreeing with the love of her life, but she'd lived her entire existence by her adherence to her duty, and belief in seeing said duty done. She could not stop now. So she began scouring her rooms for the tunnel. She was sure her husband thought himself clever, but he was terrible at hiding things. It only took five minutes to track it down, hidden beneath the lining of his pillow.

Setting the unwrapped paper covered in runic formulae on the ground and stepping gingerly on top of it, the silver haired woman prayed that Sirzechs could someday forgive her for carrying on where he refused. The head of their family had decreed a wedding was to be had, so she needed to see it through. The alternative of war was too horrible to consider at the moment. Their collective numbers were so so low that another protracted conflict amongst themselves could see the end of their race. For the sake of peace in the underworld she would willingly suffer the weight of a strained marriage. Even if it cut her heart in two.

The circle beneath her feet lit up with arcane fire and a second later she was standing on top of Tokyo Tower. She didn't pause to enjoy the view, instead she willed her wings into existence and took off into the air. It was a short flight to Kuoh, but who knew what had been happening in her absence?

Underworld - Phenex Household

Lord Phenex was troubled. He and his wife had just seen to the handling of yet another house servant that had come to him in tears, begging to receive a transfer after his third son had apparently placed his hands on her. The woman was gone now, but the shame remained. "That's the fifth this month." He muttered miserably.

"H-He's coming up on his wedding date, p-perhaps he is just getting those manly urges?" His wife tried to reason.

"Don't dress it up, Raquela." Rathbone ran a shaking hand through his hair. "We never raised Riser to act this way, nor did we ever set an example to make it seem like such behavior was alright. Then there are all the sexual harassment complaints from his peerage members… some of them are younger than Ravel." His fingers clenched. "I think we messed up, honey. I wanted to believe all of those rumors were just the standard slander against a member of a great house like ours. We both dealt with our fair share after all so that would be nothing new, but this is beyond the pale. Too many stories are correlating."

Raquela began to wring her hands as she paced in front of her husband's desk to get her thoughts in order. "If you are right, and Riser truly is the sexual predator people have been saying he is, then marrying him to Rias Gremory is a horrible plan. It would destroy our relationship with her family."

"I agree. And that is all the more horrid considering her numerous petitions to have the engagement annulled that we and her parents have utterly dismissed over the years. To dismiss it now would be to show complete and utter weakness."

"Then what do we do?" She demanded, finally ceasing her movement. "We can't just let Riser hurt the girl. I bounced her on my knee for Satan's sake! And what is more, any harm to her would put our family at war with the Gremorys!"

"I know!" Rathbone shot back. "I know. My darling, look, I don't know what our next step here is, but there are three options I can see. You were always the best between us at making decisions, so will you listen and decide?"

"Of course." The redheaded woman rounded the desk and placed a hand upon her husband's shoulder, "What are they?"

"One, we do nothing. The wedding proceeds and maybe we get lucky and Riser finds true love in the girl, she tames him, or he just gets bored and moves on to a paramour before causing any lasting damage."

"Unlikely to work. The best case scenario in that situation is leaving Little Rias to a loveless marriage for the next ten millennia. What else do you have?"

"An unforeseen situation occurs wherein Riser is bested for possession of her hand. Likely a Rating Game or personal challenge. Should he lose then all of our problems would disappear. We'd have a plausible reason for giving up the marriage contract and our son would be dutifully humbled."

"Beneficial, but unlikely to happen. It would be too difficult to find a challenger strong enough or train someone to a good enough degree to take him down in straight combat. I suppose Rias could challenge him herself, but at this point she would never trust any advantage we would provide her. What's the last option?"

"Riser gives up the contract voluntarily."

"How is that different from us doing it?"

"If we back out, then we are reneging on our agreement. However, if Riser backs out then he is a young man who is listening to and acknowledging the preferences of a young woman who clearly does not want to be with him. It's a bit of a gray area, but we'd have enough separation and deniability to let it go. Certainly Lord and Lady Gremory couldn't fault him, and by extension us, for wanting Rias to be happy."

Raquela nodded, "That would be the best option, but you know how spoiled Riser is. He's been talking for years about making Rias his, something that sounds a lot less cute and a hell of a lot more disturbing now that we know what we do. I can't see him agreeing."

"He will if we make it a condition of his inheritance." Lord Phenex stood from his chair and rang the bell for a servant. "The issue with Rias aside, his behavior has gone on long enough. I love that boy as much as you do but he needs to change now or he will lead our family to infamy and ruin. He'll release Rias or be banished from our House forever."

A few moments later the door opened to admit one of their remaining maids. "Send for Riser at once and bring him here."

Very tellingly the woman seemed scared at the prospect, but quickly ran to do as ordered regardless. A short time later she returned alone. "Apologies, Lord Phenex. Riser was not in his rooms, so I approached his peerage. They say he took off for Japan to, and I quote, 'Grab his bitch cause he was sick of waiting.' Apologies for being crass."

"No need to apologize, you may go." When the couple was alone again, the Lord said what was on both of their minds. "Fuck."

Tokyo International Airport

Minerva groaned happily as she exited the ramp of her aircraft into the airport proper. Sirius had insisted on traveling the muggle way to try and keep Dumbledore off their backs, and while the experience had been rather novel at first, after so many hours spent in those abominable chairs she was starting to fray around the edges. They'd been traveling constantly for three months now and she'd seen more countries in that time than any other in her life.

She was all set to head toward the bar when her 'support dog' suddenly began dragging her rapidly toward the nearest bathroom. More than a little embarrassed she picked the biggest stall and backed against the wall as Sirius morphed back into his human form. "Minnie, he's here!"

"In Tokyo?" The former professor asked.

"No… but definitely this country. I can feel Harry right at the edges of my senses. I should be able to take us to him now."

"Really?"

"Sure. I mean if I go in the wrong direction I'll just stop feeling him so it shouldn't be too hard."

"If you say so. I've followed you this far."

"That's the spirit." So saying, the animagus shifted back into his canine form, and the wizard led him out of the structure by his leash.

The Hyoudou Household

Miki Hyoudou stared imperiously down at the women arrayed behind her two sons who both stood facing her with arms crossed and serious expressions on their faces. They were standing as guards before their girlfriends, but there was no need. It wasn't her intention to pick a fight, merely observe and see if they all were good enough for her children.

"Well come in and take a seat, the food will get cold otherwise." She said, stepping to the side and leading them all into the dining room where her husband was already waiting. As everyone took their seats she took note of what they were all wearing. As the host she'd made it clear that she didn't care for disguises. She knew everyone present was supernatural in nature and wanted to know what kind.

Kurumu's form was known, as was Hadrian's, and she'd been informed of Issei's new lease on life, but the others were still interesting. Each appeared to have leathery wings and pointed tails. Kurumu was wearing a pair of designer jeans and a black v-neck vest, Rias had donned a green dress that accented her hair perfectly, Akeno wore what appeared to be a modified shrine maiden's outfit, and Asia and Koneko were just darling. The first was wearing a frilly white dress and the second a black and white skirt and blouse with a hairclip that accentuated her silver hair strands. In spite of her reservations, Miki had to admit that the girls were all certainly beautiful enough for her sons. Now it just came time to see if they would meet with her other qualifications.

As she served everyone soup, fish, noodles, and curry (a strange combination she knew, but she also knew what her men liked to eat) she quizzed them all on their views on politics, religion, education, family, and finally grandchildren. She found herself shocked to realize that she approved of every answer given. Strange indeed.

As she ate and watched her husband regale the girls with embarrassing stories of their kids' youth, she actually started to feel a bit of shame. These were all very good girls who genuinely cared about Hadrian and Issei, yet here she was looking for faults. And here they were, after all of her grilling, laughing at Gorou's tales and looking at her boys as if they were the greatest things in the world. Was she really that bad? Hadrian had tried to tell her she was being unreasonable so many times before in regards to Kurumu, but it was only now that she was actually starting to see it. Of course it helped that all of them had met her strictest criteria so far, even the succubus, and she'd clearly been the most nervous. Perhaps it was time for an apology.

"Kurumu," she stood, "would you assist me in carrying in the desert trays?" The bluenette was clearly uncertain, but a look of support from her boyfriend had her up and moving a second later. Once they were alone in the kitchen and moving to the trays carrying plates of small cakes, the human placed her hand upon the girl's. "Kurumu, I… I owe you an apology."

"What?" Whatever she had been expecting with this interaction, that was certainly not it.

"I have issues with letting go of my sons, I know that, and with Hadrian especially. I know that I put a great deal of that on you, and I'm sorry. After I lost my little Hisashi I went a bit… crazy. Hadrian became my world. No girl could ever be good enough for him, and then you came along. You were pretty, bubbly, and so in love with my boy that it hurt to watch. I just knew that someday you'd take him away from me, and then I found out about the whole Mate of Fate thing, and I got worried that you were pushing that obligation onto him."

"That's not what-"

"I know, dear," Miki rubbed a soothing circle on the girl's back. "At least, I know that now. Hadrian was very quick to change my opinion in that regard. Look, this apology has been a long time coming, but I've just been a stubborn old lady about it."

"You aren't old. I hope I look as good as you when I'm your age." Kurumu vehemently assured the older woman.

"I appreciate that, dear. But please, let me just say that I am sorry for how I've treated you. You love my son, he loves you, and you've been good for each other. I couldn't hope for a better match for him than you, as long as it has taken for me to realize it." she turned and faced the bluenette fully, "My time to watch over him has ended, and now it falls to you." She bowed to the girl, "Please take care of my little boy."

Kurumu found herself incredibly touched by this gesture, and gently pulled the elder Hyoudou up straight before embracing her in a hug. "Always."

Miki allowed herself to enjoy the hug for a few moments before adding, "And be sure to give me lots of blue haired grandchildren."

The succubus laughed easily at the suggestion, even though her cheeks were dusted with the blush the idea of having children with her mate of fate gave her. Then she released her boyfriend's mom and together they retrieved the trays and brought them back into the dining room.

As she reclaimed her seat beside Hadrian his twitching ears and incredibly satisfied smile told her he'd heard every word spoken. "I told you she'd eventually come around."

"That you did." She nuzzled his neck lightly. "She wants grandchildren."

"Of course she does. Let's give it a few years at least, though."

"Oh alright, but we can practice making them, right?"

"That goes without saying." He chuckled lightly before the two went back to the meal. Neither had any idea of the shitshow that their evening was about to turn into.