A/N: This is my first Harry Potter fic. Please go easy on me if I get a detail or two wrong. Also I don't speak French so I won't be able to write the Delacour parts in French.
[Chapter 1]
Two years have passed since the second wizarding war and thirteen year old Gabrielle Delacour had practically forgotten about the event. Her mind was more towards starting a new year at Beauxbaton's and seeing some of her old friends again. Her high marks from the previous year also making her eligible for advanced classes the coming year.
"Au revoir!" Gabrielle says waving goodbye to her friends. The movie she had just come from still played in her head as she walked towards her large cream colored home. With the door ajar she walks in and closes the door behind her.
"I'm back." She calls out walking towards the living room, the bluish hue of a television lighting the way down an otherwise eerily dark hallway. And when she turned the corner her heart stopped. Her father was sprawled across the floor his wand still clutched in his hand. He didn't move.
"Papa!" She screams running to him and picking up his cold lifeless body. Then from the corner of her eye she sees another wand next to the couch, the crooked end giving away that it was her mothers.
Quickly she runs to the corner of the couch only to find her mother also lay lifeless on the floor. The room begins to spin as she feels dizzy. A shadow moves across the room as she falls to the floor, passing out.
Coming to moments later she regains her wits and stands up turning towards the direction the shadow came from. Her vision was still blurry so all she could make out was the figure of a man, holding a wand!
"Stupefy!" She yells pointing her wand towards the figure.
The figure lets out a yelp and jumps to the side. "Gabrielle it's me Harry!" the shadow yells as it hits the ground. A few moments later her vision comes back into focus. And the figure stands back up.
It indeed was Harry; this made her feel a little more safe, but what had happened. "What's going on...? My... my... parents they're dead!" She whimpers hoping Harry has a resolution.
"I'm not sure Gabby, that's why the Auror office sent me here. But right now I think we need to get you to a safe place. Let's go before they realize you're still alive."
"What do you mean 'before they realize I'm still alive'" she started to feel dizzy once more as Harry grabbed her hand and lead her towards the door. "Who are they and why have they done this?" But her question was ignored if heard at all as Harry took her by the hand and led her towards the door.
Nearing the door someone is heard outside and a moment later the door is blew off its hinges by an unknown source. Gabrielle shields her eyes as wood splinters land all about. A second later Harry is pushing her to the side and pointing his wand at the figure standing in the doorway.
He shoots paralyzing spells towards the figure who had stepped inside the door. It returns a spell and Gabrielle sees flashes of lights from all directions. She finds herself screaming as the lights come closer to her and brighter; one green colored light barely missed her head and literally burned a hole in the wall.
Then two more jets of light came her way and everything went black.
"AHHH!" Gabrielle screams as she regains consciousness. Sitting up she was now in a bed in a small room. The room seemed familiar however with her head still spinning remembering the last thing she saw before everything went black. The door to the room creaks open.
She jumps slightly suddenly unsure if she was safe or not. 'What if Harry was killed and I was captured?' she thought as the door opened and a young woman with silvery blonde hair. It was her sister Fleur.
"Fleur!" Gabrielle yells excited to see a friendly face. Then remembering the circumstances "Mom and Dad they're... De..."
"I know" Fleur responds solemnly. "The good thing is that you are still alive. And I think they would be happy of that." She hands her sister a cup of tea. "Drink up. You've been out for almost two days.
"Out? What happened?"
"Well from the way Harry explained it to me you started freaking out during a battle with an assassin so to protect you he put you under a sleep spell momentarily."
Gabrielle didn't know whether or not she should take offense to what had happened so her only response was "Sorry, it's just... I can't believe they're dead." Tears begin streaming down her face as Fleur holds her in a hug.
Gawain Robards sat behind a large oak desk shuffling through a pile of papers. Then a knock on the door brought him back to reality and the monotonous task of filing reports. "Come in."
"Sir, Harry Potter has returned from the Delacour home" a young woman with a small frame says.
"Send him in." Robards commands and lays the papers down on his desk.
Harry enters with a not so cheerful look on his face. Robards figured out quite fast things had yet again not gone as planned.
"Mr. and Mrs. Delacour have been murdered." says Harry regretfully. "I got to them moments to late. I was however able to save their youngest daughter Gabrielle."
Displeased at yet another Veelan murder he merely responds "I assume you will be filling out the report?"
"Yes sir." Harry turns and leaves, wondering to himself how Robards could be so nonchalant about the Delacour's deaths. They would make the sixth murder case involving Veelan descendants. And Harry only feared that the toll would continue to rise if they didn't find out who was behind it all.
Back at his desk Harry set quill to parchment and began filling out the report of the Delacour's double murder.
Official Safety Inquiry – Delacour Family
On the evening of August 25, 2000 I, Harry Potter, was dispatched to the home of Monsieur and Apolline Delacour under an anonymous tip that they were in danger. Due to the recent murders of other Veelan families the ministry deemed it necessary to inquire on the safety of the Delacour's.
I had arrived too late however as Monsieur and Apolline both lay dead on the floor. I then hid as I heard someone coming back into the home. It was the Delacour's daughter, Gabrielle.
She has a panic attack after a large cloaked figure came through the door and attacked us. He attempted to use the killing curse on us both more than once and easily deflected my curses. Gabrielle eventually had to be put under a sleep spell due to her going hysterical. Eventually I'm able to blind him long enough to escape while carrying Gabrielle. I took her to the temporary safety of her sister Fleur's home.
There is currently no evidence to explain who the cloaked figure is but he is either the murderer or one of the murderer's involved in the recent Veelan family serial killings. This now brings the death toll of Veelan descendants and their family members to 8.
I feel the need to put the remaining Delacour sisters under ministry protection until we can insure their safety.
Signed,
Harry Potter
Harry sets the quill down and leans back in his chair. Closing his eyes he couldn't help but see Gabrielle's frightened face when she saw her parents. 'Thankfully she wasn't awake for the fight with the cloaked figure" he thinks setting back upright.
Harry set off back towards Gawain Robard's office and was slightly worried he may not agree to give the two sisters ministry protection.
Gawain practically caught off guard by Harry's forwardness is still unsure whether or not to allow it. "Well then" his voice squeaks, "who do you have in mind to assist you in this matter? Surely you don't expect to guard both of them."
It was almost if the man was trying to taunt him. But Harry paid no attention as he thought for a moment. It took him a few seconds as he thought of each of his friends who now worked with him in the Auror office. "Luna Lovegood" he decides and waits for Gawain's reaction.
Gawain stifled a laugh as he agreed to the decision. "At least if she is with you she is out of my hair."
Luna often did errands around the Auror's office to rid the place of creatures that only she could seem to see. Most thought her to be just superstitious while others just assumed she was crazy.
Robards set to putting his signature below Harry's on the murder report and then set to filling out two more sheets of parchment. After a moment he hands the two parchment parcels to Harry. "Here are your guarding orders. Best to deliver Luna her orders before she finds more dust-dragons in the ducts."
Harry was not slow in leaving Gawain Robards office either. The man had always given Harry a bad vibe. Or it could just be his poor taste in cologne, none the less Harry set off through the maze of cubicles to find Luna.
Luna's desk was easy to find nestled in a side corner near a muggle vending machine. A bluish-purple hue emitted from her desk as Harry got closer. And thinking she was doing something delicate he came up quietly as to not startle her.
Once he got to her desk however he realized the bluish purple hue was just her quill that she had enchanted to produce light when you wrote with it. Despite his efforts however he still startled her when he put his hand on her shoulder.
"Ahhh!" She yells and more than one Auror glances her way then turns back to their work. "Oh Harry it's just you."
"How are the reports coming?"
"Three more Veelan deaths reported this morning." She shakes her head. "Who would want to kill all the Veela? I find them pretty nice." She looks back at Harry then at the papers in his hand. "So more reports?"
"Nope we've been reassigned to the field." Harry says handing Luna her assignment.
"Really?" She grins, and then stops. "What's the catch?"
"I think whoever has been killing the Veela is going to come back for the Delacour's children. So you and I have been reassigned to guard Gabrielle and Fleur until we catch this guy."
"Fleur, I haven't seen her in a while. It will be just like old times. Err... Well you know what I mean." She says and signs the report she had been working on. "So when do we leave?"
"Immediately" Harry says.
