Project LSE [Love Springs Eternal] is an undertaking that may or may not come to completion. It is a lengthy replacement of Deathly Hallows, starting just two days before the wedding of Bill and Fleur. You may go to the Lexicon to see just when this is and the true importance of it for this fic.
The fic is rated M for violence, action, and perhaps later some unsavory decisions in wartime.
The Pairing is Harry/Gabrielle, and before any of you balk, she is Ginny's age in this fic, why? Because I say so. Potter will not be robbing the cradle in this fic.
Also, if you are looking for a story that revolves around a regurgitated form of Horcrux hunting, you will be very sadly pointed in another direction as there will be very little actual 'hunting' of Horcruxes.
I do not own Harry Potter, the Potterverse, or anything related to Warner Brothers or Scholastic, I am making no profit and it is only my wish to improve my writing with which I write this fan-made fiction.
Dark blue skies hung over the odd-looking home called the 'Burrow', stars still faintly shining fading as the sun began to rise over the horizon. There wasn't a cloud to be seen, a rare occurrence in the small corner of rural Devon that hid a family of redheads that occupied the area. Not far off was a small village called Ottery St Catchpole, completely unaware of a few 'odd' families that lived in these fields. The home itself was rather a strain on the eyes, seemingly jutting out in different directions that one would believe countered most laws of physics, extensions of the original home soaring higher and slanting to the right. In fact most of the materials that made up this home looked to be far too mismatched to be anything but a deathtrap for any who wished to risk occupying it.
This house though, the 'Burrow' was home to a family named the Weasleys. A large family of redheaded people who while perhaps poor were easily some of the most homely and comforting people one could ever meet. Led by Arthur and Molly Weasley, a balding and meek government worker and perhaps a tad hot-tempered stay-at-home mother respectively raised seven children in this home, two of which still resided there full-time. The oldest, Bill and Charlie Weasley were both respected men in their fields, having travelled abroad to work and make their parents proud. Percy Weasley was, while successful in his own right, separated from the family over a political issue and had not come home since. George and Fred were twins, identical in all but their slightly differing personalities and by far the most…rambunctious of the clan. They ran a business together selling joke products and were perhaps some of the most successful businessmen around. The youngest two were Ronald and Ginerva, both still living at home and going to school in Scotland for most of the year. It was summer though, and for the holidays they were helping prepare the house for the wedding of Bill and his fiancé Fleur Delacour.
There was a reason this home could fit so many people, and a reason why it could stand so obliquely and not fall to the ground in moments. It was held together by a powerful force that one could not explain, or reveal to many people in the world. Magic, a defining part of the Weasleys, and the neighborhood they lived in. For you see, the Weasleys are Wizards, and Witches. The abroad work that Bill and Charlie do is curse breaking for a multi-national banking industry and Dragon breeding in Romania respectively. Both Arthur and Percy work at the Ministry of Magic, the acting governmental body of England's magical society. Fred and George still run a joke shop though, but it's much more interesting when magic is involved. The school in Scotland that Ron and Ginny Weasley go to is the famed Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a very ancient and respected school that taught most if not all of the English magical children.
It was why they lived away from the village, seeing as the village itself was non-magical or as the English Wizards called them, muggles. Only a few others lived near the Weasleys, the Lovegoods and the Diggory's, both of whom were also magical.
However all of these people were still asleep as the sun had not yet risen. There however was a light on in the Burrow, if a dim one. Looking inside one of the many side windows of the home one could spot a dark haired young man sitting at a desk with parchment scattered around and a head against his head in frustration. This young man however wasn't a Weasley, at least not by blood. He was a Potter, and his friendship with Ron and Ginny Weasley compounded with the sad fact that he had no family himself meant nearly being adopted into the family, he would spend most of his summer at the Burrow when he wasn't attending Hogwarts with the others.
His given name was Harry, and he stared pointlessly at his notes attempting to gain more knowledge from things he already knew. His face had already turned slightly gaunt looking, his pale skin even more translucent than before. His dark green eyes were starting to dull and his perhaps forever messy hair was matted against his head. The glasses he was all but blind without lay askew on his nose, long ignored because if he was honest with himself he'd admit that he had stopped actually reading the notes ages ago. He reseated the glasses to look back at one of his oldest friends, he shared the room with Ron during the summer and the redhead was still sleeping soundly, reminding Harry that he had no idea what time it was anymore. The bright orange colored room was no longer as harmful to eyesight at this time of night, and the posters of Ron's favorite Quidditch team were sleeping themselves, the players snoring lightly as background noise. Nostalgia took hold of Harry when he thought of Quidditch, years now of playing for his House's team at Hogwarts made the very act of flying on a broom a fond memory, even if the actual sport was more or less just an excuse to fly.
There wasn't a bookshelf to be seen in the room, which to be honest irritated Harry, there was so much information that he was looking through, and he had nearly no place to put it except on the floor. The only real furniture in the room were the two beds and the desk, with both of their school trunks laying against the end of the each respective bed.
The hardwood floors were somewhat noisy, and even the simply act of stretching had led to a few squeaks and groans. Harry noticed movement from the bed and saw his friend staring blearily at him.
"Harry, how long have you been up this time?" came the slow and mumbled voice, a hint of whining in it.
"I didn't go to sleep." Was the answer Harry chose, a sad smile on his face.
"You can't keep this up mate, how are we supposed to prepare for the wedding with you falling all over yourself?" Ron groaned, putting his feet on the floor and sitting upright, stretching his long arms and yawning.
"I'm not that bad off yet Ron, I'll get through it. Besides, you know we need to know as much as possible if we're ever to-"
Ron groaned again, though this time out of exasperation.
"Stop talking about leaving! We've got a few days left and there isn't a bloody thing we can do now that will change what can happen then, we'll worry about it later. Get some rest before I get Hermione to conjure those birds and set them loose on you."
Harry smirked, "And here I thought that spell was specifically for you."
The smirk was short lived as a pillow hit him in the face.
Ron's blue eyes looked half agitated and half amused, "Low blow Harry."
The young man in question was still grinning unashamedly, "So how are things between you two anyway?"
Had it been last year Ron probably would have avoided the subject or even rejected that there was 'anything' going on at all.
Ron put his head in his hands, hunched over and shaking his head.
"I don't know anymore, one day the chemistry is great, the next we're having some row that I can't even remember in an hour. It's mental, one moment it looks like she wants to snog me and the next she kicks me in the shin for something I've said."
Harry laughed; it was typical behavior of the two. They both got on each other's nerves, but were both determined to stick by the other. Truthfully he wasn't sure if they would make a good couple, but if they were willing to try there really wasn't anything he felt like doing to stop it.
"Maybe you should just try not talking." Harry mused, leaning back against the desk and more relaxed than he had felt in days.
"I've tried mate, but it's like word vomit sometimes. I swear sometimes she just tries to get me to say the wrong thing so she can be mad at me."
Harry would have rejected the idea vocally if he hadn't already been told by Hermione that she sometimes enjoyed flustering him by getting him to say the wrong thing. So instead he just chose to stay quiet, and hope that Ron wouldn't notice the small smile on his lips.
"And what about you and Ginny? Still broken up?" Ron said, having tried to sound nonchalant but the snort from his best friend being the tell-tale sign that he had failed.
Harry then shook his head, crossing his arms. "Yeah, but she's still determined to practically force me back into being with her. She's completely missing the point of why I broke up with her in the first place!"
Ron rolled his eyes, "Did you expect anything different when you used the 'it's too dangerous' speech? I mean it didn't work with Hermione and me when you tried convincing us that you'd rather be a martyr than see us hurt so why would you expect to work on someone much more stubborn?"
Harry was hard pressed to refute that statement, and it made sense. But it was more complicated than that. "It wasn't just the danger Ron, while I was with her it was like an escape. I finally had what I wanted, but that's all it was, an escape. I have to face reality now, and I can't honestly say that I want her having to face it too."
Ron looked saddened by that, but nodded. "Yeah, Lavender was just that too. I was too stubborn about the whole argument with Hermione that I just wanted to escape, by the time it was all over reality had smashed back in my face and the idea of staying with her just wasn't appealing anymore. She was good at snogging though. And don't you dare say that Ginny was too!"
Harry snickered and then nearly fell off his chair laughing.
They both calmed down, noticing that the sunlight was now filtering through the windows. Morning had come, and with that…
"Harry! Ron! Wake up and get down for breakfast!" the voice of Molly Weasley echoed upwards, followed by similar shouts for Hermione and Ginny.
Ron rolled his eyes and stretched again before attempting to find usable clothes that smelled less than the rest, while Harry only shook his head and pulled out a few clothes from his trunk that he had yet to wear. Thankfully he had spent some time in Hogsmeade getting some clothes that were actually worth wearing on the weekends. His years of wearing overly large castoffs were at last over with, and he had spent a long and blissful day burning the clothes he had once called his own.
Granted, he was still getting used to wearing robes on a daily basis that weren't his school robes, but it was still comfortable. He chose some dark red robes and found a shirt and pants before looking around for a clean towel to use for a shower. He groaned though when he left the room and found a line for the bathroom consisting of Ron ahead of him, then the ruffled and brown haired Hermione, and currently waiting at the door was the short spitfire Ginny. He was very thankful for heating charms for the plumbing. Ginny was already tapping her foot, and while she glanced back at Harry once or twice she seemed determined not to look at him very much. Hermione however was busy chatting with Ron about something and Harry smirked when the conversation started getting heated.
"That's sexist Ron! Women don't always take longer in the bathroom!" she nearly screeched, Ginny looking back in shock and Harry's eyes widening. It was a bit early in the morning for them to be at it already…
"Fine, I'll admit that poofs like Lockhart might take longer!" he shouted back, apparently oblivious to how loud they both were. Harry nearly smacked his own face at the comment, but Ginny couldn't help but giggle a little.
"Just because you won't spend any time on your appearance and don't care, doesn't mean the rest of us don't either!" she squawked. Her brown eyes burning in clear indignation.
"Harry, can you believe this? We look just fine and we don't spend hours in the bathroom, right?" he turned around towards their dark haired mutual friend. An invisible, but obvious spotlight being shone in his face.
The conversation went like that for several more minutes, Ginny unashamedly leaving the poor dark haired boy to the wolves as both tried to get their friend to join a side. Harry stood like stone though and refused to say either way, probably making them both irritated. But he'd take irritated with both over furious from one.
The shower was a long one, and very much needed. It was the first one he'd taken in a few days and the soothing feel of nearly scalding water on his body was relaxing. It allowed him to forget about all the stress that was plaguing him lately, everything from the tension with his friends to the journey that lay ahead of him was washed away and left him feeling more refreshed than he had been when he had arrived at the Burrow.
Making his way down the stairs, fully dressed and apparently very hungry he was assaulted with the smell of breakfast. He always enjoyed eating at the Burrow, no matter how little money they seemed to have there was always enough to put food on the table for everyone. And everyone was now a lot of people these days, Harry noticed that the table had been enlarged and most of the family was now living at the Burrow for the wedding. Bill of course had to show up; it was kind of an obligatory thing… Charlie had portkeyed in for the wedding but said that he'd have to go back right after as one of the German Goretusk's was birthing and they needed all hands on deck.
Fred and George were still living at their flat over the shop but hung around for most meals at the Burrow now. They were laughing and chatting about something with their father while Molly was putting plates down on the table. If anyone ever asked Harry what he thought about the Weasley home he would always say that it may have been slightly cluttered, but it was always his home. Various objects were all over the shelves, and the floors were never quite spotless, but it always held more of a lived in look than a mismanaged style. Harry found himself a spot at the table, nearly hitting his head against it when he found Ginny sitting right next to him. She again determinedly kept herself occupied talking to Hermione next to her while Hermione herself gave odd looks his way every now and then. Ron was sitting next to Hermione and gave him a sympathetic look before digging into his food with a passion Harry could never seem to muster. On his other side one of the twins sat down next to him and patted him on the shoulder.
"Never worry old sport; I'm sure she'll warm up to you sooner or later. You have to give a woman some time before she'll stop being all womany on you." Harry just shook his head and grinned, before talking with them about the shop and the newest products. Charlie spoke in detail about the Dragons they had been bringing in from the various countries to Romania to help restore the population, apparently Dragons all over the world were either disappearing or dying mysteriously and everyone was scrambling to keep them from going extinct. Bill had his own mysterious story about how he was being held up at a few tombs as Gringotts, the bank he worked for, kept telling him that there was some sort of hold up in getting permission to have expeditions. He had been working in Egypt for years now but it seemed that something was going on there that made the Goblins edgy about doing more work with them.
The only subject that was not talked about was the War, Voldemort or any other subject pertaining to his current attempt at conquering Britain. Harry however was worried that perhaps some of these issues abroad may not be so far away from home as they would all like to think. Voldemort wasn't actually being all that active in England currently, and that meant that perhaps he was occupied being busy somewhere else.
Voldemort was really a rather touchy subject for anyone in Britain right now. He and his loyal followers, the Death Eaters, had been wreaking havoc on the magical populace for decades now with only a break happening when an infant Harry Potter had somehow vanquished him at the cost of his parents, making him famous the world over as a survivor of the Killing Curse. Most British magical families still would not even utter the Dark Lord's name, simply calling him He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or You-Know-Who. The terrorist was currently working to become immortal, while strengthening his hold on Magical Britain and perhaps attempting to breach that country line to rule all of Europe.
Thinking about his enemy brought home the importance of his coming journey. The headmaster Albus Dumbledore had been preparing him for years to fight against Voldemort, recently explaining to him the nature of Voldemort's seeming immortality and how to get rid of it. Now Harry was determined to hunt the Horcruxes, the supposed items of immortality and take down the Dark Lord himself. Even more determined now since the death of Dumbledore only a few months back. It was a long shot he knew, but on his side was a prophesy made while he was an infant nearly stating outright that he would be the only one with the power to defeat Voldemort, with some sort of 'power he knows not'. Dumbledore claimed it was love, the love of his new family and his friends, something the Dark Lord was now incapable of. Harry only wished it could be that simple, something kept telling him that it would probably something farther reaching than simple love that would help destroy the most powerful Dark Lord of the last fifty years.
Harry was brought out of his reverie by the voice of Molly Weasley saying "Oh my! It's already that time! Everyone get to the fireplace!"
There was scramble to get to the fireplace, everyone trying to get there at the same time. Harry however was having issues remember just why they were making such a fuss about this, was someone coming? Harry smirked for a moment thinking how funny it had been trying to explain to his relatives how Wizards 'flooed' by throwing green powder into a fireplace and jumping into the flames, the pale color their skin turned was priceless.
The fire was burning red still, a sure sign that nothing was quite happening and an awkward silence reigned over the room as they all patiently waited for whatever Harry had forgotten about. "They told us eleven, and we're here at eleven…I swear if Appoline is doing this just to get on my nerves…" Molly mumbled, though loud enough for everyone to hear. Harry felt again like smacking himself, the Delacours were coming! It was barely two days away from the wedding and somehow he hadn't found it weird that the bride had disappeared since his escape from his relatives.
It was hard to believe that his former rival from the Tri-Wizard competition all those years ago had ended up being engaged to one of the Weasleys. Fleur and him hadn't spoken much at all in the last few years, something he vowed to change. He was practically a Weasley himself and she was becoming one, at some point he'd have to talk to her again. The French witch seemed to have gone to her family to help pack for them to stay over at the Burrow as well and Harry honestly wondered whether or not they could actually fit more people in the house.
While he was thinking this all through, the fireplace turned light green, enlarging into a sort of doorway and within seconds Fleur stepped through the fireplace and into Bill's arms. Soon after an imposing dark haired man stepped through and shrugged off the soot from his robes and nodded to the family and waited to the side of the fireplace. Soon an older woman stepped through, barely looking over thirty five and more attractive than Harry would have assumed. Fleur had certainly inherited her platinum blonde hair from her mother, as well as her good looks. Fleur however seemed to have inherited her father's tall height while her mother nearly half a foot shorter. An even older woman came through the fireplace, having the definite marks of being Fleur's grandmother and soon they stood together as a family and Harry wondered why everyone was quiet still. He had been about to introduce himself when the fireplace flared again and a girl about his age stumbled through the floo saying "I'm sorry! Sorry! I couldn't find my bag and…" she was suddenly silent as she felt everyone staring at her.
He couldn't quite find words to describe her, it was infinitely hard to imagine that this young woman in front of him had been the small girl he had seen when he was fourteen. She was only two inches shorter than him now, with the same Delacour platinum hair falling down past her shoulders. Her skin was pale like her older sister's, but seem to have warmth to her face instead of the coldness he had grown to associate with Fleur. She had clearly aged well in Harry's not so appropriate opinion, and from the looks of it nearly all the males agreed with him.
"Again, I'm sorry for being late. I had trouble with my bag, and then things just started falling apart from there. I'm Gabrielle Delacour and it is a pleasure to meet all of…Harry!" she smiled brightly before hugging the now completely confused teen. Everyone else had remained silent; however Ron seemed to be scowling slightly and from what Harry could tell Hermione had the same scowl etched on her face. However his attention was then diverted to the unavoidable fact that Gabrielle was no little girl anymore, and as he returned the hug he found himself relaxing slightly. This wasn't some stranger, this was little Gabby, the same girl he had not had the pleasure of speaking two in quite a few years.
The embrace ended, with Gabrielle blushing lightly, before her head spun around towards her sister and hit Harry in the face with her hair. "Fleur! How could you neglect to inform me that your fiancé was an acquaintance of Harry's?" Gabrielle's accent was faint, she had clearly been practicing.
Fleur seemed to look amused and slightly proud of herself, a fairly rare show of emotion on her part. "It did not seem important, after all no one else is supposed to know he is here. For security reasons of course." She smiled pleasantly, while the adults all seemed partly amused and exasperated.
Gabrielle scowled back at her sister, "Likely excuse." She huffed, before turning back towards Harry and smiling shyly again. "It's been awhile, yes?" she said, ignoring everyone else in the process. A few coughs could be heard and Harry had to use his willpower to look towards the Delacour male, who was looking halfway amused and annoyed at his youngest daughter's outburst.
Introductions were made, Alan animatedly going through the process of making sure that everyone knew that his wife Appoline and he were not French royalty and were not expecting some huge to-do over their arrival. He then introduced his mother-in-law, Aubree and then Arthur decided it was about time that they all left the now cramped living room and led them outside. Ginny was soon speaking with Gabrielle and Harry found himself mentally groaning, nothing good could come from that. Everyone seemed to be getting along while mingling and Harry soon felt like a bit odd just standing around.
It was while leaning against the wall, his eyes wandering frequently towards his ex-girlfriend and a rather attractive young blonde that he felt a shifting sensation in his mind. His eyesight went blurry, swirling before refocusing. He was no longer at the Burrow, but his body wasn't reacting, in fact he was moving without thought and seemed to be walking at a rather brisk pace. Anger was seeping through his mind, cruelty at the very edge of his consciousness and it did not take very long to access that he wasn't actually in his own body anymore.
It had been ages since this had happened, being a spectator to Voldemort's actions. It only ever truly happened this way when something really bothered the Dark Lord, to the point of making the monster lose control of his thoughts and broadcasting them as Harry unwillingly acted as a conduit. He was watching as Voldemort still kept a fast pace, moving far too fast for him to gain any bearings as to where they were. It was dark, almost without light except for the torchlight every few meters. The smell was that of stale air, wherever they were he had not visited in far too long. The stone floor echoed Voldemort's footsteps loudly as he made his way through the seemingly never ending tunnel. It took him more than a few minutes to reach a door, which swung open at the snarl of "Open!" in parseltongue.
Harry watched in fascination as Voldemort studied the chamber he was in, some sort of nostalgia coming from the Dark Lord's mind before anger resurfaced at the situation he apparently had found himself in. An ancient pedestal stood in the middle of the chamber, which had no distinguishing marks other than an oval shape and dark green torchlight. The pedestal held a large crystal ball, clear and smooth and held in a stone hand that looked inhuman.
Voldemort walked slowly towards the pedestal, his right hand reaching for the ball and soon the crystal was alight with too many colors to describe, an image slowly coalescing above the ball. The image was that of a slightly aged man, light brown hair cut nearly too short to see and piercing red eyes not so unlike Voldemort's own. He stood tall and imposing, radiating power that struck Harry with tendrils of fear that seeped into his mind. Was Voldemort afraid of this man?
"You are late." The image said, the voice distorted inhumanly adding to the fear that Voldemort seemed to feel.
"I was held up, my plans are not going as well as I had planned, I-"
"Do I look like I care what you have planned?" the image snarled, a familiarity brushing against Harry's mind that he could not quite understand.
"Of course not, I am merely trying to say that-"
"Do not make excuses Voldemort; I am not interested in them. How are the meetings with the Lethifolds going?" his voice became calm, almost eerily cold as he discussed the dark creatures.
"They are going well, however they do not wish to outright attack Hogwarts like I need them to."
The image put up his hand, "I have told you time and again that you should stop worrying about Dumbledore and his Order, this is much larger than either of you so I would appreciate it if you did not make this larger than it had to be. Get the Lethifolds to join us, then the British Werewolves; we need as many as we can all muster if my plans are to come to fruition. Do not let us become the next Grindelwalds."
There was hesitation; Harry could feel the anger at being treated like a child from the Dark Lord. Before Harry could further speculate who this monster might be Voldemort bowed low and horrified Harry by speaking slowly and saying "Of course…Master."
A/N
This felt like a good place to end it. I have no beta so this is of course fairly unedited. I try to go through the chapters a bit before they are posted but I am not without mistakes. I am really looking forward to hearing what you all think. Should it be continued?
I already have base plans, and a very interesting twist on Horcruxes all laid out and ready to be unleashed upon you in a cruel and sadistic fashion.
Read and Review of course, and we'll see what happens.