Summary: HPFD, post GoF. Thanks to a mysterious voice, Fleur Delacour stops Harry Potter from touching the trapped Cup and discovers that the two of them share an ancient and powerful connection.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the associated properties.

The Story So Far: Harry and Fleur spend three years in a dream world, receiving training, but not practical experience. Now, back in reality, Fleur is set to teach Defense at Hogwarts while Harry is legally bound to complete his fifth year of schooling. They've shared their secrets with Harry's closest friends and joined the Order. Now, they have a week and a half before term begins, and there are three point one four million things to get done.

Ecstatic Immolation

Chapter 7: Bonding

Harry was immediately glad that he'd requested Tonks as his escort on his trip to Diagon Alley. She might have her clumsy moments, but she could blend in with anyone, anywhere, and her glamour charms were almost as good as Fleur's. Harry had her cast the spells since he had a feeling that the goblins would wish them to be cancelled at some point, and Harry had no intention of tangling with the Underage Sorcery laws if he could avoid it.

The two of them walked, arm in arm, into Gringotts, playing the part of a young couple. Harry had the feeling that Tonks was quite enjoying it, though the flirtation was innocent enough. From what his godfather had said, Tonks was interested in someone else, though he hadn't been able to figure out who the lucky guy was. In any case, it added to their disguise and they reached the goblin clerk without incident and were ushered into a small meeting room.

The full extent of the Potter holdings was astonishing to Harry. If he never worked a day in his life and lived to one hundred and fifty, there would still be enough left for his great-grand children to fight over. He immediately requested a review of the funds, and established accounts in both his and his fiancé's names. Seizing the opportunity, he also had a temporary will drawn up to name Fleur his primary beneficiary and, in the likely event that she had perished with him, to pass everything on to Sirius, and then to Remus. All-in-all, the goblins were quite efficient and the whole business took only an hour.

Afterward, a sobered Harry took a hectic cart ride down to the main Potter vault to view his parents' personal effects. There were a number of letters, including one addressed to him. Tears threatened to spill from his eyes as he broke the seal and read a message of love from his mother and father. They'd known of the danger they were facing, and they thought of nothing but his survival and happiness. He said a silent vow to make sure that he didn't meet them until he'd had a chance to make their wishes come true and spent several minutes using his Occlumency to file away the myriad emotions he was feeling for later resolution. The letter had really hit him hard, though he had too many things to do right then to deal with it.

It was some time later that a much quieter Harry let Tonks gently steer him back to the cart and to the Alley. Somewhere along the way, he'd withdrawn ten thousand pounds and the equivalent in galleons. The galleons were banded in groups of one hundred which, when an activation word was said over them, would transfigure themselves into thick pieces of paper decorated in a fashion similar to pounds and back with a second word. A stack of a thousand galleons in this reduced format was roughly the equivalent of one of the banded packs of a thousand pounds in size and weight. Harry had never seen them used before, but he realized that it was how the wealthier wizards must deal with their money. Carrying around a few thousand gold coins was bound to be difficult, even with shrinking and lightening charms.

Away from the vault, itself, Tonks reapplied the glamour, and Harry began to shake out of his stupor and recalled all the other things he'd wished to get done that day. He dug in one of his pockets and came out with a short list.

"Tonks, I need your help. Do you know where we can get some clothes more suitable to younger folks?" She gave him a slightly concerned and confused look under lowered eyebrows, but did her best to translate what she thought he was trying to ask. Her response was rather hesitant, but sounded mildly like she was explaining the obvious.

"Um, yeah, Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions should have what you need." Harry wondered briefly why she was talking like that, but as soon as he realized how she took, or rather mistook, what he meant to say he knew he had to rephrase it for her.

"Uh, I didn't mean it like that. I meant for what, you know, you or your friends, well not exactly what you and your friends would wear, but you know, something suitable for a night out on the town?" Tonks' confused look instantly changed to that of understanding as she inhaled as her mouth formed an "O" shape as she slightly tilted her head back and up. This look slowly faded away as a new one, just as quickly, took its place, and Harry almost wished he hadn't spoken when Tonks' look settled into a full, hungry grin.

O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O

"The name should have been a clue," Fleur groaned as she stretched her back. The N.E.W.T.s were living up to their name by leaving her nastily exhausted at the end of her first day of testing. It wasn't that the tests were that difficult, really, as she knew virtually all of the material they covered, but the process itself was taxing.

She stifled a yawn as she collected Remus from the atrium of the Ministry. They'd had a nice lunch together during her break, and she found the man to have a wealth of ideas for Defense class sessions. For his part, he was genuinely interested in what she and Harry had been up to, and in learning more about the mysterious Jovan. She also found that she quite liked him as a person, and could appreciate the affection that Harry obviously felt for the man.

They chatted lightly about the coming school year as they made their way to the Apparition point and vanished to the Leaky Cauldron. They didn't waste much time, once there, in turning around and Apparating directly to Grimauld Place. The stopover was a necessary evil as it would help confuse anyone attempting to follow the magical signatures of their movements. Doing so wasn't easy, but neither was it all that difficult if one had practice.

Number 12 was fairly deserted when they arrived, and Remus went to make sure that Sirius wasn't causing any trouble as Fleur waved him off at the door to her room. Once inside, she flopped on the bed in an undignified pose and let out a huge sigh of relief. "One day down, just an eternity to go," she muttered to herself. The testing was really starting to grate on her nerves, and it really did feel like there was no end in sight.

She must have dozed off a little at that point because she found herself sitting bolt upright at a knock on her door. Cautiously, she gripped the handle of her wand, and went to see who was visiting her, hoping that it was Harry.

When the door opened, she was more than a little surprised to see Hermione and Ginny standing in the hallway, looking shifting nervously from foot to foot. Hermione was worrying with her hair and Ginny had her lower lip gripped firmly between her teeth, clearly telling Fleur that they wanted to talk about something and they weren't exactly certain of the answer. As she'd never actually spoken with either girl, she immediately drew a conclusion about the subject.

"Can we come in or go somewhere else to talk?" Hermione asked, her voice betraying her nervousness even more. She let the strand of her frazzled mane go, as though suddenly catching herself doing it.

"Sure," Fleur said, also feeling a knot of dread forming in her stomach. "Here's fine."

The girls came in at her urging and took seats at the foot of the bed. Fleur crawled onto the head of it and settled in, cross-legged, watching the girls warily. The silence in the room hung heavily about them for almost a minute before Hermione broke it.

"We… we talked to Harry this morning," Hermione began again. "He told us about the two of you."

Fleur nodded noncommittally. She'd suspected as much, or the girls wouldn't be here.

"Then Harry took off his glamour charms and showed us what he looked like," the darker haired girl continued, a little blush forming on her cheeks. Ginny had much the same look and Fleur rapidly revised her assessment of the situation. "We wanted to ask you… well… we know that you and Harry are bound together forever and all… but is that… exclusive?"

If Fleur's mind hadn't been rapidly piecing together where this conversation was going while Hermione nervously meandered to her destination, the question would have been a shock. As it was, she simply gave the two girls a long, appraising look.

"In truth," the part-Veela began after a long pause. "The bond means that neither of us will ever fall in love with another. Once it is complete, there is nothing that can tear it apart." Both girls immediately looked crestfallen, but Fleur continued. "However, that's not the entirety of the truth."

One of Hermione's eyebrows rose slightly in a quizzical expression and Fleur pressed on. "No, neither of us can love another, but the two of us as a unit may form bonds with others. It has been necessary at a few points in history for such unions to occur for political and personal reasons…" She started to trail off. This wasn't a topic she necessarily wanted to broach so early in her relationship with Harry, but his friends were important to him.

"Would you… do you think Harry would…" Ginny started, speaking for the first time and not doing a very good job of it.

"Right now?" Fleur asked, giving the younger redhead a piercing look. "No."

"Oh," Ginny said, biting her lip and going silent in disappointment.

"However, in a few years… You must understand that Harry is not the same boy you knew a few months ago. He is a man now, a powerful wizard and a mature person. If you wish to pursue a relationship with the two of us, and it must be with both of us, you will have to make that decision based off of who we are now, not who we were." Fleur paused again, looking over both girls. Ginny seemed put off by this, though Hermione continued to look intrigued. "For now, I wish for you to maintain your friendship with Harry. When you have finished your education, then we will discuss our future relationships and possibly begin a courtship or two."

"Are you going to tell Harry about this?" Hermione asked. Fleur could almost see the gears moving in her mind.

"In time, yes. Right now, I will keep it to myself, so long as the two of you follow my guidelines," Fleur said and shortly thereafter ushered them out of her room.

Lying on the bed, she ran her thoughts over the rather odd conversation she'd just had. In truth, she didn't want to share Harry with anyone, but there were certain advantages in such an arraignment. For one thing, Harry desired a large family. She wasn't opposed to a large family, herself, though she didn't know if she really wanted to bear more than a few children. Adding a second or even third wife involved would mean that each of them could produce a reasonable number of children and still achieve the Potter family Quidditch team he would no doubt want.

With any luck, one or both of the girls would find someone else before they graduated from Hogwarts. That was three years out for Hermione and four for Ginny, so the possibility was very real. If they managed to hold out for Harry that long, Fleur would give her consent for a courtship to start between the bonded couple and the younger girls. However, in a lot of ways, she hoped it never came to that.

O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O

For Harry, it seemed like the week just fell away. His plans for Friday and for the coming school year had been laid and every possible item he could think of had been planned and accounted for. He was more than a little amused when Fleur and Remus arrived back at the mansion only to have Tonks drag them both upstairs. Apparently, Remus was the mystery guy that she was crushing on.

In any case, Tonks was in charge of clothing for the evening and had her two victims well in hand. Harry walked up a little after them and quickly changed, as well. For the evening, he'd chosen a dark green dress shirt, open at the collar, and a pair of tight black slacks. He gave himself a glance in the mirror and nodded appraisingly before weaving a heavy glamour over his scar. The scar tended to degrade disguising spells over time, but he put enough power into the spell that it would last the night.

He opened a small box and pulled out the simple silver stud of an earring. He placed the earring against his lobe and it seemed to melt straight through, fastening itself in place. Wizarding jewelry didn't require actual piercing, of course. He then slipped on the Potter family signet ring where it rested on the middle finger of his right hand right beside the ring formed by the Weapon.

He was the first back in the front hall and suppressed a grin when he saw a flustered, but similarly attired Remus stumble down the stairs. The two of them stood in companionable silence, sharing put upon looks with each other and waiting for their respective partners to come down. Harry shifted from foot to foot after a while, his clothing showing off every movement of his muscles as he did so. He'd let Tonks pick the outfit, over his protests, but he was actually quite pleased with the results. Without his "young Harry" persona up and in clothing so different from what he normally wore, he had little worry of being recognized.

At Harry's urging, she'd gotten something a little less fitted for Remus, though it still showed that the older werewolf had some significant upper body strength. Harry was no judge of attractiveness in men, but he was fairly certain that Tonks would find the former Professor attractive, even though he looked tired.

After what felt like an hour, but was much closer to fifteen minutes, Fleur and Tonks came down. Both were wearing short black dresses that came only half way to their knees and hugged their figures like second skins. Tonks had taken a cue from Fleur and lengthened her hair, making it a similar silver color, though it was a more natural blond than hers. It looked like Fleur had pulled out her full arsenal of cosmetic charms for the both of them as they looked positively magnificent. Their lips and nails were done in silver, just like their hair, a stark contrast to their black dresses. Fleur had on a silver necklace she'd gotten from her mother and matching earrings while Tonks had a number of silver studs in each ear along with a stud in her nose. Both of them looked stunning.

Harry grinned and elbowed Remus to get him to close his gaping mouth. "You look absolutely lovely, my dear," he said and took Fleur's hand, bringing it up as he lowered himself and brushed his lips across her knuckles. Remus did not manage to be anywhere near as suave and looked decidedly uncomfortable through the whole trip to the Muggle restaurant where they had reservations at two separate tables. Harry almost laughed at the sight of the host desperately trying not to be caught staring at the two lovely ladies. The waiter didn't even bother trying to disguise it and managed to knock over a glass of water that, mercifully, failed to soak anyone.

The place was a trendy upscale dining spot, and the dishes were a mix of traditional English, French, and Italian fare. Harry chose something lighter and smiled as Fleur did the same. The chatted softly over their meal, though their talk stayed away from the topic of what they would be doing for the rest of the night as Harry held that secret closely.

After the restaurant, the quartet joined up again and went to a Muggle nightclub. The girls on their arms let Harry and Remus cut through the lengthy queue and join the party inside with little trouble. The fact that Harry was looking his natural self and the hundred pound note that Harry slipped the doorman didn't hurt matters, either.

Inside, the club was dark, though an impressive array of multicolored lights swept the room in time to the throbbing beat. As Tonks and Remus were, ostensibly, escorting the younger couple, they took a vantage point on one of the catwalks ringing the main dance floor while Harry and Fleur had their fun.

At the Yule ball, Harry would have been hard pressed to keep up with traditional wizarding dances, but his time in the dream world had included a number of lessons. Fleur was an expert in the movements of the formalized, tightly constrained dances that Wizards so favored and found that teaching Harry had built in rewards.

Those dances had no place in the Muggle club, however, and the couple found themselves in the middle of a slowly widening empty space on the dance floor as they improvised fluid movements and feats of agility and physical strength into a freestyle frenzy set to a beat. There was something primal about the activity as Harry used posture and movement to declare that Fleur was his while she enticed him with her own motions.

Sweaty and a little tired, but exhilarated, the two of them had a few drinks with Remus and Tonks before retiring to the hotel room which Harry had booked three days previously. He carried her bodily into the room, their lips locked together in a heated kiss, using his elbow to flick on the light switch as he did so. The room was clearly the victim of a number of charms as it had been enlarged and the bed placed in the middle of the room. On pretty much every bare surface of the room rested either candles or arcane markings that were part of the large ritual the two of them were going to undertake.

He allowed her to stand again, and Fleur's eyes swept around the room, locking on the bed. "Merlin, it's only been a week, but it feels like forever," she murmured against him and felt him stiffen against her in response. "You are sure about the rituals?"

Harry nodded, and waved a hand to light the candles arrayed around the room. "Jovan was a huge help. Most sexual rituals seek to create aspects of our bonding, which means that there weren't a whole lot of options. When you rule out the ones with nasty side effects, there were even fewer. Once we're done with these, they will enhance our physical speed, stamina, and give us some minor protection from physical and magical injury. There may also be some regenerative abilities included with that last, but I'm not certain they'll carry over in the combined ritual. There was one that enhanced memory, but I didn't want to risk it interacting badly with our Bond."

Fleur nodded, kicking her shoes off and toward the door. "Well then, let's get to work," she said with a wide grin, wrapping her arms around her mate's neck and pulling him down to her for a passionate snog. They continued to fumble with each other's clothing until they were both bare and then Harry, without breaking their lip-to-lip contact, lifted her up and carried her bodily to the bed. They continued to kiss as Harry produced a pot of oils and began to paint Fleur with it in various spots. She did the same at his direction and soon both of them had oily black runes on their bodies. Most of them would be smeared during the ceremony, but they were necessary.

Drawing out a pair of scrolls, Harry started to chant off his part while Fleur read hers when the scroll indicated it. The ritual chant was long and fairly complex as it was designed to fulfill the requirements of a number of different rituals at once. By the time they were done, the runes on their bodies were glowing and both of them were very excited from the anticipation.

What followed was one of the most magical experiences of either of their lives. As they coupled, power washed over them in waves both summoned by their rituals and brought out by their Bond. Their lovemaking was neither slow, nor gentle as they gave in to the raw lust and need coursing through them. The magic spurred them on until they both collapsed, smeared with black oils and sweat, on the bed.

The waves of magic rolling away from them started to slowly recede as they panted their exhaustion on the bed. The blissful arms of unconsciousness reached out for them, but Harry forced himself to stay awake when he heard someone pounding at their door.

Staggering to his feet, he managed to find a towel to throw over his nakedness before opening the door a crack. A very flustered Tonks and Remus stood in the hallway, and from the smear of silver across Remus' lips, Harry had a feeling that they had been busy, as well.

"Harry, you two just lit up three blocks of Muggle London with some seriously charged magic. We'd better get out of here before the Ministry sends someone down here to investigate," she declared, tapping her foot impatiently while casting looks over her shoulder as though Aurors would be Apparating in at any second.

O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O

Fleur woke up slowly, her mind filled with the kind of haze that only a night of animal lust can induce. She felt warm all over, though she felt like she should be sore. Sighing, she moved back against the warm shape behind her, reveling in the feel of a strong masculine arm clutching her tighter. She knew it was Harry without even looking. Even if she didn't know the feel of him, the fact that he was sitting there, right in the front of her mind, would have told her that.

Things were different now, she knew. Her awareness of her mate had grown exponentially over what it had been the day before, and she had to assume that the Bonding was now complete. It had been an intense attachment before, but now it was… they were now one. One in almost every possible understanding of the word.

The thought warmed her even more than his touch and she relaxed against him, drawing comfort from him. As she lay there, she began to get aroused and mentally stroked the presence of him in her mind. She was rewarded with the feeling of something stiffening against her back causing her to bite her lip in anticipation. If the rituals for stamina had worked, she had a number of plans for his morning that did not involve standing up. Well, most of them didn't involve standing up.

Before things could go much further, however, there was a knock at the door. Fleur cursed whoever was interrupting her Harry-time, but slid out of the bed to answer it. As her feet touched the floor, she realized that she wasn't in the hotel room from the night before, but rather her room in the House of Black.

She shrugged and pulled on a silken robe before cracking the door enough to see who was there.

"Are you coming down to breakfast?" the newly revealed Hermione asked her.

Fleur smirked slightly and let the door open enough so that the bed could be seen from the door. "I think I'm going to sleep in, this morning," she said with a grin on her lips before closing the door back to the crack it was before.

"Oh!" Hermione said, having noticed the Harry-shaped lump in the bed. She blushed a little but then grinned. "I'll just cover for you, then. Don't do anything…" she paused to ponder for a moment, and then came to a decision, "okay, never mind. Do all those things."

Fleur closed the door, her smile growing, as she slipped back into bed with her mate. He was grinning at her, too, obviously having woken up while she was answering the door.

"So, care to explain how we moved from the hotel to here in the middle of the night?" she asked, genuinely interested in the answer.

"Well… you see… we kind of lit up downtown London with magic and made a long night for every Obliviator the Ministry has. We did a dozen Apparition jumps, several trips on the Underground, and three cabs after you passed out." Harry paused as he saw her smile at the memory of what caused such a great amount of trouble the previous night and the subsequent explanation of their escape. He just grinned while he stated the obvious result of their elaborate detour, "I think we got away, in the end."

Fleur snickered at the description of the events. "So, nothing important, then?" She laughed full on at that. "Do you suppose that is going to happen every time, now, or was it just the rituals?"

"Probably just the rituals… though I think we should really test that out, to be sure," he said, a predatory gleam in his eyes. She smiled back, wasting no time in capturing his lips with her own.

They didn't make breakfast. Or lunch, for that matter, but Hegwig did deliver a note around noon recommending they reapply the silencing charms on the room's walls, floor, and ceiling "SOON".

O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O

Author's Notes: This chapter is a little weaker than the others and a lot shorter. I covered a lot of ground, with only a little description, and ended it a little before I should have. The next chapter will cover the start of school… whenever it gets written. Having twin toddlers during the spring "everyone gets sick" season is rather taxing and plays a large role in my lack of updates this last month.

As of right now, this fic is going on a short hiatus. I have five straight weeks of travel coming for work (starting in a few days), and I know how exhausted I tend to be on the road so I'm not going to kid myself and think I'll be very productive. If I can get stuff done, I will, but it may well be June or July before chapter 8 sees the light of day. I will say that I fully intend to continue the tale and that this hiatus should only be fairly short as such things go.

I just want to thank everyone who reviews this story. You guys are great and give me a lot of stuff to work on and a lot of incentive to continue writing this.

Thanks goes to rejeimha for giving this a quick beta and making me flesh out several spots where it was lacking. I should have done a little more fleshing, but I wanted to get this out before my travel nightmare starts.