The Stag and the Flower
A/N: Don't own a thing, especially not HP. I hope you enjoy the next chapter. Italics denote thoughts. Bold is for spells.
Harry and Fleur shared a brief lunch with Perenelle during a short break on their tour of the grounds. "So, you are in France together," the old woman began as she poured them each a cup of strong, fragrant tea, "Tell me about England."
"Well, I'm an Auror. Normally, someone, my age would only be a junior," Harry said, "But due to the War, there were so few Aurors that returned that the Minister gave those of us who were at the Battle special clearance to start with our mentors early instead of going through the Academy." He took a sip of his tea, "I was partnered, along with my best friend Ron, with Gawain Robards. He's since been made Department Head."
"I work at Gringotts, the London branch." Fleur added, unwilling to bring up her actual husband, "We are new at this. Before now I was- I was with someone else." That was close enough to the truth. Fleur's eye went down to her hand, she'd should've taken her ring off she mused. "We are discussing the idea of staying in France. It would be nice for us to have a fresh start, away from the- well the drama in London."
"England as a whole really," Harry added.
"Oui." Fleur finished. She took his hand, "Harry is learning well. He might not have full comprehension of the language yet, but I think he will get there in time." She smiled at him, "The one before him never wanted to learn French. He said translation charms did all the work so why bother?"
"Because it's important to you." Harry said quietly squeezing her hand in support. "This is your home, it's as much a part of you as those beautiful blue eyes. It's important to you, so it's important to me." She leaned in and kissed him.
Perenelle smiled, "If you decide to stay in France, you will have to visit Nicholas and I. After we sold our home in Devon and came back to France we found a lovely cottage near Brionne. Have you ever been there?" She asked them, knowing full well the answer.
"We have. We were there briefly on our trip to my parent's home." Fleur said in response, "It seemed quiet enough."
Perenelle went to respond with Elon, the little House Elf that had brought Harry and Fleur to the school appeared beside them. "Master Flamey asks for you three."
They rose from the table, their food vanishing as they did. Perenelle led them back to the Alchemy Lab, where Nicholas looked ready to start dancing. "I did it!" He cried, rushing over, as fast as his ancient bones would allow, and kissing his wife. "I figured out what I need for this potion!"
"Are you certain? The last time you said that we spent three years in Guam and I still hate the taste of Spam." Perenelle replied. She allowed her husband to pull her towards the formula on the board. "Well, let's hear it then." She said as he backed up with his arms raised like a showman.
"Unicorn blood must be freely given to avoid the curse that comes from using it otherwise. Troll skin is a powerful restorative but it's deadly poisonous. But!" He said pointing at an incomprehensible scribble, "If I can find something that can overpower the poison, I can combine their essences." For a man as old as he was, Nicholas practically danced as he raced to the other side of the board. "A bezoar is too weak for this, the regenerative properties of the troll skin keep the poison active after death." He ran a hand through his snowy hair, "All I need to do is craft a cure for poison that is stronger than a bezoar. It should only take fifty more years!"
Perenelle raised a steely gray eyebrow, "'Only fifty more years' he says." She scoffed and turned back to Harry and Fleur, "All he has to do is something that no one else has been able to do. Again."
"What about the anti-poison charm?" Harry asked, "Could you put the potion in a vial with the charm inscribed like a runestone?"
"The potion would be poisonous again within a moment of being poured out. It would take an incredibly powerful magic artifact to override the poison." Nicholas said waving his hand dismissively. It was clear that it wasn't a case of being rude, but rather that his mind was already working on the next stage.
"How powerful?" Harry asked.
Nicholas though for a moment, "Something crafted by a Master Enchanter with materials from Master Craftsmen."
With that Harry reached for his pouch, "I have three items created by Death itself."
That caused silence to fall in the lab. The bubbling of various potions sounded louder than military drums against the heavy silence. Nicholas paused, his quill on the parchment as he had begun to scratch out an idea. The tip of the quill broke, flying off and striking a bottle of murtlap sweat. "Those. Those could work."
There weren't many things that could shock the Flamels after lives as long as theirs. Nicholas knew of the Elder Wand, after all, he had been if not friends with Albus Dumbledore they had been colleagues and had seen it many times. He had heard of the Invisibility Cloak, the original Cloak, the one that all others were pale imitations of, the scrap of Death's robe. It was the Resurrection Stone that stunned him. The tiny green stone held the power to temporarily turn back the Veil and allow the dead to return.
Harry set the three items down on the table, "Look at them, when you know what you need to use take it. If it gets destroyed all the better. These things don't need to exist." He said to the ancient scholar. Harry had no true warm feelings to any of them except for the Cloak. It had belonged to his father and was the first Potter family heirloom he'd ever gotten. The wand was merely a symbol of the pride and fear that could consume a wizard, much as the stone represented the fear of loss that could swallow a man's soul.
Those two things were worthless to him. They caused nothing but pain and fear wherever they went and whatever they were used for. Perhaps in their destruction, they would finally bring good into the world?
Nicholas studied them, "You control them. I need to give you a crash course in Alchemy so that you can cast the neutralizing charm on the troll skin." He looked up from the Hallows. "The Elder Wand will be needed to cast the charm, but I believe the Stone will need to act as a foci to push the power through the charm."
"I can cast that charm now," Harry argued.
"Perhaps, but you have never cast a charm into an alchemical mixture," Nicholas said. He turned to Fleur and Perenelle. "You two leave us for now. We will be at this for some time."
Perenelle rolled her eyes and guided Fleur out of the lab. "Come along dear. The old fossil will be nattering on to your man until after dinner." Fleur turned back as Harry gave her a helpless look but was taken out onto the grounds.
That left Harry with Nicholas. "How were your grades in Potions?" Nicholas asked him as he used his wand to summon a thick and dusty tome from the wall.
"I- I got an Exceeds Expectations on my O.W.L's," Harry said still a bit uneasy at being separated from Fleur.
"Pitiful. But Albus had a terrible Professor for most of the years you would have been there, didn't he?" The old man grinned, "Severus was a genius with potions, but he was awful at teaching it. So if you got an EE, then you would have probably received an Outstanding with a competent instructor."
He summoned another book and put them both in front of Harry, "Read the first chapter of the first book and the fifteenth of the second. I have some work to do to prepare the concoction. When I'm done, you should be as well."
The books reminded Harry of the very first time he had opened one of his magical textbooks. It was a nigh-incomprehensible set of formulae and medieval looking illustrations. Still, as Harry continued to read the chapter set forth, it became more clear to him. Somewhat anyway.
Fleur and Perenelle walked towards the Charms Classroom. The old woman smiled as they stepped inside the classroom, "Some of my happiest memories involve this room." She said to Fleur. She ran her hand over one of the desks, "In my second year Nicholas and I accidentally turned this desk into a winged Alsatian."
"You were always close?" Fleur asked.
Perenelle snorted, "Hardly. I was the Heiress of a well-connected family. His father was a dung-shoveler at an Abraxian stable. I was a pompous, spoiled little girl and he was an uncommonly intelligent, if mischievous boy." She laughed at a fleeting memory, "We each hit the desk with a spell meant for the other."
"How do you deal with the years?" Fleur asked Perenelle. The idea of living for hundreds of years was at once both fascinating and terrifying. Seeing the world change would be incredible, but she didn't want to watch everyone close to her die. Harry has already had enough of that for one lifetime...She thought.
Perenelle looked at the much younger woman, "You find things to keep your interest. Nicholas is a Savant, he has his focus in that lab. For me, it is charity." She looked past Fleur at the slateboard on the wall. "I have had such a wonderful life that I want to help other people enjoy theirs as well."
She turned back to Fleur's face, "In fact, I have such a project now. You two."
"What do you mean?"
"You are wearing a wedding ring. He isn't. You two obviously love each other a great deal." Perenelle ticked off each point with her fingers, "I could tell there was something between you when I first laid my eye on you." She laughed softly, "I should probably properly introduce myself." With that her features shimmered and Perenelle was replaced by a face that Fleur was certain she'd seen before but couldn't place it.
"You look so familiar...but I'm not sure why," Fleur said earning a laugh from the woman.
Perenelle wandlessly conjured a small rose, "Flowers picked this morning!"
Fleur gasped, "You? The flower woman in the park?" Confusion marred her beautiful features, "But why?"
"The exact reasons I said: you two weren't happy apart, so I wanted to help bring you along. We did not use potions or charms to do it, instead, we just made sure that when we spoke to you, we told you what the world sees." Perenelle explained, "You didn't stop smiling until Nicholas pushed us both out of his lab."
Fleur sank into the chair, "This time I thought we were falling in love because we wanted to be together. I didn't know we were being pushed into it."
"Were you?" Perenelle asked, "As I said, we didn't use any potions or charms on you two. The only thing we used was a simple tracking charm on his motorbike."
"You followed us?"
"Of course. I wanted to see the two of you fall in love on your own terms." Perenelle said shrugging, "And you did."
Fleur did love Harry. For whatever reason fate, in the form of two ancient meddlers, had nudged them together and she was glad for it. However that didn't stop her from feeling manipulated. "I will have to speak with Harry about all of this. He's had so many people using him." She sighed, "Now I feel like one more in a long line."
"You shouldn't." Perenelle replied, "You love him don't you?" Fleur nodded and she continued, "You love him, he loves you, the fact that you were both nudged into admitted it isn't a sign of one using the other."
Fleur looked at the classroom, it was easy to imagine a few blonde children sitting here learning from whomever the new Charms professor was. She remembered her promise to herself England and the Weasley family be damned she thought once more.
Scene Break
"Books down." Nicholas barked to Harry as he turned from his work. "What do you think of the books?"
"It seems like something put my Transfiguration, Charms, and Potions books into a muggle blender." Harry replied, "But I think I understand what you wanted me to read."
Nicholas smiled, "Good. You take those two books and study them for the next few days. I will be working on this potion in solitude. When it is ready for your part I will send the House Elf that brought you here to summon you." He began to dump ingredients into a cauldron made of a shiny material, something between glass and black stone with a rim that looked sharp enough to cut a man to ribbons if he fell against it..
"Sir, what kind of cauldron is that?" Harry asked as he watched the man work, "I've never seen one like this." It was a black, gleaming cauldron with deep runes carved into its side that glowed red and yellow as if it was on fire.
"This is a dragon-forged cauldron." Nicholas said proudly, "It is made of obsidian formed when a dragon breathes fire onto a specially made form. The stone around the form melts and is changed into this stone. Then runes are carved into the still hot stone to make it stay hot forever." The old man smiled at his cauldron, "It will always simmer ingredients to the perfect level without any fire underneath it."
Then it was time, "Right, take the books and go find your lady. I have work to do, expect some homework from me later tonight. I'll expect it when you arrive for your part of the experiment." Nicholas shooed Harry from the lab and closed the door behind him, having given him scarcely enough time to gather his books and the Hallows.
Perenelle and Fleur came from the Charms Classroom at the same time. Fleur embraced Harry as if it had been weeks rather than a few hours. "Are you ready to go back to our room?" She asked against his neck.
"I thought we'd get something to eat first." Harry murmured into her hair, "I'm not used to having to share you anymore." That earned a giggle from her, "How about dinner and then we go back?"
She nodded and the pair left for the ward boundary.
Perenelle walked into the lab and sat down beside her husband, "She knows." Perenelle said while Nicholas slid diced Wampus claw into the cauldron.
"Knows what?" He muttered as he noted the changing color of the potion.
"About us." Perenelle said, "I told her everything."
That caused him to drop an extra ounce of diced claw into the cauldron. The potion hissed and changed to an angry yellow color. Nicholas cursed and vanished the contents before starting over. "Wonderful. I'm assuming that means that the next time we see them they will both know?" He replied as he slid minced toadskin in along with grave moss.
"Most likely." Perenelle said sighing, "But she does know that we didn't influence anything. I offered an oath to state just that."
Nicholas muttered something in Aramaic that earned a sharp elbow from his wife, "I am being serious Nic."
"So was I." He retorted, "I genuinely hope that a swarm of locusts make a nest in your back hair if you keep interrupting my work. You told her, she'll tell him, and we'll work from there. It's that simple." He shrugged and added venom from a black mamba to the concoction. "Hopefully when I summon him next he won't hold what we did against us and refuse to work with us."
"Appeal to his good nature if he does, barring that bribe him." Perenelle said, "That is what usually works isn't it?"
Her husband was lost in his own world and she sighed. Then she furrowed her brow in annoyance and smacked his shoulder hard, "I don't have any back hair, you miserable old goat!"
