Chapter 8
England
December 25th, 1985
Harry laid in bed silently thinking about how the past month and a half had turned out ever since getting back from France.
Soon after getting home he had focused on finding an owl and a safe way of communicating with Fleur that would not be accidentally read by anyone in his family or any of the house elf's that could show them.
A week after he started work for Mr. Patterson again who was very interested to hear about his travels for some reasons.
"You said Delcour was her name right," Isaac asked him.
"Yes," Harry responded "Fleur Delacour".
"And did you manage to find out what her parents names whereby any chance," Mr. Patterson said while stepping to take the measurements of a wand.
"Appoline and Sebastian, "Harry told him.
Isaac chose not to say anything then but turned to give Harry a wand to polish while looking deep in thought.
"Sir, " Harry asked, "Is the Delcour name a significant one then".
Seeming to be deep in thought the old wand maker gave a small nod "Possibly" he muttered, "I will need to check that but I think I remember meeting Sebastian Delcour during the war I think but I will have to check a few things on that".
Harry wondered what his mentor knew about his new friends family but decided to drop the subject after seeing that Mr. Patterson was unlikely to say what was on his mind and they had work to do anytime.
The voice of a customer then came from further in the front of the Shop "Hey Mr. Patterson you here" a loud booming voice rang out.
"Ahh, Theodore my friend" Mr. Patterson turned to walk to the front of the shop and Harry followed him to fulfill his assistant duties his mind still running about many different things.
Soon thoughts about the Delacours escaped his mind as Harry became consumed with the workload of a high business day with people wanting to buy lots of stuff for the holidays.
He then realized that he needed to get an owl soon and look for a Christmas gift for Fleur although he realized that that that would be hard to do while there was so much business at the shop.
"Didn't you say you were trying to find a way to communicate with your friend in France?"Mr. Patterson asked him during a lull in their workload.
Harry nodded confused about what he could be going on about.
"I Think I may have something to help you with that," Mr. Patterson said, "Just remind me to give it to you before you head home".
Thoroughly confused Harry nonetheless agreed before the two of them got back to work.
In what seemed like a blink of an eye or another six hours the shop closed for business and Harry turned to go home before he was stopped by Mr. Patterson who was holding what looked to be two old books.
Looking at the books in his hands Harry asked what they were.
Mr. Patterson gave a small smile "You remember one of my business associates that came in earlier Mr. Malfoy.
He nodded remembering the blonde man who had come in and spent much time talking with Mr. Patterson in one of the side rooms leaving poor Harry to help a rush of people that had chosen to come in at that moment.
Turning to the books in his hand Mr Patterson handed them to Harry "Well these are two communication books"he explained "If two people have these no matter how far they are from each other they will be able to write to each other as if they are sitting right next to the person and not hundreds of miles away.
Harry felt his heart jump a beat "You mean I can use these to write to Fleur then "he asked.
"Yes" nodding Mr. Patterson than handed him a tome.
Looking at it Harry saw the name The History of the Veela Race.
Raising his eyebrow "Veela" he asked.
"Read it and it will make sense"He replied "It pertains to the Delcour Family" and then looking at the clock "Good work today head home and I'll see you on Friday".
Harry nodded before taking his gifts and stepping in the fire to go home.
In the Weeks after getting home Harry had also received his first letter from Fleur one day as he was getting ready to go to work he saw an owl fly in the house and land on the table.
Taking the letter off the owl he saw the name Harry Potter on it that he easily recognized was written in Fleurs delicate handwriting.
He then took the letter off the owl before getting the little bugger a treat and taking the letter upstairs to his room where he put it in a place where no one would run into it as he had to head back down the stairs to floo to Mr. Patterson's place.
With a long day at work then and then having Remus and Sirius come over for dinner he was not able to get to his room and read the letter Fleur had written until much later in the day.
Sitting down on his bed he carefully undid the envelope to read her letter making sure not to crumple or wrinkle anything.
Harry looked down and began to read Fleurs delicate handwriting.
Dear Arry.
I hope this letter reaches you safely and that the owl was able to make the journey successfully.
How has your time back in England been, ow have your parents been around you recently and how has your work been recently with Moisur Patterson it seems like a very interesting job to be doing
It has been interesting coming back to our ome near Paris it feels like it has been years since we ave been here but it is ome nonetheless.
My Maman is getting close to giving birth and it is a very tense time now as we are all holding our breaths.
How are you doing back ome. I miss being able to talk face to face with a good friend of mine and I hope that we will be able to visit each other sometime in the future.
Also, have you gotten a new owl like you wanted to? The owl that delivers this letters name is Gabe and you can use him to send a reply if you so wish.
Best wishes Arry
Fleur
Harry blinked before reading the letter a few times and then standing up.
He had not had the time yet to visit Diagon Alley to get an owl and was not sure now that he thought about it on where he could keep an owl in the manor without getting the attention of any of his family.
Looking at the long distance communication book that Mr. Patterson had given him earlier he decided that it would be a good Christmas gift to give to Fleur.
Finding some wrapping paper in one of the nearby rooms then he began to wrap it up so that he could send it off with a letter on one of the Owls
Thinking about how nice it would be to write to Fleur without having to worry about sending messages that could be seen by others.
Then a thought came to his head about why Mr. Malfoy had given Mr. Patterson the journals but figured that if Mr. Patterson had given them to him to use with Fleur than he must have trusted that they were safe to use and thus he should not worry about them either.
Heading down the stairs then Harry snuck by his family silently on his way to the barn shed where the owls were kept and went up to one of the owls Barney.
"Hey Boy," Harry said ruffling Barney's feathers "Up to carrying a package to France for me"
Barney hooted before cuffing Harry on the ear as to ask him "Really".
Laughing Harry then tied the package to Barney's leg before showing him the address on where to go.
The owl hooted happily before flying away.
Harry then turned back towards the house and thus back to his room.
Early in the Morning on Christmas Harry woke up with a mixture of excitement and comprehension that despite over the past four Christmas he had gotten nothing from his parents and had thus given them nothing but he was interested in what Fleur got him and what she had thought of his gift.
Getting dressed quickly and heading down the stairs he saw that his parents and brother were not awake yet which made sense since they normally did not get up until around eleven or twelve on the weekends even on a special holiday like today.
Hearing an owl hooting he looked up and saw Gabe flying down carrying a package and a small letter.
Smiling at Fleurs owl he happily took the packages of the owl who hooted before grabbing a slice of bacon of the table and taking off.
Taking the package and letter upstairs on to his bed he sat down and started to read the letter from Fleur.
Thank you so much, Arry
I really appreciate your gift and will try contacting you around eight in the morning on Christmas when I wake up.
My gift I feel is not as good but I gave it my best shot.
Hope you like it
Fleur
Harry turned to then unwrap the gift that Fleur had gotten him.
It was a photo of Fleur and Harry when they had visited a portrait studio in France, the photo showed them standing behind a starlight background with them holding their hands up as to surround a star with both picture Harry and Fleur smiling at the camera.
Looking down he saw a small not
To remember me by
Fleur
Smiling he saw the journal he had started to glow indicating that Fleur was trying to contact him. Opening it up he saw Fleur scribbling a greeting.
"Hey" he scribbled "Glad this works"
"Oui" She replied, "It is a great gift".
"Yeah, my boss gave me it, "Harry wrote.
"It was a real surprise to get your gift yesterday," She wrote, "I was thinking about showing the journal to my father if you are fine with it".
Harry gave it a quick thought "Yeah I don't see a problem with that" he wrote
He then saw a small drawing of a heart appear on the page before she gave a quick thanks.
She then wrote asking him on how he was doing.
Harry smiled and then continued to chat with Fleur for most of the remainder of the day.
Authors Notes
1 I plan on posting chapters maybe once a day hopefully but at the very least I hope to get done a 1,100 to 1,600-word chapter done every 1 to 3 days
2 If you speak French im trying my best with translator apps to write text in French but i'm not perfect so I'm sorry if that parts a little bad
