Disclaimer: Nothing is mine; everything is J K Rowling's.

They are likely to be less frequent than before, but still present. The first from Fleur in the new arc.

Chapter 39

Fleur turned the smooth, silver locket over in her hands, brushing her thumb around the line of the opening. The round-cornered, triangular ornament was her finest and favourite creation.

She snapped it open, gazing at the tiny reflection of her face, in the three-sided mirror within. It was three inches along each edge and normally hung over her heart on its slim, silver chain.

Harry had one of his own, to wear in the same fashion.

'Le lotus,' she breathed gently, and waited for Harry to feel his own copy grow hot. She had chosen her second favourite flower as the word to activate the enchantment. Fleur liked roses most of all, but she cringed at the thought of using such a clichéd flower for something like this. It was bad enough that her name was Fleur, but she hadn't realised that until Harry had laughingly pointed it out.

The mirror surface went black, then Harry was gazing up at her.

'Do you have time to visit?' she asked, hopefully. Fleur had missed him enough to be glad there wasn't a Room of Requirement at Beauxbatons. It was also a trap, her parents had stopped waiting for her to tell them on her own terms and begun to press her about where she was spending all her time. Harry would have to face the music.

'Of course I do,' he smiled. The mirror shifted, and she caught a brief glimpse of an imposing portrait in green and silver and shelves of books. She assumed it was part of the library she had never found her way too.

'Argent,' she heard him whisper, then he was standing in front of her, shutting his locket and tucking it back under his robes.

'I missed you,' she murmured, feeling the blush creep up the sides of her face as she stepped closer to him.

'I had to avoid the room for a few days,' he confessed, looking slightly mortified. His words brought something warm to life inside her, glowing from her chest.

Fleur stepped in next to him, wrapping her arms around his chest and leaning her left cheek on his right shoulder. Harry swept his arms over hers around her shoulders without hesitation. He'd grown taller over the summer, tall enough for her to lean on very comfortably if she let her feet slide back her few inches. They were almost the same height now.

'How have you been?' he asked her, talking over the top of her head as he squeezed her gently against him.

'Bored, lonely,' she smiled a little regretfully. 'Gabby has grown up now,' she told him, 'she spends all her time throwing fire at things just because she can.'

'What about her sister's mystery romance? Will she throw fire at me?' He stepped back from her, and Fleur looked up at him, her head rest gone.

'Gabrielle's a much more sensitive veela than I am,' she reminded him, 'but I am stronger. I would toast her for trying.' She reached out and traced the triangle on his cheekbone, he didn't flinch. Harry never flinched from her anymore. 'Besides, that would ruin the story, no?'

Harry laughed. 'I suppose it would.' He caught her fingers and pulled her back towards him, kissing her eagerly upturned lips. 'Have you brought me back to teach me more french?' He teased.

'I've taught you plenty of french,' she defended, switching languages, 'you know enough to hold a normal conversation.'

He smiled, slipping his hand to the back of her neck and into her hair, running his fingers through it. 'You have,' he agreed, in only slightly accented french. Fleur was too busy enjoying the shivers from having his fingers in her hair to reply immediately.

'What are things like in Britain?' She had heard over the summer that the Ministry of Magic had ignored the warnings of both Harry and Albus Dumbledore, something she thought was very unwise, and since then Harry hadn't told her much more than they were trying to discredit the claims anyway they could.

'Hogwarts is unchanged, still grey, draughty and unattractive,' he smirked. 'We have a teacher from the ministry for Defence Against the Dark Arts. She's an unpleasant, ugly woman whose real role is to try and open a rift between the students there and anyone who agrees with Dumbledore.'

'What has she done?'

Harry's eyes hardened. 'Most of the time she just spews nonsense, and does her best to stop us learning anything that might be practically useful, just in case any of us decide to join the imaginary coup that Dumbledore is supposed to be leading, but she has a vicious streak in her.'

'What are you doing?' Fleur doubted Harry would take it lying down, even if he pretended to in the beginning.

'Nothing yet,' he grinned. 'Everyone hates Umbridge already, and that teaching position is cursed, nobody ever lasts longer than a year. If she keeps spouting hateful nonsense about half-humans though,' his voice darkened angrily.

'Hey,' she entwined their fingers together, stopping him from running his hand through her hair. 'I don't care what she thinks.'

'I care,' he ground out. 'She's walking across very thin ice as she is, insulting you…' he trailed off, taking deep breaths to regain his calm. 'Insulting me makes sense, they're trying to discredit Dumbledore and I am the source of his announcement that Voldemort has returned, but there is no justification or reason for her saying things about you.'

'Me, specifically?'

Does the British Ministry somehow know about us?

'No,' Harry conceded, 'she hates anything that isn't at least fully human and well-connected to a pure-blooded family.'

Fleur snorted. 'Veela are fully human,' she sighed. 'You know that.'

'She doesn't,' Harry shook his head angrily, 'every disgusting piece of bigotry that leaves her mouth is aimed at you and Lupin.'

'Lupin?'

'A friend of my parents, he taught at the school for a year, but he's a werewolf.'

Fleur laughed. 'A werewolf whose name is Lupin?'

'I know,' Harry smiled, his anger mostly forgotten.

'This teacher. If she is sent by the Ministry then she will be a danger to you, especially if you let her get to you.' She didn't need all the details to guess that this teacher would go out of her way to cause trouble for Harry. 'Promise me that if you do anything, anything against her, that you will be careful, she demanded fiercely.

'I promise,' he agreed readily. 'If I get caught I will have to come and stay here,' he remarked playfully. Fleur rather liked the sound of that.

'You'll have to get caught then,' she smiled, releasing his hand and kissing him softly on the cheek over his triangle shaped scar.

'Perhaps it would be worth it,' he mused. For a moment he looked serious and Fleur allowed herself to briefly dream.

There were too many bitter realities for her vision to last long.

Voldemort might be in Britain now, but, just as Grindelwald had, he would soon set his sights on more than one country and then both she and Harry would be back where they had started, only far more families would have died in the meantime.

'So why did you want to see me?' His hand slipped from her hair to encircle her lower back, pulling her close to him and leaving nowhere for her to look but into his emerald eyes.

'Can I not have just missed you?' He wasn't going to believe that, Fleur knew that he knew her too well.

'You'd never admit to that if it were true,' Harry laughed gently, 'you'd have thought up a reason for me to be here.'

'You're right,' she scowled, evading his kiss. 'My parents have stopped waiting for me to tell them what I'm doing with all my time.'

'So it's meet the Delacours time, is it?' Harry smiled. His smile didn't quite wipe away the anxiety in his eyes and Fleur felt very bad for being suddenly glad that she would never have to meet his family and go through this herself. It was bad enough when she was introducing Harry to her family.

'Sorry,' she apologised, very guilty.

'It was going to happen eventually, and we've been doing this for several months now.'

'I mean I'm sorry for being a little bit glad that I won't have to be in your shoes,' she embellished in a small voice, sure he would be disappointed in her.

He kissed her instead.

'I forgive you,' he teased, poking fun at her failing. 'I'm nervous enough that I'd be happy to put this off for a few more days, though,' he looked vaguely thoughtful, 'I suppose that would just give me more time to worry.'

'You should thank me for the surprise then,' she pointed out coyly.

'I do love surprises,' he sighed, more than a little sarcastic.

'Mmm, but this is a good surprise,' Fleur chuckled, 'not a basilisk, I promise.' Harry had managed enough nasty surprises in four years for a lifetime, and his seemed to be particularly horrible.

Discover a new world to escape the one you hate, and there's a powerful megalomaniac waiting to kill you there.

He didn't really have very much luck at all. Except for her, of course, that made him very lucky. She smiled at the thought.

'Your mother isn't going to immediately try and immolate me?'

'Not if she knows what's good for her,' Fleur retorted. 'My family won't hurt you,' she assured him, in case he was genuinely nervous, 'they might be a bit protective, though.' She left the rest unsaid, Harry didn't need her to tell him why they would be protective of her. Fleur hoped that he wouldn't be too closed off from her parents and sister, he had grown up alone, she knew that much, but he'd reached out to her and she'd like him to trust her family too.

'Which way?' he asked, glancing curiously around him.

The house was not visible from down by the river, their willow tree was at the farthest end of the land that surrounded the house.

'The chateau is over the hill,' Fleur gestured up the grassy slope on their side of the river. 'It's quite a walk, though.' She extended one arm, allowing Harry to link his through hers, just as they had at the Yule Ball last year.

'What am I expecting?'

'I don't know,' Fleur tugged thoughtfully at her ring finger. 'I've never brought anyone to meet them like this.'

'That's encouraging,' Harry laughed, still obviously nervous, 'I feel like I'm back in the graveyard waiting for Voldemort.'

'Don't compare my family to that man,' Fleur frowned.

'Sorry,' he glanced down at their feet, moving in tandem, 'you can apparate us now.' Fleur squeezed his arm gently, to let him now she wasn't really angry with him.

'How did you know?' she asked.

'You're barefoot again, and neither your dress nor your feet are grass-stained, so you don't normally walk.' Fleur blinked.

Observant. I wonder what else he has noticed.

'You're right, since you aren't included in the chateau's wards I have to take you in with me.'

'I don't think I'm all that surprised you live in a chateau,' he remarked, shifting his weight slightly in preparation for apparating.

'All old french houses are called chateaux,' Fleur shrugged delicately. 'You'll see.'

She pictured the entrance hall of her home, with its open, sandstone walls and floor, the scatter of Gabrielle's shoes and the handful of tasteful landscapes of pine covered mountain slopes, enchanted to change with the seasons. Taking a slightly firmer grip on Harry's arm she twisted, and with a soft snap Fleur brought someone of the opposite sex home for the first time.

'It looks a lot like a chateau to me,' Harry murmured, smiling slightly. 'I think I'm beginning to see where Gabrielle's first scene in our story will start.'

'We don't have a tallest tower,' Fleur remarked, before his analogy developed any further towards the ridiculous, 'and I am not a princess.'

'You already dealt with your own dragon too,' he laughed. 'No self-respecting princess would interfere with the hero's task like that.'

'Perhaps,' Fleur smiled coyly, 'you should have let me deal with the Horntail then?'

'I seem to remember you not wanting to face that particular dragon, you were on of the lucky three whose dragon had actually been tamed.'

'A dragon is a dragon,' she responded tartly. 'Now come on, it's nearly evening and my family is waiting.' She kept a firm grip on his arm, just in case he tried to apparate away when Gabriella arrived. Harry couldn't physically apparate out, of course, the chateau was well warded, but if he tried it would be embarrassing, not that she would blame him if Gabby was in one of her more mischievous moods.

'Maman, papa, we are here,' Fleur announced in french, leading Harry through the entrance hall to the main room.

'Fleur,' her parents were on the far side of the largest room, chatting amicably. Fleur was not fooled, this room was cold and rarely used outside of meals; they had been waiting. 'And you must be?' It was her father who asked the first question of what would doubtless become many.

'Harry,' Harry responded, politely. Fleur was the only one that caught his almost imperceptible twitch of amusement.

'It's nice to meet you,' he mother rose from her seat to clasp Harry's hand, 'I am, Fleur's mother, but please call me Apolline.'

Her father, as he often did, followed her mother's example, but anything he might have been about to was interrupted by Gabby's delighted cry.

'You finally brought him to meet me,' she abandoned her shoes by the door, darting dangerously over the floor, nearly stumbling twice, but coming to a halt next to their mother.

'Gabrielle, I presume,' Harry smiled, still speaking french and extending a hand politely.

Gabby, of course, ignored it, opting to jump forward and wrap her arms around Harry's chest. 'We've already met,' she reminded him, neglecting to mention that she had been unconscious the entire time. To his credit Harry didn't flinch from the sudden contact as she had feared.

'Laurent,' her father declared, stepping up alongside his his wife, and extending a hand that Harry shook around Gabrielle, who had yet to release him. 'I see you've already met my youngest daughter.'

'He saved me from the Black Lake for Fleur,' Gabby giggled, finally letting go of Harry who looked a little relieved to be free.

'It would be Harry Potter, then, would it?' Her father seemed slightly pleased that he had deliberately left his surname off.

'Just Harry suits me fine,' her partner, she refused to even think the word boyfriend, replied evenly. 'Adding my surname only seems to make people act differently around me.'

'Well, it is almost dinner,' her mother announced, 'you're most welcome to join us, Harry.'

As if you would pass up the opportunity to make sure he is good enough for me.

'I'd love to,' Harry smiled brightly. Fleur's face fell slightly at the expression. That was the smile he wore when he knew he was supposed to be happy, or when he didn't want people to look to closely for what he really felt.

'We decided to eat in the kitchen,' her father told them, 'it's a little more informal.'

Both her parents moved towards the kitchen, and the small table that comfortably sat four, but would be a squeeze with five. Gabby didn't move.

There was mischief burning in her sister's eyes and Fleur shifted just a little closer to Harry in case she had to ward anything off.

'Sorry, Fleur,' she chirped, then turned to look up directly into Harry's eyes. He looked back down at her quizzically, then glanced at Fleur in bemusement.

It was a moment before she realised what her little sister had just done.

How dare she?

Fleur motioned for Harry to follow her parents, then, once he was round the doorframe and out of sight, pinned her baby sister against the wall.

'What were you trying to do?' she demanded furiously. Gabby looked up at her, perfectly innocent, but it only lasted a few moments before she giggled delightedly. 'Gabrielle,' Fleur hissed, not at all in the mood for her capricious little sister's games.

'He didn't even notice,' she whispered, 'and that was everything I could direct at him. He must love you, Fleur,' she squealed quietly.

'Did you just test Harry?' She tried in vain to keep the flush from her cheeks, veela magic did not work like that, it was just effective whether you loved someone or not. Strength of will determined much of how resistant anyone was. Still, it was a very flattering thought.

'I don't have allure like yours, Fleur, but nobody ever just doesn't notice it like that.' Her eyes went a little dreamy and she slipped out from under Fleur's arm. 'It must be true love,' she sighed.

I'm hiding every single romance novel in this house, Fleur decided.

It was for Gabrielle's own good. If she spent all her time alone, reading those books she'd spend half her life waiting for someone to come and sweep her off her feet, and the second half regretting the first. Fleur certainly hadn't been waiting for anyone, even if Harry had managed to at least knock her off balance.

She found her parents and Harry talking about the Triwizard Tournament, but steering clear of mentioning the third and final task. Fleur had never told them what had actually happened in the maze, they'd have been furious. As it was they simply seemed glad that she hadn't shared Viktor Krum's fate.

'Are you going to tell me why Gabrielle decided to try and charm me?' Harry murmured quietly in English when the food appeared courtesy of Binky, their family's house-elf.

'She wanted to see how much you loved me,' Fleur whispered, reverting briefly to English herself and throwing a dirty look at her sister who was grinning with unseemly delight at the pair of them from across the table.

Gabby probably thought the way they were sitting so close was sweet and romantic, rather than the result of the table being slightly too small for two people to sit on one side.

Harry was deliberately avoiding looking at her sister, whose staring was even making Fleur uncomfortable, and letting his eyes roam around the kitchen. He wouldn't find anything of particular interest, the room hadn't changed much since her father's grandmother had inherited it and brought it into the family in the seventeenth century.

'So you're the heir of the Potter family,' her father's interest in history was the bane of family conversation and their holidays.

'As far as I know,' Harry agreed. He had never actually ever mentioned his family, Fleur knew only that his only close blood relatives were muggles, and not particularly pleasant people.

'That's a big name to be responsible for, especially in Britain where pure-blooded families are held in such high-esteem,' her father remarked evenly.

'I'm not a pure-blood,' Harry shrugged, he knew well enough that France did not care about such things anymore. 'My mother was from muggle parents.'

'Ah,' her father seemed unsure of how to react. 'If I remember correctly the Potter family has some quite illustrious ancestry, a great number of great names ended up becoming Potter.'

'Honestly I wouldn't know,' Harry admitted. 'My only living relations are from my mother's family and are non-magical. I know very little about the Potter family, only that it nearly came to a very abrupt end fifteen years ago.'

'I know a little if you want me to tell you?' Her father seemed enthused by the prospect of having someone half-willing to listen to him talk about history.

'Perhaps another time, Laurent,' her mother smoothly cut in, preventing a conversational catastrophe. 'I understand you won the Triwizard Tournament, Harry?'

'I think,' Harry answered tactfully, 'that I simply lost the least.'

Surprise flickered in her mother's eyes, Harry did not know that she had not told her parents about what had happened in the third task. Fleur very subtly traced her fingers over his thigh under the table, forming the word no over and over until he turned and smiled at her to show he understood.

'Fleur was quite confident that she would win,' her mother continued, sending a small smile at her daughter.

'Yes,' Harry grinned, a genuine smile forming, 'when I asked for her name the first time we spoke to each other, Fleur told me I could read it off the Triwizard Trophy at the end.'

Gabrielle giggled and opened her mouth to say something that was certain to be even more embarrassing, so Fleur kicked her under the table.

Gabby was not deterred. She rarely was.

'Fleur said that she would beat you by such a margin in the last task that it would make you losing points for rescuing me irrelevant.' Fleur quietly sighed with relief. She'd said a whole litany of things more embarrassing and emotional in the months between the two tasks. The sort of things that she really didn't want Harry to hear, let alone her parents. Her own versions of the photos in the Room of Requirement.

'I didn't in the end,' she responded, slightly wistfully. It would have been nice to be the winner of the tournament, but she was glad that things had come out as they did. If she had not been unconscious then Harry would never have needed to help her. He wouldn't have carried her across the maze to where he was sure she would be safe, and Fleur would have never realised that he far from hated her.

'What did happen in the third task?' Her father leant forward, spreading his hands on the table either side of his now empty plate. 'Fleur told me that she was knocked unconscious early on by one of the other champions, but there were stories in the papers and rumours that contradict each other.'

'A wizard, one of the judges, interfered with the task, he was responsible,' Harry glanced at Fleur briefly before continuing, 'for everything that happened in the maze. Viktor Krum was killed, Fleur was attacked, and Cedric Diggory was stunned by me when I found him with the others. I briefly believed he was responsible.'

'Fleur said she was found on her own, at the centre of the maze?' Her mother asked sharply, catching the discrepancy between what Harry said and what Fleur had previously told them. A slight red tinge crept up Harry's cheeks at the question.

'Harry took me with him,' Fleur explained, to spare him further embarrassment. 'It wasn't safe outside of the warded centre of the maze.'

'That's so romantic,' Gabby sighed, 'why couldn't you have chosen someone your own age, Fleur?'

The red tinge on Harry's cheeks flared to bright crimson, and Fleur flushed violently herself before stamping on Gabrielle's toes under the table. Her sister gave a satisfying squeak and closed her mouth.

Say something like that again at your own risk, she tried to convey in her glare.

Gabby looked back with a slightly wounded expression.

The clock chimed softly behind her sister's head to mark halfway past the hour.

'You need to return to Hogwarts,' Fleur reminded Harry softly. He glanced up at the clock, then nodded slightly ruefully.

'You are welcome to stay,' her mother offered, 'there are plenty of spare rooms.'

'Or you can just share with Fleur,' Gabrielle giggled, before receiving a sharp glare from everyone except Harry.

'I would be missed if I was away for the night,' Harry explained, 'but thank you. It was nice to finally meet you.'

Make it sound like I kept us apart why don't you.

'Harry is not technically supposed to be here,' Fleur mentioned tentatively. 'His curfew at school begins in half an hour.'

'Ah,' her father remarked, looking more than a little amused by that. 'Then it was a pleasure to meet you as well.'

Her mother smiled in agreement. 'You're welcome back whenever,' she told him kindly.

'Bye, Harry,' Gabrielle chirped, waving cheerfully.

He smiled at her family, then shot her a questioning glance. It was fairly obvious what he wanted to know.

'It will work,' she assured him. He flashed her a smile, reached out to squeeze her hand gently, then vanished with a whisper to the picture portkey. He could apparate back from their willow tree.

Her mother called Gabrielle away into the main room, leaving Fleur with her father. He was giving her the contemplative look he always wore when he wanted to talk about something.

'He's a little younger than you,' he began carefully, 'but he seems mature enough. I don't dislike him.' Fleur gave him a pointed look, a hint that he might as well come out and say whatever was on his mind.

'He's English, Fleur,' her father sighed. 'He seems like a good choice, especially as he was unaffected by the passive allure of my three ladies, but Britain is not the same as France or the rest of Europe and the old magical countries.'

'Why not?' Fleur struggled to see the relevance. She had chosen Harry, not Britain.

'That short stretch of sea between France and Britain has kept them isolated and exempt from the turbulence of the last few centuries. Across Europe revolutions have come, then wars and Grindelwald's anarchy followed to finish things. The pure-blooded families that dominated France were broken by the half-blood Robespierre and his attempt to create one equal French nation, their fading influence was shattered by the devastation of Grindelwald. Britain has never weathered such change, its Ministry is still controlled by a handful of old families, and the prejudices and hatred of darker times remain.'

He fears they will hate me because I am veela and not pure-blooded enough for a Potter.

The Delacours were descended, from the marriage of her father's grandmother, from one of France's more ancient families, the Beaulieus, but it was a single connection from centuries ago. In France nobody cared about these things anymore, not since Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite had brought over fifty magical families half a millennia old to an end, but in Britain she supposed they would be regarded with contempt by many of the pure-bloods. Fleur did not particularly care; they would be one more group of people to ignore.

'Harry does not share them,' Fleur defended, 'so it does not matter.'

'He is the heir to an esteemed pure-blooded family, over time he will be exposed to and affected by those opinions, and that is ignoring the rumours that are flying about him in Britain.' Her father looked quite concerned, pushing his palms together anxiously.

'He will not listen to them, he would never listen to them,' Fleur spat, her temper rising. She had found someone who she loved, and her father would have her give him up because he might have to listen to the prejudice of others, or, worse, because he believed the nonsense the British Ministry was extolling to discredit him.

'If the rumours are true, Fleur, then I fear for your safety. Either Harry is not what he seems, or their Dark Lord has returned and The-Boy-Who-Lived will be his first target.' He looked quite miserable, then steeled himself, pulling the stern expression of a government official across his face. 'I do not want my daughter hurt, if you are involved with Harry Potter then you will be dragged into the chaos that surrounds him.'

AN: Please read and review, thanks to everyone who does.