People have probably already read this. I was going to redo this story, but I've decided to go in the direction I had originally started in, and just take it out of the humor category and focus more on the drama, but keep some humor in it.
Chapter 02
• Coinfronta •
It was several weeks later when Harry allowed himself to think about the girl as he watched her on the runway. Something was bothering him now, a smell that was trying to bring up memories of her. However, the memories were locked away, one of the most important things in his life he'd learned was mind-magic, he could lock up memories for an eternity. It was the only thing that kept him sane anymore.
The class was just starting on a long test and he was grading papers. He stopped doing them as the memory flooded through his head. It wasn't just the memory of her walking down the isle, it was every single thought that was connected to Gabrielle. It was a little over the top, and he rarely did it, but there was so little he knew about her he was relatively safe. Still, it paused all other thoughts.
Was she really looking for him? She'd been so young when he had first met her, a child. Now, now she wasn't a child. In fact , she was one of the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Her sister was just like her, and he hadn't been able to place where he'd seen the face until he saw fleur and heard her call for her sister.
Lately he'd been confiscating magazines, and he pulled them from his desk drawer. He glanced up at the students as the rustled about. He wondered how many of them would actually follow the directions.
Turning the pages once he knew no one was cheating, Harry stared at the picture of Gabrielle slipping off the runway. He was below her, but was barely visible in the picture. She seemed surprised, and... there was something else. He remembered it almost as if it were close by, a smell that tingled his mind.
After scanning the article, he decided that there was almost no information about her. It was about a line she was sponsoring, he did pick up that she'd been a hit since she'd come into the modeling world, something he'd already read before. It also made sense that she'd have a different name, the Delacour's where quite well known in the magical world, and were purebloods magically, perhaps not pureblooded wizards, because of the Veela blood, but still purebloods.
It was the muggle world though. Why was she there? Was she really looking for him?
From the surprise on her face, and the work she'd have to have done just to find his aunts house, she wanted something. For a long time he review the memory, but he wasn't sure about it. She was a Veela after all, they were almost actresses at birth.
She was probably like every other woman that had had a crush on him since he was a year old, and wanted to throw herself at his feet. Or, perhaps she had more Veela in her, and wanted him as some sort of prize. He'd dealt with Veela's during the war, seen how they acted and lusted after what they couldn't have.
Gabrielle was beautiful, yes, he couldn't deny that. However, Veela's were rarely in it for love, they wanted things and got them. He wanted love, he wanted a family. He had been working towards it slowly, he's even found a good prospect, only to have her back out when he'd gotten serious. American woman were so finicky.
He sighed and glanced up at his students. "Parker," he growled and the students eyes focused on his own paper.
He loved his job, and they tended to get along with him just fine. In fact, he had almost everything he'd ever really wished for. It was a little different than he'd first intended, as he'd lost his best friends in the war, but he had made new friends, normal friends who didn't know what his life had been like. He had a home, he had a job, he was happy, at least... he thought he was.
"Mr. Black," a voice said and his attention turned to the doorway, a student was standing near his desk, looking expectant.
"Yes?" he asked smiling and closing the magazine. He always got a smile when he forgot his American accent and, like always, the girl smiled brightly.
"Mrs. Maxine wants you in the office."
Harry stood and stepped into his back office, where his assistant was going through of some of the reports from the week before. "I'll need you to watch the class for a few minutes."
The man, who, oddly enough, was older than Harry, smiled and nodded. He wasn't old, just touching his mid-twenty's. But Harry was only twenty-two, and didn't even look that old. Well, technically he was closer to twenty-four after all the time's he'd used a time-travel to train without time passing.
Predictably, the hallways were empty, it was right in the middle of class, so he walked down the halls quietly, wondering about Gabrielle, and wondering why the vice principal of the school was calling for him.
•
In the office Gabrielle Delacour was nervous, extremely nervous. She couldn't remember when in her life she'd been so nervous. The man sitting at the counter was watching her with interested eyes. He wasn't all that old, nor was he bad looking, but he didn't interest Gabrielle in the slightest. No one in her whole life had, well, no one except for Harry.
"What is it you want from Mr. Black?" A girl asked as she entered the room.
Gabrielle raised her eyes to look at the woman. She had to be twenty five, maybe twenty-six. She had the teacher look, a bit like someone who was a disciplinary. Gabrielle briefly wondered if she worked with Harry, and realized how stupid the thought was, of course she did. However, the woman seemed almost... defensive. Did she have a more personal relationship with Harry perhaps?
"I am a friend from his past," Gabrielle explained, making sure to keep her accent toned down. She knew that many women in America didn't like the accent, because it made men drool at her feet.
"I see," the woman said, looking over Gabrielle again. "Have I met you before?"
That was usually what people asked when they didn't recognize her right away. Gabrielle smiled, "not unless you've been to Europe in the last year," she said. "I have only been to America once.
"French?" the woman asked, trying to be nice. Gabrielle could feel the turmoil inside her, she didn't like Gabrielle, but she was trying to keep from letting it show.
"Yes, my family is from there."
"How long have you known Harry?"
"Since I was a child," Gabrielle said, smiling when the memories she had of him returned. "He saved my life once."
Of course, he didn't know that. When he'd come and stormed the castle, she'd been there, and he'd saved her life. He hadn't woken for almost a month afterwards, and even sooner, he disappeared.
"So you know Harry when he was young?" The woman asked, surprised. "He always said that everyone he knew was dead."
"No, many of them are though. He... lived through a lot, I'm not surprised he tried to forget those memories."
"Maybe we could talk about it sometime."
Gabrielle stared at the woman, and suddenly, in the blink of an eye, she knew that this woman was going to cause difficulties. "Harry has not shared those memories," she said snappishly, "it is not my place to share them for him."
The two girls stared at each other for almost a full minute, sharing a single thought.
"What is it you want with Harry that's so important to come barging into the school?" The woman asked finally.
The truth about it was that Gabrielle wasn't sure exactly where Harry lived, she couldn't find any records under the name he was using, which might mean he owned it under another name, or someone else owned and he was renting under the table. Or, maybe it was something else. She'd traced his name after a lot of research about him.
He'd had a company he owned, before he left, that was doing quite successful, and then it had changed owners after a media frenzy and Harry Left the world. There were thirty three thousand, seven hundred and twenty two people that went by that name in the United States. She knew he wasn't in England, as the ministry had no records of him using magic in England, and no matter how good someone was, occasionally they blinked, and missed something. So she'd looked elsewhere and found some ties in the States, just enough to try there. After accounting for general age and description, along with sightings that had occurred, she had tracked him down.
Of course, she'd spent a tremendous amount of money, bribed all sorts of ministry people, spent money on other information to use for trade... but she'd done it. She'd done what no one in the wizarding world could do, find Harry. Now all she had to do was not scare him off.
"I think that that is a question I need to ask her," Harry said from the door.
Gabrielle turned to him and smiled. But he wasn't smiling, he was frowning.
"Outside," he snapped.
The whole atmosphere of the room changed to surprise. Even Gabrielle had heard he rarely got angry with people and she nodded and followed quietly.
"What in Merlin's name are you doing here," he hissed. "I didn't tell you I was interested. And, when I left that world, I made it very clear I wanted to be left alone."
"I love you Harry," Gabrielle said. "I want to..."
Harry began to laugh uncontrollably. Gabrielle stopped, surprised, and glanced towards the room she'd been in, where she could see at least three people peering through the window, gawking. "Harry..." she said tentatively. "I don't think you understand what I said."
Harry didn't stop laughing, in fact, it seemed the more she spoke the harder he laughed. It went on for several minutes before his laughter died down. "You seem to think I haven't head that before," he said calmly, now that he'd gotten his laughs. "I don't live in that place, and people don't treat me like they did there."
"You could come back you know," Gabrielle said quietly. "No one would think anything was wrong with it."
"I left because that place isn't for me anymore. I can't live that life. I can't be the sort of person I need to be when I'm there. This place is normal, I'm not barraged by people wanting me to fix everything. I'm not all powerful."
Gabrielle reached out to touch him, to express her concern, but he withdrew just out of her reach. "Do not do that," he said quietly. "It's hard enough for me not to just do whatever you want. I'm sure you touching me would make it even more difficult."
The Veela abilities were being repressed as much as possible, and Gabrielle was surprised he'd said anything. She was quite sure she wanted him just the way he was, not like some drooling sycophant willing to follow her every command.
"Harry, please don't treat me like that, I've done nothing to hurt you."
"You found me. I don't want to be found. I don't want people to know I still exist."
"I told no one," Gabrielle said quietly. "I came here to see you, and I didn't even tell them I was leaving. Everything I have is hidden and protected so no one can find you. I don't want you in danger from people that... would want to hurt you."
"Just leave Gabrielle, I have a life here, and I don't want to remember my old one. Besides, you owe me nothing, and there's no reason for you to love me, I've never really done anything for you. I don't want anything from you, I don't want anything from anyone in that place."
With that, Harry turned sharply, and left Gabrielle standing in the middle of the hall, without words.
When the bell rang several minutes later Gabrielle was still standing near the office, thinking. A throng of students seemed to pass by her, but she didn't notice them, didn't see the stares, didn't feel the lust that welled up in nearly every teenage boy. Or, the hate she was receiving from the girls for taking the stares from them. All Gabrielle could feel was the anguish that Harry had felt just before he left, the hidden pain that he was blocking from the world. To be a Veela was to be in tune with the innermost feelings. She was a failure as a witch, magical, but not strong, but her Veela abilities where almost those of a pure Veela, and she knew that she had to take away that feeling he had.