Chapter 13 Warrants, Warriors, and Welcome Surprises

A/N I had an interesting review from dianaanne asking why Hogwarts couldn't just download how to read into Firenze's brain and have him teach the rest of the centaurs. Well, I can give two reasons for that, 1, it wouldn't help me to advance the story in a particular way, the centaurs really need to see the outside world and other centaurs they have become very insular in their views. 2, think of it like trying to access the internet on one of the very first mobile phones, if you can't remember them they were the size of house bricks had a sim card the size of a credit card and didn't even have the ability to send text messages, they simply lacked the speed and memory of modern phones. If you tried to connect Firenze to the castle to download that much information, his brain would crash from information overload, when Hogwarts sent him 'a text message' to meet the headmistress it gave him a headache, imagine if it had been a full speed download. I hope that answers the questions. Now on with the story.

I stood in Diagon Alley and watched with the wizarding press and a large crowd of on lookers whilst an important addition was being made to the façade of Gringotts. No longer was the building completely white, a large coat of arms was being hoisted up onto the front wall, above the massive doors. Underneath this coat of arms were engraved 'By Royal Appointment'. This was a Royal Warrant, only awarded to businesses that had the custom of certain members of the Royal Family, her Majesty; Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh; and Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales. These do not come as standard, but have to be awarded to a business or tradesperson that has given exceptional service to the member of the royal family granting the award for a minimum of five years and usually had to be requested by the business to the Royal Warrant Office for consideration. What would have been unusual here in the muggle world that her majesty had spoken to the Royal Warrant Office herself to grant the warrant without being asked by Gringotts. Three days after receiving the proclamation from me, Ragnok, the goblin clan leader and director of Gringotts had written to Tony Blair, the muggle Prime Minister and current holder of the office of Court Mage and asked to speak to her Majesty to formally swear his and his peoples oath of allegiance to Her Majesty and apologising profusely that this had not been done before, citing being prohibited by treaties signed with the Wizengamot after the various wars with the wizarding world.

Her Majesty had accepted the oaths of Ragnok and through him all the members of his clan, thus gaining the service of every goblin in the country as only the one clan resided on the British Isles. Her Majesty had then requested to read through all the treaties that had been signed by the goblins and the Wizengamot, she had ordered several of the treaties and some clauses of others struck off the statute books and after further conversations with the goblins had awarded the Royal Warrant to Gringotts. There was a flash as the charm attached to the Warrant activated and it stuck permanently to the outside of the bank.

The doors of the bank opened wide and several soldiers in red uniforms with large furry headwear came out, a fanfare was played and the Queen stepped out onto the top step of the bank. She opened the small bag she was carrying and took out a sheet of parchment, reading from it, began to speak, "Honoured Goblins, Honoured Members of our Wizengamot, and our loyal wizarding subjects, it is with great pleasure that we award this Royal Warrant to Gringotts for outstanding service to myself and the realm. That such service has been upheld by many generations of this noble warrior people without any contact with ourselves and our predecessors show that they should have had this warrant many years ago, for service that goes above and beyond the call of duty. Furthermore, we do announce the formation of a new regiment in our army." There was a look of alarm from several of the goblins in the audience and standing around her majesty. "This regiment to be formed exclusively of goblin warriors will be called The First Royal Goblins, and are charged with the defence of the realm and security of our residences, we anticipate when we appoint its first commanding officer and look forward to meeting him for the first time." There was a roar of approval from all the goblins present. Her majesty then repeated her speech in English. There was a slightly more restrained applause from the witches and wizards present and the flash of several cameras as the press got over the queen speaking Gablish and what her announcements had said. Her Majesty turned and walked back into the bank and I followed as I had been instructed to before the ceremony began. The doors closed behind me and her majesty turned to Ragnok, "We hope you are not distressed by this additional burden that We have placed on your people, but from our reading of several documents in the Royal Archives, it has come to our notice that this service was at one time provided by your people and indeed several of our older palaces have goblin wards about them, We would ask that you assist us by making sure these wards are still functioning after all this time and ward our newer residences, if it is possible."

Ragnok bowed formally to the Queen, "it is our honour to serve your majesty in any way we may, and will undertake to ensure that wards are placed wherever they are needed and updated if required on other residences. You do us a great honour in asking this of us."

The queen nodded and turned to me. "Lord Dursley, we are most impressed with your efforts so far in bringing our loyal magical subjects back to us, we had not expected any results this quickly, and the fact that the first set of oaths was sworn less than a week after our speech in the Wizengamot is impressive."

"I take no credit for that your majesty, the fact was that I just informed the goblins of your proclamation, the speed of the response is theirs, nothing to do with me…"

There was a gasp from several goblins and the soldiers of her majesty quickly began to form a circle round her as a white hawk flew through the closed doors of the bank, "Dudley, St. Mungo's NOW…" said the voice of Gabrielle from her patronus which disappeared at once and the tension in the bank lessened considerably.

"Explain, please Lord Dursley."

"Your Majesty, I request permission to go to St. Mungo's the wizard hospital, it seems my wife has gone into labour and as she is part veela, it is imperative for the future health of my child that I be there.

"Of course, Lord Dursley, and my congratulations, do you know is it a boy or girl?"

"I am reliably informed it will be a daughter, all wizard / veela offspring are daughters."

"Please give my best wishes to your wife and daughter, we will speak later."

I turned to face the doors preparing to leave the bank and apparate to the hospital, when I was handed a Galleon by Ragnok, "it will portkey you to the hospital, congratulations Dudley, please give our best wishes to your wife and new daughter when she arrives." I nodded my thanks, and Ragnok said "activate" and I appeared in the lobby of the wizarding hospital.

I quickly walked to the reception and gave my name and the reason I was here. "Ah, yes, Mr. Dursley, your wife is probably still in the lift, fifth floor, Vernon Dursley Ward, we don't usually have a maternity unit here, as most wizarding births happen in the home, but your wife being veela, we understand the need for a healer and have set up one of the private rooms off that ward. I believe you already know the way." I nodded my thanks and set off the lift, only to see it on the third floor and passing up to the fourth, I took the stairs and headed up.

I arrived on the ward to find Gabrielle lying on the bed, with the medi-witch holding her hand, she looked up as I came in and held out her other hand to me. I quickly took the offered hand and as she held tightly to me, she looked less stressed. "I'm so glad you could make it," her voice sounded so quiet, I was almost concerned, but a smile from the medi-witch relieved my anxiety slightly.

"Thank goodness, you are here Mr. Dursley, your wife is further along in the delivery than we expected her to be, her contractions are very close together and she should deliver soon, and I need you to be here to support her and be prepared to open up your magic to her, she may need to draw heavily on you. This is a most dangerous time for a veela, her body will be expending magic quickly and she needs your help to keep her stable."

I nodded my understanding, Gabrielle and I had discussed this previously, and I was ready to do whatever I needed to help her with this birth. Gabrielle gave a groan as another contraction hit her and the medi-witch nodded, "it should only be a matter of minutes, the birth canal is fully dilated and the child is in position." I quickly glanced at her, wondering how she could know this, she hadn't checked anything with a wand or made any gestures that I could perceive. Her eyes were wide open, but all I could see were the whites of her eyes, she must have been perceiving this through another sense, one that I was unaware of. Another contraction hit Gabrielle and the medi-witch nodded and let go of her hands and helped her to more of an upright position, "only a couple of more contractions and your daughter should be with us. "Remember, support her with your magic Mr. Dursley.

Gabrielle gave a scream and had another contraction, the strongest one yet that I was aware of if the pull I felt through my magic was telling me the full facts. The mediwitch released Gabrielle's hand and moved quickly down the bed and pulled what looked to me like an egg with a very soft shell from behind the blanket that had been protecting Gabrielle's modesty. Her nails suddenly grew a couple of inches and alarmed I looked on as she ripped open the covering and slowly removed the baby from its caul.

She looked at Gabrielle and me in surprise, "err, it's a boy, erm congratulations."

I looked flummoxed at Gabrielle, she had told me that all wizard / veela births were girls, how was this possible?

"Err. How…?" I stammered, sounding like the village idiot I'm certain.

"It is most unusual for a veela to give birth to a boy from a wizard father, usually it happens with the third or fourth child, if she has that many, the magic of the veela that controls conception has been diluted by that time and the child is a boy. I've never heard of a firstborn being male." Whilst she was saying this the medi-witch was cleaning the baby and doing whatever it is they do when a baby is born and then handed him to Gabrielle who looked down proudly at our son, I did the same.

"What do we call him then, I doubt if he'd appreciate being called by the name we'd decided on for our daughter." Gabrielle gave a snigger at this and nodded. We'd decided to call her Amaryllis, which was very close to Marie, which was what Gabrielle had wanted and Lily, for the aunt, I never knew. It certainly didn't fit a boy.

"How about after our father's then if we wish to keep to tradition, my father's name is Pierre, yours is Vernon. Vernon Pierre, how about that?"

"No, not after my father, not as a first name anyway, if anything it will be a third, one that is forgotten, he wouldn't appreciate the honour anyway. Can we name him after Harry please, what's the French for Harry anyway?"

"I think Harry is a contraction of the name Henry, which in French is Henri, I like that idea as well, and my muggle grandfather was named Henri."

I smiled at her and looked at our son, "hello Henri Pierre Vernon Dursley, I'm so glad to meet you."

Gabrielle gave me a smile and looked warmly at our son, "Hello Henri Pierre Vernon Dursley, you are such a surprise to us, but we couldn't be more happy to see you."

I turned to the medi-witch, whose nails had returned to normal length and she was filling in a lot of paperwork at a small desk in the corner. "How is it that we've never heard of boys being born to humans and veela? Gabrielle told me it was always daughters, not that we're complaining mind you?"

Most veela have a maximum of two children by a human father, it is on very rare occasions that they have a third, and even more rare to have a fourth. About one marriage in 1000 will produce a third child, one in 10,000 will produce a fourth. As it's so rare, most of the talk about it is thought of as myth. The same with male children from such marriages, that's as rare as a fourth child, I don't think there's ever been a first born male child of such a marriage. The chances of a third or fourth child being born depends on the magical strength of the father, in essence the veela magic of the mother builds up a magical immunity to the father, thus stopping her from having more children, much as her magic stops her having boys. If the father is sufficiently magically strong, his magic manages to bypass the immunity and she conceives the third child, by then the pro-creative magic of the veela is gone and they will possibly produce a male. Your son is strange in another way…"

Both Gabrielle looked alarmed at this statement. "What…" I said.

The medi-witch turned and smiled at us, "nothing to be alarmed at, your son is perfectly healthy, what is unusual is that he has inherited the full amount of veela abilities that any girl would inherit, he will be an exceptionally powerful veela as he grows. Most boys born have practically no allure, they just strike girls as attractive, your son will have the full allure of any pure veela male, and the full control of fire that any other veela has."

Gabrielle and I looked at each other fondly, not only we done the impossible and had a boy, but an exceptional boy at that. "I think we may have to consider sending our son to Beauxbatons, instead of Hogwarts as we had originally planned. The school there has special wards built into the dormitories to prevent a veela's allure from causing problems. Like Hogwarts the boys are not allowed into the girls' dormitories, but there is no restriction on girls entering the boys, so some allure inspired girl could sneak into the dormitory at night."

I thought about this, and I agreed with her. It would make things a bit easier for our son, not to be bothered by eager girls at all times when his allure activated sometime around 14, we would have to look into it when she got home with our new son.

A healer came into the room and checked Gabrielle and little Henri over, "they're doing fine, Mr. Dursley, as I'm sure the medi-witch informed you. However it would be best now if you left, and allowed your wife to get some rest, come and visit her this evening, she should be a little better then."

I looked at Gabrielle, who nodded at me, I bent to give her and our son a kiss, "I'll tell harry and Ginny, they like us were expecting a girl. I may bring them with me later, if their elves are able to baby-sit." Gabrielle gave me another nod and I left to apparate home.

I knocked on the door of 12 Grimmauld Place and waited for the door to open, Ginny should be home, she had gone into semi-retirement from her quidditch career when James had been born and was mostly a stay-at-home mother these days. The door was opened by Kreacher, "Master Dudley, we was not expecting you, is there anything I could do for you."

"Please inform Ginny that I am here and would like to speak with her."

Kreacher bowed, "both Master Harry and Mistress Ginevra are here, please come into to the hall and I will tell them you is here." I thanked Kreacher and made my way into the hall as Kreacher left to tell Harry and Ginny that I was here.

Harry came out of the door to the lounge, "Dudley, what are you doing here? From that happy look on your face I can tell it's not bad news, come in and take a seat." I followed him into the lounge and took a seat.

"Gabrielle is in St. Mungo's after giving birth, both her and our…"

"What did you call her? I think I heard Gabrielle say something about Marie, but that was some time ago, did you change your mind since then. How is she doing, when can we go and see our newest niece?"

As Ginny paused to catch, her breath and Harry gave an amused snigger at her curiosity, I looked at them both. "He's called Henri Pierre Vernon Dursley!"

They both looked gob-smacked at this little announcement, it was Harry who recovered first, "he… but Gabrielle said all wizard / veela offspring were female. How is that possible?"

Apparently a veela will usually have up to two children with a wizard, its very rare to have a third, and extremely rare to have a fourth, there is the possibility that the third child could be a boy, but that's as rare as a fourth child. A male firstborn is unheard of." I sighed. "yet another thing to set me apart. What the hell am I going to achieve next?"

A/N2 in case you haven't realised the speech in italics is in Gablish like the last chapter, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for your continuing support for my efforts. Until chapter 14…