Disclaimer: I do not in any way or form own Harry Potter, only the original characters and concepts are my property.
AN: Some reviewers mentioned that some points seemed very fragmented, and there is a reason behind this. I mainly just wrote in the beginning, without bothering to divide them into chapters, and so I suddenly found myself with over 110.000+ words of writing. The only distribution of chapter importance lay in the scene breaks. Furthermore, I forgot to mention in the prologue that this story will be a Dark!Evil!Harry, not a he will replace Voldemort or anything of the sort. You are warned.
Furthermore I think I should warn that this chapter and many following will include the concept of 'slave-bond', and it will be a long term plot surprise, so before you start despairing and cursing the story, you should know that I myself am very critical of Veela bonds and slavebonds, and where I could easily dismiss the former, the latter was a very valid possibility, so I decided to address this concept in my own way, to sort of balance out for all the poor story that has been written. Also keep in mind that all is not as it appears, nor set in stone.
Chapter 1:
She practically raced through the corridors, leaving behind Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students, giving none of them any attention. Her mind was too preoccupied for that, with thoughts flying around.
She had heard of people immune to the veela charm, although those people were extremely rare, about as rare as they could be. But she had never heard of a person who could feel the veela charm but still resist it. It was unheard of, either you were immune and felt no pull whatsoever or you were effected and people would follow your every lead. It had been so since time immemorial, but somehow she had stumbled upon this unique individual who could feel her charm, but still retain his mind and independence around her, it was mind boggling to her. She had known there was a chance she would meet a person immune to her veela charm, but that chance was small to non-existent.
But even meeting this unique person, to feel the Veela charm and still be able to brush it off so easily, almost unconsciously, but he had not even brushed it off, he enshrouded himself in it, somehow used it for his own comfort. What made it even harder to believe was that he was three years her junior and he should be in the middle of puberty, with hormones running rampant through his body, making him even more susceptible to her aura, or at least it should have.
Then there was also the attraction. Until he had woken up it had just been that general attraction, or perhaps more a common attraction of the more uncommon kind. Despite him being three years her younger, she had still felt a pull towards him, though she had to disguise it, she was after all the pride of the Beauxbaton, and she had an image to uphold. But the pull was still there, and having saved her life had not exactly lessened it. But what was unusual about this attraction was that it had just been the usual attraction, although she had been loath to admit she was interested in a boy three years her junior, but that attraction had changed, drastically at that. Now it was heavily tinged with something not quite so innocent.
She had never felt this kind of pull before. She was always the one using men around her, winding them around her fingers to get what she wanted, never was she the one entranced. It was a long time since she had been introduced to the world of sexual comments, and what he had said was nothing new to her, it was actually quite a bad attempt at it, but it struck a chord, and she couldn't help but admit it was a lovely chord. She felt the urge to envelop him in her arms, trace her fingers down his side, inching closer and closer to her prize, grinding herself into his body trailing lingering kisses along his jaw…
She quickly shook her head. Those kinds of thoughts would have to wait for a better time.
Harry had changed; he was different when he came to. Granted, she hadn't known him for very long, but still the Harry Potter she had met on the day their names had been chosen by the Goblet of Fire had not been nearly as confident. It had seemed to him as if the whole world had been weighing him down. But the change from then to now was very much significant.
'Nor had he been as flirtatious', she thought with a grin.
The maturity was part of what intrigued her the most. He might be fourteen years old, but she could see in her eyes that he had never really been a child; it seemed as if maturity was grafted into him. Sometimes when you looked into his green eyes he seemed like an age old man, with all the emotional weight as well. The next moment he was back to normal, but one thing never changed. He always seemed so alone.
She had seen how the school had treated him these last couple of months, and it was definitely not a welcome sight. He always persevered, but he never thrived, he had not been comfortable with the spotlight, had never sought it out.
She stepped out through the great doors and entered the Hogwarts grounds.
All these things were flying through her mind, it was one big chaotic jumble, but it was also all focused on one thing.
How he had changed after the first task. The sexual appeal, the bold behavior, everything. Was it purely coincidence that all this had happened after she for the first time had tenuously grasped her full potential and pulled out her power at its maximum?
It was possible, but highly unlikely.
Her eyes widened, disbelief written within.
It had never happened before, but it explained everything.
She shook her head again. Jumping to conclusions wouldn't help matters. No, she would have to do a bit of research before she could be completely sure.
She stopped in front of the Beauxbatons carriage, where headmistress Olympe resided during their stay there. Unlike the students of the French magic academy the headmaster or headmistress could choose to remain in their chosen methods of travel. Usually this also applied to the students; however Olympe had stressed that this tournament was to create better relations between all the participant nations represented. So the Beauxbaton students had been holed up with the Ravenclaw house since their arrival, and as a result they got well enough on with those students, but it seemed to be mostly out of necessity. The Durmstrang students had chosen to remain aboard their ship and they only truly mingled with the Slytherin students, as they were similar to themselves.
However her reason for going to this carriage was not to visit their headmistress, but to pick up a couple of books, as she had a theory on what the next task might be.
Madame Pomfrey had been working overtime to deal with all the damages the implicated people had sustained, and to Fleur's surprise, not many people were badly hurt, and those that were had been taken to St. Mungo's immediately, and because of that she had been the person staying the hospital with the worst injury, if you didn't take Harry into consideration. She had been lucky that she had not been hit by the dragons flame directly and that she had only been scolded by the heat generated and thanks to Madam Pomfrey's superb healing skills her burn had been handled in a cinch. No, Harry had been the one with mortal injuries, and for some reason Dumbledore had refused to have him transferred to St. Mungo's, but luckily it seemed he would make a full recovery.
Madam Pomfrey was also the catalyst that had set her on this private quest of hers, and had her doing this research. She had seen how the school nurse had been acting towards Harry when he had awoken, she had been giddy, almost like how she affected men, but somehow different.
She needed to know, she needed knowledge, which was the second reason she was there. The Beauxbaton carriage had a built in library, and it was an exact copy of the one at their school. It was mostly to present the prestige of Beauxbaton, and it worked pretty damn well, but now it would serve a good purpose, at least for her.
She pushed open the doors of the carriage and left behind the rapidly darkening school ground and emerged in a large, well-lit and warm entrance hall. It was well-furnished, extremely classy, as was befitting of Beauxbatons as the headmistress had told them.
It was completely devoid of life, no students anywhere, though she knew with certainty that unless the headmistress was talking with Dumbledore then she would be here somewhere. But she had not come for Miss Olympe.
She strode purposefully across the hall, making for one of the side doors. Her steps resounded throughout the hall.
Pushing open two surprisingly light doors, she walked into what could be called a piece of art, consisting of books, bookshelves, tapestries and tables. Everything you would expect in a library, except somehow it was just more. More glamorous, more awe-inspiring, and she had felt a bit cowed the first time she walked into the library at their school in France, knowing that the knowledge of thousands of people, gathered over a thousand years was here.
However right now it was just a tool, a means to an end. She wandered down a row, weaving in between the bookcases, pressing towards her goal. This library was an exact replica of the one they had at their school, it was a perfect copy down to the last book. It was a beautiful spell that no one alive could explain. It was sort of like the Sorting Hat's equivalent. This carriage was made by the three founders of Beauxbaton, and it was made in the first couple of years of the schools life. The spell affected not only the library, but also the dining hall, sleeping chambers and other similar rooms, and it was always updating itself, always remaining a perfect replica of those specific locations. It was to make traveling as homely as possible, despite the fact that they might be halfway across the globe. Unfortunately it had only been in use three times the last six hundred years.
Many of the professors had spent more than a few years of their lifetime trying to figure that spell out, and the only thing standing between them and their goal, was the little conundrum that no magic could be detected. Oh, the carriage was no doubt magical, but after having scoured the wagon several hundred times, they had been unable to find a trace of magic, much less an anchoring point for the spells.
The fact that it was made to replicate the library was a good thing, since she now knew exactly where the books she sought was, and it was also why she was standing in front of an eerily familiar bookcase.
She hesitated only briefly before steeling herself and quickly grabbing a select few books.
She had already read all of them in a desperate try to understand her heritage, and the power that came with it.
She scanned the titles.
'Creatures of Passion', 'Foundations of Desire', 'Seeds of Lust', all three titles were extraordinarily unimaginative. But the titles did nothing to betray the knowledge and theories hidden within. If any of the books in this library held the answers she was looking for, it would be one of these, if only just hints and abstract theories.
She quickly shrunk the three books and stowed them away in her breast pocket. She turned on her heel and made her to the catalogue pillar in the middle of the library, she still one more book. The Catalogue Pillar was a most wonderful invention, and it made perusing the library for the texts you needed much easier. You only had to inform it of what you sought, and the book would be automatically brought to you. As she reached the pillar she quickly tapped it once with her wand.
"Magical Languages and Translation Spells", she said clearly.
The air in front of her glowed white briefly and when the light faded the book she had requested was there. They had worked with this book briefly in their fifth year, and she had used it as a reference guide during the time, and later one when learning a bit about her heritage. She grabbed the book, shrunk it as well and put it with the other three, before turning and making her way down one of the aisles, to the exit of the library, as she wanted to get back to the Ravenclaw tower as quickly as possible.
When she swung open the feather light double doors again, she was greeted by the sight of Olympe, standing in the middle of hall staring at her with unreadable eyes, arms crossed over her massive bulk of a chest.
"Fleur, my dear, it has been a couple of days since I have seen you", she said in a sickly sweet voice. "Where have you been?"
Fleur raised her chin slightly, she knew this woman was furious at not having her precious Champion around, and had she not been her father's daughters then she would probably have shown more restraint.
But also, being her father's daughter gave her a lot of leeway. She was used to a certain measure of respect, and it all reflected in her personality. She had been called pompous by people before, mainly women and girls, as men would never dare to insult, lest they make a bad impression. That didn't mean she was a spoilt brat, but she was used to getting what she wanted by any means necessary. This of course might, and did indeed, give the image that she was dependent on her father, unfortunately for those few who believed that, they soon discovered how well she could handle herself. Her mother had always warned her to keep her anger in check, as she had a frighteningly sharp tongue if irritated.
"I have been at the Hogwarts infirmary", she said evenly, keeping herself in check, but still getting her point across. Olympe had been practically fawning over her since she had been chosen as the Beauxbaton Champion, and it was only getting worse.
Olympe's eyes widened. "You are not hurt, are you dear?"
She rolled her eyes. "No, I was waiting for Harry to wake." She fought the urge to sigh at the headmistress' confused expression.
Clearly she didn't know who she was talking about, which was fairly weird. So Fleur decided clarification was in order.
"Harry Potter, the second Tri-Wizard Champion from Hogwarts. He was hurt rather badly, so I stayed at the infirmary till he awoke", she said coolly, and made to leave.
"That wretched English cheater? You should not concern yourself with the likes of him. He will be lucky if he even survives the first challenge", she snorted, in a very unladylike manner.
Fleur stopped suddenly, halfway to the front doors, and turned around. Her eyes no longer just cool but having a distinct icy quality to them.
"He saved my life; I believe that would make him out to be a bit better than a wretch, and as for his competence. Well I will be honest, I was the one slowing him down out there, and he would have handled that dragon far more easily had I not been there. So I would be happy you if would stop belittling him", her gaze on the giant woman intensified. "And it is my choice, and my choice only who I associate with."
Her voice rang loud and clear in the spacious entrance hall, and hints of resentment could be seen in both her and Olympe's eyes, and Fleur thought for a moment that she may have pushed too hard. But Olympe seemed struck hard by the fact that she was standing up for Harry so fiercely and to be honest, most others would also be, since she had a tendency to let people deal with their own problems. But she relaxed slightly when she saw her nod stiffly.
Olympe's tone evened out, losing it honey-like quality. "So you spent three days watching a boy who was in a near-death state for the entirety of the first of those days? A boy you do not even know?"
Fleur nodded. "Yes, and now if you will excuse me, I have things to do."
She turned around and calmly strode out the door, but before the doors closed behind her she heard a last comment from Olympe.
"Do not let the boy interfere with your performance in the second task."
Fleur did not respond to the comment and simply closed the door and walked away, out into the almost dark grounds now.
The trip back to the castle was uneventful and not even the, already customary, gaggle of boys following her around was present, but odds were that they weren't aware that she was out and about. After all, she had been in the infirmary the last few days.
The great oaken doors quietly opened to allow her entrance to the castle. A few people were spread about the entrance hall, but apart from a few glares from the females and the not so subtle ogling from the males, they paid her no more heed, as they were far too entranced by what she were, to see what she was doing.
The stairway was quickly overtaken by the limber Beauxbaton Champion, leaving the small crowd behind. Weaving through the corridors she occasionally happened upon a few students, but not many, which that made sense with the curfew almost at the door.
Standing in front of the entrance to the Ravenclaw Tower, and after muttering the password to the portrait, she strode into the Ravenclaw common room, where she was immediately assaulted by the pleasant heat from the fireplace.
A few Ravenclaws were still about, mostly doing homework or having quiet conversations. The events and aftermaths of the first task could be seen weighing heavily on most of them; many had friends who had been hurt by the enraged dragon. Many of the Ravenclaws had a somewhat ragged look about them, but it was still far better than the panic that had been gripping most of the student body after the event. The Ravenclaw were by far the most levelheaded of the houses, and it also transferred to the current state of the school.
The Gryffindors tried to put on a brave front, but the cracks were showing. They were far more jumpy than usual. The Hufflepuff were in a sort of organized disorder, which is to say that they supported each other, but they were still unusually fidgety and kept to themselves. But they handled it quite well despite all. The Raveclaw were of course very levelheaded and would quickly have put the matter behind them had it not been for the sake of their injured friends. But they didn't show any significant outward change. The Slytherins were exceptionally giddy, though it only seemed to be because they hadn't suffered any from the rampant dragon, and they were gloating, using any chance they could to bait the other houses and the Beauxbatons.
She could feel the stares directed at her the moment she were inside. They weren't all the stares she was used to. They weren't outright hostile, but neither were they friendly, mostly calculating. They were all judging her, and she could hear the mutters of Harry Potter erupting silently across the common room, followed closely by their French dorm mates. Though it seemed that none of the latter was particularly surprised, at least not more than the event warranted.
But she was not new to attention, and this kind was no different, so she ignored the pointed stares and whisperings. She wouldn't deal with it before one of them confronted her directly. It would be pointless to do so before, on the contrary it would only serve to aggravate matters. Getting preemptive on rumors was hard, unless you could literally stop them before they started.
The Hogwarts castle was the very incarnation of English aloofness, it was an arch-typical picture of an old English castle, but she couldn't deny that it was magical, very much so. The place was saturated with magic. One fine example was the Beauxbaton accommodations in the Ravenclaw tower. Previously there had been eight floors in the Tower, one for each year and the common room. However a new floor had suddenly, magically appeared with enough room for all the French students twice over, and it was the only place in Hogwarts that had even a remote French feel to it. The head of the Ravenclaw was equally surprised about it, but Flitwick had quickly shaken it off and grumbled about castles showing off.
She strode across the room, the eyes of everyone following her, but she was not bothered by it the least. She felt great, better than great, she felt fantastic, strung, taut like the string on a bow. She felt more powerful than ever, but she had no idea why. It had happened with the dragon, she had no idea what exactly happened, but she knew it was part of it.
Hopefully she could find some reference or clue as to what was happening while she was researching the situation with Harry, which intrigued her very much.
She absently raised a hand to her breast pocket, to ensure that the books were still safely tucked away. It wouldn't do to lose them. She was completely sure that if there were an answer to her current project it would be here.
She gracefully ascended the stairs, disregarding everyone in her eagerness to get started with her research. She quickly entered the first door on the left, entering the sleeping and private area of the Beauxbaton, finding most of her fellow French students already there. Many eyes were directed at her upon entry, after all this was unusual behavior from her and they knew it.
She was met by various greetings ranging from friendly to almost outright hostile, but they had nonetheless acknowledged that she was carrying the honor of their school, so people with grudges against her had unofficially put them on hold. They were after all better than these 'english wretches' and those 'bulgarian barbarians', and she was their way of proving it, so they would back her, and show a common front against the foreigners.
She acknowledged the greetings, with a curt nod and a few murmured words here and there, but she quickly retreated to her own bed. She enlarged the books, and tossed the one about magical language on the bedside table absentmindedly. She then made herself comfortable, sitting Indian-style on her bed with the three books lying side by side in front of her.
Trying to determine which of them would hold the answer to her suspicion was a futile task, as she had only read them once long ago, and she could only vaguely remember the contents. So her only choice was to reread them, and hope they held what she was looking for.
She grabbed the book closest to her, 'Creatures of Passion', and opened the old leather-bound tome, carefully running her delicate fingers over the worn pages.
Settling down with her back against the headboard, she set about her self-appointed task with zeal, and was only occasionally disturbed by her fellow students, interested in what she was reading.
That night she fell asleep fully clothed with a book splayed open in front of her.
DB -
Being a Slytherin wasn't all fun and games, the only games a true Slytherin played were mind games, and occasionally politics.
Which was why she was where she was at the moment, digging through her books, gathering a select few in a small pile, and throwing the remaining in a significantly larger pile, a little off to the side. When she got to the last book and dumped in the large pile, and morosely stared the small pile, which was _a lot_ smaller.
Five books, she had five books at her disposal, five measly books to use to get her show rolling, and whatever second rate books she could dig up in the library. Maybe she could find one or two that could be of use in the short term, should her plans go smoothly, but she'd have to order new ones, or get some sent from home, and of the two choices, the former was the best route to brave, since if her plan worked her life in the home front would be severely lacking.
She had applied the shrinking charm to the few books of hers and quickly put them in her pocket. Even though it was common knowledge that these kinds of books often frequented these halls, not many of them were in the same league as two of those she had, and it wouldn't do to be caught with them. So she would need to find a place to dump them where no one would just happen upon them.
As she stared at the last of the more or less useless, for her plan anyway, books, a grunting voice cut into her reverie.
"What are you doing?", she heard as well as fairly felt the footsteps of the large girl nearing her. It could be nothing else as boys were magically kept out of the girl's dorm. Besides only a few people in Slytherin could make that much noise while just walking and only one of those were a girl.
She swept around, whipping out her wand and muttered a quiet 'Cogo'.
The purple bolt barely came to light before it disappeared as it struck the intended target. "Hello, Bullstrode, figure meeting you here", she said in a sweet voice, taking in the semi pained look on the large girls face. The spell she had used was a restricting spell, only a dark variety. It basically just hogtied a person, and at the same time the targets facial muscles, and created slight pains all over the body. It also held the upside to it that it also paralyzed the muscles in the jaw and throat, preventing her from speaking.
She took a small moment to lock her trunk after having tossed all the books back in, and murmured a several locking charms, before turning back to Millicent Bullstrode. "I cannot have you telling anyone about anything you may or may not have seen. So I have to take steps to ensure that you cannot tell anyone… ever." With each word her voice grew chillier and more emotionless, and Millicents eyes grew wider accordingly, terror dominating them.
"What say you Bullstrode? What should I do?", she asked, eyeing the girls discomfort and reactions, and was not surprised to see the girls considerable muscles flex to break the invisible restraints.
"I could of course take the gentle way, and simply oblivate you, but what would be the fun in that? Maybe I should just try to _convince_ you. I think I will try that, and my ways of convincing are infinitely more fun and satisfying than the simple 'Crucio' that Voldemort and his followers use. At least it's more fun for me", she was fingering her wand giddily at the end, her voice taking on an eager quality, having worked herself up a bit.
"Here let me show you. _'Perpes Excorcio Sano'_", she said after making a few intricate wand gestures and pointing her wand at helpless girl, and a sickly orange spell exploded from her wand and hit the girl in the chest.
This spell was considered dark, and with good reason. The spell properties were threefold. Firstly it ripped patches of skin off the victim in random locations, which constituted the pain portion of the spell. Secondly the ripped off patches of skin reattached themselves and healed so it seemed as if nothing had ever happened, or it was now that she had modified it a bit, before there would be a bit of blood, but she had changed the second part of the spell to also constitute a sort of localized cleaning charm that only removed blood, and the second portion only left behind a slight reddening of the skin, and none would notice it other than in the exposed places. But the reason this spell was a torture was because as long as she powered it, it would repeat itself over and over again. The evidence of the spell's effects was visible on the exposed areas of the girl, such as the face and hands.
The only drawback of this spell was that the magic expended was significant, which was why she released the spell after and thirty seconds, and also muttered the counter for her first spell, leaving the large girl convulsing on the floor, though it stopped after a bit.
"So what do you say, should I just obliviate you now that I have had my fun?", she asked in an icy tone, but the girl was unresponsive.
"If you do not answer me, I will simply kill you and dispose of the body", she hissed to the girl who looked upon her with terror-filled eyes. "You should also know that transfiguring a body into something else, really is not that hard. You know I could transfigure you into a footstool, or I could cut you up, and transfigure your limbs into combs and hairbrushes."
She looked at the large girl before her. "On second thought you are too disgusting to touch me. Maybe I should just kill you, and burn your body."
"Please… don't kill me… obliviate me… please", Millicent said in a weak voice.
"How far has the Slytherin house fallen to have cowards and stupid people like you", she sighed, but pointed her wand at the girl and muttered _'Obliviate'_, altering her memories to walking into an empty dorm room, and accidentally tripping over her own feet.
She quickly stowed away her wand in her robe and exited the dorm room before the dazed girl noticed she was there.
However short the session with Bullstrode had been, it had done the job of satisfying her violent streak, at least momentarily. Besides if things worked out, she would get more opportunities very soon, and it made her want to practically giggle.
As she reached the end of the staircase the grin that had been growing on her face was in full bloom, though it held a distinctive edge of wickedness. Complimented by the evil gleam in her eye, it didn't look out of place on her face, it actually seemed very natural.
People became wary and tense when they noticed her 'sunny' disposition, which just caused her grin to grow. None questioned her or hindered her as she gracefully glided across the common room and out through the entrance of the Slytherin accommodations. Though she duly noted the glances of Malfoy and his goons, as well as the stare of her ally, but if things went well, she would no longer need that ally. But, still no point in making unnecessary enemies.
She strode calmly but confidently down the corridors, the last classes ended some hours ago, so even though students wandered in the halls there were few as it was close to curfew, so it was no surprise that she easily avoided running into anyone.
She quickly reached her destination, the library, and hurried to the section where she knew what she sought were, and she couldn't help the pleased grin that threatened to adorn her face, when she found just what she was looking for. A small notebook titled 'Mind Magic'.
This book was a treasure without parallel between the books in this part of the library. As the title implied it centered on the magical, or close to, aspect of the mind. Mainly focusing on Occlumency and Legilimens, though other things such as Obliviate, confounding, and compulsion spells were also included in it, as the book didn't limit mind magic to being only Occlumency and its counter-part, it centered on all aspects of the mind.
All in all, it was a very informative and useful book. She had of course gone through it once, and she could only say that she had benefited greatly from it, and now it would be put to use once again. So she deftly shrunk the book and placed it among the shrunken books.
She resolutely walked towards the restricted section of library, and when Madam Pince opened her mouth to protest, she simply flashed her permission slip, which she had gone to great lengths to acquire, though it had been easy to play their head of house into giving her the permission slip. She only had to play on his bitterness towards Potter and then she could practically lead him about by the nose, if she just kept him off balance, and that was just what she did.
Madam Pince quickly cut off her protests and grudgingly allowed her entry and after a swift ten minute search she only had acquired one book from in there whereas she had hoped for two, but she would take what she could.
Now smuggling books out of the restricted section was a hell of a lot tougher, but by no means impossible. So she cast a few quick charms, among them a confounding charm, meant to disorientate the book, and thereby disrupting the tracking charm on it by making it believe that it was still present in the library, and the other charms were meant to fool the library to believe that the book was still in place. This was of course only a temporary solution, but it would do until she could permanently remove the tracking charms that bound it to the library.
Shrinking the book, she exited the restricted section, only to find a familiar bushy-haired girl sitting at a table nearby. She couldn't help the wicked smile nor resist the chance to ruffle her feathers.
"Hello there Granger", she said when she was right behind the mud-blood, causing said girl to jump in surprise, and whirl about to face the grinning Slytherin.
"What do you want?", the bushy-haired Gryffindor growled.
She just smiled wickedly at the tone. "I am just wondering why you and your boyfriend is not visiting Potter is all", she said nonchalantly.
"He is _not_ my boyfriend", Granger hissed.
"That might be true", she relented. "But you still did not answer my question."
"It is none of your business", the girl replied sullenly.
"Ahh, trouble in paradise, I see. Well that is your own business, I do not want to get caught up in whatever scheme you silly petty people cook up", she said and glided out of the library leaving behind an indignant red-faced Granger.
As soon as she rounded the corner her grin was back full force, as she made her way to her final destination, the infirmary.
The split in the Golden Trio had been apparent, but never had she thought it would be this deep, and it would only work to her advantage with what she had planned. She didn't dare think of the consequences should her plan fail, but she was fairly certain she could provide enough incentive for it to work.
She shed her robe, revealing the white skirt and light blue shirt she was wearing underneath and quickly she placed the shrunken books in pocket in her skirt, and folded and shrunk the robe as well. She did after not want to look like a silly student when the conversation she was about to have was so important.
Wandering into the infirmary, she found to her delight that Madam Pomfrey seemed to have fallen asleep, and a quick _'Globe Silencio'_ formed a bubble of silence around her, ensuring that she wouldn't wake up from the coming conversation, and interfere.
That simply just would not do.
"Hm, the Princess of Slytherin comes to the infirmary, looking her usual foxy self, and makes sure my nurse remains asleep, when she should be back in her common room. But here is the kicker, incidentally the only person in here besides her now, is a teenage boy. It sets a hormonal mind running you know", the voice of Harry Potter suddenly spoke, and she whipped to see him smiling deviously at her.
"Actually this reminds me of a very pleasant dream I had quite a few times actually, though usually you have no clothes on, same goes for me of course. Well you get the gist of it."
He smirked at her.
"Right Daphne?"
DB -
He had noticed straight way when Daphne Greengrass had entered the infirmary, after all, it was a well-known fact that she was considered one of the most desirable girls in Hogwarts, all of it due to her almost unnatural beauty, her sharper than sharp mind, uncanny grace and elegance, the 'something' she had that made her almost irresistible, and to a certain extent her aloofness.
Though Harry could readily say her dirty blonde curly locks, which almost reached the middle of her back, was for some reason an extreme turn on, as was that devilish grin and gleaming eyes.
It was a truly exciting picture, and he felt in the mood for some playful bantering.
"Hm, the Princess of Slytherin comes to the infirmary, looking her usual foxy self, and makes sure my nurse remains asleep, when she should be back in her common room. But here is the kicker, incidentally the only person in here besides her now, is a teenage boy. It sets a hormonal mind running you know", he said a devious smile on his lips as he watched Daphne whip around at the first sound of his voice, her blonde curls whipping about as well. He could guess from her frown, that this wasn't what she expected.
A grin lit up his face at the reaction, he loved startling people. It was a new favorite pastime of his.
"Actually this reminds me of a very pleasant dream I had quite a few times actually. Though usually you do not have any clothes on, same goes for me of course", he couldn't help but smirk at the rosy cheeks of the slightly tanned Slytherin. How she had acquired a tan, and apparently was the only one in Slytherin, he had ever met, to do so, was beyond him.
"Well you get the gist of it".
He smirked at her.
He briefly questioned himself as to why he had suddenly become so daring, where he only a few months before would have trouble even thinking about saying such things, but he shrugged it off due to the simple fact that it simply felt natural.
"Right Daphne?", he teased only to shiver at the look she sent him.
The look wasn't what he had expected, he knew there was a reason she was called the Ice Princess of Slytherin, and a damn good reason it was, he could admit to himself. From what he knew, she had been propositioned by one boy after another, day after day. Sometimes with flowery poems, sometimes with crude suggestions, but she had always remained aloof and cool, and had to his, although admittedly limited knowledge, turned each and every single one down with a glacial insult, that left said unfortunate male with his masculinity shredded.
Most of those would probably have taken their revenge against her, had she not demonstrated what she would do to such people multiple violent times, which somehow ended said people in the hospital wing, with nasty wounds, though those people never told who had done it to them. However, once in a while she had to reassure people why it was that she did not appreciate such attention.
This was why he had ventured such a comment, seeing as he already was in the hospital wing, he might as well take the shot. Besides he had felt exceptionally frisky since Fleur had been here.
Which was why it wasn't surprising when it took an amazing amount of willpower to not run when that selfsame girl fixed you with a smoldering and suggestive look, coupled with the bordering on lecherous grin on her face, which seemed oh so natural.
The gleam in her eyes as she neared him with graceful steps was that of a moth drawn to a flame.
"Potter".
It was not the normal insult every Slytherin threw at him. She purred, she actually purred. But being in the same room as Fleur for the entirety of the day had left him with lots of pent up energy, and he had found a good way to spend it, besides staring into space.
"Daphne", he purred right on back, causing said girl to blink once then lick her lips. "What are you doing here?"
He shrugged. "Not that I really mind it. Out of all the things I had imagined I would be doing in here, this was not one of them. Though it beats them all hands down."
She was now at the foot of the bed, and walked up the side, slowly trailing a hand up his leg. This was a bit out of his experience range, but he was not a shy little boy anymore, and he was pretty sure this was just a challenge to discover how far he was willing to go.
Well, let it never be said that he back down from a challenge.
"You want to know a secret Daphne?", he asked as evenly as he could. "What really catches my eye about you?"
Her eyes had been fixed on his face the entire time, even though her hand was now slowly trailing up his outer thigh, and although she didn't say a thing her grey eyes urged him on.
"Your hair", he said simply, and he wasn't lying. She really did have the most beautiful hair in the school. Those lustrous dirty blonde strands of curly hair flowing down in a manner that screamed aristocrat. "It is lovely."
He was almost disappointed when her hand jumped from his thigh to his lower stomach, but the regret was short-lived as he shivered in delight as she her slender hand trailed upwards.
He grabbed her hand when it reached his chest, and held it firmly, but gently. When he touched her, her eyes glazed over momentarily, then her eyes refocused on him, and she was the one shivering, and quite noticeably at that. She licked her lips again, eyeing him hungrily, and he knew then and there that he was the one running the show now, at least momentarily.
"Sit down Daphne", he said and gestured for the chair next to the hospital bed, the same one Fleur vacated no more than an hour ago. She seemed extremely reluctant to comply with his request, but she did so in the end, though with a pout.
As she sat she made sure to sit so that her skirt rode up revealing a good deal of mouth-watering tanned thigh, which was surprisingly muscular.
"Going to tell me why you are here anytime soon, or are we going to keep playing these enjoyable games?"
She seemed to regain a bit of self with that, and sat straighter, like they were discussing business, but she still had that hungry lustful look in her eyes. "I'm here…", she said with a suggestive wink. "Mostly on business."
"Oh, and what pray tell does this business entail?", Harry asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Something mutually beneficial", she said cryptically, or at least tried, though the half-lidded, seductive gaze detracted a bit from the statement.
He smiled brightly and though he had never been much of a flirter, he had begun to get the hang of it and to be honest found it kind of fun, though he was very new to it. But he was no longer the shy, awkward brat and would never become it again.
"You have my attention", he said. If a Slytherin, and the top dog at that, wanted to make a deal with him, the perceived greatest enemy of all Slytherin, then he'd better give it some thought. It would probably be smart of him to at least hear her out. Besides, he was confident he could pick up on anything rotten in the deal. It wasn't without reason the hat had wanted to place him in Slytherin, and he'd felt that part of himself rearing its head a lot lately.
"You are now a part of a deadly tournament as I expect you have discovered", she said with an amused air. "And you also know that there is a good reason why 4th years such as us, should not be able to enter the tournament. We simply have not learned enough to hope to escape with our lives".
He let out an amused chuckle, though it held a slightly wheezy quality to it. The potions Madam Pomfrey had administered were doing their job, and at an incredible rate at that, but he still felt like he had been wrestling with a bear.
"But you do not agree it seems".
"Me?", she said in mock-indignation. "Who am I to contradict hundreds of year of tradition?"
His smile got a bit bigger. "You believe you would have a chance at winning this tournament? Okay, you got me", he said concentrating solely on her. "So how would this help me?"
"In the history of the tournament it is not unknown that some competitors get… outside help."
He stared levelly at her, not really opposed to what she was suggesting. He just wanted to survive the damn thing, though winning did have its appeal.
"So you are… suggesting, that I get outside help?", he asked getting a nod from the blonde. "And I suppose that outside help would be you?", he received another nod. "So what would this help entail?"
A dazzling smile met his question. "Well, would you not agree that it is better to be prepared?"
He was starting to catch on.
"Yes I would. Unfortunately for me, the people who know about this are not exactly willing to divulge such information", he shrugged, while grinning inwardly. He was playing Slytherin games.
"I know of someone who might be willing to divulge this… information", Daphne said sultrily, having discreetly pulled her chair closer and placed a hand on his.
"Would this help also include some sort of private tutoring?", he said, lifting his free hand to play with one of her dirty blonde locks.
Her eyes glossed over, and he found that he enjoyed this newfound confidence. Though touching her smooth skin certainly did feel lovely.
"So what is the price of all this… help?", he asked in a whisper as he stroked her cheek.
Her voice was low, but easily distinguishable in the quiet hospital wing.
"Me", she purred, leaning into his hand with her eyes closed.
He couldn't keep the shock of his face, though he quickly schooled his features. This wasn't what he had expected, though if he was honest with himself, he didn't know what he had been expecting. So he decided a little digging was in order.
"The price is you? Why don't you explain this a bit further for me?" he asked, his hand still slowly stroking her cheek.
"Mm", she said and nuzzled his hand. "My father is a Death Eater, and lately there has been some activity in the Death Eater circles. I will not serve the Dark Lord, and if I stay with my family much longer I will be married off to some potential Death Eater. I do not agree with Dumbledore on a lot of things, but he is right that he treats his followers like dirt." A shiver ran through her, but she only burrowed deeper into his hand. "You are my only sure-fire way out of this."
He made a small motion with his hand, indicating she should come up and sit beside him, and she quickly grabbed the chance and settled beside him on the hospital bed, though she did so gently. She took the liberty of snuggling up to his side, placing her body flush with his, and lay her head on his shoulder.
"So explain why you are so sure I am your only way out of this dilemma", his hand was again busy playing with her hair.
"I have been keeping an eye on you for a while, and I can see you are not as pure as everyone thinks, but I am sure you would never side with the Dark Lord", she murmured into his shoulder. "But if I swear on my magic and life to take you as my master, then I would legally and otherwise become your property, then the Greengrass family would lose all authority over me, and it would fall to you. Which means you would have to care for me, food, shelter and otherwise", she said and nuzzled even closer, draping a leg over him. "However I expect you to treat me properly, and not abuse me."
"So out of this deal I get information about the tournament, you train me for it, and you become my slave, and you get out of whatever plot your family is brewing right?", he asked after a while, and felt Daphne nod against his shoulder, and he could feel her tense in what he imagined to be anticipation. "Sounds like a wonderful deal for me. I get the most gorgeous woman in Hogwarts and get to demolish my competition."
As she heard his words, she relaxed but remained silent. He could feel a strange possessive urge build inside him, his blood was singing, pumping through his body. He gently tilted her chin, urging her to look into his eyes, her own eyes swimming with desire and anticipation, and a small amount of dread.
"Will you become mine?", he asked in a purr, cupping her cheek, and received an eager nod in return, and he again briefly wondered why she seemed so eager. He leaned to her ear and whispered. "Then be mine."
She drew back slightly, to look into his eyes, her own eyes shining and she reluctantly drew back and stood at the side of the bed and drew her wand.
"I, Daphne Julietta Greengrass, do hereby swear on my life and magic, to take Harry James Potter as my Master in all things, and serve him with my mind, body, soul and magic for eternity, never to betray him and always follow his command in all things", she intoned.
It all came out in a rush, and he stared at her. He had expected the Slytherin to make some sort of escape clause for use later on, but she hadn't. Why confused him even further, though he still saw no reason not to agree.
"So mote it be", he intoned, accepting his part of the deal, and she let out a relieved sigh.
"So mote it be", she said, finishing the pledging ritual and he felt a primal satisfaction, so far removed from how he had felt just days ago.
"Thank you accepting me Master." The Ice Princess of Slytherin said demurely, eyes focused below his.
He responded in a warm tone. "It was my pleasure Daphne. Now look me into the eyes. ", he waited for his eyes to catch those of the girl before him. "Good, know this Daphne. Just because you are my slave, it does not lessen your worth as a person, it was a necessary evil for you, and a lucky one for me."
He knew how it sounded, it sounded arrogant, stuck-up, stupid and a lot of other things. But somehow it felt like it was true.
Her eyes got a happy gleam, glittering with pride. "Thank you Master."
He chuckled and patted the place beside him again.
"You're welcome", he said mirthfully. "But when we are in public, at least for the meantime, you must call me Harry."
"Yes Master", she answered as she settled in beside him.
DB -
Harry was going through several books on dragons, trying to gain any advantage he could before he had to face the beast.
He had already gotten several ideas on how to deal with it out of Daphne, by covert means, all of them very enjoyable for both parties, though nothing substantial had happened. Daphne had been eager to help him. One of the ideas would if what she said was true, be an experience of a lifetime, and would leave repercussions throughout the wizarding world, or at least that was what she had said.
Daphne had stayed a couple of hours, where they shared some of their experiences with one another, as the first step towards getting to know each other. Daphne had known quite a lot about him beforehand, though most of it was conclusions she had drawn as the most possible scenario and so forth, but still it was almost scary how easily she had pinpointed most of his life.
The Greengrass' were actually large Voldemort supporters. They were well-known in pureblood society, and actually wielded quite a lot of influence, both political as well as monetary, though they didn't claim the spotlight like the Malfoy family. They preferred to pull the strings from the shadows, and most often did things through proxies. Privacy was an important thing for them. This also reflected on their home, which according to Daphne was behind multiple wards, all designed to keep unwanted visitors away.
He could only conclude that the Greengrass' were very reclusive.
Though, apparently they were financial geniuses, and were educated in politics almost as soon as they could talk, and fortunately for him, so was Daphne.
He had to admit that she was sharp, very much so, and intelligent to rival Hermione, though the vaunted Greengrass reclusiveness reared its head here, where she held back in most subjects so as not to draw unnecessary attention to her.
Oh, she would be something to be reckoned with when he set her loose. She would cause so much chaos, he could almost see it, and at least she could now that she had access to his political influence, and though not overly grand, the fortune from his trust vault was still more fairly large, and as it was he had barely even touched it.
When he had been little, he had always wished to have a lot of money, all to himself, but when he got it, he'd had absolutely no idea as to what to spend it on. Though he had an inkling that Daphne knew what to invest his money in.
After an enlightening talk with Daphne, she had mentioned that she would rather not return to the Slytherin house, and requested that he find her new lodgings, or allow her to find accommodations herself. He had just waved it off, and grinned as he told her the directions to a room, that was always changing.
He had found the Room of Requirement by sheer coincidence at the start of this year, or more specifically, soon after he had been picked by the Goblet of Fire as the second Tri-Wizard Champion to represent Hogwarts. The general populace had not been very happy with that, and that was true among all three schools.
However among them all, there were few that appeared not to loathe him, and funnily enough, these were among the foreign schools, most prominent among these were Fleur and Krum, though neither had really showed any positive feelings towards him either. They were strangely neutral, and the few students among them that didn't hate his guts took the same stance. Fleur however always treated him politely, and she seemed like someone who would make an excellent friend. But the neutrality with Fleur seemed to have shifted towards him now, and she treated him politely, and even flirted with him.
More so than people he had known for years at Hogwarts.
Actually Hogwarts seemed to be the place that took him being appointed a Champion worst. They had all in an instant turned their backs on him, people he'd known for years, or so he thought, avoided him like the plague or muttered insults about him to their friends, when he couldn't help but overhear. People began to get hostile against him, not violent, but he was being excluded from everything, even the teachers seemed to be looking upon him with disappointed looks. Apart from that, there had been plenty of friction between him and the rest of the Gryffindors. But that was mostly because he had stopped being the little naïve kid and had stood up for himself. They had threatened him with a house ban. It was almost unheard of, the last house ban was some and 150 years ago, that person had also been a Gryffindor, though the reasons for that were pretty blurred. But he was pretty sure they were just blowing out hot air, besides he doubted they actually would tally up all they required support to pull it through.
Truth be told, this was not really new to him, after all, he had been the victim of something similar in his second year, with the Chamber of Secrets and people accusing him of bring the heir of Slytherin. But now that he thought about it, and had gotten over that 'all Slytherins are despicable'-thing, he actually wouldn't have minded being the heir of Slytherin. To be able to trace ones line back to the founders. That would be something.
But it really mattered little to him, bloodlines were just that, blood, and to him ties of family meant little. It might be the side effect of living with Petunia, Vernon and Dudley, and he had found that he let his life be dictated by his dead parents, as well as his views on life. He had lived alone up till now, and had, at least in his own opinion been leeching off of the Weasley family, using them like crutches.
He would stand on his own legs now. He would no longer pretend to be who his parents would have wanted him to be. He would be who he really was; he would no longer be the attention-starved puppy.
This was why he wouldn't back down, not for his housemates, not for anyone. He'd done enough of that throughout his life.
But despite this new attitude, this situation was also different from the one in his second year. Even his friends, Hermione and Ron were against him this time. Maybe they were not outright hostile, well Ron was, calling him an attention-seeking brat again, but Hermione didn't believe him when he said he wasn't the one who put his name in the cup. But they had already been withdrawing themselves from him, since his new attitude.
Things had obviously changed, and even if it meant that he had to sacrifice his friendship because they wouldn't accept him now, then so be it.
All in all, he was more alone than ever, or so he had thought, he hadn't really counted on Fleur or Daphne.
Though he was initially sad about his friends, he hadn't taken it as hard as he had expected. It was probably for the better anyway, they had been extremely fickle, and he'd come to the conclusion that he should start thinking more about himself.
He felt strangely upbeat.
Who would have known ridding oneself of the care about other people's prejudices could be so wonderful, that it could feel so great. So liberating.
His spirits were high.
He shook his head and cleared his mind of such thoughts.
After all he had research and training to do.
Well he already had several contingency plans. So he was pretty confident that he would at least make it through the task.
He was however getting pretty bored, it was the middle of the afternoon, and he had yet to see anyone but Madam Pomfrey, and though she was a lovely lady, she was usually a bit too bossy and had a tendency to do all that motherly smothering. Though he had a sneaking suspicion that it had stopped being motherly.
To be honest, having Madam Pomfrey flirt with you, while you were bedridden, were quite scary, and had probably fed him enough stuff for nightmares to last him a long time.
He couldn't help the chill that ran up his spine, nor could he stop himself from desperately wishing someone would liberate him from this day of boredom and horror. But he had also been forced to seek refuge behind these books. Though the one Daphne had implored him to read, really was quite fascinating, and as per her instructions, he had spent some hours meditating.
The book was titled 'Mind Magic', and was a fascinating read. Admittedly, Legilimens did sound dodgy, but everyone was always prying into his life, so he felt it was reasonable that he return the favor. It also contained knowledge of the counterpart Mindmagic Occlumency, and he could honestly understand why Daphne had stressed how important it was to learn the art of defending one's mind. So he had done as she requested and had used a few hours of the day to clear his mind, and it had actually gone quite well, but if what Daphne said was true, it would take a week or two before he could really begin to build his defenses.
She hadn't explained the process of building shields very thoroughly, but she had said that he should not worry himself about such things yet. Instead he should focus his remaining time on working on the contingency plans.
So he did. She had lent him a book about curses and various spells affective against dragons, and other armored beasts. The trick about these spells were that they were a bit beyond NEWT level, but Daphne had assured him that he should be able to get the hang of the trick needed to perform the spells, and be able to cast a few of them. It was all about visualizing the spell penetrate the hide of the dragon, because they biggest mistake that people often tend to make when dealing with such creatures is to unleash their most powerful spells on them, but that would not really help if they weren't able to pierce the skin, but the troubles didn't end with just getting through the hide. One curse would never be enough to bring down a dragon with a fully developed hide, that is, unless he supercharged his spell, but that would require almost all the magical power his core could produce at the time, and therefore if something went wrong he would be unable to deal with it. All in all, trying to one shot the giant beast wasn't the greatest plan, since it would depend on whether or not he could accurately hit one of its vital spots.
The anatomy of dragons and that of humans were vastly different, much more so than one would think. Most of dragon's vital organs were enveloped in either very leathery skin or encased in bone, making it infinitely difficult to strike the beast and leave a fatal wound. At least his research so far said that it was so with Horntails, and most other subspecies. But the way to bring down a dragon was to focus solely on one point of the beast, and strike it repeatedly until the dragon was forced to back off in order to tend to injuries, or one could use the dragon handlers way of doing with, by overpowering it with so many spells that even its own inherent magical resistance would not be enough to keep it standing. But for some reason he doubted he could compel anyone from the audience to fight for him, so he would have to go with the solo course, where he focused on a single point.
Of course he would only go on the offense if his other contingency plans didn't work, of course it wasn't nearly as glamorous to transfigure rocks around them into small animals or other similar things to annoy the dragon, and draw it's attention away from him, nor would it be as fun to charm rocks to repeatedly strike the beast in the head. But they would still probably work. Maybe he could transfigure some of the rock into various instruments and charm them to play a symphony or something, surely that would distract the beast, and if he at the same time disillusioned himself, he could probably make it work. He would have to ask Daphne how one would go about doing that when she came to visit him.
At least it would spice up this tournament a bit, bring in a bit of laughter.
Transforming stuff into instruments wasn't that tough, he had already learned that earlier in the year, and he'd spent some time looking up which spell needed to make them play after that, actually he had gone to Flitwick with that question. He had been a bit out of it when he asked him; else he doubted that he would have provided the answer, since even the diminutive professor had seemed to be a little taken aback by the election of him as a Champion. But as it was he had gotten what he needed, and was happy about it. All he needed to do was to ask Daphne if she knew any variations of the spells that would allow for multiple and various instrument to play.
He sighed and closed the book. He knew all that he needed to know about the dragon he was up against, he well prepared and confident he could deal with it.
The hours passed by slowly, especially with Madam Pomfrey flirting with him, or Poppy as she wanted him to call her now. He had nothing better to do than to spend some time working on his transfiguration, by turning the chairs and the likes into instruments and charmed them to play. But all in all being cooped up in the hospital wing was boring.
He was going out of his mind.
"Ahh, can this get any more boring?", he said loudly, staring out the window. Annoyance was obvious in his voice.
"It probably could, but luckily for you I am here to keep you company now…", came a melodious voice from behind him, and he couldn't help but smile. He had gotten to know that voice very well last night and he would be able to recognize it anywhere. "Master."
He turned around to see Daphne looking at him with a broad smile, which he readily returned; it didn't feel at all weird to be called Master.
"I was wondering when you would get here", he said returning the smile. "It was almost about to do something drastic."
"I am sorry to keep you waiting Master, but as per your orders I had to wait to before coming here, as I did not want to draw attention to myself. Though I really did miss you", she said sultrily and sauntered over to him and gracefully sat in the chair. "So how has your day been so far, aside for boring?"
He leaned back and sighed. "It has been very dull, and I have been very bored. I've already gone over all the plans for the first task and I should be fully ready when you tell me the trick behind penetrating the hide of the dragon, and I have also been doing the meditation you have asked me to. It was actually quite easy", he smiled. "Oh, that reminds, do you know any spells to mass transform multiple and various instruments and get them to a play a symphony, I only know how the spell work involved is supposed to be done when I'm doing it on one instrument at a time, and for what I have planned that will take too long."
Her face set in thoughtful folds and, and placed a finger on her chin. "Well, I seem to remember both McGonagall and Flitwick demonstrating similar skills in some of their classes, and I have seen some other higher years do them, so I do not think it will be too difficult to do it, at least not the Charms part since I know that already and can teach you, but I will have to check in with McGonagall first, and make some inquiries if I cannot find anything in any books today."
"Great, then I am more than halfway there", he said. "By the way Daphne, have I ever told you, you look incredibly good when you think?"
She smiled at him, and a small blush lit up her cheeks. "You have now. But you know I can look sexy doing other things as well", she said and picked up one of the books laying spread over his bed sheet, and by the gods she was right, the way she stretched forth accentuated her sizeable bosom, and showed her taut body. Luckily for him, she was again wearing a skirt and a tight shirt this time, and it showed off her well-toned body nicely.
"I am sure you can, and I am eager to find out all the different ways you look sexy, however, for now we will have to put it off. Tell me about your day, and how the school is. How did the Slytherin react to you?"
He was genuinely interested and concerned, she was after all his responsibility now, and he would shoulder it. Besides right now she was his only connection to the world outside of the hospital wing, at least until Fleur possibly came to visit him. For some reason he felt that, that prospect was very likely.
"Not much to tell really. My day went as it always did, I had Transfiguration and History of Magic, though I suspect a few Slytherin of knowing that I was not back in my dorm room last night, as I got a few stares, but no one made any trouble for me. So I doubt we have to worry about that yet, though I would like to again point out that this ruse will not hold for much longer, Master."
"How long do you think we might be capable of keeping this up?"
She again put on that thoughtful look. "Well, I suspect that maybe only one or two weeks at best and that are only because my father will be on a business trip, so he will not be capable of examining the family tapestry. But when he returns he will without a doubt know that I am no longer part of the Greengrass family."
He frowned. "What about your mother? Does she often check the tapestry as well?"
"No Master. Only my father spends time going over the tapestry regularly, there is the off chance that one of my sisters might stumble upon it, but that is very unlikely."
"Okay", he said slowly. "So realistically speaking, how long do you think we have?"
"It all depends on whether or not the negotiation with the company father is visiting goes well or not. But I would say about a week."
"Not as much time as I would have wanted, but it is nothing drastic. We will just have to find accommodations for ourselves somewhere in this castle that no one will happen upon, and people cannot break into. Would you happen to know any? The place needs to be spacious, of course to suit our needs, and hopefully be hidden away from prying eyes."
"I am not sure Master. I will have to check it out, but I doubt I will be able to find anything that fits that description perfectly within such a short time span", she said, a grim expression on her face.
"Well, when I get out of here I will have a little something that will hopefully make the search easier. If not we will just have to go to the best authority on Hogwarts secrets there is", he said grinning slightly.
"Oh, and may I enquire as to what this item and this authority is?", she asked, curiosity laced in her voice.
"Well, the item will have to wait for now, and as for the informant, well let's just say that not all the house-elves here is loyal to Dumbledore. If all else fails Dobby might be able to provide with information about such a safe place here within Hogwarts."
"Dobby? You mean the Malfoy house elf?", disbelief written across her face.
He chuckled. "Yes Dobby, and he is no longer employed by the Malfoy's, I tricked little Lucy…", he said trying to imitate the noble. "Into setting him free, and apparently he has become quite attached to me since then."
"Malfoy did mention something about rotten houseelves in passing when we started our third year. He seemed quite agitated about it."
Harry snorted. "You mean he bitched and whined?"
"Yes, that is basically what he did. Apparently he did not have the same comforts that summer as he was used to, and he saw fit to inform the rest of this quite often in the beginning."
He snickered. "Well it definitely sounds like him. But enough about that git", he pinned her with a warm smile. "Tell me about that charm."
She seemed momentarily lost, then seemed to understand what he was talking about. "Very well Master. Do I even want to know what you are going to use it for?"
"Probably not, but trust me, if I pull it off it will be the talk of the school for the next many weeks, and at least it will be fun for me", he said with a devious glint in his eyes.
"I will be looking forward to it", she said warmly. "The spell is actually just a slight modification from the original one you are probably using, the only thing different is that you need to concentrate that much more as you need to envision all the instruments playing, luckily for you, the Occlumency should help here, and of course it will tax your magic accordingly, but since it is already such a weak spell and hardly require any magical energy at all, it will be negligent and therefore you would probably not even notice any great difference."
"The only thing really different between this spell and the original one is that you change the chant slightly, and as I said, focus on all the instruments. Of course with the additional piece to the chant you will also need to add an additional wand movement, though it is rather easy", she drew her wand from what he assumed was a holster hidden in her sleeve, and gracefully brandished the oaken wand. "Watch."
She made a circle and crossed a line through it.
He looked genuinely puzzled. "Are you saying that, that is all there is to it?"
"Yes Master", was her amused reply.
"So what is the additional piece of the chant?"
"It is _'Cunctus'_, it just goes in the start of the spell, and everything should work out. Though I would probably recommend that you spend a little time getting acquainted with it while you are… detained in here", she said good-humoredly, and he couldn't help but groan at that remark. He actually felt quite fine, admittedly he doubted he could wrestle with a bear, but then again he doubted he could that before. But he felt almost completely healthy, and most of it was just cramps from lying still in bed all day.
"That is easy for you to say, you are not the one being imprisoned in here", he grumbled. "Oh, I have a little assignment for you, it shouldn't be too hard and you have a great deal of time to do it."
"What is it about?"
"I need to know how the other Champions are doing, or more specifically just Diggory and Krum, you do not have to worry about miss Delacour I already have that part in hand", he said with a devious smile.
"I will keep an eye on them Master, as much as I will be capable of without seeming suspicious. Though as you might know, keeping an eye on Krum will be very difficult, as the Bulgarians do not readily trust anyone. So I will possible have to resort to more inappropriate means of gathering intelligence."
His eyes narrowed. "And what would these means be Daphne?", he asked suspiciously.
Her eyes widened. "No, I did not mean it like that Master. I am talking about more frowned upon means, means that are illegal."
"Please continue."
"I could always take them into custody, and use certain… tools, that will loosen their tongue, it will be less than pleasant for them, but they will not be able to remember anything when I am done, and I will never reveal my identity to them."
He mulled it over for a few seconds. "You may proceed, use whatever means you deem necessary", his eyes narrowed as he looked at her. "Within limits."
"Yes Master, thank you Master."
His demeanor suddenly became upbeat. "Would you like to play a game of chess with me?"
The heavy atmosphere lifted and they had plenty of fun of playing chess and chatting for a few hours, and Daphne had made several subtle inquiries about Fleur, though he could honestly understand why she would be interested in his connection with Fleur, but it wouldn't do for her to get possessive, especially not when he had just decided to reap some of the apparent benefits of his status as a famous person.
Unfortunately time flew by and soon it was time to sleep again, and as uncomfortable as it was, he had gotten used to the way Pomfrey acted. Neither Hermione nor Ron had come by to visit him, though from what Daphne had told him they didn't seem to have the intention of actually visiting, and though he shouldn't be surprised, he actually was a bit. They had after all been friends for a few years, though if he was to be honest their relationship was built on a need for recognition on all parts. Him because of his childhood, Hermione due to her lack of friends and Ron because he was so often overlooked by his family because of its size.
The golden trio, it would be more accurate to call it the crippled trio. Problem was that they were one member short as he had removed himself from the equation, and apparently the current members were shunning him. Though he supposed it was a good thing for both of them, maybe spending some time together would open their eyes. Gods knew they had been beating around the bush, and it was really frustrating to watch, and much more so to be a part of their games.
Daphne left him with a kiss on the cheek, promises to visit him again before he was released from the 'tender' care of Madam Pomfrey and a reminder for him to keep practicing meditation, and visualizing his minds environment. She seemed to have become better at controlling herself around him, though she still had that hungry look about her.
Hours went, and the sky became darker and darker, and Madam Pomfrey eventually left him alone, to retreat to her own quarters. Problem was, he couldn't sleep, he simply wasn't tired and he still felt full of energy. So he had conjured a small glowing ball of white light, so he could continue to read his Transfiguration book, he was almost all the way through it, having done every spell almost perfectly, perhaps Transfiguration was just easier than he normally thought.
Or maybe he was just more focused now.
DB -
She was ecstatic.
This had to be it. It was the perfect explanation, it fit perfectly. It required a bit more research than she had initially thought, but it was all worth it. There had never been any sort of predecessor to such an incident as this. Sure the other races had similar cases, but none quite like this. It was extraordinary, no it was spectacular. She was the witness of a new height of history.
But people could not find out. He would become a government project; they would surely experiment on him. She would keep this under wraps for now.
She gave a loud whoop of joy, causing several of the French girls nearby to look at her with suspicious stares. Which she just ignored as she packed up her books, it had only required three books to solve the mystery, and fortunately for her, the book she had been keeping for light reading before she went to sleep nowadays proved to hold the key. 'Awakening Species' was a fantastic piece of work, that along with 'Creatures of Passion' and 'Seeds of Lust' had handed her the answer.
She shrank the books and placed them in her pocket once again. A quick bath later and she was ready to go, books in her pocket and so forth.
As she rose, her stomach gave a loud growl, and figured that maybe a quick stop by the Great Hall would not be completely amiss. Besides luck seemed to be with her today, because a quick 'tempus' spell later showed that her research had ended right in time for dinner to be served. She had fallen asleep early in the morning as she had been up all night studying, and had therefore missed breakfast, and because of that she had simply immersed herself in the books again, and had missed lunch. At that point she had been completely alone in the French dorm room, and had simply missed it because she was unaware of the time.
As she merrily, almost skipped, down the corridors, she drew many looks, but completely disregarded them.
The Great Hall was bustling with students and chatter as she walked in, and not many noticed her. She took a seat at the Ravenclaw table amongst her fellow Beauxbaton students, and ignored the excited murmuring around her and all the stares directed at her. She was after all famished enough to eat this greasy English food, disgusting as it may be, it actually did taste quite delicious, or that may just be her stomach talking. Either way, she wasn't complaining when she poured another portion of food onto her plate.
She would have to work it off later. A wicked idea crossed her mind. She should probably bring Harry along with her, the gods knew that he could use it; a little physical conditioning would do him good, as well as her. She licked her lips at the thought.
She was broken out of her thoughts by a voice addressing her. A tall guy stood behind her, from her estimate he was probably a 6th year. He was a bit handsome and he did have a charming smile. But what he didn't seem to realize was that she was not the one to be played easily, and a charming smile was only that, a charming smile. She however was the one to play others, the one who wound them around her finger.
Besides, she already knew by his posture why he was there; he was acting like any other guy who wanted to take her on a date.
"Yes?", she answered politely, she did after all have an image to maintain. It all hitched on seeming to be approachable and not totally out of reach. But seeming possible and being possible was two different things, and that was where her power over the masses lay.
His smile broadened, and she could see pearly teeth. "My name is Peter Zerbst", he said and held out a hand.
She smiled graciously at him, but disregarded the hand he held out, but his smile only faltered a bit as he withdrew it. "A pleasure", she said. "I assume you know me?", she asked sweetly, and the French students tittered in laughter, which the boy ignored. She had to give it to him, the boy had guts.
"I have yet to make your acquaintance, but yes, everyone knows of the Beauxbaton Champion, Fleur Delacour, who lured a rogue dragon away from the bystanders and somehow forced it into a deep slumber", he let out a little laugh. "Yes, I believe everyone knows of you."
She covered her mouth as she forced out a small laugh, playing the part of the damsel perfectly. "You flatter me too much", she said in a delighted tone, though she was disappointed by the disregard for Harry's participation.
He waved it off. "Not at all, not at all. After all credit where credit's due."
She pretended to be amused. "So what can I help you with mister Zerbst?"
"I was wondering if you would do me the honor of letting me escort you to the Yuletide Ball", he said smoothly. Now that threw her for a loop, not his proposal, but the entire business of the ball.
This explained why there were required to bring along a ball gown. She had assumed that it was just for a formal function, but this was much better. Oh, this opened up entirely new venues. Harry beware, hunting season was now in.
"What ball?", she asked innocently.
He blinked owlishly for a few seconds. "The Yuletide Ball, it was announced at the start of tonight's dinner", he said clearly.
"Oh, tell me a bit about it".
"It is a ball in honor of the Tri-Wizard tournament, as well as in honor of growing bonds between our three schools", he explained.
"When is it supposed to be held?"
"In a month's time, at Christmas."
"I see", she said and ran a finger along her chin.
"So will you allow me to escort you?", he asked, a charming smile in place yet again.
She looked up at him again, and then disregarded him again. "No", she said coolly. "Now go away."
Peter Zerbst turned an amazing red, closely resembling purple, spluttering incomprehensibly for a few seconds, then turned and tried to escape with his dignity intact, but with his tail between his legs. Figuratively speaking of course, he after all didn't have a tail.
He had been totally emasculated in front of three schools; this should properly discourage future suitors, though a hopeful few would probably still try. But that fit her perfectly, image and all that. But as lovely her day had been, Harry's situation took precedence.
They, the Champions, would probably be expected to perform some function in relation to this ball, but odds were that they wouldn't be told before Harry was let out of the Hospital Wing.
She ate the remains of her meal in silence, contemplating all that had happened in the last week. She had been chased by a dragon, put it to sleep via an unprecedented phenomenon among the veela, researched and maybe discovered something that would rock the foundation of the wizarding world… in due time of course.
It seemed everything was going her way, which was just fine with her.
She was not bothered by more date proposals during the rest of her meal, and none bothered her as she got up and exited the Great Hall, but a few French students got up and followed. They kept their silence until they were wandering in some of the more deserted corridors.
Louise, the leader of this little gaggle of girls, stepped in front of her, and puffed herself up, which actually was a quite impressive sight. She was one of the more beautiful girls from Beauxbaton, without a doubt. Not many normal humans could stand up to her and still come up with their head held high. She was not an overly tall girl, she was perhaps half a head lower than Fleur herself, with a more slender athletic build. She worked to keep herself in top shape, and because of that she also had an exquisite tan, a delicious dark golden brown. Her face structure was much more delicate. A pair of rosy red lips, and a slender face with high cheek bones, framed by waist length raven black hair. However her body was well-developed, with a curvy waist, and a plump inviting bosom, the body of a ripe young woman.
Louise was in the same year as she, and she had always had a competitive streak, especially towards Fleur, and had viewed herself as Fleur's rival since early on. It seemed to annoy her to no end that Fleur had such an easy time in most things, and she knew it irked Louise to no end when she simply brushed off her rivalry. Louise was strongly against her, if not outright hated her, and she had gathered other like-minded people around her, and most were standing around her in this deserted corridor.
But she wasn't worried, partially because she had a sort of immunity while this tournament was up and running, and because it was not Louise's style to do something so crude as to curse her. No odds were that she wanted to threaten her, and then just go away again.
Though honestly she had no idea what she was angry about this time, she had after all been pretty much secluding herself since she had gotten back from the hospital wing.
The puffed up French stared at her venomously, and she sighed and rolled her eyes.
"What is it Louise? I do not have time to chit chat with you. I have places to be", she said, letting some of her current impatience reflect in her voice. True she might just brush off her rivalry, but truth be told, this girl almost always got under her skin, and she never really had much patience with her.
Louise's eyes narrowed. "You should know that you are not the only one after him", she snapped. Despite the nature of the comment, everyone could clearly hear the beautiful voice she had, and it was not without good reason that she sang as a hobby. Louise left with a loud 'hmph', and her black locks flew wildly behind her, and the gaggle of girls right behind her, they occasionally sent a dirty look back towards her.
Fleur couldn't help but become a bit confused, after all, what was that supposed to mean.
Then it struck her, and she laughed in anticipation. This was almost too good to be true, and with this she would hit two birds with one stone.
Did poor Louise really think she could compete with her, especially when it came to him? If she was serious, then she would have another thing coming to her, and she would be more than willing to show her the error of her ways. Shame the poor girl would be completely crushed, if she wouldn't surely enjoy it so much, then she might have almost felt sorry.
Well everything in its own time, one thing she was sure of, there would be entertainment in abundance. With that in mind she quickly collected herself and hurried towards her destination.
She walked into the hospital wing to see Harry with his nose in a book. She now understood why she was feeling so different now, but she also knew fighting it was futile. One thing surprised her however, the feeling was much stronger than yesterday, almost frighteningly so. She actually did feel sorry for the nurse who had been under this effect the entire day. It must have been pure torture on both accounts.
She couldn't help the giggle that burst forth, and it caught the attention of Harry, and when his head drew up to regard her, an almost feral grin was on his face, and she could feel her heart rate increase drastically. She realized then that in this game he was the one who was going to lead, and she follow, because with him, there no other choice, there was no middle way.
But that didn't mean she would make it easy, she would make the hunt thrilling.
"Hello Fleur", his voice sent delightful shivers down her back. "I was hoping you would come by".
She smiled brightly at him. "Wish granted. Anything else you want?"
"There are many things I want, many fun and wonderful things", he said in a near whisper and gestured her closer, and she found both her body and her mind all too willing to comply with the command.
She was at his bedside now. "But do you want to know what I would truly love right now?", he purred, and she eagerly nodded.
"Would you like to…", he said and smiled charmingly, and no matter what anyone said this was a charming smile, and she felt as if her knees were about to give out. She leaned closer to him, to hear what he said.
"Get me a glass of water?", he suddenly said and pointed to the glass on the bedside table. It took a few seconds for her brain to process what he said, and when it hit her, she felt extremely foolish.
"Of course, let me just get it", she said, feeling very flustered. She grabbed the glass and filled it by the same basin as yesterday. She felt a small pang of sadness that he wouldn't need help to drink today, but she quickly squashed it. She couldn't feel sorry that he wasn't hurt anymore.
When his hand touched hers as he accepted the glass from her, a jolt ran through her and it took an amazing amount of willpower to stop from jumping. She quickly took the same seat as she sat in yesterday, and took a hold of herself, albeit with great difficulty. She could get all cow-eyed over him later, she had important things to tell him, and discuss with him today. She almost laughed at the image of herself going cow-eyed over anyone, it was almost hilarious, but true nonetheless, but she had to focus on the important thing here.
Problem was, she didn't know how to break the news. "'Arry?", she started uncertainly.
He quickly emptied the glass and focused a stare on her, and she again had to steel herself as his gorgeous green eyes turned on her, she couldn't allow herself to be derailed.
Then a brilliant idea struck her, hopefully it functioned in a similar way.
"Yes, what is it Fleur?", he asked in a calm voice as he put the glass down again.
"I want you to try something, okay?", she was a bit nervous of sounding like a loon, and besides that, if it didn't work, it would make it that much harder for her.
"Why not, I am immensely bored here anyway, so I might as well make the time pass", he said with an indulgent smile. "So what is it you want me to do?"
"Have you ever tried to reach your magical core?", this was a part of her education as well as her heritage, she was somewhat an expert in this field.
"No, I am actually not quite sure about it, I might have. I have only read a bit of theory on it, and that is not much, but would I be correct to assume that my core might look like a glowing sun or something?", he asked, chin raised in thought.
"Oui, but I do not think it would actually be a glowing sun, for most people it would be like a bright good sized ball of light", she explained, immersing herself in theory helped her a bit. "But this means you have seen your core?"
He laughed sheepishly. "Well, I have recently started meditating, you know to prepare to build Occlumency defenses, and during this meditation I pictured myself standing on a meadow, but in front of me was a huge glowing ball, I could not even look directly at it."
That bore food for thought, but it would have to wait. If he had truly found his magical core then this should be easy. "'Arry, I want you to try and enter that meadow again, but when you do, look after another flowing ball, it should probably hold a deep red color, it should be easy to see, okay?"
"Okay, but what do I do when I find it?"
"When you do, try imagining a thin piece of cloth covering it, since it is your mindscape, it should manifest it, just make sure the small red ball is covered for now okay?"
He nodded and closed his eyes.
She breathed quietly; he needed all the peace he could to do this. The relaxed expression on his face made him seem much more relaxed and natural. She remembered the boy she had seen in the start of the year, he had always seemed so fake, but gradually he had seemed to ease up, and despite the drastic change in his personality, he had seemed more sincere than ever, and at this exact moment, just looking at him, she knew the person he had become was more true to himself, no one could completely fake a nature that wasn't one's own. It was to see just by looking at him. The tenseness was gone, and he just generally seemed more relaxed.
She was a bit worried that it might not work for him, but they would never know if they didn't try. This was a unique case, there could be no true thinking before he acted, aside from common sense, and this was trial and error in its truest sense. Hopefully at least this part would be similar, but only time would tell. Unfortunately for her, the fact that he was trying to make it easier didn't actually help her right now, and she found it strangely exciting to see him sitting there with closed eyes, dressed in a hospital gown, it made no sense but it was true nonetheless.
Seconds passed into minutes, and before she knew it ten minutes had gone by, and he was still sitting there, completely still and focused, but she dared not interrupt him. The matter could probably be a completely different, and he would have to go about it differently.
After another ten minutes had gone by, her resolve to not disturb had weakened greatly, and she found herself close to shaking him when suddenly she felt a drastic decrease in pressure in the air, the sexual attraction was still there without a doubt, and the edge was still as sharp, but somehow it had been dulled to manageable levels, and she could actually think fairly straight, and waited for him to awaken. But he did not and she would have worried if she had not known that there would be nothing in his mind that would hurt him. After all every person's subconscious desire is to survive, and the only thing that could hurt him in there was him, and only truly if he was foolish enough to meddle with his core, but she was confident he wouldn't do that.
Ten minutes later he opened his eyes, and sent a warm smile at her.
"Red orb you say?", he said with a faint air of amusement. "It might just be me, but there were two balls in there besides my magical core, one was a ball where green and red was constantly in movement, woven into each other, the other was completely silver, and it shone brightly as well, except not as brightly as my core, I can't imagine why I haven't noticed it before", he shrugged. "Well, anyways since you didn't tell me there would be two balls I had to discover which was what, but when I approached the red and green one, I just _felt_ that I should not touch it, that it would be dangerous to meddle with it, so I simply let it be. The silver orb however proved to be far easier than I would have imagined it to be, size and all. I conjured a piece of cloth around it all you told me to".
He scratched his chin. "Oh yea, and whatever that silver ball was, it was awesome, when I touched it, I _felt_ complete, like a part of me had been missing and had suddenly been returned. It was an amazing feeling. So thanks to your advice of making whatever I think in my mindscape to reality I made a sort of switch for whatever that silver orb was. As it is now, I should be able to tweak it with just a thought."
As if to prove his words the pressure in the room skyrocketed and she was instantly breathing heavily, and she felt her arousal skyrocket to unimaginable levels. Then just as suddenly it was gone, and everything was back to normal, she was however still panting as if she had run ten miles.
"Ahh, it works", he exclaimed happily, not even looking at her.
"What did you do?", she asked uncertainly, though it was a lot easier to think now, though what he had done was just unheard of, the speed of the adaption was amazing, but to create this sort of connection between his conscious and subconscious mind had never happened. People who knew themselves well enough could enter their subconscious and change the properties of her powers; of course they could only change within the parameters that their own powers set. These people could do this in the blink of an eye.
He smiled. "I just did what you said. You said whatever I imagined would become real right?", at a nod from her he continued. "Well using that as a base, I thought of a muggle contraption called a switch, but whatever it is, would probably be uncomfortable if I put it on at full power. So I made a hundred switches, each one representing a different percentage of power, climbing to one hundred. This makes it easier to manage", he explained proudly.
She realized he had a good reason for being proud. This was almost unreal, how could he keep doing these things.
"But that does not explain how you connected your conscious and your subconscious mind. So how did you do it?", she questioned.
His brow furrowed. "Well, I realized how much of a bother it would have been to renew such a bond constantly, so simply anchoring it was out of the question. Somehow I could always feel the other part of my mind, so I took your advice to heart again and imagined a doorway between the two, and it worked. So I simply drew a connection from the orb and permanently tied on the other side of the doorway."
"Well", she said slowly. "That does actually make sense. You will have to show me how exactly you did that some time."
"Sure, but might I ask why you are here? Seeing as my devilishly good looks was not enough to draw you here sooner, then it must definitely have been my charming and brilliant personality", he said, immediately back to his carefree attitude.
"Could it not be that I was simply too shy to come back here until now?" she said in a shy tone, befitting of the words she were saying.
He merely snorted. "Fleur Delacour, shy? You have got to be kidding me? Do you actually expect me to buy that?"
She laughed. "I suppose not. But I actually did want to talk to you about something", she said as she looked around. "You think it is safe to talk here?"
"I believe so, but you are of course welcome to check for eavesdropping spells, and put up some privacy charms if you want to. I for one would not mind some privacy with you". She smiled at him, but still did as he suggested and cast the privacy charms.
"'Arry, what I am about to tell you should remain a secret, and you should not trust anyone with this information", her tone impressed the seriousness upon him, and he focused on her and listened intently.
"You have my attention", he said seriously.
She took a deep breath and made herself comfortable. It would take some time to properly explain this.
"You know about Veela right?"
"To be honest I do not know that much about them as such, except they made me act as a fool at the Quidditch World Cup. That is about the extent of my knowledge, oh and you are a part Veela", he shrugged. "Why do you ask?"
"Then it seems I have a bit to explain. I am sorry if this seems abrupt, but do you know anything about Veela breeding habits?" It was an awkward and weird question, but it would make it easier to explain.
He seemed a bit puzzled, but the question didn't seem to bother him at all. "Well I would assume it is the same way as everyone else, you know. Male Veela meets female Veela, and they play a lengthy game of cash'n'prices, you know the horizontal tango."
"Ah, but that is where we hit the first bump in the road. There are no male Veela, or at least not in the sense you think."
Now he genuinely seemed confused. "That makes no sense, but then again, since you are part Veela I assume you can procreate with humans, but that would still not explain anything because then the Veela's would have been breed out of existence in a few centuries, and how does there still exist pureblood Veela's?"
"See this is where it all gets complicated. Yes, we would have been breed out centuries ago, had it not been for the ones with the dormant blood."
"Dormant blood? I do not follow."
"In the world of the Veela, it has always been the females with the awakened blood, it has always been like that", she said and took out her three shrunken books, and enlarged them. She took one of them, the title on the spine read 'Creatures of Passion'. She quickly leafed through it and found the page she was looking for. "'From the beginning of documented and undocumented Veela history, there has only ever been female Veela. They _are_ the Veela, only the females, and any boy that was born of unions with these, was given to the human to take care of and raise as one of their own. Never have it been any other way. Many believe it is because genetics and magic found women to be more suitable for the position of Veela.'"
She watched him closely as he digested this new piece of information.
He looked back up at her. "So you are saying that the Veela society is a strictly matriarchal society and because they are the only real Veelas. That might explain quite a bit about Veela, but that does not explain why there are still full Veelas. But you mentioned something about those with dormant blood, they must be the ones helping to keep the Veela race fully alive, so those must be the 'sort of' Veela right?"
"Oui," she grabbed another book and leafed through it, stopping at a specific page again. "This might offer a little more understanding. This book is called 'Seeds of Lust', listen to this. 'Both female and male carry the Veela gene, the genetic code making them who they are, but it is only in the female it is active. The male offspring of a Veela will carry the gene, but it will be a completely human boy, from sex appeal and appearance to capabilities. There have never been any reports of an active male Veela gene.'"
He again looked down to digest this new piece of information.
"So the male offspring of a Veela is actually completely human, but they carry this dormant Veela gene. So they carry the blood of a Veela but is still a human?"
"Yes", she said quietly. He would need time to think this through.
"Okay I think I understand it. But why tell me this? How does it concern me?"
"'Arry, have you noticed anything strange lately? Like anyone is acting strange lately?", she asked cautiously. They had finally gotten to the crux of the matter, the conclusion she had come to.
He looked at her strangely. "Now that you mention it, women seem a bit more susceptible to me…" his eyes widened. He had finally caught on. "Surely you cannot be serious. The book said it would never awaken, that such blood was dormant…"
"But I am quite certain. I have spent the entire time since I was here last till I got here again today, on researching and examining everything about this. This is the only explanation", she said calmly.
"But would it not also require me to have this gene, and I am quite sure my mother was not a Veela."
"It could have been you great-great-great-great-great grandmother for all it matters, no matter what the Veela gene always breeds true."
Silence descended upon both of them, and Fleur felt a bit awkward. But she refused to yield to her instincts who told her to hug him, and soothe his mind. He would need to come to terms with this.
"So that silver ball was…", he trailed off.
"The representation of your dormant powers awakening, yes."
"So you really think I am a…", he started but trailed off again,
"I believe you are, no I am completely certain you are in fact a male Veela," she said clearly. "The only one to ever exist."
"Well, that explains why Madam Pomfrey have been acting so scary", he said with a smile as he looked up again. It seemed she had been worried for naught.
"But luckily I can control it now", he said and the only warning she had was a devilish smile before she was assaulted by his aura.
DB -
Dumbledore leaned back in his big comfy chair and let out a big sigh.
Although the title of headmaster, especially that of Hogwarts, was a prestigious one, it still carried a lot of burdens and responsibilities. As such he rarely had time to enjoy the benefits one would reap by being one, and add the increased activity in the dark-related families and increased crime rates recently, he really was swamped with work.
Though it wasn't officially his work to deal with some of those functions, he had to take the job on his shoulders as well. The increase in activity legal and otherwise from former Death Eaters, known or not, had increased and the wizarding world was steadily becoming a darker and more dangerous. So he had taken on the mantle of protector again, and had been following the activity closely, trying to discern any form of pattern. But he could find none, and had no clue as to what they were actually doing if it was a coincidence or not.
Though he had to admit he was relieved at not finding a pattern, and that it all seemed to be done merely in random, and therefore probably had no link. But he was not senile enough or foolish enough to simply shelve the matter. That would only be stupid.
He knew Riddle was out there, all the recent major events had centered on him. The Philosopher's Stone three years ago, the 'sudden' reappearance of his diary two years ago, the attack at the Quidditch World Cup, and though the Death Eaters may not know that he was back, the world was steadily growing darker. Though nothing the likes of which was normal during Riddle's rise, it still had the touch of the same darkness, causing people to become wary as well as driving a wedge deeper and deeper in-between the races of the magical world. The progress there had been on ending werewolf segregation was almost non-existent now. Aggressiveness was increasing, hatred was nurtured and people, good and bad were creating enemies left and right.
Though nobody seemed to realize it, the world was in a poor state, and sometimes he felt like he was the only one holding it together. Many expectations were placed on him, people looked to him for guidance and he did his best to guide them. But no matter how he felt he had to admit that the wizarding world was falling to corruption, and already some of the newer generations were being corrupted, from the time they could walk. He was no fool, he knew there were quite a few Death Eaters almost certainly in training within the current members of Slytherin, but he was no fool, he knew there were others just like them in the others houses. Even Gryffindor was not impervious to this, they were cocky and quick tempered and believed themselves to be better than most, though not all, a substantial amount did.
All the houses had truly fallen, and he found there was nothing he could do. He was without a shadow of doubt certain that Riddle would return, and probably more powerful than he was the last time. The problem he faced was the same as he did then, he could not figure out how the mind of Riddle worked. Sure he knew all the general information about him, but everyone knew he was a blood purist, used violence as a tool and caused death as he wanted. He was not afraid to plunge the entire world into chaos to get what he wanted. Riddle felt above everyone, looking upon all others as insects, because he believed none could challenge him. He only had scarce knowledge of him when he went to Hogwarts. At that time he had been a brilliant and charming student, and no one would have suspected that he would become so evil, kill so many.
Dumbledore realized that he had made some mistakes that might have led Riddle onto the path he eventually walked, but he also knew that he was in no part responsible for the way he had turned out, and he knew blaming himself would not help matters, so he had set out to rectify those mistakes or the product of them.
Hopefully he could prevent as much damage from happening this time, as there had been the last time.
He popped a lemon drop into his mouth, and a small smile was playing on his lips.
He was getting too old for this.
A knock came from the door and he instantly recognized it as coming from Minerva, it was strict and prim like her, whereas that of Severus was short and sharp.
"Come in Minerva", he spoke loudly, and said woman strolled into his office. "What can I do for you tonight?", he asked in a pleasant tone.
She smiled shortly at him.
"I would like to know what you think of adding these additional subjects to the O.W.L. Transfiguration curriculum, professor", she said respectfully and handed him a few papers.
Ahh, the work of a headmaster was never truly over.
AN: I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and for those who didn't get their questions answered in the Authors Note, are more than welcome to bring them up in a review.
