Chapter 16
With a quick series of pops, five individuals winked into existence in the middle of a field that had once been used for farming. That had been long ago though. Now, it had the look of almost another planet, with only a handful of plant life struggling to survive. There weren't even any birds singing.
"Where are we?" Tonks asked slowly, taking in the almost hellish landscape, her hand instinctively going for a wand that was no longer there. Fleur hesitated, trying to find the best way to describe where they were without breaking numerous vows of secrecy.
"We are just north of Verdun." She finally answered as she looked Harry over to make sure she hadn't accidentally splinched him, and that his wounds were still stable.
Lily frowned, the slight whispers from the ring connecting several dots from the precious few clues they had.
"Le Zone Rouge?" she asked, looking at Fleur, who sighed in relief and gave a jerking nod as the oaths on her eased off.
"Oui. It is more than just wards that protect us."
"The Red Zone?" asked Hedwig after translating the phrase in her head. "What's that?"
"You 'ave 'eard of the two great wars, Oui?" Fleur asked her.
"Yes, several of the owls at Hogwarts liked talking about the history of their owner's families."
"We'll be circling back to that juicy little tidbit later." Tonks said, taking over for Fleur. "But long story short, there are areas of France that still have enough unexploded munitions and contaminated soil that it is still too dangerous for people to enter them. Heck, for even life to exist at all. Which begs the question, how is it your people are living in such an area?"
"That is an easy answer. This whole area was one of the sights of the very worst contaminants. The Muggles are trying to clean up, but they work from the outside in, no? Even their best estimates put it at almost another two centuries before they get to this point, the devastation is so bad. With some help of some basic muggle repelling wards, and they have little incentive to speed things up."
Here she shifted Harry in her arms slightly to point out a faint path made by slim metal stakes sticking out of the ground.
"If you stay within the marked areas outside of the colony, you will be safe. Of course, within the colony itself, the land has been completely cleared and restored."
"Well then, lead the way." Lily commanded, her hand reflexively curling around the hilt of Gryffindor's Sword. "I think it would be safer for us all if we just follow you."
Fleur nodded and shifted Harry in her arms again, wishing she had thought to cast a stronger Feather Light charm on him. However, when Tonks moved over, clearly wanting to help her, she hissed at her, feeling a dusting of feathers sprouting on her arms. She blushed deeply when she realized what she had done, and tried to ignore Tonks's smirking as they walked.
After a couple of minutes of walking, Fleur suddenly called out for them to stop, and that they had arrived at the boundary of the colony. Tonks, who, with her training, was usually good at detecting such things, frowned when the only ward she could sense was the muggle repelling one.
"Uh… not to insult you by being ignorant…" she said slowly. "But how do you guys exactly have this place hidden?" This time it was Fleur's turn to smirk at her.
"Veela wards use Veela magic." She answered simply, then turned in the direction of what the others assumed was the colony. When she started calling out loudly in French, Lily quickly cast a translation charm on Tonks and Hedwig, instinctively relying on the ring to do the translations for her.
"I am Fleur Delacour, daughter of Apolline Delacour! I seek shelter for myself and my friends, as well as a healer for the male I am carrying."
The silence that greeted her seemed to stretch on for an eternity, but while the others started to fidget, Fleur waited patiently.
She smiled ever so briefly when it was finally rewarded.
A Veela, seemingly from nowhere, stepped forward into view, causing the others to suck in their breath slightly. Dressed in a suit of form fitting shining silver scale mail, she was armed with a sword strapped to her side and a large golden shield that was strapped to her arm. Tonks instinctively knew that this woman could kill all of them with little effort. She also had no doubt that more reinforcements were probably waiting on just the other side of the invisible wards.
The Veela guardian looked over all of them slowly, and Tonks (and to a lesser degree Lily) shifted uncomfortably as her unrestrained Allure washed over the group. The guard examined each of them carefully, and after a dismissive sneer at the unconscious body of Harry, turned her attention to Fleur.
"Why should we permit you to enter?" she asked in almost accentless English, which surprised Tonks and Hedwig, who were not aware of the translation charm. "You know our laws, yet you have violated almost all of them by bringing three non-Veela, and worse yet, a male, to our very doors! Explain yourself!"
Fleur stood her ground and glared back at the guard.
"We are being hunted." She called out clearly, and the whispers from the ring made Lily realize that Fleur was enacting some sort of cultural law and made a mental note to ask her about it later.
"We are hunted by those who would enslave or murder us." Fleur continued loudly. "If you turn us away, that is the only future that remains ahead of us."
"And the male?" the guard asked after a moment's silence. Lily watched as Fleur's shoulders slumped ever so slightly, then, as the ring whispered urgently to her, her own heart and shoulders slumped when she saw that there was only one option available for Fleur to take. She and the others watched as her spine stiffened and she drew herself to her full height, a look of fierce determination slipping across her face.
"He is my mate!"
The Veela guardian stared at her for a few moments, as the others jerked their heads around to stare at Fleur. Tonks's head turned so sharply that without her metamorphic abilities, her neck would have surely snapped.
"Wait here." The guard said finally with a small nod. "Do. Not. Move."
With that order, she turned and vanished as she moved back behind the wards. Tonks went to go and approach Fleur, but she had anticipated this, and stopped her almost immediately.
"Stop!" She ordered urgently. "She meant that literally. If you move before she or someone else comes back, they will kill us where we stand."
"You think I care?" Lily hissed at her. "What did you do?" Her tone left no doubt as to what exactly she was referring to. Tonks and Hedwig looked at Fleur expectantly.
"I did what I needed to save 'im." Fleur answered stiffly. "And I am willing to do far more if needed to. Besides, I don't think 'e will complain too much, no?"
"What is going on exactly?" a very lost and confused Hedwig quietly asked Tonks.
"From what I know of Veela traditions," Tonks whispered back. "Fleur is basically telling them that she and Harry are married. Problem is… with the Veela, they don't exactly practice marriage as we do. For them, the word 'Mate' is both figurative and literal. So unless they did something during the Triwizard Tournament, or last year when she was still going out with Bill…"
"She lied…" breathed Hedwig. "What if she gets caught?"
"I… don't know." admitted Tonks. "Though based off of what she just said, they could force them to complete… uh… the claim."
"Oh." Hedwig was with a slight blush, then her golden eyes opened wide. "Wait, does that mean she is a…"
"Yes." Tonks interrupted with a hiss, not wanting Fleur to hear Hedwig's raised voice. She frowned when Hedwig started giggling. "Aren't you a little out of touch to be thinking something like that is funny?"
Hedwig just giggled even harder.
"Did you forget that I was an owl for almost a decade?" she asked when she finally calmed down enough to talk relatively normally. "That's hitting middle age for most of us post owls. I lost my…er… owlish virginity, a long time ago, and even had a few clutches of chicks to boot."
Tonks stared at her in total shock for a few moments, her mouth moving silently before she found her voice.
"I though Snowy Owls mated for life?" She finally managed to ask. Hedwig just shrugged.
"Its not quite the same way with Post Owls, unless your mate happens to be owned by your family as well."
Tonks was still staring at her when the Veela guard returned.
"You may enter now." She informed them. "But you will be under tight guard. You will be taken straight to DeBella. Should you resist in any way, or not follow any order, and it will not end well for you… even for you Little Veela." The way she said the two words clearly made it obvious to them that it was an insult of some kind. Fleur, however, acted like they did not bother her.
"Thank you." she said calmly. "I assure you, there will be no need for that."
"Then we go at once." The guard said, and then gestured behind her. Almost immediately, a second guard appeared, but unlike the first guard, her shield was hung on her back over a large claymore, and she was heavily muscled. "Our sister will take your male to the healers. Once he is stable, DeBella wishes to speak to him as well."
Fleur hesitated for only a second before carefully sliding Harry's body from her arms into the larger arms of the guard, who immediately turned around and disappeared back inside the ward. Lily bit her lip as she watched her son vanish.
"This way." the guard said, gesturing them forward. The three women slowly stepped forward until the wards washed over them and the hidden colony materialized into view.
They weren't sure what it was they were expecting, but the sight that greeted them was simultaneously impressive and disappointing. In contrast to the incredible armor that the numerous guards in sight were wearing, the colony itself looked like someone had taken a turn of the century French town and plopped it down in the middle of nowhere. Except for where they entered, a thick wall surrounded the colony just inside the wards, with dozens of guards patrolling the parapet. Scattered among the white walled buildings, archer towers dotted the skyline, the glint of light off of armor showing they were all manned as well.
The next thing they noticed was just how crowded the colony was. Broom fliers darted between the buildings, sharing the air with winged figures, while below, the number of individuals on the streets rivaled that of some small cities. Everywhere Hedwig looked, there were blond haired women and girls, some in their human bodies, while others embraced their full avian form. She couldn't help but look wistfully at the wings of the Veela, still not entirely used to not being able to fly. Tonks meanwhile. Was glad that Harry had been unconscious, as she doubted that his hormone fueled teenage mind could have handled what some of the women were wearing.
To make matters worse, the unrestricted allure from hundreds, possible thousands, of Veela crashed over them like the roaring surf of a storm. In very little time, the three women were shifting uncomfortably and panting a little. Not even Tonks's ability could hide her sudden arousal, and she resorted to folding her arms over her chest. The guard turned escort saw this and smirked at them.
"Luckily for you," she said with a slight sneer in her voice. "You will quickly get used to it."
The smirk on her face grew bigger.
"Or you will be quickly driven insane with lust. There is not much middle ground. Now come, follow me."
Lily and Tonks exchanged glances, while an unaffected Fleur took the lead behind the guard as they started walking through the colony. Hedwig's shoulders were tightened up as she fought against the unusual sensations, but still managed to notice two things. The first was that there didn't seem to be any men in the town. The second, and probably more alarming, was the number of angry glares that the trio were receiving from the Veela they passed.
Their path took them towards the center of town, towards one of the tallest buildings in the colony. Here, at last, the architecture matched the lavish sophisticated style the guards were trying to convey. Made from almost flawless white marble, and with gleamy jewel encrusted bronze doors, the building looked very out of place from the turn of the century style houses around it. The doors were flanked on either side by two more guards, armed with long spears whose steel heads gleamed dangerously in the light of the rising sun. What surprised Tonks was the FAMAS rifle that was also slung over each guard's shoulder, and tried to remember if she had seen any of the other guards armed with firearms.
"The visitors are here to see DeBella." Their escort reported as she saluted the two door guardians with a quick fist over her heart that reminded Tonks of the old Roman salutes. They answered without a change of facial expression by lifting their spears and slamming the spear butts back into the ground with a loud thud. The doors slowly swung open without a sound, and their escort gestured for them to go in.
"Go. You will see where to go. Do not speak until she has spoken first." With those firm instructions, the guard turned on her heel sharply and marched off back to the wall.
"Well, that seems simple enough." Hedwig commented cheerfully. "Shall we?" Shaking their heads at the attitude of the owl turned human, the trio closed together and marched into the building as instructed.
Once inside, it became clear that this was once again a sharp contrast to the look of the colony and the building exterior. Warm wood paneling covered the floor and walls, while a virtual sea of chairs showed that this was a central meeting place in the colony. As near as they could tell, the meeting hall dominated so much of the interior of the building, that there was only one or two other rooms. The one room they could see was behind the raised dais at the front of the hall, a soft light spilling out of the open doorway. They cautiously headed towards it, the sound of their footsteps echoing through the building.
As they entered what was undoubtedly an office, they saw yet another blond haired women hunched over a desk, the rasping of a fountain pen on paper being the predominate sound. The woman looked to be in her 50s, and mementos of her life decorated the walls and bookshelves. Directly behind her, and old threadbare French military uniform hung in a shadow box, the rows of medals on its chest still gleaming brightly.
Time ticked by, and Hedwig opened her mouth to say something, but Lily gripped her shoulder and shook her head. Patience was the key to this game. With time, the scratching stopped and the fountain pen was placed down. The woman leaned back in her chair to examine them. Tonks involuntarily sucked in her breath, then fought to control the blush of embarrassment when the woman arched an eyebrow at her. One side of her face was one of the most exceptional examples of the beauty that Veela were known for while the other…
The other side was horribly disfigured and scarred from wounds long since healed. Despite Tonks's worry, the woman did not seem to care as she gestured to that side of her face.
"Horrific, no?" she asked them, the translation charm still working to provide unaccented English. "A lasting memento of when a squad of Grindelwald's Magische Sturmtruppen tried to incinerate my unit with Fiendfyre. My Passionfyre proved to be stronger, and in the end it was their ashes left on the battlefield instead of ours. I consider this a worthy trade."
"You fought in the war against Grindelwald?" Tonks blurted out, amazed at how young she still looked.
"Non!" The force of that single word was strong enough that it powered through the translation charm. "I fought in the Second World War. Why do they no longer teach the youth that Grindelwald and that pig Hitler were allies? To fight one was to fight both."
"But… the stature would prevent that!" Tonks protested, feeling her world views start to flip upside down.
"The Statue of Secrecy is a joke and has been for well over a century." The woman said dismissively. "All of the Muggle governments know we exist, and until recently, so too did many of the leadership of their military forces. It is now more used to keep us in line so that we don't take advantage of the Muggles."
With that proclamation, and a wave of her hand, the woman turned her full attention on Fleur, who started fidgeting slightly under the scrutiny. She was keenly aware of how battered her clothes were, and was just grateful she had not changed into her usual sleepwear before the train was attacked.
"Well now, my little flower." The woman said, with just a touch of buried emotion in her voice. "I think it is time you properly introduce me to the guests you have brought with you, no?"
"Lily, Tonks, 'edwig…" Fleur said slowly after swallowing thickly. "This is DeBella, leader of the Veela nation… and my grandmother."
~Birds of a Feather~
Meanwhile, a team of healers were working feverishly over the still unconscious form of Harry Potter. Most of his clothing had been cut away so that they would have better access to his many burns. They shook their heads in amazement at the number of old scars that littered his body, and more than one wondered about the story behind his gold artificial hand.
The burns themselves were not all that serious, especially under the care of Veela healers who are used to treating such things. No, what was more concerning was the unexpected discovery of widespread electrical damage throughout his body. It was as if he had been subjected to several HOURS of the Cruciatus Curse, all in a matter of seconds.
They worked feverishly to repair blood vessels that had ruptured from the strain of the electrical current coursing through his body, to calm and restore nerve endings that were still misfiring, to knit back together muscles that had contracted so much that they had ripped free from the bones they were connected to.
One healer slowly extracted a large wood splinter from a slowly festering wound on Harry's back, and shook her head in disgust. While he wasn't the first or even the youngest victim they had treated in this new war, he was definitely one of the most wounded. She passed her wand over one of his old scars and scowled when it stubbornly refused to vanish. Betraying its ugly abusive origins.
Time dragged by slowly, each of the healers focused deeply on their tasks. One of them, who was healing lacerations on Harry's head, frowned deeply when her wand passed over Harry's scar. That frown grew into a look of outright alarm as she tried a different scanning spell, and brought it to the attention of the others. They immediately stopped what they were doing and performed their own scans, each confirming what the first one had discovered. A little shell shocked, they stood around for a few moments, uncertain of what to do with the information they had accidentally discovered.
After all, how do you tell someone that they have played host to a part of one of the most deranged madmen the world has ever seen?
A/N: Another chapter done and gone. In case you can't tell, we are rapidly approaching the time in the novel when things start to begin building to the end game. We have one more chapter here in France, before we back the switch back to the British Isles and the long-awaited look at what has gone on at the front lines.
I had long wanted that to be a single chapter so as to make for those who just want to keep up from Harry's group's point of view could skip it, but it has just grown into too big of a beast. It's almost long enough to be considered a story in its own right.
In other news, I wanted to thank those of you who checked out my short story The Cape Hatteras Incident over on Amazon. It's the first in the series, with the second one being worked on alongside my fanfictions.
I am also considering starting a Kofi for those who want to support my fanfiction works. I think we can all agree that I do not post on enough of a schedule to warrant signing up for the other place that FF net doesn't like us saying. Let me know if you would be interested in supporting me.
Till we meet again!