A/N- 18/3/23- Kept you waiting long? Sorry for the long wait since I updated any of my stories. I've been busy, ill, planning some new stories and I've also been finding new interests for myself.
Anyway, shall we get on with the chapter? Good, Let's get on with it...:)
Chapter 6 - Delacour Delicacies
Most of the bondmates landed inelegantly on the ground while Fleur landed gracefully. The majority of the bondmates landed on Harry, almost crushing him and then narrowly missed stepping on Harry's boy parts. Unbeknownst to the bondmates, Fleur's family had witnessed their arrival and winced when they saw what almost happened to Harry. Fleur's father addressed them in a somewhat playful manner, "as much as I am enjoying ze the display of zlapstick in front of us, I think that eet would be cruel to deny us our future grandchildren before you've all 'ad a chance to 'ave them." Ginny, Hermione, Luna, Lavender and Tonks all felt their faces flame up as they realised that they had almost given Harry a rather painful injury.
"'Ello father." Fleur said as she went to hug him.
"Welcome 'ome, Fleur." Her father replied warmly. He hugged her tight for a few seconds before releasing her from his grip. "'ow are your eentended treating you?"
"Considereen that we 'ave only known each other for a day, zhey 'ave been treating me as an equal." Fleur replied admiringly, looking at her bondmates as she did so. Fleur's praise meant that most of them were blushing. A gasp was then heard from behind Fleur's father and the female bondmates looked as Gabrielle looked at Harry's scar and realised that he was the boy who lived. "Gabi, don't stare; eet's rude." Fleur admonished her little sister.
"Forgive my lack of manners when you arrived here. Welcome to ze Delacour manor een Marseille. Eet is one of our two 'oliday 'omes." Fleur's father greeted the other bondmates as he let go of his eldest daughter. The sound of seagulls and the waves told the bondmates that they were right by the sea. It seemed like a serene paradise compared with the bustling nature of the Burrow.
"This feels... calming." Harry said as he listened intently to the waves coming in and out.
"Is there a magical community in Marseille?" Hermione asked Fleur's father, eager to learn about France's magical communities.
"Zhere eez but eet is not like Magical London's Diagon Alley. Eet eez much more modern than that place." Fleur's father told the inquisitive young girl. He then gave a very honest opinion of Diagon Alley, "Eet feels like eet is a century or deux out of fashion."
Harry nodded as he found himself having to agree with Fleur's father as he found that the British wizarding world had some strange attitudes regarding many things. Most British wizards, he had seen, were astounded by the modernisation in the non-magical world and even noted that Ginny's dad had no idea that a rubber duck was a toy. All this, he noticed in the incredibly short amount of time since he'd been introduced to the wizarding world. "There does seem to be a certain amount of ignorance over there, I do have to admit." Harry commented in agreement.
Ginny listened to this and initially found herself wanting to defend magical Britain and the level of progression that had taken place there. Doubts had already begun creeping into her mind however as she had been unaware that muggles had things known as takeaways. This was especially true as Hermione's dad had given her dad some boxes of what he had called Chinese food. Ginny looked at Lavender and saw that she too was thinking about the amount of progression in wizarding Britain. Although she had no evidence for her line of thinking, Lavender suspected that her parents must've also seen the Chinese takeaway food and had thought the worst about it initially. She vowed to ask them about the food when they got to her home. Ginny and Lavender then looked at Luna to see if she was thinking about what Fleur's father had spoken about but her attention seemed to be elsewhere.
The sound of seagulls drew the bondmates attention away from the current conversation and out towards a nearby balcony. "Who 'as been on ze Mediterranean coast beefore?" Fleur asked as the bondmates saw the sun setting. Only Hermione and Tonks indicated that they had been in the Mediterranean before.
"It's so beautiful." Ginny said in wonder as saw the sun reflecting off the water as it went down.
"It is beautiful in this part of the world." Hermione added as she too looked at the sunset. The waves were gently coming in and going out with the resulting sound being very soothing for the group after a busy couple of days.
"Have you ever been to the beach, Harry?" Lavender asked Harry, forgetting that it was unlikely.
"No. Dudley got to go to the beach with my Aunt and Uncle but I was always left behind. Left behind at Private Drive or left with Marge or Mrs Figg." Harry replied with some bitterness.
"Who's Marge?" Lavender asked Harry.
"She's my uncle's sister but I was made to call her "Aunt" all the same." Harry told her.
"It sounds ridiculous." Lavender replied with a grimace on her face. "Yet... having met those vile people, I can believe it."
"I take it you've been to the beach then?" Harry asked Lavender, knowing what the answer was going to be.
"Yeah. Every summer we go to the coast and stay there for one or two weeks." Lavender replied to the raven haired boy. "Just a couple of weeks ago, we went to a resort on the south coast. The magical communities in Chichester and Bognor are wonderful and even venturing into the Muggle world there is a nice time."
"My Aunt and Uncle also never allowed me to get swimming lessons. I think that my Uncle, at the very least, hoped that I would drown somewhere." Harry admitted to the outgoing blonde girl.
"We should change that as soon as possible." Lavender said enthusiastically. "You know... we are by the sea. This could be a good time to give you a swimming lesson."
Harry contemplated Lavender's suggestion as they were all then called to have dinner with the rest of the Delacour family.
"Tonight, we're going to 'ave Coq au vin with some Salade Niçoise for dinner and Chocolate Soufflé for desert. Now let's sit down and enjoy zhis meal." Fleur's father told them enthusiastically with Appoline and Gabrielle absolutely beaming at him. The bondmates and Fleur's family sat down at the dining table and began to eat the meal laid out in front of them, with Harry, Hermione, Luna, Lavender and Fleur as well as Fleur's family eagerly eating what was in front of them, either due to having a love of the food or just being very hungry. Ginny and Tonks were eating at a more sedate pace as the pair were unsure about the food they were eating as they had never had French cuisine before.
"Iz zhere something wrong, Ginny and Tonks?" Fleur asked the slower eating bondmates with a undercurrent of worry. She'd noticed that Ginny and Tonks were falling behind in the eating of their meals and assumed that they were just trying to be polite.
"No, no, nothing is wrong. I think that we're just unused to french food." Ginny replied sincerely.
"Yeah. I think it's a case of our minds not quite knowing what to expect from the food." Tonks added reassuringly.
"My advice would be to just think of it as food. I've never had French food either before so I'm just thinking of it as another meal." Harry interrupted before adding, "To be honest, I'm still struggling to accept the fact that I am able to have meals this size." Harry's last comment reminded the bondmates that his life before that moment was not ideal at best and downright horrific at worst.
The rest of dinner passed by without any further awkwardness. Ginny and Tonks gradually became accustomed to the French food and everyone enjoyed the Chocolate Soufflé. After finishing desert, the group moved to the lounge to let their dinners digest before the events of the evening.
Sometime in the evening, the Delacours and bondmates went onto the property's private beach. They were determined to teach Harry the basics of swimming. Having learnt earlier that Harry had never been allowed to go swimming, in addition to teaching him to swim, they also had to show him what swimsuits and bikinis were, leaving him with butterflies in his stomach and somewhat mortified. It then emerged that Ginny, despite knowing about swimsuits, had no knowledge of bikinis, so Fleur allowed her to borrow one of hers and she tied them up for the younger girl. Ginny was nervous about wearing the bikini, which consisted of two pieces but calmed down when Fleur reassured her.
"How does the sand feel, Harry?" Hermione asked whilst wearing her swimsuit.
"It feels... coarse on my feet but fascinating at the same time." Harry replied thoughtfully before adding, "I like it." He then crouched down and let his hands drag through the sand, feeling the soft, grainy and coarse texture of it.
"Come on Harry, let's go into the water and swim!" Lavender called to him enthusiastically, running into the water like a sprinter.
Harry looked nervous about the thought of swimming and the bondmates appeared very enthusiastic at the thought of teaching him to swim. Ginny followed Lavender into the water and was herself followed by Hermione, Fleur, Luna and Tonks, who dragged a nervous Harry into the water.
Harry stood still in the water, nervous and unsure of what to do. "Harry, try and copy what I do, okay?" Tonks said to Harry, who nodded in reply. Tonks then proceeded to demonstrate the various swimming styles for Harry who, with the assistance of Ginny, Fleur and Hermione, eventually managed to nail the basics down.
"Thank you." Harry said to his bondmates upon finishing off Tonks' swimming tutorial. He then noticed that while they'd gone deeper into the water, he could make out that Gabrielle and Fleur and Gabrielle's Mother were laughing hard in their direction whilst Fleur and Gabrielle's Father had to hide his face in embarrassment whilst simultaneously showing his amusement with his exposed mouth. Harry was unsure about what they were finding funny until he looked at Ginny and Fleur and then had a look at the water. "Err, Fleur and Ginny, how's your swimming going?" A nervous Harry asked.
"Eet's going well 'Arry. Why do you ask?" Fleur replied looking very confused. Ginny was likewise confused.
"Your, erm. Erm..." Harry began awkwardly before Gabrielle called out to her sister.
"Your tops zeem to 'ave run away, dear seester!" Gabrielle told Fleur, and by extension, Ginny, as she began to roll around in the sand, shaking with laughter. Ginny let out a somewhat loud squeak as she looked absolutely mortified at seeing the others see her topless whilst Fleur's eyes bulged in shock as she'd been convinced that she had tied them up properly. Fleur quickly swam to retrieve the bikini tops before struggling to figure out how best to put hers and Ginny's bikini tops back on.
After having a good laugh at their bondmates expense, the other female bondmates decided to show their sympathy and support by doing something that neither Harry or Fleur's family expected. "I'm sure something like this is common in this part of the world, so I don't think people will mind too much if we did this." Tonks said boldly before removing her bikini top. She then followed up by making an obvious point about their unique situation, "Harry's going to be seeing this and almost certainly a lot more in future so we might as well get him used to it." Luna and Lavender agreed with Tonks' reasoning and followed suit in removing their bikini tops. Hermione was the last one of the girls to follow Tonks' act as she was shy and was feeling embarrassed at the thought of showing her developing body to a boy, let alone Harry but relaxed when she saw Harry blushing wildly when he looked at all of them. They eventually took pity on Harry somewhat and slid under the water and floated like swans although it did mean that Harry could still see their bare chests.
After spending some more time in the sea, Harry, Ginny, Fleur, Hermione, Tonks, Luna and Lavender returned to the beach and rejoined Fleur's family. Harry's embarrassment wasn't over just yet though as the girls made him help dry them off which meant he had to touch them through a towel. Gabrielle giggled and immediately questioned Harry's bondmates, "You 'ave only met each other a couple of days ago; do you really need to zhis to 'im?"
Tonks replied to the younger girl with a grin on her face, "Probably not... but he's going to have to get used to seeing a girl's body as it will be happening a lot more in the future."
Gabrielle gave the older girl a shrug, "Fair enough." Gabrielle then turned away from the bondmates and began constructing an elaborate sandcastle, complete with a moat.
After the bondmates felt sufficiently dry enough, they put their shirts on and sat down on the towels lying on the sand. Sitting in comforting silence, Harry and the bondmates watched as the sun finally set and all that was left in the sky was a dim orange aura struggling against the dulling grey and black. Fleur and Ginny snuggled up to Harry and held his hands as the sun eventually disappeared from view.
During the night, Harry woke up and made his way to the Delacour's kitchen. When he got there, he picked up a glass and got some water from the cold water tap. He sipped on the glass of water and stared at the night sky, deep in thought.
"Penny for your thoughts, 'arry?" An unexpected voice asked from behind him and Harry turned to see who it was. It was Fleur's father. He was wearing a simple night robe and boxers.
"I'm just thinking, Mr Delacour." Harry replied before looking back at the night sky.
"First off, you can call me Sebastian or father; Mr Delacour was my father." Sebastian told Harry with a grin. He then tapped a single finger on Harry's head, "Secondly, I think I can tell what is going on in your 'ead 'arry."
"You can?" Harry asked nervously.
"You're thinking about 'ow you're going to look after your... bonded ones."
Harry nodded and whispered very softly, "Yeah."
"'arry, trust me when I say zhat most relationships are partnerships that both parties, or in your case, all parties contribute to. Zhey weel look after you, just as much as you will look after them." Sebastian told Harry with a gentle smile on his face and sounding like someone who was experienced in matters of the heart.
After a few minutes, Harry wondered why Sebastian was awake and in the kitchen. "Why are you down here at this time, Sebastian?"
Sebastian gave Harry a cheeky grin and responded with lots of humour in his voice, "'arry, when you get to a zertain point, you weel find that the art of love making can make you feel rather virsty and tired." Harry looked at him with wide eyes, not expecting that answer. Sebastian got himself a glass and proceeded to down several glasses of water and, for reasons best known to himself, then filled the same glass with some red wine. "Eef you 'ave any more questions 'arry, please keep them until breakfast. Appoline weel want me back in ze bedroom." And just like that, Sebastian left the kitchen and returned to his wife in their bedroom, leaving Harry somewhat dumbfounded.
"At some point, someone is going to have to explain a lot of this to me." Harry said to himself exasperatedly. He then finished his first glass of water before rapidly downing a second.
Harry woke up in the morning and the sun shone brightly into his room. The bedroom was almost spotless except for the rather ragged, second hand clothes that had been laid out for him. He almost grimaced at the thought of wearing them but his thoughts about them were subdued by the fact that for the time being, he had no new clothes that he could call his own. Before his thoughts could dwell too long on them, he smelled something delicious coming from the kitchen downstairs. Harry decided to go and investigate the smell emanating from the kitchen before getting changed.
Harry made his way to the kitchen and saw Luna, Tonks, Sebastian, Appoline and Gabrielle were sat eating breakfast with various croissants, Pain Au Chocolat and French Toast dishes lining the table. Then Harry realised that some of his other bondmates were missing. "Where are Ginny, Fleur, Hermione and Lavender? Weren't they hungry?" Harry asked in concern.
"Zhere iz nothing to worry about 'arry." Sebastian replied reassuringly.
"Harry, if they weren't hungry before, they should be now." Tonks said to Harry somewhat cryptically. Harry was wondering what Tonks meant when the missing bondmates entered the kitchen from outside. Ginny, Fleur, Hermione and Lavender all came into the kitchen, still wearing the bikinis they had worn whilst swimming before breakfast and had also been wearing the evening before. Harry's jaw dropped at the sight of the four girls. He thought that they looked like angels as the sunlight shone off their skin.
Tonks failed to conceal a giggle before commenting on Harry's action. "You might want to shut your mouth before any flies get into your mouth. We wouldn't want to swallow any of them now." Harry looked embarrassed and shut his mouth and then he gulped in nervousness.
"I would zuggest that we go into ze town shortly after breakfast and do some shopping before you all go off to your next destination. You might want some souvenirs to remember your trip here." Appoline said with Sebastian nodding in agreement. The Bondmates hurriedly ate their breakfast as soon as Appoline finished speaking and began getting ready to go into town. Harry nervously wondered what the trip would entail, especially as he had never been allowed to shop for anything of his own.
"Get ready for ze Horror, 'arry!" Sebastian told Harry jokingly.
"The Horror?" Harry asked questioningly.
"Yes 'arry, ze Horror of going on a shopping trip with one or women. As soon as eet starts, you cannot escape, haha!" Sebastian said to Harry very melodramatically.
Harry's morning was not as terrifying as Sebastian melodramatically claimed but it did seem to be very tiring and very tedious. The other bondmates as well as Fleur's mother and sister seemed to take great delight in the shopping trip, especially the clothes shopping. In one clothes shop, Harry was made by his Bondmates to give his opinion on the various clothes his Bondmates and Fleur's mother and sister tried out. Sebastian tried to look sympathetic but it was ruined by the look of hardly contained laughter on his face. After a couple of hours of trying on various clothes, the Bondmates purchased some clothes that had keenly caught their interest.
A few minutes later, Harry and his Bondmates found their way to another clothes shop. This one was more ideally catered for Harry and Sebastian. Appoline took Sebastian so that he could try on clothes and so she could give her opinion on them. This left Harry to be a living mannequin for his Bondmates and Gabrielle, who decided to stick with them. At various points, Harry's Bondmates looked at Harry with wide eyes although Harry couldn't figure out why. After another couple of hours, Harry selected some clothes which he liked from the ones that his Bondmates had found for him and purchased them. After Appoline and Sebastian had rejoined them, the group then wandered through the town, browsing through several shops that got their interest. Unsurprisingly, thanks to their shared dreams when they were all younger, they knew that Hermione was not going to leave town without looking at some books in a book shop and so they spent the best part of three quarters of an hour in one book shop. During that time, Hermione, Luna and Lavender spent time looking at many books, with Lavender looking at books about Muggle fashion since Medieval times, Luna looking at books about animals and astrology and Hermione just looked at whatever caught her interest. Eventually, the group finished the trip to town by getting some ice cream from a local ice cream shop. The group sat on the beachfront to eat their ice creams with Ginny and Fleur having some fun with Harry with their ice creams, dabbing his nose with some and then licking it off, much to Harry's confusion and bemusement. Lavender did a similar act with Hermione, surprising Hermione greatly, especially as she was unsure of how to respond. Eventually, the group finished their ice creams.
"'ow was the ice creams?" Appoline asked the Bondmates and Gabrielle. They generally agreed that the ice cream was delicious and waited for Appoline to speak again. "Az much az we would love to show you all around, you are due to move onto the next destination een regards to knowing each others families. Een fact, we need to ztart making our way back now so you don't miss the Portkey."
With some urgency the group returned to the Delacours' holiday home and the Bondmates, with the exception of Fleur, hastily packed their new purchases into their luggage and gathered in the dining area of the holiday home. Gabrielle hugged her sister and her Bondmates tightly, "Do not forget to viseet us soon, especially you big seester. There eez still a lot of zummer 'oliday to go yet." Gabrielle then let go of the Bondmates and took a step back as the Bondmates gripped onto the Portkey, which had been made from a skipping rope.
"Do you know where we are going next, Mrs Delacour?" Hermione asked the older but still youthful looking woman.
"Non." Appoline replied definitively.
"I believe that zhe Portkey eez taking you to zee either Hermione's family or Laveender's. You'll find out anyway soon enough." Sebastian interjected.
"Zee you all soon, especially you my dear daughter." Appoline said emotionally.
"Zee you soon Maman, Papa and my sweet leetle seester." Fleur replied just as emotionally.
Soon after the goodbyes were said and done, the Portkey whisked them away to their next destination.
"When will zhey be back Maman, Papa?" Gabrielle asked her parents.
"I do not know my sweet daughter about all of zhem but I think Fleur will be returning to us in about a week." Gabrielle's father said to her.
"You must remember that zheir bond eez complicated and that people are still trying to figure 'ow this will affect them." Gabrielle's mother said to her.
"Eef I didn't know better Maman, Papa, I would 'ave zaid that zhey were een love. Some of zhem were acting more like zhe more grown up couples." Gabrielle said to her parents. Sebastian and Appoline took notice of what their daughter said, with Sebastian writing a note for Ragnok regarding the developing soul bond between their eldest daughter and her new found bondmates.
A/N- Once again, I apologize for the long wait between the last update for any of my stories and now. I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and please review.