NB: There are a few sections with more mature and unpleasant concepts in this chapter. The beginning and end of these sections are marked so they can be skipped if that is what people wish. Skipping the unpleasant sections probably won't effect understanding of the story line, but skipping the more mature concepts may as they're part of a development to do with Fleur and the others that's coming out.
Usual disclaimers for the land of litigation, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess Tale.
Several of the group spent most of the time until the start of the Christmas Break avoiding other students, because the announcement of the Yule Ball after the First Task had led to a deluge of invitations to the Ball, and some of them were quite insistent. Fleur, Daphne, Tracey and Millie had to repeatedly reject both Flint and Krum, who refused to acccept that they were going with anyone and decided that they were just playing hard to get. They also pointedly ignored the fact that all four girls were betrothed, and therefore it would be inappropriate for them to go to the Ball with anyone but their betrothed.
Krum and Fudge were also chasing Hermione the same way and demanding that she go with them, ignoring her rejections. Hermione finally managed to make Fudge scuttle off and hide by humiliating him in front of everyone in the Great Hall. She cast a sonorous to make sure that everyone in the Great Hall heard her.
"Look Squeaky (his voice had never recovered from what she did to him when he wouldn't leave her alone after the Betrothal Scandal), how many times do I have to tell you? I. Am. Betrothed! I am also going to the Ball with someone much better than you! Even if I wasn't, I would never consider going anywhere with you, for anything! Not for a moment! You repulse me, and if you won't leave me alone I will have my goblin guards make you! You can't follow me around with no legs, can you?"
Ulfr and Snorri stroked their axe blades with gleaming eyes and gave Fudge broad goblin grins at that, showing a plethora of sharp teeth. That frightened Fudge enough to lose control of both his bladder and bowels, so he had to hobble out of the Great Hall as fast as he could, trying to avoid further embarrassment. Krum was laughing louder than anyone at that, until Hermione turned on him, with the sonorous still active, and said. "That goes for you too Quidditch Boy! Stay away from me or face the consequences!"
Krum flushed with anger when he became the subject of everyone's laughter and he started to draw his wand, but he was stopped by the voice of someone else using a sonorous. "Let go of that wand if you want to live Mister Krum!"
Silence fell over the Great Hall at that, and most turned to stare at the High Table where Professor McGonagall was standing, shaking with rage. Karkaroff leapt to his feet, similarly enraged. "You would dare to threaten Viktor Krum? You will pay for this McGonagall! My country will make sure of that!"
The gaze she turned on Karkaroff was no less heated, and most presumed that she'd forgotten to cancel the sonorous charm. "If you weren't such an arrogant idiot Karkaroff, you would have made sure you learned the rules of Hogwarts and Britain before you came here! Under the immutable rules of Hogwarts, any student attacking another with a wand at Hogwarts has their wand snapped and is expelled! Hogwarts will allow no exceptions to this! While I cannot expel Mister Krum as he is not a student of Hogwarts, I am required to cast him out of Hogwarts, and therefore the Triwizard Tournament as it is being hosted here. Have you forgotten what will happen to Krum if he does not finish the Triwizard Tournament Karkaroff? Do I have to remind you of what will happen to him?"
Karkaroff went white as he realised what she was saying.
"Quite aside from that, under the laws of Magical Britain, the penalty for an attempt on the life of the Head or Heir of a Noble and Ancient or higher House or their betrothed by someone of an inferior house or family is death!"
"Lady Granger is the Head of two Noble and Most Ancient Houses, and furthermore she is betrothed to the Head of four Noble and Most Ancient Houses, and they are Heirs to other Noble and Most Ancient and Noble and Ancient Houses as well. The Krum family does not even qualify as the equivalent of a Minor House in Bulgaria, so attacking Lady Granger would most certainly see Mister Krum executed, that is if his magic had not already killed him!"
She glared at him for about a minute before she added coldly. "And before you decide to follow through on that thought you have to attack me Karkaroff, know that I am the Head of the Noble and Ancient House of McGonagall, so that action would most definitely see you executed! I dare say the Director of our Department of Magical Law Enforcement will want to question you before you are sent to be executed though, as we have many questions about your fellow Death Eaters. Don't waste time thinking that you could escape either, because the Aurors and Officers of our DMLE would catch you before you had a chance to get out of Hogwarts!"
Karkaroff was shaking with rage, but not a little fear was showing as well, now that it had been made clear to everyone in the Great Hall just how close both he and Krum had come to getting a death sentence here today, and that he was a Death Eater as well. He shouted "Come!" at Krum before he turned to storm out of the castle.
In the quiet that followed that altercation, Millie stood and shouted across the hall. "Flint! As the betrothed of the Heirs to Noble and Most Ancient and Noble and Ancient Houses, Miss Greengrass, Miss Davis and myself are hereby advising you that what was said to Fudge and Krum applies to you as well! Leave us alone or we will make you leave us alone!"
Fleur stood as well. "Oui! That applies to me as well, and the same goes for the rest of you! Leave me alone!"
Flint was livid about being publicly humiliated like that, but Professor McGonagall's message had been clear. If he did what he wanted to, he would be expelled from Hogwarts and cast out, and then executed if his magic didn't kill him first.
Everyone stayed away from the girls after that, because they were afraid of being on the receiving end of what Fudge, Krum and Flint had gotten. Unfortunately, the witches of Hogwarts and Beauxbatons apparently didn't think that those warnings applied to them, so Harry and Neville still had to deal with witches' attempts to get them alone so that they could be 'convinced' to take those witches to the Ball.
Sharing his chambers with Hermione and Millie, Harry had seen what was being offered to him before, and he had certainly gone further than that in the last cycle, but Neville had had a more sheltered life and he wasn't at all used to seeing girls in their underwear, or even less in the case of some of the bolder witches.
Harry had to stifle his inclination to laugh at the horrified expression on Neville's face after the first few times this happened to him, because it wasn't at all funny for Neville. Therefore, he just advised Neville to do as he was doing and supply the memories of those encounters to Professor McGonagall and Madame Maxime, and let them deal with these girls. As a result of that, two of the Beauxbatons delegation were sent home, and there was a definite question as to whether seven Hogwarts students would be returning after the Christmas Break.
The parents of four of them had been shocked and appalled by what Professor McGonagall had shown them when they were called to the school to discuss their daughters' behaviour. On the other hand, the other three Hogwarts students' fates were in the balance because their parents couldn't see anything wrong with them making those types of overtures to innocent and unwilling twelve year old boys (while Harry may have seen these things before and had done a good deal more in the last cycle, he was still twelve and hadn't done anything in this life) who were already betrothed to other witches, so the decision of what was to be done with them was in Minerva's hands.
Unpleasant section starts.
Ginny Scrimgeour was the first of these girls to be expelled from Hogwarts. Showing just about everything she had to Harry and aggressively telling him that she would prove to him that she was much better than those other hags at eleven had to be taken as proof that she had serious problems. When her father refused to agree that there was anything wrong with her behaviour, Minerva had no choice but to expel her from Hogwarts, saying that she couldn't have that type of behaviour around the other students.
Minerva had consulted with Madame Maxime on the matter, and what she'd seen was still fresh in her memory when Rufus Scrimgeour tried to get his daughter into Beauxbatons straight after Minerva expelled her. He was outraged when she told him that they could not accept his daughter at Beauxbatons, and repeated what Minerva had told him, that she needed serious help from good mind healers if she wasn't to end up in serious trouble quite soon.
Olympe was appalled that he was more worried about people knowing about what his daughter had done than the fact that it was the considered opinion of two women who had had a hand in shaping many young women into fine young witches over several decades that something was seriously wrong with the way Ginny had been raised and that she needed serious help.
They also referred the matter to Amelia as this was obviously something for the DMLE. Arthur and his sons were appalled to hear about this, but didn't have anything to tell her when Amelia asked if any of them recalled anything that could relate to this. Bill and Charlie hadn't spent much time at the Burrow for years, so they had less to tell the DMLE, but none of them really remembered anything, no matter how deep the investigators dug. Without being able to question Ginny herself, it looked doubtful that the DMLE would be able to uncover what had happened to her, and they couldn't get permission from her parents for that.
Unpleasant section finishes.
Word got around pretty quickly when the first witches were sent home, so soon enough Harry and Neville were being left alone as well.
Krum and Flint were furious when they arrived at the Yule Ball with their dates, Sophia Balfour of Hufflepuff and Tamara Powers of Ravenclaw, because they were immediately slapped in the face by the fact that Fleur Delacour had rejected both of them, but had come as Harry Bloody Potter's date! It only got worse when they went inside, because Granger, Greengrass and her sister and Bulstrode were all sitting with Potter, so it was obvious who they had come with as well! Davis was sitting with Longbottom and Bones, so they'd even lost out to Longbottom!
They were both itching to hex this lot, but a prickling at the back of their heads made them turn to see who was watching them, and the look in McGonagall's eye when she met their gaze chilled them to the bone. They had no choice but to try to swallow their pride and pay attention to their dates.
They even lost out there though, because the professors had been keeping a close eye on them all night and stopped them from taking their dates off for some fun afterwards, making a point of ensuring the girls were safe inside their own dorms before sending the boys away.
Krum didn't hear Sophia's heartfelt "Thank you!" to Professor Sprout as she was sent inside the Hufflepuff Common Room, but Pomona did, and she would be asking the girl just why she was so grateful later. Tamara had been up for a bit of fun but when she sobered up, she wasn't at all unhappy to have been escorted back to her dorm by Professor Flitwick. When she woke the next morning, she decided to go to Madam Pomfrey and get herself tested for potions, because she couldn't believe that she'd been contemplating doing anything with Flint.
Aside from the glares coming their way all night, Harry and the rest had a good time at the Ball. Harry's dance card was filled up with his betrothed and the other girls in the group, though he made time for a dance with Parvati as well, as she'd come with Cedric. After the ball, most of the group went back to Potter Manor or Black House, but they took Parvati home to her parents. Padma was staying at Potter House because she was working on her courses like the others.
As they went through January, Fleur was getting more and more distracted from her work because she was worrying about the second task. As Harry had seen in the last cycle, Veela are weaker underwater, because they are separated from the elements that they draw their strength from. Last time Fleur had failed this task, and her magic had had two more years development by then, so she was really worried about how she'd handle it this time, especially as the British and French officials seemed intent on stacking the deck against both her and Harry. It was in the midst of this that Harry and all of his betrothed were requested to come to the Delacour Chateau with their parents or guardians to discuss a suggestion that Anne had.
As Millie's Guardian, Minerva left Hogwarts in Pomona and Filius's capable hands and along with the Tonks, Alastor, the Greengrasses and her students joined Anne and the Delacours at Delacour Chateau for dinner the next night. Looking around, Harry and Hermione shared the thought of how different this was from dealing with the Weasleys in the last cycle, because even after the twins had reached their majority their mother had insisted that they were too young to take part in any important discussions, but here, Astoria and Gabrielle were being included at eleven and ten because what they were discussing concerned them.
The discussion over dinner was kept light, then they all retired to the drawing room to discuss what they had been asked over for. Anne took over the discussion then, because she was one of the leading authorities on Veela capabilities. She tried to speak in English because it was important that they understand what was being asked, but luckily they all knew French to some degree, as her speech was peppered with French words. Harry took the opportunity to ask how it was that she was so powerful.
She looked at him for a moment, as she weighed up whether she should divulge that information, as it was the Veelas' biggest secret, but she nodded, this young man was hopefully going to play a large role in her petite filles' lives, and he deserved to know this. Looking around the room, she took in the links between all of them and decided that they had a right to know as well, as they were all family.
"There a number of forms of Veela bonds 'arry, just as there are for 'uman bonds, for example, the one you have with 'ermione is the strongest I 'ave ever seen, and I expect that the two of you 'ave discovered some particular benefits from this?" Harry and Hermione nodded.
"Oui. It was the same for me, the type of bonding I 'ad with my mate was by far the rarest and most powerful form of all Veela bonds. This only 'appens once every two to three 'undred years at most and I am only the fourth one recorded in the history of the Veela. Unfortunately, there is a terrible price to pay for this bond, because while the Veela becomes immensely powerful from it, there is no record of 'er mate ever surviving it, as 'e is burnt out by the massive outburst of excess energy when the Veela transforms. You see, the Veela becomes one of the elders of the Veela race as part of that transformation, and she is many times more powerful than any normal Veela. One of the conditions that triggers this bond is that the Veela becomes pregnant in the intercourse that is required for the bonding ritual, another is that 'er mate is an extremely powerful wizard….. This is what 'appened to my 'enri. That is why I am so powerful, and my petite filles 'ave no grand-père. Have I answered your question 'arry ?"
"Oui Madame, Merci."
"Très bon. Now the reason that we 'ave asked you to come tonight is related to this. As you know, we 'ave all been very worried about 'ow Fleur can compete in the second task of this Tournament safely, because you 'ave shown us that she failed to complete it last time because of what being underwater does to a Veela, and she was more developed magically then..."
Harry nodded and she continued.
"There is only one way that a Veela can significantly increase her power without waiting for it to develop naturally, that is to perform a bonding ritual with a powerful wizard that 'er Veela side has chosen, such as Apolline did with Louis. This is both faster and more powerful than normal Veela bonds with wizards, and there are some benefits to the mate as well as the Veela….."
" 'arry, Fleur's Veela chose 'er mate last August when she met 'im at the World Cup, but there were some serious problems with that, the biggest being that 'e already had a mate, more than one in fact, because there were two that she could recognise at the time. We are talking about you of course 'ere 'arry. Soon after that though, you and 'ermione showed that you are more than just powerful, you are incredibly caring as well, because with 'ermione's agreement, you added my petite filles to your betrothed to protect Fleur, and Gabrielle, from those who would prey on Veela."
"When I met you last November and saw you together though, I found that you did not just 'ave bonds with 'ermione and Millicent as Fleur 'ad said, you 'ad bonds to all of your betrothed, including my petite filles, and I believe that I saw links to familiers as well?"
Harry nodded. "Oui Madame we have six familiars, four Mingwas called Bastet, Crookshanks, Li Shou and Hecate, a Phoenix called Fawkes and a very special owl called Hedwig."
"Incredible! And all of you are linked to all of your familiers?"
"Oui."
She whispered in awe. "Très bon."
"I must explain more about the Veela bonds 'arry. You see Fleur was 'eartbroken when she discovered that her Veela had chosen you, because normally a Veela may only have a one on one bond with a wizard, so when she saw your bonds to 'ermione and Millie, she was certain that she would not be able to bond with you, but after you were betrothed to her and our peu Gabrielle and she spent time with all of you, she 'as bonded to you, all of you. Somehow Gabrielle 'as also bonded with you in the limited time she 'as 'ad with you."
Anne looked at her daughter and granddaughters before she went on. "What most do not know is that we do have records of Veela bonds to those who are bonded to others, such as one of a pair of twins, and wizards with familiars as well, and in those circumstances, to varying degrees the Veela will also bond to those 'er chosen mate is bonded with and they will also benefit from this bond and change to some degree. What 'as been observed is that wizards and witches bonded with the Veela's mate by something like a twin bond become more powerful and their links with the mate become far more than they could ever be before. Familiers are generally elevated, they become more intelligent, their abilities are enhanced and the links with them are enhanced as well…. So all that are bonded to the Veela's mate benefit from the bonding in some way…."
"Now 'arry, I am aware that you, as a twelve year old boy, are not really ready for something like this, but I also know that inside of that boy, you are an eighteen year old man who was a father…."
She looked from Harry to Hermione and back. "So what I am asking is whether the man inside you can do this thing to 'elp give my petite fille a chance of surviving this second task…"
She turned to Hermione at that. "I also have two questions for you 'ermione."
She looked her in the eye. "The first is… Will you permit your mate to do this for Fleur?"
Hermione nodded with little hesitation.
"Merci Très cher. The other is related to what I said to 'arry. I know too that while you are a thirteen year old girl on the outside, you are a nineteen year old woman who 'as 'ad a child herself on the inside. This multiple bonding that you all 'ave is unique as far as I know, but our world does 'ave a 'istory of wizards taking on a number of wives for the 'ouses that they control. When this 'appens, there is usually a 'ierarchy in the relationship, controlled by the primary wife…."
She looked around Harry's betrothed. "I believe that 'ermione would be the primary wife for this famille if you do all end up marrying 'arry, Non?"
There was a mix of nods, 'Yes'es and 'Oui's, but none hesitated. Anne nodded. "Très bon. I understand that any of these potential marriages will be years away, as they are waiting for you all to reach your majority but…."
She looked back at Hermione. "I believe that as the primary mate, the primary wife-to-be 'ermione, you should seal your bond with 'arry before Fleur bonds with 'im, as this should 'elp stop her Veela trying to establish dominance over the group."
Fleur looked aghast. "Grand-mère!"
Ann put her arms around her. "This is not you Très cher. It is what your Veela will do when it is awakened. Your Veela will not be a jeune femme like you Très cher, it will be a guerrier seeking to conquer and control. This is what we must do to prevent it 'arming your famille when it first wakes."
She looked back at Hermione. "Will you agree to this 'ermione?"
Hermione nodded slowly, deep in thought. "Oui, this makes sense, and I have used the argument that we're older on the inside myself with the others when we told them the truth about us. Harry and I had been planning on waiting on this until we were older, but as you say, it will help strengthen the structure of our family… Harry?"
Harry nodded. "Yes. I know that we wanted to wait, but what Madame Lafitte says makes sense."
Anne retorted. " 'arry! We are family! Grand-mère, please! And that applies to all of you!"
Harry nodded with a smile. "Pardon, Grand-mère."
Harry looked around at the thoughtful and concerned faces in the room. "Does anyone have anything to say about this?"
Andi spoke up. "I agree that what's been said here makes sense, it's just, I look at you and I still see the baby that your mother and I would laugh over as you played, I can't see the man who is making such good and sound choices for his family. I'm sorry Harry, but it's just so hard to reconcile the two men in you when I'm trying to be the mother that Lily didn't get to be." She started to cry at that and Harry went over to put his arms around her and comfort her.
Alastor spoke up then. "Aye Lass, I don't see you as a baby, but I do look at you and see the little girl who accepted me to be her father in this world, so it's hard to listen to the brilliant woman that you are agreeing that having sex with your laddie is the only logical move to help control the raging Veela who will be part of your family once yon bonding ceremony is completed."
He looked at Fleur. "Sorry Lass, I mean no disrespect, but that's what I was hearing when your grandmother was describing it."
Fleur waved the apology away. "Non, you are right, that is what my Grand-mère said, and I must admit that I am frightened about that too."
She looked at Hermione. "I too see the little girl when I look at you 'ermione, even though I can see that you are much more mature and powerful than most adult witches and wizards. I am so sorry that you must do this before you are ready because of me."
Hermione went to her to hug her. "Shush! It's not because of you, it's because of those bastards who forced you and Harry into this damned Tournament!" She smiled at her. "And to tell you the truth, I've been tempted to go further some nights when Harry was getting me worked up with the way he was kissing me, so maybe I am ready for it after all."
That got a small laugh out of Fleur, and Millie piped up. "Was this when the of two you were alone, or when I was in the bed with you?"
Hermione grinned at her. "Both!"
Millie shook her head with a smile. "I don't know whether to be glad that I'm a sound sleeper or not." She turned serious suddenly. "But that may explain some of the dreams that I've been having..."
Harry and Hermione looked stricken at that but she shook her head and started to smile. "No! No, they were nice dreams!"
That changed their upset to smiles.
As there were no more comments or questions, Harry turned to Anne. "So when and where should we do this Grand-mère?"
She looked between Harry and Hermione. "If you are ready?" they both nodded.
"Then the sooner the better, as Fleur will need time to get 'er Veela settled down once she has been awoken. You should also 'ave your familiers 'ere, as they will be effected by your bondings, certainly by your's with Fleur 'arry, but I believe that they may be by your's and 'ermione's as well."
Millie got up at that and went to the Delacours' trunk to bring their familiars across from Hogwarts via the trunk floo. Alastor had had to organise another big purchase of the trunks with the floos, because the initial twenty had been quickly used up as their family grew. After much debate he had arranged for another twenty, in hope that they wouldn't have to get any more. This was because the owners of the shop had to be obliviated of all details of the deal again, with just a note from themselves to explain that they'd done a very large deal and had agreed to be obliviated so that they knew nothing about what it was or who it was with to explain why the money in their vaults had grown by so much.
When she got back with their familiars, Hermione was discussing her misconception about Anne and Apolline's strange looks on the day of the first task, and how she'd thought that it was something to do with the magic number seven. That prompted a spirited discussion about the possible ramifications of this, and even more about the fact that if the familiars were added in, they also made up the magic number thirteen.
Harry and Hermione went off with Anne to prepare for their bonding ritual. This was rather more formal than they'd been expecting, but she explained that this form of the ritual should strengthen the bond between them and therefore allow them to control Fleur's Veela better.
The rest of them knew exactly when their bond had been sealed, because the betrothed and their familiars all felt the changes coming through their links and effecting them. They'd forgotten to warn the Delacours or the Greengrasses about the Mngwa transformations though, so when the four cats suddenly turned into ferocious donkey sized monsters because they were unsettled by the unfamiliar sensations of the bonding, it caused some problems. The fact that Apolline transformed into her Veela form when she was surprised by the Mngwas made it even harder to settle the Mngwas down.
When Harry and Hermione came back, they were radiating peace and happiness and this was enough to settle everyone's frazzled nerves. After a kiss for Hermione and the rest of the girls and a bit of attention for their familiars, Harry and Fleur went off with Anne, but this bonding did not go as planned.
Mature concepts start.
Just as he had before, Harry was drawing on both eighteen year old Harry, who had had to satisfy a very demanding Ginny, and the twelve year old Harry who loved kissing and cuddling Hermione, and it was going nicely until they reached their climax, and then an incredible blast of magical energy seemed to rip everything apart.
After what seemed to be an eternity but Anne said had only been fifteen minutes, Harry came to with Fleur in his arms. He could see the healing marks on his body from where he had been clawed when Fleur had transformed into her Veela form, and his head felt like it was about to explode. From the extent of Anne's relief when he opened his eyes, it wasn't hard to work out that she had feared that he would not, so he croaked. "What happened?"
She cried out. " 'arry!" and rushed to the bed to hug him. When she had settled down enough, she tried to explain.
"You know 'ow I said that Veela bondings such as mine could happen only once every two or three 'undred years, if that, and that there 'ad only been a 'andful of them in our entire history?"
Harry nodded carefully, afraid that his head might fall off if he was too vigorous.
"Well it was less than forty years until the next one this time, and you are the first wizard to ever survive this type of bonding according to our records."
At that point, the door burst open and Hermione ran in, closely followed by the rest of the girls and their familiars. They'd all known the moment that Harry had woken up, so they had followed their links to him. After they'd all kissed him and made sure he was OK, Hermione turned to Anne and asked if they were OK. Anne started to repeat what she'd said to Harry but Hermione waved that away. "We all heard when you told Harry that Grand-mère. Are they alright?"
Now that she'd settled down a little, Anne could use her talents to check them over and confirm that they were, as she could see that none of them appeared to have been harmed even though all of them were several times more powerful now, the links between the betrothed and the familiers were all much stronger, and…. Her eyes widened. These women, and Harry, they all had Veela magic now!
That was when she realised just what had happened. Harry had not been burnt out by the destructive outburst of excess magic when Fleur transformed into the elder Veela form like every other Veela's mate had been in these bondings, because somehow that excess magic had been shared with their five other mates and their six familiers through their links. The unique size of their bonding had had enough capacity to save Harry, and in doing so it had turned them all into something that as far as she knew had not been seen before. She had not heard of anyone being turned into Veela before, let alone a wizard!
She looked at the familiers speculatively at that and Hermione turned to look at her. "Bastet says it's rude to stare Grand-mère but yes, they have all been enhanced in the way you described, only far more so, just as we were. The energy that came over us was incredible! How much damage was done by these transformations without all of that excess energy being absorbed? From what we felt, we could tell that it was considerable!"
Anne answered distractedly as she examined the rapidly improving Harry and Fleur. "There are not many records of the transformations before mine Très cher, but when I bonded with 'enri, I destroyed the cottage we were in. The outburst of energy when I transformed killed 'enri and the Veela who were supervising the transformation and destroyed the building itself." A tear started and rolled down her cheek as she remembered killing her mate and her mother, among others. Hermione understood what she was upset about and stepped up to put her arms around her, Anne collapsed into her arms and they stood like this until Fleur groaned.
A significant part of what had slowed Fleur's revival was the battle that had been raging between Harry, Hermione and Fleur's Veela for control over their bond, as it had taken them a while to get the Veela to submit to their dominance. All three of them were grateful for Anne's insistence that Harry and Hermione perform their bonding ritual first, because without that, they weren't sure that they would have been strong enough to prevail.
As soon as Fleur's eyes opened, she sought out Harry, Hermione and Gabi, then looked at the others in turn to confirm that they were all OK. Once Anne had checked Fleur and satisfied herself that she was indeed OK, they headed back to the rest of their families, because they knew that they would be worried.
Their parents and guardians rushed up to see how they were the moment the walked into the room. They'd been panicking from the moment the girls and the familiars had been knocked out by the bonding, and then they all came to and ran/flew out, obviously headed to where Harry and Fleur were, so they were relieved to see that they all appeared to be OK.
It wasn't until Anne explained that the bonding that Fleur had had with Harry was the same kind as she had had with her mate that the parents and guardians began to understand what was going on. Apolline was too shocked as she stared at her daughter to remember to speak in English. "How? This bonding has only ever occurred every few centuries, how can it have occurred again so soon? And how is Harry still alive?"
Anne said that she did not know why Fleur's bonding had taken this form, or how it had occurred again so soon, to her own granddaughter no less, but she explained what she believed to be the reason that Harry had survived. Waving her hand at the betrothed and their familiars, she said. "This is why 'arry survived! With so many bonds to 'is betrothed and their familiars, 'arry was able to share the energy that was being channelled into 'im by Fleur's transformation with all of them. They are all far more powerful than they were before, and Très cher, they 'ave Veela powers too!"
That had Apolline staring at her in shock, because she knew as well as her mother that no-one had ever been turned into a Veela before. "Impossible! Veela are born! Not created!"
"Oui, and yet it has happened! The only thing that I can think of is that the massive amounts of Veela magic that were flooding into them infused their very souls with it and gave them the powers of the Veela, but look at them yourself fille, you will see what I see!"
Apolline did as her mother bid, and she saw that the magic of these women, and Harry, was indeed showing distinctly Veela traits. She also saw that, as her mother had said, they were all much more powerful than they had been before. She examined her ten year old daughter with particular care, and saw that she was more powerful than most adult Veela, she might even be more powerful than her own mother! She was also showing traits that she should not have had until after the change, when she reached her maturity. Apolline had to wonder what the cost of trying to protect their eldest daughter was going to be, but she conceded that the changes had not seemed to have harmed Gabrielle, or any of them, in any way.
The Greengrasses were worried about the fact that Harry and Hermione had become sexual at such a young age, and what effect that would have on the rest of the girls. Harry, Hermione and Anne reminded them that on the inside, they weren't the children that they could see, and that this had been a once off occurrence dictated by the obvious need to do something to mitigate the very real risks to Fleur. They also pointed out that there would be no need for the others to be involved in anything of this nature until they had reached the age when they were mature enough to be ready for it. Hermione summed it up for them.
"There is no need for any of the other girls to be involved in this side of things before they're ready, and Harry and I will be waiting until then to do more as well. Partly because we found that our bodies weren't really ready for it yet, but also because we can't do anything without involving the others..."
That of course prompted questions about what she meant by that and Hermione blushed, so Daphne answered for her. "What she means is that at the moment, we all see and feel everything any of us do. These links between us are like being in each other's heads, so if Hermione and Harry did anything, it would be like all of us doing it. We'll be trying to work out how to tone that down obviously, because I at least will go mad if I have to be part of everything everyone is doing, but even when we do, an experience like that would come through, and they have said that they won't do that to us before we're ready."
Mature concepts end.
That statement generated a stunned silence as the others tried to envisage what their children were experiencing at the moment, but they couldn't imagine what it would be like.
The next point was raised by Apolline. "Maman? You said that Fleur has had the same type of bonding as you did?"
Anne nodded. "Oui."
"Then she is pregnant?"
Anne nodded again, but this raised something else she needed to explain to her petit fille. "Fleur, Très cher. There is something that Veela 'ave that you need to know 'ow to use now. You see we can put the pregnancy on 'old, in stasis, when it starts, and keep it that way until we are ready for it to proceed. What you need to do is this..." She then proceeded to talk Fleur through the process to put her pregnancy on hold until she was able to deal with it, which would be after this damned Tournament was finished.
The others smiled as they watched Hermione soaking up the process as well, as she'd never neglect a chance to learn something new, and if it worked for them, this was something that most women would love to have access to, to have some control over what was happening to their bodies. Harry in particular knew that she was thinking of what had happened to her in the last cycle, when she had been forced to go through her NEWTs at the end of the second trimester of her pregnancy, if she wasn't so incredible she would have failed them and labelled herself a failure because of that.
After the two bondings, and the changes that they had wreaked on all of them, all of the betrothed needed rest to recover and assimilate those changes, so all of them except for Gabrielle headed straight back to Hogwarts. They left Hecate to stay with Gabi, to protect and anchor her. At least it wasn't like Gabi was alone now, because she could speak to any of them in her head. As soon as they got back to Hogwarts, they connected to her to make sure that they still could, and it was as if she was just in the next room.
They all slept in quite late the next morning, and weren't good for much for a day or two as they were adjusting to the changes that they were trying to assimilate. The girls had another problem that hadn't occurred to them before, they were all radiating the Veela allure now, so they were attracting a lot more unwanted attention from the boys in the school. They weren't sure whether Harry was showing the allure as well, because many girls at the school had already been following him about, but the attention did seem to have increased.
This meant that for the next few days, they were concentrating on learning how to control the allure, and using their occlumency skills to keep their thoughts to themselves except when they chose to contact the others. Trying to teach this to their recently elevated familiars was a fun exercise too.
Luckily, they managed to master this within a week, so they had some privacy in their own thoughts again. They used their links to Gabi to teach her what she needed to get control of her thoughts and allure as well. One side benefit of this process was that in the course of it, they developed a much better way of controlling the Veela allure than anything anyone had ever come up with before.
There was considerable interest in the Veela communities in Fleur, as the second Elder Veela transformation in less than forty years, Harry, as the first mate to ever survive the Elder Veela transformation, and the rest of them, as the first turned Veelas.
While they were discussing these aspects, something came up about the allure and the girls turned it up to show that they had it, because there had been no sign of it before. No Veela had ever been able to completely turn off the allure before, so this was astounding. At first the other Veela put this down to the fact that the girls weren't 'real' Veela, until Fleur, Apolline and Anne demonstrated it as well, and they were suddenly clamouring to learn how to do this, because it would make Veelas' lives much easier to not have to deal with the effects of the allure.
In fact, they could hide the very fact that they were Veela from most people without the allure, and that would take away many of their problems. As they were discussing this, Apolline made a note to contact her cousin and start getting those Veela who were serving as mascots for the Bulgarian Quidditch teams trained in this method of controlling the allure, because once they could control it, they could get away from those roles and everything that happened to them there.
Once they had found their feet, Fleur tried operating underwater again, and she was a lot happier when she found that she now had the power to do this capably, at least as well as Krum and Flint would. She was a little jealous of Harry though, because his solution for this task was to use his metamorphmagus talent to transform himself into a Merman, and the increase in magic that he had gained from bonding with her meant that this transformation was near instantaneous now.
Harry had had a dragon skin tunic that reached to mid-thigh made up for this that gave him the freedom to change from two legs to a Merman's tail and back without problem. One benefit of the fact that his clothes etc weren't transfigured with him this way as they were in his animagus transformation was that he could still carry his wands at the ready, and the tunic he wore had pockets to carry things like gillyweed and goggles for Hermione (or whoever they managed to grab for his hostage) in case she woke while she was still underwater, and swim fins for Gabi as well if the bastards found some way to drag her into this.
Fleur, and Gabi if she woke underwater, could not use the gillyweed, because it didn't work the same way for half-humans like Veela as it did for humans, so they'd have to use the bubblehead charm like most witches and wizards, and Hermione had put them onto the muggle invention of swim fins so that they could swim faster than an unaided human.
Harry had already checked a few times, disillusioned and in Merman form, to confirm that the Merpeople's village was still where it had been last time, and that it was not moving, he'd check again closer to the second task. This was a distinct advantage, because if they went straight to the village, they could get their hostages and be back well inside the hour time limit that was specified.
He didn't mention this to anyone else to save them worrying, but he has expecting the Ministries to try something to ensure that his and Fleur's hostages didn't survive, like setting the stasis period for them to expire half an hour before the hour was meant to run out. He didn't believe that they would set it to end too early, because the Merpeople would probably work out that something was wrong and try to save them if it was too obvious. If the stasis failed when they were trying to rescue them, or after they'd rescued them from the village however, it would be up to them to save their hostages. In an unfamiliar environment under the lake, and while they were fighting off the Merpeople or tired after fighting them off, there would be little chance that they'd be able to save them. That was why he was taking whatever he could for the hostages, because he was expecting them to need it.
Harry had had to make another change since he bonded to Fleur, his wands. The increase in magic that he'd gained in that experience was now overpowering his Holly wand, so he contacted Garrick Ollivander to see what could be done about the problem. Garrick had observed the positive changes that the young Lord Potter had brought about for Magical Britain and knew that he had many against him, so he willingly took the oath to ensure that he could not speak of this to anyone. He was also excited about the project that had been brought to him.
Garrick advised him to only use his original Holly wand for light work, while he looked into something that could handle the incredible power that he now wielded. A couple of weeks later, Garrick came to Hogwarts, terribly excited. What he had been doing was tracing the path of the Elder Wand, which was known as the most powerful wand ever created. The reason that he was so excited was that he had found that the last holder of the Elder Wand had been Albus Dumbledore, so it should be in his effects that had been put away when he was imprisoned. Legend had it that the wand's owner must be defeated for it to change to its new master, but that shouldn't be too difficult with the power that Harry had.
He launched into the story of the history of the Elder Wand but Harry stopped him almost straight away. "Did you say that the Elder Wand was created for the House of Peverell?"
"Well yes, but..."
Harry held up a finger to stop him. "Let's see whether it accepts the Head of the House of Peverell as its master then, shall we?"
With that he stood and put his hand out. "Elder Wand, I, Lord Henry James Peverell, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Peverell, claim you as your rightful owner and master!"
There was a flash, and the wand appeared in his hand. As he felt it come alive, there was no question that it had accepted him as its master. They went off to find somewhere that he could test the Elder Wand properly, and it did indeed appear capable of handling whatever he put though it.
Garrick was awestruck and enthralled by the display of power that Harry had been putting on when he was testing the Elder Wand, as he had seen what Albus Dumbledore had done with it at his most powerful, and he had only shown a fraction of the power that Harry was showing.
With that settled, Harry took to carrying a wand on each wrist in disillusioned holsters, still using his Holly Wand for most things, but using the Elder Wand when more power was needed. While Garrick was there, he had him test everyone else's wands as well, but they were all holding up OK to their increased power, even Fleur's. While Garrick was under oath never to reveal any of this to anyone, Harry asked him whether the fact that the Veela hair that formed the core of Fleur's wand was from one of the extremely rare and powerful Elder Veelas, who were much more powerful than other Veela, was likely to be the reason that it could handle more power than most wands? Garrick was excited by this news, and he agreed that the hair of someone as powerful as he described was quite likely to be able to handle more power than most other core materials.
Harry thanked him for his assistance and Garrick went back to his shop a happy man, he had helped the saviour of his country, located and observed the Elder Wand being used to its true potential, and he had learned something that few witches or wizards knew about Veela, that there were some who were far more powerful than the rest. He couldn't do anything with this knowledge, but like Hermione, and Harry and most of the others now, he valued knowledge for knowledge's sake, so Harry Potter had done him a great boon in this.
On the morning of the second task, they thought that they'd managed to beat the Ministries, but suddenly strange elves turned up during breakfast in the Great Hall to grab Hermione, and Gabrielle in Delacour Chateau at the same time, and they both disappeared.
Harry and the others could feel them down at the lake, and when he realised what the bastards had done, Harry strode straight up to the High Table and told Abbot. "The Second Task will start now!"
Abbott smirked at him. "You may think that you are so important that you can dictate everything Potter, but you are not! The task will start at nine as was planned!"
The Elder Wand dropped into Harry's hand as he roared. "The task will start now!" and he punctuated that by blasting the table in front of Abbott apart. He then swung the wand to point it at Lestrange, and then Bagman, and repeated. "The task will start now!"
Bagman spluttered his agreement and ran from the hall as fast as he could. Harry turned back to Abbott, who was now rolling on the floor in pain and said in a voice that carried to everyone in the Great Hall. "If any harm befalls either of them, anything at all! I will ensure that the houses of those responsible, and every member of those houses, are utterly destroyed!"
Amelia, Louis and squads of British and French Aurors ran into the Great Hall as Harry gave that warning to Abbott, and they watched him grab Fleur and pop out to the Tower using Elf Magic. Harry sent Fleur to change into what she would be wearing for the task while he did the same, and when she was ready he took her arm again and popped her down to the deck on the lake where the task was starting from.
Bagman was staggering up with Krum and Flint (they weren't about to risk being judged as not having participated in the task) as they arrived, and Amelia, Minerva, Madame Maxime, Karkaroff and Krakov weren't far behind. Harry cast a spell to enhance his vision and saw that the Aurors were dragging Abbott and Lestrange down to the lake as well.
When she saw that all four Champions were present, Amelia cast a sonorous and announced. "The head and betrothed of Magical Britain's Noble and Most Ancient Houses and the daughter of the Deputy Minister for Magic for France and betrothed of the Noble and Ancient House of Flamel have been illegally kidnapped and put at risk of their lives by being forced to be part of this task. I am therefore overriding the organisers of this Tournament and starting this task now so that they can be rescued!" She nodded to Bagman. "Start the task!" Bagman didn't say a word, he just raised his wand and set off a blast.
Harry dropped his robes, but waited for Fleur to pull on her swim fins, cast the bubble headcharm and dive into the lake before he followed, changing into a Merman as he did so. He was going to lead her to the Merpeople's village, but they could both feel where Hermione and Gabi were, so she told him to go ahead and make sure they were OK.
Fleur was still in sight when Krum and Flint dove into the lake, but Flint had just cast the bubblehead charm, and Krum obviously hadn't thought out the partial transformation into a shark he did, because he had transformed his top half, not his bottom half. That meant that with the swim fins and all the practice she'd put in over the past six months, Fleur quickly left them behind. She also knew to stay away from the growth on the bottom where the grindylows were lurking and where she was going, so the other two had no chance of catching her.
Harry reached the Merpeople's village well ahead of Fleur and the others, and saw that his suspicion that the Ministries would be doing everything possible to get at them was correct. The other two hostages were Sophia Balfour and Tamara Powers, as he'd expected (those two didn't care about anyone, so taking these two girls to the Yule Ball was the closest thing to a commitment that either of them had done in ages), but none of the Mermen were anywhere near them, they were all clustered around Hermione and Gabi, poking them with their spears. Neither of the girls appeared to have any serious injuries, but they were both covered with stab wounds and there was plenty of blood in the water around them.
The Elder Wand appeared in his hand as if of its own accord and he started casting reducto blasting spells at the Mermen poking spears at the girls. In his anger, most of those Mermen were blown apart, and he then turned the wand on the rest of the Merpeople, blasting them away from the girls with massively overpowered banishing charms, casting them well beyond the bounds of the village. Many of them would have doubtless been injured by that, but at that moment he did not care.
Once the area around them was clear, he cast severing charms to release all four girls from the statue they were tethered to, because he couldn't leave the other girls there. He applied sticking charms to hold them all together, and then he grabbed onto Hermione and Gabi and cast an overpowered non-verbal flying charm on the girls, calling to Fleur through their link to tell her turn around and go back as they shot up out of the village.
'Riding' an extremely irregular object that's made up of four girls stuck together through the water at high speed isn't easy, but people had always said that Harry was the best natural flyer that they'd ever seen, and it was the fastest way to get them out of there. When they came up on Fleur, he slowed down enough for her to grab on, so that she wasn't left behind. Krum and Flint also turned back when they saw the strange object flying past them at high speed in the water.
The sight of the five girls and Harry coming up out of the water caught the attention of everyone, though most missed Harry changing back to his human form as they left the water. He put the four girls down on the deck as gently as he could and cancelled the sticking charms.
Amelia had called for Poppy as soon as she saw all the blood, but Poppy had the other two girls taken out of the way as soon as she realised that the blood on them had all come from Hermione and Gabrielle. It didn't take Poppy long to report that Harry's initial impression had been basically correct, neither of them were seriously injured but they had lost a lot of blood from the stab wounds they had all over them. Try as they might, they also couldn't find any way to cancel the stasis spells over the girls.
Krakov offered what he thought was the counter-spell, but it did nothing, and Abbott and Lestrange were saying that they did not know either until Harry pointed the Elder Wand at Abbott's face and told him that he had ten seconds to give them the counter-spell. Abbott hesitated as he counted down through four of those seconds and then blurted it out. Minerva cast the spell on Tamara, and as she started to wake, she pushed Poppy aside and cast it on Hermione and Gabi. As an afterthought she remembered to cast the spell on Sophia as well.
Just as Hermione and Gabi were being helped to their feet to be taken away for proper treatment, the waters around the deck boiled as the rest of the Merpeople surfaced, brandishing spears and demanding that the murderer of their people be turned over to them for justice. At that point, Harry was ready to kill the rest of the Merpeople as well for what had been done to Hermione and Gabi, so he stalked to the edge of the deck and started shouting at the Merpeople's Chieftainess in Mermish.
"You get nothing until I get justice for the attack on my mates!" He waved at the bloodstained figures of Hermione and Gabi, being supported by the other girls. "Your people attacked and injured my mates who were innocent and unwilling parts of this task and they were defenceless! If they had been injured any more than they were, I would have wiped out the rest of you, and I may do so yet!"
The Chieftainess was beginning to wonder what was going on here. "No! They are convicted criminals who are to be put to death! That was why they were being used as bait in this contest!"
She didn't know much about humans, but she recognised a predator that was about to attack when she saw one, so she pulled back from the deck when this small human's gaze changed. His voice grew quieter but the menace increased as he spoke again. "Who told you this? Him?" He pointed at Abbott.
"No, the ones we normally deal with from your Ministry."
"Do you know what human children look like?"
"No? We do not deal with your kind! Why would we know what you look like?"
Harry pointed at the Ministry officials, Bagman, Minerva, Madame Maxime, Amelia, Louis and the British and French Aurors. "They are what adults in our world look like!" He then pointed at Hermione and Gabi with the rest of their group around them. "They are children! Your people attacked and injured innocent children, ones who are also bonded to me! You were lied to by the humans you talked to, but that does not relieve you or your people of the guilt of injuring my innocent mates!"
He waved Amelia and Kingsley over. "You will work with these humans and identify every human who was involved in putting my mates in your village and tell them exactly what you were told to do to them, and if I am not satisfied that you have met my requirements I will return and destroy every Merperson in your village! As you have attacked my mates, who are children, your children will not be safe from me if I am not satisfied. Do you understand?"
This was something that she could understand, a warrior who was prepared to extract retribution for what had been done to his family. She nodded. "Yes, I understand. We have harmed what is your's and you demand retribution. I will deal with these humans and give them the answers you require. Do you want the other two humans back?"
Harry nodded disinterestedly. "Yes, we require them to be returned alive."
She nodded again. "It will be done."
Hermione had cast the Rosetta translation spell over Amelia and the others when Harry started shouting at the Chieftainess, so Amelia had heard and understood nearly everything that was said in Mermish, including the fact that someone at the Ministry, the Creatures Department from what she said, had told the Merpeople that Hermione and Gabrielle were convicted criminals who were to be put to death, so they could do what they wanted to them. She wasn't happy with what Harry had said, but she wasn't going to say anything at the moment, because a) that would undermine what he'd somehow gotten the Chieftainess to agree to; and b) Harry wanted to kill someone at the moment and she didn't want to risk setting him off.
Harry popped Hermione and Gabi straight into the Infirmary, leaving it to others to bring everyone else. By the time Poppy was brought in, Harry had transfigured a bed to be big enough for the three of them and Fleur. He gave Poppy room to treat the girls but he and Fleur climbed into bed with them to hold them as soon as she was done. Poppy couldn't have separated them if she wanted to, and she was pretty sure that this was what they needed at the moment, so she cast privacy shields around the bed and left them to look after each other. The three Mngwas had also arrived somehow and were curled up on the foot of the bed as well.
Their bed was surrounded with goblin guards and British and French Aurors who were quietly talking about how Lord Potter had forced the Merpeople's Chieftainess to assist with the investigation into what had happened here, and the threat they'd heard him give Abbott that any houses who were involved with this in any way would be completely destroyed. The British Aurors had been looking at Flint as they said that, and he couldn't get out of there fast enough.
Madam Pomfrey kicked Krum out soon after him, but the other two girls were kept in overnight to make sure that there were no after effects from what they had gone through.