AN: Enjoy!

Chapter 19 - Danger

A knock on the large window of her bedroom startled Fleur awake from her sleep. Her bleary eyes revealed confusion but when a knock was heard again, she turned to look towards the direction from where the sound came. The sight of the snowy owl impatiently pacing back and forth on the window sill made her break into a smile.

She grabbed her wand from the nightstand and pointed it at the window to open it. Then, she conjured a fluffy towel, just as the white owl landed on her bed, in her lap. It was raining with cats and dogs outside. Hedwig hooted in comfort as the girl enveloped her in the fluffy towel and hugged her to her chest.

"Look at you, you're soaked!" she said in French but Hedwig hooted in indignation. "Oh, forgive me, I forgot you don't know French, you're an English owl," she said with a giggle, this time in English.

But after that, her body suddenly shrank and another snowy owl stood in her stead. Hedwig chirped and barked happily at the sight of her Animagus form and the transformed Fleur also made similar noises. For a few good minutes, the two snowy owls hooted and chirped happily amongst themselves. (1)

Eventually, Fleur returned to her human form and opened the letter Hedwig had delivered to her.

Dear Fleur,

You told me to write you so here I am, writing. Why do you even want me to write when it's only a two-week-long holiday is beyond me...you even got Hedwig on your side somehow, she wouldn't stop biting me until I started writing your letter. You turned her against me! Damn it, it wasn't bad enough that I got myself a sassy snake and a feisty wand, now even my cute and lovable owl doesn't love me anymore.

"That's so like him. Always so grumpy!" Fleur complained but the grin she had on her face was not fooling anyone. That grumpy side of him had grown on her over the past three months since they have become friends. These days, she found it rather cute.

Oh well. Christmas is only three days away so aunt Bella has already started decorating the Blackthorn. This grim and dark gothic mansion looks surprisingly beautiful with merry Christmas lights on it. I have taken a photo and I will attach it to this letter for you to see it too (maybe you could even come to visit us during summer? Talk it over with your parents).

Fleur's family was rather well off and her parents owned a mansion as well but she was still impressed by how the Blackthorn looked. There was something about gothic architecture that always stood out. At the very least, for wizards and witches in Europe, the gothic aesthetic was very sought after.

How about you? Are you getting along with your parents?

Fleur let out a drawn-out sigh at the mention of her parents and mumbled something unintelligible but continued to read the rest of the letter.

I know what you're going through. That feeling of dissociation when you are too different from the ones around you and you can't connect with them - I know it better than anyone. Keeping dark secrets from others doesn't help your desire to be away from the ones you care about either. I am like that too. But I think that distancing yourself from your family is not the answer. Your parents don't know why you've grown cold to them. Gabrielle doesn't know why her big sister doesn't want to play with her anymore either.

You have a mission, a goal...But once you achieve your purpose, what will you be left with if you pushed everyone you love away? Maybe I'm biased because I've never had a family of my own but if I were you I'd treasure every little second I had together with them.

I'm nagging you, aren't I? Sorry. I just...even with my less than desirable past, when I am with Bellatrix, I can forget about it and enjoy the present. I enjoy every moment I spend together with her. She is like family to me. When we are bickering, when she is playing the piano for me, when she is trying to teach me spells and so on, I am happy.

"Here he is, sending me a letter, but he keeps talking about another woman!" Fleur huffed, half-amused half-annoyed. But her expression brightened when she read the next line:

You becoming my friend has been brilliant too. I rarely have the time to let my mind wander to the past when you are around.

"Aww, I bet he wouldn't dare say that face-to-face, he'd be too embarrassed!" she giggled.

What I'm trying to say is that being around the people you care about would do you good. I hope you will try to spend more time with your family. They need you just as much as you need them.

Best regards,
Harry.

When she read the signoff, Fleur rolled her eyes and threw the letter on the blanket.

"Would it have killed him to write "Love, Harry"? Tell me, 'Edwig, isn't he very inconsiderate?"

Hedwig looked at her briefly before turning her head away, not deigning her with an answer.

"Hah?! You're taking his side now? I thought we were best friends!" she said dramatically.

Hedwig hopped on her shoulder and affectionately nipped her ear, making the girl let out a twinkle of laughter. Just then, a 9-year-old girl with bright blue eyes and long blond hair opened the door to Fleur's bedroom without knocking and caught her older sister while she was playing with the adorable snowy owl.

Fleur's first reaction was to get annoyed at how Gabrielle had burst into her room without even knocking but then she remembered Harry's letter and instead of chasing her little sister out of the room, she let out a sigh. Deep down, she also agreed with Harry's words.

"Morning, Gabby."

"Morning! Oooh! What a beautiful owl!" the little girl said excitedly and jumped on her bed, startling Hedwig. "Can I pet her too? Please! Please!"

But Hedwig had other ideas and flew up from Fleur's arms on the window sill and then outside.

"Noo!" Gabrielle cried out crestfallen.

Seeing the tragic expression on her little sister's cute face, Fleur felt her heart melt.

"Don't worry, she will be back. She is waiting for me to write an answer to a letter. Come here," she said and opened her arms.

It was only the second day since Fleur had returned home for the Christmas holiday and Gabrielle had missed her elder sister a lot. Seeing her actually taking the initiative to hug her, little Gabby jumped into her arms.

During the past two years, Fleur had become increasingly distant from her family. Gabrielle is the one that had missed her the most. But Fleur too was realizing now just how much she had missed embracing her little sister. She may have been annoying and intrusive at times, but they were family, with both the good and the bad. As she hugged Gabrielle's little body to her chest, she felt an almost forgotten warmth appearing in her heart.

"I missed you, Gabby," she whispered while caressing the little girl's hair.

She had missed her entire family. She had missed the love and the affection of her parents too. And it was only her fault that things had become like that. She resolved herself to make it up to them.

"Is there anything you'd like to do today? I promise I'll spend the whole day with you!"

The squeal of excitement coming from the little girl let Fleur know just how happy Gabby was to have her big sister back.

⁂

December was almost over and Christmas was around the corner. One month after Bellatrix's birthday, the world had yet to settle from the storm that she had caused.

With Lucius Malfoy and Cornelius Fudge out of the picture after Fleur Delacour killed them, Bellatrix Black encountered significantly less resistance than she would have had otherwise when she pushed forward her request. That is not to say that there were no hurdles at all. Many old and pureblood families such as the Carrows, the Yaxleys, the Averys, the Selwyns, and others had vehemently protested against her book being approved for publishing. She had been called a "Blood Traitor" and she had even gotten anonymous death threats through letters while she was at work (owls could not find her at home because the Blackthorn's warding spells blocked out everything and everyone, even House Elves, to say nothing of owls.).

However, with Harry Potter being a half-blood and a Parselmouth and with the Muggle documentation proving he was a descendant of Calliope Gaunt, who also existed in the records kept by the Ministry of Magic, Bellatrix's research finally had solid proof. Furthermore, Bellatrix herself was different from when she was just a fresh Hogwarts graduate too. Nowadays, she was an influential figure in the British Wizarding society. She was an Unspeakable and she was also an Oder of Merlin, First Class recipient and a nation-wide respected hero after saving the life of the Boy-Who-Lived and his parents. Furthermore, the head of the House of Black, Sirius Black, was firmly on her side. While she may not be as venerable as the former headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, in the eyes of the general population, she was still a very significant person.

On top of that, the current Minister of Magic, Amelia Bones, though very ambitious, was a fair and non-prejudiced woman. In addition to making the life of Muggleborn witches and wizards better, Bellatrix's research would also serve her political agenda as well because it would seriously undermine the influence of the old pureblood families. Maybe the Wizengamot would lose quite a bit of power too in the following 3 to 5 years. Amelia Bones was more than willing to release her research to the public. For her, as the saying goes, it was like hitting two birds with one stone.

Taking all that into account, on the 1st of December, the first batch of "Magic Ancestry" books appeared on the shelves of Flourish and Blotts in Diagon Alley.

Christmas was only two days away but the Daily Prophet looked like it had forgotten about it seeing as on the first page of its daily editions there were still only articles related to Bellatrix's research. The impact of Magic Ancestry had been felt not only in Great Britain but all across the continent.

While more modern wizarding societies such as the ones from France, Greece, and Spain welcomed Bellatrix's research with opened arms, other, more conservative countries had a completely different stance. In Germany and Italy, it was complete chaos, just like in the UK, while the Ministries of Magic from Russia and Turkey had completely refused to accept it. As for other countries such as Romania, Hungary, or Albania, their Ministries of Magic were not the most powerful entities in the country so the impact of a theory overthrowing pureblood supremacy was not as big.

For example, in Hungary, the coven of vampires led by Elizabeth Bathory III openly ruled the country (2); the Hungarian Ministry of Magic only served as an aid to maintain the Statute of Secrecy. Meanwhile, in Romania, the situation was even more complicated: Transylvania and Wallachia provinces were ruled with an iron fist by the two clans of Vampires descending from Vlad the Impaler (3) while Moldova and Bessarabia were like heaven for Werewolves. As for Albania, its territory was disputed between Vampires and Werewolves. In these countries, the Ministry of Magic was not the most powerful organisation because Vampires and Werewolves were too numerous and too deeply rooted there.

⁂

After sending Hedwig with his letter to Fleur, Harry dressed up for their little trip to Diagon Alley. Bellatrix was adamant they bought the Christmas star that would come on the top of the Christmas tree that very day. She wanted to avoid the craziness that would start the next day (tomorrow was Christmas Eve).

Though they left home around noon, it was rather late, around 5 o'clock in the afternoon by the time they finally finished their shopping spree. Harry was reminded what it meant to go shopping with a woman. While, at first, Bellatrix wanted to buy just an ornament for the Christmas tree, she ended up buying a whole lot more. Nevertheless, as bored and annoyed as he was to be dragged around in every little store for various tidbits, Harry did not show it. The older witch looked like she was having the time of her life and he did not want to ruin her happiness.

Seeing as it was the end of December, at 5 pm the sky was already dark. Many stores on Diagon Alley were starting to close, Harry and Bella being among the last customers to leave the Alley. Due to not wanting to cause a scene by going out of the Alley through the Leaky Cauldron at that hour (it was filled with customers and she was extremely famous at the moment), Bellatrix chose to go to Apparition Point of the Alley.

However, when she grabbed Harry's hand and tried to Disapparate, they just twirled in one spot. Due to her high heels, Bellatrix even lost her balance and fell to the ground.

'Anti-Disapparation Jinx!' was the first thought that came to his mind and he immediately became alert. A feeling of danger washed over him. Decades spent on the battlefield had not been erased after just 1 year and a half of peace. His instincts had not disappeared.

But Bellatrix had yet to stand up from where she had fallen when a scream came from behind them:

"Avada Kedavra!"

Her eyes wide in fear and disbelief, Bellatrix only had the time to turn her head towards the scream and watch as a green bolt of light flew at her.

AN: I will allow you to swear at me after this cliffhanger. I know that I deserve it. But I do not regret it. Not one bit. Mwahahaha.

(1) Animagus wizards have the ability to communicate with other animals. In the canon, Pettigrew found from other rats where Voldemort was in Albania and Sirius could talk to Hermione's half-kneazle cat.

(2) Elizabeth Bathory was a Hungarian noblewoman in the 16th century. A serial killer who used to abduct virgin girls, torture them, and kill them. The legend says she would also drain them of their blood and then bathe in it to retain her youth (the killing and torturing part is true, the thing about bathing in their blood to keep her youth is not verified - could be true, could be fiction).

(3) Vlad the Impaler was a voivode of Wallachia (the southern region of today's Romania) in the 15th century. He was famous in Europe for how he used to execute his enemies by impaling them into giant wooden stakes. He's the one from whom the legend of Dracula started.