Chapter 10: The House of Ardoin, etc.
"Harry Potter racked up life debts at a rate unmatched in recorded history. He started at age eleven by jumping on the back of a troll and he hasn't shown any signs of slowing down. Some people use life debts in nefarious ways to force people into terrible circumstances. Harry acknowledges them only as a point of honor for the other party.
"During the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Harry managed to gain a life debt from Fleur Delacour, who he saved in the maze during the third task, and her younger sister Gabrielle who he rescued from the bottom of the Black Lake during the second task.
"Veela are known to react strongly to outside influences on their magic. It is in some ways surprising that Fleur didn't become slightly infatuated with Harry after the tournament, but instead she fell in love with and married Bill Weasley. However, in the summer of the year 2000, between Harry's marriages to Katie and Padma, Fleur requested that he join her father for a meeting to settle life debts.
"Harry didn't think anything of it at the time and met the Delacours at their summer home near Normandy. Harry took Susan with him and I still laugh every time I remember our first conversation upon his return to England. I simply asked, 'Well?', and he simply replied, 'I'm engaged. Again.'
"Fleur struggled through school because of how her allure affected those around her. She controlled it as much as possible, but fourteen year old boys are incredibly horny and even more weak-willed. Add in the fact that fourteen year old girls are incredibly petty and jealous and it's bound to be a bad time for the poor Veela who just wants people to leave her alone. Fleur cared very much for her sister and didn't want her to go through the same type of accusations of line theft and betrothal interference that she was met with consistently, so she brought a plan to her father to help her sister avoid the trouble.
"At the meeting between Fleur and her father Pierre and Harry and Susan, it was proposed that, as payment for the life debt owed for saving Gabrielle, Harry would take her as a wife, and, as payment for the life debt owed for saving Fleur, his second son with Gabrielle would continue the Delacour name. Harry was suitably gobsmacked, but Fleur pressed anyway. She knew what was being asked and explained why.
"Gabrielle was already tied to Harry. He was her hero, she talked about him all the time, and Fleur suspected that her magic had already chosen Harry as a mate and therefore if it wasn't Harry, she wasn't getting married at all. And while he couldn't save Gabrielle entirely from what she went through as a student, being able to laugh off accusations of betrothal tampering would help quite a bit since Gabrielle would be able to claim she was betrothed herself, and wasn't interested in downgrading to the accusing party.
"And so it was agreed. Naturally, the Delacours requested that Gabrielle take the French last name that Harry had inherited, Ardoin. Together the group crafted a standard line for Gabrielle to deliver to anybody who accused her of attempted line theft. It went something like this, 'I'm not guilty of line theft, attempted line theft, betrothal tampering, attempted betrothal tampering, or any other silly law that you wish to accuse me of breaking because of (insert name) being a weak-willed fool. I'm currently betrothed myself and have no desire to downgrade to said weak-willed fool. If you wish to press the issue, a duel of honor can be arranged if you are willing to wait until on or after January 1st, 2015, by which time my husband will be willing to stand in my stead. And before you ask, yes my father is a talented dueller and powerful wizard, but my betrothed is far more skilled and powerful and particularly eager make quick work of all those who insult me.'
"Seven such accusations were made against Gabrielle Delacour, two were dropped once Gabrielle spoke her line, two more after confirmation from Pierre that everything she said was truthful. Two others withdrew their complaint after the betrothal announcement was made public once Gabrielle finished her schooling at Beauxbatons and paid reparations to the House of Delacour, and the final fool refused to withdraw his complaint. Harry then requested a second duel of honor against the boy's father for besmirching Harry's name by publicly stating the he didn't believe Harry would fight on behalf of a Veela slut.
"Harry made exceptionally short work of the accuser. He used one spell to transfigure the boy into a donkey. He didn't make short work of the father though, he made an example of him and the world took notice. He tore the stupid bastard apart, one spell at a time and afterwards he told all the reporters gathered, 'Let the world know, if you insult one of my wives or one of my friends the way this arrogant waste of oxygen did, no amount of healing magic is going to make the pain you receive from my wand go away.'
"Usually women of Veela descent struggle to produce males. It's said to take a particularly strong wizard for such a thing to happen, but usually Veela don't make a fuss about it. As long as you have a daughter, you have done your duty to the Veela nation and can carry your head high with pride. Naturally, Harry had two sons before Gabrielle Nicole Potter Delacour Ardoin had the daughter that everyone was expecting.
"The other thing you have to understand about Veela is that they're born beautiful. The allure also exists, but they're just naturally stunning women. And let me tell you this, I'm almost sixty years old now and I think I've aged pretty well. In my prime, I was a legitimate ten out of ten, but I never held a candle to Gabrielle. She may very well have been the single most beautiful woman in all of Britain.
"She hated all the attention though, so Gabrielle never took a real job. She set out to make her mark on the world in another way. At the time, the magical world was stagnant. Britain had only made one major advancement in the previous thirty years, the Wolfsbane potion, a pair of Greek brothers had managed to kill a chimera which allowed further study of it, and some Algerians made powerful advancements in runic wards, but that was it. I mean worldwide, that was it.
"Gabrielle decided to get a mastery in arithmancy and then another in herbology and proceeded to mix the two of them in ways that nobody had ever thought of and it led to breakthrough after breakthrough in the potency and possible uses of magical plants. She has her own greenhouse at Winter Gardens where she tests theories and while she's still positively beautiful, it's now the third most famous thing about her after her herbology advancements and being married to Harry.
"Gabrielle's oldest son, Roland Alain Ardoin, is the manager of ADP Winery, which operates a vineyard in Saint-Tropez, France. The ADP stands for Ardoin, Delacour, Potter, and solidified the joining of the families and the investment of the Potter families in France. Her second son, Andre Pierre Delacour, inherited a Delacour family business, Cottages on the Rhine, which rents out vacation homes and cabins in Strasbourg, France. Sophie Noelle Ardoin owns The Pheasant's Feather, a shop that sells quills and other writing instruments and stationery in Diagon Alley.
"And finally, we get to Rylie's mother."