As always, I own nothing! Just playing in other peoples sandboxes!
A thanks goes out to the almighty pazed for the help editing! As well as the appearance of Dr. Doolittle and the Giant Pink Sea Snail.
READ! ENJOY! REVIEW! Because that is the only form of payment any person writing here can hope for!
Chapter 52
Shar stood at the edge of the pier straining her mage sight as she tried to find any sign of the snail's return with her son while pulling nervously at her coat. A voice from next to her made her jump. "He will be fine, while within Alice's shell he is as safe as he is wrapped in your arms my dear."
She exhaled a breath she didn't know she had been holding as the snail came back into view. A smile grew across her face as she answered the man. "While that may be true Doctor, that does nothing to keep me from worrying… Alice? I wasn't aware that she had a name."
"Mmmm… indeed, most of the creatures I speak with have other ways to identify themselves or each other. The names I use are mostly for me, a way to keep track of them within my own mind. It is something that has been passed down much like my family's gift," he supplied. "Ah, she is almost here!"
Shar's head swiveled toward him. "How did you know that?" she asked.
"Where you can see her, I on the other hand," he tapped his ear, "can hear her… Your son is quite alright… however the girl will need to be seen to. She seems to be quite cold, far more so than any of the others that have been brought back."
"Margo is ready, as is their healer…" she said. "I wanted to thank you again Doctor, we are most grateful for your help over the years."
The man nodded. "Not at all. Your families' visits have been most welcome! I have learned much traveling with Chinthliss and Thomas. For the first time since my grandfather's time the Dolittles are going out on adventures again! Underhill is a treasure, and there is so much to explore and document! Furhold alone will take more than my lifetime or my grandchildren's lifetime! Documenting all the people and their stories is a dream come true."
Bubbles began to surface, causing the water to appear to boil and moments later the snail came to a halt next to the pier. Margo had appeared by that time, arms filled with a large red bag. "Good, I made it! Shar, keep everyone out till I call. There is only so much room in there. Doctor, if you would be so kind as to thank her for her help, and tell her I'll try to be as quick as I can." Not waiting for a response she stepped forward quickly, dipped her head and disappeared into the shell.
Inside she found Harry with a young girl wrapped tightly in his arms; to her eyes she looked to be eight or nine years old. He looked up at her. "She's still really cold… and sluggish… I didn't know what else to do…" His voice trailed off.
Dropping the red bag next to him she knelt, talking as she did. "You did your best Harry." She felt the young blond girl's face, he wasn't kidding! Her skin was cold to the touch. "How are you feeling?" she asked Harry as she began to open the bag.
"Tired… cold… but I'm alright," he replied quietly. "H-how's Fleur? She was hurt."
She pulled a heavy wool blanket, a twin to the ones Tannim kept in the trunk of his car (they may have been military surplus, and scratchy as hell but by God they were warm!), wrapping them both in it to contain their body heat.
"She's being tended to," she said, continuing to dig into the bag and pulling out a pair of oblong plastic pouches and small towels. Taking the first one she wrapped it in the towel, grasped it firmly with both hands and bent it in half. After hearing a quiet 'crunch' she shook it briskly. "Put this one between you… if it feels like it's getting too warm move it around." Repeating the actions, she handed him the second one. "Hold this one on her back, I don't want her core temperature any lower… do you think you are up to carrying her? There is a medical area under the grandstand; we'll take her there so I can get a better look at her."
Harry nodded. "I think I can… if you can help me keep steady as I step onto the pier."
"Alright, let's get her out of here… I want you both out of those wet things ASAP." Margo stood leaving the bag till last, and helped him stand, it was quite a struggle.
The shouting match was reaching a fever pitch as Margo helped him onto the pier, the booming voice of the headmaster of Beauxbatons, Madam Maxime cutting directly to the quick of the matter. "HOW DARE YOU PLACE ONE OF MY FIRST YEARS IN THAT LAKE!"
The man, dressed in black, facing her already had his wand in hand, and pointing toward the fuming Amazon of a woman. "And you would have had me do what? It was agreed that for this task they would need to 'rescue' a hostage, as is traditional, and those hostages would be the champion's escorts from the ball!"
The woman loomed over him menacingly. "Her sister did not escort her to the ball!" she growled.
The man didn't seem fazed, "When I went to collect the boy that did, I found him in the hospital wing! He is ill with Dragon Pox! I needed to find a substitute quickly!"
"And you decided a first year student was acceptable!" she screamed.
"It needed to be someone that fit the riddle as well! She needed one with a connection to her to be able to figure out who to rescue," he said in his defense. "The only other people that she seems to have any relationships with are Potter and his sycophants!"
Harry ignored them and continued on, led away by Margo and his mother.
"YOU IDIOT MAN!" she yelled. "That girl is a Veela! One that has not even reached her first maturity! Do you not know what that means!" she yelled.
He scoffed at her, "She was in no dange-"
"NO DANGER! You left her unconscious in the depths of the lake, cutting her off from her elemental magics! You will be lucky if she does not die from this!" she yelled.
Dumbledore stepped between them. "My dear, now is not the time for this… you have two students that have need of you at the moment. You have my word that I will look into this…
The door clicked closed behind them cutting off the sound from outside. Harry stumbled as he approached the examining table, Margo and his mother keeping him from falling. He was exhausted.
Setting the young girl on the table he began to pull away, trying to leave her with his jacket, the warm packs and blanket, but she wasn't letting go. A soft voice from beside him gathered the girl's attention; it was Fleur's voice. Whatever she said, in French, had the girl holding onto him tighter.
A shuffling came from behind him as Fleur moved closer. Reaching around him she touched her sister's face, bringing the girl's eyes to meet her own. Speaking softly she began to move the young girl's arms, and motioned for Harry to step away as she took his place, allowing her arms to become entwined with her sister's.
Harry stumbled away, his legs feeling like jell-o, and for some reason the next table looked so far away… He felt his mother's arms wrap around him as she helped him across the room and behind the screen. No sooner was he changed and wrapped in his own blanket, than he was asleep.
Albus sighed as he looked around what had once been his office. Today had almost been a fiasco, and it had taken most of his considerable skill to keep it from escalating further. Severus had completed his orders to the best of his understanding. He had been asked to gather the group that would be posing as hostages for the tournament, while the other headmasters saw to their guests, and he himself indulged in some much needed rest after accompanying Sirius in the attempt to dig their way through the bureaucracy surrounding the cottage.
The problem did not stem from the choice of personnel to complete the task, in his opinion, but rather a lack of proper education about magical beings on the part of young Severus (he had chosen a different path when he had chosen to pursue his dream of becoming a potion master). There were no Veela colonies within the confines of the British Isles, therefore little time was given to them during the Care of Magical Creatures class even when they were discussed during the seventh year. It was more of an overview, if he remembered correctly.
So, it was understandable that the young man would not be aware of the danger he had accidently placed the young Veela in, due to her unfortunate elemental affinities. He would need to have a long talk with him and reassure him that he had done nothing wrong and still had his full trust.
It had taken most of the day for Albus to soothe the ruffled feathers of those involved, in the end Madam Maxime had gone to check on her students and returned to her coach, though he did expect a visit from someone at the French Ministry as well as the ICW in the next few days.
Minerva stepped into the room from the small sitting area just off the main office, her lips pursed in anger. She moved quickly behind her desk, before turning to face the man she was seriously thinking about firing at the moment. "Albus? What were you thinking? Giving that task to Severus!"
Albus waved her concern away as he perused one of the books he had pulled from the shelves going over some small tidbit of information held within. "It was just a misunderstanding, Minerva. I trust Severus implicitly."
"Albus," she said slowly her Scottish brogue becoming thicker, "I dinna believe you fully understand what exactly that man has done!"
Albus turned toward her with a raised eyebrow. "He placed a first year Veela student, one that as of today had not begun her first maturation, at the bottom of an exceedingly deep lake, cutting her off from her affinity magics. Her magic was literally burning itself out trying to keep her alive!"
He knew all of this of course; who did this woman think she was speaking with some form of imbecile?
He gave her his best grandfatherly smile, but before he could speak she began again. "That little girl was almost dead when Mr. Potter reached her, and would have most likely died if he had been any slower. As it is their healer, an expert on Veela magics that they had to call in because of the emergency, doesn't believe she will be able to complete the rest of the term! Making her repeat the entire year again!"
"Now, Min-" he began, only to be set back on his heels as the woman stood and yelled at him. "Don't you 'Now Minerva Me' Albus Dumbledore! That little girl has lost an entire year of education because you deemed it necessary to pass your responsibilities to someone else!"
She drew a deep breath and continued, "THEN there is the fact that he put Pansy Parkinson down there as well! I flooed over to speak with her parents, and ended up sitting with her mother for over a half an hour trying to reassure her that her daughter is fine and no harm came to her in any way before I could get her calmed down enough to floo her husband!"
"Iris is absolutely fuming Albus, and Merlin only knows about the girl's father, Damon! He came home and spoke with Iris briefly, yelled at me to get out and then apparated away!" She flung her arms in the air in exasperation.
"And what do I find here when I get back?" she asked producing a stack of parchment. "Messages from not only the Delacour family wanting to know how such a thing happened, but ones from a half a dozen French Ministry officials, and another five from Bulgarian officials! Even the ICW Education Department has sent me a message that I am to expect a representative from them that will have questions about how something like this was allowed to occur!"
Albus's brows rose, it wasn't that he hadn't expected something like this, but he was surprised it had happened this quickly! "Never fear my dear, I will be with you very step. It will be simple to show them this was nothing more than a mere oversight," he said going back to his book.
Minerva looked at the man, mouth agape, stunned by his cavalier attitude. Her mind had been made up, it was time for her to make some changes. "Albus, I have work to do. If you would…"
After waiting a couple of minutes she grew tired of waiting. "I'll see you in the morning."
"Mmmm…" was the only response she received as she passed him by leaving him standing next to the shelf of books, reading.
Harry opened his eyes slowly and his head began to throb. A groan leaked from his lips as he looked around and the light stabbed into his eyes from the window.
"Oh, good you're awake!" said a voice from across the room; it was his doctor. He wondered if she was trying to kill him, as she finished opening the blinds, her smile wide.
He put a hand over his eyes, and groaned a little louder. "Aspirin…" he requested in a quavering voice.
"Nope," she said popping the p. "Not till I give you the once over, and you tell me what happened down there so we don't miss anything, then we'll talk."
"Sadist," he replied. "What time is it?"
"Only when it comes to you my dear, only when it comes to you." She placed the pressure cuff on his arm, and the head of the stethoscope at the crook of his elbow. "Almost two… on Sunday afternoon…"
He groaned again as he realized he had been asleep over twenty-six hours.
A short time later she had finished her cursory examination, then she sat on the edge of the bed and listened to him tell the story of what had happened during the task. Occasionally she would make a note on her clipboard.
"That's about what we thought…" She patted him on the arm, and gave him a glass of water and some aspirin. "You did the right thing Harry. When you got the girl, her name is Gabrielle by the way, up to the surface her core temperature was dangerously low… and for a Veela that is even more dangerous than it is for most."
Harry looked worried. "W-will she be ok?" he asked.
Margo nodded. "The healer that Madam Maxime contacted believes she will, but she probably won't be able to continue classes this term at her school…her magic's recovery will take too long."
Harry sighed in relief. "Well at least it's nothing permanent."
She nodded. "Though you had a little to do with that."
He looked at her puzzled. Margo moved his arms, the sheet, and lifted his shirt. Looking down at his chest he could see the skin was an odd brown color, an odd shadow where her body had been pressed to him.
"She was drawing warmth directly from your body…" she said softly. "Think of it as a mild case of frost bite. Nothing dangerous, you'll be fine, and that will be gone in a few days."
"Wow…" he said still looking at it. "I-if she had kept hold of me?"
"If she had been older, past her first maturation and without taking certain precautions, it would have been much worse, or if she had been a fully mature Veela. In that situation something like this would have most certainly been fatal," she said.
"You have quite a number of people that wish to see you, but I want you to eat something first. I'll send your parents in with something, I think you can handle them and food at the same time. Any preferences?"
"Soup… Tomato? Grilled cheese?" He looked up at her. "Is that good enough? I'm not all that hungry."
She nodded. "That's fine, but I want you to eat dinner tonight, something with a good bit of protein. Then take it easy for the next week or so, only the light workout routine till I say so."
Harry nodded again, as he laid his head back against the pillow. He was glad Fleur's sister, Gabrielle he reminded himself, was going to be okay. If all it was going to cost him was a little fatigue and soreness, then he figured it was worth it.
Monday morning began as many of the others had since January for the contingent from Fairgrove, albeit a little slower. Starting with a brisk run (for most), around the grounds of the school, followed by an abbreviated workout (compared to what they normally did), a quick shower utilizing the quidditch facilities, then a hearty breakfast. Even the girls had begun to join in, although to them what they had done today seemed strenuous.
Breakfast had become, very much, a family affair, full of laughter and occasionally even a song or two. There was even talk of trying to continue this, at least once or twice a week, once they returned to Fairgrove.
However this morning's revelry was cut short about the time the other schools began to arrive for their morning meal, as discussion started at the head table and then several of the staff stood, including the Headmaster and Dumbledore, and made their way out of the Great Room and toward the castle entrance.
Hermione leaned forward. "What do you think that was about?" she asked.
Harry shrugged. "Don't know, could have something to do with what went on during the last task. Somebody has got to be in trouble after that!" he said, then pausing, he thought about it for a moment. "Though, not much has come from the investigation of how I was included in this farce."
Hermione chuckled. "Well, what did you expect? These are the same people that thought a student being used a hostage was perfectly acceptable."
Harry nodded. "Isn't that the truth!" he said taking another bite of toast. "I thought they'd just ask my parents for something… a guitar, or the keys to my car, not put people down there!"
A harrumph came from behind them, followed by the voice of Fleur. "Especially when they decided to use someone as young as my sister! It is inexcusable!" Her arm protectively around the young girl in question, she greeted each of them as they made room for the pair to join them, Gabrielle commandeering the seat between Harry and Fleur.
"My sister wished to thank you in person, Harry." She motioned to the small girl, and Gabrielle immediately wrapped her arms around him, saying something in French as she did so. "She has not started her secondary language classes as of yet, though I suspect she may have recently settled on her choice when the time comes." Her eyes were filled with mirth as she took in Harry's discomfort in the situation. "My sister seems quite taken with you Harry, I think I shall need to inform my father of your intentions… or at least hers." She began to chuckle softly.
Harry gave her a sidelong glare. "Even if I was available, she would be a little young for me to take on a date."
Fleur sat straight, almost as if she had been slapped, Harry wasn't available? It wasn't a reaction she was alone with at the table either. Keeping her emotions in check, she tried to continue the conversation. "And why would that be…? Gabrielle will be thirteen this winter."
Harry looked up from the babbling girl. "You can't be serious? She can't be twelve… she…"
Her sister chuckled again. "We are not human Harry, Veela age differently. She will have a…" She looked at Hermione and said something to her in French.
Hermione's face bloomed in understanding. "Puberty…" she said softly, turning to Harry. "Her first maturation will come when she starts puberty…" She looked back at Fleur, and asked a question in French. Once she received an answer she turned back to Harry. "Evidently at that point she will grow very quickly, within a few weeks she will begin to look like her actual age. Fleur says it is likely to happen sometime later in the spring, or early summer."
"Oui… yes," Fleur said, "That is correct, just as I will gain final maturity in the late summer."
Harry nodded. "So your maturity includes physical as well as magical changes?"
She nodded. "Yes, though our final maturation is much like your own, only with the potential for us to attain our avian form if sufficiently threatened or angered. Our aging has generally settled by that time… although it is not unheard of to have some physical changes accompany the final stage."
He nodded. "Ok then…" He smiled at the girl that was still hugging him. "Tell her she is welcome…" He thought for a moment… "Ask her if she would like to try something we have for breakfast in the states?"
Fleur passed on his question, receiving a enthusiastic nod in response from the girl. Harry chuckled. "Luna, give me the Salsa, please."
Luna's eyes widened, then narrowed as she glared at him. "It's my last jar!"
He shook his head. "No, it's my last jar. You didn't think I'd figure out that you had slipped it out of my room did you?"
Her lip turned down in an exaggerated pout, "But you wouldn't take my salsa away would you?"
"If it was yours," he said leaning across the table. "But that is my jar, you're just… holding it for me. Right?"
Making a show of her pout, she dug into her bag and eventually handed him the jar. "Fine," she said with no real anger in her voice, "but don't waste any of it…"
Harry then dipped some scrambled eggs onto Gabrielle's plate and spooned some of the red mixture over them. Handing her a fork, he gestured. "Dig in."
After Fleur's translation, the girl looked the concoction over carefully and even smelled it, causing her nose to crinkle cutely. Seeing her hesitation, Harry dipped himself another helping, taking a big bite and savoring the rich flavors as well as the slight spicy burn that he associated with his favorite brand of salsa.
The girl watched him closely and then took her own bite, it wasn't long before the plate was empty and she was gesturing for another serving.
Luna growled at him, "Great, we won't have enough to last another meal!" Snatching the jar out of his hand after the new plate had been made she said, "I'll just keep this safe!" pushing it deep inside her book bag.