AN: Cautiously pokes my head around a corner, "Um…hello?" and then leaps back to avoid the stampede of readers that have been waiting for an update.
A Chance Encounter
Chapter 3
-Fleur-
Nervously biting her lip, she paced back and forth outside the small room they had left Harry with once the healer had arrived, the woman shooing everyone but her patron out of the room despite protests from herself and her parents. In a chair nearby Gabby sat shifting about while their mother stroked her hair and their father was over at a cabinet getting a drink. "What's taking so long?" she hissed out, sending a look at the door that had been closed to her for almost an hour now.
"That boy just survived his second killing curse Fleur," her father spoke up "it shouldn't be a surprise that our healer is taking their time with the boy."
"I know but- Pierre!" she exclaimed when she saw her father's right hand man pop into the hall, a couple signed documents in hand.
"Did you get them to sign it?" her father demanded of the man before noticing the singes on the man's close reminiscent of close brushes with spellfire, "Dear Merlin what happened man?!"
"Dumbledore happened, or at least I assume it was Dumbledore." Pierre groaned out, handing over the documents before moving to sit stiffly on a sofa "It seems he had someone watching the house because by the time I exited the property there were a couple of his goons in wait for me. At least I assume they were his goons. One of them was a man who had more scars and missing pieces than he did regular skin and the other was a young girl, a rookie auror by the looks of it. I think the first one was actually Mad-Eye Moody now that I think about it, he had that giant spinning eye."
"Did they try to stop you from leaving?" her father demanded concerned.
"They were rather insistent on me telling them what I had been doing there." Pierre groaned out rubbing what she assumed was a stiff shoulder "I refused to tell them but apparently that giant eye isn't just for show as he apparently zoomed in on the documents and read what they are. At that point, he drew his wand on me, as did his apprentice. I was able to dodge and shield their spells easily but got hit by a body bind from behind, probably someone under a cloak. Luckily getting hit with that activated the emergency portkey I forgot about and took me back to headquarters where I was unfrozen. I do remember seeing obliviators and the DMLE showing up as I vanished though."
"I've already informed Amelia bout the situation here and about what Harry told us so that should give us some support but I don't know how much aide Dumbledore can rally." Her father said with a frown, "I expect they'll try to call us to their court to stand trial but I can easily make it an ICW case given that you're an agent of the French government."
"And we all know how much England annoys the ICW." Pierre finished up while handing over the documents, "Anyway I got them to relinquish guardianship of Harry and as the Minister of Magic for France you have the ability to place Harry with a new guardian here if you give him French citizenship."
"I'm already planning on it." Her father said just as the door to the side room opened to reveal a tired looking Healer.
"What happened?" she demanded as she ran over, "Is Harry alright?"
"You all need to see this for yourself." The shell-shocked healer said, leading them inside as she saw a sedated Harry still laying on the massage table. The shocking part though was the mark from the killing curse on his back. The lightning like veins had not only spread but they were changing. Some of them were still pitch black but others were a brilliant pure white. The marks were going in three directions, a group of all black marks went down his right arm, a group of all white marks went down his left, and a mixture was creeping up his back.
"What is going on here?" her mother demanded, staring on horror as they could see the marks moving albeit slowly.
"It seems he's developing a mutation from the amount of raw magic within him." The healer said, "You told me about the basilisk venom and phoenix tears in his system, well they're…mixing with the killing curse. At first, it was just the black lines but when I started trying to use some basic healing spells to begin strengthening his body from the abuse and neglect, it absorbed the light-based magic and the white markings began appearing. I noticed which direction they're going so I did some diagnostic charms and…well to say the results were surprising is an understatement."
"Is he gonna be okay?" a nervous and wide-eyed Gabrielle asked tearfully.
"More than okay actually," the healer spoke up before she or her mother could think of something "it seems that they're not only repairing his body but strengthening it. In addition, more than that…I…I found something in his scar. It would seem someone used him as a Horcrux." She was confused at the term, as was her baby sister, but the three adults looked ready to commit murder when they found out.
"Um…what's a Horcrux?" she asked confused.
"One of the darkest pieces of magic to ever exist." Her mother scowled "An attempt to gain immortality through depraved means."
"But who…" she trailed off when she realized whom it must have been, her parents nodding at her expression.
"It looks like this new energy is going to destroy the Horcrux." The healer spoke up as all heads snapped towards the woman.
"What?" her father demanded stunned.
"As I said," the woman explained, "the power is healing him, and strengthening him, kind of like a very advanced and powerful immune system. It would see the Horcrux as a threat and would seek to eliminate it."
"How long do you think this 'change' will take to finish?" her father asked the healer as the woman began putting away some of her equipment.
"I'd say it should be done before tomorrow morning." The woman told him, "Until then I'd recommend just letting him rest and have someone watching him at all times.
"I call dibs!" Gabby spoke up eagerly, zooming over to a chair next to her hero as she gave a small chuckle at the little girl's exuberance.
"Thank you for your time Elizabeth." Her father said gratefully to the woman as he led her to a guest room in case she was needed due to a drastic change in Harry's condition. As the adults left, she moved and sat down next to her sister, keeping vigil over her sleeping savior.
-Harry-
Groaning he forced his heavy eyelids to open, trying to remember what had happened before he blacked out. The creaking of the massage table he was laying on jolted at his ears and helped bring the memories to the surface. The attack, the rescue, the portkey to France, the veritaserum questioning, the healer, and then darkness.
Stiffly he slid off the massage table, noticing that the girl he had rescued, Fleur, and her sister, Gabriele, were sleeping in chairs next to the table he had been resting on. As he stood up, he noticed everything seemed smaller than it did before but, after looking in a mirror, he realized he was just bigger.
A lot bigger.
Before his malnourished ass had barely been over five feet but not he was just under six feet tall, the only reason he was still 'dressed' was because he had been changed into a hospital gown type of outfit. Also, where he had once had twiggy limbs he was now incredibly muscular, his arms looking like they could crush stone. Added to that on each arm he could see some sort of array tattoo. The final thing he noticed was that he wasn't wearing his glasses but he could see perfectly.
All in all he thought his reaction was justified.
"WHAT THE BLOODY FREAKING HELL?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, startling the two girls behind him awake as he heard the sounds of crashing footsteps running down a nearby flight of stairs.
"What happened? Where's the danger" the man, Pierre if he remembered correctly, demanded, bursting into the room half dressed, hair disheveled, and wand drawn…but held backwards. He just continued to stare in shock at his reflection as the three other adults burst into the room, bowling over Pierre and in the reflection of the mirror, he could see Fleur slap a hand over Gabrielle's eyes making him remember that hospital gown equaled visible ass.
"Damn." Fleur said impressed as she stared at said exposed body part.
"You're awake!" a woman he vaguely recognized as the healer from the day before rushed over, wand waving over his back.
"What happened to me?" he demanded, gesturing wildly at the fact that he had muscle now. Quickly the woman began explaining what they found with the killing curse, the basilisk venom, and the phoenix tears. "I wonder what these do?" he mused as he stared at the arrays on his arms, able to keep a level head due to several calming charms placed on him by the healer.
"Try channeling magic into them." Appoline Delacour suggested as the nurse transfigured his hospital gown into some simple clothes, the shirt lacking sleeves so they could observe the arrays. Nodding he did so, the array on his right arm glowing with an ethereal black light while the one on the left had a brilliant white shine.
"Pretty." Gabrielle said wide eyed as they all stared at his sudden transformation into a night light.
"Yeah but what do they-" he began but was cut off when he leaned against a cabinet with his right arm and the oak piece of furniture shattered at his touch, sending him crashing to the floor.
"Eep!" Gabrielle squeaked as the others stared at him wide eyed.
"Well…I guess we know what my right arm does." He said shaken as he moved away from the pile of wood before getting an idea. "I wonder." He mused before touching the pile of scraps with his left arm as, with a flash of light, it was repaired. "So right arm breaks stuff and left arm fixes them."
"Or maybe it just reshapes them." Fleur spoke up, walking over intrigued, "Try touching the cabinet with the white arm again and see if you can change it into something else."
Nodding he did so, turning it into a wooden statue of Fleur, then of Gabrielle, then Appoline. He continued doing so before he asked, "So what do you think its limits are?"
"We should experiment but you're limited to what materials you have at hand. For example you couldn't turn wood into metal or stone but if you had materials that were also in something else that could work." Fleur's father says thoughtfully.
"Sounds like Alchemy a little bit." Fleur said intrigued.
"Well let me turn them off and see if it's a permanent feature." He said, cutting the flow of magic before hesitantly touching the cabinet but with no effect. "Well at least I know that I'm not a walking force of destruction all the time. I have an off switch." He said the last bit with more than a little snark.
"Well you'll have plenty of time to figure out what all you can do." Appoline told him, "Your Aunt and Uncle have renounced guardianship of you and we're more than willing to let you stay here if you want to."
"Really?!" Gabrielle exclaimed gleefully before zooming over and hugging his leg as she stared up at him with the big puppy eyes "Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please!" she begged, exclaiming the word over and over again while Fleur tried to stifle a giggle.
"Gack!" he choked out "Those eyes aren't fair. Fine, fine, I'll stay."
"Yaaaaay!" Gabby exclaimed happily.