Chapter 36 - Poor Victoire

That day many steps forward had been taken in their friendship as in their studies. Some books had proved to be useful, and a plan was starting to take shape. Harry wasn't sure it may work or if he had the skills to perform it, but the seed of hope was planted, giving already some fruits made of an excellent mood. He got back home much earlier than what planned in the morning, eager to share his discoveries with Ginny and looking forward to spending sometime in the garden and take profit of the lengthy summer evenings.
Apparating on the edge of the Fidelius, voices were ringing from the back of the house. He was glad of it. His cheerfulness was well adapted to company and hurried to discover who was there.
Turning the corner, he glimpsed Ginny sitting around the table taking tea with a few people. Their eyes met but instead of the ready smile he was expecting, she stiffened, and a look of alarm flashed on her face. That made him immediately turn to see who her company was.
There was a white head and a blonde whitish one: Ted and Victoire, and, giving him the back, a red head that was as recognisable as the two others, a head he would have identified between hundreds.
Seeing Ginny's reaction, all of them turned their attention to him, Ron included.
'What are you doing here?' he barked, anger soaring so quickly all his body tighten up in a second.
Ron jumped up overthrowing his chair, scared by his sudden apparition and aggressivity.
'He came to pick Rose up. I just offered him a tea; I wasn't expecting you so early' Ginny interjected in anxiety, sprinting up too.
'I told you I don't want to see you again!' Harry growled in Ron's direction ignoring her.
He could sense only him and everything was back in his mind with sudden violence, feelings and images mingling: him beating Ron, the destructive energy that was governing him, dried blood on his fist, numbness and emptiness he fell into, Lily lifeless on the ground, the shock that blocks the mind, the fear that swallowed him whole, Ted's hollow eyes revealing the truth, the understanding that creeped on him, the madness taking over sanity, the grief overcoming everything. And all of it was so powerful that overwhelmed his reason completely, transforming straight away in fury not giving him a chance to transform in anything else.
He lunged forward; the impulse dictated by rage pushing him. He was blind to Ginny's tension, to Rose and Albus not far off formerly playing and now looking at the scene alarmed, to Ted in his whiteness and to Victoire like an apparition standing behind Ron who stood there paralyzed.
'No Harry, no!' Ginny screamed but blindness came with deafness; his anger numbed every other senses.
Ron couldn't back away, the table behind him barring any retreat and Harry was almost on him swiftly and ominously.
Then the unimaginable happened.
Victoire leaped in between them and endeavouring to save his uncle from another uncle, turned her Veela charm on, the irresistible, overcoming force that madden every man. She had done it instinctively thinking to distract Harry from his sudden fury, concentrating his attention on herself rather than on Ron. Unfortunately, she had never learned to control it properly and being scared and alarmed, she had turn it on at the maximum strength. Veela power was destabilizing and made act stupidly when turned on slightly but when use it fully was a powerful aphrodisiac that unleashed dangerous primordial instinct, inducting a lethal unhealthy love. It was an unconquerable attraction and without any warning of what was coming it could bring disastrous consequences.
That's why the Weasley's men were always on their guard when Victoire was around and that's why Harry had always been so eager for her and Ted to be a couple. This unchecked force endangered her.
Ron became rigid and his eyes popped out instantly fixing on her. In a vain attempt to resist to it, he clenched the edge of the table so tightly his knuckles where white.
But Harry who was already sprinting forward under the power of obfuscating strong emotions, wasn't clear minded enough to fight it, or to realise what was happening for that matter, and the blinding fury was turned instantly in blinding lust.
He grabbed her savagely looking for her mouth in a forceful kiss, he pushed her against the table, lifting her on it, trapping her body like in a vice.
Ginny screamed at the top of her lungs trying to pull him away, but she wasn't strong enough, he didn't even feel her. In the meanwhile, Ron was about to spring forward driven by the same lust. Ted who seemed the only one still slightly in control, was nevertheless gasping for air.
James, attracted by the commotion, ran to them from the house. He flinched seeing the scene but, as Hermione had said only a few hours before, he wasn't a child any longer. And it was confirmed in his reaction. His eyes widened immediately, losing focus, pupils dilatating and nostrils flared.
Harry, in a vortex inducted by that unhealthy attraction, was wheezing and keeping devouring her mouth avidly, without any clue of what he was doing, his hands trying to tear off clothes. Ginny letting go of him, in a spur of the moment, grabbed the jug of icy water that was still miraculously standing on the table and poured it fully on Harry's head. The shock of the cold water distracted him for a moment, a moment that Ron took advantage of straight away. In a single bound he was on the table growling, trying to snatch Victoire from under him but Ginny had been quicker.
She frantically retrieved the shacking Victoire and dragged her toward the tool shed while James had darted forward trying to size her from Ginny. She emitted an acute shriek but pulled Victoire away managing to dodge him. She shoved her inside the shed and bolted the door. With a menacing expression she stood in front of it, out of breath, ready to protect her in case it wasn't over.
But it was over.
After a moment in which passion was burning under every skin and they seemed all about to spring in pursuit, a cascade of sobs was heard and that brought everybody back to senses.
The power had turned off, submerged by her fright.
Ginny, regaining her breath and seeing the end of danger in their eyes, sprinted toward Harry, slapped him hard in the face and dashed inside the house.
They all stood paralyzed in their position, appalled.
Harry was regaining his wits bit by bit in a crescendo of horror.
'Holy shit!' Ron exclaimed under his voice still crawled on the table, sliding back on the ground and slumping on a chair 'That was the worst so far'
James was stammering incoherently half questions, blood draining from his face while Ted was grasping the table for support, knees trembling.
All was framed by Victoire sobbing still unabated.
'What happened?' James managed in the end to utter in a whisper.
Nobody answered all looking ashamedly in different directions and seeming not to hear. James repeated his question louder but there was still no answer while everybody was trying to remerge from the trance they were in.
'WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!' James shouted making all startle.
Ron, running a hand in his hair repeatedly, gabbled uneasy 'Your cousin is part Veela, James'
'What does it mean? What's a Veela?'
'It's a kind of creature that… well… has got some odd effect over men…' he admitted.
Ted slumped finally too on a chair, fanning his face with a Daily Prophet.
'But it never happened before!' James exclaimed.
'It did, it does. It's just never happened to you' and added wearily 'You are officially a man, congratulations'
James was flabbergasted 'It's horrible! I felt like…' he murmured and then tailed off unable or unwilling to explain. 'It's horrible' he then repeated.
'Don't tell your father' Ron said with a shade of a smile, nodding his head toward Harry who was still in the same position incapacitated with his hair sopping wet.
Harry at that moment got fully back in himself, slammed his fits on the table and swore loudly.
'Ted, I'm sorry! I cannot believe I've done what I've done! I'm sorry!' he said contrite full of embarrassment and enraged against himself.
For a fleeting second, he thought to see anger flashing there, something he had never seen on his face before, but it was just a moment and then it was gone, cancelled by a sigh and some face rubbing 'It's ok, Harry. It's hardly your fault. We all know how it is' he said letting go the newspaper and looking worriedly toward the shed 'Thank god for Ginny's ready wit otherwise…' he gulped letting the sentence suspended and each one of them, completing it mentally, shuddered with recoil.
Harry, fighting the impulse to ran exactly in the opposite direction, approached the shed where Victoire wails could still be heard.
'Victoire, I'm awfully sorry. You know I didn't mean to. It was too strong, and I wasn't ready' he said pleadingly, admitting what everybody knew, and nobody talked of.
'I know uncle, it was my fault.' She said with renewed sobs.
'It wasn't, you just wanted to help. Please, forgive me'
Ted was beside him and gesturing him to back off (which he did as fast and as far as he could) opened slightly the door and slipped inside.
From outside a soothing shushing could be heard and under it, her sobbing quietened.
Albus and Rose where still following every development from a few feet away, incomprehension and fright on their faces. Rose, looking at Harry, was full back in her terrorized expression post-Christmas. An elucidation was a must.
'I'll explain to Albus, you'll explain to Rose' Harry said flatly to Ron.
'Hey! You got the easy one! How can I explain it to a girl?'
He received such a look that shut him up straight away.
Harry took Albus a bit farther, followed by James who was looking for a fuller explanation of what he still hadn't fully understood, and talked to him about Victoire and Fleur's situation and nature. He would have preferred to defer that explanation for a later time in a different situation, but it couldn't be helped. They had found out in the worst way possible.
Albus was aghast 'But it never happened to me!' he burst out scared.
'It will, in due course' and as Harry said that much, James nodded confirming what for him had just started.
Albus, gaping, moved his eyes from James to his father's stern face and then to the shed.
'Poor Victoire…' he murmured in the end.