2. Visit at the Delacours
Harry felt at ease. He was in the study again. This was by far his favourite room. Sitting beneath that stag head made him feel better. Over the last week he felt like the first week in Hogwarts. Sirius was more or less correct with his estimate, that he would be occupied for the whole summer. The rest of his first day he spend almost completely in this room. He had sat in this room thinking about what he had learned, until his growling stomach forced him to look for something to eat. He searched for a kitchen in the third and second floor, up till he had gotten the thought, that maybe there was none because old wizard families wouldn't cook themselves if they had house elves. He had pondered about either to call Ponby, because it was him who was hungry, or Munky, because she must be in control of the kitchen in this house. In the end he decided on Munky, what turned out to be the right decision. She had been really excited, that the first task by the new master had been given. Harry's decision to eat in the study instead of the dining room dampened her excitement a little.
Once he had finished, he decided to explore the lands a little. As he had went out on the patio he heard a familiar squawk. Hedwig had flown into the air and he had followed her around for a few hours scouting his new lands. This was more or less his next few days. He had asked Snoydinn for a tour through each wing in the mornings. This was mostly to have something to do and learn every little corner of the house. The only snippets of all the informations Harry could actively remember were build in the early 18th century, Baroque Style architecture, and roughly the same protections as Hogwarts even if a little less potent. The afternoon were spend with walks through the vicinity while Hedwig flew over him. After dinner he had been settling in this exact chair and read some of the books that plastered the walls. These reading sessions replaced the morning tours after they had gotten through the whole house. Most of the books where about politics and history. Especially those about history Harry lapped up. One time he head found a chapter about Lord William Potter II. who partook in a war against the centaurs in the early 13th century. In that moment Harry felt connected to his family like never before. Thereafter he skimmed all history books for mentions of any Potter. There weren't that many, apparently the Potters stayed more in the background.
Right now he didn't read a book but a letter. He already had read it two times and was doing so again just to make sure he had understood everything correct. It was from Gabrielle and was an invitation to join her and her family for dinner. Harry instantly agreed but over time grew more and more nervous. In 30 minutes the portkey, that was lying on his desk in front of him, would activate and bring him to southern France. They had sent it to him today. He was pretty impressed. Last summer he had witnessed how much of a hassle the ministry had with them and they just send one to him. He definitely had to ask Mr. Delacour, what he was working that he could wield such power. This fact only made him more nervous. Mr. Delacour must be a person of really high status and he never really interacted with those for too long. Most time he just greeted them and then they went their own way. He had asked Sirius and Remus for help. All they could tell him was to be nice and hone his Occlumency skills before going there, as they didn't know the intentions of the hosts father. Unfortunately they hadn't any time to show. Sirius needed to help the order move into his house and Lupin was ordered to meet with werewolves to maybe recruit them for the order. Harry was disappointed at Lupin at the start and wanted to tell him to come and help him ultimately he paid him to do exactly that. But after calming down a little he realized that would be dumb. Lupin must keep up the appearance for Dumbledore and Harry could do it by himself with their advice. He told Ponby to get an old wine for him like suggested and ordered a new formal gown. It looked similar to a muggle suit but the jacket resembled more of a robe that ended just above his ankle. The material was a magical enhanced black silk. Only the green tie brought any colour into this outfit. The first time he saw himself in it, it seemed like this robe absorbed some of the light around him what made him look bigger than he was. As he was malnourished for a long time in his life he welcomed that side effect. Now he felt like he commanded the presence a person of his status deserved.
Surprisingly for him this time he landed in a firm stand. He looked around. It was like a commercial for southern France. He stood upon a vine yard with the ocean in view. A house stood a little down the road. It looked a little to small and he wondered if the portkey had a malfunction. As he walked towards it he realized how wrong he was. What he interpreted as the whole house was just the entrance. It wrapped itself along the descent. It also widened at the end into something more akin to halls. He wondered about how this structure was physically possible, until he remembered who was living in it and thanked magic for making such uniqueness possible.
After knocking on the door it instantly swung open. It was either caused by magic or a house elf who wanted to be unseen, because the only other person he saw was a smaller man with a big smile on his face. He was dressed at least as nice as Harry was. "Bonjour, Monsieur Potter", he welcomed him as he walked toward the boy. "I welcome you into my humble house. I'm most honoured to have such a 'splendide' boy visiting us." Even though he looked and sounded nice Harry felt at unease. When he took the hand of the French man to shake it he felt validated. His counterpart grabbed more onto his hand than shaking it and simultaneously a force started hammering against his mental defence. As he stood shocked by this assault of the still smiling man and his mind guard was crumbling, something deep inside him told him to counteract. Without noticing it he started to squish the hand he was holding and launched his own mental attack. It felt surprisingly good. He noticed the pounding vanishing, the grip on his hand loosen, and the man before him starting to buckle while trying to stay upright. A few moments later he consciously noticed what was happening and ceased all his aggressions. "It's Heir Apparent of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter since recently. Better for you to remember that." Without taking his eyes off the floor the hunched man replied. "Yes, Lord Potter. Such a mishap will never ever happen again." "OK... sure." A slightly uncertain Harry responded. He wasn't sure why he said or did what he did but he appreciated how Mr. Delacour behaved after it. "I'm most thankful, Lord. Please follow me downstairs. The rest of my family is waiting and at least one of them is dying to see you, young lord."
Harry reached the end of the stairs second. "Chéri, c'est Harry Potter. L'héritier présomptif de la Plus Ancienne et Noble Maison de Potter. This is my wife, Appoline." Harry wouldn't had a clue that the women, who made a curtsey after the introduction, would be his wife, if he hadn't recognized the other two standing beside her. She didn't look a day older than her daughter Fleur. Actually she looked like a unidentical twin. They wore the same dress in different colours, Fleur in light blue, her mother in deep purple. Their dresses highlighted their feminine form and maybe this was the sole difference between them as Mrs. Delacour seemed to have a little more of those than the younger one. The dresses being strapless showed a lot of cleavage and through a slit in the side even more leg. With this sight the young man wondered if they really needed their allure to capture men. He had to force himself to look at the third one. She smiled from ear to ear and contrary to the smiles of the other two it seemed like she genuinely was happy to see him, instead of the fake smile to just look nice the older ones perfected. Gabrielle hadn't grown up into her Veela body yet. She probably wanted the same dress as the other women of the family, hers was dark red, but got the child version. It had spaghetti straps and the slit on the side ended just above the knee. "And you've already met Fleur and Gabrielle", he pointed at his daughters who followed their mothers example. "'ai, 'arry, Ai am zo 'appy to fine'ally zee you again." Harry grinned at her. She had to have practiced the sentence for the last days to the detriment of the rest of the household. At least if the sigh of relief from her mother and the rolling of the eyes of Fleur were any indication. "I'm also very happy to see you again, Gabrielle. This is definitely the highlight of my summer." She smiled at him for a second longer then her view went to her mother who translated the answer for her. After her mother finished she turned back to Harry and smiled even wider. Appoline continued. "I'm really happy as well to finally meet the young man, who rescued our little princess while her sister couldn't." Harry didn't miss the angry look the older daughter cast towards her mother. He revelled that the girl, that called him a 'leetle boy' when they met, got knocked down a bit in his favour.
The mood had become much more chill. There was a short tense moment when they entered the dinning room and Harry without hesitation sat down at the head of the table and invited Gabrielle to sit to the right of him. Her older sister and mother shared a rather confused look with each other when Mr. Delacour said nothing and took the place to Harrys left instead of across of him, but kept quiet to not make a scene. Fleur had taken the seat next to her sister while her mother went next to her husband. But as soon as the food had shown up relaxed small talk started, everything got translated for Gabrielle by her mother or sister. Once Harry gave a quick and a little adorned run down of his life without the abuse by his relatives. He asked. "Mr. Delacour, I'm rather interested what you do for a living. I'm astonished by your ability to get an international portkey for me personally on such short notice." Some pride came into his posture and face when asked. "I'm the Judgment Definitif, the highest judge in magical France, and with that the first undersecretary of Bureau de la Justice Magique. So if you ever have a problem with the law in France I can take a look and probably help you, Lord Potter." Harry understood the last sentence to more of a little joke but with the look the man gave him he wasn't so sure about it. "I'm grateful for your offer and hope it will never come to a situation where I would need to accept it. But I do have a request and I would be deeply indebted to you if you would agree. This year I met a nice girl when Beauxbaton Academy visited Hogwarts. Her name is Marielle Boulin. She became a very good friend of mine and confined in me that she wants to work in your government. I would really like to help her with that. So if you could look into giving her a place for an internship or something similar I would greatly appreciate it." He noticed that Appolines and Fleurs faces went a little more serious all of a sudden and no one started to translate his sentence for Gabrielle, but as soon as Mr. Delacour answered in a calm and happy tone. "I would be honoured to help you. I can do even better, my office could use a new intern. First day tomorrow I will write her and ask if she would be OK to intern directly under me during her holidays." "That would be much appreciated, Mr. Delacour." Harry noticed that Mr. Delacour didn't feel the questioning looks the older two females at the table gave him, as he was totally focussed on him. Encouraged by this topic Mr. Delacour continued. "Fleur here applied at Gringotts right after she finished school. How is the status of this?" "I got an answer a short time ago. I seems like the goblins don't really want a witch working in their offices even less one that is a Veela. They didn't outright declined but set a few demands that I'm not comfortable with." Appoline looked ancious and a little angry at that clear discrimination of her daughter. "Maybe I can write to them. As a Lord, I could have some sway and get her to work as an assistant account manager for me or some other friendly family." Harry interjected with the hopes to smooth over some edges he assumed he had with the female side of this family. But while it worked for her husband, who basically rejoiced at that suggestion, it didn't seem to work for those it was intended for. Both of them looked more confused than anything else. "Que ce passe-t-il?" Gabrielle questioned as her mother and sister were still silent after a few seconds. Through Mr. Delacours translation the older women came back to their senses and once Gabrielle knew what was said and overtly thanked Harry in very quick French their smiling masks were placed on their faces again and went along with happiness of the youngest. "If you could do that for my daughter it would more than outweigh any favour I could do in regards to your friend. Please never hesitate to ask for anything and I will try to fulfil it to the best of my ability." Harry relaxed a bit. He just hoped that the joy half of the Delacour family felt was contagious enough that it could infect the rest. At least for the rest of the dinner it seemed as if it work to a certain degree.
Harry sprinkled some water in his face. Dinner was finished and Jacques invited him into the sitting room to let the evening fade out. He excused himself so he could take another breath, before the end of the evening started. Both Fleur and Appoline had opened up a bit more to the end but Harry felt some uneasiness towards them but couldn't explain why. He looked in the mirror. He really liked what he saw. His new outfit made him look exceptional and even his hair became a little more 'controlled'. A knock tore him from his thoughts. "Excuse m-" He tried to answer but before he could finish he heard the door open. Spinning around he saw Appoline entering the bathroom. Something must have happened. She didn't even bother to wear her smile. Her face was full of hostility. "What did you do to my husband? What are you planning with your little whore, Marielle? Are you planning to supplant Fleur with her as the next Veela representative? Or are you just planning to satisfy your desires by forming a Veela harem with her and my sweet Gabrielle? Are you exactly the same as most of the other disgusting wizards that just see us as their playthings?" Harry stood there without being able to form a coherent thought. What did she want? "I...er...I...I'm sor-" "Shut up, little boy. I will just look for myself." At first he didn't understand what she meant, but after a moment he felt her probing his mind. He had completely disregarded his Occlumency in the last seconds because of his state of confusion. Her attack felt different than the one of her husband. His was more of a forceful push to submission while hers was a precise attack on some of his memories. Something in him pushed the thought that he had to retaliate. After a few old memories were brought to the forefront of his mind, he had collected himself. This time he controlled the mental assault he was launching. His memories vanished from his inner eye and he saw scenes he had never seen. First was a little blonde girl, that reminded him of a younger Gabrielle, sitting amidst a group of blonde beautiful women huddling together with a burning forest in the background . The Next was the girl spying around a corner of a wooden structure looking at a meeting of two blonde women and a man. Next was the group of women sitting inside of a court room. Next was the girl, now a little bit older than Gabrielle, celebrating with the rest of her group and a man, that resembled a young Mr. Delacour. Next, the girl was standing in a wedding dress inside a building looking like the inside of a huge tree and Mr. Delacour walking towards her. Next two were the same both time holding a blond newborn in her arms with Jacques beside her. The only difference between them in the second a child was sitting beside her. Next was her seeing the back of a raven haired boy in a bathroom. Then there was just darkness.
Harry snapped back into reality. Did he just see Appolines past? How did that happen? He realized the Delacour matriarch wasn't standing before him any more, she was lying on the ground with her eyes wide but lifeless and a little trickle of blood coming out behind her head. For a second time this minute he went numb. What the fuck just happened? "HELP!" He shouted. "HELP!" A house elf appeared looked shocked, shook their mistress, and spoke very fast in French to her. After a short moment it vanished and came back with Mr. Delacour. As he saw his wife all of the colour in his face vanished. He collapsed on his knees right beside her. "It was an accident, Mr. Delacour. She entered and as I turned she somehow slipped and must have hit her head. I couldn't do anything." "Of course, Lord Potter. Of course it was an accident. I will ha-" A screaam cut him off. Harry looked through the door into the hallway. There was Gabrielle. All the joy she displayed during the evening was lost. While the scream faded out tears began streaming down her cheeks. Without really thinking about it Harry moved past the kneeling Mr. Delacour and took the crying Veela in his arms. "Don't worry, little one. Your mother will be fine. Don't cry. Everything will be OK." He knew she didn't understand a single word he was saying. But it made him more secure again. He still couldn't believe how easy it was for him to lie at Mr. Delacour. Gabrielle clung onto him even more so he started to rock a little back and forth to calm her down even more. Another scream echoed through the hallway but this time it wasn't just a scream but a tirade. It took him a moment longer that the tirade was directed at him from the last Veela in this house. Fleur still screaming at him grabbed her sister and tried to tear her away from Harry. Mr. Delacour scolded her in a very strong voice and she was startled and let her sister go. "I have to apologize on behalf of my daughter, Lord Potter. She is pretty protective of her little sister. But she should have known that you wouldn't harm her or any one in this family." "Don't worry, Jacques. It must be really stressful for her right now." "Thank you for your understanding. I will bring my wife to the hospital. Could you please stay until I can return to continue to calm down at least one of my daughters, Lord Potter?" Harry agreed and the older man apparated with his wife, leaving Harry with Gabrielle still clung onto him and a stunned Fleur.
They were sitting in the living room. Fleur was more tense than Harry had ever seen her. He didn't knew if it was either because of the whole situation or because Gabrielle was on his lap wrapped in a blanket cuddled on his chest sleeping. They hadn't spoken a single word since Mr. Delacour had left with his wife. Harry didn't really mind. He didn't know if Fleur suspected something or if it was just her normal cold personality but for some reason Harry didn't care. A deep feeling of satisfaction spread through his body. He only defended himself. Mrs. Delacour only got what she deserved for trying to invade his mind. He didn't want to hurt her but also didn't care that it happened. She deserved it. And he deserved the warm feeling of the young Veela sleeping atop of him. This was something he could grew accustomed to. He grabbed her even tighter. The smell of her hair went into his nose again. It just smelled perfect. Immediately Fleurs eyes glared at him. With her sisters head right beside his he starred back. It felt like minutes for Harry when she finally broke the eye contact and lowered her sight. Harrys subconscious took that as a confirmation of his thought. If any of this would have been wrong a strong woman like Fleur would have fought more against it. With that newly gained confidence in his actions Harry sat there for the next minutes basically hoping Fleur would dare challenge him on anything that happened this evening. But she just sat there, hunched over and looking at the floor. She looked submissive and broken. This gave Harry somehow even a better feeling. He could do that to a person as strong as Fleur? Just by starring at her? How strong did he look right now with her sister in his lap?
His thoughts were interrupted by a noticeable pop upstairs. Mr. Delacour must have arrived. It took the man only a few seconds to come downstairs into the living room. As he entered and Harry looked at older man he didn't resemble at all the man that greeted him earlier that evening. When he had greeted him he looked proud now all Harry could see was defeat. Before the man could say anything Harry stood up, still with his daughter in his arms. "How did it go?" "She is with the healers now. A first examination found out that her mind was completely shattered. Probably caused by the hit on the head as she fell. But they have never seen anything like it. They couldn't give prognosis if or when she will be OK." "Everything will be fine, Jacques. If you ever need my help don't hesitate to write me or come by my home. There will always be an open door for you or your daughters. I'll take my leave now." With this he handed the sleeping Veela over to her father. "I'm grateful, Lord Potter. Be sure of our thanks for today evening." The man even bowed a little after picking up his daughter. "One of my house elves has the port key back to your house. He will bring it to you in the entrance hall." Harry nodded goodbye and made his way upstairs. Once he arrived in the entrance hall an elf gave him a framed picture of the Delacour family with Gabrielle in the middle. As the elf let go of it Harry felt the unwelcomed whirl.
Harry was so lost in thought he didn't even notice that he had landed completely trouble free. He started to walk forwards still pondering about how this evening had went for him. He was powerful, really powerful. But he had to control that power better something like what had happened with Mrs. Delacour could never happen again. What would have happened if he had been found out? No, he must train his powers better. With that resolution in mind he saw what was really in front of him for the first time after he landed. Instead of the palace like building with the fountain he saw the house he had thought he would never see again. He was back at Privet Drive 4.
