I don't own anything related to the Harry Potter franchise

Chapter 27 - Family Matters

Author's Note:

This chapter and the next are peaceful, fluffy in the extreme, and very, very long. Once again, I seriously considered cutting these chapters down, but I like the slice of life stuff, and thought it would be a shame.

Lunchtime, After Hogwarts Quidditch Team's Victory Against Beauxbatons…

In the moments following Harry, the Delacours and Ambrose's entrance into the Great Hall for lunch, the room quickly became quite loud with cheering, rounds of congratulations and a general sense of over-excited rowdiness. While waving at his school peers, Harry sat down with Gabby on his right side and Fleur on his left, and then he watched as Appoline sat across from him with Adrien on her left and Ambrose left of him. In a wider circle around the table sat the Gryff team in its entirety, including Cedric and Cho, Hermione and Selene were sitting across from Roger Davies and Neville, and Bella was sitting on Gabby's right directly across from Angelina.

Not for the first time this year, Harry felt very full surrounded by his friends, and he felt his wife squeezing his hand in her lap.

"Well… It wasn't slaying a dragon," Neville conceded from the left side of Fleur. "But you sure had to put in some extra effort with those birds, Harry..."

As if Neville voiced the woman's thoughts, Angelina suddenly slapped her hands atop her face, while adopting an air of long-suffering. "I almost had a heart attack when it started because we could barely even see you in that mess and figured you were essentially out of the match. I'm sorry for warming up Cedric, Harry, but if things had stayed the way they were we couldn't have taken the chance."

Harry just nodded and smiled because he did understand.

Angelina smiled back at Harry because she could see that he didn't disagree with her decision. "Ironically, your bird problems are one of the reasons we crushed our opposition so badly. We were desperately trying to make your involvement in the match completely redundant."

"I just barely tracked Richard as I flew around," Harry admitted with a somewhat wry grin on his face. "I'd given up entirely on finding the snitch, so I understand your decision."

"How did the interview go," Hermione asked, briefly looking up from a book titled, 'Controlling Animals and Animal-kind…

"'Arry was very well spoken," Appoline answered for her daughter's beau, who she saw was in the process of clamming up. "'Ee was calm, composed and 'ad well zought out answers. You were all mentioned as 'ee attempted to talk more about ze team zan 'ee did imself. 'Ee also saved Beauxbatons's public eemage by coming to zeir defense een regards to cheating."

Harry just shrugged even as he smiled a thank you in Appoline's direction. "I all but know who was behind it all, so it was the right thing to do."

Everyone at the table just nodded their heads. By now, the fact it had to have been Krum had been discussed by them all. Then there was the fact that the man was missing from the Great Hall this afternoon, which made sense… While the birds were more of a nuisance than a threat, interfering with the other Champions in any way shape or form came at the cost of sickness and weakness as the Magical Contract exacted its punishment on your magic, which meant that the man would be feeling pretty rough right about now…

"Whoever zis peurson… ees zat tried to... saboteur, 'Arry... Ee just ended up... make 'iim look more... 'eroic," Gabby announced in more of her halting English (really cute) (Of course, Harry had tried to gift Gabby a translation bracelet, but she was far too determined to have the same accent as her mother and sister to ever use it.

In an immediate response to Gabby's words, Bella turned towards the cute little girl and replied in excited French. "I know right! The cretin must be kicking himself by now. He only succeeded in increasing 'Arry's legend."

Gabby almost instantly decided that she loved Bella and she was glomping onto her by the end of the meal (Bella was visibly ecstatic).

Off to the side, Harry caught sight of Ambrose looking around the Great Hall with intense levels of interest, with the bulk of his focus aimed up towards the ceiling

"I went to Beauxbatons, class of sixty-nine," Ambrose finally announced in an amused sounding voice. "I was a ponce back then and would've disdained this place because of all the stone. I'm glad I'm not a teenager anymore…"

Adrien laughed good and hard and patted the man on the back. "Beauxbatons is completely notorious for making extraordinarily snooty witches and wizards that end up working in normal blue collar office or workshop jobs. The culture shock can be rather intense, and I was no exception." He gave his daughter a meaningful look as he continued. "You should see my daughter's reaction to English food…"

Fleur started blushing but otherwise she appeared completely unrepentant. "Eet tastes like zey beat, strain, and zen boil ze flavor out of eet on purpose, papa!"

"It's a good thing you'll always have Dobby then," Harry injected in a low voice. "I'm pretty sure he already rivals even the best Parisian Chefs."

"'Ee does and you're right. I am a very lucky woman," Fleur replied with a smile that made it clear she wasn't only referring to Dobby.

With her hands clutched over her chest, Appoline looked like she was about to pass out from cuteness overload and was once again beaming at the both of them.

Up at the podium, Dumbledore started gesturing that he needed everyone's attention, but it still took several moments for everyone to settle down. "Good afternoon everyone. I would first like to congratulate everyone involved with the Hogwarts Quidditch Team on a wonderful if unconventional first match of the season. You all made your school and I very proud. Next, I would like to point out that there are several events upcoming that you should be aware of. One week from today will be the second Hoggsmeade weekend for all three schools, the Scholastic Decathlon will be staged on November the fifteenth and the preliminaries of the Dueling tournament will take place on the eighteenth. Finally, as most of you are no doubt aware, the first task of the Triwizard Tournament will take place on November the twenty-fourth."

Harry saw Dumbledore give him a significant look at this point, and he understood that the man expected him to train like there was no tomorrow.

"Now... I must return my attention back to my wonderful banana and peanut butter sandwich," Dumbledore concluded with a nod back towards his throne, the table in front of it, and the very thick sandwich that was resting atop a plate. "That will be all. Thank you."

Harry nodded his approval, because peanut butter and banana is indeed the weirdest of all the sandwiches.

When next Ambrose turned towards Harry, he had a curious expression upon his face. "Are you also a member of the dueling team, 'Arry?"

Fred had a very large, very mischievous smile upon his face as he leaned in to answer Ambrose's question. "No. Even though the judges said he could join without even having to try out, he still wasn't interested."

"Without having to try out," Adrien asked, his voice curious. "Why would they allow that?"

George nodded at his brother in recognition of a successful hook, scanned everyone at the table, and then beamed a wide, wide smile. "Well... Since you're Harry's friends and family we might show you a secret room with a rather large Pensieve. This story can't simply be told, it must be... experienced."

Everyone at the table began radiating happiness at absurd levels while giving Harry evil smiles. Harry in turn just adopted a look of long suffering.

Soon after, the entire group of them were wandering around at random through Hogwarts's halls in order to lose a throng of eager followers and fans. It was harder than ever shaking off a tail of Harry's fans, and it was made especially difficult with such a large and noticeable group. Harry eventually said ah to hell with it, made everyone link hands, and then Disillusioned everyone. Eventually they were all inside of the RoR and were finally free of the lightning bolts.

Thirty Minutes Later…

Appoline and her husband sat down in lawn chairs on a simulated beach in the RoR, having just exited the memory of the dueling tryouts with Harry and his friends. Before entering the memory, Appoline once again bet with her husband about the number of impossible things that Harry would pull off, and since she won, Adrien owed her a foot massage before they went to bed…

And all was right with the world…

Off on the sidelines, Ambrose was giggling like mad right now, because the twins just brought him up to speed regarding the HARRY POTTER joke meme, as well as the joke meme that treated Harry like an extremely magical version of Chuck Norris.

"You certainly live comfortably 'ere at 'Ogwarts, eef you know where to go," Appoline finally commented to Harry who was sitting nearby. "Zis room ees perhaps ze most magical zing I 'aave ever seen."

"I know," Harry replied with a satisfied smile. "I spend a lot of time in here avoiding the crowds, which means my magic is beginning to pick up how the room works. It most likely isn't something that I'll ever completely understand from an Arithmancy standpoint, but I imagine by the time I leave this school, I'll be able to recreate it for myself… provided I have enough unused, free floating, magical power… This school is intensely magical, because it sits on several different ley lines of power. It's that power that makes the RoR possible. I haven't had time to tour all of my family's properties, but I have an interest in seeing if any of them rest on a reservoir of power."

Appoline didn't shake her head or roll her eyes this time. She managed to stop herself, but it was close. The boy was describing doing the impossibly difficult as if it were just a little bit inconvenient… The boy was… magic… He was magic.

Suffice it to say, Appoline Delacour was living a very entertaining and engaging life now that she was the developer of Harry's inventions.

Only recently, Appoline finally finished reverse engineering the CD player, earphones and sound system set made up of magic components, and now she was setting up the assembly tools required to mass produce them. A task made much more secretive by yet another invention of Harry's design, something that he encountered over the summer, as an extension of his Occlumency research. A branch of magic that was related to the mind and memories…

Through trial, error, and not an inconsiderable amount of magic, Harry managed to adapt the Fidelius location hiding spell, into a much more generic 'information' hiding spell with the following result: if one of the wizards hired to work on Appoline's production team attempted to explain just what they were working on to an outsider, the third-party would instantly forget everything that they just heard.

The Magical Nondisclosure Oaths that everyone on Appoline's team were asked to make as a condition of their employment were completely redundant.

The only part of the process that Harry actually needed to take part in was when Appoline employed new people, since Harry was the secret keeper fuelling the Fidelius charm, thus, he must be the one to inform her new employees about what they're actually working on. Thankfully for Harry, this process could be done over letter correspondence (with a self-destruct charm attached).

Between the unparalleled informational security and the ironclad copyrights that were already completed with Gringotts acting as an intermediary and a distributor, Appoline's company was efficient, it was safe, it was secure, it was secret, and it required surprisingly little oversight.

And this next part could not be stressed enough. Appoline Delacour was a very, very happy housewife and CEO…

Later that night, after the Delacours and Ambrose departed, a very self-satisfied Harry Potter was once again sitting with his friends in the Great Hall, having spent the lion's share of the late afternoon with his wife in her carriage rooms. He couldn't think of much that could ruin his current mood and the death glares that Ron was currently giving him weren't anywhere near enough to do it.

Gods, but that boy really was an idiot…

The news going around the Gryffindor ranks was that Ron needed to achieve at least an Exceeds Expectations in every single one of his end of term exams, or he'd fail every class this term including Divination… which was a bad enough situation that people were asking Hermione just how much help had she been giving the boy?...

And as it turns out, Hermione's involvement in Ron's school work slash studying up until this year could be summed up using only one word… "comprehensive."

Neville, on the other hand, was excelling in all of his classes this year, and since he was working as a legitimate disciple under Professor Sprout now, he spent a portion of the meal describing his latest experiment.

Neville was trying to create a version of a mandrake that had a voice so high a register it wasn't picked up by human ears. Apparently creating mandrakes that don't scream at all is a complete waste of time because the screaming is part of the magic that makes them useful potion ingredients. Neville was certain however, that through cross breeding he could change the pitch of their voices to be a much higher register, and he hypothesized that if a human's ears couldn't pick up the screaming, it could no longer hurt them.

Harry, in turn, had a few questions but they mostly centered on how you would test the finished product without putting a human in mortal peril. For the moment, the question seemed to have Neville stumped, because he just shrugged and said that he'd start thinking of a way as the development process continued.

Then Harry and Neville's conversation was put on hold, when a soft 'ahem' sounded out in the aisle behind Harry's back.

"Monsieur Potter… May I 'aave a moment of oar time, please?"

After turning around in response to a deep baritone female voice, Harry looked up and continued looking up for quite a while. Madam Maxine was standing directly behind him and looking down at him with a kindly expression upon her face. At first, Harry was surprised that the Headmistress wanted to talk at all, and then he was surprised once again at the way that she was looking at him. Belatedly, Harry realized he hadn't responded yet and he began to turn around in his seat. "Of course Headmistress. Shall we step out of the room, or is here fine?"

"Ere eees fine, Monsieur Potter," replied Madame Maxine, while once again smiling kindly at him. "I merely desired to zank you for ze words you said on Beauxbatton's be-'alf zis afternoon to ze media. I whas approached by several French journalists hoo were very pleased wiz you."

"No thanks is required, Headmistress," Harry replied in French with a smile for the Lady. "I only spoke the truth, and I'm not a fan of the way the magical community tends to vilify people without proof. I expect there will still be some gossip columns that accuse your school of cheating, but their shameless libel doesn't reflect on the opinions of my team."

Madam Maxine's smile widened. "Thank you for speaking in French for me, Mr. Potter. I am an educator, so I consider my terrible Eenglish to be one of my greatest failures. I actually think you undersell your own persuasive power by the way. From what I've heard, you have all of the major Newspapers sold that it was a third party's involvement. I believe most of the smaller news columns will follow suit for fear that they will end up looking foolish. If it were necessary, I would perform a magically binding oath that I was uninvolved, but this will save me both time and drama."

Harry grinned at that but he was apparently a little more jaded than Madam Maxine. "I do hope that you're correct, but I think you should check out Teen Witch Weekly tomorrow morning. That magazine is a consistent source of income for my legal representation."

Madam Maxine peeled out in a musical laugh on a normal register that was out of place compared to her low and husky voice. "I will make sure to do that then, but you have my gratitude either way... Have a good night Mr. Potter, Ms. Delacour."

Harry and Fleur waved as Madam Maxine walked off and then smiled at each other.

"You may be allowed to stay with me openly now," Fleur whispered in a teasing little voice.

"I think I'll continue sneaking in so that I may enjoy her ongoing goodwill," Harry whispered back with a grin. "You're a lady Fleur, and she's responsible for your continued chastity."

"She ees French, and knows that I am Veela," Fleur replied, while grinning back at her mate. "Eef she were to try to protect my virginity around you, she would only be setting 'erself up for failure. I 'ighly doubt that Madam Maxine aas ever seriously attempted to eenvestigate us. You do 'aave a point zough... I eemagine she aas appreciated our continued… discretion."

"Speaking of discretion," Selene stage whispered to the both of them. "Despite your whispering, Hermione and I have heard every word that you just said, and I blame Mione's imminent blush on you."

Hermione, Harry and Fleur did in fact begin blushing then, and Harry winced because Selene was right. Moments later however, they all began laughing because well... yeah... They were teenagers.

One Week Later, Saturday, Hogsmeade Weekend…

Warm… Harry Potter was currently very, very warm… which made sense. He was currently covered by both Fleur's body and what felt like twenty different blankets. The day before, Fleur suddenly grew sick with the common cold, and Harry spent most of the day providing her with TLC (tender loving care). It wasn't a proven fact yet, but both Harry and Fleur were pretty certain that he was impervious to most ailments and was in no danger of getting sick with her cold. For that reason, Fleur very graciously allowed Harry to stick around as she wallowed in self-pity and sneezed all over his body.

Throughout the day, Harry procured symptom relief potions, Conjured water, froze said water into ice packs, spoon fed his wife soup, cycled his magic throughout her body on an ongoing basis, and cuddled with her as much as she required, but the woman still suffered to an unusual extent.

Apparently, Veela, as a species, get hit by colds far worse than baseline human people, and Fleur wasn't out of the ordinary for her magical heritage. In the end, Harry spent the entire day sitting around with his wife, telling her stories and listening to soft music, until all of the sudden he thought of a brilliant idea, and Fleur grew sulky that he only thought of it so late in the day.

Harry knew for certain that he was very, very much in love with his wife, because he thought that even Fleur's sniffling, snuffling, unreasonably sulky expression was completely adorable.

After feeding, watering, cold potioning and prepping Fleur for bed, Harry and his wife snuggled together under far too many covers for his comfort, and Harry meditated his way into his Mindscape. Then, in the moments that followed, Fleur made use of her Veela abilities to follow her husband into his Mindscape.

Once astral projected into Harry's Mindscape, free of her body's discomfort and safely inside of his Occlusion shields, Fleur spent the remainder of the evening hanging out in her husband's mind, during which time he brought her to a cozy little cottage next to a lake where he liked to relax when he had downtime in his sleep.

And the plan went off without a hitch...

Harry and Fleur goofed around while taking turns playing the piano for each other (Harry played Clair de Lune again and once again it went over really well). Then, when the sun set, Harry Conjured a media station into his cottage and they watched the movie Princess Bride.

Eventually, Fleur dozed off in the real world, causing her to disappear from Harry's Mindscape, at which point he briefly returned to consciousness to check up on her adorable sleeping face, and then went to sleep himself to pursue his normal nightly training.

And now that the sun was denoting the beginning of a new day, it was officially time to see if their plan was as effective as they hoped it would be. Harry prepared the trifecta as he rubbed Fleur's back, noticing as he did so that his wife's body temperature was noticeably lower than yesterday.

It did appear that Fleur's fever was lessened, if not entirely gone.

Slowly, cutely, Fleur returned to consciousness, rubbing her face against Harry's chest. So far so good. Fleur didn't appear to be sneezing and her complexion was... well... perfect.

"Good morning love. How do you feel, Harry asked very softly because Fleur's migraine the day before prohibited any noises above a whisper.

Fleur tightened her hold on Harry's body as she slowly and languidly looked up at his face. "I feel fantastic like only someone who just got over a high fever can, mon amour," she sighed out in happy sounding French. "In fact, I have never slept so soundly in my whole entire life." Fleur rubbed her face against Harry's chest as she attempted to find the words. "Arry... Veela never get over colds this quickly... ever… I straight up refuse to suffer a cold without you holding me ever again."

"You never will, wife," Harry replied with a satisfied smile. "We'll go on vacations to exotic locations in my mind whenever you're sick…."

Fleur's body curled around her man's waist again and it didn't look like she was going to let go of him any time soon. "I am going to keep the cow eyes I am making to myself for the moment and take my time waking up. Will you hold me for a while before you exercise today?"

"I'm all yours wife, but for my sake can we discard like ten of these blankets first," Harry asked as a bead of sweat formed upon his forehead.

"Deal," Fleur murmured in a voice that made it clear she was beginning to drift off again. As if it were a monumental effort, she limply kicked out behind her several times to dislodge a heavy mass of cotton and silk.

After some languid wrestling, Harry and Fleur were both free of the blankets, but now they were noticeably damp with sweat, so Harry cast a wandless drying spell on the both of them and then rolled them onto their sides. He was picking up on the fact that Fleur was a little bit chilly now, so he Accio'd a clean sheet on top of them and then spooned her tightly from behind.

"Oooooohhh 'Arry... so pampered," Fleur quietly moaned. "Gods, but I love you."

Yes. Fleur loved him, and Harry could feel it through the bond with a sharpness that was both comforting and energizing. He had it very, very good with his wife and he felt himself melting back into the sheets as he allowed his consciousness to dwell within the bond.

A little time later, both Harry and Fleur found themselves far, far too well rested to stay still any longer, so they moved into the spa bath for a good long soak. As if in repayment for his thoughtfulness the day before, Fleur parked Harry in between her legs on a shelf in the bath and she peppered his neck and shoulders with kisses while slowly, gently combing out his hair. She ran her hands through his hair for quite a while until eventually it was just a tiny bit out of control, during which time, they discussed their many plans for the day…

After breakfast, Harry and Fleur intended to Apparate to France to meet up with the rest of the Delacours, where they would use the Floo addresses that Harry possessed to visit all of his various properties. Finally, after eating lunch in Hogsmeade with Hermione, Neville and the team, Fleur had some mysterious gift that she'd arranged for Harry to pick up that she made him promise not to investigate. The surprise was apparently back in France, so it was safe to assume that they'd be Apparating all over the place.

After reentering Fleur's bedroom, Harry approached his wife's chest of drawers, where two compartments had been allocated for his use, and he took a moment to be grateful that these drawers exist at all.

Two weeks after Harry first started cohabitating with Fleur, he finally asked his wife as nicely as possible if he could have some drawer space. Up until that point, a lot of his morning was spent sneaking up into his Dormitory for clean clothing after his morning run. After pointing out that the time he spent seeking out his clothing every morning could be better spent laying around with her in bed, Harry was confident that Fleur would arrange things for him…

He was wrong.

As it turns out, Harry forgot to take into consideration the extraordinary depths of Fleur's organizational OCD.

The root of the problem was that Fleur's drawers in her carriage room were an exact replica of her drawers at home. For that reason, she'd been using a well defined clothing organizational system honed over a lifetime and extraordinarily strict. Unbeknownst to Harry, he'd just asked Fleur to cast aside her entire organizational structure, stepping on a land-mine in the process.

For almost a full week following Harry's drawer compartment takeover request, he was forced to watch his wife spiral into a very specific form of clothing organizational madness. In the meantime, her clothing was repeatedly shunted back and forth three times a day while the woman looked for the best solution, and there'd been no end in sight. If Fleur's fussiness was merely a hobby or a pet project of some sort then that would've been one thing, but Fleur was visibly distressed by the loss of her perfect system and was stressing out about it on a continual basis.

After about five days spent watching his mate stress out, Harry finally snapped and decided to just fix the freaking problem. He spent an entire afternoon Rune inscribing the living hell out of Fleur's chest of drawers, so that every single drawer it contained had several different dimensions contained inside of it. Every compartment in Fleur's chest of drawers could now become any number of compartments occupying the exact same space, which was far more room than the entire Delacour family would ever require... Hell, Harry even made changing the different drawer dimensions easy by etching in subtle stylized rune activators on the side of each drawer.

With this grand undertaking accomplished, Harry finally approached Fleur, ready to explain his heroics and at the very least receive a pat on the head.

Unfortunately for Harry, he hadn't taken into consideration the fact that Fleur was emotionally involved in her newest problem, and wasn't the least bit interested in being saved. She'd wanted to fix her own problem, and Harry had stolen that satisfaction away from her. What was worse was that Fleur was magically raised, which made the fact that she hadn't thought of such an obvious (although hellishly expensive under normal circumstances) magical solution painful to her pride.

Long story short, Harry and Fleur ended up having their very first explosive argument, and it wasn't very subtle. They didn't talk to each other, they didn't commune in the bond (which was actually extremely difficult to do), they avoided each other at meals, and they didn't look at each other for a whole entire day.

By the end of that day, Harry was already starting to fray at the seams because he missed his wife, and he had no idea whether or not he was sleeping in the Gryffindor dormitory. For almost an entire hour, Harry stood around the Entry Hall of the school, Disillusioned and waging a silent war with himself, because he was hurting and he could feel Fleur hurting right along with him. He weighed the value of his pride while looking at the situation from Fleur's perspective, and then he recognized that he should've addressed the problem together with his wife.

With his mind made up, Harry marched off towards the Beauxbatons carriage as a man on a mission. He was going to apologize and Gods help him, he was going to fix things with his mate.

The makeup sex that followed that night would leave even Harry, with his magically advanced healing abilities sore for the entire following day.

Back in the present, Harry opened his extra-dimensional drawer compartment with a smile on his face, before pulling out a pair of black jeans and an emerald green t-shirt. He was going to be off school property today, so he had no intention of wearing a cloak of any variety. When he was done tying up the laces of his sneakers, Harry turned in Fleur's direction… and he performed a massive spit-take in his surprise and arousal.

Fleur was wearing pale bluejeans that were so damned tight, he regretted missing how she wiggled her way into them. She was also wearing a charcoal gray sweater that had a collar loose enough to drape off of one shoulder and a bottom hem short enough to reveal her belly button.

Fleur's get-up was somehow both modest and ultra-revealing at the exact same time, and Harry was reduced to staring.

As Harry's approval heated up the bond and he gaped at her from the drawers, Fleur rewarded the man by turning away from him and slipping on her shoes by bending at the waist. Then a sly and seductive smile grew across her face when she felt her husband's desire for her catch fire and explode…

"I shall have the concentrated resentment of every single man that we encounter today," Harry sighed out, while staring at his violently beautiful wife.

"Yes, yes… You're welcome," Fleur purred out as she straightened to look back at her husband. "It's a good thing you're such a dangerous, dangerous man, my love…"

Walking up to his wife, Harry wrapped her up in his arms and dedicated himself to holding her closely all damn day. If he was going to be condemned by his gender as an unforgivably lucky bastard, then he might as well deserve it...

"I approve," Fleur whispered into Harry's neck with a kiss. "Hold me tightly all day long…"

It was hard on both Harry and Fleur, but they were eventually able to leave the carriage in time for breakfast.

Ten minutes later, after walking into the Great Hall, both Harry and Fleur came to the conclusion that they must look pretty striking today, based on the reception they were receiving.

Both genders present in the Great Hall were openly gawking at them with their mouths wide open… and they weren't just staring at Fleur either.

Fleur gave Harry a meaningful look as if to say, "See I told you so." She was of the opinion that her mate was continually evolving to be more magnetic to the people around him. She was adamant that his presence was becoming more striking, as if his power was coming off of him in passive waves.

At first, Harry hadn't believed that Fleur's opinion could be accurate, because he knew that he had his magical power under tight control, but Fleur continued to insist that it was happening nonetheless. She described it as an animal magnetism feeling rather than an overt magical power feeling. She explained that he'd always felt like an alpha to her sensitive Veela senses, but now, for the very first time, the feeling was strong enough that normal wizards and witches were picking up on it.

And now… Harry figured his wife was right.

At exactly the same time, Harry noticed a similar phenomenon happening to Fleur. The woman seemed to radiate beauty and strength in palpable waves, as if she was the heroine from a fantasy epic…

Fleur didn't disagree, but she blamed Harry's magic, how her core was over three times the size it was when they first met, and their bond… She believed that she was experiencing a qualitative change or evolution, making her much closer to full-blooded Veela than even her mother, except different, somehow... more. A good example of the changes she was referencing was the fact that Fleur had so much control over her own allure now, she could basically bring it to a stop. Too bad for her, with how unbelievably beautiful she was, people still thought they were being allure charmed every time they saw her…

Either way, by the time Harry and Fleur arrived at the Gryffindor table, most eyes were on them, and conversations only restarted around the room after they sat down amongst their friends.

POP

In the blink of an eye, Harry and Fleur came into being at the doors of the Delacour manse, the popping noise created by their arrival sharp but not deafening, causing Harry to give Fleur a look of growing satisfaction. In turn, she nodded that yes, yes the man's Apparition was definitely getting quieter.

In the bond, Harry caught on that Fleur wanted him to aim to Apparate silently like Aurors and hitwizards are forced to learn, which instantly caught his interest just as it was intended to do, and had him staring at his wife...

All of the sudden, with no warning whatsoever, Fleur was hugging Harry from behind and kissing the side of his neck... and Harry shivered violently for at least three different reasons. One, his wife was kissing him, two, she'd just moved behind him both instantly and silently like a ghost, and three, he was extremely impressed. Then Fleur gently nibbled on the shell of his ear and he shivered again for a fourth reason that should be completely obvious.

"I'll definitely be learning how to do that today," Harry declared out loud and in a completely serious voice. "You are sooo scary sometimes, wife, and it really turns me on..."

"I understand exactly how you feel, my husband," Fleur whispered while tightening her arms around her mate. "The way I just Apparated is easily four times more magically draining than normal, but I imagine you wouldn't even notice that." With one more small nip at Harry's ear lobe, Fleur abruptly detached from him, turned towards the gate of the Delacour manse and gestured for Harry to put his hand on the plate. "You have been added to the gate ward scheme 'Arry, so would you care to let us in?"

It isn't a difficult bit of magic to change a ward scheme that you control, but Harry was touched nonetheless. He pressed his hand to the metal plate and the gate began swinging open.

"Welcome home 'Arry," Fleur enthused with a wide smile upon her face, as she knew that her husband was a complete sap and that he would think that line was cute. Imagine that, Fleur thought to herself. Fleur Delacour, super feminist and frigid bitch acting all cute for a man… But that's when Fleur saw that her prediction was correct, and the idea of a welcoming home had her husband feeling so warm….

A moment later, Harry caught a flying missile of silver hair in the form of his wife, at which point he started trying to stifle a series of giggles. It appeared Fleur's attempt to be cute for him backfired big time when his reaction struck her like an arrow through the heart. Even as he slowly smoothed out the Veela's persistently perfect hair, he was actively trying not to giggle at how the woman was mothering him.

"Love you too, wife, and yes I'm home," Harry whispered into Fleur's ear. "Now, let's go say hello to the fam okay?" Fleur nodded into his shoulder but her face was still warm against his neck, and he could tell that she was blushing. He waited for a few seconds longer and then pulled away, kissing her forehead on the way.

Half a minute later, when Harry and Fleur were about halfway up the drive, they suddenly saw an over-excited seven year old sprinting down the lawn in their direction at completely reckless speeds. Apparently, Gabrielle didn't have the patience to wait for them in the house and had been staring out the window, waiting for their arrival. Harry and Fleur shared a silent moment of "ah that's cute" in the bond and then Harry was catching yet another missile of silvery blonde hair. Then Harry felt Gabby squirm up his back to her normal spot in a piggyback while speaking very, very quickly in his ear.

"I have been going absolutely bonkers waiting for you two to arrive. I'm reading about spell theory and how to correctly intone spells, but I won't even be allowed to use these spells for another four years! Swish and flick, I get it, but It's all so abstract and annoying for me right now! It's just not fair that I'm being left behind to die a slow home schooler death by boredom," Gabby passionately ranted towards the sky.

"I'm always jealous when I think of how far ahead you'll be during your first year of magic school," Harry replied, a little bit wistfully. "I loved Hogwarts right from the very start, but I spent the lion's share of my first year completely petrified because of my own ignorance. I constantly worried that I was going to step on some magical toes or sell my eternal soul somehow. You should aim to be several years ahead by the time you enter school, Gabby."

"I agree," Fleur added while grinning at Harry's "eternal soul" crack. "You're literally too cute for words Gabby, so unless you're completely superb you won't be taken seriously by your peers."

Gabrielle pouted, causing Harry to grin and point at her. She'd effectively proven their point by reacting in a completely adorable way. When Gabby caught his drift, she smiled in chagrin and nodded her understanding. "Mama says the same things as you 'Arry, but it's hard to believe you were ever as clueless as you describe."

Harry slowed down and then stopped walking as he looked over his shoulder at Gabrielle. "It's all true Gabby. My first year at Hogwarts was brilliant and absolutely terrifying at exactly the same time. I was being hailed as the infamous Boy-Who-Lived and everyone thought they knew me better than I knew myself. They also thought that I was some kind of magical messiah. Imagine how scary it was to be a completely ignorant muggle raised surrounded by strangers with extremely high expectations." Harry smiled again. "The very first spell I ever learned and performed on purpose was a Lumos during first semester at Hogwarts. I couldn't sleep that night because I was so overwhelmed with excitement. I didn't know how easy that spell is at the time or that I was just barely scratching the surface when it came to magic."

"I don't even have a wand yet," Gabrielle pointed out, just barely holding in a pout.

After releasing Gabrielle to slide down to her feet, Harry crouched at her side and took her right hand in his. "Point your index finger at me Gabby."

Gabrielle looked puzzled but she pointed her finger at Harry.

Without a word, Harry circulated some of his ambient magic around Gabby's index finger and then disconnected it from his core. Stepping back from the eight year old, he gave the girl a look that seemed to demand her undivided attention. "Okay, Gabby. I want you to say the word Lumos while picturing in your head the idea that you're creating a light on your finger. If you really want this to work, you should make sure to focus on the fact that you need to create a light and what that light will look like."

At first, Gabby canted her head to the side in confusion, but then she smiled at Harry's new game. She scrunched up her face in intense focus and then finally intoned the word "Lumos." The end of her finger instantly became a bright light like in the movie ET the extraterrestrial. About ten seconds later, the light slowly dimmed before disappearing, but by then Gabby had some serious stars in her eyes. "'Arry... How did you do this?"

"I can do a lot of interesting things with my magic, including severing its connection to my body," Harry replied, with a large and happy smile on his face. "All I did just now is make my magic sit at the end of your finger and act like a one time use wand. Congratulations Gabby. You just officially incanted your very first spell! Granted you didn't use your own magic just now, but you were the one who visualized and intoned the spell correctly making it work. I can easily sense plenty of magic inside of your core, so I'm not concerned about it being available when you finally receive your wand."

"That's soooo cool," Gabby exclaimed, while jumping around and fist pumping like crazy. Then, abruptly, she stopped and looked at Harry in alarm. "Am I going to get in trouble for underage use of magic or something?"

Harry grinned even as he was shaking his head. "I don't know exactly how the underage use of magic laws work in France, but no definitely not. I just did a Lumos through you, using your brain and will as a medium. It was technically my magic that performed the spell and I'm an adult in the eyes of the law."

"This is awesome, oh my Gods wow, please let me try a Wingardium Leviosa please, please, please!" Gabrielle was bouncing around now in her mad excitement.

Looking to the side, Harry grinned at Fleur because if this didn't get Gabby excited about studying for school then nothing would. Then he caught the cow eyes that she was giving him, followed by her realization that she was cow eyeing him again, and she shook her head with a warm smile on her face.

Rising to his full height, Harry brushed off his pants and reached out for Fleur's hand. Next he turned to and regarded the littlest Delacour again. "Let's all go inside Gabby, and then I might just let you give the levitation spell a try." Harry gave Gabrielle a meaningful look because he needed her to take this next part seriously. "Gabby... Wingardium Leviosa is a harder spell to accomplish than a Lumos because it involves very specific wand waving and you need to focus very hard. It may seem like an easy spell at first, but messing with the laws of physics is never that cut and dry. I'm not saying that you can't do it, I'm only warning you not to assume that it'll work on your very first try."

Gabby nodded excitedly which basically meant that she'd entirely missed the point, then she ran off into the house at Firebolt speeds. It was obvious that she was going to scream at her mother about what she'd just done.

Turning back towards his wife, Harry found Fleur staring at him again, and he could feel her psyche deep inside of his subconscious thoughts, following the train of logic that he was forming, discovering his intentions exactly as he formed them…

"You are..." Fleur shook her head and seemed to be completely lost for words. After a second, she found a train of logic again and was capable of expressing it. "'Arry... You will have our children performing advanced spells long before they even have the magical capacity to power a Lumos. Having enough magic to practice with will never be a hangup for them, because they'll be using yours. You'll approach practicing spells with the playfulness of a normal dad playing catch, and they'll never even understand just how incredibly advanced they're becoming... You're... You're already looking forward to it... 'Arry I…" Fleur blinked as moisture pooled in her eyes, and then tightly hugged Harry's arm as they walked into the house.

The levels of love coming off of Harry's wife at the moment were so overwhelming, he was having trouble even walking straight. Thankfully, Fleur seemed to understand his predicament, because she pulled him along as if he was suffering a concussion.

Unsurprisingly, when Harry and Fleur entered the living room of the house, it was to find Appoline waiting for them with a big, fat smile upon her face, and a chattering Gabrielle bouncing around the living room. "I must see this," Appoline declared, while gesturing at her manic youngest daughter. The girl in question was still hopping around, completely jazzed by her first time magic use.

Harry turned to Fleur, and they shared a mere moment of nonverbal communication before he scooped Gabby up into a damsel carry, turned back towards Appoline and gave the woman a smile. "You two catch up, and I'll teach Gabby the levitation spell. I'll bring her back when you're ready for us."

Fleur tried and failed to stop giving her husband even more cow eyed adoration as he winked at her, turned away, and marched out of the room. She couldn't. It was too much. Turning towards her mother, Fleur fanned her face and drew in a deep breath. "I have at least two new pieces of news regarding my mate."

Appoline sat down on the couch and gestured for Fleur to join her. "Lay them on me," she replied with a grin.

Fleur sat down next to and leaning against her mother's side, just enjoying the woman's warmth. "I was sick yesterday with a cold, but I am now completely healthy and do you know why?"

"'Arry Potter I presume," Appoline replied.

"Yes, yes he was taking care of me last night with all the bells and whistles and cycling his magic through my body hoping that it would help," Fleur began in a casual tone of voice.

"I imagine that it would help, but the common cold has never had a magical cure. That's a big part of the whole inconvenient package." Appoline was just waiting for the hook of the story.

"'Arry became frustrated because I was so obviously suffering, which is when he decided that we would go on a vacation from the problem." Fleur stopped there because she wanted to see if her mother would get it.

Appoline saw that she was being tested, so she put her hand to her chin as she poured her focus into the problem. "'Arry decided you would escape your cold... Ah! You went into his Mindscape?"

"Yes, and I spent the entire night inside of his Occlusions, relaxing and watching movies in comfort. I fell asleep while in there and woke up today completely restored to health. I haven't really impressed upon 'Arry just how amazing that is yet, but the speed of my recovery..."

"One night should be impossible," Appoline agreed with a nod. "He provided a place for you to convalesce in comfort and as a happy accident you recovered a little more than four days faster than normal for a Veela with a cold."

Fleur was nodding and smiling. "I woke up this morning feeling reborn and completely healthy in his arms. It was just so..."

"'Arry Potter," replied a smiling Appoline. "You're right that is an amazing story and you're a lucky, lucky Veela. Now what is this I hear about teaching Gabby to use magic without a wand?"

Fleur beamed and even with Harry in the other room she made a particularly love filled face in his direction. "Just now, while we were outside, Gabby was complaining about having to study in preparation for magic school. That's when my mate turned towards her and said..."

Up in Gabrielle's bedroom, Harry sat on her very pink and fluffy bed, watching a young Veela girl pantomime the wand movements of a Wingardium Leviosa spell, during which time, he couldn't help but grin at the way her face was scrunched up in concentration while waving around a graphite pencil.

Harry's idea was for Gabby to practice the spell fifty times before he supplied the magic, she was going at it with a will, and she was obviously quite sharp, as she wasn't making any noticeable mistakes. About halfway through this routine, Harry called out to the little girl, and she halted in her tracks. "Now, for the next half, I want you to perform those same movements and intonations, but I want you to also picture your smallest teddy bear floating up three feet in the air. You need to really see it in your mind and have complete confidence that it'll work. Self doubt is a bad state of mind when performing magic. Can you do all of that for me?"

Gabby nodded quickly and then began intoning the spell again with a face that was even more scrunched up than before. By now Harry knew that Gabby had no idea how many repetitions she had left to perform, so he let her repeat the spell over eighty times before finally bringing her to a stop. "Now Gabby... Can you see the teddy bear floating there in your mind's eye?"

Gabby nodded, smiling widely.

"Can you feel the wand movements burned into the muscles of your arm?"

Gabby nodded again.

Leaning forward, Harry released a tendril of magic to float around the pencil but not inside of it. He didn't feel like destroying her stationary, but Gabrielle didn't need to know that the pencil was merely a prop for technique's sake. "Okay Gabby. Now's the time to put it all together and really mean it. Intent or willpower drives magic just as much as technique does. Go ahead and give it a try."

Gabrielle intoned the spell and the teddy bear flopped around on the floor for several seconds before coming to a stop... Despite Harry's advanced warnings not to get upset if at first she didn't succeed, Gabby still looked comically devastated.

"Relax, little sis." Harry moved closer and smiled gently at the clearly troubled, little girl. "I felt that attempt with my magic, and you weren't far off the mark. You intoned the incantation correctly and the wand movements were perfect. That only leaves one thing left to work on."

Gabby had been staring at the floor, but at Harry's words she began looking at him again with some hope in her eyes. "What do I need to work on, 'Arry?"

"Completing magic spells involves a psychological, emotional aspect that's hard to describe," Harry mused as he looked down at the teddy bear. "Spells have a certain feeling to them, and they work best for you when you are in the right mindset. The word a lot of wizards use to describe finding the right state of mind and feeling with a spell is 'knack'." Once you get the knack for a spell, it almost always becomes quite a bit easier to perform. You must also focus on using your intent to affect the world around you using magic. Intent can also be called your will or need. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Gabby replied immediately while nodding along. Truly, she'd already heard about much of this 'knack' many times in the past, but the word had never had any real meaning to her until now."

"It's hard to explain how someone should feel when performing a spell, and that's why teaching magic is hard to do and only the most accomplished wizards or witches should be professors." All of the sudden, Harry had another eureka moment, and his eyes took on a luminous quality in his excitement. "Gabby… How do you feel about my aura shroud?"

"I like it a lot, 'Arry. It makes me feel safe." Gabby beamed a huge smile at her elder brother, and wasn't the least bit surprised when he scooped her up into a hug.

"Okay then," Harry began while obviously thinking out loud to himself. "You've felt me project my feelings to you like the feeling of a hug or the feeling of being happy right?"

Gabby nodded wondering where hArry was going with this.

Harry sat down in the middle of her bedroom with his legs crossed and motioned for Gabby to sit down close by in front of him. "What I'm about to do is cast several Wingardium Leviosa spells in front of us. While I do that, I'll have a strong aura shroud out, and I'm going to project to you how it feels from my perspective to cast the spell. You should become more familiar with how I feel while I work the spell and hopefully you'll find the knack. How does that sound, Gabby?"

As Gabby caught on to what Harry had in mind, stars formed in her eyes, she bounced around the room, and she even threw a few more fist pumps before crashing down onto the floor in front of the man with her shoulders leaning against his stomach. "Okay 'Arry! Let me feel the spell now," she demanded with the utmost levels of enthusiasm.

Harry smiled, covered Gabby in his aura shroud and pointed his wand out in front of them. While concentrating on the levitating bear that he wanted to see and focusing all of his will upon having the spell do as intended, Harry performed all of the wand movements and incantations textbook precise, as if he was back in first year in Professor Flitwick's class.

The bear rose into the air following the tip of Harry's wand, and it danced in the air before slowly dropping back to the floor.

"Did you feel it all Gabby," Harry asked, interested to know how well his shroud conveyed his methods...

Just below Harry's chin, Gabby nodded an affirmative, but she was clearly focusing on reenacting every little detail about how the spell felt in her mind.

Pleased with Gabby's determination, Harry began the spell again, pouring his entire focus into the mechanics behind its completion. Then, when Harry was done repeating the spell, he did it a third time and then a fourth. Over and over for about three minutes, Harry repeated the spell until all of the sudden Gabby grabbed his arm and lowered it.

Slowly Gabby climbed back to her feet, smiled down at Harry and said two words with the utmost level of confidence. "I'm ready."

"'Arry will have our children becoming prodigies, and they won't even know that they're the least bit out of the ordinary," Fleur whispered while wiping another tear from her face. "He's so special mama..."

By this point, Appoline was crying too and hugging her daughter tightly, which is why she didn't immediately notice when Gabrielle marched into the room, until the little girl stood before her, an all business expression upon her tiny, heart-shaped face.

"What is it, Gabby?" Appoline's curiosity was peaked even further when Fleur began beaming at the little girl for seemingly no reason.

Harry walked into the living room next, at which point he deposited a small teddy bear on the living room floor, and then sat down on the couch with the rest of the family. "Go ahead Gabby," he offered, while smiling at the littlest Delacour.

Gabrielle nodded, super serious, (so cute) and brandished her pencil exactly like a wand. For several moments, she just stared at the teddy bear as if it was the center of her entire universe. Finally, she looked ready and smiled at her family before turning back towards the little bear. "Wingardium Leviosa," she intoned, with the gravity of a Patronus level spell and with picture perfect swish and flick movements. The little teddy bear on the floor slowly but surely lifted up off of the floor and wandered around the room where Gabby was pointing her pencil. Gabby squealed in delight while yelling out her enthusiasm. "I did it and I knew I could do it! I can cast two spells, mama!"

Harry, Fleur and Appoline clapped and cheered because, yes, this was a big moment for the little girl, and as soon as the spell lost its power, they caught the girl who dove into their arms. Appoline had yet more tears in her eyes now, and she looked like she was going to cuddle her daughter for the rest of the afternoon.

"Well done," Harry cheered with an enormous smile upon his face. "You're very good Gabby, very fast to pick it all up, and I imagine all of the prep work Appoline gives you is exactly the reason why."

Appoline immediately gave Harry a look filled with intense gratitude for the way that he was plugging her lessons. She knew better though... Her technique diagrams and incantation sheets just cannot adequately describe how your intent, body and magic need to be in sync while casting a spell. Even harder was describing the psychology of casting magic and how to feel the spell in just the right way. Appoline was sure she could get Gabby performing a new spell if given a day of concerted effort, but in less than fifteen minutes? Harry was clearly a prodigy of a teacher, with a profoundly special gift...

Gabby on the other hand had fallen for Harry's words hook line and sinker, she was looking at her mama with stars in her eyes and was clearly going to be tearing into her lessons from this moment forward.

"From now on, if Appoline tells me that you've learned a spell by textbook standards, I'll swing by to provide some guidance and magic." Harry explained as Gabrielle squirmed happily in everybody's arms… "By the time you go to Beauxbatton, we can have you performing a lot of your first and second year material with ease, because at that point, the only thing slowing you down will be the fact that your magical core is still growing into them."

By this point, Appoline was clutching at Harry's arm, and was visibly struggling to keep it together.

Which was nice, but wasn't really Harry's primary concern…

While yes, Harry was quite happy to amass brownie points with his step-mother, that outcome was only a bonus to his primary objective… Over the summer, Fleur explained to him how hard Beauxbatons was for her back when she first attended, because being incomparably beautiful comes with many struggles and pitfalls… For that reason alone, Harry was determined to make Gabrielle a magical phenom by the time she was exposed to all of that, and if he could do so without her ever understanding his true intentions, then that was for the best. Harry wanted Gabby capable of magically curb-stomping any bullies that she runs a foul of, but he also wanted to preserve her innocence for as long as physically possible.

He would do it. He already knew it…

At the tail end of that thought, Harry noticed Fleur following his thoughts in the bond and falling to hot, little, pieces over him… and in physical reality, he reached out to hold his wife's hand.

Fwoooosh!

Out of nowhere, a masculine voice called out from the Entry Hall announcing that Adrien Delacour had come home from whatever errand he left on. As he walked into the living room, he saw the tangled mess of his family on the couch, smothering Gabrielle with affection, and one of his eyebrows rose before Harry sensed Appoline filling the man in. Then his eyebrows crawled even further into his hairline as his attention turned in Harry's direction. "Can you do it again?"

From his spot on the couch, Harry looked over at the pencil and then a moment later he nodded. "It's done. Gabby?"

Gabby nodded and smiled like a loon even as she wiggled free from her family's clutches, marched into the middle of the room, picked up the pencil, and then speared the teddy bear with her undivided attention. Moments later, she was casting the spell again and the teddy bear was floating around the room at her direction.

By the time the bear collapsed to the floor, Adrien was collapsing onto the couch in a similar fashion with an immensely proud smile growing clear across his face. Then, when he looked aside at Harry, his smile widened even further. "Tell me 'Arry. Where will you be living this upcoming summer?"

"I was hoping he could stay here, papa," Fleur immediately supplied, while just barely holding back a triumphant smile. This was her opportunity to broach a hard topic after all... "'Arry has decided to test out of 'Ogwarts at the end of this upcoming summer. Until then, I would appreciate it if he could stay here. I want to be with my family while I seek out my future career, but 'Arry is my bonded and I'd find it hard to be away from him. At the same time, I intend to help him learn everything he needs to know to get O's on his OWL and NEWT exams…"

Adrien looked momentarily troubled as he was just reminded that Harry Potter deflowered his daughter, and he rubbed his chin as he stared at the boy... Then, belatedly, Adrien remembered that the two of them were a fantastically happy bonded couple, exactly as he always hoped for his daughter... Drawing in a very deep breath, he squared up with the boy and gave him a meaningful look. "Harry... I need you to know this because it's the truth and I am working on it. A small part of me will most likely always resent you for taking my daughter away from me. Do you understand?"

Harry nodded because he did think he understood. He was fiercely protective of Gabby and to a certain extent even Hermione. Then, in a moment of inspiration, Harry knew exactly what to say. "Adrien, I do understand, which is why I propose we come to a new arrangement. I suggest we form a truce, team up, and focus on keeping the unworthy away from your youngest. I also know that I'll be relying on you for help regarding any daughters that I have in the future. I need to know how you operate, Adrien. Your experience is of vital importance to me."

Adrien and Harry locked eyes for several very long moments. No more words were spoken, but you could tell that they'd come to an understanding. Their serious moment was ruined however, when both Fleur and Appoline began giggling like madwomen and couldn't seem to stop. Soon after, they were both being hugged by overjoyed Veela and it was hard not to smile.

"If you allow me to stay here this summer, I'll assist with Gabby's magic lessons, offer what help I can, and make my magic available," Harry added as an afterthought.

"Deal," Adrien announced while extending a hand in Harry's direction. The two men shook hands while being smothered by their wives.

Fwoooosh...crash...flop...roll

As Harry climbed back to his feet from a particularly terrible Floo entrance, he thanked the Gods that he had to enter this property alone first in order to alter the wards, because for once, no one was around to witness his terrible Flooing. At exactly the same time, he felt the foreign feeling of unfamiliar Wards settling into place within his mind and he allowed his Mindscape to organize all of the different impressions for him.

Adrien did warn Harry that entering into ownership of a fully warded home can be quite uncomfortable, because the existing ward schemes take up residence in your mind, but rather than uncomfortable, this just felt… weird… In a similar fashion to his magic on the first night that he released it from his core, the Wards felt like a limb that he never knew he had stretching outwards in every direction.

A few moments earlier, while entering the Floo, Harry'd felt a little bit nervous, but the sensation paled in comparison to his magic, so he wasn't all that troubled. He also knew exactly what to do with his brand new awareness, because it was informing him that there was a secret panel next to the fireplace that he could open with a magic filled touch.

A moment later, after opening the panel, Harry saw a chalkboard containing a list of people welcome within his Wards, and he saw that as things stood, he was the only one allowed to enter the house under the name Lord Potter. Pulling out a piece of chalk that Adrien handed him in advance, Harry carefully added the names of the Delacour's and all of his friends into the list of permitted people. Then, when that was done, he Floo called the Delacour home and stuck his head inside.

Fwooosh...ugh..

In an instantaneous, gut-check reaction, Harry absolutely hated the feeling of making Floo calls, and he knew that he'd have to invent something far more user friendly ASAP, even as he looked up to find that his discomfort wasn't a secret to the Delacour family.

"Okay everyone. I changed the Wards so you may all come over." Harry didn't wait for an answer before pulling his head back out of what felt like microwaving yourself inside of an operating drying machine. Yes... He'd definitely be creating a magical communication device sometime very soon...

Moving away from the Floo, Harry took a look around his France-side property for the very first time, and found that it was very... dusty. The house appeared to be pretty upscale and nice, but the stasis charms were worn quite thin and weren't up to the task anymore.

No big deal.

According to Fleur, the location of this property, Cassis, was one of the most beautiful places in all of southern France, was warm nearly all year round, and was famed for its beautiful beaches. A little bit of dust wasn't going to scare Harry off…

Fwooosh

Harry knew without looking that his wife just joined him, because their bond gained both strength and thickness as the distance between them closed... "We were hundreds of miles away from each other just now, and yet I could feel you quite strongly," Harry pointed out while turning around to regard his wife.

"Yes, I felt that too," Fleur replied with a smile in her voice. "It proves that the Peverel vaults really aren't in this dimension, because I'm not sure any geographical distance on Earth can completely close our bond. Sure, it becomes thinner and less substantial, but even just now it was nowhere near closing."

"I find comfort in that fact," Harry easily admitted, along with an unconcealed sigh. "You felt our bond go silent for a few minutes back at Gringotts, so you know how it feels to have it close, but I was without you for five whole hours, and It was... awful."

Sensing the vague unease that her husband was feeling, Fleur ran her hand up Harry's back and he smiled because she was merely proving his point. Feeling her, being felt in return, the care, the warmth, it was his normal now, and he couldn't even imagine going without it.

Fwooosh...

Gabrielle bounced into the room next, remaining on her feet as if doing so was completely trivial (Harry was intensely jealous), before skipping across the room and looking around. "I can see it needs a cleaning, but I cannot tell what the rest of the house will be like from here."

"Well, there's at least one thing that I've heard so far that does sound promising," Harry prompted, before smiling at how both girls closed their eyes with similar timing.

Both ladies went quiet for several seconds, at which point their eyes snapped back open and they smiled at each other in their enthusiasm.

The sound of waves hitting a beach could be heard off in the distance.

Fwoooosh...

Appoline entered the room next, and like a consummate housewife she immediately began casting dust-repellent charms along all of the surfaces of the room.

Dutifully, Harry opened a nearby window to cast a strong dust-attraction charm in its designated spot next to the shed in the yard (most wizarding homes have one and they're pretty easy to point out). Soon after, the dust from the room was drifting out of the window in almost unnoticeable particles that were picked up in the light from the window.

Harry smiled in a rare moment of pain free nostalgia from his youth. When he was a kid, he'd fantasized that floating dust particles under beams of sunlight were all manner of magical creatures flying around in the air. Now he was using real magic to easily dispose of the stuff, and the irony was amusing him.

Fleur joined Harry at the window as he enjoyed that thought, smiling at him and taking in the view. It was... Well it was beautiful. It was a slice of land saturated in magic in the middle of the French Riviera, so yeah it was beyond gorgeous.

Fwooosh...

Immediately after walking out of the Floo, Adrien joined Harry and Fleur at the window and gazed out into the sunny day. "Wow," he said with unconcealed appreciation filling the single word. "Now that... is some of the most beautiful property I have ever seen. It's wild and yet tame. It's magically under control because of its design and the way that the magic was put down, but time has allowed all of the flowers to grow so thick and... just wow. It's obviously overgrown, but I don't know if I'd even change it..."

"I agree," Harry whispered, while staring at a garden that looked like one of Neville's wet dreams. It was large and plotted to allow a long pathway down towards a golden beach in the distance, and it had several balconies and grassy areas interspersed for lounging and walking around.

Long story short, Harry's new property looked like a fantasy painting created by a brilliant stoner, leaving Harry shocked that he'd walked into this kind of absurd fortune.

A level of surprise that was in itself a surprise…

Harry was well-aware that he was wealthy, but as it turns out he just never really imagined himself owning property until the idea finally became a solid reality. This property would be worth more than a few million galleons merely because of where it was, let alone how clearly magical it was.

Harry already knew that he'd be creating a magical door from this property to whichever one he chose to adopt as his living arrangement back in Britain, so that he and Fleur could treat both properties as if they were wings of one overlarge property. At the same time, Harry could feel Fleur making similar plans through the bond, and he ended up smiling because his wife truly did believe that it was only a matter of time before he broke time and space for her (she was right, he would).

Summoned by everyone's attention, Gabrielle suddenly started climbing up Harry's back like a squirrel to get a better view out the chest high window, and when she saw it, she gasped. For the very first time since Harry first met Gabrielle Delacour, the miniature Veela was rendered completely speechless.

Harry and Fleur grinned at each other because they'd noticed that fact at exactly the same time...

After waiting for Gabrielle to get her fill, Harry finally interrupted the moment in a quiet but warm tone of voice. "Would you ladies care to tour the rest of the house?"

"Yes," both Fleur and Gabrielle replied immediately and in a rare show of synchronization.

As Harry and the girls joined Appoline and Adrien inspecting the rest of the house, it became increasingly obvious that Appoline was completing a spring cleaning the likes of which he'd never seen before. The woman obviously knew every household charm known to man, because the long neglected property was rapidly transforming into a very clean and well organized household.

Turning towards his wife, Harry began whispering into her ear. "I can feel it, Fleur. Appoline's made this house spotless while adding protections against almost all forms of pest, leak, draft, rot, rust, dust, dander, spill, stain, smell and mold." Harry shook his head in wonder. "We've only been here for ten minutes, love. How did Appoline become such a monster of productivity?"

"Monster of productivity," Fleur mused out loud, while sporting a feral grin. "You should see what the Lady Delacours can achieve when we're doing the exact opposite of this. If you saw that, then the name you just gave her would be even more appropriate."

Harry was curious about what his wife just said, but since red flags were going up in her mind, it appeared she didn't want him investigating that thought in the bond just yet. Nodding his understanding, Harry resolved to stick to his more mundane methods of speculation…

With Gabrielle swinging from their linked hands, Harry and Fleur took their time walking around the property, taking in all of the common trappings of a house, except a little larger and grander than normal. This house was of similar size to the manse that the Delacours owned, with the notable exception that it was less modern, had almost no furniture, had one additional guest bedroom and a full ballroom on the east side of the house.

By the time they were finished with their tour, Harry was just a little bit overwhelmed at the size, grandeur and opulence of it all, and he saw that Fleur was right there with him. At the same time, Harry's magic was informing him that the house rested on only one ley line of power, which meant that it wasn't the magical powerhouse that they were looking for...

Turning towards Fleur as she leaned into his body, Harry embraced his wife and drew in a deep breath through her hair. Then, when they broke away from each other, Harry said what was on both of their minds. "I love this house, but I can think of at least four things that I want to improve." Harry stopped explaining there, because he could feel that Fleur was already on the same page.

Fleur merely nodded because she was thinking along similar lines and was aware of what her husband wanted.

"For those of us not connected by a superhighway of information exchange like the two of you, what do you have in mind, Harry?" Adrien appeared amused by the fact that Harry and Fleur were already forgetting that never communicating out loud was of poor etiquette.

"My apologies," Harry immediately replied, while smiling at Adrien. "I want to increase the strength and complexity of the Wards to a ridiculous degree, modernize the utilities, open it up structurally by taking some interior walls down while adding some sunroofs, and build at least two escape tunnels deep underground like you have in your home. I can actually create modern media equipment that will work in magical settings, but the anti-Apparition tunnels are still a brilliant idea. I'll be getting in touch with Goblin Silverclaw just as soon as we finish checking out the other property."

After pausing his explanation for a moment, a serious look grew in Harry's eyes. "And since I'd like to create five Portkey bracelets that immediately transport the wearer here upon activation, I'd like this location to be as secure as possible..."

Adrien canted his head to the side while assessing the various meanings of Harry's words. "Is all of that necessary? I mean, I don't mind the idea, I just don't like the underlying theme of danger and being a target."

"If it's never necessary to use any of the precautions that I'm planning, I'll still think they're both time and Galleons well spent," Harry calmly replied. "I'm in the Triwizard tournament because someone has an interest in harming me, and Harkenen is still out there. Also, and I apologize for this in advance… The easiest way to destroy me is by hurting the people that I care about."

"I see," Adrien slowly, seriously replied.

"I'd also be interested in bolstering your home's boundary Wards," Harry breathed out with a hand rubbing the back of his neck…"

Adrien arched an eyebrow at Harry now, because of the lengths that he was going. The wards around Adrien's home were already very modern and powerful.

Harry saw Adrien's confusion, but all he could do was shrug helplessly. "I know it all seems rather paranoid, but once I'm done with all of these projects, my magic might stop beleaguering me about being prepared. My magic is insistent that overkill is just the right amount of precaution when it comes to my family, and it's the same variety of feeling that had me training like a madman for events that I didn't even know about yet... Do you see why I take my magic so seriously?"

Adrien nodded again because, yes, he did understand. Harry was way more prepared than he would've otherwise been in joining the tournament.

Half an hour later, the Delacour family found themselves sitting around on a pair of Conjured couches in the Entry Hall of the Cassis Potter House, where they would wait for Harry to unlock their next location.

Harry was about to enter the Floo again to travel to his largest property back in Britain, which would most likely be the last location that they would visit for today…. There were several much smaller properties that Harry owned all over the world, and in the Peverel case, one much, much larger location, but time constraints and safety made those properties a matter to be tackled another day.

Needless to say, Harry had no intention of putting everyone's lives at risk at the Peverel property merely to satisfy his own curiosity.

No, Harry would visit that location alone, if possible (Fleur was going to make that idea difficult), and he'd stick to normal, non-lethal locations whenever he had company.

Fwooosh... teeter..scramble... spin...roll...clatter... smack...

"Damn."

Once again, Harry almost, almost ended up on his feet after exiting the Floo, after performing a cartwheel, into a roll, but he ended up smacking his knees into a low table and then fell onto his face.

While scrambling back to his feet, Harry once again felt the new awareness of a Ward scheme completing itself inside of his mind, allowing him to confidently walk over to the fireplace and remove a thick brick from the mantel. Inside, Harry found another small chalkboard, upon which he added the same names as before, and then bit the bullet.

Harry shoved his face back inside the fireplace again and quickly said the words, "you can come over now," before immediately retracting his head.

Shaking off the extreme discomfort he just felt, Harry moved away from the fireplace, scanned the rest of the room, and found that the stasis magic in this property had done an excellent job.

This property was spotless and... sterile, to the point it was more like no one had ever lived here rather than it just being clean.

Harry was aware that his parents lived in Godrick's Hollow rather than here, but this property had the air of a mausoleum and he could see that he'd have to change that as soon as possible. Looking around, Harry saw that he was in a very large Entry Hall with several Floo entrances that were stoned up and deactivated. Of course, he could see the sense in that, because back during the wizarding war, any extra Floo entrances would only have been added security hazards. Next, Harry saw that there were like thirty sleeping portraits of what he presumed were Potter family heads and their wives lining the walls of the room. It appeared that Harry was going to meet the last fifteen generations of the Potter family line as soon as these portraits woke up from their suspended animation.

Fwoooosh...

With a nearly silent grace, Fleur walked up behind her husband, at which point it became apparent she'd felt his thoughts about how empty and cold this location felt when she wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and began kissing the side of his neck. "Home is where you are, 'Arry," she whispered up into his ear.

Harry was completely charmed, and he smiled as he turned towards his wife, determined to make the most of their moment of privacy. He swooped in, they kissed, they hugged, they quickly broke apart.

Fwooosh...

Gabrielle launched out of the Floo next, skipping across the room, excited to explore. Then she saw all of the magical portraits and she stopped in her tracks to stare. "Oh wow, there are a lot of generations represented here!"

"I agree, Gabby." Harry smiled at the little girl because she was already doing a lot to make this place seem more like a home rather than a museum. "I also have the Ward scheme in my head and this property is quite a bit larger than the last one that we visited. This is a very, very large estate, and (Harry looked at Fleur) it's on three different ley lines of power, exactly like Hogwarts is."

Fleur smiled because she knew exactly what Harry had in mind with all of that ambient power. He had every intention of building her both a Room of Requirements and a portal of some kind to link the other house. The thought of her Harry doing such incredible feats of magic just for her made her begin to feel very… warm... Then she tore her thoughts back to other matters because now was not the time for that.

Fwooosh...

Appoline waltzed into the room next, at which point she saw that she didn't have any work to do. Bless her heart, she looked a little bit disappointed.

Harry smiled at Appoline because she'd probably been enjoying doing domestic tasks for once, and now she missed the chance. She was a housewife with a servant staff after all, and had probably been very bored before he'd turned her into the CEO of a growing company.

Appoline saw Harry grinning at her, causing her to poke her tongue out at the boy. "I like domestic chores, 'Arry, what can I say?"

Harry nodded and then gestured at the sterile Entry Hall. "I think rather than cleaning and proofing this estate against pests, the problem will be making it feel like a home where people actually live. It feels like the museum of the Potter family long past, and I would have it become more welcoming." Harry looked around the Entry Hall and put a hand to his chin. "Well... I might leave this room the way it is for image's sake and the public access door as well, but the rest..."

Appoline nodded and patted Harry on his shoulder. "I understand, 'Arry. You want to live here, not posture here."

Harry nodded and then grinned. "I told Fleur once that your family was the ideal for the way a magical family can live. You're wealthy and sophisticated without being snobby and officious. You're magical in the extreme, but also aware of and capable of using modern muggle technology. You're happy, gracious and welcoming. I would have my home and family find the same balance."

Appoline was charmed by Harry's very complimentary request for help, so she crushed both Fleur and her mate in a tight hug. "You'll have all the help I can offer, 'Arry, but maintaining the right mindset isn't hard, just don't bring magical society home with you. The attitudes of others can infect you and change your perspective, but only if you let them. You have the strongest Mindscape I've ever seen, 'Arry. I suggest you make a backup of what your aims are for your family, and then make reference to them when times become hard."

Harry snapped his fingers and beamed a smile at his stepmother. "That, Appoline, is an extraordinary idea. I'll be back in about two minutes." Without another word, Harry sat down on the low table and closed his eyes. He was in a meditative state almost immediately.

"Arry's going to make you extraordinarily happy, my daughter," Appoline predicted with a wide and happy smile.

Crouching down next to her husband, Fleur slowly ran a hand along his jaw. "How could he not… He tries so hard. 'Arry is far too strong to be influenced by the politicians and haters of the world, but this is the way that he operates. He isn't capable of risking my happiness in any way, shape or form. He always, always puts in the extra effort."

"Hooohhhhh nelly," Appoline sighed out, while resting a hand atop her eldest daughter's head, and watching her youngest bounce around the room. "We're going to have to hold mass auditions to try to find Gabrielle someone that she'll be truly satisfied with, after all of this. She will inevitably hold them all to 'Arry's standard, and break many, many hearts."

Fleur smiled and nodded her head in agreement. Yes, yes she will. On the bright side, she will have papa and 'Arry actively vetting them. If 'Arry and papa both agree that a boy is worthy, then he sure as hell will be."

Both women began giggling again because the overprotective male alliance was so damned cute.

Fwoooosh...

After stepping out of the Floo and shaking some ash off of a pant leg, Adrien looked around and then nodded his head at what he saw. "It's nice, if not a little austere..."

Appoline smiled at her husband. "Yes it is, and 'Arry has already recruited us to help him transform this museum into a home. I think it'll be fun, and it'll help keep Gabrielle occupied until she can go to school."

"That's an excellent plan, my dear," Adrien replied while smiling back at his wife. "It appears Harry will have these properties as secured as any Gringotts vault anyway, so there will be no safer environment on the face of the planet for our daughter to play."

"My bonded doesn't play around when it comes to protecting his loved ones," Fleur agreed while rising to her full height. "Over at 'Ogwarts, 'Arry teaches our friends how to defend themselves with a level of seriousness that they can feel in their bones, and then he wonders why they look to him for answers rather than Cedric or myself… Not only that, but I've already felt in 'Arry's mind that Gabrielle will be dueling him on a regular basis using his magic by the time she enters Beauxbatons. 'Arry doesn't take risks when it comes to safety or self-defense, because he's led such a dangerous life.

Appoline and Adrien looked stunned at the lengths that Harry would go to, but then a different expression grew across Adrien's face.

"I hate to say this and I do love Harry," Adrien hedged carefully. "But what have we become involved in with him?"

"'Arry does have enemies, so I understand your hesitation," Fleur began with an edge of steel in her voice. "The truth of the matter however, is that we'd all be dead or enslaved without his involvement in our lives, and your anxiety merely means you're underestimating my mate in the extreme. He will do what is required to fortify our homes and armor our bodies… and then, when the time comes, he will crush those that oppose him one - after - another…"

Adrien recoiled because he hadn't meant to imply that they were having second thoughts. He waved his hands in denial until Appoline curled her hands around his.

"Fleur knows you didn't mean anything by what you just said," Appoline assured Adrien, while giving her daughter a meaningful look. "Fleur was just making sure that we understand the truth of our current situation, as well as 'Arry's dedication."

Fleur nodded at her papa before apologizing by way of a hug. Adrien squeezed her a little harder than usual, but other than that, he was outwardly calm.

"Fleur is right, except that none of you owe me anything for intervening during the mercenary attacks," Harry injected into the conversation as he came out of his meditation and rose to his feet. "Furthermore, I owe Adrien an apology because I understand exactly where he's coming from. You three ladies are his main priority, and I may in fact be a threat to your safety..."

Adrien began shaking his head again as he had not meant to sound resentful.

"No," Appoline declared in an all business voice. "'Arry, you are family, and we owe you the devotion accorded by that fact. Adrien is concerned, but that doesn't mean that he regrets your involvement."

"That's right," Adrien quickly added. "I merely wanted to know what we can expect."

Harry smiled as he stretched out his body. "Truth be told, I'm not sure exactly what kind of threats are lying in wait for me, just that they're there. For that reason, you can expect that I'll make our homes harder to find than Atlantis and harder to breach than Gringotts. Appoline has helped me become exceedingly rich, even if I didn't have access to the Potter/Peverel wealth, which I do, and I'm going to use those Galleons to develop some rather amazing Wards for our homes. The wards will be more like a computer program than a traditional Ward scheme, because they'll have rapidly changing permutations that'll beguile anyone trying to unravel them."

"I understand," Fleur breathed out in an absentminded fashion, as she thought back to the three rotating domes that Harry created when he was replicating the CD player… Turning towards her parents, Fleur smiled in an almost evil fashion... "Mama, Papa... The wards that 'Arry is thinking about creating would be… I... I shall try to explain… Multi-layered and shifting every few moments. No one ward would be the same for long enough to even begin unraveling it… Strong... isn't even the right word. Strong like never before seen on Earth, strong. It would require upwards of four full-sized Ward stones for every property, but… worth it, very worth it..."

"The cost of that would be..." Adrien seemed completely stunned.

Stepping up next to Fleur, Harry slid his hand into hers as she leaned against his side. "Adrien... Over the summer, I created both the English and French translation bracelets on a whim, two weeks ago I successfully adapted muggle technology to work in magical settings for the very first time, and earlier today, I thought of a way to adapt the Protean Charm into a jewel to create a means of instantaneous, long ranged, magical communication."

With that much said, Harry smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "I apologize if what I just said sounds extremely arrogant. I just want you to understand. Galleons are never going to be in short supply..."

"I... see..." Adrien slowly breathed out while trying to wrap his head around the kind of wealth that Harry was describing. "I'm glad that the two of you were wise enough to begin your company under pseudonyms. Absurd wealth just makes people a target for attack."

Harry and Appoline immediately nodded in agreement.

"'Arry said as much to me just three weeks ago, papa," Fleur pointed out with a proud smile upon her face. "My 'Arry has no desire for the accolades that his inventions would bring him, so he will never be the public face behind this, or in fact any high earning company."

Adrien nodded and you could see that this had him extremely impressed. "You've taken your own advice…"

"All I desire is a close circle of friends and a happy family," Harry assured with as much sincerity as he could muster. "I have no desire to be a Tony Stark style billionaire."

While Adrien and Appoline looked confused, both Fleur and Gabrielle giggled.

"Comic book superhero called Iron Man," Fleur belatedly explained to her parents. "He's a world famous, philanthropist, billionaire, inventor, and a hit with the ladies." Turning towards 'Arry next, Fleur rested her hands upon her hips. "You would be a cool Tony Stark, 'Arry, but I would surely kill you for all the womanizing."

Belatedly, Fleur's face flushed red, because she was finding many parallels between Harry and Tony Stark and making sexy connections in her mind. She'd fallen in love with a discrete, humble, wizard version of Tony Stark, and the thought made her want to squee in happiness.

Harry shrugged, smiled and waved his arms dismissively. "As you well know, you destroyed my ability to appreciate other women long before we reunited at Hogwarts…"

Fleur nodded happily because yes, yes indeed, she knew exactly how her husband felt. "Your welcome, 'Arry."

By this point, the banter between Harry and Fleur was being recorded by Appoline for a Pensieve memory, and Adrien was smiling at the two of them in obvious approval for perhaps the first time ever.

"I will be in touch with Goblin Silverclaw as soon as we finish the tour of this estate," Harry repeated. "I don't want to wait to begin this project…" Beckoning Gabby over, Harry knelt in front of her with a smile on his face. "When we finish making sure these houses are safe, will you help your mother make them more of a home for us?"

Gabby immediately started jumping up and down in excitement. The house in Cassis was gorgeous and had access to the ocean, and this place was huge! "Of course 'Arry! Up until now I've rarely ever been allowed to leave the manse, and now I have two gigantic areas to explore!"

Everyone smiled as Gabby vibrated with excitement.

Harry turned towards Adrien and Appoline next, adopting a thinker's pose as he glanced aside at Gabrielle. "I can most likely employ the services of another house elf and have him or her follow Gabby around. Both of these estates are large, and if Gabrielle is to enjoy the relative freedom of exploring them, I'd like a discreet pair of eyes making sure she's safe... That way Gabby can have free reign of these properties without any of us having to worry about her having an accident. I know that watching her every move is tough on you Appoline, and a little autonomy might also do her some good." Harry turned towards Gabby next, and gave her a serious look. "That is as long as she's finishing her homework."

"I will, I will," Gabby happily enthused. The level of freedom that Harry was describing was like the best gift ever, wrapped up inside a miracle!

Adrien and Appoline also looked excited at the prospect of keeping their terminally bored youngest both entertained and moving. Adrien turned towards Harry and lifted a hand to his lips. "I like the idea of having a house elf watching out for her, but how would you get one?"

POP

"I could find one or two elves for both master Adrien and Harry, if you desire to take them on," Dobby answered in an excited voice, while somehow maintaining the utmost levels of dignity. "Master Potter is a real folk hero for the house elf community, so there would be plenty of eager applicants."

Adrien smiled at the good news, but he also looked somewhat confused. "Wouldn't any existing House Elf already be bonded to a family?"

"Yes, most active house elves are already bonded to families," Dobby began, while giving everyone a look that conveyed the severity and secretive nature of what he was about to say… "What most wizards don't know about House Elves is that we have children just like any other creature on the planet…"

"House elf… children," Adrien repeated, high level surprise unconcealed in his voice.

"Exactly so," Dobby asserted with a severe little nod of his head. "The child rearing process is quite different for us, as it is much more magical than biological in nature. Case in point, we don't have a gestation period where the baby develops. The baby is brought into being all at once in an extremely magical event. For that reason, Humans don't usually even recognize that they're looking at very young house elves, because with the exception of myself and Winky, we're all born acting and looking exactly as we always will. Most times, our newly born offspring are just Incorporated into our host family's already existing elf staff, but if the household is unkind, many parents decide to send their offspring to kinder families. I can let it be known that Master Harry is taking on a few elves, and within a week at most, we will have a few extremely eager applicants."

"I had no idea," Adrien whispered, shock plain to see upon his face.

"Very few wizards know what I just told you, because we elves keep that information a closely kept secret," Dobby replied, once again conveying the extreme gravity of the secret he was sharing. "If all wizards knew that their elves were procreating, they would demand that they keep all of their children in staff, and the elves would be forced by the nature of their service to obey. The inevitable outcome would be that we would lose our one reliable outlet for our children to be free of unkind masters. Kind wizarding families generally find their elven staff are growing in number over time, and because of an aspect of our magic, they just seem to take that fact for granted. Truly, if you desire to judge a wizarding family's true character, all you need to do is count how many generations of happy house elves they have.

"I understand now," Adrien slowly mused. "Thank you for sharing such precious information. We all promise to keep it to ourselves."

Everyone nodded in unison and Harry smiled at his house elf friend.

"Thank you all," Dobby seriously replied. "I'm empathically connected to at least three of you, and I trust you. I already know you won't spread such sensitive information around."

With that much said, Dobby bowed and then popped away to start spreading the word.

Fleur adopted an aha face and took off the bracelet that connected her to Dobby. "I am now empathically connected to Dobby as a happy byproduct of being bonded with 'Arry," she hedged carefully, as she didn't want to reveal to her parents that in the eyes of magic she was already Mrs. Potter/Peverel. "Mama, would you like to take this bracelet off of my hands? Dobby is beyond amazing and you'll never regret having access to him."

In the moments after Appoline slid the bracelet onto her wrist, the bracelet resized and altered in form until she was cooing in pleasure at it. "Dobby, you sure know how to make a woman happy," Appoline murmured directly towards the bracelet, at which point she began laughing, and Harry assumed that Dobby had empathically said something both dignified and witty.

"Harry... The women of my family are being spoiled rotten because of you," Adrien said with a laugh and a shake of his head. "I will need to scour the entire world for my wife's Christmas present because of you."

Both men laughed.

The Potter estate was large. It was larger than large. The Potter estate was massive, and the property it entailed went on for scores of Kilometers beyond the mansion itself. There were rolling hills of artfully spaced trees, rivers, grass and heather, in every direction, but even cooler in Harry's mind was the fact that the land was an intensely magical environment, which meant it contained many forms of benign magical creatures.

The presence of these magical creatures initially caused Harry to check the Wards, at which point he learned that they were designed to keep out dangerous creatures, while allowing in only the most gentle varieties, and a satisfied smile grew across his face.

To the side of the massive mansion, Harry could see an enormous stable, and he decided immediately that it would be filled with skill appropriate brooms and horses for everyone's enjoyment. Then, as he stared off into the distance, he also decided that he'd build a Quidditch pitch beyond the nearby hill near the roadside boundary.

The sheer scope of the land forced Harry to quadruple the number of Ward stones that he'd need to procure, but he kept that thought to himself, because Adrien was sensitive to such things, and Harry wasn't going to show any restraint whatsoever… By the time he was finished upgrading these Wards, this whole plot of land would be unmappable, unplottable, Invisible, avoidance charmed, notice-me-not charmed, and dammit he was going to figure out how to incorporate a Patronus charm into a ward just because Dementors suck.

A few of the above-mentioned charms were already in place, such as the unmappable and unplottable charms, but Harry intended to increase their strength until the Potter estate was more akin to Atlantis than anywhere in England. He also realized that to create escape tunnels out of the estate's boundary he'd actually need to tunnel down extremely deep into the earth. Still… Considering the nature of his contract workforce (the Goblins) it shouldn't be any problem at all to get an impressive pair of tunnels dug down below the Wards.

An hour later, Harry and the Delacours were all back in the Entry Hall of Potter Estate, and it was time for the Delacours to head back home. Harry told Appoline that he'd hopefully be sending Dobby her way soon with four newly developed communication earrings. That way Appoline could use the extra pair to begin reverse engineering them for mass production.

Harry also assured Adrien that he'd make a clip-on version for his use, as Adrien had no desire to pierce a hole within his earlobe.

Personally, Harry had every intention of piercing his ears, so he wasn't concerned about that in the slightest… aaaand just as soon as he finished that thought, he felt Fleur heating up in the bond.

Truth be told, Harry really was surprised by his wife's intense reaction to the idea, as the woman prided herself on being a very genteel and classy young Lady, but then he picked up on the fact that she loved the idea of being married to the sophisticated and brilliant bad boy type….

With that much figured out, Harry conveyed back through the bond that at some point very soon he would be both pierced and tattooed for her enjoyment… causing Fleur's face to begin turning red in physical reality…

Oh wow… Today was going to be a very long day…

"I'll see you soon little sis," Harry whispered into Gabrielle's ear, when the time came for her to enter the Floo, and she latched herself onto his body.

"Please visit again soon, 'Arry. I promise I'll study," Gabby called out in a voice that was both plaintive and determined, as she hated goodbyes more than anything and always took them extra hard.

Crouching down, Fleur pulled her sister into a tight embrace from behind because she was just sooooo cute sometimes. "We will visit soon, Gabby, we promise. Soon, you will have a communication device in the form of an earring, and you can talk to us all the time. I am laying down a ground rule however that you cannot call us fifty-seven times a day. We are busy training for the tournament and cannot spend all our time chatting with you. Do you understand?"

When Gabby nodded happily at the thought of magical earrings, both Fleur and Harry could see that the young Veela had completely missed the point.

While stepping up to pull her youngest to her feet, Appoline made use of her stellar nonverbal communication skills to convey that she would control Gabby's enthusiasm, causing Harry and Fleur to smile in gratitude. "Have a good afternoon you two," Appoline enthused, as she hugged both of them at exactly the same time. "I can't wait to hear from you both on those earrings."

"We will be present for the first full-sized Task on the twenty-fourth," Adrien added, while shaking Harry's hand. "I don't need to tell you two that being over-prepared is the ideal right now."

"I understand, and 'Arry is all about over-preparing." Fleur assured while kissing her father's cheek.

"Yes... I've noticed that the boy seems incapable of restraint in anything at all," Adrien answered with a knowing smile. "Quidditch, dueling, self defense, warding, learning, training, all of it. 'Arry does everything to an extreme that I've never even seen before..."

"His charcoal drawings are good but not earth shattering," Gabrielle helpfully pointed out.

After a few very long moments of perfect, vacuum sealed silence, it was Harry who started it by barking out a laugh, but immediately after, they were all peeling out in loud, honest to Gods joyful laughter, because, yes, Harry's charcoal drawings were completely mediocre!

"Oh! He's terrible at Flooing," Fleur belatedly pointed out.

"Yes, but extremely so," Appoline pointed out in return. "We are looking for things he's average at, not intensely good or bad at."

"I'm okay but not talented at playing keeper in football (soccer)," Harry explained in a serious voice. "Fleur was making me run around like a headless chicken the whole time we played in the RoR."

"Next time you two visit I want to see a Pensieve memory of that," Adrien demanded, as if he didn't believe him.

They all laughed again.

Over the next few minutes, Adrien, Appoline and Gabrielle, exited the Potter estate through the Floo, allowing Harry and Fleur to melt into each other, enjoying the first moment of real privacy that they'd had since they left her room that morning.

After a while and with a groan of effort, Harry tore his body away from his wife and stepped away to look down at his watch. "I hate to say it, wife, but we have to keep on moving. I'll Apparate us outside and then we'll both Apparate our way back to Hogsmeade for lunch. I want us to be able to return here by Apparating, which means we need to be able to find it physically first."

"It's also a skill that you're only average at, so you want to improve it as quickly as possible," Fleur pointed out with a grin.

"Yes and yes," Harry admitted, while filling Fleur's core to swelling with an overabundance of magic. "Let's get to it."

To Be Continued

Author's Note:

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