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