Categories > Books > Harry Potter > Salvation
Revelations and Betrayals
6 reviewsHarry has a fight in Paris, and discovers some upsetting news.
5Exciting
Well here is the next installment but first, to all those who left reviews, thank you, and a big thanks to those who pointed out glaring errors in my writing and grammar, English was never my best subject, and still being in school, well I’m tired all the time, so sue me (kidding), but seriously, hope this chapter draws good reviews from readers the same as the other chapters did, so here we go.
Disclaimer: As mentioned above, and in every other chapter I have written I have no wish to be sued, so I am legally obligated to say that I do not own the Potter Universe, it would be nice, especially the money, but there you are, nothing to be done now.
Recap from chapter 3
Fleur stayed with him, emitting the tiny portion of her allure and singing until Harry was fast asleep, then she sat there watching him for another minute, wondering how badly damaged his psyche was, if it was salvageable, and what she was going to do to fix it. Immediately a blind rage against the Dursleys surfaced, and she had to restrain herself from apparating to Number 4 and attacking everyone on the premises, burning them to bones with passion fire. ‘What’s going on with me,’ Fleur asked herself ‘Why am I thinking such violent thoughts, I’ve never wanted to kill anyone before, even if they did do wrongs to my friends.”
Confused, and tired, Fleur stood up and headed off for bed, as she lay down; she noticed a black spot on her left ring finger. ‘That’s weird;’ she thought ‘I don’t remember getting that finger dirty today.’ She rubbed at the spot on her finger for a second, and when her she stopped, the spot was gone. Thinking that was that, Fleur laid down and immediately fell asleep, as she slept, she had a dream she had been having for some time of a child running up to her and hugging her, and her hugging him back, then a man who’s name she couldn’t quite place coming up behind her and hugging them both, laughing. She dreamed of this all night long, and in the morning, she remembered the dream not at all.
Cah11 humbly presents
Salvation
Chapter 4: Revelations and Betrayals
The next morning Harry was sitting in Fleur’s basement trying to make the day go by as fast as possible, however he had already exhausted the amusement potential of all the games that were in the basement, and Harry was beginning to grow restless. Thinking that he might spend the day in Paris, Harry quickly dressed in some of Dudley’s old cloths that at least fit ok, and then apparated to Paris.
Appearing in an unoccupied alley, Harry made his way to a main street and looked for a tourist map. Finding one he perused the list of tourist attractions nearby. Deciding to visit the nearby art museum, Harry made his way to the building and entered. Once inside, he lost himself in the masterpieces of art and sculptures. Moving further into the museum, Harry found one piece that he actually could identify by name, the Mono Lisa. He looked with surprise; the painting was much smaller than most pictures made it appear. Looking at the painting itself, Harry noted the small almost half smile that the women in the picture had on her face; as though she knew something no one else did and found it amusing. Moving away Harry spent the next several hours looking at the many priceless paintings until he realized that it was late and he had to be getting back.
As he was leaving the museum he saw a figure with bushy brown hair turn a corner into a back alley behind the museum. ‘Hermione.’ Was Harry’s first thought, ‘But what is she doing here? Maybe her family is vacationing here.’ Moving forward, Harry slipped into the alley and walked down toward another corner. Turning around it he drew his wand in the quick draw that had saved his life many times before aiming it down the alley at.
Nothing.
There was nothing at the end of the alley other then a solid wall 15 feet high and the sides of the two buildings that comprised the alley. Putting his wand away and turning around, puzzled as to where Hermione could have gone Harry had only enough time to jump out of the way as a burst of red light sped at him. ‘Shit’ Harry cursed his own stupidity, ‘of course it’s a trap you dumb-ass, Hermione never said she was coming to France this year.’
Pulling his wand, Harry had just enough time to shield the next three spells that flew at him. He winced at the drop in magical power that each hit cost him. Knowing he had to get on the offensive, he began to cast bludgeoning hexes at random, hoping to catch his attacker in the spray of wand fire. He was rewarded with a smack and a yelp as one of his blind spells found its target and threw them against one of the alley walls. Taking advantage of this Harry quickly stunned the fighter, then walking up; he kicked the person’s wand away, and then conjured ropes that bound the person tightly. After this Harry cast enervate on the person then pushed back the hood of their cloak. He gasped as the head of Nymphadora Tonks was revealed. She blinked her eyes a few times then looked up into Harry’s eyes. Immediately an expression of fear crossed her face before a mask of hatred was hastily erected to conceal her fear.
“Damn you Harry, you’re too powerful, now you have me, what are you going to do? Torture me, imperious me, rape me? What will it be this time?”
Harry was taken back by the look of loathing on Tonks’ face and by the things she thought he would do to her. Deciding that there was no other option he said. “No, I won’t do any of those things, rather I thought I would obliviate you, and then send you back to Dumbledore via portkey. However I will only remove our location from your memory so you can tell my friends at home that any lies Dumbledore is spreading about me are false, but can’t tell Dumbledore where I am.”
Pointing his wand at Tonks who flinched, Harry said, “Obliviate.” Concentrating on what her wanted Tonks to forget, her expression went blank and before she could recover from the memory removal Harry pointed his wand at her coat and said, “Portus.” Her coat glowed blue for a moment then Tonks disappeared with a soft pop caused by a micro explosive recompression where her body had been. Walking out of the alley, Harry checked around to make sure no muggles had witnessed the magic that had taken place and that there were no other order members in the vicinity before apparating back to Fleur’s house.
As he appeared in the kitchen, Fleur walked in the front door, and seeing that Harry’s cloths were dirty, knew something was up. “Harry what happened to you?” Fleur asked. On closer inspection she noticed that he looked tired, as though he had been running, or had expended a lot of magic in a very short period of time. His face also looked haunted, as though he had seen some vile atrocity.
“Nothing, I had a small scrape with Tonks in Paris, that’s all. I modified her memory so she won’t remember where I am and then portkeyed her back to Hogwarts.”
“What do you mean that’s nothing.” Fleur said gasping, “Harry, she could have captured you. If that had happened you would be dead now.”
“It doesn’t matter; I won’t leave this house again unless it is to your family’s house, that should be a safe arrangement.”
Harry turned as if to end the conversation, but Fleur still wanted an answer to the look on Harry’s face. Walking up behind him and placing a hand on his shoulder to prevent him leaving, she asked, “Harry, what else is wrong? You’re so tense, and the emotions I sense coming off you so negative, there must be something else wrong.”
Harry bowed his head and spoke in little more then a whisper. “When I captured Tonks, she immediately thought I was going to torture her, or rape her, or even use unforgivables against her. She actually thought I would hurt her, I saw the fear in her eyes, the fear of what I would do.”
As Harry stood there crying silently, Fleur inwardly cursed Dumbledore and his manipulations, he had played his part well, had tricked Harry’s friends, the only family he had, into thinking he had gone insane, that he would hurt them at the slightest provocation, and that he was the next dark lord who would try to take Britain. Moving in front of Harry, Fleur took one of his arms in her hands and led him into the sitting room. Once there she sat him down on one of the couches and enfolded the young man in a hug as he continued to cry on her shoulder. Soon Harry had exhausted his emotions and looking at Fleur asked. “Am I a bad person? Is what they are saying true? Am I too powerful to let live? All my experiences say that power corrupts people, I don’t feel corrupt, but then again I am probably blind to the corruption itself, maybe I am too dangerous to keep alive. I should hand myself over to Dumbledore and die.”
“No Harry, you shouldn’t!” Said Fleur fiercely. “You are not dark, Dumbledore is dark, everything you have ever done has been for someone else, Dumbledore wants to kill you for personal gain. Even when you committed murder, you did not do it in cold blood, nor for a selfish purpose, you didn’t do it for money, even though Voldemort had a one million galleon bounty on his head. You didn’t do it for power or fame, even though the slayer of Voldemort would be hailed as the savior of the wizarding world, and would wield exceptional political power, you could have had any politician eating out of your hand, and yet you did not do it for the power. You even could have done it simply to avenge the deaths of your parents, but you did it not because of the past, but for the future. You did it so that new generations of witches and wizards could live freely in this world without having to be afraid of their shadows. Your motivations were entirely pure, you have no dark ambition. Don’t believe Dumbledore’s lies, it doesn’t matter what he says, they have no power over you, until you start to believe the lies yourself.”
Harry wiped his eyes, and giving Fleur a watery smile said, “Thank you Fleur, I needed that. Sometimes it just feels like the world is on my shoulders, and that I’m being crushed under the weight. What you said really helped, but I’m not really hungry, I think I’ll turn in for the night.”
Fleur called after him, “Harry, just one question and then I’ll leave you alone.”
“What?”
“Have you never talked to anyone about your problems even your friends?”
Harry looked uncomfortable and said “No, why?”
“Because if you need someone to talk to, listen to, or if you just need a good cry, come and find me, ok.”
Harry gave Fleur and exhausted smile and said “Thanks Fleur that means a lot to me.” Then he headed upstairs.
‘He carries a burden so great, it is amazing it does not overwhelm him.’ Fleur thought. ‘I will help him in any way I can, because he is my friend.’ Again Fleur felt a fierce protectiveness of Harry rise up in her, and the temptation to lash out at those causing Harry pain was almost too hard to resist. Only the knowledge that if she got herself captured or killed, Harry would blame himself held her back. ‘What is happening, why do I feel like this?’ Fleur asked herself, confused and slightly scared. ‘Why am I having all these feelings of retribution all of a sudden, it doesn’t make any sense.’ Thinking it was just stress, Fleur headed upstairs and got ready for bed and soon fell asleep, as she did she didn’t notice the spot of black that had reappeared on her left ring finger, it had grown slightly, begun to expand around the circumference of her finger just the smallest amount, it took the shape of two parallel lines about a quarter inch apart. And as Fleur fell deeper into sleep, it faded away to nothing.
The next day, Harry woke up feeling drained, both magically, and emotionally. Getting up, he showered and dressed in some clothes he had shrunk the night before to fit him better, and walked downstairs. Arriving in the kitchen, he was unsurprised to find a note from Fleur on the counter, she went to work early so she could get more hours in, and was often gone by the time Harry got up. Harry had to read it two or three times to make sure that he had understood it correctly, it read.
Harry,
This morning my mother floo called me and asked me a question, she wanted to know if it was all right for you to come to our family’s ancestral home near Paris to visit with her and my sister Gabrielle. Of course I said it was all right with me, but the real choice is up to you. Whether you decide to or not, floo call my mother before the afternoon to let her know, simply call out Delacour Ancestral Home, Paris, and you will get there.
Fleur
P.S. Watch out for my sister, although she has not yet developed the full allure, there times when it suddenly comes to her at full power and because she is unfamiliar with the methods of containing it, she cannot control it. If you begin to feel any emotional pull from my sister, either let my mother know and she will counteract it, or if you two are alone, get out of the room as fast as you can before you become completely enthralled. Otherwise you may end up doing something you will regret later.
Harry sat back and sighed. He thought he should go visit the Delacour family, if for no other reason then their daughter was risking her safety to hide him at her house. At the same time, he did not want to be in close proximity with a young, untrained veela who could not control her powers, which manifested at random. He had hated the lack of control he had had when the three teenage veela had enthralled him at the club. He had been willing at the time, but had not been in his right mind when they had talked of binding themselves to him. He was sure that Fleur’s sister would not intentionally enthrall him, but if she could not yet control her powers, then he would only have a few seconds to make an escape before the allure had him firmly under its spell if it started to manifest itself.
‘I would be safe enough as long as Mrs. Delacour is always with me.’ Harry thought to himself, ‘It’s not like I have to see Gabrielle alone.’ Deciding he would go visit the Delacours, Harry proceeded to do anything to make the morning pass quickly including clean a little bit, just dusting and taking care of a few dishes. As soon as 11:00 rolled around, Harry went to the fireplace and throwing in a pinch of floo powder yelled “Delacour Ancestral Home, Paris.” Immediately Harry began to spin very fast, ‘There has got to be a better way to travel long distances.’ Harry thought rather queasily.
Stepping out of the fireplace Harry saw a regal looking women walk into the room; she was around Fleur’s height, and of similar build with the long silver hair associated with those who had veela blood. She strode forward with a welcoming smile on her face and said, “Hello Harry, welcome to our home, you may call me Aponline, or Mrs. Delacour if that makes you feel uncomfortable.”
“Thanks Mrs. Delacour, wow your family has a big house, isn’t there only your husband, yourself, and your daughter living here?”
“You’re wondering why we need such a big house for only three people yes? Well, during what you know as the World War 2, it was not only Jews that were persecuted by the fascists, they also killed many magical creatures in their attempt to create the “pure race”. When the Germans conquered France, many veela families realized the danger to themselves and knowing that the Delacours were an old wizarding family, they asked for asylum, not unlike what you did with Fleur.” Mrs. Delacour smiled at Harry and then continued, “The house at the time was a much more modest size than it is now, and not all the families seeking shelter could fit in comfortably, so the Delacour family was forced to expand. I was only a little girl back in the 1940’s and so I don’t remember much of it, but I remember my parents being very frightened at the time about what was happening. The French government had just crumbled, becoming a shadow of what it once was, and the French army was fleeing to the south, leaving us people in the north unprotected.”
“I have another question,” Harry said, “I have seen veela transform before, and I have seen the power they have in an offensive and defensive capacity, why did the veela not try to engage the Germans during the war, not to sound rude, but surly one veela would be worth a whole squad of German soldiers.” Harry was recalling one of his engagements in Britain where he had fought half a dozen Death Eaters, and then had to contend with a rogue veela that had turned dark. The sheer power of the veela had nearly overwhelmed Harry as he had had to dodge balls of passion fire the size of bowling balls; sidestep the claws and wings of the avian-like creature, and try to keep his mind on the fight while being distracted by the veela’s allure. In the end he had been forced to resort to what many people considered the dark arts and used two spells, one that drained physical strength, and a powerful sectumsempra to finally end the fight. The sectumsempra and completely removed the veela’s left arm/wing and she was now lying in a pool of her own blood. Walking up to her, he had offered to heal the wound enough to stop the bleeding and then transport her to St. Mungos for treatment. She had only smiled sadly and said, “No, you have beaten me, you have finally done what many witches and wizards have failed to do, now that I am no longer whole, there is no reason to keep going, may you live long and have good fortune.” With that, the veela suddenly burst into flames much like a phoenix, but left nothing behind but ashes.
“One reason that we veela did not attempt to engage the Germans directly is that we would be in direct violation of the statute of secrecy, and even though it may not seem as though it would be a big deal to you, it was still a big deal to the French Ministry. Also, the German leader, Hitler had somehow developed a potion that made his soldiers immune to the effects of the allure, which removed one of our principle weapons for self defense. Hitler did not even need to break the statute of secrecy to administer the potion; he just had to add it to the list of vaccines that the German soldiers needed to take claiming it prevented certain diseases found here in France. So you see we were at an extreme disadvantage not least because the Germans had us out numbered six to one.”
“Oh,” Was Harry’s only reply. He had to admit, the fight he had with the rogue veela would have been much less difficult if it weren’t for the veela’s allure, he could see why the veela held back during the war.
“However, I did not ask to see you to bore you with our history, I asked you here to find out what you are doing about the situation in Britain.”
“Well Mrs. Delacour, mostly I’m just hiding right now, I don’t really know what to do next though.”
“If I may ask, have you heard anything about your godfathers will yet? It may be that Sirius left you something.”
“I have not heard anything about his will, and I have been wondering about that, I figured they would contact me if Sirius left me something, and I was sure he would, but I have not received any post from Gringotts, or the Ministry on the subject yet.”
“Well Harry it may be that you are actually the primary beneficiary, and that Dumbledore somehow went in your stead to accept the inheritance.”
Harry’s face instantly clouded with anger. “If he has circumvented the legal system on this matter I will kill him, maybe not today, maybe not a year from now, but one day I will repay him in full for the danger he put me in, and the position he put Sirius in.”
Mrs. Delacour was not shocked at this pronouncement; she actually agreed whole heartedly, at the height of her culture’s power, a veela would have killed another for a lesser offence than circumventing the will of one who had passed on.
“Thank you for informing me of this possibility Mrs. Delacour.” Harry said much more calmly, “I shall be writing to Gringotts to discover if the will was circumvented by Dumbledore.”
Suddenly a female voice rang out from the hall in French, “Mama, who are you talking to?” A girl about 13 years old walked into the room, Gabrielle Delacour looked like her sister in miniature, long silver hair, perfect hourglass figure, and what was turning into a great body. Upon seeing Harry, she immediately blushed and in a quieter voice said, “Sorry Mama, I did not know you were talking to anyone important.”
“No matter Gabrielle, you did not interrupt anything too important.” Mrs. Delacour replied “In fact Harry was just leaving to attend to some business.”
Standing up and thanking Mrs. Delacour profusely, Harry began to walk to the floo. On his way pasted he smiled at Gabrielle and gave her a nod of the head in goodbye, this caused the girl to blush even deeper, and suddenly Harry began to feel a physical attraction toward her that he had not had a moment ago. As quickly as the moment came, it passed and left Harry very confused in its wake.
“What happened?” Harry asked.
Mrs. Delacour walked up to her daughter and placing her hand on her shoulders saying, “I’m sorry Harry, apparently your actions were stimulating enough to my daughter in her adolescent stage to bring about a surge in her allure. I am blocking it right now with my allure, but you really should leave. Do not take offence, I am not mad at you, but given your experiences with our race, it would probably be best if you did not visit our home again until Gabrielle finishes learning how to control her allure.”
“Sorry Harry,” Gabrielle said sounding desperate, “I did not try to enthrall you, I just got too embarrassed.”
“It’s all right Gabrielle, you can’t control your powers yet, I understand. Have a good rest of the day.” And blushing slightly from the thoughts he had entertained while under Gabrielle’s influence, he quickly flooed back to Fleur’s house. Once there he wrote out a letter to the manager at the London Gringotts branch asking to set up an appointment with him at his earliest convenience at the French Gringotts branch.
That done there was nothing to do for the rest of the day but sit back and wait for the reply.
The next day Harry received a letter from Gringotts, it read,
Mr. Potter,
We wish to enquire as to why you have written to us about the will of one Sirius Black. The will of the deceased was read and enacted nearly two weeks ago, we sent a letter asking you to attend as you were the primary beneficiary, however we received a letter back saying that you could not attend and you wished Headmaster Dumbledore to be there as your representative. If you wish to discuss your inheritance, I will meet with you tomorrow at 10:00, this letter is a portkey that will transport you to the lobby of the French Gringotts Branch where I will have some very pointed for you about some allegations made by Headmaster Dumbledore.
Slipknife
Harry was incensed, not only had Dumbledore screened his mail, but he had also passed himself off as Harry’s representative to stop him from receiving his inheritance. He was so mad that he did not do anything else for the rest of the day and when Fleur got home she immediately ran into the room where Harry was, following the feelings of anger that were so great she was sure that Harry was either in a fight with Dumbledore, or received bad news and was about to blow.
As Fleur ran into the room, she winced feeling the sheer magical power coming off Harry. She didn’t see Harry fighting anyone, so she assumed he had received some upsetting news.
“Harry, what’s up?” Fleur asked.
“I received news today that Dumbledore has once again under cut me Fleur, he screened my mail, forged a letter to Gringotts, and passed himself off as my representative to receive my inheritance from Sirius, then failed to alert me to the fact that his will had even been read.”
As the explanation came out Harry’s magic began to build up to the point where Fleur was genuinely scared he would hurt her or himself by mistake, knowing she had to do something quick to defuse the time bomb that was Harry Potter, she released her veela allure at full power. She was amazed when Harry did not go slack and start staring at her like a love struck moron, instead he continued to rant at Fleur, for all the world as though she wasn’t projecting an un-blockable attraction that caused even the most strong willed male to stare at her as if she were the first girl they had ever seen. The worst part was that not only was he not calming down, but his magical power was still building. All the objects in the room not bolted to the floor were levitating and flying around the room as if there was a hurricane in the room, the only difference was there was no wind. Knowing she had to distract Harry before he hurt himself, (she now knew that he would not accidentally hurt her as several objects in the room that had been flying at her had suddenly changed course and missed her by a wide margin), she could have thrown a few balls of passion fire at him, but she did not want to try attacking him when he was in this sort of mood. Moving forward she ran up to Harry who resembled a weird model of the solar system, (it even had a very accurate representation of the asteroid belt), wrapped an arm around his shoulder, pulled him so she was facing him and kissed him.
Harry was so surprised by the kiss that he immediately froze, and all the objects circling in the air dropped to the ground. Immediately Fleur felt a sense of rightness about kissing Harry, as he had been distracted by the kiss itself Harry began to feel the effects of the allure and was now responding to her kiss very affectionately. Deciding that he was sufficiently calmed down Fleur decided to draw the allure back under control, but a voice in the back of her head resisted the idea saying ‘this feels too good, lets kiss for a while longer.’ However the more logical part of her brain won the internal debate and she very reluctantly drew the allure back in. As soon as she had, she brushed her lips against Harry’s one more time, then smiling at Harry she asked, “Better?”
Harry merely stood there looking stunned for a few seconds before blinking a few times and saying “Actually yea, I feel much calmer, thanks.” Taking a deep breath, Harry said “Fleur, I apologize for my behavior, I did not mean to wreck you room, or to lay my problems on you unnecessarily. The reason that I was so mad was that Dumbledore has circumvented my godfathers will and kept me from my inheritance. Tomorrow I am going to meet Slipknife at the French Gringotts Branch to talk about the will and Dumbledore.”
Fleur went pale and said “I assume that Slipknife said he would have questions for you as to some accusations from Dumbledore.”
“Yes actually, how did you know?”
Fleur reached into the pocket of her robes and pulled out a newspaper before handing it to Harry she said “Harry I have to warn you, there’s some pretty horrible stuff said about you in there, if you don’t want to know the full story I can give you the edited version.”
“I want to know everything, don’t worry, whatever Dumbledore has to say in this can’t be as bad as what the Ministry printed about me two years ago.”
Fleur handed Harry the paper, but it wasn’t the reaction to Dumbledore’s statement she feared, it was his reaction toward his friends statements that had caused her to pause.
The headline of the paper blared-
Defeat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named Overshadowed by the Birth of a new Dark Lord!
Less then two weeks ago, the Dark Lord He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was heroically defeated after a 3 hour long duel by the Leader of the Light Albus Dumbledore. The battle of good against evil was witnessed by Auror Tonks, Retired Auror Moody, and Dumbledore’s good friend Mundungus Fletcher. They told the story of how they apparated to the stronghold of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and were immediately engaged by no less than 150 of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s best Death Eaters. After incapacitating the lot, the four proceeded into the main thrown room where the two aurors and Fletcher engaged He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s inner circle, while Dumbledore bravely took on He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named by himself. “I knew no one else was powerful enough to beat him.” Dumbledore said sagely, “Rather than risk more deaths I decided to take him on myself.”
After killing He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Dumbledore says he had planned to apparate straight to the Ministry to inform the world of the good news; unfortunately at this point everything went wrong. It appears that Harry Potter, the supposed “Chosen One” snuck out of his place of safety and apparated illegally to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s, stronghold to try to take on He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named by himself, a move that would have ended in his death. However, when he got there and saw Dumbledore about to leave he suddenly yelled out “Dumbledore, he was mine; I thought we had agreed on that old man, he was mine.” And he then started to try to curse the four some before they could escape.
“Me Mad-Eye, and Mundugus tried to hold him off, but he was too powerful.” Auror Tonks said, nearly in tears, “I used to be a good friend of Harry’s, but now he has gone dark, I don’t want to have to kill him, but to uphold my oath as an auror if I ever see him again, I must.” “Several of the spells he used were quite dark” Moody commented last night during our interview, “I’m still wondering where he found the incantations for half the spells he used, there where even a few I had never heard of, but were obviously dark in intent.” There are of course many dark spells that are obscure and not well known by general wizarding public simply because they serve no other purpose than to cause pain or destruction, but as Retired Auror Moody was in service to the Ministry for nearly 40 years we thought he had seen it all. Apparently Potter has found a few nasty spells that are either so dark in nature that not even He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named used them they were so heinous, or so obscure that they have not been seen in many years. In either case, after Potter disabled Dumbledore’s three friends, he attacked Dumbledore himself. This proved to be too much for both of them, for although Dumbledore managed to drive him off (no mean feat after having dueled He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named for 3 hours) Potter managed to get in the last shot before apparating away and used a spell of unknown nature to shatter both of Dumbledore’s kneecaps, and caused them to be irreparable by magic.
Dumbledore had, with his last strength, revived his three friends then collapsed into unconsciousness. His friends had immediately taken him to St. Mungos where they treated him as best as they could, however he is still in the intensive care ward and is unable to walk, a source within the St. Mungos staff privately commented that unless Potter could be found to lift the spell on Dumbledore’s leg, it would be quite possible that Dumbledore will never walk again.
The public is of course warned that the fugitive Potter is now wanted by the Ministry for attempted murder, and assault on an auror. If you should see Mr. Potter do not attempt to apprehend him, he is armed not only with magic but also barbaric muggle weapons called fire-arms, also known by the slang term “guns” which do not look dangerous at first glance, but have the ability to kill you just as fast as the killing curse. If you see Potter please contact the Auror Office at once.
For the reaction from Potter’s friends Ron and Hermione turn to page 2
For the reaction from Potter’s ex-girlfriend Ginny turn to page 3
Harry immediately turned to page 2, Fleur could tell that what he read there did not improve his mood, by the time he had finished the story he was so breathing so hard Fleur was afraid he would hyperventilate.
“Those basturds!” Harry yelled, “I stood with them all those years, and this is how they repay me, by believing everything Dumbledore said and even calling for me to turn myself in, ‘It’s for your own good Harry,’ ‘Please Harry turn yourself in, maybe we can help you.’ Bullshit.” Fleur flinched at the venom behind the curse. He flipped to the next page and then an interesting thing happened. All the color in Harry’s face drained away and his breathing got slower, at first Fleur thought it was because he was calming down, but his face continued to get paler and paler, and his breathing got slower and slower, until Fleur was worried that he would stop breathing now rather than breath too fast. The paper slipped from Harry’s nerveless fingers to the floor, but he continued to stare at the place it had been. Fleur saw his face and was immediately alarmed, his expression was completely blank. There was no emotion in his eyes at all, it was as if his mind had simply shutdown.
“Harry?” Fleur asked hesitantly, “Are you all right?”
Harry nodded dumbly and said, “I’m going to bed, night.” Then left the room.
Fleur followed discreetly after him and saw him enter his room. ‘I’ll leave him alone a while’ Fleur thought, ‘so he can get himself under control.’ Walking downstairs she began to prepare a sandwich for supper, but as she did so a feeling of unease began to grow within her that there was something wrong with Harry. ‘It’s alright,’ she told herself ‘He just needs a little time to himself to get this figured out.’ She knew what had upset Harry so badly on page 3, it was Ginny Weasley’s statement saying that she would not be affiliated with a “dark lord” and that she would only accept him back if he turned himself in for questioning and was found to not have done anything too “dark”.
As Fleur sat down she suddenly felt a pain on her left wrist that caused her to gasp, the felt another pain on her right wrist. Immediately she felt weak and dizzy, and the feeling that Harry was in danger increased to a point that could not be ignored. Fleur stood up and ran to Harry’s room, throwing open the door she screamed at the sight of Harry kneeling in a pool of his own blood, which was gushing from several slash wounds in his wrists.
Harry was sobbing as he said, “She wants me dead, fine I’ll die.”
Running into the room, Fleur pulled out her wand and grabbing Harry’s arms began to cast healing charms on Harry’s wrists. She gasped when nothing happened and Harry laughed hysterically saying, “You can’t fix dark magic with common healing magic, sorry Fleur but I thought you might try that, don’t worry I don’t blame you. But without Ginny I don’t want to live, goodbye.”
All this time Harry had been getting weaker and weaker as the blood drained from his wrists. Fleur knew there was nothing she could do; you couldn’t heal cuts due to sectumsempra without serious knowledge of healing spells which were completely out of her skill level. By now Harry was unconscious due to blood lose and Fleur knew that he was going to die unless she did something. She quickly ran into the bathroom and grabbed some towels that she pressed into Harry’s wrists, sticking them tightly with magic to stop the blood flow. Then she ran to the fire and hurriedly throwing floo powder in the flames, stuck her head in, and called out Delacour Ancestral Home. As soon as her head stopped spinning she immediately called out in her loudest voice, “Mama, Papa, is either of you home? I have an emergency concerning Harry.”
Mr. Delacour came running around the corner 30 seconds later, and out of breath said, “What is it? What is the matter?”
“Harry’s hurt himself badly Papa, he saw the article in that English newspaper that Dumbledore and his friends wrote, and it hurt him very badly, just minutes ago he used powerful dark magic to slit his own wrists, please Papa, you must help him, there isn’t anything I can do, I don’t know the counter curse.”
Mr. Delacour swore and said “I thought he might react badly to those articles, but I didn’t think he would attempt suicide, quick, go back and I will come through to try to save him.”
Fleur pulled her head out of the fire and then waited another 3 seconds while Mr. Delacour came literally running out of her fireplace and charged upstairs to Harry’s room yelling, “Call St. Marys, tell them that they will be receiving a attempted suicide victim with magical injuries.”
Fleur stuck her head back in the fire and called out “St. Marys Hospital.” Before the spinning had even stopped she was yelling for an emergency healer, somehow she could feel this whole time that Harry was getting weaker, that her binding the towels to his wrists had helped a little, but that he was still losing too much blood. Now that her father was with him she began to feel some relief on her own wrists which had stung and smarted ever since Harry had cut himself.
A healer came to the fireplace looking quite alarmed saying. “What is all the racket for? What is wrong?”
“A friend of mine has just attempted to commit suicide, he slit his wrists with magic and I couldn’t heal him, my father is with him now doing everything he can, but my friend is still dying, please you must come help him.”
The healer paled and said, “Get out of the way; I must see the patient immediately.”
Fleur pulled her head out of the flames and quickly moved out from in front of the fireplace as the healer came charging out of the floo. The healer ran upstairs following the curses from Fleur’s father, Fleur ran after her.
Both of them charged into the room, the healer took one look at Harry and then pushed Mr. Delacour out of the way. Kneeling next to Harry she began to cast spell after spell on Harry’s wrists, which were still slowly seeping blood, at the same time she reached into her coat and pulled out a vile of potion that she poured into Harry’s mouth, at Fleur’s questioning look she said, “Blood replenishing potion, now if you don’t mind you and your father should leave the room so that I can work and so the other healers that are coming can get in the room and help me.
Fleur and Mr. Delacour left rather promptly, standing outside the room Fleur began to shake both with fear for Harry’s life, and rage at his friends for doing this to him. ‘They knew how much they meant to him, they knew the lengths he would go to for them, and they betrayed him all the same. I will make sure they will pay if it is the last thing I do.’
A short while later, Fleur saw three other healers running toward them, they backed away to give them room. A few minutes after they ran in they came back out with Harry levitated between two of the healers who were still casting spell after spell on the unconscious young man, they quickly maneuvered Harry to the floo and transported him to the hospital in a flash of flames.
The emergency healer that Fleur had contacted in the first place walked up to the Delacours and answered their unspoken plea for information with, “He will live, but barely. That boy lost nearly a pint and half of blood; it’s amazing we managed to avoid brain damage. Mr. Delacour consider yourself a savior, if you had not done whatever it is you did to help the boy, he would have been permanently damaged.”
“Thank you for everything Mrs…”
“Cowan.”
“Thank you Mrs. Cowan, that boy owes you his life; you have helped France and the world a lot more than even you know.”
With that the healer excused herself to go back to the hospital and the Delacours went up to Harry’s room to clean it up. As she was cleaning up the blood, Fleur noticed that the black mark on her finger had elongated to cover nearly half the circumference of her finger; it appeared to be two parallel lines a quarter inch apart with runes inside the lines. She stared at the markings for a second then turned to her father and asked, “Dad, what is this on my finger?”
Hope you people liked the chapter, this one is out a little late because life and compatibility issues conspired to keep this update from the internet, (author gives fate the middle finger), fortunately I was eventually successful in my efforts to upload this installment.
Until next time
Cah11
Disclaimer: As mentioned above, and in every other chapter I have written I have no wish to be sued, so I am legally obligated to say that I do not own the Potter Universe, it would be nice, especially the money, but there you are, nothing to be done now.
Recap from chapter 3
Fleur stayed with him, emitting the tiny portion of her allure and singing until Harry was fast asleep, then she sat there watching him for another minute, wondering how badly damaged his psyche was, if it was salvageable, and what she was going to do to fix it. Immediately a blind rage against the Dursleys surfaced, and she had to restrain herself from apparating to Number 4 and attacking everyone on the premises, burning them to bones with passion fire. ‘What’s going on with me,’ Fleur asked herself ‘Why am I thinking such violent thoughts, I’ve never wanted to kill anyone before, even if they did do wrongs to my friends.”
Confused, and tired, Fleur stood up and headed off for bed, as she lay down; she noticed a black spot on her left ring finger. ‘That’s weird;’ she thought ‘I don’t remember getting that finger dirty today.’ She rubbed at the spot on her finger for a second, and when her she stopped, the spot was gone. Thinking that was that, Fleur laid down and immediately fell asleep, as she slept, she had a dream she had been having for some time of a child running up to her and hugging her, and her hugging him back, then a man who’s name she couldn’t quite place coming up behind her and hugging them both, laughing. She dreamed of this all night long, and in the morning, she remembered the dream not at all.
Cah11 humbly presents
Salvation
Chapter 4: Revelations and Betrayals
The next morning Harry was sitting in Fleur’s basement trying to make the day go by as fast as possible, however he had already exhausted the amusement potential of all the games that were in the basement, and Harry was beginning to grow restless. Thinking that he might spend the day in Paris, Harry quickly dressed in some of Dudley’s old cloths that at least fit ok, and then apparated to Paris.
Appearing in an unoccupied alley, Harry made his way to a main street and looked for a tourist map. Finding one he perused the list of tourist attractions nearby. Deciding to visit the nearby art museum, Harry made his way to the building and entered. Once inside, he lost himself in the masterpieces of art and sculptures. Moving further into the museum, Harry found one piece that he actually could identify by name, the Mono Lisa. He looked with surprise; the painting was much smaller than most pictures made it appear. Looking at the painting itself, Harry noted the small almost half smile that the women in the picture had on her face; as though she knew something no one else did and found it amusing. Moving away Harry spent the next several hours looking at the many priceless paintings until he realized that it was late and he had to be getting back.
As he was leaving the museum he saw a figure with bushy brown hair turn a corner into a back alley behind the museum. ‘Hermione.’ Was Harry’s first thought, ‘But what is she doing here? Maybe her family is vacationing here.’ Moving forward, Harry slipped into the alley and walked down toward another corner. Turning around it he drew his wand in the quick draw that had saved his life many times before aiming it down the alley at.
Nothing.
There was nothing at the end of the alley other then a solid wall 15 feet high and the sides of the two buildings that comprised the alley. Putting his wand away and turning around, puzzled as to where Hermione could have gone Harry had only enough time to jump out of the way as a burst of red light sped at him. ‘Shit’ Harry cursed his own stupidity, ‘of course it’s a trap you dumb-ass, Hermione never said she was coming to France this year.’
Pulling his wand, Harry had just enough time to shield the next three spells that flew at him. He winced at the drop in magical power that each hit cost him. Knowing he had to get on the offensive, he began to cast bludgeoning hexes at random, hoping to catch his attacker in the spray of wand fire. He was rewarded with a smack and a yelp as one of his blind spells found its target and threw them against one of the alley walls. Taking advantage of this Harry quickly stunned the fighter, then walking up; he kicked the person’s wand away, and then conjured ropes that bound the person tightly. After this Harry cast enervate on the person then pushed back the hood of their cloak. He gasped as the head of Nymphadora Tonks was revealed. She blinked her eyes a few times then looked up into Harry’s eyes. Immediately an expression of fear crossed her face before a mask of hatred was hastily erected to conceal her fear.
“Damn you Harry, you’re too powerful, now you have me, what are you going to do? Torture me, imperious me, rape me? What will it be this time?”
Harry was taken back by the look of loathing on Tonks’ face and by the things she thought he would do to her. Deciding that there was no other option he said. “No, I won’t do any of those things, rather I thought I would obliviate you, and then send you back to Dumbledore via portkey. However I will only remove our location from your memory so you can tell my friends at home that any lies Dumbledore is spreading about me are false, but can’t tell Dumbledore where I am.”
Pointing his wand at Tonks who flinched, Harry said, “Obliviate.” Concentrating on what her wanted Tonks to forget, her expression went blank and before she could recover from the memory removal Harry pointed his wand at her coat and said, “Portus.” Her coat glowed blue for a moment then Tonks disappeared with a soft pop caused by a micro explosive recompression where her body had been. Walking out of the alley, Harry checked around to make sure no muggles had witnessed the magic that had taken place and that there were no other order members in the vicinity before apparating back to Fleur’s house.
As he appeared in the kitchen, Fleur walked in the front door, and seeing that Harry’s cloths were dirty, knew something was up. “Harry what happened to you?” Fleur asked. On closer inspection she noticed that he looked tired, as though he had been running, or had expended a lot of magic in a very short period of time. His face also looked haunted, as though he had seen some vile atrocity.
“Nothing, I had a small scrape with Tonks in Paris, that’s all. I modified her memory so she won’t remember where I am and then portkeyed her back to Hogwarts.”
“What do you mean that’s nothing.” Fleur said gasping, “Harry, she could have captured you. If that had happened you would be dead now.”
“It doesn’t matter; I won’t leave this house again unless it is to your family’s house, that should be a safe arrangement.”
Harry turned as if to end the conversation, but Fleur still wanted an answer to the look on Harry’s face. Walking up behind him and placing a hand on his shoulder to prevent him leaving, she asked, “Harry, what else is wrong? You’re so tense, and the emotions I sense coming off you so negative, there must be something else wrong.”
Harry bowed his head and spoke in little more then a whisper. “When I captured Tonks, she immediately thought I was going to torture her, or rape her, or even use unforgivables against her. She actually thought I would hurt her, I saw the fear in her eyes, the fear of what I would do.”
As Harry stood there crying silently, Fleur inwardly cursed Dumbledore and his manipulations, he had played his part well, had tricked Harry’s friends, the only family he had, into thinking he had gone insane, that he would hurt them at the slightest provocation, and that he was the next dark lord who would try to take Britain. Moving in front of Harry, Fleur took one of his arms in her hands and led him into the sitting room. Once there she sat him down on one of the couches and enfolded the young man in a hug as he continued to cry on her shoulder. Soon Harry had exhausted his emotions and looking at Fleur asked. “Am I a bad person? Is what they are saying true? Am I too powerful to let live? All my experiences say that power corrupts people, I don’t feel corrupt, but then again I am probably blind to the corruption itself, maybe I am too dangerous to keep alive. I should hand myself over to Dumbledore and die.”
“No Harry, you shouldn’t!” Said Fleur fiercely. “You are not dark, Dumbledore is dark, everything you have ever done has been for someone else, Dumbledore wants to kill you for personal gain. Even when you committed murder, you did not do it in cold blood, nor for a selfish purpose, you didn’t do it for money, even though Voldemort had a one million galleon bounty on his head. You didn’t do it for power or fame, even though the slayer of Voldemort would be hailed as the savior of the wizarding world, and would wield exceptional political power, you could have had any politician eating out of your hand, and yet you did not do it for the power. You even could have done it simply to avenge the deaths of your parents, but you did it not because of the past, but for the future. You did it so that new generations of witches and wizards could live freely in this world without having to be afraid of their shadows. Your motivations were entirely pure, you have no dark ambition. Don’t believe Dumbledore’s lies, it doesn’t matter what he says, they have no power over you, until you start to believe the lies yourself.”
Harry wiped his eyes, and giving Fleur a watery smile said, “Thank you Fleur, I needed that. Sometimes it just feels like the world is on my shoulders, and that I’m being crushed under the weight. What you said really helped, but I’m not really hungry, I think I’ll turn in for the night.”
Fleur called after him, “Harry, just one question and then I’ll leave you alone.”
“What?”
“Have you never talked to anyone about your problems even your friends?”
Harry looked uncomfortable and said “No, why?”
“Because if you need someone to talk to, listen to, or if you just need a good cry, come and find me, ok.”
Harry gave Fleur and exhausted smile and said “Thanks Fleur that means a lot to me.” Then he headed upstairs.
‘He carries a burden so great, it is amazing it does not overwhelm him.’ Fleur thought. ‘I will help him in any way I can, because he is my friend.’ Again Fleur felt a fierce protectiveness of Harry rise up in her, and the temptation to lash out at those causing Harry pain was almost too hard to resist. Only the knowledge that if she got herself captured or killed, Harry would blame himself held her back. ‘What is happening, why do I feel like this?’ Fleur asked herself, confused and slightly scared. ‘Why am I having all these feelings of retribution all of a sudden, it doesn’t make any sense.’ Thinking it was just stress, Fleur headed upstairs and got ready for bed and soon fell asleep, as she did she didn’t notice the spot of black that had reappeared on her left ring finger, it had grown slightly, begun to expand around the circumference of her finger just the smallest amount, it took the shape of two parallel lines about a quarter inch apart. And as Fleur fell deeper into sleep, it faded away to nothing.
The next day, Harry woke up feeling drained, both magically, and emotionally. Getting up, he showered and dressed in some clothes he had shrunk the night before to fit him better, and walked downstairs. Arriving in the kitchen, he was unsurprised to find a note from Fleur on the counter, she went to work early so she could get more hours in, and was often gone by the time Harry got up. Harry had to read it two or three times to make sure that he had understood it correctly, it read.
Harry,
This morning my mother floo called me and asked me a question, she wanted to know if it was all right for you to come to our family’s ancestral home near Paris to visit with her and my sister Gabrielle. Of course I said it was all right with me, but the real choice is up to you. Whether you decide to or not, floo call my mother before the afternoon to let her know, simply call out Delacour Ancestral Home, Paris, and you will get there.
Fleur
P.S. Watch out for my sister, although she has not yet developed the full allure, there times when it suddenly comes to her at full power and because she is unfamiliar with the methods of containing it, she cannot control it. If you begin to feel any emotional pull from my sister, either let my mother know and she will counteract it, or if you two are alone, get out of the room as fast as you can before you become completely enthralled. Otherwise you may end up doing something you will regret later.
Harry sat back and sighed. He thought he should go visit the Delacour family, if for no other reason then their daughter was risking her safety to hide him at her house. At the same time, he did not want to be in close proximity with a young, untrained veela who could not control her powers, which manifested at random. He had hated the lack of control he had had when the three teenage veela had enthralled him at the club. He had been willing at the time, but had not been in his right mind when they had talked of binding themselves to him. He was sure that Fleur’s sister would not intentionally enthrall him, but if she could not yet control her powers, then he would only have a few seconds to make an escape before the allure had him firmly under its spell if it started to manifest itself.
‘I would be safe enough as long as Mrs. Delacour is always with me.’ Harry thought to himself, ‘It’s not like I have to see Gabrielle alone.’ Deciding he would go visit the Delacours, Harry proceeded to do anything to make the morning pass quickly including clean a little bit, just dusting and taking care of a few dishes. As soon as 11:00 rolled around, Harry went to the fireplace and throwing in a pinch of floo powder yelled “Delacour Ancestral Home, Paris.” Immediately Harry began to spin very fast, ‘There has got to be a better way to travel long distances.’ Harry thought rather queasily.
Stepping out of the fireplace Harry saw a regal looking women walk into the room; she was around Fleur’s height, and of similar build with the long silver hair associated with those who had veela blood. She strode forward with a welcoming smile on her face and said, “Hello Harry, welcome to our home, you may call me Aponline, or Mrs. Delacour if that makes you feel uncomfortable.”
“Thanks Mrs. Delacour, wow your family has a big house, isn’t there only your husband, yourself, and your daughter living here?”
“You’re wondering why we need such a big house for only three people yes? Well, during what you know as the World War 2, it was not only Jews that were persecuted by the fascists, they also killed many magical creatures in their attempt to create the “pure race”. When the Germans conquered France, many veela families realized the danger to themselves and knowing that the Delacours were an old wizarding family, they asked for asylum, not unlike what you did with Fleur.” Mrs. Delacour smiled at Harry and then continued, “The house at the time was a much more modest size than it is now, and not all the families seeking shelter could fit in comfortably, so the Delacour family was forced to expand. I was only a little girl back in the 1940’s and so I don’t remember much of it, but I remember my parents being very frightened at the time about what was happening. The French government had just crumbled, becoming a shadow of what it once was, and the French army was fleeing to the south, leaving us people in the north unprotected.”
“I have another question,” Harry said, “I have seen veela transform before, and I have seen the power they have in an offensive and defensive capacity, why did the veela not try to engage the Germans during the war, not to sound rude, but surly one veela would be worth a whole squad of German soldiers.” Harry was recalling one of his engagements in Britain where he had fought half a dozen Death Eaters, and then had to contend with a rogue veela that had turned dark. The sheer power of the veela had nearly overwhelmed Harry as he had had to dodge balls of passion fire the size of bowling balls; sidestep the claws and wings of the avian-like creature, and try to keep his mind on the fight while being distracted by the veela’s allure. In the end he had been forced to resort to what many people considered the dark arts and used two spells, one that drained physical strength, and a powerful sectumsempra to finally end the fight. The sectumsempra and completely removed the veela’s left arm/wing and she was now lying in a pool of her own blood. Walking up to her, he had offered to heal the wound enough to stop the bleeding and then transport her to St. Mungos for treatment. She had only smiled sadly and said, “No, you have beaten me, you have finally done what many witches and wizards have failed to do, now that I am no longer whole, there is no reason to keep going, may you live long and have good fortune.” With that, the veela suddenly burst into flames much like a phoenix, but left nothing behind but ashes.
“One reason that we veela did not attempt to engage the Germans directly is that we would be in direct violation of the statute of secrecy, and even though it may not seem as though it would be a big deal to you, it was still a big deal to the French Ministry. Also, the German leader, Hitler had somehow developed a potion that made his soldiers immune to the effects of the allure, which removed one of our principle weapons for self defense. Hitler did not even need to break the statute of secrecy to administer the potion; he just had to add it to the list of vaccines that the German soldiers needed to take claiming it prevented certain diseases found here in France. So you see we were at an extreme disadvantage not least because the Germans had us out numbered six to one.”
“Oh,” Was Harry’s only reply. He had to admit, the fight he had with the rogue veela would have been much less difficult if it weren’t for the veela’s allure, he could see why the veela held back during the war.
“However, I did not ask to see you to bore you with our history, I asked you here to find out what you are doing about the situation in Britain.”
“Well Mrs. Delacour, mostly I’m just hiding right now, I don’t really know what to do next though.”
“If I may ask, have you heard anything about your godfathers will yet? It may be that Sirius left you something.”
“I have not heard anything about his will, and I have been wondering about that, I figured they would contact me if Sirius left me something, and I was sure he would, but I have not received any post from Gringotts, or the Ministry on the subject yet.”
“Well Harry it may be that you are actually the primary beneficiary, and that Dumbledore somehow went in your stead to accept the inheritance.”
Harry’s face instantly clouded with anger. “If he has circumvented the legal system on this matter I will kill him, maybe not today, maybe not a year from now, but one day I will repay him in full for the danger he put me in, and the position he put Sirius in.”
Mrs. Delacour was not shocked at this pronouncement; she actually agreed whole heartedly, at the height of her culture’s power, a veela would have killed another for a lesser offence than circumventing the will of one who had passed on.
“Thank you for informing me of this possibility Mrs. Delacour.” Harry said much more calmly, “I shall be writing to Gringotts to discover if the will was circumvented by Dumbledore.”
Suddenly a female voice rang out from the hall in French, “Mama, who are you talking to?” A girl about 13 years old walked into the room, Gabrielle Delacour looked like her sister in miniature, long silver hair, perfect hourglass figure, and what was turning into a great body. Upon seeing Harry, she immediately blushed and in a quieter voice said, “Sorry Mama, I did not know you were talking to anyone important.”
“No matter Gabrielle, you did not interrupt anything too important.” Mrs. Delacour replied “In fact Harry was just leaving to attend to some business.”
Standing up and thanking Mrs. Delacour profusely, Harry began to walk to the floo. On his way pasted he smiled at Gabrielle and gave her a nod of the head in goodbye, this caused the girl to blush even deeper, and suddenly Harry began to feel a physical attraction toward her that he had not had a moment ago. As quickly as the moment came, it passed and left Harry very confused in its wake.
“What happened?” Harry asked.
Mrs. Delacour walked up to her daughter and placing her hand on her shoulders saying, “I’m sorry Harry, apparently your actions were stimulating enough to my daughter in her adolescent stage to bring about a surge in her allure. I am blocking it right now with my allure, but you really should leave. Do not take offence, I am not mad at you, but given your experiences with our race, it would probably be best if you did not visit our home again until Gabrielle finishes learning how to control her allure.”
“Sorry Harry,” Gabrielle said sounding desperate, “I did not try to enthrall you, I just got too embarrassed.”
“It’s all right Gabrielle, you can’t control your powers yet, I understand. Have a good rest of the day.” And blushing slightly from the thoughts he had entertained while under Gabrielle’s influence, he quickly flooed back to Fleur’s house. Once there he wrote out a letter to the manager at the London Gringotts branch asking to set up an appointment with him at his earliest convenience at the French Gringotts branch.
That done there was nothing to do for the rest of the day but sit back and wait for the reply.
The next day Harry received a letter from Gringotts, it read,
Mr. Potter,
We wish to enquire as to why you have written to us about the will of one Sirius Black. The will of the deceased was read and enacted nearly two weeks ago, we sent a letter asking you to attend as you were the primary beneficiary, however we received a letter back saying that you could not attend and you wished Headmaster Dumbledore to be there as your representative. If you wish to discuss your inheritance, I will meet with you tomorrow at 10:00, this letter is a portkey that will transport you to the lobby of the French Gringotts Branch where I will have some very pointed for you about some allegations made by Headmaster Dumbledore.
Slipknife
Harry was incensed, not only had Dumbledore screened his mail, but he had also passed himself off as Harry’s representative to stop him from receiving his inheritance. He was so mad that he did not do anything else for the rest of the day and when Fleur got home she immediately ran into the room where Harry was, following the feelings of anger that were so great she was sure that Harry was either in a fight with Dumbledore, or received bad news and was about to blow.
As Fleur ran into the room, she winced feeling the sheer magical power coming off Harry. She didn’t see Harry fighting anyone, so she assumed he had received some upsetting news.
“Harry, what’s up?” Fleur asked.
“I received news today that Dumbledore has once again under cut me Fleur, he screened my mail, forged a letter to Gringotts, and passed himself off as my representative to receive my inheritance from Sirius, then failed to alert me to the fact that his will had even been read.”
As the explanation came out Harry’s magic began to build up to the point where Fleur was genuinely scared he would hurt her or himself by mistake, knowing she had to do something quick to defuse the time bomb that was Harry Potter, she released her veela allure at full power. She was amazed when Harry did not go slack and start staring at her like a love struck moron, instead he continued to rant at Fleur, for all the world as though she wasn’t projecting an un-blockable attraction that caused even the most strong willed male to stare at her as if she were the first girl they had ever seen. The worst part was that not only was he not calming down, but his magical power was still building. All the objects in the room not bolted to the floor were levitating and flying around the room as if there was a hurricane in the room, the only difference was there was no wind. Knowing she had to distract Harry before he hurt himself, (she now knew that he would not accidentally hurt her as several objects in the room that had been flying at her had suddenly changed course and missed her by a wide margin), she could have thrown a few balls of passion fire at him, but she did not want to try attacking him when he was in this sort of mood. Moving forward she ran up to Harry who resembled a weird model of the solar system, (it even had a very accurate representation of the asteroid belt), wrapped an arm around his shoulder, pulled him so she was facing him and kissed him.
Harry was so surprised by the kiss that he immediately froze, and all the objects circling in the air dropped to the ground. Immediately Fleur felt a sense of rightness about kissing Harry, as he had been distracted by the kiss itself Harry began to feel the effects of the allure and was now responding to her kiss very affectionately. Deciding that he was sufficiently calmed down Fleur decided to draw the allure back under control, but a voice in the back of her head resisted the idea saying ‘this feels too good, lets kiss for a while longer.’ However the more logical part of her brain won the internal debate and she very reluctantly drew the allure back in. As soon as she had, she brushed her lips against Harry’s one more time, then smiling at Harry she asked, “Better?”
Harry merely stood there looking stunned for a few seconds before blinking a few times and saying “Actually yea, I feel much calmer, thanks.” Taking a deep breath, Harry said “Fleur, I apologize for my behavior, I did not mean to wreck you room, or to lay my problems on you unnecessarily. The reason that I was so mad was that Dumbledore has circumvented my godfathers will and kept me from my inheritance. Tomorrow I am going to meet Slipknife at the French Gringotts Branch to talk about the will and Dumbledore.”
Fleur went pale and said “I assume that Slipknife said he would have questions for you as to some accusations from Dumbledore.”
“Yes actually, how did you know?”
Fleur reached into the pocket of her robes and pulled out a newspaper before handing it to Harry she said “Harry I have to warn you, there’s some pretty horrible stuff said about you in there, if you don’t want to know the full story I can give you the edited version.”
“I want to know everything, don’t worry, whatever Dumbledore has to say in this can’t be as bad as what the Ministry printed about me two years ago.”
Fleur handed Harry the paper, but it wasn’t the reaction to Dumbledore’s statement she feared, it was his reaction toward his friends statements that had caused her to pause.
The headline of the paper blared-
Defeat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named Overshadowed by the Birth of a new Dark Lord!
Less then two weeks ago, the Dark Lord He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was heroically defeated after a 3 hour long duel by the Leader of the Light Albus Dumbledore. The battle of good against evil was witnessed by Auror Tonks, Retired Auror Moody, and Dumbledore’s good friend Mundungus Fletcher. They told the story of how they apparated to the stronghold of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and were immediately engaged by no less than 150 of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s best Death Eaters. After incapacitating the lot, the four proceeded into the main thrown room where the two aurors and Fletcher engaged He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s inner circle, while Dumbledore bravely took on He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named by himself. “I knew no one else was powerful enough to beat him.” Dumbledore said sagely, “Rather than risk more deaths I decided to take him on myself.”
After killing He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Dumbledore says he had planned to apparate straight to the Ministry to inform the world of the good news; unfortunately at this point everything went wrong. It appears that Harry Potter, the supposed “Chosen One” snuck out of his place of safety and apparated illegally to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s, stronghold to try to take on He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named by himself, a move that would have ended in his death. However, when he got there and saw Dumbledore about to leave he suddenly yelled out “Dumbledore, he was mine; I thought we had agreed on that old man, he was mine.” And he then started to try to curse the four some before they could escape.
“Me Mad-Eye, and Mundugus tried to hold him off, but he was too powerful.” Auror Tonks said, nearly in tears, “I used to be a good friend of Harry’s, but now he has gone dark, I don’t want to have to kill him, but to uphold my oath as an auror if I ever see him again, I must.” “Several of the spells he used were quite dark” Moody commented last night during our interview, “I’m still wondering where he found the incantations for half the spells he used, there where even a few I had never heard of, but were obviously dark in intent.” There are of course many dark spells that are obscure and not well known by general wizarding public simply because they serve no other purpose than to cause pain or destruction, but as Retired Auror Moody was in service to the Ministry for nearly 40 years we thought he had seen it all. Apparently Potter has found a few nasty spells that are either so dark in nature that not even He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named used them they were so heinous, or so obscure that they have not been seen in many years. In either case, after Potter disabled Dumbledore’s three friends, he attacked Dumbledore himself. This proved to be too much for both of them, for although Dumbledore managed to drive him off (no mean feat after having dueled He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named for 3 hours) Potter managed to get in the last shot before apparating away and used a spell of unknown nature to shatter both of Dumbledore’s kneecaps, and caused them to be irreparable by magic.
Dumbledore had, with his last strength, revived his three friends then collapsed into unconsciousness. His friends had immediately taken him to St. Mungos where they treated him as best as they could, however he is still in the intensive care ward and is unable to walk, a source within the St. Mungos staff privately commented that unless Potter could be found to lift the spell on Dumbledore’s leg, it would be quite possible that Dumbledore will never walk again.
The public is of course warned that the fugitive Potter is now wanted by the Ministry for attempted murder, and assault on an auror. If you should see Mr. Potter do not attempt to apprehend him, he is armed not only with magic but also barbaric muggle weapons called fire-arms, also known by the slang term “guns” which do not look dangerous at first glance, but have the ability to kill you just as fast as the killing curse. If you see Potter please contact the Auror Office at once.
For the reaction from Potter’s friends Ron and Hermione turn to page 2
For the reaction from Potter’s ex-girlfriend Ginny turn to page 3
Harry immediately turned to page 2, Fleur could tell that what he read there did not improve his mood, by the time he had finished the story he was so breathing so hard Fleur was afraid he would hyperventilate.
“Those basturds!” Harry yelled, “I stood with them all those years, and this is how they repay me, by believing everything Dumbledore said and even calling for me to turn myself in, ‘It’s for your own good Harry,’ ‘Please Harry turn yourself in, maybe we can help you.’ Bullshit.” Fleur flinched at the venom behind the curse. He flipped to the next page and then an interesting thing happened. All the color in Harry’s face drained away and his breathing got slower, at first Fleur thought it was because he was calming down, but his face continued to get paler and paler, and his breathing got slower and slower, until Fleur was worried that he would stop breathing now rather than breath too fast. The paper slipped from Harry’s nerveless fingers to the floor, but he continued to stare at the place it had been. Fleur saw his face and was immediately alarmed, his expression was completely blank. There was no emotion in his eyes at all, it was as if his mind had simply shutdown.
“Harry?” Fleur asked hesitantly, “Are you all right?”
Harry nodded dumbly and said, “I’m going to bed, night.” Then left the room.
Fleur followed discreetly after him and saw him enter his room. ‘I’ll leave him alone a while’ Fleur thought, ‘so he can get himself under control.’ Walking downstairs she began to prepare a sandwich for supper, but as she did so a feeling of unease began to grow within her that there was something wrong with Harry. ‘It’s alright,’ she told herself ‘He just needs a little time to himself to get this figured out.’ She knew what had upset Harry so badly on page 3, it was Ginny Weasley’s statement saying that she would not be affiliated with a “dark lord” and that she would only accept him back if he turned himself in for questioning and was found to not have done anything too “dark”.
As Fleur sat down she suddenly felt a pain on her left wrist that caused her to gasp, the felt another pain on her right wrist. Immediately she felt weak and dizzy, and the feeling that Harry was in danger increased to a point that could not be ignored. Fleur stood up and ran to Harry’s room, throwing open the door she screamed at the sight of Harry kneeling in a pool of his own blood, which was gushing from several slash wounds in his wrists.
Harry was sobbing as he said, “She wants me dead, fine I’ll die.”
Running into the room, Fleur pulled out her wand and grabbing Harry’s arms began to cast healing charms on Harry’s wrists. She gasped when nothing happened and Harry laughed hysterically saying, “You can’t fix dark magic with common healing magic, sorry Fleur but I thought you might try that, don’t worry I don’t blame you. But without Ginny I don’t want to live, goodbye.”
All this time Harry had been getting weaker and weaker as the blood drained from his wrists. Fleur knew there was nothing she could do; you couldn’t heal cuts due to sectumsempra without serious knowledge of healing spells which were completely out of her skill level. By now Harry was unconscious due to blood lose and Fleur knew that he was going to die unless she did something. She quickly ran into the bathroom and grabbed some towels that she pressed into Harry’s wrists, sticking them tightly with magic to stop the blood flow. Then she ran to the fire and hurriedly throwing floo powder in the flames, stuck her head in, and called out Delacour Ancestral Home. As soon as her head stopped spinning she immediately called out in her loudest voice, “Mama, Papa, is either of you home? I have an emergency concerning Harry.”
Mr. Delacour came running around the corner 30 seconds later, and out of breath said, “What is it? What is the matter?”
“Harry’s hurt himself badly Papa, he saw the article in that English newspaper that Dumbledore and his friends wrote, and it hurt him very badly, just minutes ago he used powerful dark magic to slit his own wrists, please Papa, you must help him, there isn’t anything I can do, I don’t know the counter curse.”
Mr. Delacour swore and said “I thought he might react badly to those articles, but I didn’t think he would attempt suicide, quick, go back and I will come through to try to save him.”
Fleur pulled her head out of the fire and then waited another 3 seconds while Mr. Delacour came literally running out of her fireplace and charged upstairs to Harry’s room yelling, “Call St. Marys, tell them that they will be receiving a attempted suicide victim with magical injuries.”
Fleur stuck her head back in the fire and called out “St. Marys Hospital.” Before the spinning had even stopped she was yelling for an emergency healer, somehow she could feel this whole time that Harry was getting weaker, that her binding the towels to his wrists had helped a little, but that he was still losing too much blood. Now that her father was with him she began to feel some relief on her own wrists which had stung and smarted ever since Harry had cut himself.
A healer came to the fireplace looking quite alarmed saying. “What is all the racket for? What is wrong?”
“A friend of mine has just attempted to commit suicide, he slit his wrists with magic and I couldn’t heal him, my father is with him now doing everything he can, but my friend is still dying, please you must come help him.”
The healer paled and said, “Get out of the way; I must see the patient immediately.”
Fleur pulled her head out of the flames and quickly moved out from in front of the fireplace as the healer came charging out of the floo. The healer ran upstairs following the curses from Fleur’s father, Fleur ran after her.
Both of them charged into the room, the healer took one look at Harry and then pushed Mr. Delacour out of the way. Kneeling next to Harry she began to cast spell after spell on Harry’s wrists, which were still slowly seeping blood, at the same time she reached into her coat and pulled out a vile of potion that she poured into Harry’s mouth, at Fleur’s questioning look she said, “Blood replenishing potion, now if you don’t mind you and your father should leave the room so that I can work and so the other healers that are coming can get in the room and help me.
Fleur and Mr. Delacour left rather promptly, standing outside the room Fleur began to shake both with fear for Harry’s life, and rage at his friends for doing this to him. ‘They knew how much they meant to him, they knew the lengths he would go to for them, and they betrayed him all the same. I will make sure they will pay if it is the last thing I do.’
A short while later, Fleur saw three other healers running toward them, they backed away to give them room. A few minutes after they ran in they came back out with Harry levitated between two of the healers who were still casting spell after spell on the unconscious young man, they quickly maneuvered Harry to the floo and transported him to the hospital in a flash of flames.
The emergency healer that Fleur had contacted in the first place walked up to the Delacours and answered their unspoken plea for information with, “He will live, but barely. That boy lost nearly a pint and half of blood; it’s amazing we managed to avoid brain damage. Mr. Delacour consider yourself a savior, if you had not done whatever it is you did to help the boy, he would have been permanently damaged.”
“Thank you for everything Mrs…”
“Cowan.”
“Thank you Mrs. Cowan, that boy owes you his life; you have helped France and the world a lot more than even you know.”
With that the healer excused herself to go back to the hospital and the Delacours went up to Harry’s room to clean it up. As she was cleaning up the blood, Fleur noticed that the black mark on her finger had elongated to cover nearly half the circumference of her finger; it appeared to be two parallel lines a quarter inch apart with runes inside the lines. She stared at the markings for a second then turned to her father and asked, “Dad, what is this on my finger?”
Hope you people liked the chapter, this one is out a little late because life and compatibility issues conspired to keep this update from the internet, (author gives fate the middle finger), fortunately I was eventually successful in my efforts to upload this installment.
Until next time
Cah11
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