Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Slayer, The Avatar And The Guardian Of Light

CH28 - The First Contingent

by GuardianOfLight 5 reviews

The Delacour's recieve the Goblins reply and Harry goes for a ride

Category: Harry Potter - Rating: R - Genres: Crossover, Fantasy, Romance - Characters: Fleur, Harry - Warnings: [!] [?] - Published: 2006-10-26 - Updated: 2006-10-26 - 4053 words

5Ambiance
Chapter 28 - The First Contingent

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 2nd August 2001 AD
Country: France - The French Riviera - Marseeleveyre Mountains
Location: Chateau Delacour
Time: Afternoon


"Congratulations Harry." smiled Dimitri as he climbed out of the fireplace and pulled Harry to his feet "Or should I say Viscount, I think I can safely say I don't know of anyone else who ever gained that much power in a single day."

"Yes well, I just hope we don't get into a battle any time soon, leading a group of five students is one thing, but leading a whole army of Goblins and Dwarves is another entirely."

"You shouldn't have to worry about that too much Viscount, all you should have to do is to say where you want them and then the Goblin commanders will control the actually battle."

"Well that's a relief at least." Harry sighed as they walked into the hall into the dinning room where the staff had laid out a small lunch for them "Who were you planning for us to recruit next?"

"Well obviously we don't know yet whether the Goblins will actually side with us yet," Dimitri replied, seating himself at the head of the table "If they do that will be a good start, it is unfortunate that we could not sway the Veela, but maybe nearer the end of summer when you have had more training we can try again. After that there are quite a few options, there are the Valkyrie's of course, I don't think we should try to sway the giants or the Werewolves as Dumbledore and Voldemort are both of them and it might reveal us to soon if we tried, but it would also be useful to have some human allies."

"I have a few ideas about that?"

"Do tell." smiled Dimitri.

"Well I think I might know of a few people who will side with us."

"Let me guess," grinned Dimitri "The DA?"

"Yes, a couple of them are now inside the Order, it would probably be a good idea to have some spies inside Dumbledore's circle, so to speak."

"Espionage, there is definitely some Slytherin in you Viscount." grinned Dimitri

"The sorting hat nearly put me in Slytherin actually; it is only because I met Malfoy before hand that I asked not to be in that house....Comte."

Dimitri chuckled.

"Ok Harry, I'll stop. Did you have anyone else in mind?"

"A couple of people, I thought maybe the remainder of the latest generation of Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks and maybe Remus Lupin, though I am not quite sure whether the last two will join us or reveal us to Dumbledore, they both appear very loyal but it would be very useful to have them on our side."

"Agreed, a Metamorphmagus and a Werewolf would be most useful."

"The only problem is that if they so no and we wipe their memories, because obviously they can not be allowed to know who we are if they are not on our side, but if they even slightly suspect then Dumbledore will likely probe their minds and I don't think any of us could create a memory charm powerful enough to prevent him seeing through it."

"That is easily solved; Fleur has told me that the Orders Headquarters, even though I do not know where it is, is protected by a Fidelius Charm. We can create a similar spell to protect the secret of who is with us and who we are, probably setting a couple of Secret Keepers who are able to tell others the secret to others, even torture can not force a person who is not a Secret Keeper to reveal the secret."

"Good, can I also suggest that we do not tell everyone that I am the General, I know we have to tell some of them, but can we make it look like I am merely on our side."

"Good idea, but lets sort that out later, I think you need an afternoon off, and I know the best way to relax."

"What?" asked Harry sceptically.

"Go and change into a pair of jeans and then meet me back down here in five minutes." He said getting up and heading out of the room, leaving a slightly worried Harry to go and get changed.
________________________________________________________________________

Few minutes later Harry met up with Dimitri before being led outside and around the side of the house.

They headed towards a set of buildings that Harry had not been to yet, he had run past them everyday but being very tired when he got to this point in the run he never actually looked at them in any detail.

They entered what appeared to be a yard of some kind between the buildings, with what looked like stalls facing out into the yard.

Harry got his first hint at what was inside the stalls when he heard a snort from the nearest stall.

Fully entering the yard Harry saw what caused of the noise. Inside the stool was a large whitish grey Pegasus.

"Is that...."

"The same type of horse that pulls the Beauxbatons carriage, not quite. Abraxan's pull the carriage; this is a Granian, it's smaller and faster than the Abraxan, and is just right to fly on, though I have heard that you prefer Thestral's."

"You do know that I can't actually ride," Harry said quickly, fighting Death Eaters was easy, all you had to do was not get hit, but flying.... "All we did was to hold onto their manes while they flew to the Ministry."

"And that is why I am going to teach you, but don't worry we won't be flying yet," he said directing Harry further along the row of stalls.

In each stall was either a Granian, an Abraxan, another variety of flying horse or a normal four legs, no wings horse. They stopped when they reached the end pair of stalls, inside were a pair of large black stallions.

"Can you get this one out Harry, while I do the same for the other." smiled Dimitri as he opened up the other stall.

Harry looked nervously at the beast in the stall in front of him, he was trying to figure out why he had no problems with Thestral's but a normal horse seemed terrifying to him. If anything it should be less terrifying than a Thestral, heaven knows why it wasn't, probably because it was less intelligent.

He slowly slid the bolt on the door across and slowly opened the door.

"Nice horsey, nice horse, don't do anything unexpected....please."

He heard Dimitri chuckle from the next stall, as well as the sounds of the horses hooves on the stone paving outside the stalls.

Walking closer to the horse, who had until this point paid no attention to Harry what so ever and had merely continued its meal, turned towards him and stared him down.

Harry carefully walked around the beast towards its head, glancing to the side he saw all the riding gear hanging on various hooks.

Carefully picking up the reigns he moved towards the horse, slowly extending his arms so that he can slip it over the horse's nose.

As he got closer the horse turned its body towards him and stared harder. Harry was in two minds whether to start backing away or not. He could just tell that Dimitri was watching him; he could feel his eyes on him.

Plucking up the courage Harry quickly moved forward and slipped the reigns onto the beast's nose.

The horse didn't move so Harry quickly tightened the straps.

"That went better than I though it would." smiled Harry as he turned back to the doorway where Dimitri was standing.

He breathed a sigh of relief, which of course meant something was going to go wrong.

And as if on queue....it did.

The horse reared sending Harry to the ground before it galloped out of the stable and out into the yard.

Harry rolled into a sitting position to see Dimitri howling with laughter.

When he finally managed to regain his composure Dimitri was greeted by face of the glaring teen.

"I do apologise Harry, but that was just too funny a sight."

Harry grumpily got to his feet as Dimitri walked over to retrieve his horse. It was one thing to be defeated by a Dark Lord but to be kicked down by a horse was down right degrading.

As Dimitri came back he handed Harry the reigns of his horse, before returning to his own which hadn't moved while he was gone.

"You have to know how to treat horses Harry, they aren't as intelligent as the winged horses, creatures such as Hippogriff's, Owls, in fact all magical creatures have a certain level of intelligence, non-magical creatures don't work the same way."

He moved forward and began to rub the nose of his horse who moved closer to allow him better contact.

"You see, you have to make them see that you are not a threat, with creatures like Hippogriff's all you need to do is bow at them and maintain eye contact and they will either accept you or attack you, once its done you can basically do what you want, within reason of course."

Harry cautiously extended his hand towards his horse, it was going to bite him, he just knew it.

Just as his hand was about to touch the creatures nose, it threw its head back and snorted over his hand.

Pulling his left hand away he sent another glare at the again laughing Dimitri.

"Wonderful, first it knocks me over then it sneezes on me. I'm going back inside, I still have half of next years DADA text book to read, have a good day." he said and began walking away.

"I am sorry Harry, it's just....you can face down Voldemort and a whole host of Death Eaters, but you some face to face with a horse and you are completely perplexed."

"I understand Voldemort;" explained Harry turning back to Dimitri "Kill me, kill Dumbledore, kill the Order, kill Muggle's, kill Muggle-Born's, become immortal and take over the World....he's simple, its just how he goes about it that is complicated, horses are a complete mystery."

"You had better add women to that list Harry," smiled Dimitri "They make no sense either. Come on, give it one more try."

Harry sighed and walked back to his horse, how was it going to humiliate him this time.

"I think we can skip manually saddling up," Dimitri smiled, drawing his wand and levitating the saddles and the rest of the ridding gear out of the stables and, using some clever charms and wand movements, doing up all the straps and buckles.

His memory flashed back to the year before when Tonks was magically packing his trunk and commenting about her mother was skilled enough to fold socks with her magic, whereas she could only make them wiggle.

"You've done this before haven't you?" Harry smiled.

"At the end of a stressful day I like to let of a little steam," he explained, returning the smile "Delphine and our daughters throw fire at the walls, I like to ride, it takes far too long to put all the gear on manually."

When he had finished attaching all the gear to the horses, he swung himself into the saddle of his.

"Mount up." He instructed.

Harry placed his foot in the saddle and swung himself up onto the horses back, it surprised him no end that he didn't go over the top and straight down the other side.

"By the way," added Dimitri "That is Ernie you are ridding and this is his brother Eric."

Harry looked at him sceptically "Eric and Ernie?"

"We might be wizards Harry, but we are known about in the Muggle world as well."

"I know, Fleur told me, I am just surprised that you watch television."

"We don't, but several years back we went to stay in a Muggle hotel and I saw a couple of programs, and seeing as Ernie considers himself a practical joker, as I am sure you know by now, it seemed like an appropriate name and obviously there was only one thing we could call his brother. Anyway, getting back to the point, how to ride."

Harry inwardly gulped.

"Firstly I want you sit like me and take the reigns in you hands and give a very small backwards kick, just to get moving."

In demonstration Eric began to walk forward out of the yard.

Taking a deep breath, he gave Ernie a small kick.

It went surprisingly well, after a slightly fast start Ernie settled into a trot until he came up beside Dimitri when he attempted to slow down but instead came to a dead stop, nearly sending Harry straight over the front of the horse.

Dimitri chuckled.

"Not bad Harry, but not so hard next time, try and keep up."

With that he flashed Harry a smile and took off across the grounds.

For the next few hours he followed Dimitri around the grounds, learning the basics of ridding and by the time two hours were up, he was easily able to keep pace with him.

They then decided to try flying Granian's to see how well Harry handled them, but to Dimitri's great surprise, Harry proved a lot more adept at the art than he was, probably due to his seeker skills and previous experience ridding Thestral's and Hippogriff's.

After an afternoons flying they landed, returned the Pegasi to the stables and began to walk back to the house.

"That was wonderful; I can just imagine how much Fleur and Gabrielle must enjoy that."

"They don't enjoy it as much as you would think actually." replied Dimitri.

"Why on Earth not, that was wonderful."

"For us yes, but they are Veela, which means it isn't as easy for them."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry as they walked towards the doors.

"You have to remember that Veela in their avian forms are essentially giant birds of prey."

"Do you mean the horses are scared of them?"

"Some of them yes, it is worse for Delphine as she is Half-Veela rather than a quarter, she can not even enter the yard, Fleur can ride the Abraxan we have but not the others, the Abraxan is large enough not to consider her a threat, though she still has to be careful, if she transforms then it will throw her off."

"What about Gabrielle?" Harry asked sadly as they seated themselves in there normal places in front of the fireplace.

"Currently she can still ride all the Pegasi; but the normal horses don't let her near them anymore."

"You could try Thestral's, they are carnivorous so may react differently, actually forget I said that, neither of them has seen death so they won't be able to see them."

"Fleur has," replied Dimitri quieter than before "She was with her Grandmother when she died....that was when she was given the hair for her wand....she was only five at the time."

Harry went quiet; he knew how bad it was to see death, he has seen Sirius's death at fifteen, Cedric's at fourteen and Quirrell's at eleven....but five, he couldn't imagine what that was like.

"How did she die?" he asked cautiously.

"Old age, she was one hundred and thirty years old at the time, a good age, it was very peaceful and probably the best way to go, I don't know if Fleur even remembers."

Harry then realised that he had not thought about ever his parents or his inheritance since they had left Gringotts. He still the photo albums in his pocket.

They sat in silence for several minutes pondering lost relatives until the clock on the wall rang out four o'clock.

"The ladies will be back in a few minutes." commented Dimitri "We still have a few hours before sunset, let's go and sit by the pool and cool off."
________________________________________________________________________

Fleur calmly stepped out of the fireplace in the Sitting Room of the Chateau.

She quickly enters their room for the day, eager to find Harry and to discover the result of the morning's talks.

Normally Harry would have been lying on the bed reading through one of the text books that they carried around in his trunk, he had been alternating between the text books they had bought him for his next two years of schooling (he had of course complained about not paying for them), her text books from her schooling, which gave him extra practice trying to read French and marking the school work of his students. Unusually she found no trace of him.

She quickly searched the adjoining rooms before ending up at the window that overlooked the grounds.

Down by the pool she could see Harry laying in one of the sun loungers next to her father.

Smiling, she quickly changed into her bathing suit (coincidentally the same make of suit that she had worn during the second task, not that she would ever tell anyone that, she had a reputation to uphold), opened the closet, picked up a towel and began to head downstairs towards the pool.

On the way she was joined by her mother who was also dressed in a similar silver bathing suit, obviously about to join the men as well after a hard days business.

As one they walked through the Front Doors and turned towards the swimming pool.
________________________________________________________________________

Harry and Dimitri were sitting beside the pool, both wearing swimming shorts and enjoying the late afternoon sun.

Dimitri was laid back in his chair with a pair of sunglasses over his eyes, while Harry was sitting up in the chair, one of his parents photo albums open in his lap.

The current picture was of his parents wedding; his parents and Dumbledore were standing at the end of the Hogwarts Great Hall, the photograph showed them kissing each other, before turning to smile at the assembled company.

Harry kept wondering what it would be like to get married, to be standing at the head of the Great Hall, Fleur standing next to him, he couldn't imagine ever wanting to marry anyone else, Dumbledore would conducting the ceremony, dressed in even more flamboyant robes than normal, even if Harry was angry at him for what he had put him through, it just wouldn't be right for anyone else to marry them.

He was awakened from his musings by the gentle warming he felt whenever Fleur approached, as he heard the sounds of bare feet on grass he put the album down.

Looking up, both men saw their better halves walking towards them, dressed only in skin tight silver swimming costumes and each carrying a towel.

Harry for the first time realised how similar the two looked, they could have been sisters, the resemblance was scary.

They were the same height, same hair, same build, same eyes and (although Delphine was at least twenty to twenty five years older) the same appearance of youth.

"Wow." exclaimed Harry.

"Indeed." smiled Dimitri raising the sunglasses off his face as the pair approached. They looked marvellous, the evening sun behind them giving them an almost ethereal glow.

"And pray tell us, what you two are staring at?" smiled Delphine reaching the edge of the pool and placing her hands on her hips, her daughter mirroring her movements.

"The visions of beauty before us." replied Harry poetically, earning smiles from the ladies.

"He can be so sweet can't he." smiled Fleur, removing her hands from her hips and sitting down in Harry's lap, ensuring to wriggle her hips as she got comfortable, earning her a low moan from Harry.

She settled across him and pecked him on the cheek before spotting the ring on his right hand.

"Arry....is that you Family Ring?"

"Yes, we visited the Accounting Department while we were there and they granted me ownership of my family vaults." he slipped the ring of his finger and handed it to Fleur to look at.

"How unusual," she commented as she turned it over between her fingers before handing it back "I wonder what the wings and eyes are for."

"Who knows," replied Harry shrugging whilst placing the ring back on his finger "I did face the dragon at the tournament of course but that did not have sapphire eyes or such streamlined wings."

"And that's not all he got." grinned Dimitri.

"What else did he receive?" asked Delphine curiously from her spot on Dimitri's lap.

"Apart from a bank balance as large as our own, or at least it will be when it has all been claimed back from the British Ministry, he also got two houses, over one hundred tenants, lots of shares, a couple of thousand acres of land, a hereditary Knighthood, a Thanage and a Viscountcy."

Both the women just sat there stunned, not quite sure if they had heard right.

"Let me get this straight," began Delphine taking a breath "He owns two properties with land and tenants, a large bank balance, not including the value of the shares and on top of all that he's a Knight, a Thane and a Viscount."

"Yes, to be precise he is Sir Harry James Evans, Thane Harry James Potter and Viscount Gryffindor." smiled Dimitri; he was loving every minute of showing of his future son in law.

Fleur turned to Harry.

"I am mated to a Viscount with powerful ancestry....lucky me." she grinned.

"Oh no, I'm the lucky one." corrected Harry, earning him a passionate kiss.

After several minutes they separated and Fleur's eyes fell on the album beside them, picking it up she examined the open picture.

"Are these you parents?" she asked turning the page to see the wedding party on the Hogwarts steps.

"Yes." He replied smiling.

"You look so much like your father Harry," she smiled "Except...."

"I know, except my eyes, I have my mother's eyes." he interjected smiling.

"No," said Fleur smirking "I was actually going to say except for your scar....you can't see their eyes in this picture."

"Oh....ok, I feel stupid." blushed Harry causing Fleur to giggle before settling further into his chest while examining the picture.

"I recognise quite a few members of the Order, but who is this man Arry?" she pointed to a face.

Leaning in Harry examined the picture before his smile faded.

"Peter Pettigrew." he answered quietly.

"Oh Arry, I'm so sorry," she replied realising what her curiosity had just done "I didn't mean to...."

"Its fine." he said, attempting to put a smile back on his face which Fleur could tell was fake; he had been staying with them for the temporal equivalent of forty days now and she could tell when he was just doing something to make her feel better.

They sat quietly for several minutes, both women sitting in the laps of their respective partners until Delphine stood and moved to the pool.

"Anyone for a race?" she asked before jumping backwards into the water.

Dimitri shook his head in amusement before getting up and diving in himself.

Fleur giggled before literally pulling Harry out of his seat sending both of them tumbling into the pool, much to the amusement of the others.

They spent a couple of hours swimming around, generally relaxing and having fun, which the elder Delacour's were surprisingly good at.

Dimitri won most of the races, with Fleur and her mother coming close behind except when they conspired together to beat him. Harry made a mental note to practice swimming while he was in residence; he really needed to improve his fitness.

About three hours of fun and joviality, just as they were about to come in, one of the servants brought out a silver tray with a letter on it.

Dimitri took it and opened it, noting the seal of Gringotts bank as he did so.

The others all watched nervously as he read the letter.

"The Goblin Parliament....has agreed to join us."



AUTHORS NOTE: The first 28 chapters have been rewritten so you may want to re-read them, some of the changes are small others are fairly big. Enjoy
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