Jean Christian Delacour, the long standing head of the French Ministry's International Affairs Office, was not a happy man.
His life had come to a complete stop recently and it had nothing to do with health. For nearly a week now, his youngest daughter Gabrielle had been deathly ill. Her sister, Fleur, recently returned from her apprenticeship at Gringotts Bank in England, had rushed to her sister's side once she heard of her sister's plight. Her boyfriend, an man nearly seven years her senior and a globe-trotting curse breaker for the goblins, curse breakers were not known for their fidelity or their willingness to stay in one place for extended periods of time, had come with her and Jean had not been pleased. He would have had words with the pair, but his youngest daughter's plight was slightly more important now.
When Fleur had arrived, she had gone directly to Gabrielle's room, barely saying hello to he and his wife Josephine. His wife seemed to understand what was going on, but he had no idea. The doctors he had called in did not know what was going on, and had told him to just make her comfortable. They had theorized that she had some sort of sepsis, but did not know what it was and had to leave it to her own immune system to fight if off. Josephine had been quiet, but had not objected to giving her anti-pyretics and pain killers to ease her daughter's state.
Being Veela, his wife had a deeper understanding of their daughter's physiology, which, being half-Veela, was slightly different than that of humans. When he asked, she merely told him to wait it out. His eldest daughter had said the same, and he had shared a look with Bill, her curse breaker boyfriend.
And that was where he found himself, stuck in the living room, with no information about his daughter, his wife and eldest daughter looking after Gabrielle, and he forced to remain in a room with a man he would like to strangle for touching his dear Fleur.
Bill, on the other hand, looked nervous, and that was a rather big shock for the curse breaker, who had faced ancient hexes and tomb guardians without flinching. But now, meeting this man, he was rather cowed.
Jean was a very imposing figure. A politician who had faced down heads of state all over the globe, and had used the sheer force of his will to push the French Ministry of Magic and the French wizarding economy into the forefront of the world's economics. He had passed more treaties and built more alliances between France and both European and non-European countries than all the treaties than France had made throughout its entire past history. The man was both a political power house as well as physically imposing. Nearly as tall as Bill was, the thick French diplomat was an expert swordsman as well as a very powerful wizard. He was a man who expected people to follow and follow they did.
And here Bill Weasley was, a man almost a decade older than his eldest daughter, a curse breaker dressed like a muggle rockstar in his tight leather clothes, and a pretty decent fighter, but absolutely no match for the French man. He felt inadequate, as if simply being in the same room as the man was emasculating. The dagger stares of the blond haired ice blue eyed politician sent him only caused further damage to Bill's ego. Damn, he thought to himself, I should have known who her father was before I started chasing her. That'll teach me to go for looks first, he thought with a grimace.
"Erm…Mister Delacour," Bill started, the French man ignoring him, "I just wanted to say that I…um…I really care for-"
"That is enough boy," the French man said in perfect English, dismissing the other man with a wave of his hand, "We will talk about the mistake my daughter made when choosing you later, but right now I am more worried about Gabrielle." With that, the older man got up and walked away, heading for the stairs and his daughter's room.
Bill sighed, he knew this wasn't going to be easy. Fleur had warned him about her father, but he never really understood just how hard it was until he actually met him. Should've went for an American girl, at least their fathers use physical violence, this mental warfare Fleur's father was waging against him is way too much, he thought as he got up to follow he older man.
Jean had made his way up the stairs, as he saw his wife exiting his daughter's room.
"What is wrong with Gabrielle, Josephine?" he asked worried. His wife had the open look she usually had when she was going to reveal something to him that he didn't really want to know.
His wife looked at him and sighed, her long silvery tresses swinging as she shook her head. Josephine Delacour was a beautiful woman. Not surprising as she was a full blooded Veela. They had met when Jean was just starting out in politics. He had been sent as an emissary to the Veela nation and she had been his guide as he toured their beautiful forest cities. They fell in love instantly, and, much to the delight of the Veela nation, they had married. It had not been easy when he returned to his beloved France. The minister and much of the government were very similar to the way the UK was, they were bigoted and corrupt. When he had shown up with a Veela wife, he had nearly lost his job. But, because of smart manuvering and the wise counseling Josephine had given him, he had been able to turn the tables on the corrupt officials and eventually got them removed from office, replacing them with his own men who were fair, non-biased, and, most importantly, not corrupt. Jean with his wife's help, and
successfully turned wizarding France into a safe haven for those of half blood and mixed breeds all over Europe. Essentially, Jean was the ruler of France and could have taken over the minister's job at any time, but had much preferred to remain in the shadows, guiding his country through others.
"Is something wrong Jean?" his wife asked, pulling him from his thoughts.
"No my love, it was nothing. What of Gabrielle?" he asked.
Josephine gestured for him to follow and they walked into Gabrielle's room. He was surprised to find her snapped from her fit and talking amiably with Fleur, actually smiling while talking to her sister. As he entered she spotted him.
"Papa!" she said, climbing from her bed and running to hug him. He loved his eldest daughter Fleur, but his youngest was always his baby.
"How are you cheri?" he asked as he picked her up and carried her back to her bed.
"I am fine now Papa. Mama and Fleur have explained it to me. It all makes sense now." she said to a completely lost Jean. What makes sense now, he asked himself as he looked down as his smiling daughter.
"That is wonderful little one," he said tucking her in to bed, "come now, rest, and you can tell me all about it tomorrow."
"Yes papa," she said, as she kissed him and pulled the covers up.
Her mother and Fleur said their good nights and walked out closing the door.
"So does anyone wish to explain?" Jean asked looking at his wife and daughter.
It was Josephine who answered, "It is very complicated Jean. It will take some time for us to explain it to you, since what is happening to Gabrielle is a very rare occurrence that happens within the world of the Veela. It will be very uncomfortable," she said, vaguely.
At this point, Bill showed up, much to Jean's irritation. He turned and addressed the boy, switching to English, "This is a private matter Bill. Go back down stairs and wait for us."
"Papa! You will not talk to Bill in such a manner," Fleur argued to her father in French.
"Fleur!" her mother said, "If you were in Gabrielle's place, would you want a complete stranger to know this?"
The willowy blond colored and sighed, "You are right Mama." Turning to Bill she switched to English, "Bill, 'zis iz a delicate matter. Could you pleaz' wait down stairs?"
Bill nodded and turned, glad to be away from the French man. He had found Fleur's mother bearable, a beautiful woman and with very much the same witty sense of humor as her daughter, though for some reason she was overly neutral to him, but her father was a little more than Bill could handle at that moment.
"So what is this complicated matter I should know about?" he asked, impatient for information and still irritated at being disturbed by the red headed English man.
"It involves Veela heritage Papa," said Fleur, "and the topic of magical binding between a Veela and a strong wizard."
He nodded, not liking anything that was being said, especially about the part about magical binding between a wizard and his daughter, but he had learned long ago to first listen to the entire story before jumping to conclusions. "Go on," he said with a nod of his head.
It was Josephine that continued, her voice taking on a lecture hall tone, "In the past, certain Veela were taken by lecherous human wizards as sex slaves. Veela are creatures of emotional and physical pleasure, and as such, are skilled in the giving of these pleasures, thus they were desired by unscrupulous individuals. Although sought after, Veela are difficult to catch when they do not want to be caught. They have multiple animagus forms and their bird form nearly doubles their access to their magical core, making them extremely difficult to catch and to hold captive, unless you are able to steal their feathers while transformed, which has had a near zero percent success rate throughout the history of the Veela.
"Not to be deterred by the difficulties of capturing a Veela, one intelligent but dark wizard sought to find away to enslave the Veela, but to do it from afar. And he succeeded. He developed a spell of binding that bound the magics of two individuals together, allowing the wizard to dominate and completely subvert the will of the Veela. Now, over time, the wizards had captured a large portion of the Veela population, that is what spurred the Veela uprising of the 1100s. Using their magics in tangent with other witches and wizards who were sympathetic to their plight, they overthrew the wizards and freed the captured Veela. During this time, the spell of enthrallment was systematically purged from the population and destroyed for good, but a remnant of the spell remained. For you see, just as magic was passed on from generation to generation, so was the binding.
"Successive generations of those who had been bound to the wizards had found they could bind themselves to another and force their will, sort of a reverse of what had happened before-"
"Wait, you mean like the Veela charm?" Jean said, confused.
"No, this bonding is nothing like the charm. The charm is based on the emotion of love. It takes the love or desire that is there and adds to it and multiplies it until it is all consuming and the recipient becomes a strongly compelled by the Veela's suggestions. The bond is different. It forces complete servitude from bonded to Veela. No emotion is necessary," Josephine reasoned out for him.
Jean, shook his head. He thought he knew about Veela, but even after the many years they had been together, he still had much to learn, "So what is the problem. She can enthrall people to her will even better than just using her charm alone. That is a good thing no?"
Josephine shook her head, "It is not like that, it is something different. The trait had not shown up in my family for many generations. Normally it does not cause problems and can be used as a last ditch defense mechanism against one of the very rare people who are immune, such as yourself Jean, to our charm power. But in some even rarer cases, this has only happened once before in the history of the bond, a wizard's magic is so compatible with a Veela's that they connect, essentially bonding each other, forming an empathetic link between their minds and their magic."
Jean's insides were near bursting. His little girl was bonded to a man? He calmed himself, there had to be more, "So how did this happen, and to whom is she bonded to?" He hoped it was someone her age or someone he could control.
Fleur stepped in, "We believe that it happened during her stay at Hogwarts during the Tri-wizard tournament. And we do know who it is she is bonded to."
Damn it all, an Englishman. And another pawn of that meddling old man Dumbledore.
"Who," he asked, holding his breath.
"We believe it happened after the second task. When she was pulled out of the water after I could not save her," she admitted that last part with a flash of shame, "Harry did, and a life debt was formed between them. As their magics sealed the debt, they tasted each other and connected, forming the empathetic bond they now share."
His eyes were wide, they didn't mean who he thought did they? "No, you can't be serious. A life debt!? She was never in danger!"
"She was scared, her emotions were based on fear and the possible threat to her life. Harry's mind was set on saving her, he did not know she was in no danger at the time, so their magic sensed the fear in Gabrielle and the will to protect her in Harry and sealed the life debt once she was pulled from the lake," Josephine explained.
Fleur nodded in agreement, "And yes Papa. I am serious. He is a very honorable young man. He is-"
"Non!" Jean shouted, "The boy is dangerous! He spent the last month in Azkaban because of his recklessness and I will not have him near Gabrielle! I refuse! The boy is an idiot as well, if the comments from his teachers and the reports by his own ministry are accurate. And he is completely broke. A pauper. The boy had everything confiscated from him when he assaulted those people and destroyed half of the English ministry. I will not have it!"
"Those charges were trumped up because Fudge was trying to attack Harry," Fleur shouted at her father. Jean was well aware of that fact and had even felt sorry for the boy, but he was bonded to his daughter and he wanted nothing to do with a boy that drew danger to him like ants to spilled sugar.
"He is a pauper and he is an idiot, nowhere near as good as my daughter deserves. Do you really plan to leave your daughter in the hands of a below average thug?" Jean added, confident that he had made a point.
Josephine fished into her robe and pulled out a folded parchment and handed it to him, "Fleur brought these back from England. There was a little debate on Harry's intelligence there as well, and Dumbledore used these to settle them."
Jean opened the parchment, doubtful that a few Es would assuage his anger. When he saw the grades his jaw dropped. That was not possible. No one had gotten these kinds of results in the last four decades. It had to be a false document, and three Governor's Awards? Impossible. In the last two decades no single person had ever received three awards, and no one that he could remember in the last century had received three Governor's Awards in three core subjects. It was impossible.
"These cannot be real," he said, handing the documents back to his wife, "No one has ever received three awards in three core subjects, and, please, number one placement in the entirety of the European Curriculum in OWL results? Simply impossible, there is no way-" He shut off completely as Fleur shoved an official release from the International OWL Testing Board on the rankings and scores of different individuals. And, sure enough, right at the top: Harold James Potter, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
He couldn't believe it. Even he had only gotten 21 OWLs and only a single governor's award and he had been hailed as one of the most promising academic students in his day. But 29 with top rankings in Europe? If only the boy hadn't been so dangerous, he would have even overlooked the boy's financial state and criminal record, but he could not let his daughter be attached to someone with a projected lifespan of only twenty. He could not do it.
"OWL results are not everything," he argued, he would have to try, "He still is-"
"That is enough Jean," Josephine said sternly, "Fleur knows the boy. What can you tell us about him cheri?"
Fleur smiled, "He is a very honorable young man. Shy, but very brave when he needs to be. Although people may say he is not very smart, Harry was able to compete and win the Tri-Wizard tournament against competitors three years older than him. He is self-less. That time in the second trial, Harry would have come in first if not for his concern for the rest of the hostages. He actually reached them first, and waited around until all the hostages were saved before returning with both his hostage and Gabrielle. He even saved my life in the Hedge maze when Krum was imperiusedby the death eater. He is an honorable young man and I approve," she said with conviction.
"But you knew him less than a year," he argued.
"Then let us ask Bill. His family is close to Harry. I believe his youngest brother is his best friend," Fleur seemed to grimace in disgust, but hid it from her parents, "Let us ask him," Josephine reasoned with her husband.
Walking down to the living room, they came upon Bill sitting calmly by himself in one of the chairs by the fire, relaxing and staring into the flames.
"Beel!" said Fleur switching to English, to which Bill jumped up and nearly tripped. "Beel," she said, trying again, "we require your assistance for some information on 'Arry."
"Information on Harry?" Bill asked, "Well, I'm not sure I can help you much. I have never met him myself."
"But your family is close to Potter are they not?" Jean asked, "What do they think about him?"
Bill thought. At the moment, they were at odds with each other. Ron had betrayed Harry quite badly. Their opinion of Harry had changed recently, from being an honorary member, to being vilified, then back to being a brother, so he really didn't know which to believe, the bad stuff or the good stuff. But, Bill reasoned, he had saved at least three of his family's lives, had provided money for the twin's joke shop, a fact that they had imparted to Bill on the condition that he not release it to their mother, and had shown unnatural courage in the five short years he had been a part of his family's life.
"Although I don't know him myself, but from what I've heard my family say about him over the years, I can tell that he is a good guy. I mean, how could he not be, he pretty much saved the lives of a large chunk of my family, getting severely hurt in the process. He used to be my youngest brother's best friend-"
"Used to be?" Jean said, quirking his eye brow.
Bill cleared his throat. He had been slightly ashamed at how his family acted, "Well, at the beginning of the summer, my brother-"
"Who iz a leetle jealous Eediot!" Fleur added.
"Erm, yes, well, my brother convinced Harry's other best friend and my sister to cut ties with Harry, after lying to my parents that Harry had forced them to come to the Department of Mysteries. He-who-must-not-be-named-"
"Coward," Jean muttered to himself. Why did these stupid Englishmen continue to treat that bastard's name like it was taboo. Fear of a name, he thought to himself, a bunch of idiots.
"-had tricked Harry into coming to the Hall of Prophecies by sending visions of his godfather being tortured to Harry. He was vulnerable to attack due to lessons with Severus Snape-"
"The Death Eater!?" exclaimed Jean.
"Well, not anymore," he was getting into near protected information, but Bill thought that if Gabrielle was involved, Jean would not spill any secrets, "He's a double agent for Dumbledore and the Order. He had tried to teach Harry Occlumancy, but had only proved to destroy Harry's natural mental barriers, allowing the visions to flood Harry's mind and drive him to desperate acts. You know what happened after that. My brother was always jealous of Harry and after all those crimes were leveled against him, I suppose he thought he could get one up on him, so he spread the rumors. Don't know if all of them were untrue, like I said, I never met the boy, but Harry seems like a nice enough guy. Everyone he meets seems to take a liking to him," he finished weakly, still embarrassed about his brother's actions. If this caused him problems between Jean and himself, he was going to go home and throttle Ron.
"I see," said Jean, his mind whirling. He switched back to French, "Is there no way to break the bond?"
Josephine shook her head, "Not unless you would condemn both of them to become squibs and then into insanity. The bond connects their magic, a fundamental part of their being. Breaking such a thing would be disastrous."
"So if we just wait for the boy to die," he suggested.
"Papa! How could you even suggest such a thing!" Fleur said, her eyes shooting daggers at her father.
"It would be best if he were to live Jean. If the boy dies, then yes the bond will break naturally and Gabrielle would be free, but would still retain traces of the bond, causing her to become mentally unstable and to disrupt part of her magic. She would also find difficulty connecting to another on an emotional level with anyone else. But should he not die, they will be drawn together by their magic. During this time, they will not be able to form any meaningful relationships with other people. Something will always be missing, and those relationships will end in disaster," Josephine explained, "But if they do come together, there are many times many benefits. Gabrielle will, due to the influence of the wizard's magic, almost never age and will have a much extended life as his magic will invigorate the cells of her body. She will increase in her magical ability, both witch and Veela, will be augmented by the Wizard's power. She will gain some of his abilities, which are many from what I have heard of Harry Potter. And she will be at peace. She will be with his equal as none other will be able to match her other than her bonded."
"I don't understand, just because their magic-" He asked
"The bonding is one of magic, yes, but the magic also takes into account temperament, personality, emotional make up, and physical potential. It would not have formed if these were not perfectly in sync with each other in the first place. In essence, Gabrielle has found her perfect mate, equal to her in intelligence, emotional depth, and sexual potential. She will be perfectly sated in both mind and body," Josephine said, completely aware that she just told her husband that her daughter would have incredible mind-blowing sex with a man she had met only once.
Jean groaned inwardly. How could this be happening to him. His daughter had only made ten a while ago, and his wife was already talking about sex? What was the world coming to. Sometimes he regretted the magical world and wondered if the world would have been better had they all been muggles.
"Fine," he said, "I will meet this boy. I assume he is under that coot Dumbledore's thumb?"
Fleur answered him, shaking her head, "there was an incident a few days ago Papa. The order was having a meeting and one of the operatives rushed in. They had been watching over Harry outside of his relative's house and the operative realized that Harry was no longer in his room," she said.
"Why would the old man be keeping tabs on him? The boy is a target, yes, but he is not really all that important. He is but a figure head for the light," he reasoned.
Josephine replied, "It appears that Dumbledore believes that young Harry is destined to fight Voldemort. Fleur said she heard some prophecy about it. Obviously the man was keeping his weapon safe until he could be put to use."
"A prophecy?" Jean scoffed, completely unconvinced. Jean had never put any confidence in prophecy and had wondered at the stupidity of people as they poured over the moldy documents from an age long past. Your destiny is what you made of it, not what some crazy old coot said ages in the past.
"Yes Papa," Fleur said, aware that her father did not like prophecy, "It said that Harry would face Voldemort and that he would have some kind of special power to fight him. It said only they could destroy each other and in the end only one would survive."
"Ridiculous!" Jean said, "That a boy would be able to take on a full Dark Lord." He shook his head, "So what happened to him?"
Fleur smiled, he knew her father would enjoy this, "It seemed that Harry had been pulling everyone's leg. He had learned to manipulate magic like no other before. Dumbledore had placed a tracking charm on him, utilizing Occlumancy and a simple beacon charm to attach it to Harry's mind. Harry was able to find it and he attached it to a garden snake."
Despite his frame of mind, Jean grinned. The old man must have had a very horrid time trying to track down the boy, only to find a garden snake in his place.
"Harry then created a howler and disillusioned it, all without a wand," she said, much to Jean's interest, "The howler activated when Dumbledore touched it and he then proceeded to insult the members of the Order of the Phoenix, calling them the Order of the Fried Chicken, and accusing them of voyeurism," she finished snickering.
Jean chuckled to himself despite his anger, "So where is he now?"
Fleur's face dropped, "That's just the thing Papa, no one knows. Harry has just disappeared and no one knows where he is. I don't know where he would go, he has no money, no properties, and anyone he was in contact with would have turned him in to Dumbledore or at least reported it. He wouldn't be able to show his face around as his public opinion is not very high at the moment, most of the English think he's a destructive delinquent that should have been locked up in Azkaban for life, despite having uncovered Voldemort's whereabouts."
He sighed. This was becoming more and more complicated, "So we can do nothing, until he shows himself?"
"That is correct Jean," Josephine said, placing her fingers on his arm and comforting him.
"I suppose that is all we can do," he said, "Now Fleur. We will talk about your relationship with this," he looked the fidgeting red head up and down, as if viewing a dog who just crapped on his carefully manicured lawn, "…Bill. There is much we must discuss."
Bill watched the exchange and swallowed back a yelp, when the large French man's eyes came to rest on him. This was not going as he thought it would