Chapter 34
"Are you okay, Koneko?" Rias asked. "You've seemed distant lately."
"That's because you smell like your boyfriend, whom I'm desperately trying not to want to fuck," Koneko thought to herself. "I'm good. Just busy with the end-of-the-year stuff."
"Oh, okay," Rias nodded.
"Why did you call us all here?" Kiba asked, curious.
"I'm a little curious about that myself," Hermione murmured.
"Does it have anything to do with how utterly jubilant you seem?" Luna asked.
"I take it date night with Harry went well," Akeno added.
"It did, and it does," Rias replied. "I was going to wait for Fleur, but it seems that she isn't coming for some reason."
"That's...weird," Luna muttered. "If there was something wrong with her, would you know?"
"Harry would know because of their bond," Rias replied, and Luna nodded, feeling better. "Harry and I went out in the Underworld last night. We had a fantastic evening and an even better night, and in the midst of it...we agreed to get married."
"What?" Hermione, Luna, and Akeno asked in unison before rushing over to hug her excitedly.
"Correction, it's because you smell like your fiance, whom I'm desperately trying not to want to fuck," Koneko thought to herself, cursing inwardly as she realized just how serious things really were between Rias and Harry.
"Congratulations," Kiba smiled. "I have to ask, though...aren't you a bit young? Especially since devils live so much longer than humans."
"It's normal for noble devils to get married while young," Rias replied. "If not for Harry, my wedding to Riser probably would have happened not long from now."
"A husband of your choice," Akeno smiled. "I'm so happy for you, Rias."
"You've made Harry happier than he's ever been in his life," Hermione added. "I can't imagine how differently all of our lives would have gone if not for him summoning you."
"We will still be allowed to sleep with him when he's your husband, right?" Luna asked, and Rias burst out laughing.
"Half the reason I even started thinking about marriage already was because he's likely to end up with a far greater harem now," Rias replied. When Hermione and Luna both looked confused, she added, "Harry's an incubus, and that means that every noble family in the underworld is going to want to give him one of their daughters to ensure that they end up with fertile descendants. My mother suggested that I marry him sooner rather than later because my status as his wife will keep them from trying to lure him away from me, not that I think they'd succeed, of course."
"Could he not just turn them all down?" Kiba asked.
"He could, but it would be more advantageous to us all if he didn't," Rias replied. "With ties to most of the pillar houses, he'll end up with a great deal of political power."
"Plus, orgies are fun," Luna added, and Kiba blushed, looking away from the other blonde.
"Well, again, congratulations," he nodded.
"Rias, you said you wanted a word?" Sirius asked as he walked in and looked around. "Did something happen? And where's Harry?"
"He's speaking with my mother at the moment," Rias replied, hoping that that was going well, "and as for what's happened, well…"
"As you can see, the Gremory holdings are vast," Venelana smiled as she hovered high in the air, maintaining the bright blue magical barrier she had cast around the border of their territory.
It wouldn't keep anyone out or anything, being purely to demonstrate to Harry how far it stretched, and he marveled at the sheer extent of their holdings, barely being able to see it all even from thousands of feet in the air. It looked like a proper old-school duchy, a medieval fief in keeping with the nature of the Underworld as he'd come to understand it, and he was surprised as he looked around by just how little had actually been built on it.
"How wealthy are the Gremorys compared to the other Pillar Houses?" Harry asked.
"We're one of the wealthier houses," Venelana replied. "We're not at the top of that list, of course, as the Agareses and the Phenexes compete regularly for that title, but we're in the top five. When I first married Zeoticus, the Gremorys weren't as wealthy as the Baels, and they still aren't quite, but while there were four other houses between us then, we stand just behind them now."
"The Baels are one of the most powerful houses, I imagine," Harry commented, "given the Power of Destruction."
"We are," Venelana replied, "though that power isn't the only reason. We are one of the few Pillar Houses who can still say that our founder lives."
"Really?" Harry asked.
"Lord Zekram," Venelana replied, smiling wistfully. "He is my oldest living ancestor and the most powerful member of the Elder Council. His influence is immense, and though he gave up the title of Lord Bael long ago, he has continued to advise his successors and still advises my brother today."
"Why did he give up the title?" Harry asked.
"We are immensely long-lived beings," Venelana replied, "and because of our poor fertility, we haven't completely overrun this world, but we do still have children, and every parent with any legacy worth giving wishes to be succeeded by their children. Lord Zekram could have clung to his title and power for millennia, but doing so would have risked breeding resentment in his son. The Elder Council is composed entirely of aged lords who stepped down and let their children succeed them peacefully."
"I suppose it lets them continue to wield power without ending up at odds with their kids," Harry surmised, and Venelana smiled.
"Precisely," she nodded. "I brought you up here and showed you all this to give you a sense of the scope of what Rias will someday inherit. She will be the head of House Gremory, and as her husband, you will be her consort."
"I swear, I'll learn whatever I have to to help her with that," Harry vowed. "I'm technically nobility as well, though I never bothered learning about just what that would have entailed."
"You seem to have been a boy adrift before my daughter found you," Venelana mused, flying closer to him.
"Floating through life and hoping not to drown sums it up distressingly well to be honest," Harry muttered, and Venelana smiled unusually warmly.
"You wouldn't be the first person to avoid putting effort into life until its exigencies forced you," she said softly, "and look what you managed once you did. I've said it before, but when I first saw you, I thought you were little more than a cute distraction for Rias, as well as a tool to free herself from Riser Phenex. Look at you now."
"Barring something tragic happening, how long would you expect it to be before Rias becomes head of the house?" Harry asked.
"Oh, a couple centuries at least," Venelana replied. "Zeoticus' mother, Chysis, only stepped down about five hundred years ago now."
"Wait, was she still the head of the family when Sirzechs blew up this castle?" Harry asked, and she chuckled.
"She was," Venelana replied. "This wasn't the main keep of the family then, and we moved into it just after we married. Chysis still lives in her old keep now, as what we built here after Sirzechs' renovations was far grander. You can see it off to the east there, on that verdant hill just south of the waterfall."
Harry looked around for a moment before finding what she was talking about.
"She's also on the Elder Council," Venelana added.
"Is she the oldest living Gremory?" Harry asked, surprised.
"No, but there aren't many of them left," Venelana replied. "The war has been costly over the ages, and even those who didn't die fighting the angels run the risk of accidents or ending up in other sorts of fatal fights. Beyond that, there is Sleeping Disease."
"I'm sorry, what?" Harry asked, confused.
"It's an ailment that can afflict us," Venelana replied. "Those who suffer it find themselves increasingly tired and weary in the first few years and eventually fall into a coma from which they never wake."
"That's...horrifying," Harry replied. "Is there no cure?"
"None has ever been found," Venelana replied, "though many have tried. My brother's first wife has it and has already succumbed to the coma. She'll linger for a while, decades even, but eventually she will wither away."
"I wonder if the Stone could help with it," Harry thought to himself. "What about the first Gremory, Runeas?"
"Where did you hear that name?" Venelana asked, surprised.
"Rias mentioned her last night," Harry replied. "We had the whole camel conversation."
"Oh, yes," Venelana muttered. "Lady Runeas is still around, or at least we've had no proof of her death. She doesn't advertise her continued existence and has no interest in the Elder Council, but she's popped in repeatedly over the centuries."
She seemed less than fond of the progenitor of her husband's line, and Harry contemplated asking about it before deciding not to. He didn't know her that well and wasn't about to pry.
"Getting back on topic, as you and my daughter are now engaged, your lessons will include more about the day-to-day operations of noble houses," Venelana said. "The power will rest with Rias, of course, but as her husband, you will have your own role to play. The wedding will take place here, and I'm thinking that the end of August would be ideal. That way it won't interfere with yours and her return to Kuoh for the next year at the academy."
"Wait, this August?" Harry asked, and she laughed.
"You've seen how much more quickly things can be done here," Venelana replied. "I'll handle the preparations, though if you have any suggestions, I'd happily take them."
"Rias and I will discuss it later," Harry replied. "Thank you for…"
He trailed off and grunted as a sudden wave of fear gripped him. Something like that had struck early that morning, but it passed quickly, and he wrote it off as a figment of his imagination. This was much stronger, much clearer, and he knew at once where it came from.
"Is something wrong?" Venelana asked.
"Fleur is terrified right now," Harry replied. "I can feel her across our bond."
"Do you think she's in danger?" Venelana asked.
"No, it doesn't feel quite like that, but there is a bone-deep dread," Harry replied. "I need to go."
"Of course," Venelana replied. "I'll inform Rias."
"Thank you," Harry nodded before focusing in on Fleur's location.
She was somewhere in southern France, from what he could tell, and while he wouldn't have been able to apparate to her, given that one needed a clear image of their intended destination to do that, devil teleportation worked differently. All devil magic was based purely on manifesting intent and was generally simpler to work with than what he'd used before. Opening a teleportation circle around him, he focused again on Fleur and disappeared.
"Maman?" Fleur asked in French, wrapping her arms around her mother the moment she spotted her. "What happened?"
"Is Papa okay?" Gabrielle asked.
"We were just walking on the beach when he fell," Apolline replied. "It's possible that he simply got too much sun. Your papa's forehead is a little bigger than it used to be, so he has less shade."
Fleur looked at her mother in concern, recognizing her 'I'm lying for your own good' voice.
"Has he seen a healer?" she asked.
"He has, and he's in a room down the hall from here," Apolline replied, flicking her wand into her hand, "though the nurses are in with him at the moment."
She cast a silent jinx on Gabrielle, who jolted.
"Pardon, where is the restroom?" she asked.
"Just around that corner there," Apolline replied.
"Did you just…" Fleur went to ask once Gabrielle was out of earshot.
"A simple bladder-filling jinx," Apolline replied. "I didn't want your sister to hear this."
"What actually happened?" Fleur asked, feeling a growing sense of dread as she saw just how worried her mother was.
"It was like I said," Apolline replied. "Yesterday was lovely, and he seemed perfectly fine, like his usual self. We woke early and decided to take a leisurely stroll along the beach when he collapsed. By the time I managed to get him here, he was already so pale."
"What's wrong with him?" Fleur asked. "He said that his healer didn't find anything."
"His healer actually flooed here when the hospital reached out to him," Apolline replied. "They think that he might have been cursed."
"Cursed, how?" Fleur asked. "Papa hasn't been in a fight in ages. He has people for that."
As the head of the French Department of Magical Law Enforcement, her father commanded their auror force, their hitwizard squads, and their prosecutors. He had enjoyed an illustrious career as an auror, becoming Head Auror in his mid-thirties and then ascending to his current position around the time Fleur started at Beauxbatons.
"They don't think it was that kind of curse," Apolline replied, "and they also have no idea how long it had been lurking inside him."
"Papa taught me to purge all external connections, even though magical schools all do that for those who stay anyway," Fleur pointed out. "I cannot imagine him being careless enough to neglect that."
"Like I say, we do not know," Apolline replied.
"Well, I want answers," Fleur muttered, marching down the hallway.
"Fleur!" Apolline exclaimed as Gabrielle rejoined her.
She passed by three doors before finding her father, and her heart leapt into her throat as she did so. He looked so pale, his normally tanned skin taking on an almost greyish tinge, and his usually bright blue eyes looking listless, though they focused a little as he spotted her.
"Little angel," he struggled to get out before his eye fluttered shut and the room started to blare with warning charms.
"Papa!" Fleur exclaimed, her eyes filling with tears as she realized what was happening.
She rushed forward, but the door closed, the healers getting to work to keep him from dying.
"Oh, no," Apolline wept.
"What?" Gabrielle asked, turning pale with fear. "P...Papa's okay. Tell me Papa's okay!"
"Fleur?" Harry asked, coming from around the corner, and she didn't even bother asking how he'd found her, rushing into his arms immediately. "What's going on?"
He saw Gabrielle crying in Apolline's arms and held his girlfriend, looking to the door just as the loud alarm he'd been hearing since he turned the corner stopped and the door quickly opened.
"Madam Delacour?" a short, blonde man asked.
"Healer DuPont...is he..." Apolline went to ask.
"Your husband is alive," the healer replied.
"What happened?" Fleur asked. "That alarm…"
"His heart briefly stopped, but we were able to get it beating again," Healer DuPont replied. "You're his daughter?"
"I am," Fleur replied.
"Apolline," another, taller man, with a bald head and a white mustache, said as he left the room.
"You said he was fine!" Apolline growled.
"Healer Allain had every reason to think so," Healer DuPont replied. "What's afflicting your husband is a subtle thing, one that develops very gradually. I have alerted the aurors and expect them to be here within the next twenty minutes."
"Try one," Healer Allain muttered. "You know who that man is. Apolline, I am so sorry, but your husband is suffering from a wasting curse."
"What sort of wasting curse?" Harry asked.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Healer Allain asked.
"Harry Potter," Harry replied. "Was he struck with the withering curse, or do you suspect this was a blood curse of some sort? How long has he been suffering the symptoms?"
"Months," Apolline replied before anyone else could.
"A blood curse then," Harry muttered, pinching his nose. "What specific symptoms has he been exhibiting? There are all manner of curses one can put on a person whose blood you have a sample of."
"You're oddly knowledgeable about dark magic for someone your age," a new voice sounded, and Harry turned to see a short, dark-haired woman with angry-looking dark eyes glaring up at him suspiciously.
She was oddly pretty, with some of the sharpest cheekbones he'd ever seen, but her scowl was marring it somewhat.
"As I told the healers, I'm Harry Potter," Harry replied. "I had a dark lord after my blood for years before I managed to put him down. Such things necessitate research."
"The Englishman?" the woman asked. "I would have taken you for a Parisian with that accent."
"I have somewhat of a talent for languages," Harry replied. "To whom am I speaking?"
"Auror Elodie Balzac," the woman replied, and Harry fully credited the dire situation with letting him keep a straight face.
"I've seen you before," Apolline nodded.
"Madam Delacour," Elodie replied. "I'm so sorry. Is the director awake?"
"No, we had to sedate him," Healer DuPont replied. "Monsieur Potter is correct; Director Delacour must be suffering from some sort of blood curse. It's the only thing that would explain the incredibly gradual symptoms."
"Is he going to be okay?" Gabrielle asked desperately.
"He is in the best hands he could be, my dear," Healer DuPont replied, "and we are going to do everything we can to help him."
"Please save him," Gabrielle begged, and Apolline hugged her again.
"Fleur, could you take Gabrielle home?" Apolline asked. "I will reach out to you when we have news."
"No!" Gabrielle exclaimed.
"Actually, Madam Delacour, you might want to take her back," Harry replied. "Auror...Balzac here is going to need access to your husband's study, your bedroom, and anywhere else where there might be some kind of clue as to how his blood was taken. Given what he does for a living, I can't imagine that he didn't purge all external connections weekly, if not daily."
"He did," Apolline nodded.
"Then, Monsieur Potter is right, and I'm going to need to get a team of people there to look through his things," Elodie nodded. "A cursed object of some kind could explain how the perpetrator managed this."
"Alright, then come along," Apolline sighed. "Fleur?"
"I'll stay here with Harry and tell you if there are any developments," Fleur replied.
"I want to stay!" Gabrielle hissed.
"Gabrielle," Apolline said firmly, and the girl scowled at her and hung her head.
"Please help him," Fleur begged as soon as her mother, sister, and the auror were gone and Harry sighed.
"I'll do all that I can, but Fleur, these kinds of curses are the worst of the worst save for the Unforgivables," Harry replied. "It doesn't help that the knowledge I possess is entirely focused on how to implement them rather than cure them. Narrowing things down could help, though. What symptoms has he shown so far?"
"According to Mama, it started with him being more tired than normal," Fleur replied. "It was subtle at first, but started getting worse, and it didn't matter how much sleep he got. He blamed it on stress from work at first but went to see a healer days ago because it seemed to be getting worse. Mama insisted on them having a vacation, and after a day of seeming perfectly well, they took a stroll on the beach, and he collapsed."
"Well, that definitely describes a wasting curse," Harry mused. "Unfortunately there are many of that sort, and the treatments are all different."
"So the healers will be running tests to narrow it down," Fleur sighed.
"They will, though I have no idea if they're going to use the most basic one they can," Harry muttered. When she looked confused, he cast a silencing charm around them and added, "The first step in almost all such blood curses is to steep the blood of your victim in a mixture of belladonna, aconite, hemlock, and tormentil, filling it with the poison of them before getting to work weaving the actual curse into it. If one wishes to layer blood curses on a victim, though, you need to work from least deadly to most, because you have to draw new blood samples each time, and every curse you bestow on them makes their blood a little more caustic to the plants. This means that you can use the blood of a curse victim in this step and thereby determine how severe the curse is."
"Why would they not do that, then?" Fleur asked.
"They might," Harry replied. "I have no idea how the laws regarding that work here, but in Britain, because that steeping process is the first step in so many curses, the act is punishable by a year in Azkaban, and healers can't do it."
"That...that's moronic!" Fleur exclaimed, furious. "That just stops good people from helping others, since the criminals are committing much worse crimes and thus clearly don't care."
"You spent the better part of a year in Magical Britain; did it seem like a particularly logical place?" Harry asked, earning a scowl from the blonde, whose hand he took in his own. "The many stupid regulations are part of why Voldemort never tried to get into politics and take power legitimately, as he became convinced that the ministry was so hopelessly feckless that only by striking it down entirely could he ever hope to accomplish anything. The rest of it was because he was a bloodthirsty psychopath with poor impulse control."
"Could you do it?" Fleur asked.
"Of course," Harry replied. "I was going to ask you to distract the healers while I sneak in and extract some of his blood."
"That I can do," Fleur replied. "How did you find me, anyway?"
"The bond," Harry replied. "I could sense your fear and dread, and I'll always know where you are because of it, so I came right over."
"I love you," Fleur smiled, though it didn't quite reach her fearful eyes.
"I love you too," Harry replied, kissing her softly. "Now, go distract a pair of old men for me."
"The blonde one isn't that old, though he's too short for me," Fleur replied as he looked around to make sure no one was looking at them before disillusioning himself.
"...kick myself for not seeing it when he visited," Healer Allain muttered as he waved his wand over Sebastian's sleeping form.
"I didn't defend you just now purely out of professional courtesy," Healer DuPont sighed. "Things like this can be impo...Miss Delacour, I'm going to need you to wait outside."
"I just wanted to ask if there was anything else you could tell me about this curse," Fleur replied breathily, flashing her allure and getting both of their attention.
"You could ask the Englishman out there," Healer Allain replied. "He seemed quite knowledgeable."
"He is, but he's not a healer," Fleur purred, stepping closer. "You two studied for years; you are experts in this sort of thing, and I've always been one to turn to men with...experience when I have need."
Healer Allain tensed slightly while DuPont couldn't keep the smile off of his face. Harry would have thought them fools for getting so distracted while they had a patient to look after, but Fleur was sex on legs without her allure and almost impossible to ignore with it. Slipping inside, he conjured a small vial and pricked a vein in Sebastian's left bicep with the point of his tail, magically transferring every drop of blood it touched into it before sealing the wound.
"...so there are multiple things that it could be, but we will know more by the end of the day, I assure you," Healer DuPont said as Harry brushed his hand against hers.
"Oh, then I'll leave you to it," Fleur smiled, turning and leaving quickly.
"Wait, what?" Healer DuPont asked, going to follow her before Allain grabbed him.
"Focus on the task at hand," he hissed. "That was just her allure."
"Her…" Healer DuPont went to reply, shaking his head and staring after her in confusion. "Why would she try to distract us as we work to save her father?"
"I suspect her interest in his condition was genuine, but that would be the only genuine interest," Healer Allain replied, and DuPont shook his head again, turning back to his patient.
"Alright, now it will take me a little while to put everything together, but we'll…" Harry went to say as he and Fleur appeared in the Rookery.
"Fleur, did Harry tell you the good news?" Luna beamed as she flew in, coming to a halt once she saw how awful the Veela looked. "What's wrong?"
"What news?" Fleur asked, looking at Harry, who couldn't help but wince.
"Rias and I are engaged," he replied, and her eyes went wide as saucers.
"Oh, well, congratulations," Fleur replied as Luna flew up and wrapped her arms around her neck.
"Talk to me," she said softly, her silver eyes full of concern, and Fleur choked out a sob.
"What's wrong?" Rias asked as she walked in.
After gathering the rest of the peerage and Sirius together, Harry told them what was going on, all while Fleur tried to compose herself and Luna held her.
"Merlin, I'm so sorry, Fleur," Sirius sighed. "I knew of Sebastian Delacour by reputation back during the first war. I can't imagine how whoever did this managed to get the drop on him."
"How exactly do blood curses work?" Hermione asked. "It's one area of magic I never studied."
"They're called blood curses because blood is the most common medium used to cast them, but essentially, you carefully prepare a sample of your victim for the application of the curse, and once that's done, you can hit them from anywhere on Earth, or probably even further," Harry replied as he carefully bound the bouquet of herbs together with bicorn hair. "This will need to sit in the middle of a destructive runic circle for an hour before we can use it, but once that's done, we'll be able to determine at least which class of curse we're dealing with."
"Wait, Rias, could you just destroy the curse?" Fleur asked hopefully.
"No," Rias sighed. "Curses of this type get so interwoven into the victim's essence that to destroy it would mean destroying them too. Even Sirzechs, with the practice he put into isolating soul shards inside horcruxes, wouldn't be able to do this. If we could find the blood sample, it could be destroyed, but any of you could do that."
"That is the one surefire way to destroy curses like this, but in most cases there are other ways to undo them," Harry commented.
"I had forgotten just how much knowledge of dark magic you had bouncing around in there," Sirius commented, pointing at Harry's head.
"Decades of it," Harry muttered as he finished empowering the runic circle he'd carved into a stone plaque and placed the bouquet in the middle of it.
"So the plants are aconite, hemlock, tormentil, and belladonna?" Hermione asked. "I can't help but notice that one of those doesn't really belong, despite its less than pleasant name."
"The tormentil helps keep them all from counteracting each other, while the bicorn hair binds them all together," Harry replied. "The process was perfected by an ancient Greek wizard named Herpo."
"Did it sound like the police had any idea who might be behind it?" Kiba asked.
"They had just started the investigation and wouldn't have told us anything regardless," Harry replied. "Up until this morning, the whole thing was being treated like an ailment of some sort, and no one had any reason to suspect foul play."
"That's one of the most insidious things about most of the curses of this sort," Sirius added. "They start so slow that by the time you have any cause for true alarm, the person behind it could have been on the other side of the world for weeks, even months."
"If I ever get my hands on them…" Fleur hissed.
"We'll help you deal with them," Rias promised, and the blonde looked up at her, forcing out a question she really didn't want to consider.
"If...if we can't cure him, could your evil pieces save him?" she asked, her eyes pleading, and Rias sighed.
"I'm out of pawns, and using pieces far more powerful than the base person you're trying to revive can go very poorly," she replied. "Beyond that, though, evil pieces can't revive or turn someone who doesn't want the gift of devilry, and given how most wizards view devils, I wouldn't imagine that your father would much want to be one, especially since he's been married to a Veela for decades."
"Merde," Fleur spat, jumping to her feet and pacing. "I hate having to wait."
"I know this isn't going to sound particularly comforting, but these curses are almost always intended to make the victim's death slow," Sirius sighed. "That means that we should have plenty of time to find a cure."
Fleur let out a humorless laugh and leaned against the wall. "Will he be able to recover if it takes us too long, though?"
"It depends," Harry replied honestly. "Given that he's been experiencing symptoms for months and it only just got to a point where medical intervention was needed, we should have weeks at least before he'll be at risk of permanent damage."
"We'll want to look over his cases," Koneko piped up. "If finding the dickbag who did this is our most effective course of action, figuring out who has the biggest axe to grind with him would be helpful."
"He signed up at the academy right out of Beauxbatons and has been in law enforcement for thirty years," Fleur sighed. "His list of enemies would not be short."
"How much older is he than your mum?" Harry asked.
"Mama looks good for her age," Fleur replied, figuring that was why he was asking. "He is a decade older than her, though, and actually met her while she was about to enter her final year at the school. She and my grandmere were witnesses to a brutal duel that caused so much damage in Paris the Oblivatiors ended up making the locals think it was a terrorist attack of some kind. She liked him from the start and seduced him within the day, though it was apparently a while before he considered actually dating her because she was so young."
Fleur smiled at that, and Hermione took her hand comfortingly.
"I don't have any contacts in the French ministry, sadly," Sirius sighed.
"My aunt might," Rias muttered, and Harry looked at her curiously.
"Minobella?" he asked.
"The one and only," Rias winced. "Asking her for favors is never fun, but if we end up needing to, I can visit her."
"Thank you," Fleur smiled, "all of you, for being so kind."
"You're part of Rias' peerage, and that makes you one of us," Kiba replied.
"Indeed," Rias added. "We're a family, Fleur, and if your father needs our help, he'll get it."
"Sona will want to speak with you before the end of the week regarding the end-of-year festivities, but other than that...what did I miss?" Akeno asked as she walked in.
The others filled her in while Harry watched the bouquet become increasingly infused with dark and destructive magic. This was something that Voldemort had rarely ever bothered with, preferring to kill his enemies in more direct ways, but he'd learned much of it anyway during the decade he spent traveling the world after he graduated from Hogwarts. Herpo had been an obsession of his for a while, given that the man had apparently been the first to create a horcrux, and his old foe had learned as much as he could of the ancient wizard's work.
"That smells really foul," Koneko muttered as he uncorked the vial of blood.
"The herbs?" Harry asked.
"No, the blood," Koneko replied. "There's a poison in it, even stronger than the herbs."
"What are you talking about?" Fleur asked.
"Koneko is a nekomata," Rias replied before she could.
"A cat person?" Hermione asked, and Luna gasped, looking at the short, white-haired girl with new interest.
"Really?" she asked excitedly, and Koneko reared back, not liking the sudden attention.
"Yes," she replied warily.
"Hermione was a cat person once," Luna said, and the brunette glared at her.
"Huh?" Koneko asked.
"Polyjuice is a potion that lets you take on the form of another person if you put one of their hairs in it before drinking," Hermione replied. "I tried to turn into classmate of ours, but the hair that I plucked from her robes turned out to belong to her cat. The result was...less than pleasant."
"Wait, what?" Sirius asked, chuckling. "Oh, Merlin, what happened?"
"This," Harry replied, conjuring an image of his memory of her, and Hermione squeaked.
"Harry!" she exclaimed.
"You were so cute!" Luna beamed. Looking at Koneko, she asked, "So do you have a cat form?"
"Nothing like that," the younger girl replied dryly. "Fuck, I can't even imagine having hair everywhere like that."
"It wasn't fun," Hermione muttered, still glaring at Harry, who dismissed the conjured image.
"Eh, being hairy isn't all bad, right, pup?" Sirius quipped, and Harry rolled his eyes.
"Says the fleabag," he retorted, and Sirius gave him an offended look.
"I do not have fleas!" he exclaimed, turning into Padfoot to demonstrate.
Koneko hissed in surprise and jumped to the ceiling, her ears, tail, and claws coming in as she clung to it. "What the fuck!?"
"Oh, wow, you're cute too," Luna smiled as Sirius turned back, laughing at her reaction.
"I'm an animagus," he explained. "Some wizards develop the ability to turn into a specific type of animal that represents their soul in some way. Padfoot is my form."
"So that's why you smell like dog," Koneko muttered, dropping down and glaring at him, her ears folded back along her head.
"Oi, I don't smell," Sirius replied.
"It's done," Harry called out, drawing all of their attention to him.
Luna looked at him after another moment of staring at Koneko, thinking to herself that she really needed to get to know the nekomata better.
"Here," Harry murmured, lifting the bouquet up telepathically and pouring the blood into a bowl that could hold both of them. "From how many seconds it takes to dissolve the herbs, we'll be able to determine which class of curse we're dealing with, though we'll still need to narrow things down from th…"
He trailed off as he placed the herbs in the blood, only for them to wilt and rot instantly.
"Um...what does that mean?" Fleur asked, feeling her heart jump into her throat as she watched Harry turn pale.
"Nathresia's Bane," Harry muttered, sitting down heavily and burying his face in his hands.
"Oh, fuck," Sirius breathed.
"What?" Fleur asked. "What is Nathresia's Bane?"
"One of the worst blood curses ever devised," Harry replied. "Only blood maledictions could possibly be considered worse, as they affect entire bloodlines."
"What does it do?" Luna asked.
"It's a wasting curse like most of them, meant to slowly make the victim waste away, but it's one of the most difficult ones to cure," Sirius replied. "My grandfather told us all the tale over Yule dinner once. Nathresia was the wife of a wealthy, yet weak wizard named Darius about two hundred years ago. She cheated on him, flaunting her affairs, utterly secure in her belief that her brothers, far more powerful wizards than her husband, could keep him in check if he ever tried anything. Realizing that he couldn't be rid of her normally, due to the power of her family, he devised a way to kill her that no one would suspect him of."
"She did die, though her brothers eventually figured out that Darius had done it and tortured him to death," Harry replied.
"That part Arcturus went into particular detail about," Sirius muttered. "Didn't eat much that night."
"How do we cure him?" Fleur asked.
"The only known way is to find and destroy the blood sample," Harry replied, and she paled. "Every other method ever attempted has failed."
"How...how long do you think we have?" Fleur asked.
"Your father is going to be well enough to be discharged by tonight," Harry replied.
"'Arry, his heart stopped earlier," Fleur pointed out.
"I know, but knowing what specifically he was hit by now, he would have survived even without the healers' intervention," Harry replied. "Nathresia's Bane comes in waves, the first three of which are never fatal. In some cases there are four waves, in others five, but there have never been more than that. The length of time between them varies too, with the shortest periods ever recorded being a week."
"So we have possibly as little as a month to save his life?" Fleur asked, and he pulled her in, hugging her tightly.
"I'll do everything I can, Fleur," he promised. "Now, return to France and inform your mother and that Balzac woman about what we've found. Regardless of whether or not this test was illegal there, it was done outside their jurisdiction, and they won't seek me out here for it."
"In the meantime, we'll return to the underworld and see if we can't find anything in the omnilibrary on it," Rias murmured.
"That might be a really good idea," Harry nodded. "After Nathresia's brother finished flaying and gelding Darius, they locked him in his house and set it on fire. They hoped to destroy all knowledge of the curse and burned his grimoire with him. Unfortunately, he had consulted with another man, who sold knowledge of the curse to others. If he ever considered a cure, which isn't likely, knowledge of it would have been in that grimoire."
"Who was the other man?" Luna asked.
"Is," Harry corrected her, "or at least, he was still alive as late as the sixties. He was a one-time mentor of Voldemort's, actually."
"You said that Darius lived two hundred years ago," Hermione pointed out.
"He was an ancient thing when Voldemort met him in the fifties," Harry replied. "Klaus Reinhardt's his name, and he worked with Grindelwald back during his reign of terror as well. The man's as dark as they come, but smart enough to keep his nose just clean enough. He has a horcrux as well."
"So he is quite likely still alive," Fleur mused, narrowing her eyes. "Could he be involved here?"
"Unlikely," Harry replied, "or at least not directly. He's a dark magic consultant of sorts and never shies away from helping psychopaths who cross his path. Voldemort thought that he did it out of sheer amusement as well as the fees he often charges, but he never asked."
"Dark magic consultant?" Hermione asked incredulously.
"I'd be shocked if my grandfather didn't know him back in the day," Sirius muttered, shaking his head. "Seems like his sort of friend."
"Anyway, I'll go see my mother and speak to the aurors," Fleur replied. "They might still be there searching for whatever was used to obtain his blood."
"They don't know that yet?" Rias asked, tapping her nails on the table. When Fleur shook her head, she said, "Koneko, go with her and see if you can sniff out anything that smells of blood and shouldn't."
"You got it," Koneko nodded.
"You're returning to Castle Gremory?" Fleur asked.
"We are," Rias nodded. "Join us when you're done, though I'll likely have gone off to visit Aunt Minobella, provided she's free."
"Alright," Fleur sighed. "Thank you again for your help. This came almost out of nowhere for me, and I can't imagine how much of a basket case I'd be right now without all of you."
"We're all here for you, Fleur," Harry whispered, kissing her softly before watching her disappear in a fiery orange circle.
"You would have your copies, but I'll look through my grandfather's old journals and see if he ever wrote about Nathresia's Bane," Sirius replied. "Good luck."
"Thanks," Harry sighed. "We're going to need it."
"Are things more dire than you told Fleur?" Hermione asked.
"Let's just say that Nathresia's death wasn't pleasant," Harry grimaced.
"Ah, Rias," Venelana smiled as she spotted her. "What ended up being the problem with your new pawn?"
"Her father's been afflicted by a terrible curse," Rias replied, and Venelana's face fell.
"Ah, I see," she replied. "Is it something that we could deal with?"
"It's a blood curse," Rias replied, shaking her head, "a particularly vile one called Nathresia's Bane."
"Oh," Venelana muttered. "She has my condolences."
"It's early yet, and we could undo it if we could find the person responsible," Rias replied. "Her father is the head of the French magical government's justice department, and I need to know what he's been working on if I'm going to try to narrow down who's responsible, but it's not like they'll work with me. I was wondering if…"
"Minobella," Venelana guessed immediately. "She might be able to help you, though she seldom does anything for free. I'll be visiting her tomorrow morning if you'd like to come along."
"You don't think she'd have a moment to spare today?" Rias asked.
"No," Venelana replied. "She's been driving herself mad planning the ball she and Hafaer are throwing and booked the whole day off for spa treatments. Bloody diva."
Rias laughed at that.
"I had hoped to see her today, but she made it very clear that tomorrow would be the earliest possible time," Venelana continued.
"Well, I'll go with you then," Rias nodded. "Hopefully Seekvaira will be there; I haven't seen her in ages."
"She probably will be," Venelana nodded. "I spoke with Harry earlier."
"We've been so consumed by Fleur's trouble that we didn't have time to discuss it," Rias replied.
"He has potential, that one," Venelana said, "and I don't just mean his incubus potential. You would do well to cultivate it, and I can help you there."
"I've been 'cultivating' his potential since we met," Rias replied. "He's grown by leaps and bounds since he first summoned me. I'm honestly quite proud."
"We'll discuss this later," Venelana said as her familiar flew in, carrying a message.
"Right," Rias nodded before flying off towards the library.
"...all kinds of spell ideas that aren't anything like the ones we know," Luna explained as she entered the library. "I might be able to find something in here that could cure Fleur's dad."
"It's possible, though finding the prick who did it remains our best bet," Harry replied as Darius' grimoire flew into his hand. "This might also help."
"I really do love our library," Rias chuckled, looking around and seeing Hermione, Akeno, and Luna all already poring over books.
"Is your aunt available today?" Harry asked.
"No," Rias replied, "but my mother is visiting her tomorrow, so I'll just tag along. What are you all reading?"
"I have a tome on curses so thick with dark magic it's actually woven into the parchment," Akeno replied.
"A scroll written by Apollo himself on healing magic that might be useful," Hermione replied.
"This is a book I was reading yesterday," Luna replied. "I don't know for sure if there are healing spells in it, but some of this stuff is really powerful. This in particular seems quite mad, considering that it's supposed to be a mid-level spell."
"What is it?" Hermione asked, looking up from her scroll.
"Reincarnate," Luna replied. "Apparently, it dissolves the body of either a living or a very recently deceased being and creates a whole new one from their physical components before forcing the person's soul into it."
"That...shouldn't be possible," Rias perplexed.
"You wouldn't think so, but all the other spells I've tried from the other books similar to this have worked," Luna said.
"Luna, let me see that for a second," Hermione all but demanded, setting her scroll down and walking over. She examined the spell in detail, studying it as her old Arithmancy professor taught her to look over spells, and ran the calculations in her head on just how much power it would take to pull it off, her eyes growing wide as saucers. "Luna, never try this. Even a devil wouldn't survive channeling the amount of power it would take to pull it off."
"It's not like there are many uses for it that I can think of," Luna shrugged, taking the book back and flipping to another page.
The five of them sat in the library, researching in silence, each one hoping to find something that could make saving Sebastian Delacour's life easier.
"Fleur!" Apolline exclaimed as she walked into their manor. "I just got word from the hospital. Your father's made a dramatic recovery, and though the healers want to keep him overnight for observation, they think that they'll be able to discharge him tomorrow. Where did you go?"
"How goes the investigation?" Fleur asked, spotting Elodie Balzac with a pair of aurors.
"We're done with the director's study," Elodie replied.
"Did you find anything?" Fleur asked.
"We examined everything in there and will know more later today," Elodie replied. "Who's your friend?"
"Koneko," Koneko replied.
"A unique name," Elodie murmured.
"We just came over from Japan," Koneko replied. "Fleur has news."
"I know what curse was used on my father," Fleur explained. "'Arry ran tests on his blood and…"
"You what?!" Apolline hissed.
"It's Nathresia's Bane," Fleur blurted out, and two out of the three aurors immediately paled.
"What's that?" the third one asked.
"One of the worst blood curses ever devised," Elodie replied, and Apolline's chest lurched.
"But...but he already seems better," she stammered.
"What exactly did Potter do?" Elodie asked.
"He prepared a bouquet of tormentil, aconite, belladonna, and hemlock and then added them to Papa's blood," Fleur replied. "They dissolved instantly and according to 'Arry, there is only one curse that would produce that effect."
"Your friend wasn't kidding about the extent of his research," Elodie scowled.
"It's finished now, so I suppose there's no harm in saying that he and Voldemort, the dark lord who terrorized Britain back in the seventies and early eighties and recently returned from the dead, were linked by prophecy," Fleur replied. "He was the only one who could kill that lunatic, and so, yes, he learned about all kinds of dark magic, because that was what he was up against."
"Not my jurisdiction," Elodie shrugged. "If we are dealing with that of all curses, it makes this a great deal more serious, but it also narrows down the suspect pool a lot. Thank your boyfriend for his help, but I'm warning you and would like you to carry the message on that this is officially auror-business, and I won't tolerate civilian interference."
"What about professional interference?" Sebastian asked as he walked through the floo, leaning heavily on a cane.
"Sebastian!" Apolline exclaimed, rushing over to him. "What are you doing here? They said that they were keeping you overnight."
"I made it perfectly clear to them that I was returning home as soon as I could walk," Sebastian muttered.
"You stubborn man," Apolline hissed. "You are in serious danger."
"So I've gathered," Sebastian replied dryly. "Healer Allard said that from what they'd determined so far, it has to be something particularly dark."
"Nathresia's Bane," Fleur said and his eyes widened.
"How could you…" Sebastian went to ask.
"'Arry figured it out," Fleur replied. "He's somewhat of an expert on things like this for reasons I'll go over later."
"That...of all the people I can think of who could have reason to try to kill me, few could pull off something like that," Sebastian mused. "What I can't figure out is how they got my blood. I purge all external connections every other day."
"We examined your room and study for anything that seemed to be cursed and found nothing," Elodie said. "The team I sent to examine your office also came up with nothing."
"That's why I'm here," Koneko piped up.
"Pardon?" Elodie asked.
"I'm a...cat animagus," Koneko lied, "and my sense of smell is far greater than most."
"Whatever was used to extract your blood without you knowing might still smell like blood," Fleur added.
"Your blood in particular smells terrible," Koneko muttered, "like poison and rot."
"You could...smell that?" Elodie asked before sighing. "Well, I can't believe I'm saying this, but come along."
"When did that little girl smell my blood?" Sebastian asked Fleur, who explained how Harry had determined the specific curse earlier.
The lot of them followed the aurors and Koneko towards his study, being intercepted by a flying blonde missile along the way.
"Papa!" Gabrielle exclaimed, tears forming in her eyes as she rushed over to hug him. "Are you all better?"
"Getting better, little dove," Sebastian replied, kissing her cheek. "I'm sorry for worrying you."
"That's weird," Koneko scowled the moment she entered the room. "This place smells like whiskey, but...whiskey that's on fire."
"I thought you gave up your nightcaps when you said that that might be why you were so tired in the morning," Apolline glared, and Sebastian chuckled sheepishly.
"Well, in my defense, it turns out that they had nothing to do with it," he replied.
"It's in here," Koneko muttered as she made a beeline for his desk. "I could smell the rot almost from the door."
"We looked in the desk and found nothing," Elodie said.
"Well, something in here stinks," Koneko replied, pulling open drawer after drawer and giving each a whiff until she found the one she was looking for. "In here."
"That's my stationary, and my ink, which I'd ask you to be careful with!" Sebastian exclaimed as Koneko tossed the inkwell onto the desk haphazardly. "This!"
She pulled out a quill with a bright orange, fiery-looking feather, bringing it to her nose and grimacing as she detected the same thing that she'd smelled back in the rookery.
"My quill?" Sebastian asked, confused, "But I've had that thing for years."
"I bought it for you...nearly a decade ago now," Apolline added.
"Is that so?" Elodie asked suspiciously, and Sebastian glared at her.
"It wasn't Apolline," he insisted.
"All I know is that the quill stinks like your blood, especially the tip," Koneko replied, giving it over to Elodie, whose brow furrowed.
"I wonder," she mused, drawing her wand and casting a few charms on it. "Oh no."
"What is it?" Sebastian asked.
"We were specifically looking for cursed objects earlier, and our detection spells wouldn't have picked this up," Elodie replied. "This has been enchanted to act as a sort of blood quill."
"What?" Sebastian demanded. "Oh, no."
"Wait, so every time he used it to write it…" Apolline went to ask.
"We have to assume that every time you used this quill, Director, it took a little of your blood and sent it to whoever is responsible for this," Elodie cut her off.
They all looked at her in horror.
The investigation that followed that revelation was long and tiring, with the aurors needing to question everyone, especially Apolline, who outright demanded Veritaserum so they could stop wasting her time. By the time Fleur and Koneko left, hours had passed, and they were both very happy to return to the Underworld.
"Hey," Harry said, standing up as they entered the library. "How did it go?"
"I found the thing they used to get his blood," Koneko replied. "It was a quill of some kind. You guys actually still use quills?"
"It's tradition, and they're not as bad as you'd think," Hermione replied. "How did it take his blood?"
"It had been enchanted to do so as he wrote," Fleur replied. "He's had it for years, and he always checks new things for curses before he uses them out of basic auror paranoia, so at some point someone must have gained access to it and cursed it, which raises so many more questions. Our wards are extensive, and even when Mama and Gabrielle are out, Bernadette is always there."
"Bernadette?" Hermione asked.
"Our house-elf," Fleur replied. "It just doesn't make sense. Papa thanked us for our work and politely asked us to leave it to the aurors too, so we're not going to get much from him."
"I'm meeting with my aunt tomorrow to see if she can help," Rias assured her. "We have time to work on this and plenty of resources at our command. We'll figure something out."
"She's right," Harry added, hugging her tightly. "We're here for you."
"Thank you," Fleur whispered, her eyes filling with tears. "Right now, I swear I just need to get my mind off of everything."
"Harry, why don't you help her with that?" Rias asked suggestively, and Fleur smirked.
"You do make a lovely distraction, master," she purred, and Harry chuckled.
"If you're sure," he whispered, and she nodded.
"Just make me forget for an hour or two, please," Fleur all but begged, and he hooked an arm under her knees and carried her off bridal style, flying to his bedroom.
"Thank you," Fleur breathed as he tossed her on his bed and undressed her with a wave of his hand.
"You never need to thank me for this," Harry chuckled, undressing himself and descending between her parted legs.
"I didn't really mean for this as much as just today in general," Fleur replied. "Coming to me as you did, taking charge and immediately working to help my papa. I'd be a wreck without you."
"I love you, Fleur," Harry breathed, cupping her cheek. "The moment I sensed you were in trouble, I didn't hesitate to come running, and as for helping your father, what's the point of having decades' worth of a psycho's knowledge in my head if I don't use it now and then?"
Fleur giggled at that and pulled him down for a kiss, eager to lose herself in him. Her hands roamed over his muscular form, her core burning with desire the more she took him in. He was easily the most handsome man she'd ever met, and just being around him was enough to make her wet, but their relationship had progressed far beyond mere carnal lust. She adored him, and seeing his lust-darkened green eyes staring into hers made her heart and pussy both flutter.
"So you and Rias are getting married?" she asked as she broke the kiss.
"Does that bother you?" Harry asked.
"No," Fleur replied, running her hands over his broad shoulders through to his neck and cupping his face. "I knew from the start that I was joining an existing relationship, and Rias was always pretty obviously your first girlfriend."
"I really am the luckiest man alive," Harry chuckled, kissing her again and kneading her heavy breasts.
The two of them made out languidly, neither one in a rush, and each one more than happy to just enjoy the moment. Harry could still feel Fleur's fear and dread through the bond and was determined to do as much as he could to take her mind off of the terrible day, while Fleur herself just wanted to shut her brain off and lose herself in the pleasure she knew her lover could bring her. Their tongues danced in their mouths, and she moaned as she felt his massive, rock-hard cock start to grind against her heated flesh. Wrapping her legs around him, she met his thrusts, enjoying the simple pleasure of his touch even though he wasn't yet inside her.
"Oh, fuck!" Fleur cried out when he broke the kiss and moved to her neck.
His lips mapped a trail across her hot skin, each kiss making her insides flutter, until she was panting with need.
"Fuck me, I could have you thrice daily for eternity and not get my fill," Harry groaned, nipping at her pulse point and then soothing it with his tongue.
"I...inside me, please!" Fleur cried.
"You don't want me to taste you first?" Harry asked.
"Feel how fucking wet I am for you," Fleur moaned, grabbing his ass and slowly sliding her slick cunt along the underside of his cock. "You can do whatever you want to me later, but right now if I don't feel your cock inside my pussy, I'll go mad."
"Well, we wouldn't want that, my precious bird," Harry replied, lining himself up with her and sinking inside. He caught her gasping moan with his lips, kissing her again, and thrust forward slowly, sinking inside her depths inch by inch.
"Holy shit!" Fleur exclaimed, throwing her head back as he bottomed out inside her. "I'll never get enough of your cock, 'Arry."
"Fuck me, I swear you're hotter than normal," Harry groaned, and she giggled.
"I may or may not be ovulating," Fleur replied, and his eye darkened.
"Really?" Harry asked, ghosting his knuckles over her cheek. "So you're saying that if I came inside you, I might knock you up?"
Fleur gasped at that, her eyes going nearly black and her insides clenching around him, making him grin devilishly.
"You like that idea, don't you?" he asked.
"I...fuck!" Fleur cried as he pulled his cock back, his immense girth brushing against every inch of her sensitive tunnel.
In truth, he had been casting contraceptive charms on all of them since he became an incubus, something that he'd only bothered with for Hermione, Luna, and Fleur before. He was a lot more fertile than he used to be and was in no position to become a father just then, given his age and his mission to save his mother's soul from Rizevim. He was fairly sure that she knew that too, but if talking about getting her pregnant turned her on, then he'd happily oblige.
"You'd look so fucking hot pregnant with my child," he whispered in her ear, and she whimpered.
"I...I'm not ready to...merde...become a mother," Fleur cried, her molten tunnel spasming around him as he worked his way up to a steady pace.
"No?" Harry asked, cocking an eyebrow. "This hot, wet, tight pussy says otherwise. You can't even think about me putting a baby in you without clenching around me."
"Fucking hell, Harry," Fleur cried, wrapping her legs around him as she reached above her head, clawing at the sheets.
"These childbearing hips, these massive breasts, your body's practically begging for me to do it," Harry grinned, sliding his hands up along her body as he picked up his pace, fucking her hard enough for her breasts to bounce and roll across her chest.
Her pink nipples looked hard enough to cut glass as he palmed her mounds, and he eagerly lowered his head down to capture one of them with his lips.
"Fuck, fuck!" Fleur cried, feeling herself soaring towards her peak.
"They'd get even bigger, filling up with milk to feed our little girl," Harry grinned as he switched to the other nipple, grazing it with his teeth before sucking on it, making her shriek.
"Do it, 'Arry!" Fleur cried. "Cum in me; fill me up!"
"If you want my cum, you're going to need to earn it," Harry rumbled, and she nearly came right there.
Reaching around, she raked her nails over his back, the mild sting making him gasp and pick up his pace further. Her moans turned to screams as his every thrust started to make lights go off behind her eyes. She was so close and didn't know if the way that he was filling her to the brim over and over again or the fantasy he was putting in her head had more to do with it. She'd barely given any thought to children before, only having graduated that year and never having met a man she'd have even considered having them with before Harry. As he picked up his pace again, fucking her with hard, deep strokes, and continued whispering in her ear about what a good mother she'd be and how fucking hot she'd look round with their daughter, it was all she could think of, though.
"Do it!" Fleur screamed, scratching his back. "Cum in me, cum...ARRY!"
She squealed as she came hard, squirting all around his pistoning cock. Harry groaned at the way she spasmed around him, her body trying to milk him as though the fantasy was real. He held on, having reached a point where he came when he wanted, something that was either due to him becoming an incubus, his extensive sexual experience, or both, and fucked her through her orgasm, prolonging her pleasure as much as he could. Fleur screamed and squealed through it all, her mind deliciously blank as pleasure overwhelmed her. When it finally ended, she collapsed on her back, panting for breath and staring up at him with hooded, glassy eyes.
"You...did not...cum," she panted, her French accent having thickened dramatically, something that he figured she was putting on for effect.
"Like I said," Harry replied with a grin. "You're going to have to be a good girl and earn it."
She licked up across his lips and unleashed her allure at full force.
"Pull out of me, roll me over, and pound me into ze bed until you cum," she commanded. "I don't care if I pass out, and I don't want you to stop even if I beg. Use me like a 'ole to fuck until you're sated."
"As you wish," Harry grinned, pulling his cock from her gaping quim and rolling her onto her belly before plunging inside her again to the hilt.
"YES!" Fleur shrieked, clawing at the sheets in front of her.
He wasn't going to impregnate her that day, or any day soon, but if the fantasy of it was enough to get her mind off what was happening in France for a while, he was happy to indulge it. They'd get to work on trying to figure out who was trying to kill her father once they had a better idea of the enemies he'd made over the years, but for now, they'd focus on trying to get her through the crisis.
"Herr Reinhardt," a gravelly voice called through the floo.
"Give me a moment," Reinhardt replied as he walked over. "Zese old bones don't move as easily as zey vonce did. Vhat is it, Runcorn?"
"My contacts in the French ministry sent me an interesting bit of news on the subject you asked me to keep an ear out for," Albert Runcorn replied. "Their DMLE is up in arms after Director Delacour was taken to the hospital. It turns out that the poor bugger's been hit with some blood curse I didn't recognize the name of."
"I see," Reinhardt nodded. "Zank you for telling me."
"Anything for an old friend," Runcorn smiled. "Good day."
"Und to you," Reinhardt replied as the green fire dissipated.
Albert Runcorn was a weasel of a man, but such men had their uses, and with his old contacts in the French ministry having been rounded up in one of Delacour's anti-corruption blitzes, a man working in the British Department of International Magical Co-operation was the next best thing.
"I did varn him zat zey'd figure it out quickly," Reinhardt sighed, walking over to a nearby table and resting his hand on a picture on it. "Of course, zat vas ze idea."
He chuckled and picked up the picture, his sightless eyes staring into nothing as he sensed every speck of ink on it. Harry Potter had proven himself a most intriguing figure, and he was very much looking forward to meeting him.