Chapter 35
"Rias, what a surprise," Minobella smiled as she spotted her.
"Aunt Minobella," Rias nodded respectfully.
"Rias here wanted a word with you, and since I was coming already, I figured I'd just bring her along," Venelana added. "Is Seekvaira in?"
"She is," Minobella replied. "Come, come. I have tea and cakes waiting for us."
Minobella led them into the Crystal Palace, the home she'd shared with her husband for centuries. Rias had often thought that her own home and her aunt's place both truly reflected the personalities of the two sisters. Gremory Castle was a tall, imposing structure, beautiful in its way but more than anything a place meant to reflect quiet, respectable power. The Crystal Palace was as over-the-top as her melodramatic aunt, a square structure of opaque crystal, with tall, jutting towers at each corner.
Every bit of it was made of the material, meant to remind everyone that the crystals used for the Evil Pieces came exclusively from this territory, though a different kind of crystal was used in the construction. It was beautiful and grand in a way that was almost garish, but the dark hue of the crystal gave it a subtle ruggedness that toned it down just enough to avoid that. The gleaming purple lights that traveled throughout it shone with power, though, and made it clear that the palace was more than just a pretty art piece. In this too, it reflected her aunt, for though Minobella was flightier and more dramatic than her sister, she was still a daughter of the House of Bael, and none of that line were to be taken lightly.
"How go the preparations?" Venelana asked, and Minobella huffed.
"Oh, it's a nightmare," the brunette muttered. "I have no idea why I insist on putting myself through the trouble of arranging these things as often as I do."
"Because you love playing hostess and having everyone praise you for how lovely everything is," Venelana replied immediately, and her sister glared at her for a moment before sighing.
"You're not…"
"Aunt Venelana," a new voice said, and Rias smiled as she saw a mane of familiar pale green hair at the top of the entry staircase. "Mother said you were co...Rias!"
"Seekvaira," Rias smiled as the girl rushed down the steps and hugged her.
"I didn't know you were coming," Seekvaira gushed, giving her mother a look.
"It surprised me too," Minobella murmured. "You rarely visit, Rias, and given that, if I'm not mistaken, that school of yours is still in session, I'm surprised you're here at all."
"There's something that I need to discuss with you," Rias replied, and Minobella grinned almost imperceptibly, realizing that she was about to be asked for a favor.
"Well, we can discuss that over tea," Minobella replied. "Seekvaira, dear, would you like to join us, or will you insist on going out to train?"
"I can have a cup," Seekvaira replied. "Rias, I heard you had expanded your peerage."
"Yes, I have," Rias replied. "I made Koneko my rook and found a knight back at the end of last year. I recently found four pawns, though."
"How many pieces do you have left?" Seekvaira asked.
"A rook, a knight, and a bishop," Rias replied, and her cousin cocked an eyebrow. "Two of my pawns ended up requiring multiple pieces."
"You simply must tell me more about them," Seekvaira beamed.
"After we've had a chance to sit down," Minobella cut in as she led them into her sitting room. "What do you think of the chairs, Lana? I recently had them reupholstered."
"Oh, they look marvelous," Venelana replied, brushing her hand over the soft burgundy leather. "They feel exquisite too."
Minobella preened under the complement as her sister knew she would, and sat down as one of her maids finished pouring four cups of tea.
"That will be all," she said, and the maid nodded before leaving. "Now, Rias, you have something to ask of me, yes?"
"I do," Rias replied. "It has to do with one of the new members of my peerage. Have your contacts in the French magical community shared any interesting bits of information lately?"
"I receive all sorts of information," Minobella replied, sipping her tea. "You will have to be more specific."
"Sebastian Delacour," Rias replied, and Minobella's cup hovered just a little away from her lips.
"Now where did you hear that name?" she asked, setting her cup down. "I hadn't thought that you had any interest in France, much less its magical community."
"That's always been more your thing," Venelana murmured. "These cakes are French, if I recall correctly, though I can't recall the name."
"Good eye," Minobella smiled, picking up one of the plates that had been arranged. On each one there was a small rectangular piece of cake possessed of multiple different layers that looked divine. "Opera cake, a favorite of mine. It's made of thin layers of almond cake sandwiched between layers of chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream."
"Mmm, oh wow," Rias smiled as she tasted it.
"So, you've heard about the rather unfortunate fate that has befallen the soon-to-be late director," Minobella said, making Rias stiffen. "I would love to know how."
"His daughter is one of my new pawns," Rias replied, and Minobella looked at her in shock for a moment before her eyes widened in recognition.
"Your Veela," she guessed. "I hadn't yet heard her name."
"Fleur," Rias replied. "She is, as you can imagine, quite terrified about her father's curse."
"A nasty bit of work if it's what my contacts said," Minobella muttered. "I don't know what you expect me to do, though. I might have the Power of Destruction, but if it was that simple, you'd have gone to Sirzechs."
"I don't need your power so much as your contacts," Rias replied. "Delacour isn't exactly going to help his daughter investigate this, and she hasn't told her family yet about her new...status."
"You want access to the department's files," Minobella mused, cocking an eyebrow at her.
"Not so much the files as I want a sense of what the most high-profile cases of his career were," Rias replied. "The curse used in this case is powerful, and information on it is hard to come by. Whoever did it, they aren't your run-of-the-mill witch or wizard. To make things even stranger, they got ahold of his blood by sneaking into his home and switching out his quill with one enchanted to siphon some away."
"That's curious," Minobella commented, sipping her tea.
"I'm assuming that this man is rather important," Seekvaira piped up. "His security would be extensive, surely."
"It's an odd case, to put it mildly," Rias replied. "If we're going to save him, we need to get our hands on the blood sample used for the curse and destroy it, and we only have a few weeks to manage that. I could get my hands on the department's case files easily enough, but I'd be searching for a needle in a rather sizable haystack if I went at it from that angle. I need more specific information."
"Hence coming to me," Minobella mused. "You're family, so I won't change what I normally would for such a favor…"
"Mini," Venelana said warningly, and her sister merely smiled at her.
"I've heard the most fascinating things about that boy toy of yours," Minobella continued. "Word has it you two were spotted at The Waterfall not long ago."
"We were," Rias nodded, wondering where she was going with this.
"Things are more serious between you two than I realized," Minobella mused. "Bring him to the ball."
"What?" Rias asked as Venelana tensed next to her.
"Agree to attend to my ball on his arm, and I'll lean on my contacts in the French magical government to compile a list of the most high-profile cases Delacour's been connected to," Minobella replied.
"What are you playing at, Minobella?" Venelana asked, her eyes narrowing.
"Nothing, Venelana," Minobella chuckled. "I met the boy once and only briefly, in a time when I thought he was just a particularly well-shaped tool for Rias to use to escape Riser Phenex. If they're actually seeing each other seriously, though, then I want to get to know him properly, and what better way than for him to come with her?"
"I'll do it," Rias replied.
"Splendid," Minobella smiled, "then I'll ensure that you have your list by the afternoon."
"So soon?" Rias asked.
"My contacts there know very well how generous I can be with those who please me," Minobella replied. Her eyes narrowed as she added, "They also know how unforgiving I can be to those who fail to. So, Lana, how's little Millicas?"
"Getting bigger every day," Venelana replied flatly, and her sister just grinned at her.
"Fucking hell," Harry muttered as he saw the large pile of files that had been dropped off an hour later.
"I had hoped for fewer, but at least this will let us narrow things down a bit," Rias muttered as she picked up the first case file.
"Should we use the copies in the library?" Fleur asked. "Just in case they redacted some things from these?"
"I doubt they would, given who demanded the files, but we'll do it just to be on the safe side," Rias replied.
"What did your aunt end up asking for in exchange?" Harry asked.
"We have a date," Rias replied. "The Agareses are throwing a ball in a couple weeks, and you and I will be attending together."
"That's it?" Harry asked.
"That's what I asked," Rias muttered.
"I honestly expected her to ask for much more," Rias mused as she and her mother flew home.
"She knows something," Venelana hissed, and Rias looked at her in surprise.
"Are you sure?" the redhead asked. "It's possible that she's just curious about why I'm so taken with Harry."
"She wouldn't waste a perfectly good favor on mere curiosity," Venelana replied. "I know your aunt well, Rias. She might not know exactly what he is, but she knows enough to be very interested in him. We knew that we wouldn't be able to keep things quiet forever, but if Mini is already aware enough to be doing something like this, I suspect that word will spread quickly."
"Damn," Rias sighed. "I had hoped for more time."
"As had I," Venelana replied.
"Lady Venelana's sure that her sister suspects something's unusual about me?" Harry asked. "I figured that sort of speculation wouldn't begin until we announced our engagement."
"She probably doesn't suspect that you're an incubus, but she must suspect that there's something very unique about you," Rias replied. "In truth, she probably figures it's one of the Longinus sacred gears, but either way, she's taken notice of you."
"Well, we'll deal with whatever comes," Harry muttered.
After going through the files, they made a list of them and flew to the library, acquiring the copies there, and set about reading through them. With the entire peerage quickly assembled, they each took one and started there, though it wasn't long before the contents started to get to them.
"If I hadn't met you, I might have ended up dealing with shit like this for a living," Harry grimaced as he set down another file he'd been reading through.
"Well, thankfully you did," Hermione scowled. "Merlin, I don't know how any aurors retain even a little faith in humanity dealing with scum like this. This one abducted an entire family of muggles and let them loose on a small island so he could hunt them for fun."
"A real Most Dangerous Game scenario?" Akeno asked. "Better that than this sick fuck. He murdered his wife so he could marry his stepdaughter."
"Ew," Koneko muttered.
"These aren't exactly the kind of high-profile cases I was expecting," Harry admitted. "I figured we'd be looking into criminal syndicates or things like that."
"There may well be cases like that in this pile, but the perpetrators in these cases have all been wealthy purebloods so far, which I imagine was the criteria Lady Minobella's contacts used," Fleur replied. "Your muggle hunter was a Lacroix, while the one arrested in the case I'm reading through here was a Chevalier. We're bound to come across a Lestrange or two at some point."
"Just what we need," Hermione muttered as she picked up another case file. "Heh, sure enough, Celeste Lestrange, charged with...oh go...ahh.."
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"She was convinced that bathing in the blood of muggleborns would let her take back some of the magic that they had stolen for herself," Hermione replied. "The bitch is serving forty years in the Citadelle."
"Our equivalent to Azkaban," Fleur explained. "The worst of the worst get sent there."
"So should we be specifically looking at cases where the convict had been released?" Kiba asked.
"Not necessarily," Rias replied. "These pureblood families are all quite rich, and it wouldn't be impossible for one of them to have used their wealth and influence to try to settle the score for their imprisoned relative. Our first task, once we've read through all these, will be to rule out the ones that we don't think could hope to pull this off at all."
"True," Harry added. "Nathresia's Bane is an incredibly complex curse. Pulling it off isn't easy, and whoever did this knows far more about dark magic than the average criminal. Our muggle hunter, for instance, is probably not the sort to delve into the more subtle mysteries of magic, though we'll have to ensure that, of course."
"Oh no," Luna gasped as she read through one, and they all turned to her.
"Luna, what is it?" Harry asked, seeing how pale she'd turned.
"This could be our guy," Luna replied, turning the file around and showing them.
"Augustin Dumont, late fifties, a sex trafficker that your father helped take in back in the seventies," Harry commented. "He...oh."
"What is it?" Fleur asked.
"He kept Veela as sex slaves," Harry replied, and her eyes flashed dangerously. "Your father was the lead investigator in his case and personally disarmed him when he led a strike team to bring him and his whole vile outfit down. He killed three aurors, and maimed another two before your father managed to slice off his wand arm."
"My favorite method of disarming," Koneko commented. "Is he in this citadel thing?"
"No, he escaped," Harry replied.
"What?!" Fleur demanded.
"Two years ago," Harry replied. "You didn't know?"
"The ministry must have kept it quiet, or I just didn't pay attention," Fleur replied, her brow furrowing as she thought more about it. "Actually, I do remember Father seeming quite angry for a while a couple summers ago, but he never said why, and Mama just said it was ministry stuff. He's always pissed off about some dumb bureaucrat or another, so I didn't think much of it."
"Given everything, I can't imagine that Dumont doesn't hate him, and it was, I imagine, somewhat personal for your father as well," Harry replied. "Do the aurors have any leads on his whereabouts?"
"Not that I saw in there, though with his name, we'll be able to find more files on him if there are any," Luna replied.
"I'll set this one aside as particularly interesting, and we'll revisit it when we're done going through the others," Rias nodded.
"If it was him, I swear…" Fleur hissed.
"We'll burn him together," Harry promised, kissing her forehead, and she smiled at him.
They spent the rest of the afternoon going over old French criminal cases, with Hermione, Luna, and even Fleur needing to take a break at some point because of the sheer horror of it all. Kiba, Koneko, and Akeno had their own reasons to be numb to things like that, while Rias had grown up a devil and been exposed to all kinds of evils through her life. As for Harry, given everything he'd learned from Voldemort, he honestly think didn't that there was anything out there that could shock him and didn't want to learn about such a thing if he was wrong.
Most of the cases they read through were simple criminal matters, made as important as they were simply by the fact that they were committed by rich people, but some really stood out. Rias, Akeno, Kiba, and Koneko returned to Japan after a little bit to attend their classes, taking full advantage of both their devil physiology and the time zone differences, while Harry and the others stayed behind, spending hours going over the few dozen cases Minobella had sent them information on.
"I still say that the case of Celeste Lestrange deserves some investigation," Hermione argued. "I can't imagine that the French ones are more pleasant than their English counterparts, being part of the same family, and if they're wealthy enough to hire someone capable of this…"
"It's possible, but it just doesn't seem likely," Harry replied. "Celeste's parents are dead, she had no children, and her brother doesn't even seem to have visited her in years. Might he have hired someone to curse Sebastian Delacour? Maybe, but it just doesn't seem likely. Voldemort didn't reach out to the French Lestranges because he didn't think much of them in general. I think that this case is more likely. The guy's served his time and gotten out, but he still committed homicide, and given that his wife left him while he was in prison and his kids want nothing to do with him, I can see him being rather bitter."
"Jules Raymonde," Fleur murmured. "Why him?"
"Because I'm fairly sure Voldemort knew his grandfather," Harry replied. "One of the mentors he met in his early travels after he left Hogwarts was named Pierre Raymonde. He was an exceptionally knowledgeable dark wizard, and if Jules is his grandson as I suspect, it's entirely possible that he'd have learned about Nathresia's Bane. Combine that with the fact that he's already killed and…"
"His homicide was a heated thing," Hermione pointed out. "He and this Claude Moreau got in a fight; they drew their wands, and it ended poorly. I'm not defending the guy but there is a difference between going too far in a fight and premeditated murder."
"You're right, but I just think that he could have grown bitter enough in prison to want to strike out against the man who arrested him, and he might very well have access to the sort of information one would need to pull this off," Harry replied. "We haven't yet ruled out the others fully, and we need to work more on narrowing things down. I do agree that we shouldn't rule out the Lestranges, but that probably has more to do with what absolute monsters Rabastian and Rodolphus were."
"I read as much as I could on the Death Eaters that were broken out of Azkaban last year, and those two were some of the worst, not to mention the crazy bitch Rodolphus was married to," Hermione shuddered.
"Well, she was a Black," Harry pointed out, "and she was even worse than they were."
"I need another break," Fleur muttered, tossing aside one of the files and rubbing her temples.
"Hey, we've made a lot of progress," Harry assured her, moving behind her and rubbing her temples for her.
"Mmm, that feels nice," Fleur sighed. "I should check on Papa. Actually, would you like to come with me?"
"Are you sure?" Harry asked.
"I can pretty definitively say at this point that your allure, such as it is, only manifests when you have sex, and even then not consistently," Fleur replied, "so my mama should be fine. Gabby will drool over you, but that won't have anything to do with your incubus nature."
She hadn't yet told him about what her sister had asked of her, given that everything with her father had happened right after that conversation, and she was hoping not to have to for a little bit.
"I suppose I could go with you," Harry replied, taking her hand.
"We'll keep looking through what we can find here," Luna said, smiling reassuringly at Fleur.
"With the library, we have access to pretty much every record ever created, so we'll be able to research the families of these convicts to an extent and perhaps even find their journals," Hermione added. "If we come across anything that suggests any of them were planning to strike against your father, Fleur, we'll set those files aside."
"Thank you, all of you," Fleur smiled as she stood up. "This means more to me than I could say."
"We're family, Fleur," Luna beamed, hugging her, "and that means we help each other. It's not all sex."
Fleur snorted at that and kissed her softly.
With that, Harry pulled her close, and she teleported the two of them to the outskirts of her family's estate. Harry sensed at once that they'd tripped the wards, and he tensed, though the hostility he felt disappeared a moment later.
"You're safe with me," Fleur murmured.
"I'd be safe without you, though it seems like your family's wards are as impressive as I expected," Harry replied as the two of them started walking towards the front door. "Your family home is beautiful, by the way."
"As if there was any chance it wouldn't be," Fleur smirked. "The chateau has been in my family for centuries, and though it was heavily damaged during the war with Grindelwald, it was rebuilt to look as much like the original house as possible. The pale walls, the three towers, decorative at this point, and the roof, they all look as they did, apparently, but this is utterly original."
She pointed at the heavy wooden door, and Harry was just about to ask how it survived what was apparently pretty extensive damage when it opened.
"Fleur?" Apolline asked, her eyes going wide as she spotted him. "And 'Arry. What a surprise."
"I wanted to check on Papa," Fleur replied, "and brought 'Arry along. How is he?"
"In good spirits," Apolline replied.
"Madam Delacour, I am so sorry," Harry said. "I wish we were meeting again under better circumstances."
"As do I," Apolline sighed. "Please, come in. Your papa was just pulling out his hair trying to look for a flaw in the wards. I wish he would just rest."
"Rest won't help me figure out how...Monsieur Potter," Sebastian blurted. "We were not expecting you."
"I wanted you two to meet properly," Fleur explained.
"Monsieur Delacour," Harry nodded, offering his hand. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired of being asked that," Sebastian replied, gesturing for Apolline to close the door behind them. "In truth, I'm glad that you're here. I am quite curious just how a boy who hasn't sat his O.W.L.s yet figured out that I'd been hit with one of the rarest curses in the world."
"Is Gabrielle home?" Harry asked.
"No," Sebastian replied. "She's with my cousin. I asked him to look after her while I tried to figure out what happened here. Why?"
"Because the answer to that isn't something a child should hear," Harry replied. "Without going into too many details, when Voldemort hit me with a killing curse back when I was a year old, and it rebounded on him, he created a link between us."
"A link?" Sebastian asked, his eyes narrowing.
"Voldemort had done things, terrible things, to try to avoid death through his life, and those things rendered his soul unstable," Harry replied. "When his killing curse hit him, a piece of his soul came loose and lodged itself in my scar."
"You speak of some of the darkest magic imaginable," Sebastian breathed, his eyes going wide as he looked at Harry's forehead. "The famous scar you had…"
"That was him," Harry replied. "When he hit me with another killing curse during our final battle, he slew that part of himself, and as I had already destroyed the other parts of him…"
"Parts?" Sebastian asked, emphasizing the plurality of the word as he paled further.
"Like I say, he had done terrible things," Harry replied. "I discovered the piece of him in me months ago, and while I was looking for a solution, I found a way to commune with it and it turned out that, as it was bound to my soul, it was subservient to me. I commanded him to teach me all that he knew, and he did."
"Wait, you're seriously saying that you had a piece of another person's soul in you?" Apolline asked.
"Think of it like a spiritual tapeworm," Harry replied.
"So everything that Lord Voldemort, one of the worst dark wizards in history, knew…" Sebastian said slowly.
"I know," Harry nodded.
"It's not like it's something that he sought out," Fleur hissed as she watched her father look at Harry suspiciously.
"What I know, I can't unknow, but I can use it for good," Harry replied. "That's how I knew about Nathresia's Bane, and that's how I can be of help to you here. I am, for all intents and purposes, one of the most knowledgeable and powerful wizards alive."
"And not even a fifth year," Sebastian laughed humorlessly. "That's how you managed to end the threat of your dark lord, I take it?"
"He had hidden them well, but he couldn't hide them from himself," Harry grinned, though his face quickly fell. "You cannot be saved unless we find the blood sample that curse has been bound to and destroy it, and while I don't doubt the competence of your auror department per se, time is of the essence."
"Let him help you, Papa," Fleur begged. "Please."
"I am not deputizing a student to go around France interrogating everyone he sees fit," Sebastian muttered, "but if you want to look at my wards, perhaps you could find something that I missed."
"I can do that," Harry nodded. "Lead the way."
"Apolline, could you show Fleur what we discussed?" Sebastian asked.
"Hmm?" Fleur asked.
"Come, Fleur," Apolline replied, ushering her away as Sebastian led him to the wardstone.
"How serious are things between my daughter and you?" Sebastian asked.
"I love her," Harry replied immediately, "and she loves me. What we have isn't exactly something I saw coming when we met…"
"Given that you were competitors," Sebastian interjected.
"That wasn't something I sought either," Harry muttered. "One of Voldemort's servants confounded the cup to force it to choose me alongside the other three."
"I heard about that," Sebastian nodded. "The man managed to take the place of Alastor Moody, right?"
"That's right," Harry replied. "You've heard of him?"
"He's a legend across the channel," Sebastian replied, "though as it turns out, even the most capable aurors can be brought down."
"When did you stop needing the cane?" Harry asked. "Last night or this morning?"
"This morning," Sebastian replied.
"That makes sense," Harry replied, following him into the basement. "You'll probably have five days of feeling perfectly fine again before the weariness starts to set back in."
"I can't say I'm thrilled that my daughter is dating a man who knows this much about dark magic," Sebastian admitted, and Harry sighed.
"Like I say, there's little I can do about it," he replied. "An immortal lunatic wanted to kill me and had unwittingly given me the tools to stop him. It was do so or be killed."
"He had truly created multiple horcruxes?" Sebastian asked quietly.
"So you do know about them," Harry nodded. "Seven in total, though he intended to make only six."
"Only," Sebastian scoffed. "You did the world a favor with that one."
"Not like I had a choice," Harry muttered as he watched Sebastian tap a wall with his wand.
It opened up to reveal the primary wardstone, the one that all the others scattered throughout the property were tied to.
"I have examined the wards thoroughly and found nothing," Sebastian hissed. "Somehow my assailant switched out my quills without triggering them at all."
"You have, I imagine, considered the Imperius Curse as a possibility," Harry murmured as he kneeled down and looked over the stone, finding some very impressive wards. "Apolline or Gabrielle could have been made to…"
"Apolline has a surprising level of resistance to the curse," Sebastian replied, "and Gabrielle couldn't access my study. There's an age line woven into the very doorframe and I'd have noticed if it was tampered with at all."
"What about your elf?" Harry asked. "I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary here."
"Bernadette?" Sebastian asked, tapping his chin. "She doesn't leave the manor. Apolline likes to do her own shopping, and so our elf stays here, keeping the chateau in order."
"It's an infuriating mystery," Harry muttered, leaning against the wall. "Do you think this could be Augustin Dumont?"
"Where did you hear that name?!" Sebastian demanded.
"You informed the British and, I imagine, other neighboring ministries that he was on the loose," Harry lied. "I am not without some contacts."
"It's a possibility that I've considered," Sebastian admitted. "That son of a bitch is one of the worst ones I ever took in. The head of my department at the time argued for the death penalty, but the judge refused and locked him up. Now, instead of being a head shorter and rotting in the ground where he belongs, he's free."
"I heard a little about him, and he sounded utterly vile, but do you think he'd have the knowledge to pull something like this off?" Harry asked. "Using that particular curse was stupid on the part of our perpetrator simply because it's so rare."
"It's circulated around the darkest families for centuries, though," Sebastian sighed. "I'll admit it's rare, but it's not like something only a dozen people in the world know about. As for your question, I'm of two minds. Dumont was a monster of unimaginable proportions and one of the most dangerous men I've ever fought, but he was a brute. His only talents were violence and potion-making, and his operation was simple, if utterly disgusting."
"How so?" Harry asked.
"He'd find Veela down on their luck and act like a rich widower," Sebastian replied. "They'd inevitably show interest, go with him, and then he'd spike their drugs with lust potions so he could keep them as 'willing' whores."
"How did he keep them from transforming?" Harry asked, only to freeze as Sebastian's eyes went wide, realizing that he'd just admitted to Fleur's father that he knew about that.
"He had these runic collars that he used," the older man replied, choosing not to have that particular conversation. "Those he had gotten somewhere else. Anyway, this is what I mean about it being a simple operation. He kept them chained up, going from safehouse to safehouse and pimping them out to whoever would pay."
"He was dangerous, though," Harry pointed out. "I heard he killed three aurors."
"Good men, all of them," Sebastian replied stiffly, his eyes going hollow for a moment. "By the time we found them, he had more than a half dozen Veela and had become rather wealthy, so he had heavier security than we realized going in. Bad intel cost three good aurors their lives, but we managed it. Dumont and his men were taken in and the girls were free. He was a dangerous duelist, but like I said, he was a brute. I have considered him as a possibility, but I don't think it's that likely because I can't picture him pulling something this sophisticated off."
"You're not wrong about the nature of it," Harry nodded. "Whoever did this needed to be able to not only pull off what is a very difficult curse but break in here undetected first and switch your quill with the cursed one."
"That's the part that worries me most," Sebastian sighed. "If they could do that once, they could do it again. That's why I sent Gabrielle to stay with Louis for a few days while I tried to figure out how they did it. Security around here has also been improved, and if they hadn't spotted Fleur with you, a team of aurors would have attacked within seconds of your arrival."
"Best we avoid that," Harry replied. "Anyway, Monsieur Delacour…"
"Sebastian," Sebastian replied.
"Sebastian," Harry amended. "I understand if you want to leave this in the hands of your aurors, but I would ask that you use my knowledge as needed. I am here to help."
"If they come across something that they don't recognize, I will write to Fleur," Sebastian replied, and Harry nodded, figuring that that meant no.
In truth, he couldn't blame him for his reluctance to work with him, given that they barely knew each other and he was still a student, but it was annoying anyway. Still, speaking with him about the case had been a little enlightening, especially getting his take on who Harry had figured was the most likely suspect that he'd come across in the case files he and the others had gone through. The two of them went upstairs and found a clearly irritated-looking Fleur waiting for them.
"Did you find anything?" she asked.
"No," Harry replied, shaking his head.
"Would you two like to stay for dinner?" Sebastian asked. "It would be nice to get to know Harry here in less official circumstances."
"That sounds nice," Fleur replied once Harry smiled.
"What are you having?" he asked.
"Apolline has been working on a pot of bouillabaisse all afternoon to take her mind off of things," Sebastian replied, and Fleur and Harry smiled at each other. "What?"
"Well, that was actually the first thing Fleur and I ever talked about," Harry replied, taking her hand as the three of them walked towards the dining room.
"He was as little help as you figured he would be?" Akeno asked hours later, and Fleur just sighed.
"I never expected my father to help me work on dangerous criminal cases," Fleur muttered, "but part of me hoped that learning just how capable 'Arry is would help convince him to at least work with him."
They were getting a display of just how capable Harry was just then as they watched him spar with four of the Gremorys' guards. They had him surrounded and were lobbing a barrage of magical strikes at him, but he glided between them with ease in the air, blocking anything he couldn't dodge. They had been at that for a while, with Grayfia wanting to see him defend himself against such attacks. The maid stood off to the side, watching intently and evaluating his every move. This wasn't the first such training session, not even close, but it was the first that had gone on this long without him taking a hit.
"He's gotten better," Rias murmured, but Grayfia didn't commenting keeping her unblinking red eyes trained on him.
"Now," she commanded, and Harry redirected one of the guard's energy balls at another of them, forcing him to dodge.
He rushed towards the nearest one, making it look like he was going to punch him in the face before whipping around and elbowing him in the gut while throwing a bolt of lightning at one of the others. He shielded against it, but barely, and when the other two sent twin bolts of purple light at him, he pulled the still-stunned one behind him around, using him to shield against the spells. Nothing they were using was fatal, but he cried out as both spells hit his back, and Harry grinned, hurling him towards one of his other foes. Summoning rocks, he sent one barreling towards the man as he moved to catch his comrade and chuckled when it hit him square in the head, only to grunt as a conjured blade nicked his shoulder.
"Enough," Grayfia commanded, and all five of them returned to the ground. "You've improved somewhat, and your reflexes are significantly better, but your casting grew slow the more pleased you became with yourself."
"I know," Harry nodded, aware that he'd enjoyed himself a little too much at the end there. He had been forcing himself to learn how to fight differently since he arrived, and this was the first time that he'd noticed undeniable progress on that front. That made him momentarily cocky, which took his focus away from his remaining foes.
"A far cry from the guy who I used to chase around the Room of Requirement," Rias smiled, kissing him softly. "You okay?"
"Just a scratch," Harry shrugged, regretting it as he did so.
"Even still, I wouldn't mind bandaging you up if..." Rias went to say when Hermione came rushing over.
"I found something," she announced as she landed.
"What?" Fleur asked, immediately interested.
"I was looking through the library for connections to Celeste Lestrange when I found one to Augustin Dumont," Hermione replied. "It turns out that one of Celeste's cousins, Isabelle, helped him escape."
"The Lestranges are connected to every major family in France, so that isn't too surprising," Fleur murmured. "How did she do it?"
"With a letter," Hermione replied, pulling a stack of neatly folded letters out of her pocket. "She had been slipping him letters for a while, something that she was able to do because she worked at the Citadelle."
"She worked there?" Fleur hissed.
"For twenty years," Hermione replied. "It turns out that she and Augustin fell in love, and she devised a way to sneak him out. Letters to prisoners are very well examined to make sure that they don't contain things they shouldn't, but as a guard there, she was able to sneak things in that otherwise couldn't be."
"So what, did she make one of the letters into a portkey?" Luna asked.
"I doubt that that would have worked," Harry murmured. "Their wards would stop them from working, and if this Isabelle Lestrange tampered with them at all, the aurors would have discovered that in their investigation."
"You're right," Hermione replied. "She didn't make the letter into a portkey; she enchanted it with space expansion charms."
"Wait, she turned it into a sort of enchanted trunk?" Harry asked.
"The spellwork she described in one of the last letters she slipped him sounded really impressive," Hermione replied. "She created a little pocket in the parchment and then expanded that enough that it could fit a man inside. Once he was safely in the letter, she was able to smuggle him out the front door at the end of her shift."
"Was she not investigated?" Fleur glared.
"Everyone was, but from what I could find of the investigation, she hadn't worked in that section of the prison for a couple weeks so they didn't consider her that likely a suspect," Hermione replied.
"Well, we have a lead at least," Rias piped up. "How likely do you think it is that this Dumont guy is the one who cursed Sebastian?"
"He didn't seem to think it was that likely," Harry replied. "Apparently he's more brawn than brain, and while he's dangerous, Sebastian didn't think he'd be the sort to delve into something this esoteric, but…"
"Is Isabelle Lestrange?" Fleur asked.
"At the very least, we have a potential lead on where he is," Hermione said. "Now, do we bring this to the aurors or…"
"I don't see the point," Fleur muttered. "Papa doesn't want us working on this at all, and they'll just freeze us out if we do."
"If we get our hands on him, we'll be able to interrogate him more thoroughly than they would anyway," Harry added.
"I can help with that," Akeno grinned.
"Well, we can check out Isabelle's last known address tomorrow," Hermione replied. "She retired about six months after his escape, and I haven't been able to find much in the way of addressed mail to her since."
"Given what a piece of shit we're dealing with here, he may well have killed her," Fleur scowled.
"Perhaps, but it's a lead all the same," Harry replied.
"It's been a long day, and you all seem understandably stressed out," Rias murmured. "Why don't we all go back to my room, have the servants bring us food and drink, and try to distract ourselves?"
"That sounds wonderful," Harry replied.
"Perhaps we can skip the food," Fleur said breathily, and he grinned at her.
She'd been struggling ever since her father collapsed, and as he looked at her then, he saw a spark of hope in her eyes that he hadn't in days. They had no idea if Augustin Dumont was actually the one who had cursed her father, but he was a believable suspect, and the progress they'd made in just a day of investigating had filled her with hope that they could solve this in time.
"We can eat later," Rias purred, and the six of them flew off towards her bedroom, vanishing each other's clothes the moment they closed the door behind them.
"Mmm, Hermione, I think you're already seeing the benefits of devilry," Akeno purred, cupping the brunette's arse, and she shivered.
"What...what do you mean?" she asked.
"Most newly made devils experience minor changes to their appearance within the first few weeks," Rias explained. "Your ass has gotten fuller, as Akeno was about to point out, and that isn't all."
"I...my bra has seemed a bit tight lately, but I figured that was just natural," Hermione replied, her hands going to her bushy hair. "I have found my hair to be a little more tamable lately, but I just blamed that on the perfect humidity in the castle."
"Will my breasts grow too?" Luna asked. "Because I would like that."
"It all depends on your desires," Rias replied, "so yes."
"So even if we don't experience dramatic changes like Harry did, we can still be changed?" Hermione asked.
"My experience was pretty unique for obvious reasons," Harry replied. "I must say, though, all three of you do look good."
"Only them?" Akeno asked, and he chuckled.
"Of course not," Harry replied, pulling her in and kissing her deeply, "but you two were already devils, so you being hot as hell makes sense."
"I don't think I've changed much yet," Fleur replied, cupping her breasts and seeing if they felt any heavier.
"Well, you were already perfect," Luna smiled, and the Veela kissed her.
Akeno broke the kiss and captured Rias' lips instead, letting Harry pull Hermione over. The six of them paired off, making out passionately as they all found Rias' enormous bed, and soon they were swapping regularly, their hands, lips, and tongues roaming all over each other as they fed their endless passion. For Fleur, that made it even better, as she found that in the sea of perfect flesh and the pleasures that came with it, she was able to distract herself completely. After a while, she found herself straddling Harry, grinding her increasingly wet cunt on his rock-hard shaft while he sucked on Akeno's nipples and fingered both Hermione and Luna.
"I have an idea I've wanted to try out for a while," Rias smirked as she watched the show, leaning back against her headboard. "One that I think you'll all quite like."
"Oh?" Akeno asked, whimpering as Harry nipped at her hard peak gently.
"It's something we discussed a while ago and never actually got to try," Rias grinned. "Something that would have required three of us to work together."
"You don't mean…" Akeno breathed, her purple eyes going wide as she felt her cunt clench around nothing in anticipation. Rias grinned and summoned a strap-on she hadn't used in quite a while. "Yes!"
"What is...oh," Fleur breathed. "Is that an exact replica of 'Arry?"
"There is, believe it or not, a little more to me than my cock," Harry quipped, and she slapped his chest playfully.
"You know what I mean," Fleur giggled, her eyes widening for a moment as a thought occurred to her. Moving off of him, she looked to Rias and said, "Hold it up against him, and we'll be able to see for sure if he got bigger."
"You're right," Rias murmured, picking up his cock and holding the dildo next to it.
"You are a little thicker," Hermione replied. "I honestly couldn't say because becoming a devil made everything feel better, so it could have just been that."
"I figured he had," Akeno nodded. "Anyway, stud, how'd you like to fuck me in the ass? I've wanted this for so long now."
"Double penetration," Fleur grinned. "This I have to see."
"Ask me nicely," Harry grinned, and Akeno shivered.
"Please fuck my tight little asshole, Master," Akeno begged. "I'm practically dripping down my thighs at the thought of being filled to the brim by you and Rias, fucked airtight until I scream."
"Like I'd stop then," Harry rumbled, and Akeno shuddered as he kissed her roughly, slapping her ass and spreading the cheeks wide.
Luna cast a lubrication charm on her, cleaning her out and making sure that her arse was every bit as ready for him as it could be, but decided not to stop there. Leaning down, she buried her face between the raven-haired beauty's round globes and started swirling her tongue around her puckered rim.
"Oh, fuck!" Akeno cried, and Harry grinned, kissing his way down along her neck.
"Don't stop, Luna," he said. "If Rias and I are going to give this little slut the airtight fucking she's wanted for months now, we'll need to make sure that both her holes are ready for us."
"By the Lightbringer, I'm so glad you summoned Rias," Akeno whimpered.
"That makes all of us," Hermione grinned as she watched Rias put on the strap-on. "You know, you should probably lube that thing up first, even if Akeno's about to become a fountain."
"Do you feel what's done to it when you wear it?" Fleur asked.
"It took a bit of work, but I figured out how to enchant it to do that," Rias replied, gasping when she felt Fleur wrap her hand around it.
"Then, you'll get to feel what it's like to have a Veela suck your cock," Fleur grinned, sinking to her knees and wrapping her lips around the bulbous head of the fake shaft.
"Fuck me," Rias gasped, and Harry grinned at her.
"See why we're all so obsessed with that?" he asked before continuing to kiss his way down Akeno's stomach.
"Yes," Rias gasped, grabbing Fleur's head.
"That was what I had in mind," Hermione pouted, and the redhead giggled.
"Just because you can't suck my cock doesn't mean we can have fun," Rias replied, wiggling her tongue at her and Hermione grinned, flying up and pressing her pussy against her mouth.
"Oh fuck, oh fuck!" Akeno cried as he reached her dripping quim and began to devour her hungrily.
With him eating her out and Luna giving her a rimjob, all she could do was hold them both to her and moan in pleasure. It all felt so good, and when she saw Harry's gorgeous eyes take on a mischievous glint, she shivered, knowing exactly what was coming.
"Cum," Harry hissed, pressing his tongue against her throbbing clit as he made it vibrate, and Akeno squealed, cumming hard and squirting all over him.
She writhed in pleasure, needing to be held up by them as it consumed her, and she barely heard Rias cry out across from her.
"It's just not the same without the massive load of creamy cum," Fleur pouted, watching Hermione's eyes roll back into her head as Rias continued to lap at her dripping folds. "It is pretty life-like though."
"I tinkered around with numerous materials before settling on this," Rias replied, pushing Hermione away just long enough to get the words out before pulling her back.
"Oh please don't stop," the brunette moaned, feeling her orgasm build rapidly as the devil's tongue danced through her folds, coming back to her clit again and again in a pattern that was making her mind melt. "Yes, yes, yes, FUCK!"
Rias grinned as the other girl came, drinking down her fluids greedily and holding her up as she nearly fell while convulsing in ecstasy. She let her down gently as her orgasm ended and grinned at the sight of Akeno's still panting form.
"I thought I heard you scream," she purred.
"I think Lilith heard me scream," Akeno laughed. "Man, I hope I never get used to Parseltongue."
"I doubt any of us will," Fleur grinned.
"I know I love it dearly," Luna replied. "I think your bum is ready for Harry's cock now, Akeno. Do you want me to help put it in?"
"Sure," Akeno replied dreamily, flying up and hovering above Harry.
Luna wrapped her lips around his shaft and deepthroated him a few times to get him nice and slick before pointing him up and into Akeno's tightest hole. Harry grabbed her wide hips and pulled her down, groaning with pleasure as he felt her rosette give way for him. She gasped, shivering as she felt herself stretch for him yet again, and sank down further and further until his entire length was buried in her furnace of an ass.
"So fucking hot," Harry moaned, resting his head on her shoulder, and she grinned, reaching around and caressing his cheek.
"You feel pretty hot too, and so fucking big," Akeno sighed. "You're about to feel bigger, too. Come on, Rias, you teased me with this ages ago, and in all the excitement of the year, I nearly forgot, but I want to feel you both inside me."
"As you wish," Rias purred, flying over and slapping her oldest friend's pussy with the strap-on.
"You should let Fleur sit on your face once we're buried inside you," Harry whispered in Akeno's ear as he noticed Hermione and Luna making out frenziedly across from them on the bed. "Then we'll be using all of your holes at once."
"Fuck," Akeno whimpered, looking down at Rias' massive strap-on as she nestled it between her labia. "Do it. Fucking ruin me!"
"Oh, honey," Rias purred. "We ruined you long ago."
"Fuck!" Akeno screamed as she plunged forward, and both Harry and Rias moaned at the sudden change. For Harry, Akeno's molten ass suddenly felt tighter as the pressure from the girthy dildo in her pussy pressed against him through the thin membrane separating them, and for Rias, it felt like the tightest, most vice-tight grip imaginable was clinging to every inch of the dildo, and she actually felt like she was going to cum from the pleasure of it. As for Akeno…
"So full!" the raven-haired beauty cried, her whole body shaking in their arms as they held her tight.
A sheen of sweat formed on every inch of her almost immediately as the intensity of what she was feeling overwhelmed her, and she moaned when Harry reached around and cupped her massive breasts.
"You feel so good around us, baby," he whispered in her ear, nibbling on the lobe. "Do you want us to give you a minute to adjust or…"
"No!" Akeno exclaimed, turning her head to face him with a wild, crazed look in her eyes. "I want you both to fucking destroy me."
"Well, if that's what you want," Rias smirked, pulling most of the dildo out of her dripping cunt and thrusting back in hard.
Harry groaned at the feeling as he pulled back as well, fucking Akeno slowly to begin with as he took a little longer than normal to find a rhythm. He did eventually, though, working with Rias to ensure that every time one of them pulled back, the other was thrusting forward, and soon, they were both pounding into her. Akeno's pleasured screams echoed through the room as she immediately felt herself barreling towards the mother of all orgasms. Nothing had ever felt as intense as this, and even for her, it was nearly too much, but she didn't care. All she knew was that the intensity of her pleasure bordered on pain and that worked just fine for her. Closer to the headboard, she saw Luna sit on Hermione's face, crying out in pleasure as the brunette began to lap her dripping folds, and noticed Fleur watching them.
"Fleur!" she called out as Rias and Harry both picked up their pace, fucking her so hard her breasts bounced on her chest. "Sit on...fuck, right there...my face! Use me!"
"Well, if you insist," Fleur grinned, flying over and resting her thighs on Akeno's shoulders as she moved closer and closer to her face.
It wasn't the easiest position, given that she had to consciously keep most of her weight off of Akeno, but she managed it, pressing her cunt against her eager mouth and grinning down at Harry, who looked utterly focused as he continued to thrust up into her tight little asshole.
"I'm...oh fuck...next," she moaned, and he chuckled.
"Gladly," Harry replied, grabbing one of her legs and leaning up as he brought her foot to his lips.
She sighed in pleasure when he wrapped his lips around her big toe and moaned when she felt Akeno swirl her tongue around her clit. This was exactly the sort of thing she needed to keep her mind from drifting to her troubles. Harry was more than enough for her and would have distracted her just fine on his own, but group sex was even better. Perched on the face of one of her lovers, while another sucked on her toes and she got to watch him and yet another one fuck the first one's brains out together, she could honestly say that her quest to save her father's life was far from her mind, something she needed to be able to say from time to time if she was going to stay sane and thus useful to him at all. She ground her sopping wet cunt on Akeno's face, smearing the devil's lips and chin with her juices, and cried out when she started sucking on her clit.
"Just like that!" Fleur cried. "Don't stop, don't…"
"FUCK!" Akeno squealed, throwing her head back as she went off like a rocket. She came hard, her holes spasming around the pistoning shafts that were rearranging her insides as she squirted all over them.
"Fucking hell," Harry groaned in pleasure as she grew so tight he could barely move. Seeing Fleur's flushed face and realizing that she hadn't cum yet, he beckoned her over, and she quickly planted herself down on his mouth. "Cum for me, love."
Her squeal joined Akeno's as she came hard, and she dug her nails into the bed to keep herself upright. The pleasure thundered through her, making her sob at its intensity, and as she gazed down into Harry's eyes, seeing the sheer love and adoration in them, she actually started weeping.
"Fleur?" he asked, lifting her up, and she just lowered herself down onto the bed, resting her head on his chest and crying as he wrapped his arms around her.
Rias looked over in concern but relaxed when she saw Fleur starting to calm down already. Akeno, meanwhile, was still in space and clung to Rias like she's disappear if either of them let go. Harry stroked her hair and drew random shapes over her back as he stayed buried in Akeno's ass, looking over gratefully as Hermione and Luna joined them and hugged her without a word.
"I'm okay...really," Fleur panted after a moment, wiping away her tears. "Did you cum, 'Arry?"
"Not yet," Harry replied.
"Then pound this little slut until you do," Fleur grinned. "I want to drink every drop of your load from her ass."
"Oh, fuck," Akeno shuddered. "I don't know how many more like that I can take."
"You're a big girl, Akeno," Rias smirked. "I'm sure you'll live."
"Are you sure?" Harry asked.
"I am," Fleur replied. "I think I'll hold off on getting this treatment tonight, though."
"Let's cuddle while we watch them turn Akeno's brain to mush," Luna whispered, and Fleur giggled, deciding that that was a great idea. Lying back, she felt her heart swell as Luna and Hermione cuddled up against her and she watched happily as Rias and Harry started fucking Akeno again. She'd join back in later, but for the moment, she was more than happy to just let the show distract her.
"Don't work too hard, my love," Apolline sighed as Sebastian turned to walk back into his study. "You need to rest."
"I won't overtax myself, I promise," Sebastian smiled softly, and Apolline nodded, kissing him before returning to the sitting room, hoping to distract herself with a book. He watched her leave, his eyes as instantly drawn to her ass as they had been every time he'd ever watched her walk away, and closed the door the moment she'd turned the corner. "What a mess."
He scowled and sat down heavily at his desk, still fuming at the revelation that his assailant had somehow managed to infiltrate his home without being detected. It shouldn't have been possible, and he still had no idea how in the world they had managed it, which made it even worse. Confident in his aurors, he had left the task of determining just who had cursed him to them, wanting to spend the day trying to determine how they'd managed it, but as he sat down then and poured himself a small glass of firewhiskey, his mind raced with possibilities.
"Augustin Dumont is a possibility but not a great one," he thought to himself, recalling the conversation he'd had with Harry Potter earlier.
Under normal circumstances he'd have balked at the idea of his daughter dating a man who knew as much as he did about the darkest of magics, but given that he still had no idea who had come after him or how they'd managed what they had, he figured it wasn't the worst thing in the world for her to have a wizard that powerful around. He'd been tempted to accept his help once he'd learned just what he was dealing with, but he didn't regret turning him down. Under no circumstances did he want Fleur getting involved in something this dangerous, and he knew that if he brought Harry in, that's exactly what would happen.
"I know all too well how difficult it can be to say no to a pleading Veela," he thought to himself.
He continued to think over the most likely suspects from his old cases, realizing that there weren't many he could think of who he'd expect to be able to pull this off, when a sudden thought occurred to him and he reached under his desk. Pressing his right index finger against a round, bronze indent in the underside of it, he didn't react at all as a tiny needle pricked him, taking a drop of blood. With his identity confirmed, the hidden drawer in the very middle of the old mahogany desk popped out, and he moved back to give it room. Reaching inside, he pulled out an old, weathered case file and opened it up.
"Could it be you, you son of a bitch?" he mused aloud as he read through the file.
He didn't really need to at this point, having returned to this particular case again and again for decades, hoping each time that, by some miracle, a pertinent fact he'd missed before would jump out at him and make his most irritating unsolved case suddenly make sense. Setting the file on his desk, he walked over to his fireplace and, picking up a handful of floo powder, tossed it, giving the name of his department at the French Ministry.
"Director?" Julia Arsenault, his personal secretary, asked.
"Is Elodie Balzac in?" Sebastian asked.
"I...I believe so," Julia replied. "Do you want me to get her?"
"Inform her that I wish to see her here at once," Sebastian replied. "She can use the floo."
"One moment, Director," Julia replied. "I really hope you're feeling better."
"As good as I can," Sebastian replied, stepping back.
Less than a minute later, Elodie stepped through, looking at him curiously.
"Director," she nodded. "If you're looking for an update, I'm afraid I don't have much yet."
"I'm not," Sebastian replied. "I trust that you have the investigation well in hand, and I still agree that looking through my old cases for someone with means and a motive is your best bet, but there's another case that I want you to look into."
"Oh?" Elodie asked. "This isn't one of your arrests, I take it?"
"No," Sebastian scowled. "This case goes back further than your career, to my first months on the job. It confounded me as a young rookie then, and it still does to this day."
"You never solved it," Elodie nodded. "Why do you think it might be related to your curse then? Did it involve a similar blood curse?"
"No, it didn't," Sebastian replied. "I have continued to investigate this case periodically for longer than I'd care to admit, and my last time looking into it was some months ago, just before we believe the quills were first switched. I thought I found something, and though I believed that it had turned out to be another dead end, I'm starting to wonder if perhaps I got closer to the truth than I realized."
"What's the case?" Elodie asked.
"A murder from the sixties that I believed was also a missing persons case," Sebastian replied.
"What? Did you think that the corpse was fake?" Elodie asked, confused.
"I thought the fetus inside the victim was fake," Sebastian replied, and Elodie's eyes went wide as he made a copy of the case file he had on his desk and handed it to her. "Now, I'm starting to wonder if I wasn't right all along and I'm in this position now because I got too close to the sick bastard who abducted this poor girl's child nearly thirty years ago."