'You already gave us your gifts,' their mother reminded her. 'You could not wait until lunch and Harry's arrival and you pestered Fleur for an hour about her present for you.'
'Harry doesn't know anyone of the other people who gave us things,' Gabby protested, 'I still have my present for him and Fleur.' The mischief was gleaming in her eyes again.
It's going to be something horribly embarrassing, Fleur realised, stifling a groan.
Harry seemed to have come to the same conclusion, but he was smiling good -naturedly, her beau genuinely seemed to enjoy her baby sister's antics, even at their most mortifying.
'Here, Gabby,' she reached behind the nearest sofa, releasing Harry who promptly took a seat, and handed her sibling a small thin wooden box.
Gabrielle inspected it cheerfully, gently turning it over in her hands before sliding off the lid. The sparkling, white camellia she had sculpted from ice and enchanted lay within.
'You always ask me to make them for you, so I thought you might want a more permanent one,' Fleur smiled.
'It's so pretty,' Gabby chirped, carefully taking it out of the box and twirling it in the light. 'It won't melt, will it?' She asked, her eyebrows momentarily pinching together.
'Not for a long time,' Fleur reassured her sister, 'and never if one of us keeps replacing the enchantments on it.'
'Thank you, Fleur.' Gabrielle carefully placed her ice flower back into the box and turned expectantly to a smiling Harry.
He reached inside his pockets, pulling out a small handful of tiny presents, evidently he had shrunk them to bring them to France, and placing them on the sofa in between the two of them. There was a glimmer of light as his forearm passed over them, and Fleur glimpsed the tip of his wand against the pale skin of his palm. All of the restored presents were vague, rectangular shapes and Fleur found it hard to guess at what they might contain. She hazarded a guess at books for two of them, likely the ones for her parents. Harry knew better than to buy her a book.
'This one is yours, Gabrielle,' he told her softly, leaning across and offering the second smallest to her.
She unwrapped it carefully, while Harry waited, doing his best to pretend he wasn't nervous.
It was a mug, a very colourful, bright, china mug, that was filled with packets of sugar quills.
'After what happened to the last one I thought you might want a new one,' Harry grinned. Fleur chuckled, recalling their hex deflecting practise and its porcelain victim. 'It's enchanted to be unbreakable, to keep your drink warm, and the colours will disappear if something suspicious finds its way into your drink.'
'It's perfect,' Gabby beamed, subtly pocketing the sweets before their mother could intervene. Harry flushed slightly, and Fleur slid her hand across the sofa to cover his encouragingly.
'These are for you, Monsieur Delacour, Madam Delacour.' Harry got up to pass over the two Fleur suspected of being books. 'I thought that you might appreciate these.'
Her father unwrapped his with interest, very delicately opening the cover of what was clearly a very old book. 'This is one of the oldest book on wizarding heraldry in the British Isles, France and Spain I've ever had the privilege of touching,' he murmured reverently. 'This isn't something to give away lightly, Harry, there can't be more than a handful of copies of this left in existence.' Harry looked somewhat surprised by that and Fleur made a note to ask him where he found such a rare book without somehow realising what it was.
'I know you like history, heraldry and the like,' he explained. 'It caught my eye and the previous owner was willing to part with it, for a price.'
'I shudder to think what that price was,' her father chuckled, still turning the pages.
'That was a terrible present, Harry,' Gabrielle piped up, 'we're not going to see papa for weeks now. He'll lock himself in his study with your book and won't come out for anything but meals.'
'I'm sure Binky wouldn't mind bringing my food to my study,' their father mused, tracing his fingers over the old pages. 'This is quite fascinating.' Gabby scowled, and their mother hid a smile behind her hand. 'I'm not going to open this and find some incredibly rare potions ingredient am I?' Her mother asked warmly, undoing the string that kept the paper in place.
'Would you have preferred something like that?' Harry bit his lip anxiously.
'Obscure Potions and Unique Ingredients,' her mother read from the front, 'I have never heard of it.' Fleur hadn't either, but it looked every bit as old as the book on heraldry her father had still not managed to put down.
There was a moment of silence as her mother read through the contents and then she gasped.
'Do you know who this was written by?' She demanded, closing the book to re -read the cover disbelievingly. 'Helga Hufflepuff,' Harry smiled faintly. 'I don't think it's the original, but it's handwritten and autographed.'
That did manage to drag her father's attention from his own book.
'You're idea of normal Christmas presents are two virtually priceless books.' He shook his head at Harry's apparent generosity. 'Where did you find them? Once might be a coincidence, but to find two rare books so well suited for us can't be.'
'I stumbled across a collection actually,' Harry admitted. 'I chose two that I thought you would appreciate, and I doubt I will ever value them as highly as you will, so they're better off with someone who will truly be interested in them.'
Her father laughed weakly. 'We might have to improve the wards on the chateau if someone finds out about this,' he tapped the pages of his book. 'This is the sort of indisputable evidence of blood relations that some British wizarding families would do a great deal to own.'
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