Harry had been waiting for the girls to get back from talking to their mother for awhile, but when they finally got back they did not appear to be any happier.
In fact they actually looked... scared.
Harry was entirely unused to seeing Fleur and Gabrielle with such fear in their eyes. They were both some of the bravest people he knew and to see such fear it was very disconcerting.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked them before jokingly saying, "Did one of you get pregnant or something?"
Their fearful silence did not reassure him however.
He asked now tentatively, "You're not, are you?" They had all agreed they wanted children, but not so soon.
"Of course not Harry," Gabrielle answered, deciding to be the brave one, "it's just what we need to talk to you about is rather scary for any Veela to talk about. It's like saying the word Voldemort for British wizards."
"Okay," Harry said, "well I've found the best way to cure people of that is to just get them to say it."
Gabrielle let out a deep breath and then said, "All right. Well the thing is there is this... thing... that all Veela fear. It was originally created back in the old days before we settled here when people sought to exterminate us. In its solid form it looks like a rock and does nothing."
"Brewed in the right potion however and then vaporized near a Veela or with the Veela to ingesting, it will kill them." She explained grimly.
"What it does however is it acts much the same way that a disease might spread, only much more slowly. It will lie dormant within us for weeks without us knowing it, to allow us to unknowingly spread it to other Veela and infect them."
Fleur took over, "It was used exactly twice, both with devastating effects. The first time was back before we all came to settle here. Many Veela died. Those who survived went on to found this city. For nearly a millenia we worked hard to ensure any and all knowledge of it was destroyed and all of its creations were destroyed."
"The plague eventually became only a terrible memory, something that we tried not to think about." the older blond frowned, "That is, until about 10 years ago it started up again. Someone had managed to recreate it and it was that that caused what we know as the Second Great Veela Plague, which included the deaths of our grandmother and many others, which was what led to my mother assuming the throne. One reason she felt the need to was in order to combat the cause of the plague."
Harry was stunned, surprised by all this information. He'd known they'd come here for a good reason,
but he hadn't understood just why until now.
"There's more," Fleur confessed, "from what we've been able to glean, the second outbreak 10 years ago may have just been a test."
"A test for what?" Harry asked, "if someone was trying to kill Veela I'd consider it more than a test."
"I'd imagine that there wouldn't be any people in recent times that would want to exterminate the Veela," Fleur countered, "killing muggles however..."
"Wait a minute?" Harry asked, "You're saying that...what are you saying?"
"There were rumors, just rumors mind you." Fleur stated, "That it was actually Voldemort that was the one that brought back the Veela plague, only he wanted to create a variant of it that would only kill Muggles and leave magical humans alone. Just think about it. Voldemort may have been insane, but he wasn't stupid. He even grew up in the Muggle world and he would have known what kind of power they had even without magic firsthand. Muggles far outnumber wizards, there would simply be no way he could ever overpower and enslave them all. Yet if he were to greatly reduce their numbers to below that of even wizards: he could do anything he wanted, especially as governments and any organized resistance would have long since collapsed by the time their numbers were that low."
He had to admit it made sense. If he was a crazed, evil, Muggle-hating wizard trying to take over the world he'd have done the same thing.
"It's still only a rumor though, we never did find proof that he was behind it." Fleur admitted, "However it was enough that Narcissa had already done some research on it and recognized what it was when she caught Malfoy with it. Obviously while we were concerned about that, we were even more concerned about the more immediate threat to our own people. If any of that gets out again, it could kill every Veela on earth."
"Gee, I have to admit there are more ways to take over the world then I thought." Harry claimed, "Clones, plagues, what could be next?"
"I really wouldn't jinx it Harry..." Gabrielle cautioned.
DUELDUELDUEL
Dumbledore was currently walking on foot through the Amazon jungle, on his way to the Goblin mine.
He would have preferred some other mode of transportation beyond his own two feet of course as anything would have been undoubtedly quicker, but the protective bubble he'd formed around himself to protect himself from the various poisons that lay in the air was hard enough to maintain just around his own body as it was...and he was forced to travel slowly anyway in order to constantly remove the many, many security spells he'd already encountered up to this point, each more deadly than the last.
No ordinary human or even goblin could have ever gotten this far.
But he was of course much stronger than any ordinary human, quite possibly the greatest wizard that ever lived.
Merlin was a moron compared to him.
Nevertheless, someone who actually knew about his various schemes would have questioned why he needed to go in the first place and take such a risk.
It wasn't like he had a shortage of world domination plans but none he could execute right now. This one would go a long way in achieving any one of those plans.
He still favored the clone plan, but if he had to he was willing to ensure that Voldemort released the virus.
It would depend however if Voldemort could manage to finish what he started so long ago and create a Muggle-only killing strain of it or not.
Yet he never left anything to chance or had just one plan.
Right now getting the gold was what his priority was.
Admittedly in addition to the value of such gold, there was also a measure of pride involved. Getting it would be a true test of his skills, and he honestly believed that he could get it without being killed in the process.
If not...well there was a backup plan for even that.
He knew he was getting close. There was evidence of mining all around him including discarded mining gear such as pickaxes and shovels.
This was the time he would have to be most cautious though. The various traps would disappear but his odds of running into a goblin sentry increased.
He was already covered by an invisibility cloak, along with other cloaking spells, but there was no telling what kind of magic they might have, and judging by the traps he'd already gotten past, they were obviously not lacking in magical skill.
He paused to remove several magical traps before finally moving on.
Another hour of walking however, after having removed over a dozen traps in just that space of time, he finally got up to the top of a small hill.
Then he looked down.
Below him, he could see an absolutely massive pit, easily several miles in diameter and going down and down into the earth. If there was a bottom, he sure couldn't see it.
Yet from what his research had gleaned, which admittedly was millenia old, it descended more than twice as far as the Marianas Trench, at least 15 miles underground and possibly more.
In order to be able to withstand the intense pressure and heat however, the goblins had to have had
quite powerful magic.
Possibly even the use of their magical gold.
If so he was eager to exploit it, yet first he'd actually have to get down there.
A huge wall was set up all around it with plenty of guards on top, and there were about a dozen dragons currently patrolling the skies, flying just underneath a protective bubble shield.
Even from a distance however he could tell they were absolutely huge. Even a Hungarian Horntail would be dwarfed by one of those dragons in size.
Attempting to go down into the pit directly would be suicide.
He looked around for another entrance but only spotted one and that looked if anything more intimidating.
It was a huge stone door that had half a dozen giant trolls surrounding it and were also needed to open it.
In addition about 50 well armed goblins, complete with both Muggle and magical weapons stood in front.
It was quite obvious that despite the unlikelihood of anyone so much as finding out about this place, they weren't taking any chances.
This would require a bit of extra effort and careful planning.
The only good thing was that the guards were all standing there idly, obviously bored. With having had nothing happen in so long, they would have reason to be lazy.
That appeared to be only the benefit on his side as far as he could tell although it wouldn't matter since even the laziest of guards would have noticed the door seemingly open by itself... assuming he could manage to get it open in the first place.
Really his only shot was waiting for someone to open it up and then dart inside while still invisible and before anyone could get wind of him. Goblins had a keen sense of smell so they really could get wind of him even if he did heavily mask his scent.
Stealth would be key.
If he was caught trying to break in, even if he escaped they would be on high alert and he'd never get another chance.
It took several hours of waiting, but finally a scouting party appeared to be coming back inside.
This was his chance.
He quickly withdrew a flask of Felix Felicis and took a swig.
If he ever needed luck, it would be now.
Moving as swiftly as he dared, he took up the rear behind the now entering scouting party and managed to get inside just as the stone doors were shut behind him.
Now that he was in however, it wouldn't get any easier. First he'd have to find the gold and that could easily take days or weeks with the miles upon miles of tunnels crisscrossing every which way all while trying to do so undetected.
Well, he'd better get started, he reasoned.
DUELDUELDUEL
"Are you sure you girls are ready?" Tonks asked them for perhaps the 5th time.
"Ready." Su immediately agreed. She was eager to get this show on the road.
"Hold on I just want to go over things again." Pansy protested.
Su sighed rather impatiently.
"We can hear about them on the way!" Su insisted.
"We've still got time, we won't be meeting with the Headmaster of the school until two." Tonks pointed out.
Admittedly things were growing unbearable. She loved action, not all this constant debriefing. Nobody ever told her that spies had all this to deal with.
"Now what are your names again?" Tonks pressed.
"Peggy Jones." Pansy immediately answered.
"You would be?" Tonks asked as she looked over at her.
"Mei Jones." Su answered before waiting for a beat and adding, "Adopted daughter of the Jones family."
"Correct." Tonks said, "Make sure on the car ride there that you know those names well enough that you answer to them when called. We have no reason to believe anyone else besides Simmons is involved so no one should have any reason to be suspicious, but we still want to be safe than sorry."
Tonks paused after that having a strained look on her face for some reason until Su realized that she was actually morphing herself.
As she looked more and more she began to take on the persona of someone who could easily be Pansy's mother, the same hair color, the same nose, the same eyes...
Since that was actually who she was trying to pretend to be it worked rather well.
"Well what do you think?" She asked them.
"You don't look at all like my mother." Pansy stated.
"I didn't want to risk Simmons potentially recognizing her if I looked just like her." Tonks explained, "Fortunately you don't look a great deal like your mother so I figured I'd just be an older version of you."
"You mean you think I'll end up looking like that?" Pansy asked in disbelief, "No way I'd be that beautiful."
"I'd say you'll be even more beautiful." Tonks argued earnestly.
"You're gorgeous now, actually." Su agreed, putting an arm around Pansy.
Pansy still had self esteem issues... not realizing just how attractive she was despite everyone's insistence otherwise.
"You girls had better get your disguises on as well." Tonks advised.
Pansy immediately reached into a bag she had packed of Muggle clothes, and after a second Su hastened to do the same.
"Is this really what muggles wear?" Su asked as she held up a dark blue skirt.
"That would be the school uniforms you'll be wearing." Mrs. Jones, or rather Tonks, said.
"You'd think they'd pick better ones..." Su wrinkled her nose, "They're ugly."
"Well muggles don't have a lot of fashion sense unfortunately." Pansy agreed.
"Don't forget your hair girls." Tonks pointed out.
In the magical world long hair was much more common, but both of them had hair much longer than normal even there.
Of course it was only a small thing and wouldn't really cause any problems if their hair length was discovered, but it still made a difference. So both of them wrapped their hair into tight buns.
Tonks seemed to consider going over it all again before sighing and said, "All right, I suppose we should go then."
They followed her out to the Ministry Parking Lot, but it was of course one of the emptiest parking lots you can imagine since almost nobody actually drove to work with nearly all the Ministry Employees being wizards.
However just for squibs, and muggles who knew about the Magical World, they still had a parking lot,
and it was to here that they headed.
Tonks went over to where 3 cars were parked, making up the Ministry's entire car fleet.
"Ooh, let's take this one!" Su exclaimed as soon as she spotted a beautiful shiny red car.
"Except there's only two seats, and there definitely wouldn't be room for all our luggage." Pansy pointed out.
"Spoilsport..." Su claimed even though she knew she was right.
Instead Tonks chose another, much less cool looking car, a minivan was apparently what it was called.
Su took the front seat and asked as she looked in front of her, "What do all these buttons do?"
"I'd highly caution you against drawing attention to yourself like that." Tonks reminded her, "You're supposed to be pretending to be a Muggle girl, remember?"
"Not right now I'm not." Su pointed out with a pout.
"It's still important that you get into character." Tonks advised.
She was right of course, but it still was rather annoying nonetheless.
"We can just tell everyone she grew up on a mountain in China and never got to really experience much of the world." Pansy replied.
"Which is actually true." Su pointed out.
"What about you Pansy?" Tonks asked her, "How do you think you'll do?"
"I spent quite a bit of time in the Muggle world growing up actually." She admitted, "I think I should be fine as I long as I stay quiet most of the time."
"All right." Tonks said, now slightly more reassured. If she was honest with herself, she'd likely be doing the same as Pansy. While she got a little anxious, she wasn't about to screw up the mission like this.
After getting all their stuff in, which basically consisted of only clothes since they had to leave all their magic related stuff behind, including their wands, and much to her dismay, her weapons.
She had tried to argue that it might be a good idea to have them just in case they needed to fight their way out, but Tonks had pointed out that first, weapons were banned at the school and would definitely draw attention to herself if she was caught, and second, most likely the only people she would be killing would be innocent bystanders.
Of course she was right, but it didn't make her feel any less conspicuous without her trusty weapons or even her wand.
They'd both gotten some weapons, gadgets and stuff that Tonks had given them but it just wasn't the same.
At any rate, they finished putting their things into the car, Tonks started up the car and then drove off.
"How did you learn to drive Tonks?" Pansy asked her.
"My father is a Muggleborn, he insisted on me getting my driver's license." Tonks explained.
Pansy accepted that answer and then turned back to going over the mission debriefings in her head.
As for herself, well... she admittedly couldn't resist fiddling a bit with opening up and then closing the window a few times.
Or simply stare out at Muggle London as they passed by.
It looked rather dreary, bleak, and cramped with tons of cars, buildings, and people; far different from what she was used to.
Finally Tonks left the city and the suburbs before finally getting to a much less urban area, with plenty of trees and grass, which to her seemed much more inviting.
She then turned in towards a dirt road before arriving in front of a huge looking brown building, which was obviously the school.
It was quite a bit smaller than Hogwarts at least as far as she could tell, but it looked like a palace compared to the school that she had grown up in when she was a girl back in China.
There they had had to make their own buildings, gathering materials and then carrying them up to the very top of the mountain where they lived.
It was a hard life, but the only one that she had known and it was quite an adjustment for her in going to Hogwarts at first.
Some things of course she'd still kept with her from that time.
She still awoke much earlier than anyone else and still exercised a great deal and trained as much as she could, but there was always an itch for action that she could never fully satisfy even though it had gone down a great deal.
However her adaptation to Magical Britain would likely pale in comparison to what she would be facing here, in the Muggle world.
As much as she didn't want to admit it... she was a touch worried that she might not fit in so well here.
Hopefully it would only be a short stay.
After parking in front of the school, Tonks took them inside where a receptionist appeared to be stationed just to the left.
"May I help you?" She asked, trying to sound pleasant but still coming off as rather bored which she probably was.
"I'm looking for Mr. Harker." Tonks answered.
"He'll be out in a minute once he gets done with a phone call." She informed them, before immediately turning back to her work.
They sat down in some chairs and she noticed some magazines currently laying next to her.
What caught her attention about the top one was the headline: Wizards Among Us?
Now quite interested to learn if the Magical World had finally been discovered she turned to the page that it said the article was in.
However the picture for it immediately made her doubt its authenticity.
It showed a man dressed in a suit and was currently holding a bunny sticking out of it.
She couldn't think of any wizard dumb enough to wear a costume like that.
Occasionally some wizard would indeed get it in his head to become a Muggle magician, but not only was that looked down upon, it was also illegal. The Ministry would nail you for doing that faster than you could say abracadabra.
Still, it highlighted why Muggles hadn't found out about them yet if they thought idiots like this were wizards.
She was about to show it to Pansy when they were interrupted by a man's voice.
"Hello Mrs. Jones." Mr. Harker greeted Tonks.
She prided herself on being able to tell when people were being fake or not and he was definitely being fake, even more so than the secretary, his smile appeared plastered on.
"Normally we don't accept walk-ins on such short notice and at the beginning of the summer semester, but after your very generous donation..." He said.
"I just want my darling daughters to get the best education possible." Tonks gushed as she gazed at both her and Pansy with the fondness that any overly loving parent might have.
At least the fondness was real, albeit more 'older sister' than the 'motherly' the older disguised teen was going for.
"I'll try not to get into any trouble." Su demurred.
"I would certainly think not." She chided her before adding to Mr. Harker, "My daughters are usually such perfect little angels, I don't imagine you should have any trouble with them."
"Even so we have a strict no-nonsense tolerance policy." Mr. Harker said as he began to explain a bit about how discipline worked.
Tonks nodded politely, even though she was somewhat annoyed by Mr. Harker.
For good reason, he was laying on thick praise for the school. Far too thick even for a Headmaster, probably assuming that if he did so he might end up getting another generous donation for the school in the future.
At any rate, he led them on a tour of the school, but little impressed her about it.
For example he seemed to think it was pretty impressive that he had a new computer lab, but she really couldn't see the point in having a whole bunch of boxes sitting on desks.
They didn't even do anything besides display various images. She could do something like that back in her first year.
Nor could she understand the need for all the machines that evidently washed clothes. A house elf or even herself could have clothes clean in literally a second.
It truly amazed her just how proud muggles could be over such easy to do things.
The tour concluded with them being taken to their dorm room. As she entered she noted the posters on the walls of what appeared to be musicians. Yet what alarmed her was that there were 2 bunk beds, 4 beds in all, but both the bottom ones were already occupied.
"I thought me and my sister were sharing a room." Pansy asked Mr. Harker.
He allowed himself to frown slightly before confessing, "You are, it's just we don't have any more singular or double bedrooms available. You'll be sharing with 2 other girls in your school year."
'Sharing a room with two Muggle girls. This is going to be interesting...' Su thought.
DUELDUELDUEL
For the first time a magical history lesson actually interested Harry.
Since Professor Binns could manage to make even the most exciting topic boring this was hardly any surprise, however learning about Veela history was actually rather fascinating, especially hearing it from Fleur and Gabrielle's mother, who seemed to really enjoy being able to share it and had a way of getting him engaged in it.
It had already been an hour during his first individual lesson with her and he'd already learned about the beginnings of the Veela, and the legend of how the first Veela was born.
She decided to quiz him afterward about what she'd said to check to make sure he was paying attention and upon him answering all of her questions correctly, she asked him, "Excellent, do you have any questions?"
"Just one," He said hesitantly but without a stutter or stammer, "not to be rude or anything, but I do have to wonder why share all of this with me."
"I would have thought that would have been obvious." She claimed, "In order to better understand the origins and culture of your two Veela lovers and eventual wives."
He felt a bit guilty at that as he confessed, "I suppose I never bothered to learn."
"There was plenty you couldn't learn until now." She pointed out, entirely understanding.
"Thank you, but I meant with the other girls, mostly." He explained, "I never really tried to get to know their background very well."
She sighed and said, "I would highly recommend you do so. While I am not happy that both of my daughters are in a harem of many other girls, I also am forced to recognize that that is a reality and that you love them too."
"I do," He agreed, "that doesn't make up for the fact that there is apparently plenty I still don't know. Look at Fleur and Gabrielle for example."
"The best relationships are the ones where you can truly know a person both the good and the bad and love them for it." She argued, "It's something that I was never able to have for my marriage and I do not want you to have the same problem in yours."
He thought about that for a moment and then said, "You're right. Thanks for pointing that out. So what do you think I should know specifically about Fleur and Gabrielle as their mother?"
She smiled and told him, "All in good time. A month is barely enough time for you to learn all that I think you should know, but I should be able to make it work."
"I do have another question, I was wondering if perhaps you could tell me more about the Veela Plague?" Harry suggested. "I would caution you against bringing that up." She said, mood turning grim. "My daughters have already told you about it and that is all you need to know."
From what he could, she was clearly still affected by it and did not want to talk about it. He decided it was probably best to obey her wishes. "I won't bring it up again, I'm sorry." He answered.
"It's okay." She said, "Besides, there are other things for you to learn."
"Another history lesson then?" He asked hopefully.
"While I admire your enthusiasm that is not what I had in mind," The Queen answered, "Are you knowledgeable in wand lore?"
"Not very well. 'The wand chooses the wizard', is about the extend of it." He admitted.
After sighing again, she said, "It truly amazes me how little you seem to know about very important things." she pushed onward before he could grow offended. "I suppose I shall start at the beginning: they say a wand chooses a wizard, but the reason why is much more complex than that. Every wizard's wand core is connected to them in some way that resonates with their personality and background. The closer the wand to you, the better it will perform for you. A person could exemplify the traits of a unicorn, being kind and free and so a unicorn hair wand might work well for them. However, let's say that they actually have a pet unicorn that they love dearly. A hair from that unicorn would work even better for them because of the greater connection. Love has a way of making that even stronger."
"I see..." Harry observed, "Well how come only certain creatures' body parts can be used in making wands?"
"Since it is more the channeling of the magic that is more important and only certain creatures can do that effectively." She explained, "It's still your own magic that's needed as usually there is relatively little magic in the wand itself. However some work better than others, especially depending on the user of the wand. A Veela wand that uses the hair of a Veela for example can only be used by another Veela or their male lover. However a hair from a Veela queen can only be used by a current Veela queen. That is why Fleur and Gabrielle have wands using the hair of their grandmother instead of me."
"I had kind of wondered that." He admitted.
"Another valuable thing about a Veela wand is you are able to do certain spells that you couldn't with an ordinary wand. It is my desire to craft you a wand using a hair from both Fleur and Gabrielle - intertwined for additional strength." The Queen informed him.
He hesitated. Not that he wasn't interested in learning new spells but because he kind of liked his old wand.
"Not to be rude but I kind of like my old wand." Harry pointed out.
"It would only be to train you in those particular spells, if you wish to continue using your old wand that is fine, although I believe you will find your new wand to be ever better for you." She replied.
"How come?" He asked.
"Since the connection that you have with both of my daughters should be far stronger than any connection than you have with whatever it is with your old wand." Fleur and Gabrielle's mother answered.
He thought about that for a moment, it certainly would make sense.
The connections with his old wand were actually rather negative, admittedly, as much as he liked his wand.
First there was Voldemort having the other Fawkes' feather wand, and then of course Dumbledore who currently was the one still enslaving Fawkes and presumably had been the one to give the feather over to Ollivander for whatever reason.
He did not feel any desire to share any kind of connection with either of them. To be honest he had no
idea why he had defended his wand before. The more he thought about it the more gratful he was to be rid of the old one.
"Alright, I guess that's okay then." Harry finally concluded.