------------
If you enjoy please support me on my patreon Future 80+ chapters at patreon.com/Phoenizbeelze
-----
Soon they arrived at the train station, Harry reluctantly left his mask in his trunk. He and Delphi said their goodbyes to Fay before walking out. Harry had chosen to wear a black hoodie with the hood up, to cover as much of his face as he could. They got out when they were greeted by Bellatrix Lestrange and Kreatcher the house elf.
Kreatcher was quite an old elf but he was still very capable of working, he held Bellatrix, Harry and Delphi in high regard. Bellatrix had a very thin face along with pale skin, her hair was black, curly and shoulder length. She stood whilst wearing a black jacket that covered most of her buddy but still allowed people to be able to see her black high heels.
"Harry! Delphi!" She smiled as she pulled them both into hugs
"Hi mum!" Delphi hugged her back while Harry responded with a one armed hug while Shadow flew up and landed on Kreatcher to avoid being crushed
"Look at you both, you've grown" Bellatrix happily noted "oh and Harry, no mask?"
"Had to take it off sooner or later" Harry tried to act casual even though he had his head kept down and his shoulders slumped as his hands were in his pockets
"Well" Bellatrix said "Kreatcher will take your things back to my house. We'll go there and then we'll take our portkey in an hour"
"You still haven't told us where we're going" Delphi complained
"It's a surprise" Bellatrix smiled "so don't think you're going to find out, now grab my hands and follow me to the apparition point"
A little while later the trio had been portkeyed into what appeared to be a Gringotts bank. Though Harry immediately noticed that it wasn't an English bank.
"I have to go and thank the Goblins for letting us portkey here" Bellatrix said "just go and wait outside" She told the kids "I'll be with you soon, stay by the doors and don't go anywhere till I'm out"
"Okay mum" Delphi nodded, she and Harry walked out and stopped outside. They were in a market place, much like Diagon alley except this one was cleaner. The buildings looked more impressive and didn't look like they were going to fall over. The people weren't as ugly and everything seemed more organised than the mess that was Diagon alley. Overall Harry liked it.
"EW!" A voice exclaimed, Delphi and Harry found a small girl a short distance away pointing at Harry's face "Mama! Papa!" She called and her parents came over and the girl pointed at Harry again, the parents looked at the direction of her fingers and suddenly became very uncomfortable, as evidenced by their short whispering and hurry in taking the girl away.
Delphi was tempted to go and give them a piece of her mind, she looked towards Harry and her heart broke when she saw that he had turned away and was trying not to look in the direction of the incident. His head was lowered as if he was trying to hide from the world.
"Harry" She said softly
"Let it go Dell" Harry replied, equally as soft
"Harry, that's not fair. You shouldn't be judged for something that's not you fault"
"She was just a kid" Harry shrugged
"But her parents weren't" Delphi argued "they didn't tell her off or apologise or do anything"
"They pulled their child away from an uncomfortable situation and a potential danger" Harry said "there are worse ways to look after your kids"
"That doesn't mean it was nice!"
"What wasn't nice?" Bellatrix asked as she came out
"Some girl looked at Harry and screamed" Delphi said before Harry could reply "her parents didn't say anything, they just looked at Harry and left"
"It's done, might as well stop complaining" Harry replied
"Harry" Bellatrix sighed "as the woman who is currently supposed to be the dark lord's right hand woman who managed to avoid justice, I like to think that I understand what you're going through or at least better than most. I'm not going to make you talk about it but if you ever want to then I am here"
"Thank you" Harry said quietly, Bellatrix patted his shoulder and gave him a one armed hug before walking off with the two children following
"Harry, how come you didn't bring Shadow?" Bellatrix asked, hoping to lighten the atmosphere, plus it was a valid question as Harry rarely went anywhere without the bird
"He didn't want to come on a portkey, so he's flying here. Should be here by sometime tomorrow as he will probably be spending some time eating and sight seeing" Harry answered
"Okay. So, are you two excited about spending your Christmas in France?" Bellatrix asked
"Hold on a sec, did you say France?!" Delphi asked as she looked around
"Oh yeah, hadn't told you yet" Bellatrix smiled sheepishly
"We're in France by the way" Harry added to Delphi who glared at Harry and shoved him.
She ended up shoving him a little too hard as Harry ended up going a few steps sideways and someone ended up running into him. He and that person fell to the floor and ended up landing right next to Harry who barely heard Bellatrix scolding Delphi for pushing him. Harry was about to get up when he heard a gasp, he tensed and moved his head, trying not to look at the person.
She was walking, with her family, enjoying her time away from school. She and her parents were shopping, her father holding her little sister in his arms while her mother had placed herself in charge of the shopping. She had to admit that her mother knew what she was doing, at least much more than her father. She loved her dad but he was rather miserable at choosing clothes. Her mother and just told her that they were going to an ice cream store, admittedly that may have been what caused her to walk faster than normal.
It was then that she crashed into someone and fell to the floor, she had just gotten up and was about to apologise to the boy. When she gasped, the boy was wearing muggle clothes which included a black hoodie that he was using to try and cover us his face. She was very shocked to see that the boy had a burnt face along with claw marks across his face. But that wasn't what made her gasp.
As he moved her hand brushed against his own, she felt a tingle, the same tingle her mother had always described when she talked about meeting her father. This tingle was something she didn't expect, perhaps later when she was older but not now. Her gasp came from realising what happened and what that tingle meant.
"Sorry" The boy's voice came, it was low and quiet, it also told her that the boy was English. That made things difficult as she hadn't learnt much English yet.
"It's fine" She got out, hoping her English was good enough "what...name?" She asked, once again hoping he understood her
"Harry" He grunted as he stood up, he seemed to be arguing with himself for a few seconds, before he extended a hand and helped her up. His face surprised her, it was one that told her he expected rejection, judgement and she could tell that his offer was reluctantly. She wanted to feel a bit hurt but she guessed that the boy had probably suffered enough judgment from others thanks to his face
"Merci beaucoup" She thanked him as she took his hand and stood up as her parents arrived, she took the opportunity to introduce herself, it would've gone a lot better if she was more confident with her English "I...am...Fleur Delacour"
------------
If you enjoy please support me on my patreon Future 80+ chapters at patreon.com/Phoenizbeelze
-----