Salazar was happy to remind him that being a lot faster, and capable of swiftly switching from one spell to the next was a serious improvement. He also reminded him that comparing himself to Voldemort, who relied on very powerful spells and speed, was not the right comparison when Harry's most powerful magic was often based in transfiguration.
You just need experience, he would shrug, then look unhelpfully blank when Harry asked him were he expected to get that experience from.
Myrtle was absent from her bathroom, so Harry gingerly crossed the puddle and opened the chamber. 'I thought you were spending the rest of the day with Fleur,' Slytherin remarked, hearing his footsteps echoing as Harry strode past the shadow of the basilisk the fiendfyre had left.
'I am,' Harry responded, wandering into the study.
'So why are you here?' Salazar asked, quirking his eyebrow. The serpent around his neck slithered forwards to eye Harry with equal curiosity.
'We've been together for six months,' Harry told him keeping a straight face, 'it's about time she met my family, don't you think?'
'You've never referred to your muggle relatives as your family before,' the founder remarked thoughtfully. 'You intend to bring her here.'
'You are the only real family I have,' Harry reminded him, 'painting or not, and I promised her no more secrets.'
'Tom Riddle never brought a girl to meet me,' Salazar considered.
'You think it's a bad idea?'
'No,' the painting eyed him softly, 'If you truly trust her, then I think it's a very good idea. However, without our bloodline she can only enter here by invitation.'
'Then how could Ginny, Ron, Lockhart, Fawkes,' Harry trailed off from his list at Slytherin's flat stare. 'I invited them all in some fashion, didn't I,' he realised.
'The Weasley girl was possessed by Voldemort and that would have likely acted as an invitation in her case, just as opening the door for your friends was one, and as for the phoenix, they're annoying creatures, interpreting odd meanings from anything if it benefits them. Helga's once came to give me aid in the middle of a feast, it relit the fire when it went out, but I'm certain it was just hungry and wanted an excuse to get past the wards to the food.'
'So I can just apparate us both here?' Harry asked. He didn't particularly want to find himself bouncing of anti-apparition wards into the Black Lake again.
'Yes,' Salazar sighed. 'Clearly I need to teach you a lot more about blood magic.'
'You've taught me next to nothing about it,' Harry reminded him, 'and I can't go asking my teachers either.'
'I suppose,' he grumbled, delicately pulling his serpent back onto his neck with two fingers. 'Go on then, you have my permission, approval or whatever it was you wanted from telling me.' He apparated away to the willow tree, no longer needing the portkey now Fleur's parents had decided to include him in the wards.
To his surprise it was Gabrielle he found there, sitting on the white pebbles and tossing the small ones into the water.
'Fleur,' he greeted in mock surprise, 'you've shrunk!'
She laughed briefly before slipping back to a more sombre expression. 'Fleur is in her room at the chateau,' she told him quietly, choosing another perfectly smooth pebble from those around her.
'Lonely?' Harry asked, stepping down beside her at the river's edge. He knew the expression she was wearing well enough.
'You've stolen my sister,' she said after a while, tossing another stone into the river. 'I used to have all her attention to myself, but now I have to share her.'
'Sorry,' Harry apologised, sitting down on the pebbles and choosing a small, smooth one of his own. 'I didn't intend to steal her from you.'
'I don't mind,' she assured him. 'I just wish I had someone like she does. It's going to be a bit miserable for me at Beauxbatons when Fleur is gone.'
'I'm sure she'll come and kidnap you,' Harry smiled.
'She'll be busy with her own life, off being brilliant and strong and with you, like she should be, and I'll have to fend for myself. I'm not the same as Fleur,' Gabrielle confessed her. 'I can't ignore everyone around me so easily as she does. I can feel their emotions in the magic they cast, their jealousy, their pity, their anger.' Her fingers tightened on the stone. 'They affect me.'
'If there is anything I can do, you only have to ask,' Harry decided. It was horrible to see her so sad, a shell of her usual cheerful self.
'There is nothing anyone can do,' she shrugged. 'I will learn to survive it without Fleur, but thank you.' A glimmer of her usual mischief appeared in her eyes. 'My sister is waiting for you, she's been impatiently waiting since Christmas, what did you promise her?' There was nothing subtle about what Gabrielle was suggesting.
'Maybe you'll find out when you're older,' he replied, knowing that her birthday was actually before his. 'Or, if you're really eager, you can try following us and making another portrait.'
'I think Fleur would murder me,' she giggled. 'Can you apparate me back?' 'Of course,' he nodded, taking her proffered arm, and picturing the entrance hall of the chateau.
The world spun back past them with a soft crack, and he had to keep a tight grip on Fleur's little sister to stop her falling over all the shoes.
'Thanks,' she told him seriously, flashing him a grateful smile. 'I'll get Fleur for you.'
She had bounced off up the stairs towards the far side of the house before Harry could thank her, calling Fleur's name and cheerful casting all sorts of aspersions on what they might be about to do.
After a moment a slightly red-faced Fleur appeared, trailed by a slightly sooty Gabrielle who's wide grin stood out from her ash -streaked face.
'I take it this one of those happy surprises, you were referring to,' she commented, watching her little sister's back warily as she headed off towards the nearest bathroom.
'Soon has become now,' Harry answered, offering her his hand.
Fleur stepped around it and chose to wrap her arms around his waist instead.
'I've never apparated like this before,' Harry remarked.
'Don't you like it?' She asked coyly, pressing herself a little closer to him. Harry chose to kiss her rather than answer such an obvious question. If she pressed herself much closer against him she would find out exactly how much he liked it. His cheeks reddened at the thought.
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