Harry Potter Veela's Embrace

Dumbledore remembered that this past summer, Sirius had tried to tell him that something seemed off with Harry and his letters, but again he hadn't considered it serious enough to check into. He now knew he had failed Harry. After a few more moments of consideration he turned to Rachelle, "I apologize for not taking you with me the first time, but I needed to make sure that there weren't…er…other problems that revealed themselves."

"What do you mean Albus?" Rachelle Berceau asked. "Anything that I need to be concerned about?"

"No, it is not an issue," When Rachelle pressed the issue, the Headmaster continued. "You are of course familiar with Harry Potter's scar?" Rachelle nodded. "Well there are…issues with his scar that I thought might have caused this to occur. Remnants of an unsurvivable curse," Of course the remnants of the curse that Dumbledore was concerned about was the part of Voldemort's soul he suspected and feared was in Harry. "But as I said, there were no indications that was the issue."

"What did you suspect?" Rachelle continued to press.

"Not something I can discuss, at least not in the present time," Dumbledore told the Veela bond expert. "I truly feel it is not the issue. Now I think it's time for you and me to venture together. I do feel I must warn you, what you are going to see is quite disturbing. I knew there were some issues in his home life, but I didn't know it was as bad as you'll witness. Now are you familiar with the use of a Pensieve?" When Professor Berceau shook her head, he explained. "All you have to do is put your face into the liquid and you will fall into the memory."

"Easy enough," Rachelle answered and within a few seconds they both found themselves looking at the simple but beautiful two story house that was a part of Harry's mind. She and Dumbledore watched the memory unfold. They saw Harry's smile as he looked at the house and his first step toward it. They Heard Fleur and Gabrielle call out to him and then when they caught up to him, they spoke. An image appeared, one that Dumbledore recognized as Number Four Privet Drive, but it quickly vanished only to be followed by images of the physical, verbal and physiological abuse that Harry had suffered at the hands of relatives. On and on the images continued until finally after an exchange of words between Harry and Fleur, they started toward the home. Dumbledore and Rachelle continued to watch as the depictions of Harry's relatives appeared and blocked their paths while lambasting Harry with their verbal assaults. The watched Fleur and Gabrielle struggle but finally fail as Harry became unresponsive. Finally all went black and Rachelle and Albus were back in his office, both had looks upon their face that indicated they had witnessed something very unpleasant.

Rachelle was the first to speak, "Who were those people? Are they real or made up like the house?"

"Oh they're real," Professor Dumbledore said softly. "They are the only remaining relatives of Harry. He's lived with them for the last thirteen years. And I must take the entire blame for it. I placed him there when his parents died. I had good reasons for doing so, but I can see now that I should have acted sooner to protect him. But for now that is the past and we must do what we can to protect the young man's future. Is there anything that you were able to discern from that review Rachelle?"

"The first thing I can say is his love is intact," Rachelle said. "You could tell by the yellow glow coming from the house. In fact he...he, well he has an over abundance of love to give."

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore asked.

"Understand that the bondimage, which we just witnessed, is a magically induced review of a person's heart," Rachelle explained. "There is no hiding the true love from the Veela magic. Now I've never seen one in a Pensieve before but extensive questioning in my research shows that normally the house would reflect the security and his heart would be inside of it, in something like a closet or a box, or wherever he usually stores his most prized possessions. But it seems Harry's heart is represented by the entire house we just saw. The golden glow is his love. As I said, if he is imagining that house to scale, the love he has far exceeds any that I have come across in my research."

"So..."

"So with the love intact, I feel confident the bond will occur if we can just get him and the ladies to his heart, or that house."

Fleur and Gabrielle were hanging onto every word spoken by Rachelle; they both knew that the hope for their future was centered on what this woman could do. At the last words that the bond could still happen they both turned to each other and shared a small smile of hope.

"What is causing him to imagine his relatives blocking his path?" Dumbledore asked.

"That's easy, self doubt. Those relatives of his seemed to have induced an inability in Harry to readily accept love, going so far as to almost reject it as possible. The irony of it, most likely it is the one thing he truly desires. Is it accurate to say he has no one that shows him love?"

"Recently he discovered his godfather. I am positive that they have a loving relationship."

"Really, and they spend a lot of time together?" Rachelle asked somewhat surprised.

"Uh, no. There are complications and his godfather had to leave shortly after they found each other."

"So he finds a person who says they love him, and that person leaves very soon after," Rachelle stated. "That might have added to the damage. Harry was again told he was loved and that person disappeared."

"But they write all the time, and have seen each other a couple of times since then."

"Professor Dumbledore, The Veela bond is love, so love is what I specialize in," Rachelle started, "You can NOT give love with words written on paper. You can show caring and support with such things, and as bad as Harry has been treated, he might think that is love, but it isn't. How many times has Harry been told he was loved to his face, shown he was loved with simple actions like a hug?"

"We did last night," Fleur said. "'Arry was most kind, but 'e did say zat ze kiss 'e and I shared was 'is first one."

"Well that is something," Rachelle said. "He didn't shy away from you hug or kiss?"

"Non," Fleur replied.

"Good, then it's just a matter of fighting his self doubt," Rachelle frowned in concentration for a few seconds. Finally she turned to Dumbledore. "Does Harry have any close friends, someone he trusts completely?"

"He has two very close friends. They have been friends since they arrived in this castle," Professor Dumbledore replied.

"Ron and 'Ermione?" Fleur asked. "'E told us about zem last night. About zeir adventures zey 'ave shared."

Professor Dumbledore thought of Harry's two best friends and then a thought and a memory came to him. "Rachelle, can you join me in the pensieve one more time? I think we overlooked something very important."

"Sure, but what do you think we missed?" The half Veela asked.

"I prefer to show you. I'm hoping you can tell me what it means," A minute later the two of them were back in the memory as it was first starting. "I was concentrating on the events and didn't pay too much attention to the house last time, but look in that window on the left. There is a person there. See her?"

"Yes, but that is his heart, which means…love. He loves her," Rachelle said. "Do you know who she is? She could be the key to everything."

"Most definitely. That Rachelle is Hermione Granger, the friend Fleur just mentioned," Dumbledore said and they found themselves back out in the office again.

"Albus, I think we need to speak to Miss Granger immediately," Professor Berceau said.

....

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