France Issue (Part 1).

Alan ran up to Fleur, who was still trying to understand what happened and took her hand.

"Fleur." - he started to talk, when now a girl who already started to grow to become a beautiful young maiden hugged him without any hesitation.

"Alan... *sniff* Alan..." - she just cried and repeated his name, to which he immediately broke the embrace looking around vigilantly, but still holding her with one hand. - "I knew you will find me..."

"There, there, don't cry." - He didn't try to comfort her through physical contact alone, patting her head, but sent a wave of strong feelings of tranquility and confidence through their connection. Now that they were together, Alan again marveled at this strange, but very strong link of their hearts, as if they were inseparable. - "We need to go."

'Sadly I don't know anything about the area, otherwise I would have apparated us away already. Should have checked if I can use the channel, while leaving the necklace behind. Damn, that's what happens when I become emotional and in a hurry.'

Actually, if not for the connection of a necklace he is completely incapable of traversing even tenth of the distance from London to France. Alan snapped out of it and held Fleur's hand. They need to run away first and find a suitable place for her to rest.

Duo dived into the forest, traversing the opposite route the dark wizard who attacked Fleur came from. It seems they were combing through the whole forest and spread thin to widen the search area, that is why only one Death Eater attacked her.

And with Alan sudden appearance he wasn't even able to notify his own comrades.

Despite the situation Alan never tried to run, only walk under the cover of vanishing spell. He long ago surmised that if Trace can't sense Isu magic, than others won't be able to track it down too.

So he opted to be as discreet as possible.

It seems that Isu magic is seen as part of nature itself and blended with it so well, that there was no way to distinguish between the two. Fleur was glued to him all this time and never once let go of his hand. Alan lead them through the forest for about a mile and found a grove.

He used gouging spell to dig a cave for them and put strong confundus charm on the ground to create an area in front of the entrance, that was eventually hidden by the bushes. If any mage or muggle came they will not be able to go further and will enter confused state, albeit for a short period of time. Still it is enough to give Alan time to take care of them.

It turned out that the property of Isu spells and his mana is very useful, after all no one will notice this spell before it took effect on them.

He looked back and noticed that Fleur was shaking a bit, she clearly felt cold. He then removed his blazer and put it on her exposed shoulders. Uniform of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic was way more elegant and ladylike than what they have in Hogwarts. And what is more – her shoulders were only covered by a thin nearly transparent silk cape. It was a uniform of her House, not the Academy, as Beauxbatons don't have regular uniform as a whole, but one for each of their houses.

The soft blue one Fleur was garbed into is precisely the one.

Beauxbatons Academy wasn't an all-girl one, but they strictly divided boys and girls, even their Houses are different as there are all-girls and all-boys ones and have quite a distance between them.

"We are safe for now. Sit here, are you hurt anywhere?" - Alan guided her to an impoverished bench and slowly let the girl sit on it. She noticed how careful he was as if handling a fragile piece of ancient historical treasure. Perhaps even Alan himself didn't notice how different his attitude was to Fleur in comparison to other girls and most people.

"My leg is a bit painful." - she bit her lips and tears started to fall out of her exhausted eyes. Fleur sat down shakily but still held his hand like a life-saving straw. A little girl like that was attacked out of nowhere, what else can she do?

"I am here, don't be afraid anymore." - he caressed her hair gently, but it only made Fleur grip his hand tighter. - "Okay, I will use one hand to see what is wrong with your leg." - She nodded and stretched out the left one.

"You lost your boots? Why didn't you tell me?" - he looked at her, but noticing tears on the rim of her eyes only sighed and gave her a smile. The real smile, not barely traceable he was able to show around other people. A smile he gave only to her. - "We will figure something out."

'My god... this is a spike from a Iceblood Tree in her leg? No wonder she was freezing and barely felt any pain.'

Good thing it is not actually poisonous plant, bad – the wound wasn't a small one and after removal pain will come eventually. But it is imperative to remove it or blood will never stop.

"Fleur, just bare with it for a moment, okay?"

"Mmm... thank you, Alan." - she smiled at him with the most bright smile she was able to master in current situation. - "It is good to see you again." - he patted her head to which Fleur surprisingly closed her eyes and even moved closer, just like a kitten will do. She clearly enjoyed it.

'That's Veela blood for you. They are completely natural at this.'

Little did he know that she didn't let anyone of the opposite gender, even her father, as much as touch a strand of her hair. She was known by all as untouchable princess with extreme dislike of men. It was a downside of empathy. Of course her father never gave her a reason to behave that way, but he just got it, as they say, for being there.

"Don't look. Just close your eyes and rest." - Alan in one quick move extracted the spike and incinerated it with a trivial first year fire-making spell. He wasn't too careful with spells here as noticing a low class ones is very difficult and actually, if anything, he preferred to be noticed through Trace, so that investigators from local Ministry hurried here.

The wound looked bad to say the least. It was not some little splinter, but a knife size piece of strong magical wood.

'I don't know any healing spells. And even if I have books and knowledge, I still need a teacher who can supervise my training. It is a good thing during the year I asked Selena to teach me many combat charms and some more... but that's it.'

"Does it hurt?" - Alan asked with worry. His emotions and feelings were bare in front of Fleur and just like always, they were very light and warm. She thought that the necklace he gifted will be able to replace him, but only now she understood how much she really missed the real him. Not the feelings and empathy part, but him being here, near.

And when she realized it she felt her heart race and face burn.

'What am I even thinking? Bad girl, Fleur, bad girl!'

Surrounded by coziness and warmth he brought she already forgot about everything else. She didn't even care how he appeared here, only that he did.

"It... started to hurt a bit." - she nodded being broken out of her thought by a pang of pain.

"Just bear with it for now." - he sat near her, but Fleur seems to get a part of her tomboyish attitude from before back and directly snuggled to his lap, finding nestling position for her head on his chest. The next moment unsuspecting and completely defenseless girl have fallen asleep under the gaze of flabbergasted Alan. Seems like she was very stressed, more than she was willing to show. - "Amu? What are you doing? Finally decided to grace us with your royal presence?"

Amu slithered out of his sleeve and to the wounded leg. Alan didn't stop her, only looking with curiosity. She directly lingered over the cut and licked it. And when she did, Alan saw the wound close very quickly.

"You can actually do that! Amu, you are good!" - Alan gave her a thumbs-up and received a look of utmost superiority, clearly Amu wasn't very impressed, as if it was expected.

"Cocky as always." - he complained in return while proud dragon went to rest on his wrist again.

But just as it was about to lay low, Amu hissed with power and Alan reacted in moments.

Mana went wild inside his energyform, controlled by the mental force. The next second he only was able to put a shielding spell, Isu Protego, out when a relentless force slammed at it, crushing the surrounding cave walls in pieces and Alan was thrown deeper inside with Fleur already awake but still in his hands.

'One? Did we got unlucky to bump into lone scout again?'

"Expulso..." - came the echo of a man's screaming voice full of rage and confusion.

'I'll be damned, these Death Eaters are all madmen! Who the hell will hurl out exploding curses in confused state?'

"Expulso!" - came again and a blue light streaked across the darkness of night forest into nearby tree pulverizing it to smithereens with a loud explosion and a blast wave.

Middle aged man in Death Eater robes got himself influenced by confundus, but not entirely, he seems to enter delusional state of mind.

"You little bitch, I will find you! Taste you first and torture you later..." - Fleur was standing behind Alan and felt emotions of that person that scared her to silence.

"You will do shit!" - yelled Alan and hurled a fully charged Isu Everte Statum.

Now that was one exemplary spell to outright kill off the foe no matter what the later tried to do. It is just that he didn't know one particular thing about Isu magic that Amalgal never mentioned. It can be enhanced and influenced by emotions with relative ease, as it has a whole emotional plane behind the true language.

What he conjured now was similar in nature to a spell that shielded Harry Potter from killing curse, but was fueled by pure, white hot rage.

Currently, feeling enraged at the man, he created magical ram with magnitude of a third Permission mage killing spell. This full power was converted to the most direct power of destruction – kinetic force.

The man was blasted away. In pieces. They were sent flying on the cloud of crimson blood far away in a mess of unrecognized flesh and bones. But the golden light didn't stop there, it went further and made a ravine on the angled slope of the canyon they find refuge in.

This will surely be noticed.

'Should I just apparate without clear destination? This is very risky actually, but... Dudes in black will never guess that my apparition can't be locked down with wards.'