Bonds of Blood 0004: Return

When Harry arrived back home, he was given quite an enthusiastic welcome by his mother. Lily was extremely happy seeing her son after so long.

"Then what happened?" Lily inquired, settled on the couch with Harry seated between her legs on the floor. He leaned his head against her stomach as she gently massaged his scalp.

"I don't think you want to know…" Harry said with a hesitant laugh.

"What? I want to know how my son fought off my daughter-in-law's bullies…" Lily teased Harry.

"Come on, Mum. Fleur and I may be dating, but it's far too early to be thinking of marriage…" Harry changed the topic, not wanting to talk about how he hexed multiple women with clothing-dissolving charms that took effect in front of the entire school.

"Do you ever plan to break up with her?" Lily asked Harry with a smile.

"Of course not." Harry's answer was instantaneous.

"Then you'll be marrying her at some point, end of story. If you don't want to think about it, it's fine, but you can't dismiss the notion. If Fleur heard you, her feelings would be hurt." Lily explained to Harry with a motherly tone.

"Yeah…" Harry went deep in thought as he closed his eyes and enjoyed his mother's massage, "Mum…" He called out.

"Mhm?" Lily asked.

"Do you ever miss Dad?" Harry asked randomly.

"What brought that on?" Lily asked with a little smile, though the flicker of pain in her eyes was unmistakable.

Harry glanced at the only photograph of his entire family that was hung in the living room. His mother and father were standing close while he was resting in his father's arms, wrapped in a blanket. He focused back on the bright smile on his mother's face that hid her pain and said, "Just curious. I never really met the man, and I like to think of the kind of person that he was every once in a while…"

"Well, as I've already told you…" Lily thought for a moment with a fond smile before she spoke, "…he was a Gryffindor… Same as me, brave, headstrong, and incredibly stubborn," She chuckled before her voice took a saddened tone, "He sacrificed his life on that day to protect the two of us…" She said sadly.

"From Vol—" Lily clasped her hand on Harry's mouth.

"You do not speak of his name, Harry," Lily said sternly, gaining an annoyed tone in her voice.

"I know. I'm sorry." Harry grumbled.

"The trace on his name exists to this day. And we cannot afford to have him coming after us again. We lost enough that night." Lily continued explaining to him.

"I know… It's just, I don't like being scared of a man who's supposed to be dead." Harry said.

"He's not really dead though. You also the specter that night…" Lily said with a frown.

"Yeah… Sorry for bringing it up…" Harry apologized. His mother didn't like talking about this stuff generally.

"Have you kept up with your Occlumency training?" Lily asked him, changing the topic.

"Yeah." Just as Harry answered, he felt a sharp attack on his mind, "Ahh! Dammit, Mom!" His hand shot up to his forehead as he felt the pain of his mind being attacked.

"Hmm. Good, you've improved quite a bit since Christmas. I'll test your dueling tonight." Lily nodded in satisfaction after a few seconds, "And language, young man." She said sharply.

"Have you ever considered not using such a brute-force Legilimency attack to check my progress?" He asked with a pained tone.

"Stop whining. I have more than enough control over my mental probes to not hurt you." Lily laughed.

"Why are you even so adamant about me being an accomplished Occulumens? None of the professors at Beauxbatons has ever mentioned anything about the mind arts…" Harry complained. He didn't see any use in constantly practicing it and mastering the ability. Accomplished Legilimens are extremely rare as far as Harry knew and it would be a wonder to encounter one of them in his life.

"Just, listen to Mum, okay? It is very important…" Lily said in a tone that left no more room for discussion.

"You have got to start explaining these things to me at some point…" Harry complained absently as he decided to enjoy his mother's massage.

"When you're older…" Lily told Harry.

A while later, there was a loud crackling sound that was followed by a knock on the door, "Come on in, Fleur. It's open." Lily waved her wand to unlock the door.

"Hi, Mum…" Fleur walked into the house with a basket that was covered with a cloth, "My mother sent some croissants…" She told Lily as she set the basket on the living room table.

"Give Apolline my thanks," Lily smiled as Fleur took a seat beside her, "How was your school year? I hope Harry didn't cause too much trouble."

"Hey!" Harry protested.

"Well…" Fleur had a smile that told Lily more than enough, "He did cause quite a bit of trouble~" She said teasingly.

"Oh, come on, Fleur. Don't start that right now…" Harry knew exactly what Fleur was going to do.

"For one, he stood me up on two instances. He never even showed up and when I went to check up on him, he was playing Quidditch. And he was rude to me in another instance…" Fleur started listing out any and all tiny meaningless problems that she had with Harry since the Christmas holidays.

This was a usual talk they had in Lily's presence. They didn't argue too much whenever one of them had a problem, instead, they pushed it back until they could talk about it with a cool and calm mind. If it still wasn't fixed, then they would talk about the issues again when they talked with Lily over the holidays.

"…And once, I saw him talking to Celine in the library. Even when I came in, he didn't say anything to me, ignoring me as if I wasn't even there." Fleur took a deep breath after listing out a rather large number of problems that she had with Harry.

"Curse the day Mum started teaching you Occlumency…" Harry grumbled as Fleur shot him a smug look. Lily had taught the two of them a relatively unknown side-branch of Occlumency that was solely used to manage the memory. It wasn't anything too good, but it helped in remembering some of the important things more efficiently.

In essence, Occlumency was the closing of one's mind to prevent any external thoughts from affecting the person. It also included impeccable control over their own emotions.

Through this, some basic memory management techniques were derived that allowed one to keep some of the important memories organized. But using a Pensive was still a much more efficient option for this purpose.

"Thank you for listening, Mum…" Fleur smiled and thanked Lily.

"Of course, constant communication is the cornerstone of any healthy relationship." Lily said before continuing, "Harry. Any problems from your side? Then we'll talk and resolve these issues."

"As always, Mum… Fleur is the perfect girl and I couldn't have any complaints from her…" Harry smiled wryly. Fleur really was the most perfect woman he could imagine. She never reneged on a commitment, her eyes were almost always only on him and she had almost an overwhelming amount of love for him, "I guess we could do something about the physical abuse she puts me through…" Harry said thoughtfully.

"Hey, I do not hit you!" Fleur got defensive as both Harry and even Lily gave her a look. She coughed and said, "Mostly…"

"All right, young man. Start explaining…" Lily stopped massaging Harry's head and crossed her arms below her chest.

"Fine…" Harry was full of complaints as he got up and sat on the couch between Fleur and Lily.

As he saw Fleur's smug look, he bopped her on the nose with his finger, "Stop being so smug. And say the first thing from the list again. I'll start explaining." Harry sighed. The next hour or so was going to be tiring.

At the same time, he felt Lily wrap her arms around his arm and rest her head on his shoulder. Her job was to initiate this communication between the couple, she wasn't interested in involving herself in their talk. She just closed her eyes and rested.

Harry leaned back on the couch, allowing his mother to comfortably rest on his shoulder. He started softly explaining things to Fleur. Lily's action had another effect, they would both make a constant effort to talk softly so as not to disturb her. This would make sure that their talk didn't devolve into a screaming match.

…

As the three of them ate dinner, Lily asked, "Will you be staying the night, Fleur?"

"Of course, Mum. Gabrielle just finished her school year so Mum is grilling her…" Fleur laughed gleefully, "This leaves me with a lot of time. I hope you can come to our house for breakfast tomorrow, though."

"Are you sure?" Lily smiled slyly, "Harry asked me to make my special pancakes."

"Sorry Fleur, Mum and I won't be able to make it for breakfast." Harry had already decided that he wanted to stay here.

Fleur sighed dramatically, "I understand." She said with a cracked-up voice as if she was incredibly heartbroken about their refusal, "I'll let Mum know that the three of us won't be making it for breakfast."

Her words made Lily burst out laughing.

"No, it's fine, babe. You shouldn't miss eating with your family just because— Ouch!" Fleur had just stomped on Harry's foot.

"I would love to have breakfast with you, Mum." Fleur smiled sweetly.

"You see what I said about domestic violence…" Harry said to his mother with a twitching expression as he gestured to Fleur.

Lily just suppressed a laugh, "Try not to hit him too roughly, honey…" She told Fleur.

"Of course, Mum. I could never hurt Harry." Fleur nodded seriously.

"Great, she's even turned my own mother against me. How woeful…" Harry shed a fake tear.

"Don't be a baby…" Fleur teased him, "Here…" She wrapped some spaghetti in her fork and blew air on it to cool it down before bringing it close to his mouth.

He looked at her unimpressed before letting her feed him.

The rest of the dinner passed by quickly as they all bantered a little.

"I'm full…" Harry held his stomach as he leaned back on his chair. His action was mirrored by Fleur who had just finished her food a minute or so ago.

Lily laughed and said, "Get up, put your plates away. We'll rest for an hour or so before getting to practice." Lily stood up.

"Oh god…" Harry whined, "Can't we start tomorrow?" He pleaded.

"No can do, Harry." Lily wasn't going to budge on this.

"Ugh…" Harry groaned as he got up with his and Fleur's plates in his hands. At the same time, Fleur got up and went to the living room, falling on the couch, "The food was amazing, Mum… Thank you" Fleur made herself comfortable and thanked Lily who sat on the other smaller armchair which could hold one person comfortably.

"It's my pleasure, honey." Lily smiled as she pointed her wand in a certain direction. A door abruptly opened and a book flew through the room and landed in her hands. She picked up a pair of glasses from the side table and wore them before opening the book.

***

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