Chapter 2
Fleur had honored her promise to teach him everything she knew. When she went off to Beauxbatons, Harry was devastated. His sister had been his constant for years, and now she was to be gone for most of the school year? His worries were somewhat assuaged when he had a letter from her on her first night at school, separate from their parents, informing him of her House and reminding him of her promise to teach him everything she learned. She sent him letters at least once a week, and more often if she learned something she thought he should know or thought he would find interesting. As Fleur progressed through her first year, her baby brother progressed with her, never realising that he shouldn't have been able to learn the things his sister taught him.
*****
Their parents didn't realise anything was amiss until Harry used spells to save his own baby sister. When Gabrielle might have drowned in a freak accident, due to falling in a fast-moving river after being carelessly knocked-into, and Harry pulled her back out with an overpowered, panicked “wingardium leviosa,” they were grateful. When he followed up with “cor satus” they were startled, but uncomprehending. The immediate “pulmo inanus” had them blinking. When he intoned “pulmo respirare” and Gabrielle breathed like she'd never taken air in her life, they were simply astonished. It was suddenly obvious that their eight-year-old son DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A WAND, and had somehow cast several high-powered healing charms EFFECTIVELY, with no formal instruction. What were they to do, now?
As they both thought back on the event, they both remembered Harry slamming his hand out for the levitation charm. That, they could agree on.
For the other three spells, only Appoline claimed to remember. She was insistent that Harry had placed his hands on Gabby's heart and lungs respectively. She was insistent that he had somehow directed his magic to the areas that needed it most. No, she couldn't explain why or how he had learned the spells, she only knew that he had done it. Gabrielle's continued existence was evidence enough for her. Her son had saved his sister without thought, seemingly without effort.
*****
When questioned later, Harry couldn't explain it either. He knew the words for the levitation spell, so he wasn't surprised that his panic had brought his baby sister out of the water. That was HIS baby sister. His to protect, to love and to teach. He would keep her safe.
The apparent “spells” to start her heart and lungs, after her near-drowning, he couldn't explain. He had no idea where he learned them, no idea how he knew the words he said. He just knew she needed to keep breathing. His baby sister couldn't die like that.
He knew accidental magic could do many things. He had made a blanket nest on the roof by his sister, without her prompting, and had been chided by his parents for being careless. When he told them he needed “a sunny nest for his babies,” they had given him gobsmacked looks, but had allowed him to continue to make his “nest.” It wasn't until his big sister explained “nesting” that he realised it may have been unusual. But still…
His big sister had been his constant in his life. She had protected him, defended him, taught him… could she have taught him this, too?
*****
Letters to Fleur brought only more confusion. She didn't know those spells. She remembered her Charms Master telling them about the existence of such spells, as an introduction to how Charms could be used, but she didn't remember anything specific, and CERTAINLY hadn't been taught them. According to her Charms Master, they were Mediwizard-level spells that wouldn't be taught to anyone below Seventh Year without an apprenticeship contract. Quite frankly, most people didn't think anyone under magical maturity would be capable of casting them, because they were just that difficult. Her Charms master was baffled that an eight-year-old with no formal magical education had managed to cast ONE, let alone ALL THREE, especially considering he hadn't even seemed to have stressed his core magic. Her Charms Master was nearly begging for her parents and her brother to consider allowing Harry to Apprentice with him.
And so, at nine years of age, Harry Potter-Delacour became the youngest Charms Apprentice in recent history.
*****
As a formal Apprentice, he was allowed to attend classes at Beauxbatons early. Any class in which his Master didn't have a Mastery was considered “fair game,” of sorts, so Harry began Beauxbatons at nine.
Surrounded by Masters in their fields, it rapidly became clear that anything Fleur had already learned had also been learned by her baby brother. Without evidence of her direct instruction after they were both students, as several parties had suspected, it took several months to realise that it was literal. If Fleur had learned it, so had Harry. They were all baffled, until the day the Potions Mistress had taken exception to Harry's perfect potion and called him a cheater in front of Fleur.
“That is MY Baby Brother. He would NOT cheat. He would sooner choose to DIE than to earn his marks unfairly. I would challenge you to a duel for my brother's honour!”
Faced with the thought of a twelve-year-old quarter-Veela who would stake her entire life on his innocence, the staff was forced to consider the idea that maybe there was something more going on.
*****
A series of tests proved the seemingly-impossible. If it was told to Fleur, Harry could replicate it. It didn't matter if Fleur herself was years too young to cast with stability. If she heard it, her brother LEARNED IT. Any spell she could hear clearly was potentially available to him. They couldn't explain it, but they also couldn't deny it. They could teach Fleur the most obscure, most useless spells, and Harry would pull it off from across the castle, with no contact from his sister. They all struggled to find an explanation, until Apolline remembered a tiny Fleur protecting an even tinier Harry.
“She vowed to protect and teach him. They were so little, I didn't think anything of it. He wasn't even four. She was barely seven. I don't even remember what he did, but I remember her standing in front of him like a Goddess of Wrath, swearing to protect him, to teach him. That was the day I saw their bond change. I think she's truly teaching him what she “learned”, even if she doesn't understand it herself. I think Magic is guiding them.”
And that was the day Madame Maxime ordered her staff to treat the Delacour/Potter children as if they were unrelated, to acknowledge their work as individuals and ignore any similarities. After all, what did it matter HOW they learned, if they could prove they truly learned…