The letter didn't say anything about what the challenge was, just the time and date of the challenge.
"You'll be fine, Fleur," Hermione said soothingly, kissing Fleur on the cheek.
Fleur smiled at Hermione, before looking back at the letter, "Hm, I should let Madame Maxime know…" she pulled the covers off herself and got up from the bed. She crossed the room and opened the wardrobe.
Hermione couldn't stop staring at Fleur's incredible naked body. She couldn't believe that she was in the bed of Fleur Delacour watching her walk around her room naked. Fleur flipped her silver-blonde hair over one shoulder and held up two different outfits, trying to decide between the two.
"How did I end up here…" Hermione murmured, and Fleur turned around with concern.
Fleur watched as Hermione's eyes roamed down her body and smirked.
"Didn't you say you wanted to get an 'ead start on your study, 'Ermione?" Fleur asked teasingly.
"I think that was a little sabotaged when some other head started last night…" Hermione said, and Fleur smiled devilishly.
"Well, I must get to Madame Maxime and you must get to the library," Fleur said, turning back to her wardrobe.
"Fleur, get here now…" Hermione said, her voice a little husky with desire.
/
Two hours later, Fleur finally made it to Madame Maxime, clutching the letter about the first task.
Maxime greeted Fleur in French.
"Actually, Madame, I would prefer if we conversed in English, I am trying to better my skills in it," Fleur replied.
Maxime narrowed her eyes, "Zat is unlike you, Fleur. Your English is fine."
"I want to get good enough zat I can convey everything exactly as I think in French," Fleur said, handing Maxime the letter.
Maxime read the letter, her brow furrowing, and nodded sternly.
"Well, Fleur, zis is what we 'ave been preparing for," she said seriously, "I will do some recon to try and discover what ze challenge involves,"
Fleur nodded.
"And you, Fleur," Maxime added sternly, "I do not know who you are interested in, but you need to focus on ze tournament."
Fleur was silent.
"I am serious, Fleur," Maxime added, "Failure is not an option."
Maxime suddenly noticed the red marks on Fleur's neck that were a result of her morning romp with Hermione. She launched into a tirade of a lecture.
"Fleur, you 'ave been chosen as ze representative of zis school! You cannot embarrass us all by failing ze competition because you could not keep it in your pants! What would your parents say?"
Fleur stood her ground, calmly listening as Maxime continued the tirade, before finally sounding like she was going to calm down.
"Okay, Fleur," Maxime said, lowering her voice and smoothing her skirt out, "I 'ave a date with 'Agrid tonight to discuss ze first challenge and what it will be. I suggest you spend ze day seriously considering ze importance of zis competition and 'ow it reflects on Beauxbatons."
Maxime nodded gravely, dismissing Fleur.
Fleur left the carriage, feeling overwhelmed at the pressure on her. As she crossed the grounds and entered the Hogwarts castle she was suddenly caught offguard by a bright flash.
"Fleur Delacour, Triwizard Champion for Beauxbatons, how does it feel to be the sole hope of your school redeeming itself in this competition?" a nasal voice shrilly said, pushing a camera into her face.
"Rita Skeeter, reporter for the Daily Prophet," the voice added, and Fleur fixed her with an icy glare.
"I just need five minutes of your time for the article reporting the first challenge," Rita said, smiling widely. Fleur still didn't say a word.
Rita's large fake smile expanded, "Honestly, hon, this will go a lot easier if you take 5 minutes now to talk to me instead of me having to follow you around and badger you."
Fleur sighed heavily and nodded. Rita cackled with delight and grabbed Fleur by the arm, wrenching her into a nearby closet. She pulled out an acid green quill and set it on a blank piece of parchment. "Quick-quotes quill," she explained to Fleur.
"Now, I just want to find out what makes the champions tick," Rita said, flashing another toothy grin at Fleur. Fleur viewed her suspiciously.
"So you entered your name into the Goblet of Fire, were you scared then of what the challenges would be?"
"Ah, more nervous, ze Tournament is very prestigious so I was mainly excited," Fleur reluctantly intoned.
"And have you spent much time with the other champions?"
"Non, not a large amount of time with zem apart from mandatory briefings or seeing zem around ze school."
"When I was last here a couple of days ago, Fleur, a source told me you were waiting outside the classrooms of underclassman Gryffindors."
Fleur went quiet again, suspicious.
"So, one could say, you have seen Harry Potter more than the other champions?"
Fleur shuffled, attempting to leave, but Rita moved between Fleur and the door.
"Sources also say you are part-Veela, Fleur? Would you say you have been using your thrall to seduce Potter?"
Fleur narrowed her eyes, "Non, zat is ridiculous, zis interview is over."
She pushed Rita out of the way and swept out of the closet. As she exited the closet, she walked right into a group of Slytherins walking towards a staircase.
"Sick of Granger already, huh?" Pansy smirked, watching as Rita emerged from the closet behind Fleur, smoothing her dress down. Rita raised her eyebrows, interested.
"When's it gonna be my turn, Delacour?" Malfoy sneered, "I took you on a date after all!"
Fleur shot an icy look at them all before gliding up the staircase ahead of them.
When she made it to the library, she was feeling thoroughly miserable. She sat down at a table next to Hermione, who was immersed in a thick leatherbound book.
"What are you reading, 'Ermione?" Fleur said, trying to will herself to sound cheerful.
"A book about Veelas," Hermione said, distracted, "I figured I should read up on it seeing as its your heritage."
Fleur's heart sank.
"Do you think you are only attracted to me because of ze Veela thrall?" she said sadly.
"I don't know, maybe, I haven't got to that chapter yet." Hermione said dismissively, still immersed in the book.
Fleur quietly packed up again and left the library, Hermione too engrossed in her book to notice.
/
Hermione didn't see Fleur for the rest of the day, which was unusual, but she assumed maybe she was just stressed about the first challenge coming up. She felt bad for ignoring Fleur in the library, and resolved to make it up to her when she next saw her.
The next morning, Hermione got ready for the day and walked down into the Gryffindor common room, where Ginny and Harry were in the middle of a heated argument.
"Gin, that's ridiculous! I'd never do that to you or Hermione! You know what Skeeter's like!"
But Ginny was in the middle of a Weasley tantrum, throwing a newspaper at Harry forcefully and storming out of the common room.
"Uh, what was that about, Harry?" Hermione asked, approaching him.
Harry looked irritable and handed her the paper he had just had thrown at him. It was a Daily Prophet.
Hermione straightened it out and looked at it. There was a giant photo of Fleur looking sulkily and icily out. Clearly visible as the picture shifted around were the red marks on her neck that Hermione had left. Hermione gasped at the headline: "Bisexual Bombshell Attempts to Sleep Her Way to Winning Tournament." Underneath was a very unflattering article depicting Fleur as an unintelligent airhead who had flirted her way into the tournament. Under her conquests it listed Malfoy, Hermione and Harry, before heavily suggesting she had also slept with Krum and Cedric Diggory.
"Oh my god, poor Fleur!" Hermione gasped.
"Fucking Skeeter," Harry spat angrily, "I'm getting so sick of her character assassinations."
He screwed up the paper, "I mean Fleur flirting with Dumbledore to get her name selected? Jesus!" he added.
He turned to Hermione, "I'm sorry, this must be hard for you and Fleur."
Hermione nodded, eager to get to the Great Hall to talk to Fleur.
As her and Harry walked in, Fleur was walking out. Hermione stopped her.
"Fleur, are you okay?" Hermione asked with concern. Fleur looked miserable.
"Hey! Fleur! I can do your homework if you fuck me!" a Slytherin called out from the entrance way.
Fleur's eyes narrowed.
"Fleur, come on, I want to talk to you and make sure you're okay" Hermione said, reaching for Fleur's hand.
"Or are you just being influenced by my Veela thrall?" Fleur said icily, "I have a lot to do, I will see you later."
With that, Fleur pulled away from Hermione and glided out of the entrance.
Hermione and Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table, ignoring the jeers from Slytherins who had read the paper. Hermione looked down at her plate, upset at how miserable Fleur had looked.
"Don't worry about it, 'Mione," Harry said, buttering some toast and sighing heavily, "I've been pretty messed up since getting that owl about the first task… I've been a bit harsh with Ginny at times too…"
Hermione looked up at Harry. He blushed.
"Yeah okay, me and Ginny have been seeing each other," Harry grinned, "That's why she was upset with me this morning."
His grin faded from his face. "I really need to fix things with her, she's been so supportive of me with all the pressure I'm under…"
Hermione was thoughtful.
Harry let out a shaky long breath, "'Mione, Hagrid invited me to tail his date with Madame Maxime last night…"
"Oh, Harry… what did you see?" Hermione said sympathetically.
Harry threw a slice of toast at her, "Ew, 'Mione! Not like that!" he lowered his voice again.
"Its… its dragons Hermione… I told Ginny this morning and—"
Harry stopped abruptly. Ron was walking across the room towards them. Harry waved frantically at Hermione.
"Okay, so if Ron asks, Gin and I were fighting over a game of chess in the common room this morning!"
Hermione snorted, "You cant hide it from him forever, Harry!"
/
Fleur had spent the day holed up in the furthest corner of the library, away from people. She skipped lunch and dinner in order to focus on her preparations for the first task. She had tried to stay in her room to study but that morning had received a howler from her parents, who had seen the article in the Daily Prophet.
It was so late now that it didn't sound like anyone else was in the library. Fleur sulkily scooped her books up and began to head for the exit. This was probably the worst day of her life.
As she made her way through the shelves someone suddenly stepped out in front of her. It was Pansy.
"What do you want?" Fleur said tiredly.
Pansy looked at the ground before looking up again "I know what the first challenge is."
"And?" Fleur said, irritated.
Pansy took a breath and continued, "I was thinking if I told you what it is… maybe…" Pansy trailed off, her eyes hungrily roaming over Fleur's body.
"Merde! What is your problem?!" Fleur exclaimed with disgust. She pushed past Pansy and strode out of the library. This was definitely, officially the worst day of Fleur's life.
Fleur rushed through the castle, desperately hoping she wouldn't have a run in with anyone else.
Thankfully, she made it back to the Beauxbatons carriage and back to her door without seeing another soul.
Fleur paused. Her door was ajar. Fleur sighed and pulled out her wand, pushing open the door carefully to see what the latest horrible thing to happen was.
She opened the door and lowered her wand, shocked. Her room was full of lit candles. In the middle of her room was a small table with two chairs, two glasses of wine and a meal. Hermione was standing in front of the table, holding a bouquet of flowers.
"'Ermione?" Fleur said in disbelief.
"Fleur… I know you've been having a hard time… and I'm sorry for making you feel like I only like you because of some Veela thrall."
She walked up to Fleur. "I like you because you're caring and cute and intelligent… and so whipped."
They both laughed.
Hermione continued, "I noticed you weren't in the Great Hall at lunch or dinner… so thought it might be a good time to surprise you with that date you promised me."
Fleur smiled before looking more serious again. "'Ermione, I need to prepare, Madame Maxime told me late last night zat ze first challenge is dragons…"
Hermione nodded and put a hand on Fleur's cheek.
"Yes, but you also need to keep your strength up, I'm worried about you."
Fleur teared up and Hermione wrapped her arms around her, soothing her. As they sat down and settled into their meal, Fleur found herself cheering up. It was nice to sit with Hermione and talk about all kinds of things they had read about.
As they finished off their glasses of wine, Fleur smiled at Hermione.
"I'm glad we are good again, 'Ermione."
Hermione kissed her and started to head for the door.
"'Ermione, wait…" Fleur said suddenly, "Could you stay tonight?" She looked a little embarrassed.
Hermione smiled and put her arms around Fleur, "Its okay to be scared about the challenge," she said quietly, leaning in to kiss Fleur. Fleur smiled at Hermione, glad she was there.
"Anyway," Hermione smirked, "I know a great way to take your mind off it…"
Fleur raised an eyebrow, "Are you saying 'Ermione Granger puts out after the first date?"
Hermione gave her a light shove, then took off her shirt. She pulled Fleur into a deep kiss. She pulled away for a second, dragging Fleur towards the bed.