AN: Disclaimer as per usual, I don't own the HP universe and I don't make any money of it, here for the fun not the money yadda, yadda you know the drill.
AN2: Right well this story is once again up for Beta reader adoption. I'm not going to pretend it doesn't need it, my grammar and spelling is usually appalling. That said my beta hadn't done a particularly good job on picking up my blunders as I have just found out. I'm made huge lapses in judgement when it comes to how much of the term there is left for the school year.
So to clear things up here are the official dates from the first task:
November 24, Sunday: First task
November 29, Friday: Bobotuber pus incident
December 5, Thursday: Duelling round robin
December 6, Friday: End of term, Fleur's attack
December 9, Monday: Harry's tumble into the lake
December 15, Sunday: The ball
December 16, Monday: Everyone goes home for the holidays bar those stay on at the school.
I'm aware that this creates a period of about two weeks for students to ask other students to the ball, but because of my blunder the students of Hogwarts get a bit rushed. Additionally, the half dozen or so DADA classes obviously all slot in before the end of term, just fit them in where your head thinks they work best. Sorry for the mix up.
AN3: Also this chapter is really fluffy, like… really, really fluffy. Idk why I guess it's just where the story is at for them all to be reaffirming ties and bonds before the next upheaval. Tiny mention of smut too.
AN4: I realized recently that a lot of the conversations the trio have are over breakfast. Why on earth is that do you think?
AN4: Also, this chapter is really, really fracking long, my Lord.
-:-
Chapter Twelve: The Yule Ball a bond and Christmas break
Where was a Welsh Green when you needed one? Harry could happily have gone another round with the dragon than have to deal with the dozens of girls who had nervously approached him about the ball. After his show against the dragon, his status as a champion, the fact that he was Harry Potter and his impressive performance in the round robin for the duelling tournament he was being accosted on all sides by eager and nervous young women all hoping to snag the Boy Who Lived as a date to the up and coming Yule ball.
The fact that he was going to the ball with Hermione had somehow circulated around the school despite neither of them outright saying who they were going with, (Although the fact that they were dating was common knowledge) but that didn't stop them. Hermione had even been on the receiving end of a fairly high proportion of hate mail. Apparently Rita Skeeter had upped the ante and with the upcoming ball her campaign of slander and bigotry was reaching all-time high.
Harry couldn't be prouder of her though, despite it all Hermione was keeping her head held high and Harry thought that she had never looked more alive as the date came closer. The pair of them were spending more time together and Fleur was taking time out of her usual relentless assault on the egg to enjoy the run up to the holidays with her two best friends. Harry couldn't be more chuffed.
The egg was a problem though, he was fairly sure what needed to be done about it but he wasn't quite sure how to approach the problem. Clearly the sounds the egg made were from some kind of creature, but what kind? He had no idea where to look and he would have to beg Hermione for help soon. He really hoped that he would have at least a little information for when he and Fleur shared their findings.
Something had changed between Harry and Fleur, he didn't know what it was but if possible they were even closer than before, harry thought that it was mostly likely to do with the events surrounding Malfoy's second stint in Ministry holding cells. Hermione understood much to Harry's relief. Fleur was gorgeous and intelligent and friendly, but she wasn't Hermione, and Harry would have been devastated if Hermione had taken offense and given him up as a bad job.
Fortunately Hermione was extremely understanding stating that she would be much the same if she was in Fleur's position, there was a hidden meaning there that the young wizard didn't quite catch but he wasn't about to complain. He had a wonderful relationship with Hermione and Fleur was about as close a friend as she could be without actually dating him or doing anything that broke Hermione's trust or Harry's comfort.
That line of thinking was abruptly shut off as yet another stuttering fourth year tried to ask Fleur to the ball, smiling she gently let him down with a polite refusal. Harry wasn't sure why but she had refused anybody and everybody who had asked her. He would have more information on the topic but Hermione had strictly forbidden him from asking the French witch, apparently some things were better left unsaid.
That still left a lot of confusion for Harry to mull over, what was Fleur's hesitation? Was it the fact that none of the boys who asked her could hold eye contact for more than a second or two? Even without her allure on full bore? Was it something deeper? Was she waiting for someone specific to ask her? Harry had mentioned that possibility to Hermione last night and, strangely, he had gotten a surge of jealousy from her through their burgeoning mental link.
-:-
"It's not for me to say why Harry, she's got her reasons and I'll not betray her trust by talking about them."
Harry was understandably annoyed at the sharp tone of her voice and the irrational jealousy that was surrounding him from her.
"Have you talked to her about it then?"
"No"
The short, sharp reply annoyed Harry even more
"Then how do you know about it?"
"Call it a woman's intuition if you must, why are you so interested anyway?"
There was that jealousy again, and the fact that he didn't know why Hermione was feeling jealous of Fleur really bothered him, usually Hermione was an open book to him or she patiently explained her feelings.
That Hermione wasn't explaining things like she normally did set off alarm bells in the young wizard's mind but he had no way of following them up without Hermione getting annoyed at him, and he definitely didn't want that, the last time they had gone to bed with an unresolved argument hanging over their heads she had retired to her own dorm for the first time in months; the fact that she had then rushed to him in the morning for a make-up kiss notwithstanding.
Answering her question was harder however, why was he so interested?
"I don't honestly know, I guess I'm just being curious."
Hermione gave him a sceptical look but let the matter drop, instead she snuggled closer to him on the bed and truly opened her thoughts to him. Harry eagerly reciprocated and the two of them happily fell into enjoyment of each other's love.
When they reluctantly closed the connection a few minutes later from fear of forgetting to before sleeping, Hermione looked him in the eye and said.
"Fleur thinks very highly of you Harry, she trusts you and you and I are probably her only friends outside her family. Don't break that trust by snooping into her affairs, if she wants to tell you, she will."
-:-
That had been three days ago and yet still Fleur was turning down everyone who asked. He idly wondered if she already had a date and wanted it to be a surprise. That explanation seemed just as likely as any and he mentally let the matter drop in favour of thinking about the upcoming ball itself.
Neither he nor Hermione had actually purchased dress robes yet, and he was well aware that Hermione had been eyeing up a dress in Muggle London for the event from one of her catalogues. There would be a Hogsmeade weekend just before the ball where the two of them could get their purchases, Harry would send Hedwig off tonight with Hermione's measurements so that it would be ready when the weekend rolled around.
He couldn't help but glance sideways at Hermione, who he found was glancing back with a soft and tender smile on her face, he was overwhelmed by his feelings of love and gratitude for the brunette witch and grinned, leaning across to kiss her gently, her eyes fluttered shut for a second or two before they broke the chaste but loving kiss. Harry's hand came up to her cheek and held her close as he looked into her eyes.
"I love you Hermione, more than I can rightly say, be mine; always?"
He felt his heart pound in his chest as her now familiar mind touched his and he felt, rather than saw, her happiness and love as it poured across and into him, her soft words making his heart soar.
"I love you too Harry, just like always, and yes, I'll be yours, forever."
Harry hummed in happiness before sitting back with a giddy look on his face. Kissing her always did that do him.
What he didn't miss was the bittersweet smile on Fleur's face as she watched them, he felt a weird pang in his heart as she looked at him with eyes filled with a mixture of happiness and longing that he couldn't pin down. Tentatively he reached across the table to take her hand and said
"Fleur, is everything okay?"
Fleur seemed to gulp a bit before nodding, and with a throaty voice responded to his question, her accent thick.
"Yes Harry, I'm fine, I just wish I had someone to love me like you do Hermione."
Harry grinned in his usual lopsided fashion
"I'm sure there's someone out there for you Fleur, it'll happen when it happens."
To his surprise Fleur took her hand back and looked away
"Non, I have already found him, but he is claimed by another."
Harry frowned, something was niggling at the back of his head but he couldn't pin it down.
"I'm sorry to hear that Flower, any chance of convincing him into your arms?"
Fleur looked up a little shocked
"How do you think Hermione would feel if someone did that to you Harry?"
He really had no idea how close to home her question was, his frown morphed into that grin again
"I'd say she'd be more than capable of holding my attention."
Fleur's amused grunt confused Harry a little, but not nearly as much as her reply
"We'll there's your answer then."
"What do you mean?"
Hermione chose that point to interject
"She means that whoever she's going after is in the same position as you, very much in love with someone else and off limits."
The stress Hermione put on the last two words and her stern look at Fleur only served to confuse Harry even further and, to dispel the sudden awkwardness he leant over his plate and dug in, finally eating his breakfast.
The meaningful look that Fleur shared with Hermione went right over his head.
-:-
"What's going on Fleur? I know there's something going on between you and Harry but I don't know what it is."
Fleur sat heavily on her bed in the Beauxbatons carriage next to the brunette. Harry was busy with his egg and both witches picked the opportunity to get some good meaningful conversation in.
"It's is… tres embarrassante, I have… my magic has…"
Fleur heard Hermione's breath catch in her throat, Fleur smiled from behind her curtain of silvery hair, she was always bright.
"My magic has bonded with him."
"Oh"
Hermione's small exclamation sounded rather pathetic after that assertion.
"I don't intend to get between the two…"
"But Fleur that's torture for you , it must be horrible!"
The beautiful French witch battle with her tears as Hermione wrapped her in a hug
"I'm so, so sorry Fleur, I had no idea, what can we do?"
Fleur wrapped a shaky arm around Hermione's shoulders and said softly
"There is nothing we can do, I will not be party to breaking you two up, your bond with him is clearly as strong as mine, I will not trade my torture for your own."
"But… Surely there must be a way to break the bond."
Fleur snorted
"Either one of us could die yes, that would do it."
Hermione's arms tightened around her waist
"Not happening."
"I know Hermione, I would never want him hurt, he is more than just a bond mate to me, he is my closest friend, closer even than you ma souer. "
She heard Hermione's choking sob and much to her dismay that set off her own tears, the two witches held each other and rocked slightly from side to side in commiseration over the pain Fleur went through daily.
-:-
"Can you show me?"
They had broken apart some minutes later and Hermione was determined to understand what Fleur was going through, she nearly giggled at the sight of Fleur's bemused face
"Show you what?"
"How it feels for you, every day."
Hermione swallowed nervously as she watched the gears turn in Fleur's head, even asking this was doing a number on her nerves, she had no idea how Fleur felt.
"I wouldn't know how"
"Well… I can think of two obvious ways, one of them much more irreversible than the other."
Fleur raised an eyebrow at that and Hermione admired the perfectly sculpted line of hair for a moment
"What would those ways be then ma souer?"
Hermione finally cottoned on to what Fleur was calling her
"Fleur… I'm not… I'm not your sister?"
"You might as well be Hermione, admit it"
Hermione had to grudgingly admit that the beautiful witch beside her was correct, despite the nationality, heritage and appearance differences they shared a lot in common, both were very studious, fiercely passionate, very emotional and in love with the same boy, no, man.
"Okay, okay, ma souer, I admit we are very much alike."
She laughed as Fleur nodded in triumph, and after a second the older witch joined in happily and the two shared a good belly laugh for a few moments.
"It really wasn't that funny was it?" Hermione asked ruefully
"Non, it was not, but your laugh is infectious Hermione. Now tell me about these options."
"Well…" Hermione was nervous again now, neither of the options were very appealing, but would serve their purposes.
"The first, and honestly most problematic option, is that you kiss Harry."
She couldn't help but smile when Fleur choked slightly
"Pourquoi?!"
-:-
"Because then my own bond would give me the same feelings you have."
Fleur raised her hand
"Okay hold on, first things first, tell me about this bond you have with harry, mine's quite straightforward, my magic identified him as the most compatible person for me and bonded us, although it is incomplete, hence my pain. But yours is more esoteric and I'd like to know about it."
She didn't mention the other effects of the bond created by her Veela heritage, such as her inability to ever gain sexual pleasure or release with another partner or her ability to sense Harry's position and presence within a several hundred meter radius.
Fleur watched as Hermione took a deep breath then said with apparent trepidation
"Okay, you get that we love each other right? Like more deeply than usual."
Fleur nodded urging her on with her intense gaze
"Right… Well, it sort of also extends to us being able to touch each other's magic."
"Oh"
It was Fleur's turn to let out a pathetic sound of exclamation as she understood the full implications of that little piece of information.
"And you do this… regularly?"
Hermione gave her an affirmative nod
"Pretty much whenever we see each other we spend a few seconds merged. Our endurance is building quite rapidly, only a month ago we could barely stay joined for an instant."
Fleur took a deep breath, until now she truly had no idea just how deep the bond between them ran, that they were connected on a mental and magical level was more than she had guessed, she knew that before too long that would become a spiritual connection too.
"Okay… So you two definitely have a bond, somehow I don't think Harry will be comfortable with your first suggestion. It will raise too many questions and he doesn't deserve to have this hanging over his head, it's not his fault he's so damn perfect."
Hermione took a slightly deeper breath then said in a rush
"Use an empathy spell on me."
Fleur was more than a little shocked
"But Hermione… that's permanent."
-:-
Harry was fed up, the egg was still resisting his efforts to determine anything useful from its cacophonous wails. He was way out near the black lake away from prying ears who might get annoyed at the reverberating wails of the golden monstrosity. The young teen was sitting cross-legged on a spur of rock that jutted out over the lake, the egg in front of him and latched tightly shut for the time being.
Tentatively he reached forwards and twisted the latch. The egg sprang open eagerly and harsh screeching sounds rattled out from the glowing core of the egg. Several agonizing minutes went past as Harry listened hard to the egg, eventually he closed it with a snap, feeling frustrated. He was about to give up for the day when a pair of elegant voices called up to him from the ground, looking down he spotted, to his great surprise, not Fleur and Hermione, but rather Daphne and Tracy. The two Slytherins, clearly curious, had meandered their way over to the sound of the horrific wails.
"What're you up to up there Harry? It's an awful racket you're making." It seemed Daphne was their mouthpiece. Harry grimaced and hefted the egg showing it to them over the lip of the rock
"Trying to decipher this thing, it wails when I open it, supposed to be a clue to the next task."
Daphne and Tracy shared an amused look
"We thought you might have been murdering your girlfriend's cat away from prying eyes."
Harry laughed and twisted around to sit on the edge and look down at the two girls who, while not far below, were still uncomfortable to look at on an angle.
"Nah, Crookshanks and I have an agreement, what're you two doing out here anyway?"
"Mostly just came to see what the horrific noise was, have you got any ideas on the egg yet?"
Harry growled softly under his breath making the two girls laugh
"Nothing yet, I think it's some kind of creature but beyond that? No clue."=
"Ah well, we'll send you a message if we think of anything okay?"
Harry looked at them with a hint of shock
"You'd do that?"
Tracy smirks and finally speaks
"We want to see a Hogwarts victory, and after watching Cedric get chased around by the Horntail for half an hour before failing the task, we think you're the school's best bet."
This was news to harry
"Cedric failed the task?"
Daphne nodded and answered the question
"Yup, didn't get his egg and had to be stretchered off."
Harry frowned
"So how's he supposed to know what's coming then?"
The two girls shrugged in unison after glancing at each other and said in tandem
"No idea."
Harry's frown grew before the two girls left saying their goodbyes, if one of the champions didn't know what was going on than how would they compete? He had no idea what the next task was going to be and he had a clue.
A shrieking sound caught Harry's attention and he turned to see the egg, somehow opened, rolling off the rock, clearly he hadn't put it down in a safe place and the smooth golden egg had rolled clean off the rough surface of the outcrop. Harry swore loudly and scrambled to the edge of the rock only to see the egg hit the water with a splash. Swearing Harry ran over his options quickly, the outcrop extended several meters out over the lake and the water would already be quite deep there, if he took the time to go around and get to ground level before diving into the lake the egg would be much deeper.
Glaring at the cold water Harry stripped off his robes shirt and shoes as quickly as he could before throwing himself off the rock and into the water four meters below. When Harry hit the icy surface of the lake with a splash, streamlined as best he could to spear into the water, he realized why this was a terrible idea, he didn't know how to swim.
Harry started kicking as hard as he could the wry thought coming to mind that he only had to go down for the moment, he would worry about getting out when he got to that point. It didn't take him long to find the egg as he frantically powered downwards, growing in proficiency even as he did so. The egg, for all its weight, didn't seem to want to sink very fast, something Harry was grateful for as it shortened the trip greatly.
What did surprise him was the ethereal singing coming from the egg, the strange music was clearly his clue but he didn't have the time to concentrate on it as he wrapped his arms around the egg and thrust it ahead of himself before using a sorcel to propel it out of the water and towards land, he barely noticed that it took much more effort than usual to do the sorcel. Then it was just a matter of him getting out.
He struggled upwards, his lungs burning with stale oxygen, his limbs heavy in the freezing mid-December water and his vision was growing foggy and even as he saw a pair of lithe forms spear into the lake his vision turned black.
-:-
The white wooden ceiling of the hospital wing was more than familiar to the raven haired teen as he groggily opened his eyes. Even without his glasses Harry could make out the lines between the boards and he knew that once again he was in the matron's care.
Sound returned in bursts for the young man as if he was still listening through the water in the lake, exclamations of happiness and relief, tutting, and even an outraged yell at one point as the tired young man listened to what was going on around him, to tired even to lift his head.
He felt drained, totally and utterly drained, as if his magic had fled his body, he vaguely remembered his kinetic sorcel being far weaker than normal in the water but he brushed it off as being nothing more than the increased viscosity of the liquid over the air. Moody had discussed with the class not three days ago how trying to push objects through denser or more viscous materials required more energy.
His thoughts were broken by a mane of bushy brown hair that obscured his vision and a frantic hug that pulled him close to Hermione's chest. He could hear her words coming to him in a muddied sense and he did his best to mumble that he was okay.
-:-
The next few hours were something of an experience for Harry, a pepper up potion got him back on his feet but he still felt extremely drained. Apparently he had nearly drowned and his body was still recovering, his magical core had been sapped by the water too but Madame Pomfrey wasn't sure why, Dumbledore it seemed hadn't turned up yet.
It seemed most everyone else had though, Prof. McGonagall had popped in for a few minutes to make sure he was okay, Daphne and Tracy were on his left and Fleur and Hermione were on his right. His mind briefly cracked a joke about having four beautiful women waiting on him before he ruthlessly quashed it.
Harry had panicked for a moment about where his egg was but Hermione had quickly reassured him that it was back in his dorm, his thoughts then turned to how he had gotten out of the lake. Daphne, surprisingly answered that question when it was voiced.
"Well when we heard the shrieking start up again we turned to watch for a second more but all we saw was you hastily stripping down and diving into the water, when the egg popped up a few seconds later but you didn't surface we dashed forwards to help. It was a bit of a struggle getting you out of the lake but we managed it eventually. By that point you were blue and unconscious though, Trace screamed for help while Iran back to the castle."
Hermione was holding his hand tenderly and he couldn't take his eyes off her, she was watching him with the most tender worried expression he had seen, what surprised him was an almost identical look of worry from Fleur, her throaty demand finally reached him.
"Don't keep doing this to us Harry, you have no idea how hard it is to sit here hoping you'll wake and seeing no sign of life from you."
Harry's first instinct was to disagree, he knew exactly how it felt, Hermione had spent several months in here completely lifeless in their second year. He had been every day to see her, to hold her petrified hand tenderly and smooth back her hair from her cold skin. It had been a gruelling experience for him, Ron hadn't fared much better, he and Hermione, despite their bickering, had been close friends, not as close as her and himself, but still close.
What came out of his mouth by way of reply though was much different.
"Sorry Fleur, I can't help it sometimes you know?"
Her annoyed huff made him smile and he caught the curling of Hermione's lips as well. What surprised him though was when Fleur swooped down and kissed both his cheeks before sitting back, not a touch of abashment on her face.
"At least we still have you with us, I couldn't bear to see you…"
She didn't need to finish that sentence, he knew all to well what it was like to lose a close friend. A soft voice from his other side broke them from their locked eyes.
"We should go, not our entire house is on the Potter Bandwagon, and if we stay here too much longer someone is bound to cotton on."
Harry turned to see Daphne and Tracy heading for the door, they both gave him a smile and he threw his lopsided grin back at them.
"Thanks for getting me out of the lake, if you need anything, just sing out okay?"
Their answering chuckles made him feel a little cornered, he wondered if it was a Slytherin talent.
"be careful who you offer those kind of favours to Harry, not everyone is as decent as us. Have a good day you three."
And with that they were gone, through the door and likely back do their dorms. It had been just past lunch when he had leapt into the lake, meaning that Harry had been brought to the hospital just past one in the afternoon; it was still only late afternoon.
Only then did his discovery come back to him
"Fleur are you still adamant that you don't want me to give you any clues before January?"
Cottoning on Fleur asked slowly
"Did you find something out today about the egg?"
Nodding slowly he responded
"Yeah, and I don't think either of us are going to like it."
The beautiful young woman looked like she was thinking hard for a moment before eventually saying
"Go on then, no point in making this harder for myself."
When harry told her that the clue was discovered underwater the draining of colour from her face scared him more than a little.
"Mon Dieu."
-:-
This was, altogether, a very bad thing. Fleur knew of only one race of creatures that lived under water and would even begin to participate with Humans, and Mermaids were not fond of Veela, not by any stretch. Add that to the fact that this task would probably be taking place under water? It was like Madame Maxime had signed her death warrant.
Any further introspection and worry was abruptly cut short as the hospital wing doors opened, it wasn't the usual slam that everyone seemed to be so fond of around Hogwarts but rather the smooth opening of Dumbledore's arrival. Fleur watched in apprehension, and not a small amount of annoyance, as the old wizard came to the foot of Harry's bed. She was further annoyed when the headmaster spoke
"I would ask you to leave Miss Delacour. What I am about to speak of doesn't concern you."
Fleur was about to give the old man a piece of her mind when Harry's croaky voice spoke up with a strange tone, it brooked no disagreement
"She stays sir. Whatever you have to say to me can be said in front of my friend."
Fleur stifled her grin as Dumbledore turned the full blast of his piercing eyes on Harry and the younger wizard didn't even flinch.
Dumbledore gave a nod then and spoke clearly
"We've discovered who fired the sorcel that nearly killed you on November twenty fourth. "
Fleur's mouth dropped open in shock, and from the silence from Hermione she assumed the same. Harry's voice however was deadly cold as he asked the headmaster
"Who was it?"
Without preamble Dumbledore spoke a single sentence
"The person who fired the sorcel was a Miss Janet Rousseau of Beauxbatons Academy of…"
"NON"
"Excuse me Miss Delacour?"
Fleur couldn't believe it, she knew Janet, she was a sweet, shy unassuming girl who wouldn't hurt a soul
"She cannot have, I know her Headmaster, she wouldn't have done such a thing, let alone had the power."
Dumbledore shook his head slowly
"We have memory evidence, Miss Rousseau was placed under the imperious curse on the date of October fourth and for over a month had been storing energy in a specially designed sump provided for her by an anonymous helper. Under cover of disillusionment she hid the device inside the cornucopia of the arena and activated it with a chosen phrase from the stands. The sump exploded with the force of a powerful Muggle bomb causing the destruction you saw and experienced."
Fleur sat back in her seat stunned beyond belief as Dumbledore kept talking, unable to process what was going on
"She has been released to the care of Saint Mungo's hospital for extensive medical treatment. She was raped and brutally assaulted several times over the course of the last three months and has been under the imperious curse far longer than any recent documented cases; her mind is for want of a better word, shattered."
-:-
Hermione was shocked nearly to the point of disbelief, only one thing remained to be answered, fortunately Harry had the question on the tip of his tongue, she didn't know if she could trust herself to speak.
"Firstly, what's the Imperious curse? Secondly, who cursed her? Do we know?"
Hermione watched as the aging headmaster flicked harry his piercing gaze again.
"You will learn about the curses in one of your upcoming defence against the dark arts lessons. Suffice it to say that it is highly illegal and allows the control of another person totally."
The older man took a deep breath and Hermione really, really didn't like the look on his face.
"The culprit however is still at large."
There was an explosion of sound as the doors slammed open once again and the booming tones of Olympe Maxime sounded through the hospital wing, the large woman looked directly at Fleur.
"Fleur! There you are, come child the carriage leaves in an hour."
The slightly less volatile tones of Mr Crouch followed behind,
"I've told you once I'll tell you a thousand times Madame, if you remove Fleur Delacour from this competition then you are condemning her, Mr Potter, Mr Diggory and Mr Krum to at best, a life time without magic, at worst, death of the most horrible kind."
Olympe rounded on the relatively smaller man
"What then do you expect me to do? Stay here and allow my students to be cursed and made to attempt murder?"
Crouch was starting to look angry, a sight that was, to Hermione at least, somewhat amusing, his rather thick moustache bristled as if it had its own indignant personality
"You cannot run from this Madame, the tournament is a binding…"
"Binding magical contract, yes, yes we've heard you prattle on about your contracts before Mister Crouch. But the safety of twenty of my students is more important than the safety of four. I cannot in good conscience condemn these students to be on this hostile soil any longer."
Hermione flinched at that, she understood where Maxime was coming from; this wasn't about the tournament anymore, or even about safety. This was politics, in its rawest most disturbing form. She would make the champions martyrs to her cause without even a second thought, whip the French populace into an outrage that the daughter of their head of DMLE was killed on British soil. Never mind the situation.
She might disagree with Dumbledore on a great many points, such as sending Harry to the Dursleys or his continued ignorance of the boy who he owed so much to, but when he drew himself up to his full (rather impressive) height and stared up at the half giant with all the cold fury a man of a hundred and fifty could produce. She found herself agreeing with what he said quite strongly.
"Then take your students home, Karkaroff can take his home as well then the pair of you can return to judge the rest of the tournament. Miss Delacour and Mr Krum are more than welcome to stay at the castle until the tournament is over, we have the spare room let me assure you."
Much to Hermione's amusement Maxime didn't have an answer for that, rather she turned and stormed, rather immaturely, out of the hospital wing, Crouch in hot pursuit badgering her about this or that. She turned to her Headmaster and said quietly
"Thank you sir."
-:-
Harry watched with increased incredulity as the French Headmistress callously consigned him and the other three champions to death for her own ends. He might not have been as astute as Hermione on the topic but he was well aware of what a two faced statement looked like, and the French woman was spouting them en masse.
Dumbledore's defence of him and the other champions however came as something of a mixed surprise, on the one hand this was the man who had condemned him to living thirteen abusive years of beatings, whippings and neglect. On the other hand this was also the man who was supposed to be the greatest leader of Wizarding Britain since Merlin, Harry didn't even count Fudge. The pompous little toe rag was barely a politician, at worst he was more of a puppet filled with Galleon bribes.
Hermione's quiet thanks woke Harry from his stupor and he instinctively wrapped his arms around Fleur who had, in the confusion, ended up on his other side as first she had gotten up out of habit when Madame Maxime entered, then walked to her when she said they were leaving, again more out of habit and respect than anything else, then abruptly fled when she heard the full terms. Dumbledore was in the way of getting back to her former seat at that point and so she took the other route back to Harry's side.
Now of course she was looking shell shocked and in need of comfort so harry did his best to provide as he glared up at Dumbledore.
"Don't let them hurt her, or any of us. Or I will come back as a ghost and haunt you till the end of your days."
Dumbledore gave him a grave nod and swept out of the hospital wing, hopefully to organise accommodations for Fleur and Victor.
He shared a worried look with Hermione as Albus left and Fleur clung to him. Things were rapidly spiralling out of control, the various factions represented at Hogwarts were splintering and violence was everywhere. The world cup, Draco's repeated assaults on them, the first task, now politics were being shoved into the mix, and above it all there was the ever present threat of Voldemort's new right hand man.
Harry shuddered in memory of the thin character who had so callously struck out at Hermione only to slaughter Ron. He hadn't thought about the man, who styled himself as Valmortis for weeks and months, but the memory of the man's fell tones from behind the bone white mask had been permanently etched into Harry's mind and they came rushing back now.
"We'll be seeing each other again shortly."
-:-
The rest of the day was tense, Karkaroff had, surprisingly, been more than happy for his students to stay, even going so far as to request they be granted semi-permanent quarters within the castle. Harry could only fathom that within the castle walls was the safest place to be and Karkaroff knew it. Additionally he had no idea how long it would take them to travel by boat, even magical boat, back to where they had come from. They might have arrived home only for Karkaroff to have portkeyed back to find the tournament over.
Krum had come to the hospital wing shortly before they had left, tailed closely by Cedric, and the four of them had reassured one another that they were in this for the long haul and wouldn't back out. The feeling of mutual camaraderie was short-lived however as, just like at the choosing, the other two boys went their separate ways shortly after leaving; Alliances of convenience indeed.
Fleur had been beyond distraught for much of the afternoon, and only when she had calmed down sufficiently to talk did Harry understand her full distress. Not only was her Veela nature going to make the second task nigh on impossible, but she had seen Madame Maxime as something of a close family friend for much of her life. Before becoming headmistress she had been an extremely well known la Gendarmes Magique working under her Father in the DMLE.
The idea that a woman she had long considered part of her family could so callously throw aside, not only her life, but Harry's Cedric's and Victor's as well, for nothing more than a political upheaval? It was unconscionable; as Harry understood it Fleur couldn't even begin to get her head around the amount of deception involved in convincing her family of a personality that was so obviously a front.
Another weird event to spring up out of the day was an agreed on Champions quarters. Dumbledore and Karkaroff had led the four champions to the seventh floor of the castle; Madame Maxime having already left for France with the rest of the Beauxbatons delegates. Once there Dumbledore had explained the purpose of them having separate quarters from the rest of the school and how to access them.
Really it boiled down to a safety concern and it was rather simple to get in, they just had to pace in front of the blank stretch of wall three times thinking that they had to get into the champions quarters. Inside was an octagonal common room with rooms coming off on the four corners, one for each Champion.
They had been told quite sternly, especially the boys, that the doors were charmed to only let through the Champion they were keyed to. Harry was in mixed minds about this, on the up side the room he had been assigned was awesome, on the down side Hermione wouldn't be able to slip into his bed at night for them to sleep together as they had been doing now for months. He didn't know if he would be able to get decent sleep on his own anymore.
Fortunately at least Hermione and their other friends were able to enter the dorms by being keyed in by the Champions themselves and they ended up being quite comfortable. One would have thought that with the closer quarters the four champions would have revived the previous camaraderie they shared and kept it alive, but it was not to be, only Harry and Fleur of the four shared any kind of real friendship.
-:-
Later that night after he and Fleur had finally said goodnight after talking till nearly midnight, Harry was slipping into the warm Gryffindor coloured sheets and was lamenting Hermione's absence when a sharp click sounded through the room. Sitting bolt upright and casting his lumos wandlessly he looked around the room light pouring from his fingertips. Abruptly he realized what he had managed to do even accidentally and the light promptly went out as he lost concentration.
Scrabbling angrily he found his wand and lit it normally, looking around the room he spotted a new door, one that did not lead to his en suite bathroom or the common room. Curiously he got up from the bed and walked cautiously to the door. Feeling a bit foolish he opened it carefully and said in a hushed voice;
"Hello?"
What he saw made his mouth curve into a grin, Hermione was laying on her back with her legs spread and fingers working furiously at the apex of her thighs. His quiet question startled her and she screeched in shock throwing a sorcel at him which he instinctively blocked. Only then did he realize that the door had opened behind Hermione's headboard on her four poster bed in the girls' common room.
"Harry? Sorry I… What are you doing here? Where the hell did that door come from?"
Hermione's hushed interrogation made him frown, she was hastily covering herself up more in shock than anything else, they had seen each other masturbate before.
"I don't know, I was just thinking about how much I missed you when this door popped up in my room. I opened it, and here I am."
Hermione's face twisted into a frown and she looked nervously around
"We'll it's really obvious, shut it for me for a sec, we need to know if it's always visible."
Harry did so, counted to ten then opened it again to Hermione's grinning face.
""It disappears, this is going to be even easier than it was before, all you'll have to do is just let me into your room each night. C'mon, let's try out that bed."
Grinning Harry stepped back as Hermione clambered through the doorway and into his room in the champion's quarters.
"Where do you reckon the door came from?"
Harry didn't know and he certainly didn't care as he kicked the door shut and enveloped his beautiful girlfriend in a passionate embrace, some stress relief was just what they needed right now, Hermione's giggled 'Silencio' was music to his ears.
-:-
Fleur was having an altogether more lonely night as she cuddled down under the strangely familiar duvet. It was, as far as she could tell, a perfect replica of the one in her room back at the Delacour mansion; that aside she missed Harry, it was pathetic and stupid and dumb. But even bare minutes after she had said goodnight to him in the common room her heart was already pining for him.
She loved talking to him, he had a way of making her feel safe and wanted that she couldn't rightly explain, maybe it had to do with her unrequited feelings for him but she could happily spend all day in his presence, and all night too. Naughty thoughts rose unbidden to the forefront of her mind of a very naked Harry looming over her. She repressed the feelings as well as she could but, inevitably and like always, she gave into the images sweeping through her mind of the wiry and somewhat muscular young man making love to her.
Nearly an hour later she fell into a fitful and restless sleep, release only bringing her even more seductive images of the raven haired Champion as her bond sought to push her closer and closer to her mate. She didn't know how she was going to be able to stand this for much longer, hopefully it got easier with age.
-:-
The days passed by rapidly now as the Yule ball quickly approached. It was to be held early so that the students could head home for the holidays if they wished the Yule ball was to be held just a week after the end of the first task on December the first. The dawn of that day saw Harry Fleur and Hermione clustered around the fire in 'their' new common room. Cedric still tended to hang out in the Hufflepuff common room and Krum preferred to spend time with the rest of the Durmstrang delegates. So Harry, Fleur and Hermione often had the Champion's common room entirely to themselves and took great advantage of this by pushing the larger couch closer to the fire and sitting happily under a large blanket to chat.
At some point during the last few days Harry assumed Hermione had talked to Fleur about something because one evening he ended up with Hermione cuddling up to his left side and Fleur up his right as they talked that evening. He didn't overly mind, Hermione cuddled up to him was a regular occurrence and he and Fleur had never been closer. It was often awkward when Cedric came back for the evening wolf whistling however. More than once he had dashed to the confines of his room laughing as jinxes followed him closely.
That morning however only he and Fleur were sitting on the couch, Harry's arm casually draped across her shoulders as she leaned sideways into him, reading a French novel. Hermione had yet to arrive in their common room for the day before they headed down to breakfast. The conversations he shared with the French witch were fun and light for the most part, but they had shared deeper talks as well. Most anything was fair game in their late night conversations after Hermione had headed back to her common room to do some last minute study before 'sleep'.
Though he didn't mind he often found their deep friendship something of a confusion for him, for instance, Fleur was quite comfortable talking to him about his and Hermione's sex life, giving him stick about various hilarious moments (After Fleur had openly come out and said that she and Hermione talked behind his back and that it was only fair he got to do the same he had learned to become quite comfortable sharing things with her). Hermione had confessed to quite enjoying her 'girl talk' sessions with Fleur.
But at the same time even mentioning who Fleur was interested in caused the beautiful young woman to clam up unexpectedly and return to whatever pastime she was doing. It was a strange dichotomy and not one Harry ever expected to understand, he was after all, just a man.
Talk of the Tri Wizard Tournament was less fraught with potential landmines but no less tense. They had discussed in depth their options for completing the second task but nothing had come to mind for either of them. Harry's inability to swim and Fleur's issues with water and Merpeople had thrown up significant roadblocks in their quest for solutions. Carefully the three of them had gone down to the lake one evening and taken turns listening to the egg under the water and it was very clear to them what they had to do. Hermione had assured both Harry and Fleur that the hour time limit was probably more of a points threshold than anything else. They calmed from their panic, only to settle into dread as they realized just what an hour underwater entailed for both of them.
What was worse was that they were both forced to compete, and hanging over everything was the possibility that someone might sabotage the event to take another pot shot at Harry. None of them were happy about it and ideas were unforthcoming. Harry assured them both that he would swallow his pride and talk to Dumbledore about the task before the end of January.
As Harry ran all of these thoughts through his head he mulled over his own, private concern. Why had he nearly lost his magic under water? He could understand physical exhaustion, even some magical drain as his magic sought to keep his body afloat in his panic.
But all modesty aside Harry was a powerhouse, he could cast wandless charms at the age of fourteen, albeit only Lumos and Wingardium Leviosa so far but it was still impressive. As Hermione had explained to him Wands were sources of magical magnification. They took the magic a witch or wizard poured into their spell and magnified it to the required amount. Powerful wands drew less energy from their users and so their masters could cast more spells without draining themselves, or even more powerful sorcery for the same cost.
Wandless magic then was hard because the small amount of energy that Wizards and Witches could usually emit was tiny compared to their overall strength, a mere fraction of a percent of their total ability and usually not nearly enough to power a spell wandlessly. The fact that Harry, at the age of fourteen with an immature magical core, could already produce even these smallest of spells, was an amazing feat.
So where had his power gone in the water? Water was an excellent magical conductor, it was easy to shape and magical energy flowed through it with barely any resistance, but at the same time it did not naturally draw power from people, else Wizards and Witches would never swim. There was no logic as to why simply being there would cause him to so rapidly loose his ability to even propel himself to the surface as he had tried to do with his last conscious thought.
It was a conundrum, and one that would not easily be solved as the young man ran his fingers absently through Fleur's hair.
-:-
Hermione was nervous, more nervous than she had been at the first task, more nervous than when she had gone to pick Harry up from his relatives, God that felt so long ago. She could remember how shy she and Harry had been around each other and how tentative their first kiss had been. But today she was positively terrified. Harry had seen her naked, he had seen her doing things that should, by rights, put this event to shame.
But tonight, she would be dancing with him, she would be in her beautiful dress that she and harry had picked out in that Hogsmeade trip, and he would be in those dashing dress robes. And they would dance. They would dance all night and everyone, the students, the teachers, and whoever was plotting against her man, would see them on that dance floor. They would see that she was his, irrevocably and undeniably. She would be the focus of attention tonight. She wasn't being arrogant in thinking that she was more important than Harry, not further from the truth could that be.
Rather she knew that a great many people wanted to be on Harry's arm. He was famous, a Champion, incredibly attractive, and filthy rich. She wasn't sure if Harry was quite aware of how much money he had but he always shied away from the topic. Quietly she had sent a letter to Gringotts late last month enquiring into Harry's estate so that she knew what she was getting into.
As a Goblin accepted bond mate to him she had been granted access to a summary of his accounts and had been blown away, apparently he came from old, old money, older even than the Malfoys, and Harry's ancestors had been avid investors, talented ones too. He would come into well over ten million pounds in inheritance, split across liquid finance and holdings as well as investments in both the Muggle and magical worlds, on his seventeenth birthday, and all the purebloods knew it.
That she would be on his arm, a first generation witch from a blue collar family, essentially consorting with what passed for wizarding nobility? She understood why Lily Potter had been such a strong woman now, you had to be to get through what she was about to be thrown into. That was another thing that had come out of the summary, a journal addressed to the future wife of Harry Potter, written by his mother.
Hermione hated keeping secrets from Harry but the journal was under the most incredible Fidelius charm she had encountered, instead of being linked to any one person, it was linked to the current holder of Harry's heart, the magic involved in such a charm was mind boggling the secret keeper wasn't even a person, it was Harry's magic. That on its own nearly made her faint with shock.
The journal itself wasn't anything special, just a leather bound book filled with notes and entries, as well as loose pages and documents attached to the journal with magical thread. What was the treasure were the words of wisdom passed down from Lily to her. It seemed that Lily Potter was an extremely perceptive, and that the Potter family had a bit of history marrying Muggleborns; because the entire journal seemed to be a Muggleborn's introduction to magical hierarchy and nobility.
Harry would, apparently, receive a similar journal on his sixteenth birthday from his father explaining things should he not be around to do it himself. The wealth of knowledge hidden in the pages of Lily Potter's journal was staggering, almost every page had been subjected to an expansion charm and reading the journal was a mind bogglingly huge task that Hermione had barely scratched the surface of. What she had ascertained was that Harry's mother was the strongest most passionate woman she had ever met, or even heard off. That she had stayed by James' side through a blood war discriminating on Muggleborns… that she had gone to social events with her husband to keep up appearances surrounded by pureblood elitists and death eaters in disguise… That she had been a Muggle primary school teacher despite her magical upbringing, married to the head of house Potter against the wishes and demands of the pureblood elite.
All of it was mind blowing. And Hermione hoped, no pleaded that she could live up to her future late mother in law's memory. It would be the greatest honour she could ask for. And that was why she was nervous. Tonight, in front of all of the pureblood parents who were coming to watch the ball and participate she would be on Harry's arm. At first she hadn't been too worried, what would they see, just a schoolyard romance right? They didn't have to know how serious they were, but Lily's journal had shattered that illusion. Purebloods heads of house and their wives often cast eligibility charms on young men at such functions; they were invisible, and totally undetectable. But they would confirm without a shadow of doubt that not only she had bound her heart and magic to Harry, but inadvertently Fleur had as well.
She shuddered to think what would happen if that news got out. She desperately hoped Harry would understand Fleur's reticence. She hated to think what would happen if harry tried to break their friendship over this, it could be fatal to Fleur and Harry would never forgive himself after the fact. Fortunately Harry, much to Hermione's continued thanks, had a level head on his shoulders and was quite capable of understanding what had been going on, at least she hoped that was what would happen.
Besides that this was going to be Hermione's first social outing with Harry in the magical world, and she was determined to live up to the late Mrs Potter. She owed it not only to herself and to Harry's parents to be good to him, but to Harry as well. He had done so much for her, and she knew he would continue to do so for many years to come.
She just had to get through this accursed ball.
-:-
All too soon Harry was pulling on his elegant dress robes. They were well made and Harry was reminded strongly of the dinner suit hanging in his closet back home in Oxford. Fleur, he knew, had already left to meet her date in the entrance hall and Hermione wouldn't be far behind her as the Champion's quarters and Gryffindor tower were on the same floor.
He wasn't sure how Fleur had gotten ready before him; he just guessed that she had been preparing for the ball earlier in the day just as Hermione had. Eventually he deemed himself ready and flicked his wand as his hair, carelessly using a kinetic sorcel and a gel charm to push his hair where he wanted it for the evening. It had taken some practise but Fleur had shown both him and Hermione some fairly practical hairdressing charms that she learned from her mother and both Harry and Hermione were more than thankful in taming their respective hairdos. Hermione's was much easier to handle these days in its much straighter state. For her birthday Fleur had gotten her an enchanted hairbrush that maintained the long wavy hair that Hermione now sported, it was no longer bushy but rather had a thick wave that Harry never tired of running his fingers through. He was excited to see what she did with it tonight as he walked briskly down the stairs to the entrance hall several floors below.
-:-
The hall was packed and Harry craned his neck to see over the milling people, trying to spot his enchanting date, instead he spotted a date of no less enchant, but far more confusion. Fleur was standing next to a tall boy Harry had never remembered seeing before, and she didn't look happy. The idiot was standing next to her with a dumb, dazed look on his face that Fleur seemed to abhor, never mind seemed to, Harry knew she couldn't stand such behaviour.
Battling through the crowd he greeted her warmly with a kiss on each cheek, receiving two kisses of his own and flicking a questioning glance at tall dark and stupid. Fleur's hushed whisper made Harry's blood boil.
"Dumbledore thought it would be a good idea if my date was from Durmstrang, you know, to promote inter school integration."
He really, really wanted to deck Albus right then, never mind the man was a hundred and fifty and a punch would probably finish him off. A soft growl under his breath made Fleur laugh musically
"Oh harry, it is not like I could have you, our beautiful brunette has claimed that honour has she not?"
Harry detected a strange note of jealousy in Fleur's voice but brushed it off as annoyance towards her date than anything else, and then he saw her.
Walking down the stair with all the grace of someone who walked in heels for a living Hermione descended towards the throng with the kind of elegance that Harry normally attributed to Fleur, her dress was a long flowing strapless green gown that Harry knew instinctively matched his eyes. Her hair was done up in an elegant French braid that draped across her left shoulder and down towards her chest but stopped just above her collar. He could barely look away from his eyes though, they had locked onto his seemingly through some kind of sixth sense the moment he had seen her and their gazes remained locked until she approached him and let him take her arm.
"You look magnificent Hermione."
She smiled tenderly and then he knew that behind the light makeup and beautiful make over his Hermione was still there, nervous as ever.
"You look rather dashing yourself Harry, he scrubs up well doesn't he Fleur?"
Harry turned back to Fleur only to see a slightly hungry look in her eyes a moment before it was banished away
"You okay Fleur?"
She smiled at him wanly
"Just fed up with sir drools-a-lot back here. May I have a few dances at some point Harry?
Nodding happily he said
"Of course, just so long as Hermione lets me go long enough to give them to you."
Fleur looked rather sternly at Hermione then
"You have to learn to share Hermione."
Much to Harry's amusement and consternation Hermione chocked a little at these words.
"It's okay love, she'll give me back after each dance I promise."
-:-
Before the ball of course was dinner, and before that, the opening dance. The four champions and their dates opened the dance with aplomb, harry happy for the dance lessons he had begged out of the girls weeks ago and Fleur rather pissed with her partner who consistently slipped his hold. Fortunately the dance was short lived and the eight of them all walked to the head table to eat dinner.
The dinner was pleasant if a bit awkward with the unnamed Bulgarian (Fleur didn't bother to introduce him as he didn't seem conscious enough to hold conversation), drooling into his plate a little. Fleur confided to Harry mid-way through the meal that she had blasted him with a touch of her allure about an hour ago and he still hadn't gotten over it, disgusted she wrote him off for the evening.
The trio talked for quite a while but eventually gravitated to the dance floor where they switched several times and took breaks. Hermione even danced with Neville who has become something of an ally, if not a friend. Harry only lamented that Ron wasn't here to share the good mood with them and have some fun. The mood did not last however.
-:-
Harry had not noticed them, but he knew that a variety of pureblood families were here tonight, and Hermione had briefed him on the fact that they might discover their bond and the issues along with that. Harry had wondered briefly where she got the information but Hermione had reassured him with a brush of her magic that he would know in due time. Just as He and Hermione were finishing a waltz a couple of hours into the evening a loud cry rang out in indignant rage
"What is the meaning of this, a love bond, at their age? It is preposterous."
All heads in the hall turned to them, Harry could see off to their left a balding man with spectacles pointing at them, rather rudely too, his wife appeared to be trying to get him to put his hand down and not make a scene. Unfortunately soon other pureblood families did the test themselves and soon the pair were in the middle of a ring of angry pureblood heads. Albus marched forwards into the throng and tried to break things up
"Now, now, is this really the time or place for this? Surely it can be handled later."
The first man who spoke stepped towards the headmaster and said with a nasally voice that Harry found quite repulsive
"No Dumbledore you don't understand, this boy is clearly masking his own magical core with some trinket or other enchanted to do, just that! He's in direct breach of several laws of the ancient houses and as the head of the Parkinson family I am executing my right to bring him up about it."
Dumbledore seemed to sigh a little before replying
"He has a love bond, at the age of fourteen. That's nigh on impossible, no two people know each other well enough for that. Furthermore his trinket must be malfunctioning as it indicates a second unfulfilled bond, which is preposterous."
Harry's breath caught, a second bond? Unfulfilled? But who? Who did he know well enough for…? Oh no.
He felt Hermione tense next to him and his gaze snapped up and unerringly found Fleur on the edge of the dance floor looking terrified. They would sort that out later, but for now.
"Sir, Mr Parkinson was it? I assure you that I have indeed formed a love bond with Miss Hermione Granger, my date this evening, would an oath suffice for proof, or could you just take me at my word?"
Harry nearly smirked at the collective cooing sounds that many of the girls in the room released at his words, it really was amusing how die hard romantic so many people were at the core of who they were; especially girls.
"I'll have that oath if you don't mind."
Harry huffed in exasperation before raising his wand and saying
"I, Harry James Potter, do swear that I have a bond of love, as seen by my magic, upon my magic and life, so mote it be!"
A quick lumos confirmed his words and it set the balding man off a bit
"But you're what, no older than fourteen?"
"And roughly a half sir."
Huffing in annoyance the man retreated back, Harry's gambit had succeeded, but making the oath he had taken attention off the second bond mentioned, Harry might be confused about Fleur's intentions but she didn't deserve to be dragged through the mud about it. Nodding to Fleur and then to the door he took Hermione's hand and walked briskly out into the entrance hall and then to the grounds where fairy lights were illuminating the path.
Hermione easily kept up with him and Fleur was close behind she caught up to him and opened her mouth to apologise but he gently but firmly said
"No, you're not apologizing, you had your reasons and I respect that, but we definitely need to talk about this." Looking around the grounds he shook his head, feeling uneasy
"I don't trust this place, anyone could be listening in, go to Hermione's room, disillusioned, tonight when she goes to bed. We'll talk then."
He turned back to Fleur who looked both teary and confused; feeling his heart go out to her he stepped forwards and wrapped her in a big hug
"I still love you okay? And no matter what you'll always be my friend, we can work through everything else, the three of us."
-:-
Hermione was having mixed feelings, on the one hand she was so proud of Harry for keeping his head and treating Fleur with the respect and love she deserved. On the other hand she was worried that she might lose him tonight. It was irrational, they were bonded, irrevocably, and Harry wouldn't squander that for the world, she knew this. So why was her heart pounding with fear? She was currently walking back to her Gryffindor tower, a disillusioned Fleur beside her in an uneasy silence.
They clambered through the portrait hole and Hermione led them up the stairs to her dorm. Looking left and right she sighed as she realized that Lavender and Parvarti must still be at the ball. Moments later she had clambered onto her bed, gestured Fleur in and then shut the curtains, silencing them with a ward.
"You can drop the charm now Fleur."
The part Veela shimmered into existence soundlessly before wrapping Hermione in a hug
"Are you half as scared as I am?"
The question from Fleur surprised Hermione, she had never thought that Fleur would be nervous or scared, she was Fleur Delacour for God's sake, she could have harry eating out of the palm of her hand if she wanted to. But then, that was the whole point wasn't it? Because of his love for her, Fleur was in real danger of never actually feeling true happiness and that must have scared the living daylights out of her.
Hermione couldn't help but feel that she would be much the same, as it was she was indeed scared.
"I am, but probably not as much as you."
The wry chuckle from her companion said it all but the soundless swing of the door behind her headboard opening cut conversation. Harry was there in more casual clothes and beckoned them in helping each into the slightly elevated doorway.
The other two congregated on his large bed and Hermione couldn't help but feel like a pre-teen student having a sleep over with the three of them there. Unabashedly she changed into some more comfortable clothes off to the side while Harry and Fleur broke the awkwardness with another warm hug, Fleur looked like she needed it.
When Hermione re-joined them Fleur looked askance at Hermione's wardrobe change and the younger witch simply shrugged, amused Hermione said
"He's seen me in less."
The three of them all chuckled well aware of what the two of them had gotten up to, Harry's voice broke Hermione from her thoughts
"Well then Fleur, I think it's only fair that you tell me about this."
-:-
As it turned out it needed both Hermione and Fleur's knowledge to explain the concepts of the Veela bond in a way Harry could understand, he was a little baffled at first but when Hermione broke it down into more straightforward terms that didn't involve the inexplicability of how Fleur's magic chose him in particular it all fell into place.
Wearily he rubbed his forehead
"So, essentially what you're saying is that, for whatever reason, your magic decided that I was the most compatible life partner for you, like ever, and bonded you to me, without either of our consent. And now I'm the only person who can ever fulfil you again?" Fleur's small, sad nod spurred him forwards to asking his next question
"How long have you known? And how long have you known Hermione?"
That led to them talking about their discussion on the day he had nearly drowned and Harry felt more pieces fit into place until he heard Hermione mention the empathy spell.
"Please tell me you weren't silly enough…"
Hermione answered his question with a slightly awkward look
"We weren't thankfully, after talking it out we both agreed that it was a daft idea, not to mention it would be totally unfair on you."
Harry raised an eyebrow at that
"How so?"
Hermione chuckled before saying
"Well I'm never going to be in the mood if I'm constantly miserable from receiving Fleur's feelings am I? It would make having a family or even a happy relationship kind of hard."
Well that was more straightforward than he gave the problem credit for, sighing he leaned back against his pillows and said calmly, his eyes lightly closed against the light
"How can I help? What are the solutions, no matter how farfetched?"
Fleur's voice answered him
"There are several options, none of them very palatable for differing reasons, the most straight forward way would be for the three of us to have a permanent ménage a trois. As comfortable as I am with the idea, if only because it solves our issues, Hermione has indicated that she wouldn't be truly happy in such a relationship, and I think, neither would you or I in the long run."
Harry grunted in agreement, Hermione was enough of a handful without having to deal with Fleur as well. As enjoyable as the married life would have been he didn't think he could handle the drama.
"Next"
Fleur seemed to hesitate for a second before saying
"Another option, however unpalatable, would be to be with one of us and cast the empathy charm on the other. It would, hopefully, negate many of the negative effects of the bond by simply sharing the good ones from the other party. Although the one, left out in the cold so to speak, wouldn't ever be able to enjoy a relationship with someone else."
Harry opened his eyes and looked sternly at Fleur
"You think I would consign either of you two to that fate? No, not happening."
Fleur hesitated again
"One of us could die."
Harry nearly choked as he rocked forward on the bed, eyes locked on hers
"Are you serious? No, not an option."
Fleur nodded
"I expected nothing less, and now you understand my predicament, I cannot escape this torment."
Harry's heart broke as Fleur started to weep again, the conversation clearly too much for her, he reached out and she sank into his arms crying against this chest. While this wasn't how he had hoped his evening would go he was more than happy to hold Fleur and comfort her."
He locked eyes with Hermione and knew that the anguish he could see there was mirrored in his own gaze. He hated doing this to his friend, regardless of how their friendship had come about she was still one of the most important people in his life, so much was explained now, her pledge of fellowship at the choosing, her constant support and care regardless of the situation, her little looks of sadness, longing, or even jealousy. It all made sense. He was startled by Hermione's voice breaking through his thoughts
"Do you love her Harry? Are you attracted to her enough to want a relationship with Fleur?"
Now that was a loaded question. He thought hard about it for a moment, why was he such good friends with Fleur? Why were they so close? Was it just because of this unfulfilled bond or was it because they legitimately were compatible with each other?
Well that was a moot point if ever he did hear one, it was because of the bond, but only because the bond was created because, apparently, he was the best possible match for Fleur, and presumably that went both ways. While that bothered him about his relationship with Hermione and whether it was only their experiences that had created their bond or whether they were truly a good match for one another he wasn't sure. He found himself becoming somewhat despondent, what would happen to his relationship with Hermione if he helped Fleur? Would they even still be together?
He almost shoved Fleur out of his arms, the feeling of revulsion that washed through him at that point was too strong for words. Quite firmly he spoke
"I love her yes, but not enough for a relationship, especially if that would put pressure on us."
He looked up and saw acceptance in Hermione's eyes, what that meant he wasn't sure but he didn't have time to reflect on that as she spoke again
"I expected that."
Fleur's watery voice broke through,
"I'm so sorry you two, I didn't want this to be your burden to bear."
Harry's heart broke as Fleur began crying openly into his chest, clutching at his shirt and sobbing. He threw a helpless look at Hermione and she gave him a sympathetic smile before miming hugging. Getting the message Harry tugged Fleur up into a proper hug and held her close.
"Is there any way we can convert this bond? Make it one of friendship?"
His question was aimed at Fleur but it was Hermione who spoke.
"I don't know, Honestly it would be very complicated magic involved to try and force something like that, naturally I don't know if it could ever happen. I don't think we've said it yet but this is incredibly rare, maybe one in ten thousand Veela find their bond mate in life. Chances are it's even rarer that the bond is refused; maybe it is that we're in a unique situation. For the most part Veela bond with people who aren't bonded already and the Veela bond will create such feelings of love and endearment that they can't help but go to their new partner forsaking old fellowships."
She took a breath and harry saw that she was trying to contain her own tears at Fleur's predicament, he wanted to interject and ask where she got all this information but he knew she needed to talk right now to keep herself in one piece.
"I can't be certain but it seems that because you are bonded to me, and were so before Fleur's bond was initiated, the older bond is superseding the first and preventing feelings of true attraction to occur. It makes sense, a bond is in a way a sort of magical contract, and when you enter into a bond of love it cancels all other contracts that would prevent that bond from being successful: Marriage contracts, wedding vows etc. Because our bond is older it hold superiority and cancels the effects of Fleur's bond on you."
Harry nodded, some might have been surprised but he was actually following this train of thought quite easily.
"And because there will be some kind of magical impulse that guides the way our bond negates the other contracts we might be able to devise a method of amplifying that energy to completely free Fleur from the effects."
Harry grinned as Hermione beamed at him, pride evident on her face, she looked at the now curious Veela and worried her lip.
"I have no idea when we would be able to do this though Fleur, neither Harry or I are experienced enough to try messing with this sort of magic, it could be years until we're ready."
Fleur looked confused
"I must have only caught half of that conversation, are you nuts? You can't interfere with the magic of your bond, not for me, Non! I will not allow it. Bonds are sacred things, you can't just start messing with the way they work, I would rather suffer this curse than you potentially loose what you have."
Harry's eyebrows shot up and he looked at Hermione, he knew full well what her views were on this, and he had his own that agreed with hers, at least most of the time, she knew he would do this without a second thought, it was who he was, but he wasn't alone in this, he wasn't just going to be risking his own happiness and life, he was risking Hermione's as well.
When Hermione held his gaze and gave him a firm nod he grinned
"We're doing this Fleur, we'll do this because you're our friend, our best friend, but more we'll do it because it's the right thing to do. We have the chance to help us here, it might take us a long time to manage it, but we will free you from this."
Fleur opened her mouth to speak but saw the hard look in Harry's eyes, he wasn't backing down, she turned to Hermione, hoping perhaps to have an easier target for her worries, when she found none she gently disengaged herself from harry before wrapping Hermione in a hug instead.
"Thank you, both of you. I know this will be hard, maybe even impossible, and you're both taking a huge risk, but thank you. It means the world to me that you care about me enough to do this, to risk this perfect bond that you have for me."
Harry grinned up at Hermione before saying
"Well it's like someone very close to me once said, when we have the ability to help somebody, the power to change their lives, we are obligated to do so, with that power comes the responsibility to use it in the best way you possibly can."
Hermione chuckled before swatting his arm
"I'm not sure I like the name Harry Parker, you should go back to Potter."
Fleur looked up in confusion
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh don't worry; his mum is just rolling in her grave."
-:-
The train ride the next day was something of a sleepy environment for the girls, Harry decided to stay awake in case anyone stopped in and tried to make a scene, namely Draco and his thickhead friends. Much to Harry's annoyance Malfoy senior had once again pulled the strings of bureaucracy to have Draco released without trial. Apparently there was not enough 'conclusive evidence' to keep a pureblood scion behind bars.
Harry felt like spitting in disgust at that, pureblood scion indeed, the only thing pure about Draco was the fact that he was pure evil. The train jolted slightly and Hermione was jostled in his lap, looking down at her sleeping face he tenderly wiped a lock of hair from her forehead, she was so beautiful. To this day Harry was still trying to figure out what he had done in a previous, life to deserve such a wonderful, beautiful girlfriend. Future wife, the future mother of his children, his future everything.
And then there was Fleur, who was rapidly shaping up to be another close person in his life, probably for the rest of his life, he knew that even if this bond was broken between them they would probably still be like brother and sister with one another. He wouldn't have it any other way, she was rapidly becoming the second most important person in his life and he wasn't complaining, she was the best of friends.
He had to wonder if they were only friends because of this bond, would she have been as happy being around him and getting to know him if there was no impetus to do so? Would they have made such close ties without this annoying and hurtful piece of magic? If so, would he do things differently? Would he sacrifice his friendship with Fleur to give her the chance at a life without this bond hanging over her head? In one of his more selfish moments, Harry realized he didn't know the answer to that question.
The young man shook his head slightly and leaned back against the seat, shifting slightly to be more comfortable, there was so much to think about, so much to plan and do. He hoped he would have time just to be an ordinary teenager with his girlfriend. A wry grin formed on his lips, somehow he suspected Hermione wouldn't let him get away with not being a normal teenager.
As the three sped towards King's Cross and their two week holiday Harry considered one vital thing, as long as Hermione was happy, and he was happy, and perhaps Fleur was happy too. Then everything was probably okay, and so far, they were all happier than he could remember them being for months. He cast his mind forward to what was waiting for him at the station, a real family, waiting for him, to take him home and ask him and Hermione about their term. Nodding to himself he thought that certainly he had never been happier.
-:-
Kings Cross was its usual grimy self, but when Harry and Hermione pushed through the barrier after seeing Fleur off they were immediately engulfed in hugs. Emma had embraced Harry tightly and Dan had wrapped Hermione up in his tall muscular frame. After a few seconds of greetings they switched and Harry had the unique experience of being hugged by Dan for the first time, it was a gruff manly affair, but filled with emotion beneath he surface that Harry basked in. This was family.
Dan fixed Harry with an appraising look and said the three words that Harry knew he would cherish for the rest of his life.
"Welcome home son."
-:-
The drive back to Oxford was filled with warm conversation and laughter as the family caught up and chatted happily about their years so far. Harry and Hermione took great pleasure in describing all the training they were going through and Harry spent several minutes discussing the application of physics in sorcery with Emma who had taken the course at university alongside her dental focus.
For the two parents it was a little overwhelming at first, Hermione was often chatty when she came home for the holidays but having Harry there as well kept them both on their toes. Emma was the first one to pick up that something had changed, harry and Hermione would often alternate speaking without missing a beat, talking in turn with barely a glance at each other or any other kind of communication.
She figured something would happen to draw the two teens closer together but when Harry told her about the explosion in dragon arena Emma nearly fainted and Dan swerved the car accidentally as he shot a look back at his adopted son.
"That was omitted from your letters."
Harry and Hermione both were very diligent with their correspondence home to their parents and Harry especially revelled in the chance to send regular letters not only to Dan and Emma but also to Sirius, wherever he was these days. But neither of them had sent anything home about the more traumatic events of the term, choosing instead to discuss those with their parents in person.
Recounting the tales of the more exciting parts of the year took most of the three hour drive back to Oxford and by the end of it everyone was nicely caught up. One thing though still bothered Emma.
"What's the deal with this friend of yours, Fleur? Was that her name? She's French right? She seems awfully close to Harry…"
Harry winced as she let that statement hang in the air, this was going to be an awkward conversation.
-:-
Hermione couldn't help but be proud of how Harry was explaining the bond both she and Harry had, and the one he shared, even on an unfulfilled level, with Fleur. Dan and Emma both were initially quite shocked, then resigned, then rather proud with not only Harry but Hermione as well. There was a tense silence when he finished speaking. Emma was the first to recover and speak her mind
"I'm so proud of the both of you, I understand that this can't be hard on any of the three of you. I just want to know, if something does happen to the… bond, you share with each other. Not Harry and Fleur, you two, if you lose that, will you two split up? Or hate each other? How does that work?"
Hermione watched Harry's reaction carefully, there was a tensing of his shoulders, a straitening of his back, his chin tucked slightly, those signs that he was supressing something, that he had something in his head that he was trying to get rid of. She reached over and gently rubbed his back, touching his mind briefly with her own to let him know that she was there, supporting him. Harry's voice when he finally spoke was firm and unyielding.
"Nothing could ever split us apart."
Hermione watched as her mum gave Harry a happy smile and turned to the front again, evidently pleased with his answer and more than content to let the two teens in the back snuggle. Hermione did just that, wrapping Harry's arm around her shoulders and leaning against his chest in the back of the car while they sped towards their home. She hoped that Fleur and their family would want to visit at some point in the holidays, Harry might not be in love with Fleur but she was still their best friend outside of each other.
She and Harry had learned last night before Fleur left that her family was taking her contention in the tournament as an excuse to have a holiday in England and they had rented a flat for a few months while Fleur was here. She looked up at the underside of Harry's jaw, about the only thing she could see on this angle, and grinned up at him, she wouldn't trade him for anything, anyone or any sum of money. He was hers damnit and no French Veela bond was going to change that.
-:-
The Christmas Holiday moved far too fast for the liking of everyone involved, the Delacours wished they could spend more time together, Fleur wished she could spend more time with Harry and Hermione outside of a school environment, Dan and Emma wished they could have more time with their daughter and getting to know their new adopted son even better, Harry and Hermione of course would miss the house in Oxford and their parents. But leave they must and on the first of January they found themselves in a compartment with a sleeping Fleur.
The previous night they had finally gotten around to talking about the situation with their best friend and after much discussion and reassuring on the part of Hermione that they could do this without losing their bond Harry finally gave his full approval. Up until that point he had been extremely wary, despite his outward bravado, that he would lose Hermione. She had been touched when he had broken down the previous night and confessed that he was terrified that she would slip away from him, the Veela bond somehow breaking their own. It had been a long night of comforting for the two of them.
When Fleur awoke several hours later to Harry and Hermione resting comfortably against the back rest of the benches, she greeted them happily and the three of them shared quiet friendly conversation, they had a plan, sort of, between them. They were going to free her from this, not only because she was their friend, or even because this was the right thing to do, mostly it was because she was the closest thing they had to an older sister, she was family. That made this personal.
"We'll make this work, I promise."
Another hug for Hermione who instead had words of wisdom for him
"And we will make us work, I promise you that my love."
Together the three of them headed towards the school where danger lurked around every corner, and the silver moon swam over the sky above the Quidditch pitch. That morning the sunrise was red.
-:-
AN5: Well there's another one… lordy that took a long time to write. The holidays were purposely rushed, I didn't really have anything important to say about them and the chapter was long enough as it was. Just a note, this is still only a H/Hr story, the elements of fluff involving Fleur will be deliberately non smutty and few and far between, they aren't 'together' and are still just friends. That said I still have a surprise in store for them which will irrevocably solve the issue of Fleur's bond to Harry, though it shant arrive for several more chapters.
AN5: Review Responses:
Flounder En Flucter: I'm sorry to hear my writing style isn't palatable for you, chances are you aren't reading this, but if you are then I hope you understand that the heavy descriptive areas are few and far between.
Vegas Man: Heh, yes well, Draco's dad is much too arrogant for the such a young scion to scare him or his son away.
Anoutherboarduser: I hope you find this solution to the dilemma palatable
Colonel Killgore: Heh, If I was the sort of writer to do so yes that would have been the perfect situation for the beginnings of a Harem, or at least a triumvirate but this will be our solution.
Starfox: At the ranges where a handgun or even a 7.62 mm rifle would be efficient for Harry and Hermione + others to use them in a fight, spells and Sorcels are just as effective if not more so, they don't have to reload and that can maintain a sustained fire without noise or recoil. Magic has it's advantages.
As for the aspect of handgun executions, executing someone with a wand is a far more personal experience because you have to literally force your magic into the task (Remembering that sorcels are more efficient for such things), Thusly you are putting a part of yourself into each kill.
ShukoKage: Dawwww, thanks. Always gives me the buzzies to get a review like that.
JHarry: Do you have access to my archives? It's only that I know I wrote this chapter before your review came through that I wonder. So accurate, much wow
Darkheart: Don't worry, many lessons are coming up soon. And yeah, he does get away with a lot, helps to have a rich father who isn't worried about throwing money at a problem until it goes away.
Jslee: Dumbledore is still lurking, so many H/Hr stories are all about the bashing, which really annoys me, they should be about the H/Hr, nor dumbles or ron or whomever. But thanks for your other notes, and yes, the white once will be in a deal of pain soon.
Vukk: Just my shorthand way of saying that Malfoy would throw money at the problem till it disappears, who knows how many people he bribed
Beyondthesea: Just want to reassure you that while this toes close to the line it doesn't tip over, I'll make it more plain, Harry and Fleur aren't dating, there's just the potential for that later, but I can guarantee that it won't happen in this story, for reasons that will become apparent later.
Litfreak: Hope this fulfils your expectations!
HHrEdBella: Thanks!
Starboy: Thank you to you too
Dark0w1: Not too shabby an idea, you're another one who seems to be getting into my archives and stealing my ideas before I post them :P
Once again thanks for reading and other shenanigans. You're the air I breath these days guys and gals and your support drives this story forward. The next chapter will be named: Three curses; silver, red and green.
LGreymark