Disclaimer: Nothing is mine; everything is J K Rowling's.

I've been away from my laptop until this afternoon, so I only just finished this chapter now. It's about 15:00 GMT in case anyone's curious. So here's the next one and I'm still just about managing one a day, though tomorrow might be tricky as I've got tickets to watch England vs Australia at Twickenham for the Rugby Union World Cup and I can't exactly take my laptop ;)

Chapter 49

'Did you manage to get any of your essay done after I went to bed?' Neville asked through the hangings as they dressed.

'No,' Harry answered, he'd been too tired after apparating back to work for long. It had been a few days since the ritual, and his eyesight remained perfect, to his great satisfaction, but he still hadn't fully recovered. A few of the books in Salazar's library mentioned magical exhaustion, but most were warnings to avoid it, and only a handful ever explained what made it worse. Harry had committed a fair few of those mistakes. It was best to rest and not perform any magic until completely recovered, but he'd repeatedly tired himself out, first enchanting the map, then conjuring the Dark Mark.

Today will be a quiet day, he decided.

'It's due after lunch,' Neville reminded him helpfully. His voice had moved and now came from by the door where he was waiting to go to breakfast.

'I'll finish it in Transfiguration,' Harry told him, pressing his hands down on the top of his head in a futile attempt to gain some semblance of dignity.

He pulled back his curtains and swung himself out onto the floor. Ron was still snoring and Harry could hear Seamus and Dean dressing across from him.

'Let's get Ron's chess set,' he suggested, producing his wand.

'Not again, Harry, it took Hermione ages to undo your work,' Neville pleaded.

'Spoilsport,' Harry commented, but he replaced his wand and started to head down for breakfast.

Katie was waiting in the common room by the fire, warming her feet dangerously close to the flames. She knew what time Harry always came down to breakfast for and often waited for him when Alicia and Angelina wanted to sleep in.

'Morning Harry, morning Neville,' she remarked cheerfully. 'Nice hair.'

'Thanks,' Harry grumbled, trying half-heartedly to smooth it down again. His attempts only succeeding in dislodging his back from his shoulder and spilling his Astronomy books onto the floor.

Katie got out of her chair to return him his book, and Harry decided just to hold onto it. He could probably manage an inch or two during breakfast as long as Katie managed to avoid knocking anything over.

'Planning to get some done during breakfast?' Neville asked, correctly surmising Harry's plan

'Yeah,' Harry nodded, 'I reckon I can get a few inches in on Callisto's craters before we have to go to transfiguration and then I'll finish on Ganymede. I was almost done when we got distracted by pranking Ron last night.'

'That should get you all the way,' his friend agreed, as they ducked out past the portrait.

'I remember my Owl year astronomy,' Katie sighed. 'George and Fred developed the punching telescope that year, I'm sure it ruined the classes grades.'

'Is that why the three of you were always wearing eyeshadow?' Harry asked

'No,' Katie denied, looking a little embarrassed. 'I might have been trying to catch someone's attention and Alicia and Angelina sort of emulated me.'

'I did notice,' Harry defended.

'Who said it was you?' Katie countered, but she was looking even more abashed. Harry raised an eyebrow. 'Fine,' she admitted, 'it was.'

'I knew it,' Harry grinned. 'It did make you look cute,' he added as an afterthought.

'Cute?' Katie seemed quite disgusted by that. 'I didn't want to look cute,' she complained, 'it was supposed to make me sexy.'

'It didn't work,' Harry told her, sniggering until she punched on the arm.

'Oh look,' Neville remarked, not wanting to be stuck on the outside of the conversation any loner, 'first year Hufflepuffs.'

'No, Neville,' Harry began, 'don't encourage her.' It was rather too late, as Katie had taken off cackling and casting corridor jinxes after them. 'She'd been so good until you reminded her,' Harry told Neville reproachfully. 'Barely an attack in the last few days.'

The first years escaped into the safety of the Great Hall and Katie stopped to wait innocently by the entrance for them to catch up.

'Bad Katie,' Harry remonstrated playfully as they entered and took up seats in the gap in the middle of the table. 'You're supposed to have been reformed.'

'No real Dark Lady ever reforms,' she replied, helping herself to orange juice. Harry moved her goblet to the opposite side of her plate, away from his essay. There were a couple of copies of the Daily Prophet, but no obvious mention of Godric's Hollow. He'd have a more thorough look at lunch.

There was a brief silence as Katie carefully prepared the toast she intended to make her habitual bacon sandwich from. Harry eyed it contemplatively until she waved the knife at him.

'If you touch my sandwich again I will make Fleur a very disappointed girl.'

'If she isn't already,' Neville piped up.

'You too, Neville,' Harry pulled a wounded expression.

'You have stolen her sandwich a lot of times,' his friend pointed out.

'That's barely relevant,' Harry dismissed, helping himself to the rest of the toast rack and rummaging around in his back for a quill that wasn't bent.

Now what rubbish shall I write about Callisto?

It was the most cratered object in the solar system, but that was pretty much the extent of his knowledge.

'Either of you know anything about Callisto?' He glanced hopefully between Neville and Katie.

'What's it worth?' Katie asked, beaming triumphantly.

'Some Gryffindor you are,' Harry remarked snidely.

'You have to come to the next DA meeting and teach the Patronus Charm,' Neville decided. He was quickly backed by Katie, who nodded.

'Fine,' Harry conceded.

'You haven't been to one since the first meeting and it's almost the beginning of the Christmas Holidays,' Katie told him.

'Have they all got the hang of Shield Charms?' Harry asked.

'Everyone's capable of casting most of the OWL level spells, I've been getting them to practice duelling with each other.'

'That's a good idea,' Harry agreed.

'Neville's been putting people in their place,' Katie giggled.

'Oh?' Harry fixed Neville with a curious stare. He reddened slightly and looked down at his plate.

'Well some of the members weren't convinced that I was going to be any good in a duel,' Neville explained, not looking up. 'They weren't rude or anything, they just needed some convincing.'

'So Neville challenged Terry Boot to a duel. He broke right through his shield as if it wasn't there,' Katie cut in.

'Everyone did what I suggested after that.' Neville grinned, a touch of pride present on his face.

'It was very impressive,' Katie assured him. 'Boot was so sure his shield would deflect it, but Neville's spell went right through.' She sighed happily. 'The look on his face just before it hit him.'

'Through the shield,' Harry looked up from his essay in surprise, 'you've improved.'

'The focus exercises helped a lot. Thank you, Harry,' Neville replied, smiling his gratitude. Harry felt a little better about convincing him to learn it after that. He'd been caught up in his plan for Snape, allowing Neville's desire to challenge himself to convince him too easily into doing something he regretted. The potions master he had no sympathy for, but he should have never been so cruel as to Neville.

'I'm glad they helped,' Harry answered, realising that he hadn't said anything for over a minute in reply. 'Now, about Callisto?'

'I wrote a whole paragraph about its naming, and how old it is compared to other satellites,' Neville told him. 'Try and use lots of long words to stretch things out, Ron repeated the word the twice every time he needed it to make it longer. He claims that nobody ever notices.'

'Has anyone?' Harry asked, amused.

'Hermione noticed straight away. She made him rewrite it last night before you came back from detention.'

'That's a shame,' Harry decided, brushing crumbs of his essay. 'I would have quite like to see what Professor Sinistra did.'

'She gets very strict when anyone disrespects her subject,' Katie agreed. 'I heard that at the end of our OWL year she collected all the punching telescopes that Fred and George made, mixed them in with the others, and then gave them a detention separating them for all the disruption they caused.'

'I think that was just a rumour,' Neville pointed out.

'Maybe,' Katie shrugged, 'it's still a good story though.' She took another bite out of her sandwich as she turned to Harry, scattering a few more crumbs across his essay.

'Sorry,' she apologised, as Harry brushed them off again. 'Speaking of stories, are you really wearing pieces of plastic in your eyes? Hermione was telling everyone that that must be what you'd done if you weren't wearing glasses anymore.'

'They're called contact lenses,' Harry explained mildly, grinning at Neville's horrified expression. 'It's like wearing really small glasses on your eye.'

'That's kind of weird,' Katie decided, 'but you do look better without them, nobody will mistake you for Myrtle's descendant now.'

'Thanks,' Harry replied dryly.

'You two should probably go,' she pointed out, as the Great Hall began to empty in time for lessons. 'You don't want to be late and then get caught writing an essay for Sinistra by McGonagall.'

Harry rather reluctantly tucked his essay back into his bag and got up. There was less than an inch until he'd reached the requirement and he'd been starting to hope he'd have it done before Transfiguration.

Neville swung himself out from the bench and they departed with a wave to Katie, who twisted to wave back and knocked her drink over, covering what had been Neville's seat in orange juice.

'Narrow miss that,' Harry remarked, as they left hall and headed towards the Middle Courtyard.

'She has a thing for forgetting where she's put her drink, doesn't she,' Neville agreed. 'Normally I'm the clumsy one.'

'You still are, Nev,' Harry reminded him. 'Last time we had potions you nearly knocked over out cauldron and melted a desk, Katie just hates goblets.'

They weren't quite late to the lesson, but McGonagall and the first half of the class had already arrived before them. It suited Harry just fine, since it gave him an excuse to sit at the back of the class where it would be harder for the professor to spot him writing his essay.

As McGonagall began to explain the Doubling Charm Harry quietly continued writing about Ganymede, swearing profusely under his breath when he ran out of things to say a few lines from the target length.

'Run out of ideas?' Neville whispered, craning his head across to look.

'I feel like I'm trying to explain what's in the teacup to Trelawney. It's painful,' Harry complained.

'It's probably a grim,' Neville smiled. 'Astronomy isn't so bad, though, the only things Trelawney ever predicted successfully were Hermione leaving her class and me breaking her teacup.'

And Pettigrew's escape, Harry remembered, carefully using his wand to cut a thin sliver off the bottom of the parchment his essay was written on. It should be enough to make it look as long as the others.

'My Gran's friend, Griselda Marchbanks, is on the Wizengamot and head of the examinations board,' Neville began, murmuring underneath McGonagall's explanation. Harry was half-listening. 'I heard her tell Gran that the Divination OWL exam is her least favourite because the students just make stuff up and they have to pretend it's right because there's no real way of checking. She said the only real prophecies are in some mysterious department of the Ministry.'

That caught his attention immediately.

A mysterious department, or a Department of Mysteries?

'What department?' Harry asked, sliding his essay away out of sight as McGonagall began to hand out bottle caps of Ogden's Whiskey to practise on. His still smelt faintly of alcohol.

'The Department of Mysteries,' Neville answered. 'It's supposed to have loads of weird bits of magic nobody can explain in it, but only the Unspeakables are allowed down there because of how dangerous things are.'

'Do you reckon they'd send you to Azkaban for getting caught down there?' Harry wondered aloud. Sirius had said something about one of the Order of the Phoenix getting captured.

'Probably,' Neville nodded. 'If it's as high security as it sounds.'

Fleur wants to work at the Bureau d'Énigmes, Harry remembered. That sounds awfully similar.

He made a mental note to ask her about it as soon as he could.

'Sounds interesting,' he shrugged nonchalantly. If he was lucky Fleur would know enough for him to be able to convince Sirius to tell him what he needed to know.

'Mr Potter, Mr Longbottom, I severely doubt that you are discussing the Doubling Charm, so I suggest you get on and start practising,' McGonagall called from the front.

'Geminio,' Harry muttered, flicking his wand at the bottle-cap an envisioning a second cap beside it.

A second bottle top formed, but the letters were blurry, and the colours slightly different shades. It was a passable first attempt, but Harry was too busy trying to figure out when he could talk to Fleur to really focus on the spell.

Neville repeated the spell next to him, flicking his wand, but his new one was slightly longer than his father's and he caught the tip on the desk and dropped it. The bottle caps continued to multiply at an exponential rate, showering off the desk and onto Neville who had bent to retrieve his wand.

Professor McGonagall swept over immediately. 'End the spell, Longbottom,' she instructed tersely, as his friend managed to get back on his feet.

'Finite,' he muttered, looking embarrassed.

'That is the perfect example of the as of yet unexplained mystery of this charm,' the transfiguration teacher commented. 'If the caster is interrupted before the spell ends, the item continues to multiply.'

Around her the copies of the bottle cap were collapsing into nothing, handfuls at a time, until the original sat innocently on the desk, unmoved from when Neville had first cast the charm.

'More practise, Longbottom,' McGonagall ordered, bustling away to deal with Ron, who'd managed to turn his top into what appeared to be a button mushroom.

Harry spent a few minutes perfecting the spell, concentrating on replicating the cap once perfectly, but the moment he managed it he sat quietly next to Neville pressing his hand against the locket under his robes waiting for the lesson to end so he could speak to Fleur.

Transfiguration dragged on painfully slowly.

Professor McGonagall came to disturb him twice, demanding he demonstrate his ability with the charm, and twice he performed it perfectly, even though his thoughts were elsewhere.

Sitting in the back of the class, watching everyone else struggle or talk amongst each other he realised something he had yet to notice about himself.

Hogwarts no longer feels like home.

Harry still loved the school. It had been his gateway into a world without the Dursley's, even his fame and Voldemort could not make him wish things were otherwise, but the aura of belonging was lost. It was no longer coming to Hogwarts that let him relax his guard after summer with the Dursleys. A willow tree in France, and the company of Fleur had taken its place.

'Can you tell Professor Sinistra that I'm feeling ill?' Harry asked Neville.

'Are you feeling sick?' Neville looked slightly skeptical.

'Of a sort,' Harry answered honestly.

Homesick.

Everyone was beginning to pack their things away, wands disappeared into robes and books back into bags. Harry passed Neville his essay, shooting him a grateful smile and joining the line of students that filed out of the class.

When they turned left to head towards the Astronomy Tower he lingered and then walked right towards the stairs to the second floor as fast as he could.

The corridors were full of students, so he ducked in to an empty room a few doors down from Myrtle's bathroom to wait until he could go in unobserved.

It's taking too long, Harry decided impatiently.

He disillusioned himself, hurrying past the few straggling groups of students and darting into the bathroom. Hopefully anyone who saw the door move would simply blame Peeves, he was the usual suspect for odd happenings across the school.

Myrtle was absent, for which Harry was grateful, since he didn't want to stop and talk to her, but he would offend her if he just rushed past.

Harry splashed quickly across the floor, frowning at the onset of dampness around his feet, and hurried down into the chamber.

The moment he was on the stairs he pulled the locket out from under his robes and snapped it open, whispering the activation phrase and waiting hopefully as the three edges grew warm for Fleur to reply.

A single, summer sky blue eye appeared in the mirror. It blinked, then it was replaced by Fleur's face as she drew back.

'Harry?' She asked, looking worried.

'I need to talk to you,' Harry told her, surprised by the strength of the relief he felt at hearing her voice. It had only been about a week since they had last met, but he had missed her.

'That's an interesting coincidence,' Fleur said. Her voice was trembling, and Harry realised that she was far more upset than he had ever seen her.

'Do you want to meet me at the willow?' Harry asked, striding into Salazar's study. The portrait remained quiet, but watched him curiously as Harry shifted his cloak to retrieve the hand drawn portkey.

'I think that would be a good idea,' Fleur agreed. 'I will see you in a moment, then.'

Her face faded from the mirror, leaving Harry with a nervous knot in his stomach and a dry mouth. He hoped she wasn't upset with him. He hadn't done anything to upset her, not that he could think of.

'Argent,' he whispered, his voice cracking slightly.

It was raining. The leafless willow tree offered little protection from the gentle rain, so Harry transfigured a fallen stick into an umbrella large enough for two and waited for Fleur.

He didn't have to wait long.

Fleur appeared only a moment later, and now that she was actually in front of him Harry couldn't tell if she was more angry or upset.

'What's wrong?' He asked, forgetting about his questions in the face of her distress.

'I did something stupid,' Fleur admitted.

Harry froze at her words, the umbrella shivered, spilling small streams of water onto the ground around him. They were the same words that Katie had used when she had made her mistake with Roger Davies.

'What did you do?' His voice was very quiet, he could barely hear himself over the rain.

'No,' she shook her head, realising the reason for his fear, scattering her silver hair about her face and stepping under the umbrella with him. 'Nothing like that,' she promised him fiercely. 'You are mine,' she took his face in her hands, cupping his cheeks tightly between them, 'and that means that I am yours.'

'What happened?' Harry's voice was only marginally louder. He knew it had to be bad for Fleur to be so visibly distressed. 'Is Gabrielle ok? Your parents?'

'They are fine,' Fleur assured him. 'I did something stupid. One of the girls here, one who came to Hogwarts, she has family in England, a cousin, or something similar, and she was talking on and on about what the Daily Prophet has been spouting.' Her hands slipped from his face to his shoulders, pulling him against her. 'I was so angry with her,' Fleur confessed, 'I still am. I used Cassandra's Curse, but it was stronger than I expected. The mediwitch thinks that the effects might last for almost a month.'

'So?' Harry tilted her chin up so she was looking at him. 'You told me you did not care what I did so long as I was yours, Fleur. I feel the same.'

'I am in a lot of trouble,' she fretted. 'The school has suspended me, I can take my exams, but if I fail I can't return and do them at the same time as everyone else. They wrote to my parents too.'

'You won't fail,' Harry reassured her. She was Fleur. She would never fail her exams, she created enchanted items that were more complicated than the final exams for fun.

'But my parents,' she whispered. 'They will realise why I did it, and they will blame you for influencing me.'

'I'm sure they won't,' Harry started, but Fleur cut him off.

'They're right,' she told him quietly. 'I would have never done something like that if I hadn't met you.' Harry let his fingers drop from her chin, shifting away from her, just in case it made things easier.

'It's a good thing,' she insisted, taking his hand and pulling it back around her. 'The only other person I would defend like that is Gabrielle, but they will be angry with me for doing it, and with you for being the reason I did it.' She pressed her forehead into his collarbone. 'I'm sorry,' she murmured into his neck. Her breath was warm, and tickled slightly, making him squirm.

'I don't mind,' Harry decided. 'I quite like that you wanted to defend me,' he kissed the top of her head. 'Does it change anything?'

'I was going to ask you come here for Christmas,' Fleur responded, 'but I'm not sure if my parents will allow it now, or, if they do, they might be unpleasant to you.'

'If you want me here, and I am allowed to stay, then I will come no matter how much your parents disapprove of me,' Harry told her gently.

'I was afraid you would not understand.' She laughed quietly, realising at the time as he did that their positions had reversed from their last such conversation.

'I will always understand,' Harry assured her, pulling her a little closer.

'Why did you want to speak with me?' Fleur asked, prompting Harry to suddenly remember his questions about Prophecies and the Bureau d'Énigmes.

'What do you know about the Bureau d'Énigmes?' He asked.

'A little,' she shrugged, 'it is a secret what they actually do, but most people know about the general fields, the mysteries are famous.'

'Oh?'

'The bureau was created by an English wizard who came to France after marrying a French witch, he designed the Bureau d'Énigmes on your Department of Mysteries, though the bureau is a half a century younger.' Fleur looked up at him quizzically. 'Why do you want to know so badly?'

'Are there prophecies in the Bureau d'Énigmes?' Harry asked her.

'Yes,' Fleur answered simply. 'The witnesses of the prediction are obligated to leave a memory in the bureau. There are only prophecies about French wizards and witches there, the Bureau d'Énigmes has no authority to keep any others.'

'But if there are prophecies in the Bureau d'Énigmes, then there are likely ones in the Department of Mysteries as well,' Harry surmised thoughtfully.

'Why are you interested?'

'When I escaped from Voldemort I surprised him with how much stronger I had grown since our last encounter. He mentioned a prophecy and implied that it was about, or at least mentioned me.'

'You want to hear it,' Fleur realised. 'Why not ask? You are legally entitled to listen to a prophecy that is relevant to you in France and I'm sure it is the same in Britain.'

'The Ministry would never allow me to view a prophecy that is connected with Voldemort, not when they're doing everything they can to cover his return up.'

'Tell me you are not planning to steal it,' she said roughly.

'I could,' Harry responded slowly, 'but I would have to lie to you. I need to know what it says, Fleur. I don't have to explain how important it could be.'

'How would you even get in?' Fleur demanded.

'I don't know,' Harry shrugged. 'I only learnt about it today. I might be able to get my godfather to help, he and the rest of Albus Dumbledore's followers are secretly guarding the department, though whether it is the prophecy or something else I don't know.'

'Don't rush in and do something reckless,' Fleur ordered. 'I will not have you die, or get sent to Azkaban because you wanted to hear some prophecy that might not even help you.'

'I will be careful,' Harry assured her. 'I won't go until I'm certain I can get in and out without being caught or seen, and I will wait until after I've completed the other ritual to make me stronger.'

'And you will tell me what it says,' she demanded. 'I can't help you if you keep me in the dark.'

'The dark is the last place you should be,' Harry grinned, eyeing her teasingly until she blushed.

'Are you sure?' She leaned into him suggestively, sliding her hand up his chest. 'There are all sorts of things we could do in the dark.' His skin was tingling from her touch and Harry had to let out a shaky breath or two to steady himself. Fleur was smiling triumphantly, even if she was still blushing, and Harry had to focus on his occlumency to clear his head. She didn't need her allure to captivate him, all she had to do was look at him and let some emotion into her eyes and he was hers.

It's ridiculous, he thought, trying to ignore how happy it made him.

'You didn't answer,' she chuckled, slipping her hands up around his neck and pulling him close to kiss him. The umbrella disappeared completely as his transfiguration wore out and his focus vanished. Fleur's fingers were trailing down his back, her left hand tracing a dangerously low path across his stomach, and up inside his robes onto his chest. Harry let the arm he had around her waist slip a little lower, emboldened by her wandering hands, and pulled her tight against him. She moaned in quiet satisfaction at the closeness and slipped her tongue past his lips.

She tasted like marzipan again, a light sweetness that melted on his lips as she traced them with the tip of her tongue and elicited a shiver of pleasure from him. It fanned the flames within, pushing him to be more daring. Harry's other hand came to rest on her hip, slipping inside her uniform to slide his thumb in gentle circles across the smooth heat of her stomach. Fleur quivered in turn and closed her eyes at the sensation, kissing him harder until they needed to breathe.

'Gabby will be happy,' she sighed when they reluctantly separated.

Harry laughed when he realised her meaning, gazing around him at the rain, and their moment of novel worthy romance.

'I should make sure we're doing it just right,' he decided playfully.

Harry gently bent Fleur over backwards until she was gazing up at him and laughing, then leant in to kiss her once more.

AN: Please read and keep reviewing, thanks to everyone who has!