Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter and everything recognizable belongs to J K Rowling.

Chapter Two – A helping hand

As harry reached McGonagalls office with Gabrielle in tow, he exhaled deeply and mentally readied himself for what he had to tell her. He knocked politely on her large mahogany door, waiting to be invited in. After a few seconds came the sound from within.

"enter" came the voice.

Harry pushed the heavy door open and stepped in.

"Mr Potter, how can I help you" said Professor McGonagall. She was a very stern looking witch, well known for being extremely strict, but harry also knew that she was a fair teacher and extremely kind.

Harry entered the room fully moving to stand at the desk behind, which sat McGonagall. As he got closer, she noticed that a young Beauxbatons student was with him, lingering at the door. Harry turned to Gabrielle and put out his hand, motioning her to come forward. Once at his side, almost clinging to him, harry looked up to his head of house and readied himself to explain.

"Professor, tonight I caught three Slytherins trying to attack Gabrielle, luckily I was able to intervene before they done any damage, however she told me that she has already been attacked..." harry exhaled angrily before finishing "by Gryffindors"

McGonagall looked shocked at his proclamation and looked at Gabrielle, who was still huddled close to harry, with a look of fear still engraved in her young silver eyes

"This is a very serious claim Mr Potter" she said before pausing and looking to Gabrielle. "Is what he is saying true?" she asked, a look of worry on her face. Gabrielle simply nodded and clutched at Harrys side.

"Very well, I will have to inform Dumbledore and Miss Delacour's headmistress" McGonagall said in a strained voice.

Harry spoke up before she had a chance to continue "I've already been to see Madame Maxime, she didn't seem to take it too seriously, she told Gaby to go and join her schoolmates" he said with a hint of anger in his voice.

"I promised Gabrielle that I would look after her" he said hastily without thinking. McGonagall give him a questioning look before taking out her wand, she muttered a spell under her breath and a smoky sort of substance came out of her wand, taking the form of a cat. "Go and get Professor Dumbledore please" she spoke to the cat as it bounded out of her office, with harry and Gabrielle looking both confused and impressed.

A few minutes later, Dumbledore come through the door with the silvery-blue smoke like cat in tow, which vanished into thin air when he entered the room. As he entered the room, he give a quizzing look at harry over his half moon glasses as he saw the young girl at his side before he looked at McGonagall and spoke.

"I got your patronus professor, is there a problem"

After retelling the story to Dumbledore, harry looked rather worn out. Dumbledore stroked at his silver beard before speaking "Thank you Harry, for bringing this information to us, if what you say is true, we must act accordingly, and nip this in the bud before such an act can happen again, McGonagall, I will leave punishment to you if the offenders are caught. I think a talk with your house is in order" she nodded sharply and stood.

Without thinking, Harry spoke up "Sir, would it be possible for Gabrielle to stay in the castle, if only for tonight"

Dumbledore looked at harry, and then to the young girl at his side. Harry noticed something in Dumbledore's eyes that he had no seen before, it looked like mistrust or dislike. Dumbledore saw Harry looking at him and he quickly stood to his full height, his twinkle back in his eye.

"yes, I don't see any problem with that, there is a spare room for guests on the first floor, just follow the corridor to the left of the great hall" he began to walk out but stopped abruptly "Harry, You have missed your first lesson, I suggest you take the day off to work on your plan for the next task" he said, a glint in his eye.

Harry lead Gabrielle to the guest dorm, which to his surprise was a very large room, with a spacious living area with a desk and a comfortable looking sofa, around the walls were book cases brimming with books from everything from goblin history to a book called 'charms of the future'. The bedroom was through a large oak door and hosted a four poster bed, much like his own but much larger. Oil lamps were scattered all around the room giving ample light. An en suite was through a door next to a mahogany desk with quill and parchment ready to use.

Harry settled the still clinging form of Gabrielle down into the room and told her to relax and make herself at home, after a while she was able to settle and found a book in French, which she sat in bed reading. Harry decided to stay with her, as she had been through a lot and it felt cruel to leave her.

Harry sat, working on his clue for the next task. The day before he had been approached by Cedric Diggory, who told him to 'take his egg to the prefect's bathroom and mould things over in the water'. Despite his lack of trust in Cedric, he followed his instructions and was pleased with the results, while taking the egg in the water; he had heard a melody which was his clue to the next task.

The voice sung

Come seek us where our voices sound,

We cannot sing above the ground,

And while you're searching ponder this;

We've taken what you'll sorely miss,

An hour long you'll have to look,

And to recover what we took,

But past an hour, the prospect's black,

Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.

He had written this down on a piece of parchment and was scrutinising each line to try and make sense of it all. The hours were whittling away and all he managed to obtain was a pounding his head he mutter to himself "this is useless".

At hearing him, Gabrielle looked up from her book and saw that Harry was struggling. curious, she got up and went over to where he was working, peering over his shoulder.

After a few minutes, Harry saw her shuffle to his side and take the parchment from the desk, looking at it closer, 'maybe she's trying to understand the English' harry thought to himself. She was younger than he was, and if he didn't have any idea then there was no point in even hoping that she could help. Tired from all of his work, he rested his head on the desk and let his heavy eyelids drop, without realizing, he slumped into a tiresome sleep.

Harry woke with a start and cleared his eyes; he had been awoken by the glaring sun assaulting his eyes through the large stained glass window in the room. He rubbed the tired spots away from his eyes and realised that he had fallen asleep.

He looked around for a Gabrielle but there was no sight of her. He jumped up worriedly and run out of the room ready to go and look for her when he was met with a sight he had not expected.

Harry burst into the living area and come to a sudden halt when he saw Gabrielle at the desk, with a mound of books around her and his piece of parchment with the words from his egg, which he had been working from, right in front of her. He realized she had taken it upon herself to try and find the answer. He walked lazily up to her, again feeling the sleep in his body.

He come to a stop next to her and looked down at all the work that she had done, he looked down at his watch to see that he had slept for 5 hours. did this mean that she had been working on this the whole time? he wondered. Almost shyly he spoke up "Gabby, you didn't have to do all this, its fine, I have a week or so until the next task, I'm sure I can work it out by then"

Gabrielle simply turned to him with a smile gracing her young lips "mais je ai trouvé, oh, sorry, err" she seemed to be stuck on how to say what she wanted in English "er, I iz found it" she said simply, looking to harry with a smile back on her face. Harry however was still confused "found what?" he said confusedly. "Ze clue" she replied in an excited tone.

Harry looked at her, and then back to the piece of parchment, before fixing his emerald eyes with the silver of Gabrielle's. "Are you serious" he said, shock evident in his tone. She nodded and replied with a sweet "Oui".

All the sleep seemed to drop from his body as if he had just shrugged off a heavily weighted rucksack; he was not focused on Gabrielle. "What is it" he asked excited. "You must breathe, in ze lake, for an hour" she said, and harry face seemed to drop "what" he said, stomped, the weight back on his back.

At his expression, Gabrielle smiled and said "I know ow". Again harry looked at her shocked, "how" he asked, dreading the answer. What on earth would he have to do to survive underwater for an hour he pondered to himself.

"Branchiflore" she replied, and harry looked lost. "Pardon" he said.

"I found it in here" she held up a large book which was entirely written in French "i iz not know the English... but I will find out" she finished. Harry just stared at her, lost at what to say to her, she had spent hours researching to help him find the answer to the problem which, considering the severity of the task would have proven extremely dangerous for him.

"You really didn't have to Gabby, I can't thank you enough" with that, he pulled her up and brought her into a tight embrace before he knew what he was doing, he let her go, and both of them flushed red at the moment.

True to her word, the next day, Gabrielle had come to harry with a piece of parchment, with a single word on it 'Gillyweed'. She had spoken to her school mates and had gotten the translation, now harry had what he needed to compete in the next task. All he had to do was find out about gillyweed and where to find it.

Harry was extremely grateful to Gabrielle for her help; he had figured that she was trying to repay him for his help with the Slytherins. 'I wonder if she has helped Fleur to figure it out' he thought to himself. He would know in a just over a week's time when the next task was scheduled.

Over the next week, Harry spent many of his spare hours in the company of Gabrielle in her room, true to his word he was looking out for her whenever he could. He found that in fact, he could work much more efficiently on his homework while he was around her, his mind seemed much more at ease, perhaps due to her veela abilities he had pondered.

Two days after the attack, Harry had received a letter from Dumbledore. He was in Gabrielle's room when there was a tapping at the window, he got up to check to see it was Hedwig, clutching a small envelope in her beak; It read

Dear Harry

Madame Maxime has written to Miss Delacours parents to notify them of the attacks which have taken place; they have responded and are very concerned, however are currently unable to visit due to commitments. They have assured me as soon as they get the chance; they will come here immediately to speak with their daughter.

Madame Maxime has granted Miss Delacour permission to stay within the quarters if it is what she wishes. If you need to speak with me, please do not hesitate.

p.s. the password to enter is lemon drop

Sincerely, Albus Dumbledore

With the second task only days away, harry had told Gabrielle that he would be spending the time with his friends. He had fallen asleep on the sofa two nights in a row now and had barely had a chance to see Ron or Hermione. He left Hedwig with Gabrielle, who seemed to have grown fond of his owl and told her to send him a message if she needed anything, before leaving to return to him own dorm.

When harry entered the dorm he was surprised to see the whole house present, all of the years, 1 through 7 were crammed into the area awaiting something. Harry sat down next to Ron and Hermione who cast strange looks at him. "What's going on" harry asked nonchalantly. "Where have you been, you've been gone for days harry, we were worried something was wrong. But McGonagall said that you were busy with something" Hermione whispered "yea, where the hell have you been" Ron added a little louder, gaining the attention of a few people, including Ginny.

Before he could answer the common room door opened and a formidable looking McGonagall walked in, her lips press tightly together to form a thin line. Harry was sure he knew what was coming "oh god, here we go" he muttered and Ron and Hermione shot him questioning looks.

McGonagall cleared her throat to talk, but before she had a chance, the sound of Fred's voice was heard "why are we all in here" followed by George "yea what's going on"

"Perhaps if you would let me speak, you would find out" she said sternly, giving the two boys a visual reprimand. The room seemed tense; the last time that a meeting like this had been called, the Chamber of secrets had been opened.

"it has come to my attention that a member or members of this house have attacked another student within the school, and to make it worse, the victim in question was a guest of the school" she said strictly.

A buzz of quiet discussion suddenly filled the room before McGonagall raised her voice again. "Now, we do not know who the culprits are, but we know that they are in this house, if you turn yourselves in, that will be the end of it, however, heed my warning, if she is attacked again, or if such an action happens again at all, then the whole of Gryffindor will face consequences.

At this, the room was filled with an outcry of protests, but was cut short when McGonagall raised her hand to gain silence

"if you would rather, we could have all of you take veritaserum in front on the whole school to find out the truth, which I'm sure would be a much less pleasurable experience for you" at this, everyone went stone faced and didn't say another word, until.

"A girl was attacked" Fred questioned

"And she was a guest" George followed

"Which means it was a Beauxbatons student" Fred finished

At this, McGonagall looked angrily at the two boys, before rushing to say "and no Mr Weasley, I will not tell you whom, it is confidential" the two boys seemed to deflate a little at that. With that said, she stood up and left the common room.

Once the Gryffindors began to file out in several directions, Hermione pulled Harry to the side "You know about this don't you, it's where you've been the last few days" Hermione said matter-off-factly. "Yea" Harry replied "I was there when Slytherins tried to attack her, and she told me about Gryffindors doing the same thing, so I've been keeping an eye on her"

"But what about the egg" Hermione asked worriedly "please tell me you've worked it out".

Harry looked at her and smiled "yea it's all sorted; she helped me with it while I was with her". Hermione looked a little suspicious but it was Ron that spoke up "she's probably told you the opposite to what you need mate, you can't trust them" he finished in a nervous voice.

"Its fine guys, we spent hours going through it all, it will be fine, I promise"

He got up and made his way towards his dormitory, when Ron spoke again "who is she, the girl... I mean which one" even Hermione looked interested, "I really shouldn't say" harry said, wondering if it was fair do disclose such information. "Oh go on mate, we won't tell, it's us" Ron said in a pleading voice. "Fine" harry said, it was Gabrielle. "Who" Ron said immediately. "Gabrielle Delacour, Fleurs little sister" harry explained. And with that he got up and made his way up to his bed.

Just as he was about to jump into bed, he saw Hedwig flying towards his window, he quickly opened the window and let her in, a small piece of parchment tied to her leg. Harry's stomach lurched; he knew it was from Gabrielle, had something happened? He took the parchment and opened it worriedly, however, his panic was soon gone and a broad smile had covered his face when he saw what was written.

"Goodnight Harry x"