If Harry was being honest, he was a little excited to meet with Fleur. It had been a while since he really interacted with someone outside of his few friends in Gryffindor. The fact that she was a part of the french delegation and could possibly be a champion for the tournament was just a bonus.

He had taken Hermione's advice and worn something nice. Some jeans and a shirt. Going about in Gryffindor robes all the time was something he got tired of rather quickly. He never really understood the wizarding world's obsession with them. Muggle clothing was just as good after all. Four years into this magical world and there were still plenty of things that just seemed odd to him.

When Fleur arrived, the first thing he noticed was the bouquet of various flowers she had in her hands.

The second thing he noticed was that she was handing them to him.

"For you." She said, transferring the bundle to him.

Harry wasn't sure how to respond. He'd never received flowers from anyone. Much less a gift from someone outside of holidays like Christmas. Perhaps it was a french thing? He didn't know much about french tradition so maybe it was just that.

Not wanting to be rude. Harry grabbed hold of the base of the bouquet. "Thank you." He said genuinely.

Just because he was perplexed by the gesture didn't mean he wasn't going to appreciate the gift. Even if he didn't really know what he'd do with them. Perhaps he'd transfigure a bigger vase, he already did that once for his Elpis flower. He could just add the rest to that surely.

"You're welcome." Fleur smiled. She then picked a singular petal off a rose and presented it to his face. "Now eat this."

Oh.

So it wasn't a french thing.

Just another weird wizarding thing.

Harry glared at the single offending red petal. It looked like any other rose petal. Small and had a slight leathery look to it. There were a few tiny specks of black on it. It was held up by Fleur's long fingers, with her immaculately well kept nails. Despite that, Harry had no idea what such a small thing could do to him. Magic was a mystery, flowers were a mystery. Girls? An even bigger mystery than the other two combined.

Perhaps if he glared at it a bit harder it would spontaneously combust. It was entirely possible, he could use magic. When there's a will, there's a way. It was something Dumbledore rambled on about often. How magic was all about intent and could sense such a thing. If that was true, then why wasn't it up in flames already? Fleur's fingers would be fine. He would take her to the hospital wing straight away.

Harry took a few more moments to attempt to set fire to the petal, before giving up. He instead made eye contact with the blue eyed girl.

"No."

Fleur raised a single slender eyebrow. "No?" She echoed.

Harry shook his head. "No." He denied.

Fleur mirrored his movement. "Non." She denied his denial, shaking the petal in front of him.

He wasn't being drugged was he? Dudley had gotten onto some of the more hardcore things the past summer, going off about tablets and acid to his friends when Dursley or Petunia weren't around. Apparently you were to put it into your mouth and let it dissolve.

Which was eerily similar to what was happening now.

Not that he'd believe Fleur would try to drug him, he just couldn't ignore the similarities. What would happen if he put the petal in his mouth? Would he start to hallucinate? See things from beyond this mortal realm? Maybe he would drop dead immediately and they'd hide the body. Was she a death eater? No, no. That wasn't possible. Death Eaters have absolutely zero subtlety and are usually quite stupid.

Harry could tell that Fleur, despite not knowing her long, was very far away from being stupid. It was in the way she carried herself. Self assured, not arrogant.

Which was why Harry decided to trust her. Somewhat.

"I think I just remembered that I had a very important essay due. I should get going." He lied to her, standing up as he spoke.

Just because he decided to trust her didn't mean he had to do what she said. If he didn't trust her, Harry would have just immediately bolted without saying a word. He might still be considered new to magical things but it wasn't as if he didn't have common sense.

Fleur just rolled her ocean blue eyes, before taking the petal and placing it in her own mouth. She took a flower out of the bouquet and flourished her wand, pointing directly towards it.

"Huh." She sounded surprised. "Three weeks, two days and only overwatered once. Near perfect in health."

The string of information that came out of the mouth of his french acquaintance left Harry nearly whirling in confusion as he sat back down. He had a guess as to exactly what it meant. But he was honestly more curious as to how.

"It's a simple spell anyone who is interested in flora should know." She answered his unspoken question.

Unlike before, Harry wasn't exactly surprised that she could infer what he was thinking. He imagined that he must have looked quite surprised.

"Right. How does it work? And knowing the age of plants seems useful. Though I don't really know for what." He admitted.

"Potion ingredients are likely the most useful thing you'll get out of it at the moment. But it has its fair share of uses in other places."

"Right." He said simply.

"As for the how…" She trailed off, adopting a thinking expression, before plucking off another petal. "Well why don't you simply try it?"

Harry pursed his lips, he wasn't too keen on putting random objects in his mouth, especially when he knew all about fertilizer and the various things there were in it. He wasn't sure how the wizarding world handled gardens but it couldn't have been too far off the mundane way.

"Don't you think it might not be the most sanitary thing to do? Where did you even get these anyways?" Harry said, trying to sneak his way out of it.

"A nice gryffindor boy at the Hogwarts garden gave them to me when I asked. I made sure all the flowers were nice and clean before coming here, so you don't need to worry about that."

A gryffindor boy? "Was his name Neville by any chance?"

Fleur frowned at him. "I'm not going to remember the name of every person I meet, Harry. Stop trying to change the subject."

Harry wasn't trying to change the subject, he was genuinely curious, but he wasn't going to correct her.

"All you need to do is put this…" She waved the petal, "...Into here." Fleur finished, using her free hand to point to her lips.

Pink, plump and pouty. The words popped into his mind out of nowhere. Somewhere in the back of his mind he noted that Hermione would be proud of his use of alliteration, but Harry wasn't quite sure why his mouth suddenly felt dry. It felt like before with the perfume, how half his mind was being pulled away from focusing on what was happening in front of him.

What was happening to him? He felt like he was overthinking things. Harry's gaze flickered away from her lips and to the petal once more, before being drawn back to her face. He didn't really notice before, but her eyelashes were quite long, and distracting.

Very distracting.

"Fine." Harry acquiesced, moving his focus back to the petal. He took it from her fingers, careful not to touch hers, and placed it in his mouth.

It tasted… like nothing. There was a tiny hint of an earthy taste. But overall it was a whole lot of nothing. The only thing to note was the dull leathery feel and the way it somewhat tickled his mouth when he moved it around with his tongue.

"Good." Fleur smiled. "Now point your wand at any flower, make sure it connects, and try to concentrate your magic into the flower."

Harry did as instructed, making sure the tip of his wand touched a random flower in the bouquet fully, and concentrated. The last bit of instruction was rather vague , but he was used to the tugging sensation for when used particularly draining spells. So he would just try and do… the opposite? He didn't really know but he figured it was as good as anything else.

So he closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to call upon that same feeling as when he used spells and magic, and reverse it.

He wasn't sure what would happen if the spell worked. Would the knowledge of the plant's life instantly pop into his head? Would he do some weird thing where he would relive all the plant's memories? Did plants even have memories to relive? He doubted it, but he also used to doubt that werewolves were real and that way of thinking nearly came back to bite him just last year. Literally.

After over nearly two or three minutes of waiting for something to happen. He gave up and opened his eyes. Fleur's blue ones were next to him, staring at him. Upon eye contact, she raised an eyebrow in questioning.

"Nothing." He admitted, taking the petal out of his mouth after he spoke. "I didn't feel anything."

"Having performance problems Mr. Potter?" She teased him.

Harry blinked at her words. He felt as if some part of his male pride was suddenly under inspection and he had some instinctual desire to defend himself. The reason why though, eluded him. Just like many other things this afternoon.

"No, I-It's my first time. Just give me a couple of more tries and I'll do well." He responded, cursing himself for stuttering.

"Oh so it is your first time. I'll make sure to go easy on you then." Fleur smirked. Visibly holding back laughter.

Harry wasn't sure what was so funny. But he couldn't help the sudden warming of his cheeks.

"Of course it's my first time. Just tell me what to do and I'll do my best to please you." He promised her.

He wouldn't want to let down his new… friend? Teacher? Mentor? He wasn't sure what they were, but he wasn't going to disappoint her.

Fleur let out a small giggle to his words. "I'm sure you will. And after that you'll have no more performance issues."

Harry nodded. That was exactly what would happen. But why was she wording things so oddly and laughing? Did she know something he didn't? Maybe he made a funny face while he was concentrating. That would be embarrassing.

Fleur waved her wand, casting a quick tempus spell. She was unable to hold back another bout of giggles as she did so.

"As nice as this was. It's getting late and I must submit my name to the Goblet of Fire before tomorrow." His new French friend told him.

Harry blinked, glancing outside for the first time in a while. He was surprised to see that the sun had nearly completely disappeared and only the faintest wisps of light remained. While not a large amount of time had actually gone past. It was more that it had gone by quite fast.

"I didn't realize it was already so late." He admitted.

Fleur smiled at him. "Get a nice vase for those flowers. Let's meet here again the day after the champion selection"

"Same time?"

Her long eyelashes dipped as she nodded.

Fleur was a nice person. Harry decided. Even if she was a little strange, laughed at things he didn't understand and arbitrarily made plans without his feedback. She was a nice person. A good person.

He honestly didn't fully understand why she was helping him out, they hadn't even discussed his Elpis flower the entire time, but he figured that learning this new little spell would be a good step in understanding more about it. Besides, it was nice to just spend time with a new friend.

If she wasn't a prime candidate for being champion. Then he didn't know who else could be.

"I think you'll get chosen." He told her his honest thoughts.

Fleur went still for a small moment, before huffing with pride. "Of course I will, Harry Potter. I'll win the entire thing. And you-" She got in close to him, pointing a finger at him. "Will have the luxury of watching me."

Harry chuckled. "I'll place a few galleons on your odds then."

"See that you will."

With that, Fleur stood up. The french 7th year student looked down at his still sitting form.

"I will see you in a few days, Harry. Maybe together we can fix that 'performance' problem of yours." She continued.

Fleur turned sharply enough that a few stands of her silvery blonde hair got in Harry's face. They were only there for a few moments before she walked away. A sweet and pleasant scent faintly wafted through the area.

The earthy aroma was there only for a second before it faded away, but it was enough for Harry to add one last thing to the list that was Fleur.

She had nice perfume.

Start: October 8th. 2022.

End: October 11th 2022.

Words: 2239

Tempus isn't a canon spell but let's use it anyways letssss gooooo I'm keeping up the writing streak next update will happen within this lifetime go play ffxiv haha i am very tired

-FN