Chapter 14- Atop his Cleansweep
Disclaimer: It's all J.K.'s.
Curran Davies watched as a group of Beauxbatons fourth years walked across the grounds from their greenhouses. He eyed each of the girls, but decided they were all too young. He had seen a few older girls he could ask to the Yule Ball, but they had all been asked. He decided that he wouldn't make any progress in finding a date if he stayed in the air during all his free time. He had been out flown by no less than three Beauxbatons students and one Durmstrang boy already and didn't know why he kept letting himself embarrass himself.
He landed on the roof of the Hogwarts Express and climbed into his compartment through the window. He re-checked his options in his head. There was Stella Kuo, but he wouldn't want her to think they were more than friends. He heard Lena Grogan still hadn't been asked, but he didn't want to go with such a stuck-up beautiful goddess; anyway, they had already gone out before and she dumped him. Dawn Parkinson was still single, but if he went with her, the consequences were the possible mugging from her personal bodyguard, Malcolm Baddock, and the Hogwarts Champion, Dennis Creevey. There was no way he would consider asking tiny Vidya Tummala.
The only Hogwarts girl who had been asked, to everyone's surprise, except for Creevey's, was Theresa Whitby. It had been the Durmstrang Champion who had asked her. She had said yes before anyone's jaw could drop. Curran didn't understand what made Brutus Maximus ask her. He could have asked any Beauxbaton girl and gone with a beautiful sight to behold, but he decided on a chubby Hufflepuff. It wasn't that Curran had anything against Theresa, quite the contrary, but he thought he would get a date before she did.
His brother had taken Fleur Delacour to the Yule Ball at Hogwarts five years ago. It didn't seem to fit that his brother could score such a date and he couldn't get anyone to go with him. He heard a loud explosion in the room across from his, and opened his door to see Theresa and her tiny younger brother yelling at one another. Smoke was floating out of Theresa's room. Curran stepped into the hall and closed his door. He walked to the dining car to hopefully get a snack.
In the Dining car, Grogan and Parkinson were laughing in what had become their corner ever since Harry Potter had appeared after the first task. Behind Curran, Baddock walked into the room. He headed beeline for Parkinson.
"Move it Muddy," Baddock said to Grogan. Grogan rolled her eyes and walked to the table. "So, Dawn, if you don't have a date for the Yule Ball, I was wondering if you'd…"
"I have a date, Malcolm," Parkinson said.
"Wonderful…" Baddock took a moment to realize she hadn't said yes. "What? Who?"
"Leo asked me last night," Parkinson said.
Baddock looked ready to kill. He would have been able to ask Grogan if he hadn't just called her Muddy. Curran finally noticed Creevey had walked into the room not long after Baddock. He had just saved himself from the embarrassment of getting shot down by Parkinson.
To his surprise, Creevey pulled Grogan into the hall, and Curran could just hear him ask her to the Ball. Curran rolled his eyes. Everyone would have a date by the time he got around to asking someone. He stood up and walked out of the train and onto the grounds. He found a tree by the lake and laid against it. It had been a rainy time, but there hadn't been any snow and it was warm enough to go out without a thick coat, though the French students wore their winter coats.
He watched a few girls come out of the Beauxbatons castle and sit by the lake. They were all shivering and had their cloaks wrapped tightly around them. Curran stood just as one of them screamed. Something grabbed a girl with silvery hair and pulled her under the water. Her friends began screaming, not knowing that something lived in the lake with tentacles. The girl resurfaced in the middle of the lake, face down and not moving. Curran pulled off his shoes and cloak and jumped in.
The water was so cold, it stung, but Curran wasn't thinking about that. He was only thinking about saving the girl who had been pulled into the lake. He reached her, flipped her onto her back and pulled her back to the closest shore.
Her friends were all yelling in rapid-fire French, which Curran couldn't understand so he ignored them. The girl wasn't breathing, so Curran quickly recalled from Muggle Studies that Muggles could give "rescue breathing" for a drowning victim called CPR. He tilted her head back, pinched her nose, and blew air into the mouth of the girl. After the second breath, the girl coughed up water and began breathing on her own accord.
Curran calmed down and took a good look at the girl. She couldn't be older than thirteen, but she was beautiful. She also looked very familiar; she looked just like Fleur Delacour. He realized that she must be Fleur's little sister.
"One of you, get a nurse," Curran said to the French girls. "Tell her to bring some blankets." One girl obeyed and ran to the castle. Fifteen minutes later, Curran and the girl were wrapped in blankets sitting in the infirmary as the nurse looked for a potion that would warm them up. The girl had finally gained consciousness.
"Zank you," she said timidly.
"It was my pleasure," Curran said. "What happened?"
"Zere iz a new octopus zat I forgot about," the girl said. "It pulled me in."
"Are you Fleur Delacour's little sister?" Curran asked. The girl nodded. "What's your name?"
"Gabrielle." She looked at him with her large eyes.
"My name's Curran," Curran said.
"It iz nize to meet you Curran," Gabrielle said. Her voice was sweet.
Curran suddenly had a crazy idea. He had nothing to lose, except respect, and if Beauxbatons did the Yule Ball the same way as Hogwarts had, she wouldn't be able to go without an older date. And he was only four years older, which truly wasn't that bad.
"Would you like to go to the Yule Ball with me?" Curran asked.
Gabrielle blushed. Curran didn't know why he asked. They hardly knew each other. She probably already had a date, and three guys waiting in line, hoping her date would wind up with a horrible disease so they could take her.
"I'd love to," she said.
She walked to the bed he was on and sat next to him. "Why were you at ze lake?" Gabrielle asked. "You are zo handzome, yet you were all alone."
"I guess that's exactly why I was," Curran said. "I was alone. I managed to lose track of my friends while I was practicing my flying earlier and didn't know where else I could go for some time to think." Curran looked at the beautiful girl. "I hope you don't think I'm too much of a loser."
"Not at all," she replied. "I would 'ave gone alone myzelf, but my friendz wanted to be with me becauze zey say I attract Durmztrang boyz."
"You could say that you attract octopus," Curran said. "And Hogwarts boys too."
"Well, if you are only a boy," Gabrielle said, "I do not know if I want you to take me to ze ball."
"Would you rather I be a man?" Curran asked.
"If you are a man, you are too old for me."
"How about a teenager?"
"Zat I can live with," Gabrielle said. She leaned toward Curran and kissed his cheek.