Harry didn't know how it always ended up being him. It seemed like everything happened to him. First, he was placed in the hell hole that was the Dursley's house. He's told he's a wizard, a famous one at that, and his world is flipped upside down. He finds out about the philosophers stone, then almost dies by the hand of a possessed professor. He finds out his best friend's sister is in a secret chamber under the school, then almost dies by a tooth from the basilisk. He finds out that his godfather is innocent and that Ron's rat is the real culprit then almost gets his soul sucked out by over 100 dementors… not technically dying but close enough.

Now, he's almost bored to death by Hermione's rant about being late to the other schools arrival. He feels a bit of annoyance coming up but squashes it down ruthlessly. The Dursley's lesson about respecting others while they talk always pops up when he gets annoyed. So do the "reminders" they left on his back and chest.

Harry's childhood was, how do you say, hell on earth. From the age of five, he was in charge of cleaning the house and making the meals. A speck of dust on the counter, or a piece of toast burnt meant he'd receive a few "reminders". It started out innocently enough, he was given more work or given a spanking. The "reminders" became belt marks and cuts as soon as the first sign of his "freakishness" came to light. The "freakishness" in question was accidental magic; a completely normal stage of magical child development. Day in and day out, Harry was reminded how worthless he was, how he would end up exactly like his parents: deadbeat, drunk, and dead. The next six years and three summers became hell on earth for Harry.

"Honestly, Harry" Hermione sighed, breaking him out of those painful memories. "How do you expect to—"

Harry zoned her out as he looked at the new arrivals. Durmstrang came in a ship that reminded him of The Flying Dutchman of muggle fiction. The students all wore heavy, fur coats and wore dark red fabric. Their headmaster smiled up at the castle, even though his smile didn't reach his eyes, while patting the shoulder of one of his students. On closer look, Harry recognized the student as the star player at the Quidditch World Cup: Viktor Krum.

"Ron must be bloody stoked to see his crush here" He thought to himself

He moved on to the Beauxbaton delegation and saw that a giant woman was coming out the carriage doors. She greeted Dumbledore with an excited air and bade her students to come out.

One after another the students stepped onto the grass. At some point Harry noticed that all noises from the crowd seemed to stop. He didn't pay it any mind.

He looked from the winged horses, to the headmistress, to each student. His eyes only gazed for a second, then moved on to the next. Soon enough he locked eyes with the most gorgeous girl he'd ever seen. She was breathtakingly beautiful, and perfect in every way. From her light blue eyes, to the silvery-blonde hair that seemed to float gracefully, to her pale skin that seemed to glow. Harry felt a blush rise to his cheeks.

Suddenly, he saw her give him a short, sad smile. Confused as to why she would do this, Harry quickly realized that he had been caught staring and felt shame and embarrassment cloud his mind. He felt flashes of pain on his back, memories of the "reminders" his uncle gave him about staring at strangers.

He looked away.

Fleur felt a few things all at once. Shame for being caught staring. Excitement at finally finding someone who would not be enthralled by her. Indignation for him looking away. She finally found her match, and he decides to look away? Did he not know that he was what she had been looking for for years? He did not drool. He did not lose all sense of dignity when looking at her. He did not think it was his god given right to get into her pants. He was perfect. A cute little thing, with messy black hair and striking green eyes that seemed to glow…

She calms herself down. "It's not like he hates you, it was just an awkward situation, you'll have time to speak with him soon" She thinks to herself as she walks with her peers into the dining hall.

The hall is bleak compared to the one at Beauxbaton. Their wooden benches and stone floors are nothing compared to Beauxbaton's plush seats and domed glass ceiling. Although Beauxbaton was never the kindest place to her, she finds herself feeling a bit homesick.

She finds herself sitting at a table beneath a blue banner. She sits down with a regal air as she hears the headmaster begin speaking. She doesn't pay attention though, all her attention is placed upon the boy that has so quickly entered her heart. A few times she sees him lock eyes with her, and it never fails to send a shiver up her spine. She does notice the bushy haired girl sending her hateful glares and a redheaded boy gazing hungrily at her. She doesn't mind. She's used to it at this point.

She's broken out of her staring by the food that appears on the table. Most of it is hearty English food that looked generally unappealing to her. The closest thing she could find was bouillabaisse, which was rapidly being emptied by her schoolmates. Deciding she'd rather eat back at the kitchens in the carriage, she resumed her boy watching.

She saw him talking to another one of his schoolmates, not the bushy haired one and not the disgusting redhead he sat beside, but a brunette tomboy-is looking girl. She saw them laughing over something the brunette said and saw her place her hand on his shoulder. A wave of pure anger coursed through her veins at the sight. She noticed a pot full of bouillabaisse right in front of him and his friends. She knew what she had to do.

Fleur got up from her table, calmly walked over to the red bannered table and tapped Harry on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?" she asked, her heart beating furiously against her chest.

"Yeah, take it," said Harry, pushing the dish towards her.

"You 'ave finished wiz eet?"

"Yeah," said the glassy eyed, redhead cochon . "Yeah it was excellent!"

Fleur didn't pay him any mind. She thought about walking back to her table, but she decided to take a chance.

"May I zit with you?" She asked, a bit of a blush coming up into her cheeks. "Ze people I am around at my table are not very nice".

Harry just looked at her for a second which felt like an eternity for Fleur. After a beat, he smiled and gestured to the table.

"Go ahead, the more the merrier".

His smile was breathtaking. She didn't think she'd ever seen anything as stunning as his crooked grin. As soon as she was about to respond, thanking him, she heard the cochon rouge tell the bushy haired girl to "budge up".

She scowled at his mental weakness and sat down in between the brunette tomboy and the boy of her dreams.

"Zank you very much Mr…" She began, partly to thank him, partly to learn his name.

He answered a bit awkwardly "Potter, I'm… Harry Potter"

"It's a pleasure to meet you Monsieur Potter" She replied with a smile, her eyes only momentarily jumping up to his forehead to catch a glimpse of his scar.

"Please, just call me Harry," he responded.

She could not believe her luck. She had met THE Harry Potter, the savior of the wizarding world , the boy-who-lived. He was skinnier than she imagined, and a fair bit shorter, but she didn't mind,

She replied with a smile, "Very well 'Arry. I am Fleur Delacour".

" Welcome to Hogwarts Mademoiselle Delacour, it is a great pleasure to meet you " He replied in passable French.

He switched back to English due to the confused faces of his friends. "This is Katie Bell, a close friend of mine and a member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team". He pointed to Katie, who gave Fleur a bright smile and a friendly handshake.

"And these two are my best friends, Hermione Granger and … er… Ron" He finished lamely, seeing the dull eyes and drooling mouth of his redheaded friend and noticing the narrowed eyes Hermione was directing at the French witch.

Fleur ignored them and spoke directly to Harry, " Mon Dieu , you speak french ?".

Harry blushed and said "I learned a bit as a kid. I never had anyone to practice with and decided to try it out with you. Sorry if it sounded horrible". He gave a nervous little smile and looked at his plate.

She replied immediately "Non, it was quite good, and also quite cute, it just needs a leetle work to get the accent correct. I would not mind giving you pointers if you would like"

Harry's blush deepened as he replied "That would be brilliant!".

Soon enough, the two begin conversing in French while the others around them stared, confused. Eventually, Ron got enough of his wits about him in order to talk to Harry and Hermione about something. Fleur overhears him say something about Krum and his bed.

Katie turns to Fleur and asks her, "How are you enjoying the castle so far?"

Though a bit wary of her, Fleur responds "So far eet is beautiful, while I do miss Beauxbaton, this place does 'ave a certain charm about eet."

"It certainly does" Katie responds with a smile.

Fleur asks, a bit tentatively "How long have you and Harry been together?"

Katie looks at her for a second then barks out a laugh, "Me and Harry? Don't get me wrong he's a great bloke but he's like a brother to me. Why do you ask?" She smirks, "Is a certain French witch interested?".

Fleur blushes but avoids the question " I'm sorry. I just saw you two were very close and just assumed".

"Don't worry about it! He really is a good guy. Shame that most people can't see past the scar on his head and get to know the cheeky bugger beneath. Every year it's something different with him," Katie responds.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…" Katie begins. "First year, he became the youngest seeker in a century, has a great year, but then right before the term ends, he's in the hospital wing for a week and our defense professor goes missing. Dumbledore also gave him a large amount of house points and an award for special services to the school. The next year was the whole Chamber of Secrets incident (remind me to tell you more about that some other time) , the school learns he's a parselmouth and he's vilified by almost the whole school. We three, the twins" She points to a pair of redheaded twins who were currently turning a blonde haired boys robes pink "and Greengrass" She points to a pretty little blonde at the table of green "were pretty much the only ones there for him"

"He was ostracized by the school and the faculty decided to do nozzing about eet?" Fleur asks, infuriated.

"It was a bit heartbreaking really. It's been that way for a while. He's ostracized most of the year and then praised by those same people at the end of the year only after he does something that benefits them. That wanker the twins are pranking is usually at the center of it all. He's the worst of the lot".

She sighed. "Anyway, the school is about to be closed due to a student going missing. The next day, it's said that the student was found in the chamber by Harry, who had to kill a monster to rescue her. And then last year—"

Suddenly, Harry's voice interrupts Katie. "What are you telling her Katie-Kat?"

Katie turns to him and flashes him a smile "Oh, just talking about all your heroic exploits throughout the castle over our years here, Hares"

Harry gives a playful glare to Katie and turns to Fleur "Don't listen to anything she says"

Fleur says "So you were not the youngest seeker in a century?"

"I mean.. yeah but—"

"You did not save ze school and earn an award for services to ze school during your first year?"

"Yes…but I had help—"

"You did not risk your life to defeat a monster and save a student during your second year?"

"Yes but anyone would—"

"You weren't ostracized during your second year by most of ze school?"

He turned to Katie and gave her an incredulous look. "You told her that!?"

Katie shrugged and Fleur responded "Do not worry, mon ami, it does not make me think any less of you. In all honesty it only makes me like you more".

Harry's blush came back in full force and he responded without thinking "I guess I'll have to fill you in on more of my reckless adventures".

Fleur laughed, the sound of it turning heads from all directions. Her laugh reminded Harry of wind chimes on a sunny day. It reminded him of a warm, soft blanket on a cold winter night. If her laugh could be described in a word it would be Warmth.

Too soon for their liking, the feast was over. Standing up to leave, she made Harry promise to give her a tour of the castle. He happily agreed, hesitating only for a second after seeing Hermione's disapproving glare. As she left with her school, she saw the blonde boy (having changed his pink robes back into his own) strut up to Harry. For a split second, she saw Harry's anger come up to the surface. Soon though, it was replaced with a cold, dead look as he put up with the blonde ponce. She felt her own anger rise up. How dare he make her Harry upset.

Wait. Her Harry? When did she start calling him her Harry. The more she thought about it though, the more she realized it was true. She would have him. She needs him, and it looks like he needs her.

She fell asleep thinking of him

Next Day. The Selection

"The Champion for Beauxbaton is… Fleur Delacour!"

Harry and Katie clapped and cheered loudest for their newest friend, hugging her and seeing her off into the chamber behind the head table.

Today had been amazing. Sure, he had to put up with Hermione's rants against Fleur and Ron's jealousy over "bagging the veela'', but he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind as he remembered walking in between Fleur and Katie and showing her around the castle. They showed her around the entire castle, the main parts and also the lesser known areas including the room that Fluffy resided in, the sink where the Chamber of Secrets opened (though Harry didn't dare open it) and the secret passage behind the statue of the one-eyed witch.

Katie and Fleur had become fast friends. Joking around constantly and subjecting Harry to a few minor pranks. Harry got them back for their little jokes inside the passage to Honeydukes by putting on his invisibility cloak and hissing at them in parseltongue. He got hit with a few stinging hexes for that. Alas, the girls took pity on him and bought him a few treats from Honeydukes.

The only tense moment of the day had been when they bumped into Daphne Greengrass in the hallway shortly after arriving back from Honeydukes.

Harry felt someone pull his hair from behind. He turned around and saw Daphne smiling back at him. As soon as he was about to give her some snarky little comment he was interrupted by Fleur.

"Apologize. Now" Fleur commanded, brandishing her wand at Daphne.

Harry quickly stood in front of Daphne and turned to Fleur. "Fleur, it's okay this is a friend of mine!".

Fleur quietly apologized and lowered her wand. Daphne turned to Katie, "Hey Bell! Hope the Gryffindor Golden Boy hasn't been too much trouble". Katie laughed and said, "You know me, keeping him in line as much as possible".

She turned to Harry and gave him a smirk, "Nice to see you've made a new friend Potter, but remember to make room for me in your oh so full social life".

She pulled him into a hug and gave him a lingering kiss on the cheek, all the while sending Fleur a glare that clearly told her to back off.

The glare was gone as soon as she let Harry go, "Why don't you introduce me to this new friend of yours".

Harry, slightly taken aback by the kiss, quickly stammered out "Erm… Daphne, this is Fleur Delacour. Fleur, this is Daphne Greengrass".

Daphne offered her hand and Fleur, reluctantly, took it. The Ice Queens grip was cold and tight. She clearly wanted to intimidate her. Fleur thought it was a bit cute. She was trying so hard, yet this would be a battle she would not win.

"It ees a pleasure" Fleur responded nonchalantly

Harry looked between them, wondering what was going on. Why would they be so hostile to each other if they barely met. Thinking back on it only made him more confused. Fleur was being extremely protective, Daphne was more provocative. Could they— could it be that they were—

"HARRY POTTER"

Harry was yanked out of his thoughts by Dumbledore's voice. He quickly stood up and looked around. He saw Daphne and Katie's worried faces. Ron and Hermione were glaring daggers at him. That drove a dagger deep into his heart. Ron he could understand, he'd always had a jealous streak, but Hermione…

"Harry, go to the chamber please" Dumbledore's voice came as if from far away. He looked up at his Headmaster. He was holding a parchment, slightly burned at the edges, that had two words on it: Harry Potter.

Fuck.