Disclaimer: J K Rowling owns everything, I own nothing

A/N: This chapter is from Fleur's POV, I know it may seem a little slow but before I can let them get it on I wanted to show how both of them have arrived at this point, a kind of where they are emotionally speaking, and also show Fleur not as the cold bitch she may seem in cannon ( remember that in the book we see everything through a 14 year old boy POV ), but as a confused young girl probably falling in love for the first time and not knowing how to act.

Chapter 2

The day of the second task had arrived and Fleur awaited for the task to start next to Madam Maxine and the other two contestants as Harry Potter hadn't yet arrived, but Fleur was lost in thought and wasn't paying attention to her headmistress last minute instructions nor to the yells and excited chatter of the student body that was starting to fill the stands to watch the competition.

She was worriedly thinking about the clue she had heard when she managed to open the egg. We will take that which you most cherish. She had been thinking about it non stop since she heard the haunting song and she didn't like the conclusion she had arrived at, and her worry had hit the roof this morning when she couldn't find her little sister anywhere. Gabrielle, she is the only thing that is making this year bearable.

When Madam Maxine had come to the Delacour chateau this summer to speak about the next school year she couldn't have guessed what the headmistress was going to tell them. She explained that the Triwizard Tournament was going to take place again after almost a hundred year break at the request of the British government, she also told them that the International Council had accepted the request interpreting it as the British wanting to mend some fences. Wizarding Britain had isolated itself from the rest of the wizarding word in the last century, while the other European wizarding countries assimilated the non magical technology and entered the 20th century, the British held themselves apart believing that they were superior to the muggles as they called non magic users, and it had reached the point that when Voldemort was at his peak in the seventies they refused any external help offered. As a result the rest of Europe had watched with trepidation the rise of power of the mad man while strengthening their defences in the event of an attempt on his part to extent his domination outside of Britain.

When Harry Potter had defeated him as an infant attempts had been made at re-stabilising relations between the nations, but things were at best precarious, so when Albus Dumbledore had, as the head of the British delegation, made the request for the TriWizard Tournament to be held at Hogwarts, it had been seen as positive step towards international cooperation and the request had been approved.

Madam Maxine told them that as a result the 7th year students would spend their last year in England and Fleur being one of the best students was encouraged to participate in the tournament, she also told them that knowing that Fleur being a veela couldn't be separated from immediate family by long distance until she herself was bonded, she had arranged for Fleur's little sister who wasn't yet eleven years old to accompany Fleur at Hogwarts and join the first years lessons while providing Fleur with a family link and allowing her to live in England the whole school year.

And so it was that Fleur found herself in this situation, she had submitted her name to the goblet and had been chosen as the Beuxbaton champion, so she had to participate in the tournament, prepare for the NEWTS and live without the comforts she was used to at her school, Really, candles instead of electricity, and no technology, how in the hell do muggle borns adapt to this life?I miss my i-pod and my computer, and for god sake, quills and parchment!!! Have this people not heard of ball point pens? It took me a week to learn how to take notes with a quill'.

But what she found the hardest was the stares she received every day, at Beuxbatons the first day of classes the students took a potion that helped dampen the effect her veela thrall had in others, the French school had a long tradition of veelas attending the institution, in fact her family had been Beuxbaton's alumni for a lot of generations, neither was she the only veela in attendance, so nobody bat an eyelash when before their first lesson they were asked to take the potion, but when Madame Maxine had suggested the potion to the Hogwarts headmaster the school nurse had refused to administer it saying she wasn't sure what effects it would have in the students who took it and Dumbledore had sided with her explaining that to use such a potion in underage students they would need the parents approval, what he hadn't said but was obvious was that some pureblood families (Malfoy anyone?) would never consent to their children taking a potion so some half-breed had an easier time, so Fleur had to live every day with the stares and the whispers. The reactions were split in two, either they stared at her drooling and with a glazed look in their eyes or with hate and disdain.

That was the curse of her blood, her mother had explained it to her when she hit puberty, she told her how from that moment and until she bonded with her mate she would get one out of two possible reactions from most people, those with an inclination towards women, whether be male or female would be drawn to her and those inclined towards men romantically, whether men or women also, would be hostile towards her feeling threatened by her, not everyone would be affected, for once only those close to her in age would feel it, and then were those who wouldn't be affected, they would be very few and those were the important ones in a veela's life, for those were the ones with whom she would want to mate. Contrary to popular belief, veelas didn't have a predestined mate, but they would find themselves searching for those who didn't fall under their thrall ( and if you think about it is only logical to want to be with someone who wants you for you and not because of an spell ), and once a veela fall for someone they fall hard, they would do their utmost to seduce their prospective mate and once they bonded that was it, for a veela mated for life.

So when her first night at Hogwarts she had wandered to another table to ask for their bouillabaisse and the brunette girl had locked eyes with her, alert eyes not clouded with lust or hostility but light with an inner fire and curiosity, she had been shocked and curious and had done something she normally didn't do, she had put more force behind her thrall to see the girl's reaction but the girl hadn't reacted one way or another, the same couldn't be said for the red head sitting next to her who had started drooling into his robes and whose ears seemed to have caught fire, and from that moment Fleur Delacour was hooked.

At first it had been pure curiosity, she wanted to make sure that what she had sensed was true, that the girl, Hermione, she later learned her name was, wasn't affected by her thrall, so she started trailing her and trying to catch her attention with her thrall turned on full, but the only thing she got was to make the redheaded boy drool and trip over his feet and Hermione to get annoyed, so she switched tactics.

She decided to watch her from afar to learn everything she could about her, and learn she did, and all the things she discovered about Hermione made her want more, to know more, to see more, to hear more and to touch, `Oh, God to touch her, to feel that soft skin, to run my fingers through those wild tresses', more ( or anything at all in this case).

But she also learned things she didn't like, how the redhead treated her, how her other friend took her for granted, how that make her angel ( yes, she had started thinking of Hermione as her angel, `How the mighty have fallen') feel so sad, and worst of all, she learned how the Durmstrang champion, that Bulgarian oaf, realised the same thing as her, the incredibly woman in the making that Hermione was, and had to see how he clumsily courted her ( stalked her, really ), how he asked her to the ball and how Hermione accepted.

And her angel had been glorious at the ball, letting everybody catch a glimpse of the beautiful woman she was becoming, during dinner sitting at the champion table she had become so nervous about sitting next to Hermione that she had made a fool of herself (and her date for the ball didn't help matters, that Davies boy was so far gone into her thrall it wasn't even funny ), and afterwards she had had to watch that only good for quidditch git dancing close to her angel, making her laugh and radiate happiness while she had to spend the whole dance evading the paws of her date ( until she hit him with a hex after he groped her ass one time too many ). After that she lost sight of her angel and didn't see her for the rest of the night, and she spent the rest of the ball sitting in a corner brooding and thinking about the git (the Bulgarian one) kissing Hermione and who knows what else and Hermione liking it. She later learned through student gossip that the git (the redhead one) had said some stupid things and made Hermione cry, so no romantic tryst with Krum, she didn't know whether to be grateful or pissed at the Weasley boy.

The rest of the holidays after the ball were spent in the same fashion, with Fleur observing (yes, observing, she didn't stalk, only stupid Drumstang champions stalked) Hermione and her boyughhfriend and she knew that something had to give, she had to get close to Hermione, become her friend that's an idea , and somehow convince her that Krum was no good news, that she would be much better off with a female veela, namely her, yeah, piece of cake,…..I'm so screwed!.

She was so deep in thought that she didn't see Harry Potter arriving in the last minute, didn't hear Ludo Bagman explaining the task or even noticed the other champions jumping into the freezing lake, only when her headmistress gave her a shove that almost dislocated her shoulder did she come back to the present.

" Ok, Fleur, no time to daydream, you can do that later, now get on with it!" se murmured to herself, and with that she too jumped into the water.

The second task had started.