A/N: WOW! One hundred followers! When I started writing this about a month ago, I had never expected a response like this. Thank you so much for your continued support. Really, it is thanks to you that I continue to write.
So here is chapter seven. A lot of effort went into this one and I consider it to the best one yet. Hopefully you think the same.
As usual a big thanks goes out to Peeves' Best Friend, who - yet again - performed miracles as my Beta.
Huge thanks also go out to xtonguetied, who supported me 'till deep in the night (even though she was sleepy) as I was wrestling with the last part.
If you have any feedback, questions or remarks, please don't hesitate to contact me!
FLEUR DE LA MER
CHAPTER SEVEN: The First Task
FLEUR (Beauxbatons Carriage, November 23, 07.30 a.m.)
At dawn - after barely four hours of sleep - Fleur woke up. She was surprised that she felt so well-rested, since she had been practicing until deep in the night, long after Hermione had gone back to the castle. Laying in between the sheets, she realized that today was the day she was going to be facing a dragon. A real, fire breathing, people trampling, goblin eating, dangerously deadly dragon.
She smiled.
Pushing herself up, she stared at her bedroom door for a few seconds before she got up. After today, the whole world would know that she didn't just get where she was because of her looks, or worse, her heritage. Let's see someone accuse her of using her thrall on the judges while she was busy dodging a dragon's fire.
Hopping in the shower, all her worries disappeared along with the streams of water. Intensely massaging her head, she thought about the day. Classes were going to end at noon, with the task starting at precisely two o'clock. That left her with a couple of hours more to prepare. She didn't even want to think about not being able to enchant that dragon to sleep, because that meant actually attacking the bloody beast. Or, hopefully, managing to distract it for more than three seconds to reach whatever she had to reach. No. She was going to stay positive, this whole mad plan was going to work. It had to. Or this was her last day being alive and well.
Fleur got out of the shower, and dried herself off with a rather fluffy white towel. She absolutely loved her fluffy towels. It had been one hell of a battle - one she had eventually lost - those first years at Beauxbatons, to make sure the house elves kept her towels all silky. Eventually - and after much complaining - she had just given up and found a spell to charm them back to fluffy when they inevitably always turned up rough. Now discovering that, had been one hell of a day. She still had to smile whenever she thought about it. That discovery had been a very satisfying one, she thought as she dried her hair.
All dry, she carefully put on her uniform, and decided against tying her hair in her standard knot, instead Fleur tied it up in ponytail. It felt a little more free. Staring at herself in the mirror, she noticed that while she was feeling rested, her face looked anything but that. She blinked, trying to remember some sort of beauty spell, but eventually couldn't remember and just gave up. Poking her face, she sighed.
Walking out of her bathroom, she ran head first into Inès, who for some reason was pacing around Fleur's living room, looking all stressed out. Rubbing her painful elbow - it had nicked Inès - Fleur frowned.
"Inès, what the hell?" She said annoyed "Don't you knock anymore?"
"What? You're dressed aren't you?" Inès said, not caring about Fleur's disapproving tone. "Besides, you said I was always welcome."
"Oui, naturellement, but does it have to be so damn early?" Fleur asked, ignoring Inès' hurt look and instead walking over to the small terrarium, in which she had installed her red lizard. Picking the lizard up, she put him on her shoulder and looked at Inès.
"It's dragon day! I'm here to calm you down." Inès said happily, eyes focused on the lizard. "Also, are we keeping that now?"
"Oui. Isn't he cute?" Fleur smiled. "And I am perfectly calm, as is Ozymandias here."
Inès raised a mocking eyebrow. "Ozymandias? What kind of name is that for a lizard?"
"Ah good one." said Fleur haughtily, caressing the lizard's head. "Never heard of it? 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings', it's from a Muggle poem I read once, it simply popped up in my head last night, and I decided it was perfect for this little man here, kingly as he is."
Actually, it had been Hermione's idea to name the lizard, and it had been Hermione who had softly quoted the poem last night, suggesting the name to Fleur. Who had instantly decided her fiery red lizard was a king of kings. She had quietly whispered Ozymandias out loud and she had instantly found it perfect.
Even more perfect had been the hug she had given to Hermione as a thanks, but that was an entirely different matter.
"Well, you don't have to worry. As promised, I brought the burn salve. I had to raid the infirmary though. If anyone asks, it wasn't me." Inès spoke amusedly - breaking and entering was her specialty - shaking the bag for Fleur to see.
"I'm not going to need the burn salve." Fleur said, annoyed at the idea alone. "I'm on my way to winning this thing, remember?" She pointed her wand at Ozymandias the lizard and slowly started enchanting him to sleep. After the lizard's breathing had slowed down, she looked up triumphantly into Inès' eyes.
"Well you are saying that now, wait until you try that on a real one. Much much bigger those are." Inès said indifferently. "Trust me, you'll be glad I broke some rules to get you that salve."
Fleur smiled at Inès, secretly glad her friend was here to keep her down to earth. She put her lizard back into his terrarium and frowned at a sudden realization. "Wait, didn't your class start ten minutes ago?"
Scratching her head, Inès looked kind of guilty. "Ehm. Oui?"
"Inès, for Merlin's sake! Maxime is already annoyed with your Quidditch stunt from yesterday!" Fleur shook her head disapprovingly, remembering how Inès had left her to go and play the game with some other classmates. Naturally, halfway through their practice, Maxime had showed up, and it wouldn't be Beauxbatons if not everyone in the carriage had known every single detail on the tantrum Madame Maxime had thrown within the hour.
Fleur quickly pushed her friend out of the door "Go to your class. I'm not going to be responsible for another one of your detentions." Truly, this was turning out to be some sort of habit.
She walked Inès all the way to class, ignored her when she wished Fleur good luck, and then decided to go and grab a late breakfast. Maybe after she could try and enchant last flying horse before she moved up to dragons. Just one.
Fleur whistled as she walked Hogwarts' hallways. Yes, dragons beware. It was a good day indeed.
Several hours, and an unexpected nap in an empty classroom later, she ran into Madame Maxime. She had just changed into the rather sporty uniform all the champions had gotten for the First Task. While trying to figure out if it was fireproof - which it wasn't - Fleur had already managed to burn a hole in the fabric.
After a dull conversation - Maxime was once again freaking out - headmistress and student made their way over to the dragons' enclosure. Fleur was barely listening to her Professor softly and rapidly giving tips. All she had to do was stay calm and everything would be fine. Dumbledore had been clear, there was no stress allowed while performing the spell. Nearing the compound, she could see the Hogwarts' headmaster talking to Ludo Bagman in front of a tent. After a hurried "bon chance" Maxime mysteriously disappeared beside her, and Fleur entered the tent alone under the investigating gaze from Dumbledore.
The entire school was in an uproar, with people barely able to contain their excitement as everyone slowly moved over to the compound. Looking from in between two tent flaps, Fleur watched as Hogwarts', Beauxbatons' and Durmstrangs' students all tried to find a good spot. Oblivious to what was going to happen, they were all clearly looking forward to their free and exiting afternoon.
Turning around, she observed the other champions. Diggory was pacing worriedly around the tent, Krum was sulkily ignoring everyone around him and Potter was - well - talking to the tent.
Although, on second thought, he was talking to someone on the other side of the tent wall, but he still looked positively ridiculous doing so.
Suddenly, Hermione appeared through an opening, throwing her arms around Harry's neck. In a high-pitched voice, she wished him good luck, and Fleur secretly found herself wishing someone was here to wish her good luck as well. For the first time she was feeling nervous and she could feel the blood withdrawing rapidly from her face. But while Hermione was still intensely hugging Harry, her warm eyes found Fleur and she gave her an assuring nod. Her mouth formed the words "You'll do great." before she disappeared again as Ludo Bagman loudly entered the tent.
"Hello everyone!" he boomed happily "Time to fill you in! So, basically, your task is to get a golden egg and to do that, you need to pass - err - something. Something that you will find out in a minute!" He swiftly put his right hand in his robes and pulled out a silk purple sack and shook it in front of the champions' eyes.
Did Fleur just imagine a muffled screech coming from inside that sack? She frowned. That could not be good.
"Anyways, I'm going to be offering each of you this little bag here, from which each of you will take a small model of what you are going to be facing! Are you all ready?" His face was lit up in excitement as his eyes scanned the tent, and, taking the silence as an answer, he held out the sack to Fleur.
"Ladies first" He smiled happily.
Fleur swallowed her fears, and put her right hand into the sack, grabbing the first thing she touched, she withdrew her hand and showed the group what she was holding. It was a perfect model of a dragon. A smooth scaled, green dragon with smoke coming out of its tiny nostrils. It was about the size of Ozymandias.
"Ah." Bagman grinned. "The Common Welsh Green, of course the real one that you will be facing outside, will be a little bigger."
Fleur had been right about Krum knowing about the dragons, because he didn't blink once as he pulled out the scarlet Chinese Fireball. Instead he stared stoically at the dragon and took a step back.
Diggory was as pale as a sheet when he pulled out the Swedish Short-Snout, realizing that he was going first. He visibly swallowed as Bagman moved the sack to the last champion.
Harry Potter sighed deeply - the first of the champions to make a noise - as he pulled out a rather vicious looking black dragon. Merlin. Was she happy she didn't have that one. Potter looked up from the dragon in his hands, and his eyes found hers. She tried to smile, but for some reason, her face didn't want to do that. Instead it just sort of twitched and Harry Potter broke away the stare.
"Now that all of you have picked a dragon, we are ready to start." Bagman said, for the first time sounding a bit serious. "Mister Diggory, you're up first. Second is miss Delacour, next mister Krum and last is Harry. When you hear a whistle, you come out and don't forget about the golden egg. Good luck everyone!"
Excitedly he bounced out of the tent, turned around last minute and gestured for Harry Potter to come forward. Whispering ferociously to the boy, Fleur frowned at Bagman. Then she took a deep breath. She desperately needed to bring her heartbeat down.
When the whistle went, Bagman jumped up and ran out of the tent, only moments before a rather green looking Cedric Diggory made his way to his dragon.
The sudden cheering of the crowd indicated that he had met the wild beast. Was this the last time she had seen the Hufflepuff champion?
Waiting for her turn was the worst thing Fleur ever had to do. All she could think about was how in a couple of minutes, she was going to be standing eye to eye with a creature so powerful, strong and enormous that it could probably eat her in one big swallow. She shut out all the noise - the cheering, Bagman's commenting, the dragon's roars - and instead started pacing as Diggory had done. So much for staying calm.
When the whistle came, fifteen minutes later, she was trembling from top to bottom. Clutching her wand in her right hand, she held her head high and left the tent. She walked past the trees and through an opening in the enclosure.
Fleur swallowed, for a second there, she was blinded by the sunlight. But then she saw hundreds and hundreds of unknown faces staring down at her. Their mouths were all open, indicating that they were yelling, cheering, calling out her name. But she didn't hear a thing. All she could hear was a heavy breathing. Heaving breathing and her heart pounding in her ears. Focus, Fleur thought, focus. Slowly, but surely, her hearing returned.
She blinked and her attention switched from the crowd to the gigantic Common Green Welsh at the far end of the enclosure. The dragon stretched its long neck, gazing at the newcomer and showed its dangerously long fangs. Slowly, the dragon planted its left front leg on a large boulder to its left, spreading its wings in an impressive and threatening display of strength. Then, with an almighty roar, the Common Welsh sent a stream of fire into the air.
Fleur swallowed, suddenly, she realized her problem.
The noise.
There was too much bloody noise.
People were cheering and crying and yelling and the dragon could hear everything. How on earth was she supposed to enchant it to sleep? She needed silence. Dead silence. The massive hole in her plan was suddenly so clear. She did not know how she hadn't seen this before. She cursed loudly in French, and as a reaction the dragon aggressively flapped its wings.
The Common Green Welsh kept her eyes on Fleur, and Fleur could just see the dragon calculating what she might do next. Well, luckily for the dragon - and quite awfully for her - she didn't know yet.
As the Welsh sent a first jet of fire in her direction, she ducked behind a rock, the flare missing her by a hair.
Calm down, Fleur thought, for Merlin's sake, calm down. She took a deep breath and raised her wand. First things first, thought Fleur. She needed silence.
"Repello Sonitus" She yelled, waving her wand. Almost instantly, a cone of silence formed around the compound, cancelling out all the sound from the outside. Now, all she could hear was her own breath, and the dragon striding around, protecting its eggs. She took a peak from behind her rock, and could see the nest of eggs, with a golden one in the middle, clearly from her hiding spot. The dragon - fiercely protecting them - was blocking her path.
The green dragon took a deep breath, and instantly knowing what would come next, Fleur ran, ducking behind a new boulder. Right on time, a powerful stream of fire melted the rock she had been behind mere seconds before.
Gasping for breath, she fell to her knees and closed her eyes. It was now or never. In and out, she just needed to breathe in and out. Finally ready - it felt like centuries had passed since she had entered the enclosure - she stepped from behind her rock and aimed her wand at the Common Green Welsh.
She blinked. Unnerved, she started the wand sequence, eyes focused on the mighty beast in front of her. She had to stare it down, or it wouldn't work.
"Hypnotis Somnus." Fleur said solemnly, monotone and relaxed.
She kept waving her wand, she kept saying the spell. Her mind was clear, her eyes fixed. She would not falter, she would not fail.
"Hypnotis Somnus."
Come on, she thought, fall asleep. Wasn't that dragon tired yet?
"Hypnotis Somnus."
It had never taken this long before. She started the sequence again. And again. And again. Over and over. She would not stop until the dragon fell asleep.
"Hypnotis Somnus."
Fleur willed to beast to tire. All that gigantic lizard wanted to do was sleep. Her eyes never left the dragon. She could not give up now. One mistake and it would attack.
"Hypnotis Somnus."
Finally, the dragon started to move in sequence with the spell. No longer puffing fire, it sort of got into a trance, its eyes locked with Fleur's.
"Hypnotis Somnus."
She said solemnly again. She smiled inside when she saw the eyes of the dragon slowly close. Come on, just one more. She felt exhausted, the magic was draining her. She had no idea how much longer her Cone of Silence was going to last. It could fail any second and unless her spell was complete, all the dominos would drop. The sound would return, the dragon would shake off the trance, and then she would - in all likelihood - die.
"Hypnotis Somnus."
Abruptly the dragon sunk to the ground. Its eyes firmly closed. It was asleep.
Relieved, Fleur grinned. It had worked! Still holding her wand, she started running towards the nest. No longer paying attention to the dragon, she jumped over one of its legs.
Later, when she thought back on the moment, she realized that that was where she had - essentially - failed. She should have kept her eyes on the Common Green Welsh, because if she had done so, she would have seen the flare of fire coming her way.
Apparently, sleeping dragons snore. And from that moment on, she would never ever forget that snoring dragons send out flares of fire.
The flare caught her, and before she knew it, she was aflame. Instinctively, she cast Aguamenti on her clothes. Sprinting, she reached for the egg, her clothes - despite their wetness - still smoldering. Dragon's fire was quite effective. She caught the egg and ran out of the Common Green Welsh's reach as fast as she could.
Casting a Finite on her Cone of Silence, she let the crowd's roaring flow over her. She held her egg high, and felt immensely proud as she finally got the recognition she had so desperately craved for the past years. For all she knew, she had failed miserably, but in her eyes, she had won.
RON (Dragon's Enclosure, November 23, 02.47 pm.)
Ron Weasley shuffled around in his spot, so far, the first task had been everything he had hoped for. Diggory's face almost got burnt off while trying to distract his dragon, Fleur Delacour had for some reason still been beautiful while on fire and Krum - as expected - had been amazing. At least Krum had been on the offensive. Transfigured stones and sleeping dragons were cool and all that, but Krum had actually attacked his dragon. Shame that half the eggs got trampled though, the look on his brother Charlie's face had been one of utter sadness.
Nonetheless, if it were up to him, he had found his winner already.
Next to him, Hermione was almost literally pulling her hair out. He knew why. It was Harry's turn. He knew they had been practicing something for the past couple of days.
Hermione pulling her hair out was something new though, but she probably had no nails left after Fleur Delacour had faced her dragon. Girls. She had been muttering several unrecognizable things while the French witch had tried to enchant that green dragon of hers. He had to admit, it was some bloody advanced magic the girl had pulled off. From all the stories he had picked up over the years by listening to Charlie, it was probably the smartest tactic.
It made him wonder what Harry was going to do. The whistle went, and unknowingly he leant forward, His eyes fixed on the small figure that was Harry Potter currently entering the arena.
Of all the dragons Harry could have gotten, he picked the scariest one. Dangerously black, a deadly spiked tail that could knock a hole in the ground without even trying and those fiery evil yellow eyes. Yeah, he did not want to be down there right now. Harry could be champion all he wanted, Ron was damn sure that he himself was never ever willingly going to be facing that monster.
"Oh God." He heard Hermione gasp beside him. "He's going to die."
"He'll be fine." Ron said, more to himself than to Hermione, but he wasn't too sure about it.
Harry Potter, his former best friend of four years, raised his wand and shouted very clearly "Accio Firebolt". Then the boy waited.
Ron frowned, what was he doing? He couldn't just keep standing there, the Horntail would attack and Harry would be done for.
But standing there was exactly what Harry was doing. The dragon gazed at him lazily, and lucky for him, she had decided that Harry was not a threat. Ron wondered if the Basilisk had thought the same, two years ago.
Then, Harry's Firebolt appeared out of nowhere. He heard Hermione sigh in relief and realized that this had been the plan all along. Wait, how could they have a plan? Did Charlie tell Harry like he told him? That didn't seem like his brother.
Harry grabbed the Firebolt out of the air, jumped on it, and pushed himself off. Mere seconds later, he was only a dot in the sky. Was he trying to run or something? But next thing Harry dived down almost vertically, Ron's eyes shot to the Horntail, who took a deep breath and spat out a jet of fire so hot it seemed like it could melt mountains. Holding his breath, he watched how Harry dodged the flare at the last second, which caused the Horntail to let out an infuriated roar. Served it right for trying to fry his best mate.
At this point, Harry teasingly flew circles around the Horntail's head, who was following him with furious eyes. Again, it opened its mouth and another flare of fire shot in Harry's direction, and once again Harry dodged. But then Hermione screamed beside him in shock, the Horntail's tail had grazed the dark-haired boy's shoulder and for a second there, Harry staggered. But then he soldiered on and flew faster and higher than ever.
The Horntail, frustrated out of its mind, stretched its neck and still wasn't able to reach the annoying, flying boy. Suddenly, Ron watched as it stretched out its wings, and it stood up on its back legs, all ready to fly, flapping the great, dark, leathery wings which were blocking the view of half the crowd, but then Harry plummeted to the ground, and before anyone knew what was going on, he grabbed the egg and sprinted away on his broom as fast as he could.
The dragon keepers - including his brother - ran forward and fired Stunning Spells at the dragon in unison, who slowly blinked its eyes and fell to the ground, missing the nest of eggs by a hair. Which, Ron guessed, was a good thing, since they already lost some rather precious dragons eggs. Yeah okay, Krum had been amazing but Harry had been brilliant.
Ron jumped to his feet, followed closely by an almost white Hermione, and started making his way down to the entrance of the enclosure. For some reason, he couldn't stop grinning and the crowd was going crazy around him.
The same crowd which was now blocking his path. Ron cursed and tried to push the people aside, but the large Durmstrang students glaring at him made Ron change his mind, and instead he turned around and followed Hermione who was crawling underneath elbows and arms to reach the first aid tent where all the champions were being patched up.
Spotting the large white tent, he saw Hermione darting in and ran in after her.
"Harry! You were amazing!" He heard her say squeakily. "You were brilliant, you really were!"
Ron swallowed, he hadn't actually thought beyond the point that he simply needed to see Harry. Now that he was actually staring at his friend, he didn't really know what to say.
"Yeah mate." He spoke seriously, meaning every word. "You really were." Ron stared uncomfortably at his toes. "The bloody madman who put your name in the Goblet is trying to kill you." He muttered out the words, realizing what a complete git he had been in the past weeks.
Harry stared at him and stayed silent for such a long time that Ron thought he'd ruined everything. He opened up his mouth, ready to apologize.
But then Harry spoke. "Forget it." He smiled at Ron. "It's okay, forget it."
Ron started grinning, relieved, and Harry grinned back. It felt like the last couple of weeks hadn't happened at all, and they had always been friends. As it should have been.
Then, Hermione ruined the moment, "You idiots!" She shouted loudly and angry tears formed in her eyes. Just when Ron was going to say something, she gave him a tight hug and he could smell her hair for a second before she let go again and did the same to Harry. Next thing he knew, Hermione had disappeared.
"Bloody mad." He shook his head in disbelief, secretly glad. "Come on mate, they're about to hand out your scores."
HERMIONE (Black Lake Shore, 9.23 p.m.)
It had been a crazy day. Completely, totally and utterly crazy. She was feeling so many things at once, it was exhausting.
First of all, Harry was alive. She did not see that one coming. Honestly, she had been scared out of her mind the entire time he was in that enclosure. The time that it had taken for the Firebolt to show up had seemed like an eternity. By then, she had already had four heart attacks and a stroke. Okay, maybe she hadn't, but she had been freaking out. When that dragon had hit Harry's shoulder, she'd almost lost her voice thanks to all the screaming.
Secondly, Ron and Harry had finally made up. Finally. After a whole month of intensely avoiding every situation in which those two might be together, everything was back to normal. They were infuriating, her friends, infuriating, childish, stupidly ignorant and such boys and she couldn't help but love them to death. So obviously she started crying when they finally forgave each other and naturally she had fled the scene as fast as she could. There was no way in hell she was letting the two boys see her cry.
Thirdly, at the highly awaited Gryffindor Common Room Party, she had finally gotten her hands on the entrance to the kitchen. Fred and George - in their euphoria over Harry's first task - had slipped up. Finally she was able to free the house elves. A cause that had been pushed to the background a little over Harry's latest drama, but now that the second task was months away, she could finally spend a little more time on S.P.E.W. Which excited her greatly. Even Fleur, who had figured out where the kitchens were after a mere week, had - teasingly - refused to tell her where she could find the entrance.
Which brought her to the greatest feeling of them all, the one that overshadowed all the other feelings. Fleur.
Merlin be damned, for once, Ginny had been right. Ginny bloody Weasley had been right.
When she had seen Fleur enter the compound, her heart had stopped and her breathing had hitched.
When the first flare of fire had missed Fleur by a hair, she had chewed off all her nails. Something she never did as she found it an horrendous habit.
And when Fleur had been - even if it had been for only a second - on fire, she'd had to muffle a scream and she'd thought she was going to pass out. Only to be flooded with the most intense relief she had ever felt when Fleur had raised her golden egg over her head.
She liked Fleur. She, Hermione Granger, liked Fleur.
Fleeing the common room and her dormitory - Parvati and Lavender had these wild plans of discussing Krum for the entire night - she had borrowed Harry's Invisibility Cloak for the second time in two days to escape the castle while curfew was in act.
Walking the same route she had done last night, she sighed. She didn't actually know what she was doing. According to Ginny, Fleur had been flirting with her. Did that mean she felt the same way? Did that mean that she stood a chance? Oh dear. She had no idea how this all worked.
Wait. Fleur was a girl. Hermione frowned. Did this mean she liked girls? She gasped in exasperation. This made no sense. Wouldn't she have known this before? Wouldn't there have been signs or something? Why did she miss something this important about herself? Well, in her own defense, she had never been in love before.
She snorted. She had gone from 'liking Fleur' to 'in love with Fleur' in less than a minute. This seriously made no sense to her.
Books, books were easy. Books could tell you everything. Books helped her so many times. They would help her now! There had to be a book somewhere on all of this in the library. But, would there be? She didn't actually know what the whole wizarding world thought on this girl-likes-girl thing.
Muttering something about the unlikelihood of finding a book like that, she bumped into someone, and fell over. She scrambled to keep herself covered up with the cloak, Hermione Granger didn't generally get caught sneaking out of the castle past curfew. She inwardly cursed her own stupidity for not paying attention Holding her breath, she heard the other person say:
"Ello? Is someone 'zere?"
Oh for crying out loud. Did she, of all people, just run into Fleur?
"'Ermione, is 'zat you?" She heard Fleur ask hesitantly.
In a split second she decided against pretending she wasn't there - she was a Gryffindor after all - and stood up, letting the Invisibility Cloak slip off of her body.
"Hey." She said softly and slightly embarrassed.
"Bonsoir." Fleur smiled lightly at Hermione. "We need to stop running into each o'zer like 'zis."
She was no longer wearing the champion's uniform, but was wandering around in Muggle jeans and sneakers, and for the first time ever, Hermione saw her with her hair down. She is stunningly beautiful, Hermione thought, how did I not see this before?
But she had, she remembered. And instead her eyes dwelled to the burn on Fleur's hand. Instantly she remembered that Fleur had faced a dragon during the afternoon.
Her memory flooded of a Fleur on fire casting water at herself.
"You could have died!" Hermione suddenly blurted out. More than before, she realized how lucky Fleur had been.
"But I didn't." Fleur grinned and her eyes twinkled at Hermione. "Instead, if I say so myself, I was quite amazing."
"You could have died!" Hermione repeated. "You could have died and I didn't even.." Stopping mid-sentence, she stopped. What was she about to say? I didn't even get to tell you that I like you? Yeah, that was not going to happen.
"You didn't?" Fleur asked confusedly. "You didn't what?"
"I didn't even wish you good luck." lied Hermione.
"Oh." Fleur frowned. "Zat is okay. I forgot some'zing too."
"You did?" Hermione asked surprised. "What did you forget?"
Fleur smiled lightly, her eyes showing only the slightest sign of nervousness, before she took a deep breath, took a step forward and hugged Hermione.
She's smelling like apples again, Hermione thought, but then Fleur kissed her and her mind went blank.