Chapter 7

Fleur Delacour

Something seemed to snap within Winky once she became Ichigo's elf. She did everything with a new vigor, a new purpose. Ichigo honestly didn't know how he felt about it, but he supposed it was a good thing. She was always behind him, like a shadow, despite his pleadings to walk next to him instead. Ichigo was slowly beginning to gain back his strength and as such, his exercises were gaining more vigor as well. Talking walks throughout the grounds during the day was one of them.

Despite it being the middle of november, Ichigo found that it was quite warm outside, and made that his destination. Winky followed him as usual, the little pitter patter of her feet soothing the old shinigami. He wasn't used to being waited on like this, but her presence was reassuring in a way, dependable, if you would. Ichigo smiled when he stepped outside, a cool breeze ruffling both his hair and kimono. His sandals crunched the stiff grass underneath his feet as he moved towards a bench, sitting down on the smooth stone.

"Winky, please don't sit on the ground. There's plenty of room on the bench next to me." Ichigo pleaded.

"Do not worry about Winky, sir. Winky likes the ground, it is soft and I like the smell of the Earth. It is very soothing for Winky, yes it is. But… Winky is thankful that she has such a kind master, that she is."

Ichigo smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Well, I suppose as long as you don't mind… But if you change your mind, don't hesitate to say so." The elf nodded, which put the man's mind to rest. The warmth of the sun beat down on his back, and he smiled, content. He closed his eyes and rested against the back of the bench, nearly falling asleep.

"Excusez-moi, may I sit next to you?"

oooOOOoooOOOoooOOOooo

"Charlotte, who is that man over that?" Fleur asked her friends as they walked the grounds of the castle.

"Qui?" Fleur pointed at a man sitting on one of the benches, a house elf at his feet. "Oh, that man. He must be important if he has a house elf. I have not met him myself, but I've heard the students here talking about him. Apparently he is sick? Je ne sais pas, but they seem to be attached to him. It is très sweet, is it not?"

Fleur glanced from her friend back to the mysterious figure. "I'm going to speak with him." Charlotte shrugged and left Fleur to her own devices. Fleur sauntered towards the bench. The elf looked at her warily, but the man seemed to pay her no mind.

"Excusez-moi," she began, "may I sit here?" The man opened his eyes, and she was shocked by how much older he looked with them older. She was also shocked by how brown they were, but that was of little consequence.

"Of course, don't mind me," he said, and closed his eyes again.

Fleur did as she was told and sat down, but she couldn't quite ignore the man. "I like your hair very much."

He opened his eyes and glanced at her, and then looked up at his hair. He smiled and laughed softly. "Thank you. I almost forget it's such an outrageous color sometimes, but I'm glad you enjoy it."

"Is it natural?" She asked.

Without missing a beat he replied, "Is yours?"

Fleur found herself quite offended. "Of course."

"Well then, there's your answer." He closed his eyes again and settled back down. "You know, today is supposed to be the last nice day of the year, so let's enjoy it while we can."

Fleur smiled. "Yes. It is sad, no? I very much like the sun, and I shall be sad when it is gone."

"But we'll still have the moon, won't we? And the stars. When people lose a large part of their life, they forget about the other small gifts they still have."

Fleur looked at the man again, noticing once more how youthful he looked when she couldn't see his eyes. "You know, you are très wise for your age. It is refreshing to speak with a man who is unclouded by my attributes."

"You're part Veela, aren't you?" he asked.

"So you are affected by my aura?"

He opened his eyes and looked up at the sky, as if looking for words. "It is hard to explain. I can sense that there is something pulling me towards you, but it is muffled, as if locked behind a glass door. I'm a bit out of tune with my magic, which might be why it's like that. I'm sure that when I get it back fully that the door will unlock and I'll be pulled to you like every other man."

"Well then, perhaps that won't be such a bad thing." She replied. The man looked at her, and smiled, actually smiled. Fleur found herself wanting to see that smiled much more often.

"So, I assume that you're from the Beauxbatons? If your outfit is any indication."

She nodded. "I am the champion for my school, and I carry that responsibility with pride."

"You're the champion? Well, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Why is that? To participate in the triwizard tournament is an honor, a privilege."

The man stared at the ground. "It's nothing to concern yourself with. I'm just a grumpy man who's got old-fashioned views of the world, I suppose.

"I don't think you're grumpy, or old fashioned, despite your choice of dress."

He looked at his kimono and laughed. "Really? I quite like this kimono. Do you really think it looks bad?"

"Well… It is not the most flattering choice, but I do believe that anything would look nice on you." Fleur's face turned a very dark shade of scarlet when she realized what she had said.

The man raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? I'm sure I'll have to look into this later, but for now, why don't you tell me more about your school?"

"Well, as I'm sure you know, it is in France, and…" the two continued to talk like this for a while. Talking about the schools and swapping jokes and stories, they enjoyed each other's company. Fleur found herself very happy to have gone up and introduced herself. They continued to talk, even when the sun began to set. They were interrupted by the man's elf, who pulled on the sleeve of his kimono.

"Sir, it is time to return for dinner and your exercises."

He looked at the darkening sky and laughed. "Oh my, it's seems I've been silly and lost track of time. Thank you, Winky, we should be getting back." He made to stand up, but did not make it on the first attempt. Fleur watched with concern as his elf tried to help him, but he shooed her away playfully. "I'm fine. I've just been sitting down too long, is all." He tried again and sure enough, he was able to stand up just fine. He folded his hands in his sleeves and turned to look at Fleur. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss. I'm sure we're going to talk again soon." He bowed slightly and turned to walk away. Fleur watched the man's retreating form.

Hopefully, very soon.

Fleur met up with her friend Charlotte and went to dinner. She had forgotten to ask for the man's name, and planned on asking either Cedric or Harry for it. Afterall, Charlotte had said that the students all cared about him. Now, Fleur had a bit of an idea why, although she was sure there was a lot more to the young man than she saw. After taking a few bites of her dinner, she decided to go ask Cedric first, but found that he was too busy talking to another girl to talk to her. So, she decided to ask Harry, the only other Hogwart's student that she knew. She may not like the fact that he was a child in the tournament, but they were fellow champions, and she would treat him as such.

She was not too surprised to find the boy sitting by himself, with the exception of that Hermione girl that he supposedly had a crush on. Not that she could really say anything. Her eyes wandered back to Cedric, before she shook herself out of those thoughts. She approached the boy, ignoring the thoughts of the others at the table. Hushed whispers spread throughout the table, but she ignored those two. She took a seat next to the boy, surprising him and making Hermione wary, Fleur could see it in their eyes.

"F-fleur. What are you, what are you doing here?" Harry stuttered.

"I have a question to ask you. There is this man, and I do not know what his name is."

"Well, what does he look like?" he asked.

"He has orange hair and brown eyes."

"Oh, you mean Ichigo."

"Ichigo?" Fleur asked.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, he's not really a teacher, I guess. He's more like a guardian I guess."

"Why in the world would Hogwart's need a guardian?"

Harry looked away. "Well, the houses can get pretty nasty to each other, so he's here to kind of, well, keep the peace, so to say. But he's been sick for a while now, so things have gotten worse lately. He hasn't been in class for close to a month. Everyone misses him, ya know?" Fleur nodded, her mind filling with thoughts. It seemed like a guardian position seemed to fit the man - Ichigo - well. He was very kind, but also seemed like the kind of person to stand up for what was right. Although, it seemed to her that Ichigo was a bit feeble. After all, not just anyone gets sick for almost a month. He also had a house elf, so he wasn't used to doing things by himself. He depended on other people. Fleur thought for a moment about Ichigo depending on her, and found herself quite happy with the thought.

"Fleur?"

Fleur jumped and looked at the girl. "Oui?"

"Are you okay?" Harry asked.

"Oh yes, quite good. Where can I find him?"

"His chambers are in between the Slytherin and Gryffindor common rooms, but students were asked to give him some space so he can get better. So, we haven't seen him since he first got sick."

"I see, thank you Potter, Granger." Fleur gave him a hug and left in favor of her own table. Perhaps Potter wasn't as much of a child as she had thought.

With all of the fuss of the tournament, such as the wand weighing and the interviews with Rita Skeeter, she did not have a chance to go visit the man, nor did she see him around the school again. It wasn't until the weekend that she could go look for Ichigo. It didn't take long for her to whittle out the location of the common rooms from other students, and from there it just became trial and error. She searched until she finally came to the painting of the fat lady, who pointed her in the right direction.

And that was how Fleur came to a lone door, at the corner of the staircases. She raised her hand to knock, but began to have second thoughts. What if this wasn't even Ichigo's room? What if he didn't remember her? After all, they had only spoken for an hour or two almost 4 days ago. What if he was sleeping, or in the middle of something? Maybe she had made a mistake. She turned to leave, but she strengthened her resolve. She turned back around and knocked on the door before she had a chance to stop herself. To her relief, Winky answered the door. Fleur smiled as Winky opened up the door and invited her in.

Fleur instantly felt at home as she stepped into the room. The low light and comfortable furniture easing her worries, as well as the large bookshelves and fireplace. Her eyes were drawn to the figure resting on the large bed, who was reading a book with his legs crossed. He had yet to look at her, eyes focused solely on the pages. Winky moved to her sides and pulled on her dress. Fleur leaned down as Winky whispered in her ear. "Sir is finishing the chapter. Give him a minute, he's normally a fast reader." Fleur was surprised, but did not say anything, not wanting to disturb the man. She found herself a seat on the couch across from the fireplace and turned her head towards Ichigo. As a last minute thought, she quickly brushed her fingers through her hair and smoothed out her outfit.

True to Winky's word, it wasn't long before Ichigo sighed and he closed the book. He looked over at Fleur and his eyes widened. "Oh, Ms. Delacour, when did you get here?" Said girl instantly stood up, hastily flattening out her dress even though she had just done so. "Oh, not long," she replied.

Ichgio turned his book over so that he could see the cover of it, which was hidden to Fleur. "It is amazing to see how muggles view wizards, is it not? They craft such stories and ideas that would bewilder some, yet amaze others." He held up the book for Fleur to see, and she stepped forward to do just that.

"The Paper Magician, what is that?" she asked.

Ichigo invited her to set on the bed across from him, and his eyes lit up as he explained. "In this world, magicians are bound to only one element of their choice for their whole lives. The main character Ceony, wants to work with metal, but she is forced into paper magic because they are a dying kind. At first she detests the idea, until she meets her mentor, Thane, whom she ends up falling in love with, as well as paper magic as she learns to bring stories and her imaginations to life through it."

"Woah, it sounds… beautiful. Do you often read books? In your freetime, I mean."

Ichigo set the book on the nightstand next to him and thought for a moment before responding. "If I'm in the mood. Usually, I don't have as much free time as I've had lately, but I like to fill it in relaxing ways. We have so much time to stress and fret, so why not enjoy simple things while we have the chance?" Fleur watches as Ichigo picks up a small cup filled with a greenish brown liquid. The smell of it distracts her for a moment, before she returns her attention to the man in front of her. "But enough of my babbling, to what do I owe this pleasure, Ms. Delacour?"

Fleur's cheeks flushed yet again. Why had she come to visit?

"I wanted to… talk more about the tournament, since you seem to know a lot about it."

"That depends on what you want to talk about, about the tournament."

Fleur titled her head slightly. "What do you mean?"

"I am a man of many things, one of which is loyalty. You see, despite what it may seem, Harry Potter and I have a very strong friendship. I do not interfere with anything that involves him. He needs to do things on his own, with his own strength and ability. As such, I am extremely limited on what I can talk to you about regarding the tournament. Anything I say could tip the tournament in either favor."

"I understand… I think…"

Ichigo laughed again, heartily. "You don't have to. Go ahead and talk about what you want, I just may or may not have a response."

"Seems easy enough, I suppose… I know that the first task involves Dragons. Do you know what?" She began.

"Yes."

She waited for an answer. "Well… What?"

"Can't say." He said curtly, as if it was obvious.

Fleur huffed at the man's response. "Okay… Have you ever been in the triwizard tournament?"

Ichigo shook his head. "Nope, never."

"Why not?" Fleur asked out of curiosity.

"Because, it wasn't a thing where I went to school," he replied. He took another sip of his steaming drink.

"Where did you go to school?"

Ichigo sat his cup down on his nightstand. The man winked and brought his finger to his lips. "It's a secret."