Author: enchanted nightingale

BetaReader: pussycatadamah

Timeline: Book 4, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Pairs: Harry/Lucius

Disclaimer: The characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I merely use them in my plot for fun.

Chapter 20

Hogsmeade was busy. Bill had waited for Harry to leave the castle and the two friends walked towards the village together.

"You know, I never even considered asking a Veela out," Bill told Harry. "Nasty tempers."

"Really? You are a red head Bill; you know the rumours about your explosive tempers. And you, the big, bad Curse Breaker are afraid of women?"

"Self preservation Harry."

"Hm, I've heard of this self preservation thing. Never got any of that," Harry replied, making Bill chuckle and pull him to his side to ruffle his hair until the green eyed wizard managed to shake him off and push him back.

Reaching Hogsmeade they slowed down.

"Where are we meeting?" Bill asked.

"There's that inn, right by Zonko's," Harry said.

"That one, it's 'Belladonna'sDelight', right?"

"That one. They are more private compared to that frilly pink place, Madam Rosmerta's pub or that other pub, 'Hog'sHead' down at the end of the village."

"Good choice," Bill admitted. "What are you going to do?"

"Stay with you all for half an hour," Harry said. "After that I will meet up with Neville at the 'ThreeBroomsticks' before returning to the castle. You can leave via Floo from the Inn. Fleur is going to walk back."

"You have a nice plan," Bill told him.

Harry shrugged.

They reached the inn and were shown to a room that had a sitting area with snacks and tea and other drinks prepared. Fleur was already there, along with her sister Gabrielle. Harry remembered the little witch. Fleur had been forced during the Second Task to leave her in the lake and the Merpeople had brought the little girl up after the Champions left the lake.

"'Harry," the elder witch of the two greeted him warmly with a hug and then she turned to Bill and her gaze lingered.

Harry, in the privacy of the room felt free to speak.

"Fleur, meet Bill, the dashing Curse Breaker. Notice the hair, the earring, the height. Really, best catch there is!" he said pointing at his best male friend these days.

Bill groaned. "Will you stop? You make it sound like I'm on sale! I'm Bill Weasley. The wizard who thinks he's funny is Harry Potter."

Fleur and Gabrielle giggled.

"Fleur Delacour and my younger sister, Gabrielle. She knows who you are to me and won't talk of this."

Harry nodded. "Well, how about we sit down?"

They all complied.

At first the conversation was light, including the three oldest people in the room, mostly because Gabrielle was not as fluent as her older sibling in English and while she understood she could not converse properly. They spoke of general things, like careers, favourite subjects, music bands. Bill knew about the Muggle World and a lot of things and so did Fleur. Soon, Harry found himself engaging Gabrielle into conversation while the other two spoke in low voices and Harry tried not to listen in. after half an hour passed Harry stood to leave and suggested taking Gabrielle along to give her a tour of the small village and perhaps introduce her to Neville. The green eyed wizard knew that Bill and the part Veela Champion would like some privacy. So he left, allowing Bill to pick up the tab since he wanted to.

Harry and Gabrielle walked all over the village of Hogsmeade. The younger witch seemed rather interested in 'Zonko's' and 'Honeydukes' and actually shopped there. When they arrived at the 'ThreeBroomsticks' Neville was waiting patiently for them.

"Hello, Nev," Harry greeted the Gryffindor.

The shy teen eyed Gabrielle.

"Gabrielle Delacour, Neville Longbottom," Harry introduced the two.

"I remember you from the Second Task," Neville told the witch who muttered a soft hello and took a seat.

"We met and decided to hang out" Harry said, mostly for the benefit of anyone trying to listen in on their conversation.

"Harry!"

The three turned. Hermione and Viktor Krum were approaching, along with a few other Durmstrang students.

"Hey," the Boy-Who-Lived greeted the group.

Somehow introductions were made and a much larger party sat down for a couple of Butterbeers (hot chocolate for Gabrielle) and the mismatched group garnered a lot of subtle and some not so subtle looks from other patrons. Harry quizzed the Durmstrang wizards about various things, Quidditch being the first and going on from there. Hermione, knowing French better than them engaged Gabrielle in conversation, much to the witch's delight.

Returning to the castle that afternoon Harry and the other two Gryffindor's escorted Gabrielle to the carriage and parted with the boys from Durmstrang. Hermione had a lot of questions for Neville and her raven haired friend.

"And you just started a conversation with the French witch?" she asked.

"I'm much more sociable this year," Harry replied.

"True," Hermione admitted.

"There's no harm done making friends," Neville commented. "Vladimir was a nice guy and we hit it off. His family owns the Usakoff Botanical Shops in Russia and he agreed to be my pen pal. He certainly makes interesting conversations."

"How about you 'Mione," Harry asked. "Are you and Krum bettering relations between the countries?"

"Harry Potter! Don't get cheeky with me!"

Harry smiled at the witch. "You have not answered Hermione."

The bookworm of Gryffindor glared, but it was half hearted. "Prat," she muttered before smiling a bit. "Viktor is a gentleman. And he is smart!"

"Does he kiss you any or just wax lyrically?" Harry asked and this time he earned himself a Stinginghex from the witch.

"How about you Neville," Hermione ignored the green eyed wizard in favour of the shy teen. "I heard that you are quite popular in Ravenclaw."

"You mean Luna," the Longbottom heir said.

"Luna?" Harry asked.

"Lovegood," Neville nodded. "She's a year below us, a Claw too. Her dad owns a newspaper…"

Hermione snorted at the term newspaper but Neville ignored her and ploughed on.

"She's really nice," Neville said.

"Blond, petite, smart, odd in a good way and she asked him out," Hermione added. "It happened in 'Honeydukes'. Viktor and I were there, that's how we knew you would be at Rosmerta's pub. It was quite sweet of Neville really…"

Said teen blushed and ducked his head.

"… Luna was being picked on," Hermione frowned at that. "And Neville stepped in."

"How do you know Luna, Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Through Ginny," the Gryffindor witch admitted. She caught Neville's frown and winced. She was not one to condone what Ginny had done. "They are year mates. Also, I've seen the witch in the Library." Here she paused a bit. "I don't really like her all that much, constantly talking about imaginary things and all, but she is a genius with Runes and a nice girl," the last bit was said for Neville's benefit.

"Will there be a date?" Harry asked.

"A picnic," Neville admitted. "Next weekend."

"Good for you," Harry told the teen.

The day of the Third Task loomed on the horizon. The rest of the school, although excited about the Tournament, was also nervous about their end of year exams. Harry was exempt from them but he kept on studying, Neville as well. Lucius kept the lessons with Harry and had upped them to make sure Harry could duel and had a wider spell repertoire. They were all nervous about the Third Task and what Voldemort and the fake Moody had planned.

Bill while also worried about Harry was also a source of entertainment. As Fleur was truly a match for him the two were meeting in secret and exchanging letters. Harry wanted for the year to end so that at least people would forget a bit about Bill being his date and the curse breaker and he could work something up so that Bill could be free to date Fleur publicly. Harry also feared Molly Weasley's reaction. The witch thought her son and Harry were dating and had threatened Bill not to hurt the teen. It would not do to have her angry at her son. Also, Fleur was there for Harry. The witch had agreed to a spar once, and later Viktor got dragged into it. It was a nice time, things were calm, and Harry had been expecting the worst.

And that happened when he stumbled upon Barty Crouch Senior while taking a walk with Viktor and talking about various things. Bagman had just showed them the maze on the Quidditch pitch. Harry had sent Viktor to get a teacher and stayed with a clearly insane Crouch until there was a barrage of spells directed at him. That had caused Crouch to run away and towards the forest. Harry was too busy dodging spells to follow after the man. When the fake Moody appeared just before Dumbledore, Harry knew that Crouch Jr had done something to Crouch Senior. Snape and Harry both wrote to Lucius after that incident.

A day later Harry got an urgent letter from Lucius.

Harry,

A plan is in motion.

The Cup is a Portkey. It is supposed to bring you to the end of the Labyrinth.

'Moody' is in charge of this.

There is a large possibility he will change the destination of the Portkey.

Keep your eyes open and learn this spell: 'Nihil Portus'. It will undo the spell on the Cup.

I will be in the stands but there will not be much I could do then. Your Weasel and Severus are in formed.

I will be unable to reach you before the Third Task and nearly impossible afterwards and for as long as you are still within the school.

If possible do not let another touch the Cup or they will meet a gruesome fate. The Mark is almost completely dark today, I fear for the worst.

Stay safe my love and obsession

L

P.S.Use My Portkey if there is trouble

Harry sighed. This was it.

End of chapter.