April 24th

Harry's P.O.V

1:30 p.m.

Four months of school, Dueling Club, and the odd Quidditch match passed Harry by as he fell into a familiar rhythm of study and planning lessons for the club. If that wasn't bad enough he also had to juggle Salazars high standard dueling spell craft.

If he was being honest he was exhausted but extremely happy, even through the odd nightmare about the mirror of Erised.

The Easter holidays had suspended any regular study he was required to do, so now his attentions were fully on Salazars lessons.

Harry had made great progress in the disintegration curse Salazar had taught him, he had upgraded from rock murderer, to pest control for Salazars Chamber of Secrets, using the nasty curse on rodents that Rina would have normally eaten.

Speaking of the oversized reptile, Salazar said that she would be waking up any day now, and this news had Harry very excited. He hadn't realized but at some point he had become accustom to the basilisk's company wether awake or not, and he often took to sleeping on her when in the chamber because he didn't want her to think he had forgotten her. After all she had been locked in the chamber just as long as Salazar, and Harry knew that old portrait was very unused to speaking to people.

"Focus! You brat! These spells are not something you can halfheartedly cast after a couple tries," Salazar muttered under his breath barely loud enough for Harry to hear," is what I would normally say, but you're some second coming of Merlin with how naturally magic comes to you."

"It's not my fault I'm more naturally gifted than you," Harry petulantly laughed casting his disintegration curse at a rat near the far end of the chamber. The spell came within a few inches of the small rodent, but splashed against the warded stone of the wall causing it to corrode slightly, but almost immediately it began repairing itself. Harry sighed wondering if Fleur would be done with her training dummies anytime soon.

"If only your aim was as sharp as your tongue," Salazar smirked stroking his beard as if imparting sagely advice.

Harry just ignored the senile portrait taking aim again casting his curse. This time the curse successfully impacted the rodents chest, causing it to squeal only once and then crumble into a pile of ash.

"Yes!" Harry celebrated then immediately stopped realizing how crazy he probably looked," it's probably a bad sign I'm celebrating properly disintegrating living creatures."

"Oh please, rats are invasive vermin that Rina would have eaten one way or another, and you need the practice. The disintegration curse is powerful no doubt, but if not properly learned you would cause your target far more pain as an inexperienced novice than as a seasoned caster of the spell. That is unless you want to make them congeal into a putrescent slab of human sludge, suffering all the while, but I suspect you are not that cruel so this practice is necessary."

" I know, but I think this is how serial killers get started," Harry shuddered.

"Serial killers?" Salazar asked his bushy white eyebrow raising in curiosity.

"People who either find pleasure in killing people so they do it regularly, have a need to kill they can't explain, or are just outright so crazy they can't help but kill people."

"Ah, so truly dark wizards."

"Not necessarily, muggles do it too, but instead of wands or spells they use stuff like knives, blunt objects, their bare hands, or guns."

"Guns?" Salazar asked very perplexed.

"Tom never mentioned guns? That's like one of the most used instruments of war for muggles," Harry said very surprised the topic had never come up between Tom and Salazar.

"He did not like discussing muggles, he was a half blood you see and while he was very proud of his ancestry when it came to me, he was not as happy in the knowledge that he was also half muggle. To be fair I did not discourage him from that line of thought, although I wish very much that I had. Now about these things what did you call them? Gums?"

"GUNS," Harry said very annoyed at Salazars inattentiveness," they're sort of like metal wands I guess, except they only do one thing, and that's slinging small metal objects at things."

Slazar frowned very confused," well what's the point of flinging small metal at things? That sounds very pointless."

"You'd be surprised. These small metal pieces are called bullets, or if they're in a shotgun, pellets. When they're fired they travel extremely fast, I'm talking faster than a broom fast, and I'd say even faster than most spells. And when those pieces of metal hit you at those speeds," Harry shuddered.

Salazar stroked his beard very interested now," that actually sounds rather interesting. How do these guns affect shield charms? Do they pass right through because they are not magic, or would the shield charm stop them the same as any spell? Do you have a gun we could test these theories with?"

Harry laughed very heartily," it's very hard to get a gun in England, unless you're a policeman or in the military. I mean plenty of farmers have shotguns, but that's for defending livestock and if I'm being honest I think most of those are illegal. It's basically impossible for someone my age to get one anyway, and that's not entirely bad if you'd met Dudley you'd agree."

Salazar grumbled in frustration," ruining my theories and experiments before they can even really begin. What kind of heir are you if you won't even get me one of those muggle wands?"

"A sane one?" Harry asked very rhetorically.

"Bah! What did sanity ever accomplish other than the premature cancellation of brilliant ideas before they can come to fruition?"

"Um, stop an eleven year old from being able to buy a gun."

Salazar just went on muttering about Harry and his stubborn unwillingness to buy or steal a gun for the portraits insane theories. Meanwhile, Harry carried on exploring the chamber gazing around for unlucky stray rats to practice his almost mastered disintegration curse on.

Salazar might keep saying that Harry had a proficiency with magic he hasn't seen since he taught Merlin, but for all his supposed talent he had still yet to master the first curse Salazar had taught him. The effect was meant to be instant disintegration, but so far he had only managed to narrow down the time to the unfortunate target getting to let out a very painful sounding shriek before turning to dust. Harry shook his head as he passed over the chamber for the fifth time finding no more rats.

'Maybe I should call it a day and visit Hagrid. I haven't visited him in a while.'

Little did Harry know this particular spell he was practicing was one that Salazar himself had created in his much later years, and he himself had taken an additional three years to master it to the degree Harry now did. In fact he had only managed the effect Harry was wishing for in his last few years alive.

"He really is quite gifted," Salazar whispered to himself smiling at Harry who was dutifully practicing.


Fleur's P.O.V

Fleur pivoted on one foot sending a wordless disarming charm at a practice dummy across the room, they had been holding Dueling Club in.

While this wouldn't normally be to dreadfully impressive, the fact that would make most wizards pale was that some of the dummies were equipped with extensive enchantments and shield wards that Fleur herself had written. And perhaps that fact would be impressive to some witches and wizards the fact that was truly impressive was that there were a total of three dummies Fleur was currently having a mock battle with.

Each one was given different levels of strategic patterns they would follow ranging from beginner training, to near Auror level. These more advanced dummies activated shields, cast stupefying charms, stinging hexes, and disarming charms. And these dummies were nearly indistinguishable from the beginner level ones Fleur had made, so this granted a certain degree of difficulty to her training that kept her on her toes.

Her disarming charm impacted the dummy sending it's fabricated wand flying away, and the dummy charges after it in simulated panic.

"Merde," Fleur cursed hoping that she had caught one of her advanced dummies off guard, but only succeeding in hitting one of the beginner level ones.

She rolled forward hearing a spell rocketing toward her from behind and gambling with its trajectory. Thankfully she had thought right feeling the spell splash harmlessly against the far wall. Using the momentum of her roll Fleur twisted her body to face the attacker sending a body binding curse at the dummy.

Fleur smiled when the dummy raised a weak shield charm, and while the body bind curse splashed harmlessly on it she was happy to identify the advanced enemy mixed in with the nearly harmless ones. Twisting her wand from the body bind curse into the water conjuring charm she soaked the floor between her and the dummy.

The advanced dummy seemed to consider the water before writing it off and charging her being careful not to slip, but that was not the purpose of the water Fleur had conjured.

"Glacius!" Fleur yelled freezing the water the dummy had very unwisely stepped over, freezing its feet to the ground, but she did not stop there. Once the frost encroached fully over the dummies feet Fleur very mercilessly intensified the glacius spell making spears of ice lance through the dummies feet, shooting through its thighs, and impaling it in place.

Fleur didn't bother with a spell to finish the dummy, instead she summoned an intense blue ball of fire into her hand and lobbed it straight into the dummies simulated face of pain.

At this the fight was over, each dummy surrendered after seeing Fleur's brutality. This was a feature she had added to each dummies enchantments, while they were not sentient on the level of something like the moving portraits in Hogwarts, they did know when they were outmatched and if significantly intimidated they would surrender if in group attack mode. After all if she had done something of this nature to an attacking group of wizards, she had no doubt they would crumble just as easily at her last few spells.

Fleur huffed evaporating the ice and repairing the advanced dummy, sending it and the others to stand by at the far wall. Fleur had been working on these dummies almost since Harry and she had been given this room to conduct Dueling Club in, and she had to admit she had outdone herself with their construction. They were almost ready to be used for practice in the Dueling Club, but she wanted to work out a few more kinks in them.

Sure, that's what she would tell herself. But she knew that she was keeping them to herself simply because she was taking out her anger on her poor creations she had unaffectionately named Vernon, Dudley, and Petunia.

Petunia had been the one Fleur had mercilessly impaled on ice spikes, and this wasn't the first time she had been so cruel. If anything she had been far more brutal when she first created the advanced dummy.


February, 7th

Fleur smiled in both satisfaction and cruel delight when she had finally created her advanced training dummy for the Dueling Club.

'Yes, the Dueling Club. That is what you are for,' she rather blatantly lied to herself.

As the dummy sputtered to life upon touching the activation ward Fleur readied her wand. The dummy staggered and wobbled on unsteady legs raising its wand to send a stinging hex at Fleur.

She absently batted the spell away not happy with the dummies obvious patterns, tweaking the enchantments as she actively dodged its spells was almost effortless for her.

The frequency of spells shifted and became staggered as the dummy dodged Fleur's own halfhearted spells. The dummy soon started casting its spells one after the other changing the wand movements to flow into one another, it was rather sloppy but more advanced than most students would ever be. But Fleur wasn't most students, and before long she grew more and more frustrated with how little of a challenge her dummy was for her.

At first she thought it was just disappointment with the dummy, but soon she realized it was mounting anger she had not been able to unload anywhere. Anger at what Fleur had learned from both Dumbledore and Harry. She had no idea what to do with such boiling rage, after all she had never felt so utterly enraged in her life.

Before long her fluid redirection of the dummies spells became more and more exaggerated, her anger mounting caused hooked talons to form in place of hand and fingers. Feathery plumage sprouted along her arms, legs, torso, and face. Her robes began to sizzle under the intense predatory rage she felt, she could feel her school shoes tearing as more talons formed in place of her feet.

This had been the farthest she had transformed in a very long time, and the predatory bird like intelligence felt almost alien to her in its intensity. She wanted nothing more than to gouge out the eyes of Petunia Dursley with her razor taloned hands, peck out the eyes of the woman's spawn, and incinerate Vernon Dursley along with their precious normal suburban home that they valued over Harry's life and well-being.

Fleur's intense hate came to bare when finally the thick plumed wings sprouting from her back sprang through her robes, flapping and sending intense gusts of wind swirling through the room. The dummy staggered under the gale force pressure making Fleur unreasonably more angry at its weakness.

Screeching in a very avian manor Fleur flexed her wings shooting toward the dummy bowling the poor creation over with Fleur atop it. Her taloned hands and feet shredded at the dummy tearing chunks of wood from it as she rampaged in anger against it. Her frenzied attack came to head when she gripped both its arms, hooked her talons under its armpits, and then wrenching at them in a circular motion she cleanly severed its arms throwing them aside. Her final cawed cry of victory echoed through the room hollowly as she had by now already realized she felt no better than when she had started.

The reason being not because anger did not satiate her, but because this was not truly Petunia Dursley she had dismembered. Giving a final insult to the dummy Fleur raised a taloned foot smashing its wooden head to splinters under heel.

"I'll just start over," she rasped through her cruel hooked beak.

'That woman had better hope I never meet her,' Fleur cruelly thought as her feathers reseeded along with her scaled forearms and talons,' because I won't be half as gentle as I was with this unsubstantial creation.'


Fleur frowned when remembering her lapse in control against her prototype for the advanced dummy, it was very rare for her to lose control and that outburst had been particularly violent. That didn't mean she would go back on her promise of brutally mutilating Petunia Dursley, but she was very worried if she ever lost control around Harry.

He had seen her almost entirely transformed but he had never seen the burning rage that could come with a transformation and she hoped he would never have to. But she had come dangerously and threateningly close when he had been retelling his life to her in all its gory detail. Beatings, maiming, belittling, and rape; these things had almost sent Fleur into her worst spiraling rage she had ever experienced second only to when a man had tried to kidnap Gabby while they had been separated from their father for a meager few moments in Frances magical marketplace.

Apparently Veela children made good sex slaves if captured early, to bad for that wizard he had tried snatching Gabby far to close to Fleur and far to near to an abandoned alleyway. By the time papa had found them Fleur was tearing into the mans chest with her talons and ripping into his throat with her hooked beak.

Marcus had found the mans compatriots farther down the alley waiting for the now dead man to arrive with Gabby, and unluckily for them they ran into Marcus Delacour. Who, if given the chance, would've no doubt done worse than Fleur had. But the men had merely been sentenced to many years in Magical Frances prison for conspiracy to kidnap a ministry officials daughter, and that was the last Fleur herself had heard of it.

Now Fleur was reassessing each dummies capabilities, the one she had labeled Dudley was for the very entry level beginners of dueling, while Vernon was meant for those with a middle ground of dueling skill if not slightly more skill, and then Petunia was meant for those with a firm grasp of dueling and advanced tactics meant to confuse or overtake enemies. Harry was currently able to face Petunia on even footing but could not handle adding the other two to the mix as Fleur often did.

Fleur had "accidentally" neglected to inform Harry of the dummies names as he would no doubt think it was for his recovery rather than for her own satisfaction when brutalizing the dummies. And he often looked at her funny when she got excessively rough with them while he watched, but she assured him it was just to showcase how durable she had made the finished versions.

Fleur sighed knowing she had little reason at this point to keep the dummies from regular Dueling Club practice," I suppose at the next meeting I'll unveil them."

Her self contained musing ended abruptly as Harry rushed in very excited for some reason and yet also very worried.

"What is it 'Arry?" Fleur asked very worried herself.

"Hagrids got a dragon egg!"

Fleur blinked very owlishly at his proclamation," A dragon egg?"

"Yep I saw it starting to crack and everything while he had it over his fireplace, I have no idea what to do and you were the first person that came to mind," Harry said looking at her while bouncing on the balls of his feet in anxiety.

Fleur sighed heavily," what is zat silly man thinking," Fleur asked aloud.

"Well he's said a few times since we've visited him that even though he loves all of his animals, even that giant three headed dog, he'd love to have a dragon one day."

"Yes, but I thought zat was a joke! Dragons are very dangerous magical creatures," even the most reclusive and well natures of them are dangerous."

Harry just worried at his bottom lip with his teeth, looking back the way he had come.

Fleur sighed dusting her robes off," very well let's go see 'Agrid."


Harry's P.O.V

Hagrid's hut was a sweltering pot of heat that plastered Harry's unruly black hair to his forehead, Hagrid fared no better than Harry if anything he was worse due to his thick scraggly beard that perspired just as much as Harry thought he himself was. Of course Fleur was frustratingly fine not a single bead of sweat gathered on her forehead, and in fact she seemed almost refreshed by the heatwave that was Hagrid's hut.

The rolling and cracking egg swiveled about in the pot over the fire Hagrid had placed it in.

"So how long has it been doing that," Harry asked.

"Bout an hour before I got you," Hagrid said a smile clearly heard in his voice.

" 'Agrid zis is not good. Not good at all."

He stared at her quite dumbfounded," what do ya mean Fleur?"

"You live in a wooden 'ut 'Agrid, dragons breath fire do ze math 'Agrid," Fleur said her eyes never straying from the dragon egg which rolled more and more vigorously by the second until…

crunch*

A high little screech broke through the egg at the same time of the snout of the baby dragon, its tiny claws scrabbling at the shell now only partially encasing it. The baby dragon looked like a crumpled black umbrella with large spiny wings, a skinny body and a long snout with wide nostrils, horn stubs and bulging, orange eyes. Hagrid seemed to almost immediately fall in love with the little thing.

"Oh no," Harry sighed seeing the same gleam in Hagrid's eye he almost always saw in Salazar's when discussing Rina.

"Where did you even get the bloody thing from and when," Harry asked.

"I tried tellin ya bout him, but ya never answered me. I got him on Christmas down at the pub."

"You got a dragons egg, at the pub," Harry said very skeptical.

"Well I didn't just get 'em I won 'em over a game of exploding snap, I told the fella while we was playin how much I'd love to have a dragon cause he asked me about being game keeper up at the castle. He offered the dragon egg but he was real wary, course he would be not many people got what it takes to take care of a dragon. So I told him bout Fluffy and how if I can watch after a dog that big with that many heads without taken so much as a bite the entire time I've had em, I can watch after a dragon no problem."

Harry smacked his forehead dragging the hand down rubbing his eyes," and did you discuss Fluffy further, perhaps how you calm him down or stop him from biting you?"

" 'O course he did, it's only natural for someone with something like a dragon egg to be interested in something as rare as Fluffy, so I told him the trick with beasts like Fluffy is to play a bit of music to calm him and you'll be right as rain," Hagrid opened his mouth to go on but then he frowned looking down at Harry," I shouldn't have told ya that jus forget I said anything."

"Wait you named that giant three headed dog Fluffy? No staying on topic, Hagrid putting all of that aside, and it's dangerous to forget you told a complete stranger something like that about Fluffy. You must understand it's to dangerous for you to keep a dragon here not only because of your hut being wooden, but because students stay here almost year round. What about them?"

Hagrids eyes grew watery and his beard trembled as he nodded at Harry's sound logic," yer right, oh Harry yer right. But what am I gonna do I don't know anyone that can take em except Charlie Weasley but he graduated ages ago."

Harry grinned at Hagrid," Fleur stay here and make sure Hagrid's dragon-"

"Norbert his names Norbert," he helpfully added.

"Make sure Norbert doesn't burn the place down."

Fleur sighed nodding solemnly," alright but 'urry back 'Arry, and be very discrete.


Harry in fact was very indiscreet in his urgency in needing to find Ron, after all this was very time sensitive and Harry was very frantic.

"Have you seen Ron?" Harry asked the Gryffindor boy Neville Longbottom.

When Neville turned to answer Harry his face grew very pale and he grasped the arm Harry had reset months ago during their joint flying lesson," I-I think h-he and H-Hermione are in the l-library."

"Thanks Neville," Harry yelled as he ran past the stuttering boy toward the library.

As he crashed into the doors swinging them open the librarian Madam Pince let out a loud hissing shush that made the already low mumble of students die even further, and caused Harry to nearly fall face first as he halted his hurried steps.

"Sorry," Harry whispered hurrying quietly over to the library table Hermione frequented. He could see the hunched forms of Hermione with her bushy hair and Ron's tall lanky form topped with his red hair.

"Ron!" Harry loudly whispered from behind the pair making them both jump in alarm.

"Harry!" They both said in almost the exact same way as Harry had said Ron's name, to none of their surprise a loud shush could be heard from the direction Harry had left madam Pince.

"We need to talk," they all said in unison.

All of them blinked in confusion," what do you need to talk about?"

"A dragon," Harry said getting straight to the point.

"The thing that three headed dog is guarding," both Ron and Hermione whispered.

"A DRAGON!?" Ron roared very exasperated. He stared at Harry with his mouth wide open gawping.

This time Harry shushed them," yes a dragon. Hagrid was given a very suspicious egg around Christmas and it's just hatched we need to talk to your brother Charlie and see if he can do anything about Norbert."

"Norbert? Hagrid has a fire breathing monstrosity in his wooden hut, and he named it something normal like Norbert," Ron shook his head in wonder," I can send an owl but it might take a while."

"What about you guys? You wanted to talk about Fluffy right?" Harry asked looking at the pair.

Ron paled even more than when Harry had told them about the baby dragon," that nutter Hagrid named that thing Fluffy?"

"For heavens sakes Ron we'll come back to that later, we have bad news Harry, we saw Snape skulking around the third floor corridor with that dog in it," Hermione whispered her bushy hair creating a rather effective sound muffler.

Harry frowned," that doesn't make any sense why would he go back? He's already been bitten by that thing once, and wouldn't want to risk another bite if it were me.

"Harry this is bad, I think Snape is trying to steal whatever that dog is guarding," Hermione breathed very nervous talking about this even more quietly.

"That was my assumption too, but Fleur said I should be careful accusing people without proof, and really anyway isn't the dragon a bit more of a priority maybe we should handle one thing at a time."

Hermione nervously nodded clearly not wanting to drop the matter but conceding the point.

"I can send Errol but it'll take a while before we hear back, that owl's been on his last leg for years now," Ron said frowning.

"That's fine I didn't expect an immediate solution anyway, we're going to need to put all of our heads together for a plan," Harry sighed as they all began walking to the Owlery so they could contact Charlie.


May 9th

Harry's P.O.V

11:45 p.m.

How things had turned out this way Harry had no idea, he was currently smashed between both Fleur and Hermione under his invisibility cloak sneaking off to the top of the astronomy tower. Both of the girls warm shoulders and legs brushed against Harry as they walked up each step making him grimace more and more.

Fleur wasn't really the issue, honestly she touched Harry so often he rarely noticed anymore but that didn't suddenly make touching other people alright for him. In fact each time Hermione brushed against him it made sharp unpleasant needling sensations go up him wherever the contact was, but he couldn't very well be rude and push his friend away so he endured.

Harry silently cursed Ron for getting his hand to close to Norbert's mouth three days ago, causing the baby dragon to bite the perceived chew toy. At first Ron had left the bite when it had happened in the morning, but by the end of the school day his hand had swelled three sizes and turned three different shades of green and purple.

It seemed Norbert was quite venomous, so now that was an added worry with the cage, currently holding Norbert, they were levitating in front of them. If that dragon decides to stick its snout out of the bars and give one of them a nip it would no doubt send them just as fast to the hospital wing as it had Ron, but this time madam Pomfrey would be twice as suspicious since she had started treating Ron. So they all trudged very carefully up the astronomy tower huffing all the while.

All of them but Fleur that is.

"H-how are you t-this composed," Harry asked looking over at the older girl who seemed very unfazed.

" 'Arry I practice my dueling style every day I am able to. Do you really think zat would mean I tire easily? You never know what sort of enemy you might face in a duel, so it is better to 'ave greater stamina zan ze average opponent."

"T-that makes s-sense," Hermione huffed sweating almost as much as Harry was.

"Honestly if you're both zis out of breath I think I may need to add regular cardio training to your dueling regiments," Fleur mused oblivious to both Harry and Hermione who were both very disgruntled by this news.

'Oh no, this is bad. I'm already always dead tired after Dueling Club, but when I go to visit Salazar afterwards he almost always makes me practice until I drop no matter how much I whine. Between the two of them I might seriously be in trouble,' Harry thought very afraid for his sleep schedule going up in flames thanks to Fleur and Salazar the teachers from hell.

"Um, Fleur maybe we don't have to go that f-"

"We're here," Fleur shushed Harry opening the towers roof trap door and climbing through to the clear night air.

"Of course we are," Harry groaned knowing Fleur would never allow him to bring the suggestion of going easy on them.

As Harry climbed the ladder he could see the clear night sky above which the astronomy towers wards cleared for seamless stargazing, normally stars or planets aren't as visible as he was seeing here. But stretched out before him was a beautiful smattering of stars and constellations so picturesque he tried opening his eyes wider than was possible so he could take in all of its radiance.

Radiance which was abruptly broken by four wizards zooming through the sky a rather ugly and shoddily assembled harness dangling between their four brooms. At the lead was a short and stocky man with Ron's same shade of red hair, thick set arms, and a face so full of freckles it seemed nearly tan to Harry.

"Hey there Harry! Ron's talked all about you," Charlie yelled far louder than Harry cared for due to the clandestine nature of their meeting here. Charlie turned to Fleur," he's also said a lot about you to Ms. Delacour, namely how attached at the hip you and Harry here are," Charlie grinned devilishly between the two.

Both Harry and Fleur blushed deeply stepping away from one another, as they had indeed naturally gravitated to one another when Charlie and his friends lined up in front of them smiling.

Fleur was the first to recover as she cleared her throat," well I suppose you should start attaching ze 'arness."

"Yes ma'am," all four men chorused falling back to obedience as if they were school boys being chastised by a teacher. Each of them scrambled over one another as they levitated the cage Norbert was in, fastened the straps around the cage, and then finally linked each corner harness to the handle of each broom one by one.

"Is this safe?" Harry asked looking at the obviously thrown together apparatus.

"For us," Charlie asked his hands firmly placed on his hips," not at all. But for the dragon completely, even if a harness snaps the cage will levitate in place. It's the force of the snapping harness that might be dangerous for us."

"Harry we should really hurry," Hermione whispered very worriedly back at the trap door leading back into the tower.

"Alright, sorry to cut our meeting short Charlie but I'd rather not get found by Filtch or god forbid McGonagall."

"S'alright Harry I completely understand, best head back to your common rooms quickly."

The three students stood watching the men argue about the straps and their configuration, and after dallying for a few seconds they all descended the astronomy tower.

"Thank god we got that dragon out of here," Harry sighed folding his invisibility cloak onto his arm as if it were a common apron or towel, cobalt padded his way forward his green eyes scanning each darkened corner.

" 'E seems agitated," Fleur remarked.

"He's mad cause Norbert singed the tip of his tail. Look," Harry said pointing to the poor kneazles tail which would normally be a crisp midnight black with a lions tuft of tail hair on the end, however Cobalts tail was missing the tuft and in its place was a straight shoot of browned hair which had clearly been singed that color.

Harry could see Fleur suppressing a giggle as the kittens tail waved agitatedly from side to side," poor boy," Fleur said walking to scoop Cobalt up and cradle him as if he were a baby.

The irate kitten meowed in protest, but after the first head scratch his cries of outrage devolved into contented purrs. They all walked along in a languid silence that stretched on for long minutes as they wound their way to Hermione's common room so she wouldn't need to make the journey alone.

"Thank you both," Hermione said worrying at her hair as she combed through the strands," Will you be alright getting back to our own common room.

"We will manage," Fleur smiled at the younger girl," between 'Arry and myself not much can surprise us."

Just as she said that a loud hoarse meow that clearly didn't come from Cobalt startled them all. Harry could see the form of Filtch's cat Mrs. Norris standing at the far right end of the corridor.

"We should probably get out of here, Hermione get into your common room," Harry quietly shooed the girl away waving her in as he stared the cat down," thankfully she's only blocking that hallway we're headed the opposite direction."

Harry slowly backed away from the cat, Fleur retreating with him as she held Cobalt in her arms the useless lookout purring happily with his eyes closed.

"Let's hurry before-"

"Before what boy? Before I can puni-"

As Harry was interrupted mid sentence keeping his eyes on the cat, he was so startled by the interrupting voice that he had whipped out his wand in a flurry slamming a stunning charm into the forehead of the person. A loud thud echoed in the hall before Harry realized who it was he had stunned.

"Ah, I just stunned Filtch didn't I," Harry rhetorically asked closing his eyes while nodding.

"Yes," Fleur nodded walking over to the prone form of the man," 'e is rather nasty though so let's just count our blessings 'e most likely won't remember you being the one to stun 'im. Let's get to ze exit of ze 'all and I will renervate 'im from zere."

"It sounds like you've done this before," Harry remarked looking at the girl.

"I 'aven't done zis exactly, but I may 'ave stunned a few prefects at Beauxbatons when zey caught me sneaking around a couple times," she said trying to look very innocent while they retreated from the form of Filtch, who now had Mrs. Norris meowing at him as she stood on his chest.

"When I renervate 'im we make a run for it, 'e will be down for a few seconds but it won't last for long," Fleur said as if she were a veteran at this.

"Or, and hear me out, you renervate him and we run so he can hear us but once we've gone a little ways we throw this on," Harry said fluttering his invisibility cloak in Fleur's face.

"Oh, well yes, I suppose zat would work," she sniffed raising her chin in indignation trying to hide a blush that crossed her cheeks," renervate." Fleur whispered the spell from the hallways end corner so only her head and wand were picking from their position.

The soft red light exited her wands tip splashing against the caretakers chest barely missing Mrs. Norris. A quick inhale of wakeful breath came from Filtch's position, both Harry and Fleur ran making sure they were both as loud as possible while they did.

Once they had rounded the next corner making sure they heard Filtch giving chase behind them, they huddled down in a corner of the hall lightly filled with shadows, and threw the invisibility cloak over both of them.

A few seconds later Filtch and his cat were both up and hurrying toward the direction Fleur and Harry's steps had been," we'll get whoever stunned me my dear, and you can bet they'll be out of this castle faster than they can say Quidditch!"

As both Fleur and Harry sat farther back into their shadowed crevice, Harry was very aware of the older girl leaning heavily against him in obvious nervousness.

"I'm sorry 'Arry, I know I'm to close but please bare with it for now," she whispered, her azure eyes clearly sorry, and her mouth in a thin apologetic line.

Harry took in a deep breath of Fleur's pleasant smoky aroma," it's fine, we just have to wait for him to pass."

"Where are you," Filtch yelled clearly very angry," you can't have gone far, and when I find you I'll string you up in the dungeons by your toes!"

While Filtch thundered about he grew farther and farther away from the corner both Fleur and Harry sat in. Before long his angry cries grew silent, and finally Harry and Fleur were able to stand back to their feet and slowly make their way to the Ravenclaw common room.

Flickering fire light from bracketed torches cast shadows across the walls as they walked, each echoing footstep sent chills up their spines as they carefully picked their ways through the halls.

Once they approached the door to the Ravenclaw common room Fleur was the one out of them to knock," really?!" The voice of the knocker asked incredulously," again at an hour like this? Very well, what is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?"

The answer appeared almost instantly in Harry's mind, but Fleur had been the one to knock and he wanted her to answer because he knew she hated the knocker's absurdness.

Sighing seeing that Harry wouldn't help her Fleur looked at the door very frustrated," it is silence."

"Just so," the knocker said letting out a loud yawn," now go to sleep children!"

"What should be our next lesson in dueling club," Harry asked Fleur out of nowhere surprising her slightly," I know the past few times we've been showing all of the younger students how to properly block spells, but we haven't really shown them the proper way to duel."

Fleur beamed at Harry for some reason," Zat is a good idea we can 'ave ze next lesson next Sunday."

Harry rose an eyebrow at her but nodded walking over to the common room couch waiting for her to approach. As Fleur sat down scooting back onto the large sofa allowing Harry to sit in front of her so that she could summon a blanket from one of the farther seats to wrap it around both of them.

Ever since Harry's outburst they had spent most nights like this, as Harry often woke up with night terrors about the mirror if he was left to sleep by himself.

Harry often felt bad about making Fleur stay up with him until he fell asleep against her welcome warmth, but she had insisted they do this because she almost uncannily could always tell when Harry was woken up by a nightmare.

"You are shaking," Fleur whispered causing Harry to jump.

"S-sorry just worrying if I'll have a nightmare again," Harry huffed more than laughed flippantly.

"I'm sure you will be fine, you 'aven't woken up from a nightmare when you fall asleep like zis in weeks," Fleur reassured him as her chin rested lightly on the crown of Harry's head.

"I suppose you're right," Harry lightly said, a yawn escaping his mouth. It seemed dragon smuggling was tiring work

A warm and comfortable silence filled the empty common room making Harry's eyes grow heavy with sleep," I think the practice dummies are ready for the Dueling Club," Fleur whispered making Harry jerk slightly awake.

An amused quiet giggle reached Harry's ears," sorry 'Arry I just wanted to let you know."

"It's fine, just a fair warning I'm about to fall asleep."


Fleur's P.O.V

Fleur absently ran a hand through Harry's unruly black hair as his chest rose and fell with content sleep.

They had both noticed Harry often had nightmares when sleeping by himself, and decided they would make this a nightly ritual to help ease him into sleep and become accustom to touching another person. At first Harry's mental breakdown had torn down a significant amount of his progress with his phobia of touching people, but steadily he had opened back up to Fleur.

She hadn't realized how often she touched Harry in any given day, but once he had grown skittish around her, she had noticed just how much she had missed touching or holding him.

Fleur didn't think of herself as above other people on a day to day basis, but she was very aware of just how fond she had grown of Harry. While she had seen him as more of a little brother at first when they spent time with one another in Diagon Ally, that view had slowly changed through their months at Hogwarts together. She was a bit ashamed to say she had slowly began thinking she loved Harry as more than a friend or sibling, and then she had been told by Harry how he had been treated for his entire childhood. In that moment her feelings were cemented and made fully apparent to herself, she loved Harry and there was no doubt.

Fleur's content smile wavered as Harry stirred laying his head back against her right shoulder. His nose and lips lightly scrapped Fleur's neck making her flush.

'Calm down Fleur, he's eleven and you're fourteen,' Fleur had to think to herself furiously as she wiggled a bit, resting Harry's head farther on her shoulder, so he wasn't so close to her neck,' I doubt he wants to have any sort of romantic relationship at all anytime soon, if ever.'

While Fleur sat enjoying Harry's body heat in the fireless common room, she had failed to notice her dozing and wandering mind as she rested her head against Harry's.

She took in steady breathes of Harry's pleasant bookish scent, and then she began to doze off pleasantly wrapping her arms around his waste.

'I can at least enjoy this,' she absently thought falling asleep with a small smile.

A/N: good lord I hate dragging my feet so much when updating this story, but I write more than half the chapter and by the time I'm almost done with it I burn out and have to take a break until I can finish it. Thankfully there isn't to much I have to write I think maybe the next chapter will be the final one for the first book if not the second to last.

Thanks for reading!!! I hope you enjoyed!!!