A Chance Encounter
Chapter 11
-Harry-
"Well Fleur, welcome to Hogsmede." Harry grinned, the beautiful blonde at his side looking around at the quaint village.
"It is a lovely place." Fleur nodded as she linked her arm with his, his ears warming at the action, "Where shall we go first?"
"Well, I'm in the mood for lunch." Harry answered, stomach roaring in agreement "So how about we go to the Three Broomsticks, I'll show you about the village, and then we can wrap up at Honeydukes to get some sweets."
"It sounds wonderful, I'm sure Gabrielle will be most jealous." Fleur giggled.
"You know how much she wanted to come." Harry snickered as he remembered the little quarter veela's adorable pouting "I almost felt bad for your dad at all the puppy eyes and begging she used on him."
"I didn't." Fleur laughed, "He made his bed with how often he has spoiled Gabrielle, now he may lay in it."
"That's cold Fleur." Harry chuckled before heading to the tavern with his vivacious companion.
-Hermione-
"Why are we following them again?" Ron whispered as they peered out from around a corner at Harry and Fleur as they walked into the Three Broomsticks. Ron at least having the decency to remain quiet even if he wasn't sure why he had to.
"Because, I'm worried someone's going to try something." Hermione whispered back, "You know how many girls are obsessed with Harry." That Ron's sister was one of them went unsaid, "What if someone tries something on their first date?"
"Does it even count if neither of them realizes it's a date and Harry isn't even aware of how Fleur feels?" Ron asked, scratching his head in confusion. After her 'talk' with Fleur that first time the two visited the Gryffindor Common Room Ron had at least admitted that they were into each other. Now it was just getting the two dense twits to acknowledge it themselves.
"It counts if I say it counts." Hermione shot back playfully, eager to help their best friend with this, "Now come on, I see Romilda Vane following them and there's a rumor that she's planning to slip Harry a love potion.
"This is going to be a long day, I just know it." Ron sighed as he followed.
"Oh, stop whining Ronald." Hermione huffed good naturedly as she cast a potion detection spell in the direction of Romilda Vane.
"Wait, if what Harry and Fleur are doing counts as a date, and we're going to the same places while we follow them does that make this a date too? Is it a double date?" Ron blinked as Hermione felt her cheeks flare with warmth.
"Stop talking!"
-Dumbledore-
Leaning back with a frown, Dumbledore thought back to the surprising new information he'd gained. The brother wand to Voldemort had stopped working for Harry Potter. It meant that the soul shard in the stupid boy's scar was either weakened or gone. Unfortunately, he knew that the damn French would keep him from getting the boy alone to run tests like he'd need to.
Then there was that new wand of his. Aspen wands were quite rare and, alongside their affinity for charms, those bonded to one were always exemplary in the ways of martial magic. Excellent duelists, the strong minded, the determined. The wand of a revolutionary. That brat getting ideas of revolution was the last thing he needed right now. It would only get worse once word got back to the Ministry, or more specifically the Minister. Fudge was a paranoid man never assured by his own position and had more than once tried to get a watch list created for anyone with a wand wood of Aspen, citing Revolutionaries as a potential threat to the stability of the ministry.
Then there was the wand core. Graphorns were notoriously powerful beasts. While lacking the flight of flames of a dragon they were far stronger physically and had a hide even more spell resistant. Honestly if it wasn't for the documented cases of them befriending and aiding Witches and Wizards at times then he was sure they'd be classified as XXXXX instead of XXXX. That said, they were strong, ferocious, and protective of what's 'theirs'. A core like that paired with Aspen would make quite the formidable magical focus.
Plan after plan would have to be rewritten even further now. He'd already known things would have changed given the new powers Potter was displaying. But without the power of the reverse spell effect from brother cores that eliminated several ideas.
By his beard he wasn't even sure if Potter could even fulfill the prophecy to kill Voldemort without the soul shard to take Voldemort down with him. He'd planned to have Potter get to the point where he'd either duel or surrender to Voldemort after his resurrection. He theorized that Voldemort using the Killing Curse on a container of his own soul fragment would destroy all of them and himself at once, the inherent tie between the man's own magic and his soul having a cascade effect.
At the very least, Voldemort wouldn't have even known of the soul fragment's presence let alone its potential destruction. The stupid boy could still serve as excellent bait for Voldemort, as well as a way to get the Dark Lord into a fall sense of overconfidence once Potter was dead.
For now, the Tournament would have to serve as a method to let him gauge Potter's abilities should he survive whatever plot Voldemort had in mind for him. At the very least he had a year to make new contingencies and resolve the political situation Potter had subjected him to.
Shaking his head, he opened the drawer of his desk and placed his notes about Potter's new wand and its possibilities inside. Below it for a moment before it was covered he got a glimpse once more of the plan for the first task and its title.
'The Siege'.
AN: So next chapter we get to the first task, an original one that I think will be fun. The next few chapters will be much longer, I just felt that they needed some stuff in between them first. I have a lot planned for the first task and a few other things that are going to go on as well. Momentum is going to hit this story like a truck.