The morning before the Third Task was a bit more chaotic than Fleur had expected. After several days of thoroughly wearing out Harry, both in training for the Task and in the bedroom, Fleur had never felt more ready in her life to go into battle. She was ready to push through whatever lay inside of the maze to reach Harry's side before they faced the terrible evil that was waiting for them.
At least, she was right up until her mother and sister showed up.
Fleur almost broke down when she saw them arrive in the side chamber off of the Great Hall. The reality of the danger she was about to put herself in had set in long ago, but it was a different sensation entirely to see her family around her and realise that if things went wrong, this could be the last time she ever saw them.
"Fleur!" Gabrielle exclaimed happily as she sprinted straight into her sister's arms, barely giving Fleur the chance to stand up before she reached her.
"You are getting too heavy," Fleur teased Gabrielle as they hugged. "You nearly knocked me over."
"I am not!" Gabrielle exclaimed in French. From her letters, her little sister had gotten much better at understanding and writing in English this past year, but she still had trouble forming sentences in the moment. So, she still stuck to French for the most part.
"Girls, please," Fleur's mother, Apolline Delacour, chided gently as she approached them. As ever, Apolline was tall and beautiful and looked quite a lot like an older version of Fleur. Though she was a couple decades older, Apolline only looked like she was in her mid-thirties.
"Sorry, maman," Gabrielle said as she pulled away from Fleur.
Apolline immediately took Gabrielle's place and wrapped Fleur up in a tight hug. "I'm so proud of you for making it so far in the tournament. You've outlasted half of the competition."
Fleur almost laughed at that. She had indeed outlasted them, in more ways than one. She knew her mom would approve of what she had done in order to win, but it wasn't exactly something she wanted to discuss so openly with her.
"And I'll win it too," Fleur beamed, trying to stop any tears from reaching her eyes as the bittersweet sensation of her family being here started to set in. "With Harry at my side."
Apolline nodded approvingly. "I take it you've informed him as to what it means to be chosen by a Veela?"
"I have," Fleur answered.
"Good," Apolline smiled fondly. "I remember how wonderful it was when I first met your father and how right the world felt. If you'd like, you could invite him back to France over the summer break. It'd be lovely to get to know our future son-in-law."
Butterflies danced in Fleur's belly at the thought of that. "Harry and Hermione would love to visit."
"Hermione?" Apolline asked quizzically. "Surely you can't mean-"
"Yes," Fleur interjected. "He has another with him, but he treats us both fairly."
"Well," Apolline laughed lightly. "I can't say that a polyamorous relationship hasn't ever been heard of among Veela, but usually it's multiple men with one of us. I suppose all that matters is if you're happy."
"I am," Fleur confirmed. Now that she and Hermione seemed to have worked out most of their differences, Fleur felt like things were a lot better now between the three of them. Plus, the sex was incredible and really helped to build up the bond between them.
"I'd love to meet both of them after the Task is done," Apolline said to Fleur.
"Right," Fleur replied, trying but failing to hide her grimace.
"It'll be alright, Fleur," Apolline said comfortingly, misinterpreting Fleur's anxiety. "You'll do wonderfully in the last task, and Gabrielle and I will be here to see you when you're done."
The cheers from the stands droned out the musicians who were playing exciting music as Fleur and Harry stepped up towards the entrance into the maze. They were both dressed in relatively tight-fitting athletic gear and had only their wands as a tool they could use inside of the maze. Ludo Bagman stood between them, and the coterie of professors stood off to the side.
"Miss Delacour!" Bagman announced loudly. "Is in first place with eighty-nine points. She will enter the maze first, followed by Mister Potter, who is in second place with eighty-three points!"
Fleur glanced over at Harry. He was looking back at her with determination on his face. She gave him a slight nod and turned back to Bagman.
"Alright, on my whistle," Bagman said as he pulled the whistle to his lips. "Three, two, one—"
Fleur was already dashing into the maze when the shrill whistle sounded. As she passed through the threshold of tall, dark hedges, the plants grew over the opening, sealing her away from the sights and sounds of everyone back there.
Harry, Hermione, and Fleur had anticipated something like this. It was unlikely that they'd send both champions down the same path, so they had to come up with a way to meet up inside of the maze. Thankfully, that wouldn't be too hard. Fleur's Veela Bond would naturally guide her towards her love, and they always had the Four-Point Spell to help guide them North. Between those factors and knowing that the center of the maze was located towards the northwest, they were bound to meet up sooner rather than later.
Rather than wait around near the entrance, Fleur decided to push further down the maze to hopefully find a junction that could offer an easy path towards Harry. "Lumos," Fleur murmured, igniting the tip of her wand with a bright, yellow light. The maze was dark enough that the spell was needed to see into the shadows that formed beneath the overgrown hedges. There were bound to be dangers in the maze, and Fleur would rather not be caught unaware by them.
The maze was rather straightforward. The hedges seemed aligned in neat little rows and columns that intersected at regular intervals. Although there were several branching paths Fleur could take, she trusted in the one she entered on to lead her to a four-way junction eventually.
After just a couple minutes of walking—a distance that seemed far more vast than the space that the Quidditch Pitch had to offer—Fleur found the junction she was looking for.
Standing in the middle of it, she canceled her Wand-Lighting charm and fell into the dim light of the night sky. "Point me," she murmured, holding her wand in the flat of her hand. The wand spun like a compass and eventually settled pointing forward and right. The tip of her wand seemed perfectly pointed towards the corner of the hedges in between two paths leading away from the junction. She'd have to pick one to take eventually, but she planned to wait for Harry until then. She hadn't heard Bagman's whistle go off again, but given the distance and the enchantment that seemed to block out the sound from the crowd, Fleur suspected that she'd have no way of knowing when he actually entered. He couldn't be more than a few minutes behind her though.
So, Fleur waited. The maze was deathly quiet, only punctuated by the sounds of rustling brush whenever a cool gust of wind swept through. Her athletic outfit kept her body warm enough, but her face still felt the cool sting of the air.
But then the warmth of her outfit wasn't enough. Fleur felt the cold trickle down her spine, making her shiver and instinctively wrap her arms around herself for warmth. It did little to stop the growing chill.
She didn't suspect that anything was amiss until she saw her breath misting in front of her face.
"It's June," Fleur said in confusion, frowning at the way her breath continued to mist in the air. Her teeth were on the verge of chattering, and it was only because she kept her mouth closed that they didn't.
An ear-piercing screech made Fleur leap to the side. She was just in time too as a Dementor, which had been swooping down towards her face, passed by harmlessly. It flew back around towards her, but then a silvery stag burst out through the left-most path, the same path that the Dementor had come from.
The stag almost seemed to look at her before its head snapped back towards the Dementor. The dark creature twisted in the air, wishing ever so badly to go after Fleur and yet terribly reluctant to face the stag again. However, it wasn't left with any choice in the matter as the stag suddenly charged forward.
The Dementor cried out again and took off as the stag chased it. Fleur steadied herself and focused on regaining her breath.
"Fleur!" Harry called out as he came sprinting towards the junction. He had his wand in his hand and a scrape on his face, but was otherwise unharmed.
Fleur smiled at him and ran to meet him. "Was that Patronus yours?" She asked him.
"Prongs," he said in explanation. "It's just a Boggart that he's chasing down, but I'd already cast the Patronus out of instinct when I first saw it."
Fleur nodded in understanding. She brought the tip of her wand up to his forehead. "What happened here?" She asked as she silently repaired the scrape.
"I tried to burn through the hedges to get to you," he grinned sheepishly. "I almost made it through a row, but then they decided to fight back."
Fleur snorted. "I thought Hermione and I specifically cautioned you against trying to break through the hedges."
"You did," he agreed. "But I was still annoyed about what they did to the Quidditch Pitch, so I felt a little payback was worth me looking stupid."
"You'd never look stupid to me, mon chéri," Fleur told him before kissing his newly repaired skin.
"So," Harry said, peering around Fleur towards the other three exits out of the junction. "Did you find the path to the cup?"
"I did," Fleur answered as she walked over towards the center of the junction. She pointed her wand down the pathway opposite the one she entered from, and then down the one Harry's Patronus had chased the Dementor. "The cup is in between these two paths, so we'll have to pick one to go down. Do you have a preference?" She asked, finally glancing back over her shoulder to see that Harry hadn't moved from his space. His gaze wasn't meeting her; it was lower. She followed his gaze right down to her-
"Are you staring at my ass?" Fleur asked.
"Hmm?" Harry hummed as he hurriedly glanced up at her face.
Fleur giggled and purposefully turned back to face him. She knew that this tight-fitting outfit showed off all of her curves, but they had an important job to do. "We have a mission to focus on."
"It's a little hard to focus with that in view," Harry countered.
"Then you can take the lead," Fleur told him cheerfully. "If we finish this tonight, I'll let you tear this outfit off of me when we're back at Hogwarts."
Harry bit his lip. "Are you sure you don't just want a quickie right now? I mean, it could be our last time together."
"You already used that line on me that last four times we slept together," Fleur rolled her eyes.
"I was hoping it'd work one last time."
"Let's get going," Fleur said, choosing to ignore Harry's words as she waved him forward. He let out a playful sigh of exasperation but led on nonetheless.
Without any real discussion, Harry took the path opposite the one Fleur had entered from. It made sense; it didn't have a Boggart disguised as a Dementor hiding somewhere down the line. Fleur lit her wand up again, providing a nice amount of light to wash away the shadows again.
The path they took was completely devoid of anything to impede them. They walked forward cautiously but briskly as they watched for any threats. The lack of danger unnerved Fleur. It was as though the maze was trying to lure her into a false sense of security before it would ambush her.
There were various branching paths off of the one they were on. Fleur and Harry kept trying to turn right towards where the cup surely was, but they kept ending up in dead ends. The maze seemed to have a path picked for them, and it refused to allow them to deviate from it.
An ear-piercing shriek cut through the silence. Immediately, Harry and Fleur's hands came up instinctively to cover their ears as a sharp lance of pain cut through their heads. The shriek lasted little more than a second, but the pain lingered long after.
"What was that?" Harry asked with a groan.
"A Mandrake?" Fleur suggested as she shook her head clear. "Or some type of spirit?"
"We'll need earmuffs then," Harry replied.
Fleur watched as Harry conjured two sets of thick, woolen ear muffs. They fit snuggly over her ears, and a sticking charm locked them in place on her head. Harry mirrored her actions, and they were soon continuing forward into the maze.
The cause of the shriek was discovered just a short while later down another branching pathway. There, gliding back and forth along the ground, was a banshee. The creature looked like it was enrobed in shadows, and its horrific green-tinged skin underneath was terrifying to say the least. A long mane of black hair covered its face and stretched all the way down to the ground, but Fleur caught a glimpse of the eyeless creature's face and its gaping mouth when it turned to face them.
Suddenly, all of the hair blocking its face was blasted back as the banshee opened its mouth wider than any natural person could. The feminine face underneath was twisted and deformed as it tried to kill Harry and Fleur with its screech, but the earmuffs did their job and blocked most of the sound. A tiny bit still managed to leak in, but it only left Fleur feeling like she had a dull headache.
Though she couldn't hear what spell Harry cast, the telltale blue light and explosive effect when it struck the banshee told Fleur that Harry had cast the Reductor Curse on it. The creature brought its arms up in a cross to weather the blow. Sparks shot out as the curse made impact, but the banshee remained standing.
The banshee lunged forward at them with unnatural speed. Its arms were outstretched, revealing dark claws that were sharpened to a point. Harry and Fleur separated by throwing themselves to either side as the banshee cut through the air where they had been standing.
Fleur landed smoothly in a roll on the ground and dodged out of the way of the banshee's follow-up strike on her. A spray of dirt struck Fleur's face as the banshee's claws swiped through the dirt as easily as a knife through a piece of parchment. The banshee shrieked in frustration and lunged forward at Fleur again.
Reacting as fast as she could, Fleur fired off a silent blasting curse at the banshee. It struck the foul creature just beneath its chin, catching it off guard and sending it reeling backwards. Unfortunately, the banshee was already too close to Fleur, so she was caught up in the blast too. She was knocked flat onto her back. Her head was only saved from smacking off of the ground due to the hedge behind her. Sharp thorns pierced her skin, but at least she was safe from the banshee.
As the banshee swirled around in the air, shrieking as its hands grasped at its jaw, Harry fired off a series of multicolored spells. The banshee wailed as it was pummeled with blow after blow. Cuts and burns erupted over the creature's skin, but its magically-resistant flesh prevented any serious damage from taking hold. Still, Harry's efforts were enough, and the banshee decided that these two weren't the easy prey that it had been hoping for. It flew away, and Harry continued to harry it with spellfire until it glided out of sight around some hedges.
"Fleur!" Harry called out as he rushed over to her side. He tore off his earmuffs as he reached her.
Fleur groaned and pulled herself forward, grimacing as she felt several thorns pull out of her scalp, neck, and shoulders. She knew that she was littered with small cuts from it. They would be annoying, but not life threatening. She pulled off her earmuffs as well. "I'm alright."
Harry helped her to her feet. "You're hurt," he said worriedly. He turned her around, and Fleur felt his magic touch her. The cuts on her head, neck, and shoulders started to stitch together. It felt rough, but at least they weren't bleeding anymore. "Sorry," Harry apologised. "I'm not very good with healing spells."
"Ironic for someone who gets hurt so much," Fleur joked as she cast a couple of cleaning spells to remove the blood from her hair and skin.
"Yeah, well," Harry chuckled. "If we make it out of this, I promise to study up."
They continued down this pathway, following the trail the fleeing banshee left behind. They could hear its screeches growing more and more distant with every passing second despite the fact that they were following it.
Fleur regularly checked their position with the Four-Point Spell. They were still on the path towards the cup.
The maze grew more complicated the deeper in they went. Dead ends became more common and the darkness from the hedges seemed to increase; Harry had to light the tip of his wand too in order to let them see where they were going.
After several more minutes of walking through the maze, a faint blue glow appeared over the top of the hedges.
"That must be the cup," Harry murmured.
It was so close, maybe only a couple rows over; the only issue was the hedges blocking their path. Using the branching paths available to them, Harry and Fleur started to circle around the blue glow, looking for any pathway that would lead them directly to it.
A rush of wind sent another chill down Fleur's spine. She half expected the dementor-disguised boggart to reappear, but instead she saw something much worse.
Harry turned around to see the growing ice behind them at the same time. It seemed to stretch over the ground completely, and the hedges were covered with a thick layer of frost. Icy-cold winds swirled above the ice, leading the charge towards Harry and Fleur.
"Run!" Fleur shouted as she cast the Fire-Making Spell behind her. The grassy ground behind her ignited and spread rapidly as she fueled more of her magic into it. However, when Fleur glanced behind her as she and Harry were running away, she saw the cold winds overtake her fire and extinguish it in short order.
The ice seemed to pick up its pace as Harry and Fleur ran, chasing them down. And, as if things couldn't get any worse, the hedges started to expand and narrow the path in front of them.
Harry was cursing and firing off cutting curses at the hedges, trying to cleave a path for them, but it had little effect against the hedges. For every section of brambles he cut off, there were countless others filling the limited space they had. Fleur started to fire off her own desperately too, hoping that hers and Harry's spells might grant them at least another second or two of life before they'd be engulfed by the hedges.
Fleur didn't feel true fear until the thorny hedges started to scratch her arms and legs. They pierced her outfit easily, drawing blood and leaving her with countless cuts all over her skin. Harry was faced with the same issue.
However, just before they were about to be fully encased in hedges, they burst out into a large circular clearing. The Triwizard Cup sat on a pedestal in the middle of the clearing, glowing a bright blue.
Fleur and Harry sprinted straight to it, stopping just before touching it.
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Harry asked Fleur seriously, panting as he fought to catch his breath.
Fleur already knew the answer to that. She'd never let her love face something so dark and dangerous without her by his side. "You know I am."
Harry nodded, expecting her answer. Then, suddenly, he grabbed her head and pulled her in for a deep kiss.
Fleur moaned into his mouth. He seemed to be pouring every bit of love and passion he had for her in this kiss. Fleur kissed him back just as fiercely, knowing that this could be the last time she ever kissed him again. Her heart and mind were unified in telling her that this was the right thing to do.
The kiss broke off abruptly as the icy-cold winds blew in over the hedges. It was coming from all sides, and it was slowly encroaching on the pedestal in the middle of the clearing.
Harry held Fleur's hand in his. "On three."
Fleur nodded and held her free hand out above the left handle of the Triwizard Cup. Harry mirrored her actions and held his hand above the right handle.
"One, two, three!"
As one, they grabbed onto the cup and disappeared in a flash of swirling colours.
A/N: Hey, thanks for reading! If you are interested in reading more or supporting me, check out at p atreon .com(slash) ashox