Wednesday was Wednesday. Harry had Charms in the morning, which was alright. He could at least focus on learning a new spell, instead of being bored to tears in one of the non-magic courses. He used his break time to go through the book he had gotten in the mail; Learning French for Dummies.
It is with that book that he finally summoned the nerve to sit across from Fleur Delacour during lunch. When he stood in front of her seat, half the hall watched in horror as he sat down. He pointed to the cover of his book, to which Fleur gave a soft laugh.
Harry flicked through the pages for a few second before saying. "Mucho gusto. Me llamo Harry Potter."
Fleur's jaw dropped down before she started laughing again. "That ees Spanish Monsieur Potter."
Harry nearly slammed the book closed and looked at the cover. "Damn it, it says French. Must be some kind of joke... I wanted to at least attempt to talk to you in your native language, since you are a guest here in our school. It probably seems quite foreign to you."
"That ees kind. I have learned Engleesh, but I have not used eet much before. I am unsure how… some words… work together? Yes, that is eet."
"I would be willing to help you with your… Engleesh, if you would teach be the basics of French."
"Are you mockeeng me?" Frenchy responded.
"No, not at all. I think it's cute actually."
"Cute? I guess that ees a compliment. Thank you." Fleur said primly. She started to pick at her food. She had hardly eaten any of it in the five minutes he sat there. He had eaten most of his though.
"Is there something wrong with the food?" Harry asked.
"I do not like eet. It ees too 'eavy."
"For your human nature or your Veela nature?" Harry asked curiously.
"Veela." She responded simply. Perhaps she wasn't too keen on her own heritage. Or maybe she wasn't too keen on Harry.
Realizing that train of thought was stonewalled, Harry started something else. "You must be very smart and knowledgeable to have gotten chosen over your schoolmates."
"People do not take me seriously." Fleur said, carefully pronouncing each syllable correctly. " Zey theenk I am all beauty with no mind. I weell show zem deefferently."
"I wish you the best of luck."
"Why are you here?" Fleur finally asked.
"I just wish to get to know the Champions better. I've already talked to Viktor extensively, but his English is not as good as yours." Harry tried to compliment her, but it was ignored.
"Do you have a lot of friends?"
Fleur shrugged. "Girls do not like me. And boys… want me. And you? You are famous, non?"
"I have a few close friends, but I am in similar position to you I think. Some people hate me, and girls want me because of my fame. I'll never take advantage of that."
"Eet ees because of what you said when you were chosen. You want to make your own destiny. Me too."
"Well, it looks like we have sometheeng in common." Harry responded with a fake French accent. Harry spied a small smile forming at the corner of Fleur's lips.
Success.
888
After lunch was over, and everyone hustled off to their next classes. Harry had Divination next, but he couldn't be bothered to go. It was a waste of time, even if he wasn't preparing for the first task.
He slowly walked his way up to his dorm, and grabbed his Firebolt. Instead of wasting time walking back down the stairs, he just opened his window and flew out that way. Much more convenient.
Harry did a few lazy loops in the air, and did some grass grazing with his feet, but he never went wild. He just had a leisurely time enjoying the air.
When he was done with that, he laid on the grass. The sun was still shining out, and for once there wasn't a rain cloud in sight.
It wasn't hot out by any stretch of the imagination, as it is November, but he did find a nice patch of grass that allowed the sun to shine directly down on his face, warming it nicely.
Before he knew it, he felt himself drifting off into a nap.
888
Harry didn't remember what he dreamed of. He never went into REM, just a light nap. He remembered swatting at something brushing up against his nose.
And then he thought he felt it again, so he swatted at it. He thought it was gone, and could concentrate on sleeping once more, but no! it came back and attacked his nose once more.
He forcefully grabbed whatever it was and sat up as quick as a fox. He looked down at the object of his torture – a feather attached to a string. He followed the string, which led to a stick. The stick was in the hands of the littlest Greengrass- Astoria.
"Hello Harry!" Astoria greeted cheerfully.
Harry groaned. She was always so cheerful, but he was having such a nice nap…outside…during the night.
At the realization that it was dark out, and it was most certainly light when he fell asleep, he pulled himself of the ground.
Daphne was standing next the cheerful Astoria, with arms crossed and impatiently tapping her foot on the ground.
"Thought it would be funny to stand us up, huh Potter? We are trying to help you after all, and you don't show up. We looked all over the place when we notice you didn't show up for dinner."
"Shit. I missed dinner?" Harry panicked.
"I don't think anyone else noticed." Daphne responded. "Luckily for you, my sister was not convinced that you stiffed us on purpose. She has a kind heart, so she brought you some food."
On cue, Astoria unwrapped a sandwich for him. "It should still be hot; I hit it with a warming charm on the way down."
"Thank you." Harry nodded at both of them and devoured the sandwich, but being careful to not look like too much of a pig in front of the girls. "So how did you find me?"
"We checked all the common spots in the castle, and after we didn't find you anywhere, the most likely spot you were to be outside is at the Quidditch pitch. We weren't expecting you to be sleeping though."
"Sorry. I skipped out on divination and flew around a bit, and then napped. That must have been five hours ago though; I guess I was more tired than I thought."
"Well, I hope you are ready to practice the summoning charm with us. That is why we came all the way down here."
"Alright." Harry agreed. "Did you bring the book? All I got is my broom."
"Don't need a book, the spell is simple. And it's good you have the broom, because that is what you will be summoning during the Task, is it not?"
Harry nodded his head and located his wand from his pocket. He needed a holder or something for it, it was too easily to lose or break otherwise. "What's the incantation?"
"Accio. Anti-clockwise circle motion with your wand."
"So, it's like the opposite to the banishing charm? That's Depulso with a clockwise circle."
"Very astute Potter. After the incantation, you can either say the name of what you are summoning out loud, or you can just picture it in your mind."
"Okay. Accio quaffle!" Harry chanted, and a few seconds later, the ball whizzed out of the locker room and bounced off his forehead, knocking him to the ground.
Daphne instantly went into a fit of giggles while Astoria outright laughed at his misfortune.
Harry pulled himself off the ground, grumbling. "At least it wasn't a bludger."
"I think you were too forceful with the spell." Daphne stated.
"Well, that is quite obvious." Astoria observed. "Accio quaffle." she called out, and the ball soared into her outstretched hand.
"You made it look easy." Harry observed. "You've done it before?"
"Nope. Depulso!" Astoria responded, banishing the ball right at Harry's forehead once more. He splashed onto the ground once more, not expecting that.
"Damn it all." Harry groaned. He slowly made it back up to his feet, and attempted to glare at Astoria. It didn't work though because she was still smiling. He tried to glare at Daphne instead, but she was chewing on her fist to prevent herself from laughing.
He pointed his wand at the ball on the ground. "Depulso." The ball rocket at Daphne, who simply stepped to the side.
"That's not every nice, Potter."
"Why do I think both of you are out to get me?"
"Who, me?" Daphne said innocently. She pointed her want at the quaffle, and recalled it back to herself with the summoning charm.
"Yes you." Harry responded.
Daphne merely banished the ball back at Harry, who attempted to duck. But instead of the ball hitting him, Daphne summoned it back with a quick "Accio."
She repeated this four or five times until Harry stopped flinching. Then she let the ball go and smack him in the forehead. Harry grunted from the impact, and took a seat on the ground.
"Okay, you win. Devious bitches." Harry mumbled the last part under his breath.
"What was that?"
"I said you two are devious witches."
"That's what I thought." Astoria and Daphne took a seat across from him.
"I think I should be able to use the spell fairly easily during the task."
Daphne nodded her agreement. "Use it at the very beginning, because it will take some time for the object to come to you if it's far away."
Harry sat silent for a few moments before asking. "Do you do this often? Not beating me up with a quaffle, I mean learning new spells."
"Not usually. We learn a lot of spells in class. If we don't learn it this year, then we might learn it next year. And you could always ask a teacher about a specific spell as well. I do like learning new spells, but it's unsafe to practice by yourself."
"Supervision is important, in case something goes wrong." Astoria agreed.
"There is also the nature of the spells in question. How many of your friends can you walk up to, and ask if t hey want to practice a questionable piece of magic? They may think you are crazy, or dangerous."
"I've been called a dark wizard before, for being a parselmouth." Harry replied dryly.
"Being a parselmouth hardly makes you a dark wizard. It's a very limited ability really, worthless in my opinion. It's your intentions and actions that define who you are." Daphne responded firmly.
Harry nodded his head. "It did help me defeat the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets though."
"Slytherin's monster was a basilisk?" Daphne asked. "I suppose that makes sense, but I can't see one being defeated by a twelve year old."
"I can show you the basilisk if you want."
"I don't want to see your penis." Daphne replied.
"What?" Harry asked incredulously.
"I said I don't want to see a basilisk corpse."
"Suit yourself." Harry changed the topic. "So since you are not trying to learn every spell in the library, what do you do in your free time? Actually, what do Slytherins in general usually do?"
"Well, if I'm not doing homework, I usually read. I like mysteries. If no one else is doing anything either, Tracey, Blaise, Astoria and I will play a game called Myths and Legends of Camelot."
"Never heard of it."
"It's a wizard made game, involving spell chains, triggers, and enchantments, and also a liberal amount of arithmancy to make the game random."
"Sounds complicated," Harry remarked. "What about the other students? Malfoy?"
"I'd imagine they do the same things as anyone else. I know Malfoy and Parkinson tutor Crabbe and Goyle when they are not doing their own work. Otherwise they just talk. Be it politics or sports, Malfoy pretty much just takes the piss out of anybody and everybody."
"I'd half expect him to be plotting on taking over Hogwarts or something using his father's name and connections."
"It's always a possibility, but ambition on a scale like that is not limited to Slytherins you know."
"I know."
"It's late." Astoria stated suddenly. "We have to get back before curfew and before the creepy caretaker locks the door."
Harry looked down at his watch. "You're right. Let's go."
They ran up to the castle and through the halls, splitting up at the stairs going down. "Same time tomorrow night? Not outside of course."
"We'll be there." The sisters replied before heading off on their own.
888
Classes the next day were largely irrelevant. Meal times were the most interesting things of the day to Harry, next to practicing for the first task with the Greengrass sisters.
Breakfast today was especially interesting. Harry didn't get much sleep again, thank to his several hour long mid-afternoon nap the previous day. Without thinking about it he sat at his house table, next to Neville and across from Hermione. Naturally, this got his bookworm friend's attention.
"Harry, what's wrong with you? You haven't spoken to me in days."
"You haven't spoken to me either. It didn't look like you wanted to talk to me, not after my name came out of the Goblet of Fire."
"Well, I was surprised, and hurt that you didn't tell me. And I still am. Are you preparing for the first task? Have you been told what it is?"
"I have been practicing a few spells that I think will help." Harry replied vaguely.
"It's dangerous to practice new spells alone. And who is that waving at you?"
Harry looked at who she was talking about, and saw Astoria waving at him. He waved back. "That is Astoria, and she has been helping me with my spells. She's a second year."
"You have a second year Slytherin helping you with spells? Are you crazy?" Hermione said in a furious whisper.
"Well, it didn't look like my fucking friends were going to help me." Harry retorted. "She's the only one who has offered to help me. And I'm the Hogwarts Champion; houses hardly matter."
Hermione stiffly nodded, not daring to disagree. "I'll help if you need me."
"Do you know how to cast a Conjunctivitis Curse?" Harry asked.
"Well, no, but I could –"
"Thanks anyway." Harry responded. She didn't say anything else the rest of the meal, despite looking like she wanted to.
Lunch went much differently. He had transfiguration before it, and while it would be a useful class once you got to 6th or 7th year, learning the ins and out of the skill was not something he could bother with at the present moment. He had bigger fish to fry than turning a mug into a squirrel, such as a dragon.
Harry had brought another French learning book with him when he sat with Fleur. He pointed at the cover, while Fleur looked on faintly amused.
"Var kommer du ifrån?" Harry asked after consulting the book.
"Jag förstår inte svenska." Fleur responded carefully.
"Can you repeat that slowly?" Harry said as he leafed through the book.
"Jag. Förstår. Inte. Svenska."
"I… don't… speak… Swedish. Shit." Harry closed the book quickly to look at the cover. "Damn it, I should have known better than to ask Sirius for help."
"Thees Sirius must 'ave a sense of 'umour." Fleur said with a soft laugh.
"He has been known to be funny, occasionally. Learning French is extremely hard when you get sent Spanish and Swedish books. I have a third book as well, but I bet it's not French either."
"Je suis Fleur Delacour." The part-veela said suddenly.
"What?"
"Vous êtes Harry Potter." Fleur said.
"Oh! Er… Je suis Harry Potter."
"Oui."
"Yes?" Harry asked. Fleur nodded.
"Je suis de Bordeaux."
"You are… from Bordo?" Harry said, pronouncing the name like he heard it. "How far away from Paris is that?"
"About five 'undred kilometre. Et vous?"
Harry wasn't sure what the last part she said was, but it sounded similar to 'and you?' and that made sense so he answered. "Je suis de Surrey.
Fleur nodded he head again. "Bonne. You 'ave… potentialle."
"Merci." Harry smiled. The French witch gave a small smile in return. It was unsure at first, but turned real after a few seconds after realizing that Harry was just an innocent student like her. Harry went to his next class in a good mood, having added a few French words to his vocabulary, and made a pretty girl smile. That seemed to be a new skill he had recently acquired, and he would like to keep using it.
888
Harry eventually ended up in a room with Daphne and Astoria once more. He had sat with Fleur again at dinner, telling very simple facts about each other in French. He knew she is seventeen years old, and has a younger sister. The Defense class he had just come from was interesting, only in the fact that Moody had tried to give him a hint about the first task, which Harry found suspicious and ignored. Moody didn't have a reputation for being sane and stable.
Astoria and Daphne had a book spread out in front of them, and they were both sitting on top of the teacher's desk, instead of around it.
Harry made a single glance at each set of their bare legs peeking out from their skirts, and making sure that they saw him make his glance, before greeting them. "Hey Greengrasses."
"Hello Potter." They both responded simultaneously.
"What have we got today?"
"Conjunctivitis curse. Named after its most common use, which is on the eyes. It's an irritating spell, literally. When used on skin, it's a minor annoyance at best, but when used on a sensitive area such as the eyes, or inside the ears, nose, or mouth, it is extremely painful."
"It doesn't sound like something that would be taught here normally." Harry observed.
"That is correct. It is a commonly known spell though. It's a great, non-lethal way of subduing someone. It causes no direct permanent damage, unless the target tries to claw out their eyes or go on a rampage."
"So how do we cast it?"
"Incantation is perrusium inhanestum. Wand motion is a half circle with a twisting jab."
"Alright. And how do we counter it?"
"The standard finite incantatem will suffice. You can do that right?"
"Yeah." Harry nodded.
"So what's the deal with you and Fleur? You've sat with her a few times now." Daphne asked.
Harry was caught off guard. "Well, I got to know Krum fairly well, and Fleur is the other champion, so I want to know a little about her as well since I am going to be competing against them both."
"You learn anything interesting? How's her English?"
"We'll, her English is alright, but heavily accented. And she's not very popular amongst her classmates. Girls don't like her because she's a veela, and boys only want to get in her pants."
"Well, the second part is part is probably true regardless of her veela nature. Are you sure she's a veela?"
"I know her grandmother was a veela, so she's at least part. She has to fight against the preformed notions that her classmates have against her, so that is why she entered the tournament."
"Sort of like you." Daphne pointed out.
"True. She is smart, and pretty, like you."
Daphne smiled. "Are you flirting with me?"
"I'm not sure. Am I? I've never really done it before. I think you almost blushed when I called you pretty. And now you are blushing, because you are pretty."
Daphne started laughing.. "I've never flirted either, but it could be fun."
Harry shrugged casually. "I don't think a witch is going to hex me for telling her she is pretty."
"True, especially since you are the first to say that to me."
"Really? Well, it's true."
"Ok, that's enough." Daphne chided. "Let me try."
"Go for it."
Daphne thought about it for a minute. "I want to suck your cock!" she exclaimed.
Harry was startled by her words and nearly choked on his tongue. Astoria made her presence known however "I'm still here!"
"That's... um, quite bold, and not exactly what I had in mind." Harry said hastily.
"Sorry. I guess I am rubbish at flirting."
"Just say what comes naturally, and I'm quite sure that what you said isn't that."
"Yes, I suppose. I don't want to give someone the wrong impression, but you are pretty much the first boy I've had a long conversation with."
"Well, er, let's get back to the purpose of us being here before Astoria dies from laughing."
Daphne made a point to look at her sister. "Oh, her? She hasn't gone an hour in her life without laughing."
"I'd rather be perpetually cheerful than perpetually gloomy."
"True, but you don't have to live with her."
"Hey! I have to live with you as well. It goes both ways." Astoria responded by sticking her tongue out.
"Anyways…" Daphne said. "Back to this curse. I suppose we have to try it on each other, otherwise we wouldn't know if it worked. I'll go –"
"Perrusium inhanestum!" Astoria called out in the middle of her sister's sentence, and hit her right on the arm.
"Damn it Astoria!" Daphne reprimanded while scratching her arm.
"What's it feel like?" Harry asked curiously.
"Why don't you find out for yourself? Perrusium inhanestum." Daphne cast the spell at Harry's leg.
"It feels like someone is rubbing grit paper on my leg. It didn't hurt that much at first, but its slowly increasing at my leg feels more raw. Finite Incantatem, Finite Incantatem." Harry dispelled both of the curses.
"What the hell is grit paper?" Daphne asked.
"Er, muggles use it to smooth wood. Maybe wizards use it too, I don't know."
Daphne shrugged. "I don't know a thing about carpentry. But what I do know is that there is one of us here who hasn't felt the spell yet."
"You're right. Perrusium inhanestum." Harry pointed the wand at Astoria, who shrieked and started rubbing her stomach where she got hit.
She retaliated by hitting Harry with the curse, who in turn hit Daphne in the lower torso. They all start to laugh, but then Daphne gave off a small moan.
"What the hell was that?" Harry asked.
"You… you hit me down there!"
"Where?" Harry asked. He saw sweat start to form on Daphne's forehead as she gave another gasp.
"In the girl bits you imbecile," Astoria mocked, before quickly canceling all the spells. "Finite Incantatem! Finite Incantatem!" Finite Incantatem!""
Harry watched with wide eyes as Daphne slowly calmed down. "Did you just…?"
"Thanks Astoria. No, not quite, but – no, never mention what just happened to anyone, do you hear? Both of you!"
They both nodded mutely. "That looked embarrassing." Harry commented.
"Shut up Potter. I'll see you tomorrow." Daphne said and she left.
"I bet she's going to go try it in private now." Harry said to Astoria.
She giggled, but it was uncertain. "Probably not. I don't think she's that kind of person, but then again I don't think she would talk about that to her thirteen year old sister."
"You're probably right. Well, good night."
"Good night. Oh, and I wouldn't bring up what just happened to her anytime soon. She can hold a grudge, especially one that embarrasses her."
"Alright. I'll let it go. It was a simple mistake anyone could have made, I don't think any of us were expecting that. It could have been you who got hit there."
"Ew, gross." Astoria said, although she merely rolled her eyes. She waved goodbye before heading off towards the dungeons.
888
"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." Harry said
"Ze queek brown fox yumped ozzer ze lassee dog." Fleur repeated.
"Good."
"Non. Eet ees... roobeesh." Fleur said. Harry almost laughed at the way she pronounced 'rubbish' but he held it in. Sometimes she was very careful with her speech, but other times her French accent came in very heavy.
"It."
"Eet."
"It."
"Eet."
"It."
"Eet."
"Is."
"Ees."
"Is."
"Ees."
"Good. You're getting better." Harry lied. Fleur rolled her eyes.
Harry actually found her struggling sexy, as was the way she couldn't pronounce 'I's' or 'S's' and how she can't even say 'H's'. All her words just flowed smoothly into each other and was quite cute. Harry reluctantly admitted that there are some good things about France, as long as you don't smell like cheese, wine, or surrender monkeys.
They practiced a few basic French words after that, but it was mostly Harry just repeating simple phrases, without knowing how word structure works. He enjoyed just talking with the French witch more than actually learning the language, but it was fun.
888
After a nearly disastrous, but boring potions class, Harry found himself in a classroom with the Greengrass sisters once again. Every potions class is nearly disastrous, so he hardly even bats an eye when a cauldron explodes, even though it is very dangerous. He knew that if he didn't die outright, he would have his customary bed in the hospital wing under the kind care of Madam Pomfrey.
Astoria waved at him when he entered and he returned the greeting to both. Harry took Astoria's words the previous day to heart in regards to Daphne, so he played it safe.
"Hell Daphne. You're looking mighty cheerful today. You're almost glowing, did something happen yesterday that we're not aware of?"
Daphne groaned and buried her hands in her face. "Damn it Potter."
"I will admit, the way you got all flustered yesterday, and the light moaning… it was quite hot."
Daphne rolled her eyes. "Ok, that's enough. It takes more than a few seconds of an accidental charm to reach an orgasm you know."
"Really?" Harry asked.
"Young ears here." Astoria announced.
Harry and Daphne both shrugged simultaneously.
"Let's go over your plan of attack," Daphne suggested. "Instead of talking about things neither one of us are comfortable with."
"Alright. It's going to go down like this…"