to all my pat re ons you are amazing with special thanks to Jack Schriner, SvenGTX and Ibunki Mioda you are all the most awesome of people.

as always pat re on supporters get the chapters one month early. chapters twenty-eight and twenty-nine are already up and if you join at the start of the month you get a whole month free (though it will automatically charge you if you don't unsub before the next first of the month.)

I was also planing when my supporters reach £50 a month I will use some of that money to commission cover art for my fics. if you are interested in doing the cover art then pm me a link to some samples of your work and your commission rates I'll keep you in mind and get back to you when I'm ready to commission the art. I would prefer one of my readers rather than someone who hasn't read my work. here are also two bits of art that tie in with this fic there that are free to look at even without an account if you wish to go look /Lowten

Chapter 27

The wind whipped Harry's hair around as he weaved in and out of the snow-topped towers of the castle. He was pushing his broom to dangerous speeds that were only possible because he was familiar with the layout of the towers. He banked around the Gryffindor tower at high speed close enough to the wall that there was an occasional pull as his sleeve as it caught on the stones. He suddenly banked in the opposite direction and corkscrewed down and around one of the towers that was a decorative piece on the outside of the library.

Life was simpler when he was flying. There was no Triwizard Tournament, no endless mountain of homework, no Rita Skeeter, and most of all no looks of pity from most of the students. Harry had thought that the entire school turning against him in his second year had been bad, but pity was worse. A part of him almost wished that Malfoy and goons were still trying to use the article in the paper to take the piss out of him, but Snape had finally been forced to act like a teacher for once in his career; if the way he blew up at Malfoy was anything to go by, beating children was a hard line for the dungeon bat.

Hermione and Fleur had been brilliant, both of them had set aside the awkwardness of the forced relationship and had insisted on focusing on the thing the two of them agreed on: Harry needed help. Fleur had been just as full of pity at first, but Hermione had pulled her aside and informed her that pity wasn't what Harry needed at the moment. Instead, the two of them pulled him into working on the chests for Triwizard Tournament. They had solved the puzzle on each one now and had three riddles to solve.

Harry had been exchanging letters with Sirius almost twice a day since the article had come out almost a week ago, and Sirius was complaining that Moony had banned him from reading the paper. From what Harry could work out from Sirius's side of the argument and what Harry already knew, Remus had read the paper the day the article first came out and had decided that Sirius shouldn't read it. Harry could understand that, the man already blamed himself for not being there for Harry while he was locked away for a crime he didn't commit. Finding out what Harry had been through during his stay at the North Sea Island would probably destroy any progress the man had made in his recovery. And given how impulsive Sirius could be, the chances were that he would do something stupid that would need fixing. No, Harry agreed with Uncle Moony, Sirius was better being kept out of this at least for now.

Dumbledore was pissing Harry off as well. Since that article he had been nowhere to be found. Professor McGonagall said that the headmaster was leaving the castle a lot, but he wasn't telling her where he was going. She thought he was visiting as many people as possible, trying to salvage his reputation. Harry hadn't seen much of it while safe behind the walls of Hogwarts, and he didn't subscribe to the Prophet and was purposely avoiding any copies he saw lying around, so he hadn't heard, but apparently Dumbledore's reputation was taking a beating.

The factions who were already against Dumbledore, mostly followers of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, were calling for him to be charged with everything from child abuse to attempted murder, and while most of it didn't stick, some of it had. Accusations of neglect were difficult to deny. Most people apparently thought Dumbledore to be an overworked old man who had dropped a ball with all the others he was juggling. Dumbledore's problem was that it was a legal requirement to be employed as a professor or a headteacher that you couldn't have a charge of child neglect against your name.

Harry shook off the thoughts about what had happened over the last week and looped around the Owlery heading towards the Astronomy tower. The whole reason he was up here right now was to escape from all that. Instead, he focused on the riddles that were currently stumping the three champions.

A lifeless cripple who likes to run

Who's always waging war against the sun

Never drawl, never dry

I feast on earth, born in sky

Water runs away from me

While the plants they hold on tight

Wars are fought all over me

With me you know where you stand

In summer I'm your ally

In winter I am your foe

You never see me coming

Yet your hair will always know

There was something about the last line of the third riddle that was bugging Harry, like the answer should be obvious. He looped around the Owlery again, and this time Hedwig came out to join him playing in the air currents. Harry banked down his speed a little; Hedwig preferred to lead and Harry's top speed on his broom was a little too much for her.

The slower speed gave Harry a little more time to think, and his mind went straight back to his problems in the castle. Daphne and Tracy had talked to him and Hermione in Runes, both offering their support. The problem was he could see the pity in their eyes; not at what happened to him at the Dursleys, the two of them already knew something bad enough had happened there to get him living with the Grangers. No, their pity was that his private affairs had become the topic of conversation for every witch and wizard and an assortment of other magical beings living in the UK, but it was still pity and the pity was getting to him.

Harry corkscrewed up the headmaster's tower, trying to get his mind back to a more relaxed state, one where he could enjoy the rush and the wind whipping through his hair.

Wind whipping through his hair?

Wind whipping through his hair!

Wind! That was the answer to the riddle. He changed direction, dove to the ground, and ran into the castle as quickly as his legs would take him. He ran up the stairs two at a time and only slowed to a walk just as he entered the library. Madam Pince was not adverse to banishing a student from the library, and if Harry got banned from the library Hermione would kill him. He found Hermione sitting with Fleur, the two of them going over Hermione's notes for the riddles. Harry felt a slight pang of guilt as he saw the two of them studying. He had planned to be with them today as they worked on the clues, but Hermione had kicked him out after five minutes as his head just wasn't focused enough for the work. Luckily, his guilt was tempered by the fact he was sure he had figured out one of the riddles.

"Hermione, Fleur, I was flying and I think I worked out one of the riddles," Harry said, louder than he had intended. Madam Pince shushed him and the two women both looked up, surprised to see him so soon.

"You solved one?" Fleur asked at the same time Hermione asked. "Which one?"

Harry panted for a half second catching his breath. "The one ending 'You never see me coming. Yet your hair will always know'.'' He pitched his voice down lower, so no one would hear him and take great information to the other champions. There were Slytherins, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs in the library, after all. "It's wind, the answer is wind."

Hermione picked up a sheet of parchment she had labelled 'Riddle 1', as it was the first one they had unlocked, and read the riddle through. "I think you may be right. What do you think Fleur?"

Fleur took the parchment from Hermione when she held it out. "Oui, I think you have hit the nail with your head, Harry." Harry and Hermione both suppressed a laugh at Fleur's mangling of the saying, but Fleur noticed anyway. "What?"

Hermione explained. "The saying is 'hit the nail on the head'. The flat part of a nail is called its head. That's the part you are meant to aim for, so you say 'hit the nail on the head' when you think something is accurate."

"Oh," said Fleur. "It's about nails that go in wood. That makes so much more sense now."

Deciding that it was better to keep them on track (because if Hermione and Fleur got talking about how many ways English was messed up they could go on for an hour or more), Harry asked, "So where are the chests?"

"They are in my room in the Beauxbatons carriage. I was examining them last night," Fleur told him.

"Well let's go try our solution then," Hermione told them as she quickly packed up all the parchments that the girls had laying about the table.

-ϟϟϟ-

The inside of the Beauxbatons carriage was, as Harry and Hermione both suspected, bigger than the outside world indicated. Considering that 50 or so students came from each school, the only thing that made sense was that both schools' accommodations were enchanted so that there was enough room for all of them. The carriage contained what was basically a large manor that had been ornately decorated. What would have been a ballroom had been converted into a large classroom, and another 35 or so rooms had been similarly converted, mostly into bedrooms (even if most of the students had to share a room). As a champion, Fleur was given a single, and after checking in with Madam Maxime, Fleur led them to her room.

Her room was elegantly decorated with cream coloured walls and furniture made of light-hued wood, with everything accented in the light Beauxbatons blue. In the center of the room was a large bed with a blue bedspread containing the Beauxbatons crest proudly on display. The three chests were on Fleur's writing desk, and Fleur directed Harry and Hermione to sit on the bed while she retrieved the chest and joined them, setting the chest down between them. Hermione rotated the chest so she could read out the riddle again directly from the side of the box. "In summer I'm your ally - wind cools you in the summer. In winter I am your foe - because again wind is cooling but in winter that's the last thing you want. You never see me coming - because the wind is invisible. Yet your hair will always know - because hair is blown in the wind." Hermione said the last line with a hint of bitterness in her voice, and Harry understood why; he had had to sit with her a few times as she worked knots out of her hair after a wind had tangled up her long hair.

"It all fits," Fleur said as she opened the little drawer and turned it towards Harry. "I think you should do the honor, Harry. You are the one who worked out the clue."

Harry nodded and pointed his wand at the open drawer, saying "Ventas." Harry wasn't particularly good at converting wind yet, he was better at fire. However, he wasn't trying to make a gale, only a breath of wind, as he didn't want to destroy Fleur's room. It was enough, though, as the lid of the chest snapped open and a winged key came flying out of the chest. The key wasn't too dissimilar to the keys Harry and Hermione had encountered their first year. Harry's seeker reflexes kicked in and he tried to snatch the key out of the air, but just as his fist closed on the key it burst apart into white smoke, and after a few moments reformed back into the key.

"It's like bunnies and chicks that came from the easter eggs last year!" Hermione exclaimed. "It is the clue, you don't need to catch it."

"Maybe not that one," Fleur nodded her head at the key that was now whizzing around Hermione's head. "But I bet you a galleon that there is one in the next task that we will need to catch."

Hermione giggled. "Then we have an advantage. Harry is an amazing seeker, and he has actually had to catch a flying key before."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Hermione," Harry responded. "Let's not forget that Diggory is a decent seeker and Durmstrang has Krum, the seeker currently seen as the best in the world. And knowing my luck, Ali or one of the twins will be some kind of secret flying prodigy."

"Ali can fly well but she doesn't play Quidditch. She says it causes too many injuries. She thinks if it's not life-threatening, Quidditch injuries should be forced to heal the muggle way instead of wasting the time of healers," Fleur told them. "I don't know about the twins though. Is there anything else in the chest Harry?"

Harry looked and saw an inscription carved into the inside of the lid. "There are a couple of words carved into the lid. 'Fly with me'."

"That just leaves the other two chests to work out" Fleur flopped back on her bed. "But still, one down, that's progress."

"Not completely. We still need to work out how to fly. I can't just take my broom with me, we can only use our wand and items we make ourselves."

"Oui, true, else papa would have sent us all dragonhide robes for protection."

"Maybe we can make our own," Harry mused out loud. "Not dragonhide, but you can sow runes into clothes. I have seen some examples that are meant to protect you from the elements, but surely it's possible to do more even if it would burn out afterwards.

Hermione grabbed Harry's arm. "Wait, what did you say?"

"That protection runes based on clothes burn out? If this is about your headband, it's fine, I-"

"No, not that, elements. The first task was fire and the next task had wind. Give me a second." Hermione rushed to Fleur's writing desk and grabbed the two chests and brought them back over. She turned one of the chests to her to check the riddle, and then opened the draw, pointed her wand in, and cast "Aguamenti". A few splashes of water spilled out of the drawer and splashed on Fleur's bed, causing the blonde to exclaim something in French. But all protests were lost when the lid of the chest popped open and another key flew out of the chest, only this one didn't have wings. Instead, it had fins and swam through the air like a fish. "Swim with me," Hermione read out the inscription from the lid of the chest she was examining.

Understanding now, Fleur grabbed the last chest and conjured a stone that she dropped into the drawer, and the third lid popped open. Following the pattern of the first two, a key came rushing out of the chest, this time with rabbit legs as it hopped around the room. "Run with me" Fleur read out from her chest.

The three of them looked at each other. They needed to plan for three different environments. This was going to be a lot of work, and not a lot of time. February 24th may have felt like a long way off, especially on this side of Christmas, but it was less than three months to plan.

-ϟϟϟ-

The prep turned out to be more complicated than they expected. For example, 'swim with me': did that mean swimming across the surface of the water or did it mean swimming underwater? They agreed that the water probably referred to the Black Lake, which was a problem for Fleur. There were merfolk in the lake, and Veela had a rough relationship with merfolk; there was likely to be bloodshed if she were to enter the lake. The three of them got to work putting together what they would need for the task, along with learning spells they thought could be useful.

December seemed to pass quickly, and Christmas and the Yule Ball were starting to loom over them. Hermione was disappointed at missing Christmas at home with her parents; she had only missed one Christmas with her parents, and that had been in her second year with the Polyjuice. She was also disappointed in Hogwarts itself because they had made the dress robes mandatory for the students this year, but if she and Harry hadn't been forced to attend as champions there was a good chance they would have gone home for the holiday and the dress robes would have been a waste of money. She and Harry would have probably grown out of them before there was an opportunity to use them again.

Fleur had found a date for the Yule Ball easily enough after Harry and Hermione had told her that they had already promised each other the date when they bought their robes over the summer. She was disappointed, but she understood. The format of the opening dance didn't allow for a group of three, and while Harry and Hermione were warming up to her, they hadn't reached the point of a relationship. Both Harry and Hermione had promised to save her a couple of dances, which she said she appreciated, but it was impossible for her to hide the truth that she felt like she was stuck on the outside.

About a week before the end of the term McGonagall came up to the three of them during dinner. "Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, I have a signature form from each of you that you are staying in the school this Christmas. However, I also have a letter here from your guardians that they want you to leave the castle this Christmas. Mademoiselle Delacour, you are also invited to go with them." McGonagall may have a reputation as a strict task mistress, but it was also known that she had another side to her normally only seen during Quidditch matches. Harry and Hermione knew her well enough to spot that there was something she wasn't telling them, something that amused her.

"But Professor, the Yule Ball. As champions, no matter how reluctantly, we have to attend the ball." Hermione saw the obvious flaw in them going home for Christmas.

"It will be possible for the three of you to do both. You can leave for the holidays and return for the ball, then either stay at the castle or return to your family for the remainder of the holiday."

"How? Will the school provide a portkey?" Hermione asked, trying to work out the logistics of such an arrangement.

"A portkey seems a little excessive. I would suggest walking." The gleam in the professor's eye that hinted at her mirth intensified as she teased her students a little.

"It's a little far to walk to London and back, Professor," Harry said in a deadpan voice, although he was sure that he was missing something.

Hermione's eyes suddenly went wide as she understood. "Harry, it's a long way to walk to London, but your house in Hogsmeade is much closer. We could easily travel back to the school from there! It will be nice to spend Christmas with Sirius and Remus, though I will still miss my parents with Hogsmeade being magicals only."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Hermione." She looked at him questioningly. "Uncle Moony was telling me about this, that although Hogsmeade was officially a wizarding-only settlement...how did he put it? Oh, 'families are complicated.' There are a few mundanes living in Hogsmeade, but they have to be living with a magical family and accept that they are under wizarding laws while there. Plus, Professor McGonagall said it was a letter from our guardians, and Uncle Moony and Uncle Sirius are not my legal guardians and they definitely aren't yours," He looked at Professor McGonagall to confirm.

"You are correct Mr. Potter, the letter I have is from Mr. and Mrs. Granger." The amusement was clear on her face now.

"Uh… I'm not sure I will be able to come. I mean, I will need to get permission from Madame Maxime," Fleur said, sounding nervous.

"I have already spoken to your headmistress, she has agreed to you spending your Yule break in Hogsmeade if you wish," Professor McGonagall told Fleur, before bidding them farewell and leaving them to talk.

"OK, Fleur, out with it. Why don't you want to join us for Christmas?" Harry asked, cutting straight to the point. However, this caused both of the women with him to wince, Fleur for being cornered and Hermione over Harry's lack of subtlety and tact.

Fleur took a deep breath and answered Harry's question. "It's not spending Christmas with you that I'm worried about. Honestly, the chance to get closer to both of you is just what I want. I want to get past this awkward 'more than friends but not dating' phase, and the only way that happens is by spending time together; a holiday with you is a great way to move forward. It's just…well…isn't this a bit much for what is essentially meeting the parents?"

Harry understood now, it was just nerves and he had barged in like a Neanderthal. "I'm sorry, I should have asked more gently. But I don't think you could possibly make a worse first impression on Dan and Emma than I did." Fleur looked at Harry curiously. "I never did tell you the specifics of how I came to live with the Grangers,did I? Well, here's the quick version." He gave a quick summary of his last birthday at Number 4 Privet Drive before going on to tell Fleur of his first meeting with the Doctors Granger. "So there I was, half starved, half naked and what clothes I was wearing probably looked like I had pulled them from a skip, and I was covered in blood clutching an injured owl that was bleeding on their floor, and then I just pass out.

"Next thing I know, I'm waking up in a strange house, no clue where I was and still half out of it from magical exhaustion and lack of food. I stumble into the kitchen, where I find Emma, and I proceed to bumble everything over breakfast while moaning about Hermione giving me the look if I eat too many fry-ups." Hermione glared at him for calling her out like that, but Harry just pointed to her and said to Fleur, "There, that's the look I mean." He then leaned in and gave Hermione a kiss on her cheek to show he was joking. A full English wasn't exactly a healthy breakfast, with up to eight different fried foods. Even if it was tempting, Hermione was doing him a favour; after all Harry didn't want to end up like Dudley or Vernon. "So, as I was saying, you could never make a worse impression than I did." Harry told Fleur.

Fleur looked at Harry with an almost unreadable expression. Harry only then realised that telling Fleur an actual story of the Dursleys could enrage Fleur against them, when she actually sprouted a few feathers around her eyes before she shook herself a second and focused on the upcoming Christmas. "OK, I'll come, but I may come back to the school if it gets too awkward.

-ϟϟϟ-

The last weekend before going home for Christmas was, as always, a Hogsmeade weekend. It was probably a tradition so that students had the opportunity for a bit of Christmas shopping before going home. Or it was the last opportunity of the year for the shopkeepers to milk the Hogwarts students of their gold, depending on how cynical you were feeling after running around the shops looking for a present for someone. Harry had never had so many people to buy real presents for. Most school friends could just be given a selection of sweets, but this year Harry had to find 12 real gifts: Hermione, Fleur, Dan, Emma, Sirius, Remus, Ali, Daphne, Tracy, Neville, and the twins.

Some were easier than others; the twins, for example. Harry planned to ask Moony and Padfoot if the twins could visit the Marauders' clubhouse at the Potter townhouse, and they would almost definitely agree. On the other hand, he couldn't get away with getting Hermione a book and a box of sugar quills. He had set a high bar last year with Hermione's locket and magical gramophone; he didn't want to fall short this year. Hermione dragged them into Tomes and Scrolls, where they spent almost an hour, although they did end up finding a book on famous British healers and the cures they invented that they were going to give to Ali for Christmas. Fleur was just as bad, but had instead dragged them into Gladrags, a clothing boutique where she proceeded to treat Harry and Hermione like her own personal dress up dolls.

They found something for Neville at Dogweed and Deathcap: an enchanted set of herbology tools that would save him some time in the greenhouses, or (as was more likely in Neville's case) let him fit in more projects. Neville was working away at his Whomping Willow concept, but Harry being chosen as a champion had got in the way of helping Neville. They came up short for Daphne and Tracy but thought they might travel to London and look at mundane shops. Remus was dealt with in Honeydukes with a selection of their best chocolate, as the man was a complete chocoholic. Hermione got a few gift boxes as well, and also got a few selections for other people they knew, including their dorm mates and Harry's Quidditch teammates. Harry prepared not to notice when Hermione slipped a box of sugar quills that definitely weren't meant for anyone else in her purchases.

Dan and Emma were difficult to shop for, as almost everything in Hogsmeade eather required a wand to operate or was just useless to the mundane dentists. What good would they get from a pocket sneakoscope or a remembrall? They did consider an enchanted chess set for Dan, but the man (while proficient in the game, at least according to Hermione) wasn't particularly interested in playing. They looked around the shops picking up a few more gifts, before they split up for an hour agreeing to meet back up at the Three Broomsticks for lunch, using the time separated to buy each other's gifts. Harry checked out a few stores on his own, including the jeweler's and a return to Gladrags.

The Three Broomsticks was packed. With the Hogwarts students, Beauxbatons students, Durmstrang students, and the regular pre-Yule rush, there wasn't any space to sit. The reputation of the Hogshead didn't leave you feeling hungry, more like nauseous. It was Hermione who decided that they should just go to Harry's house and have Sassy whip them up something. The three of them quickly left the crowded pub, and after a short walk through the village they found themselves in the cloakroom of Harry's house where Sassy greeted the three of them warmly. "Master Harry is home, and he has brought both Mistress Hermione and Mistress Fleur with him this time."

"Afternoon Sassy, are Sirius or Remus here?"

"No's sir. Mr Lupin is having a wolfy night tomorrow and is checking on his den, and Master Sirius is having some business in London today," the little elf said with a bow. She soon took charge of their little group and shooed them to the family room for a rest while she made them something to eat. They each ended up eating a large bowl of vegetable stew with fresh baked bread before laying out on the sofa for the rest of the day until it was time for them to return to the school. They were a little disappointed that they missed Sirius and Remus, but they knew they would be back in less than a week.

A/N

A fry-up / full English / cooked breakfast / eggs and bacon, traditionally contains: bacon, sausages, black pudding, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns and bread all of which will have been fried and served with baked beans. It's delicious if done well but can easily clock in over 1000 calories a serving and is very high in fats. Honestly Harry could probably get away with it twice a week as he is still a bit thin, but even in the 90s a fry up was well known to be bad for you.

If anyone has any suggestions on what both Harry and Hermione can give Dan and Emma for Christmas feel free to leave a note as I am currently stumped.