A pair of men were standing on a grassy hill.

The forest around the hill was short enough that the hill gave a good view of everything around it, and in turn, the hill was quite visible from everywhere around it.

The pair of men wore black suits with black sunglasses, despite the fact that the day was quite overcast and rainy.

The pair looked at a truck, which had served as a makeshift gun motor carriage for a large plasma railgun. Both had burnt to a wreck that was well beyond salvaging. The fire had scorched the top of the hill, leaving a patch of burnt grass and vegetation around the wreck.

The two black-suited men turned away from the burnt-out wreck in unison and looked towards a spot in the horizon- The direction that the gun had been aimed at.

The two black-suited men walked into the forest.

…And the wreck was never seen again, leaving just the pristine and unmarred hilltop in its wake.

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Harry's head hit the pulpit with an audible thunk.

'...I had thought that Hermetic 'detentions' were bad, but I was wrong- They are outright sadistic.' Harry's head felt like it'd crack like an egg, as he had decided to go ahead and get his 'detentions' out of the way while he still grappled with the 'golden egg' problem, and before he'd get too deep, metaphorically or physically, into the opportunity that the Greengrass girl had proposed.

Harry had figured that he could use the tortures that the Hermetics used during 'detentions' to give him new thoughts and feelings via experiencing all sorts of excruciating things, and use those mind-altering emotions to fuel his mental investigation into the Egg. Thus he had decided to use Mariuana to 'Walk Back' a week or so and do his full week and one day of detentions back-to-back in one go by manipulating Time and appearing and disappearing wherever he was needed.

…And according to Professor McGongall, Harry could excuse himself from not attending the actual lectures for the week by stating that he needed the time to prepare for the First Task, even if Harry had already passed it in the future from his past point-of-view. It was a surprising concession, but it looked as if McGongall was quite worried that Harry was taking the Triwizard Tournament too casually- After all, at the Time, that being a week in the past of the 'current Time', the First Task had yet to take place so McGongall had not yet known about Harry's dragon-killing prowess.

Not to mention, Harry didn't want to be accused of breaking Hermetic's code of conduct by actually skipping the detentions, even though his 'back then actual self' was still in Myrtle's bathroom while traveling to the past and eating pizza while getting massively drunk.

In full truth Harry didn't really even bother trying to figure out just where he was at any given Time, or where other Harries were at that same time, just that he had an unspoken pact with himself to try to avoid getting in one another's way- Or for him to interfere with himself.

Harry sighed at the present moment, which according to Harry's estimate of Time was at the end of the last of the week of detentions that had been served back-to-back from Harry's point of view.

Harry, as he was currently, was very much feeling as if he wanted a future Harry to come and stop past Harry from attending the detentions, even though realistically he knew that such a thing would be pretty much impossible as he had already attended the lessons so any attempt to undo that would either fail, or would outright break the space-time continuum… At which point Paradox would most certainly break Harry first, before any such space-time anomalies could occur.

The detentions, simply put and without further preamble, had been boring.

Endless archives, endless files, endless paperwork.

Archives of endless, useless, and utterly unnecessary paperwork.

It seemed that either a) Hermetics were more organized than Harry had thought, b) were more sadistic than Harry had ever thought possible, or c) had used the 'horror in the cupboard' trick with Professor Moody to specifically find the worst phobias of each student so that the Hermetics knew what sort of abhorrent situation would terrify the student the most, and use that sort of thing as a punishment during the detentions.

Harry was certain that the answer was c), even as he slouched off the pulpit and curled up into a fetal position on the floor.

At least he hadn't been required to wear a suit and a tie. It was a small relief, and Harry was certain that McGongall was reserving that horror for the future, should Harry toe the line again and land himself in detention once again.

"Oh, please stop being so dramatic, mr. Potter." McGongall harrumphed as she put away a stack of graded papers, as she had been overseeing Harry's torture-slash-detention while grading essays.

"I am dying, Professor McGongall." Harry groaned from the floor, feeling as if his Willpower had run completely dry and left him as a mere shriveled-up mortal shell.

"Would you like a ginger cookie to help with that?" McGongall commented dryly.

"Does it contain arsenic or cyanide, Professor?"

"No, mr. Potter."

"In that case I must refuse, as I feel like my suffering would only be prolonged by excess consumption of ginger." Harry flopped over to form a 'x'-shape on the floor with his body.

"I see. Off you go now, mr. Potter." McGongall seemed to take offense from Harry's comment over her cookies, and a flick of a wand sent Harry spinning out of the room while remaining face-down on the floor like a human-turned-starfish floor mop

The door to the Torture Chamber (aka the Archive of Doom aka McGongall's Office) slammed shut behind Harry, leaving him spread-eagle face-down on the floor in front of the room.

"Haa… Anyway, the egg." Harry got up from the floor and dusted himself off, ignoring the stares of the students who had been in the hallway and had stopped their walk when they had seen Harry get spin-ejected from the room.

Harry reached into the chest pocket of his school-robes and procured the golden egg which by all accounts should not have fit there. But Harry had already forgotten that such a thing wouldn't fit there, thus making space for the egg to be there.

The gold carvings on the egg seemed to mock Harry's attempts to pierce its mysteries via Prime, leaving him somewhat empty-handed on what exactly to do with it… Until he remembered that he had scheduled a date with Fleur as a prize for helping her during the 'dragon incident'.

'I wonder if Fleur has any idea on how to crack this egg… It might make for a good conversation starter at the very least.' Harry put the egg into his back pocket so that it wouldn't be in the way, causing a nearby first-year student to blink violently as from her point of view Harry just shoved a torso-sized golden egg up his butt.

The Tri-Wizard Tournament had taken place during the weekend that Harry had spent in detention while Harry(s) elsewhere had taken care of the dragon, and it was currently a rainy day during midweek, so by his estimation he was presently a day or so in the future, forcing Harry to calm down and relax so that he could Walk Back to where he was supposed to be.

A snap of fingers produced a flame at the tip of the branch-wand that Harry used, and he used the fire to light up the bong that he had pre-filled well in advance… And a few inhales of the substance caused the world to begin to slow and bloom, filling his head with tranquility and allowing his muscles to relax.

Harry walked into the wall that gave way like soft jelly, and he broke through its surface to emerge into a balcony that was bathed in sunlight.

The massive time-and-date clockwork clocktower at the center of Hogwarts showed that it was the first weekday after the First Task of the Tri-Wizard tournament had ended, or in other words, the 'present moment' as far as Harry was concerned.

He gave a quick thought on what, how, and where he would take Fleur to a date, and he recalled seeing something during his brief 'trip' through the Forbidden Forest from his gunnery position to the Tri-wizard prep tent… And with that, he decided on the location for the date.

The remaining question was on how to ask her to accompany him, and Harry had an idea for that as well- Even though the whole concept of 'Hermetic courtship' was still a mystery to him, at least until Harry would find a chance to bugger the 'Greengrass' girl about it, he had some ideas on how it could go down.

Either way, he had a good vibe about the whole thing, and thus set off in search of enlightenment, mystery, and possibly a fun night out.

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"...And then this happened." Daphne Greengrass finished her complaint-slash-cry of help to Severus Snape in the aloof professor's office.

"...You claim that you were approached by Harry Potter, after which you agreed to date him consensually, and feel that I should be informed of this because…?" Snape lifted his eyebrow slowly while letting his question linger in the air.

"I believe that it is in my best interests to ensure that at least one professor, preferably my head of the house, knows about this even in case I 'disappear', or if I start to act in a manner that fits the description of being under the effect of Imperius Curse, or a love potion." Daphne explained calmly. "I have reasons to worry about my safety, therefore I, and by extension my family, would feel more at ease if Professor Snape kept an eye out on Greengrass family's eldest daughter and thus its heiress. If something were to happen to me, and Professor Snape was to make an inquiry of where I was, I'm certain that he would be seen favorably by the Greengrasses. Of course, this is all a routine thing as I am a daughter of a Noble House, as Professor Snape knows."

"I see." Snape replied dryly. "I'm sure that the Greengrasses and Professor Dumbledore would feel more at ease if I were informed of this event for… posterity. In fact, I feel as if they would appreciate it if I informed them that I have received this information."

"Of course, professor Snape." Daphne curtsied slightly while not rising to Snape's prod- She knew that she was being a bit coy by roping Snape into the whole matter, but while she saw an opportunity in Potter, she was also keenly aware that with each opportunity came danger.

There was a chance that Snape and Potter were in cahoots as well, considering what Daphne had heard when she sniffed for rumors that floated around Potter, but she considered bringing Snape into the affair a necessary risk to take. Not to mention that she had not directly implicated Potter of any foul acts in her report, but masked it as a routine report for later investigation should something happen to her.

Of course there was a chance that Snape might inform Potter about Daphne's report and include Daphne's worry about Imperius, kidnapping, or love potions in the forefront, but Daphne was fairly certain that she could use the routine manner of her report as a shield from that accusation- It wasn't as if love potions and such weren't easy to come by, nor were the daughters and sons of noble families immune to their effects. And more importantly if Potter accused Daphne of unnecessary paranoia out of nowhere, Daphne would have confirmation of the power balance between Snape and Potter- Namely that Snape reported to Potter.

The fact Malfoy's gang of wannabe-Death Eaters were bowing and scraping to Potter was making Daphne quite nervous, but since she had more or less found herself in the middle of the proverbial river, she had no options but to swim. But that didn't mean she wouldn't be proactive about protecting herself.

The second important part of informing Snape was that someone of authority knew about the true nature of the affair between Daphne and Potter, just so that if something awful happened then there was someone who could begin the search for her body. She also had instructed Tracey to do the same, assuming that Snape wasn't in Potter's pocket, and either would raise an alarm if Daphne went missing. She had also set up a number of dead-man's switches in advance, just in case.

It paid to be paranoid of those sorts of things in Slytherin when one was an heiress to a supposedly 'neutral' family, which in reality meant that instead of having one enemy and one friend, you had two enemies that smiled cordially to you.

Ten minutes or so later Daphne had exited Snape's office and was walking in one of Hogwart's many hallways, heading towards her next class… And she deftly took cover behind a corner to listen in to a conversation between voices that she recognized.

"...Lord Potter has disappeared again." A nervous voice reported from down low, presumably coming from someone who was kneeling.

"It is alright, Blaise. Lord Potter does what he does, it's up to keep up with him." Malfoy's voice was nervous. "Get up before anyone sees you kneeling to me. We're not in the common room, we can't afford to draw attention."

'Hm…' Daphne leaned closer to the wall and kept listening.

"W-what about the party? You prepared all the necessities for a party to match and overtake the one that Gryffindors threw for Diggory upon the First Task, but Lord Potter disappeared before we could-"

"I was too late- I was foolish to think that I could make amends by arranging a party after we failed to arrange it on time. But we can still salvage this situation, I'm sure of it. After all, Lord Potter has not retaliated… yet. So we may still have a chance- Or perhaps he didn't want a big party in his name? Or… Maybe he did not want us to throw that party in the first place?" Malfoy's voice became quiet, forcing Daphne to creep a bit closer to the corner of the hallway to hear the conversation. Unfortunately the conspirators were talking so quietly that she was no longer able to determine the speaker's identity amongst the murmurs.

"...Could it be that Lord Potter wants to keep this under wraps after all?"

"...No, have you heard about the… development in…"

"...The Greengrasses are involved with it, there's no doubt…"

"...The rumors started during the week…"

"...I see- The Greengrasses have seized the initiative…"

"...in other words, Lord Potter accepted her party…"

"...However, Lord Potter left for the Chamber of Secrets…"

"...The Greengrasses…"

'...What are they talking about?' Daphne crept even closer to the corner and strained her hearing to figure out just what Malfoy and his cronies were about, as she had overheard her family's name amongst the murmurs.

"...It's certain- Lord Voldemort arranged a party for Lord Potter's victory and married him to Daphne Greengrass at the same time in the Chamber of Secrets!"

Daphne let out a small 'pfffhht?!' sound like a squirrel that was choking on a large nut.

"Malfoy- I heard-!" A panicked voice came from around the corner and Daphne realized that her squeak had revealed her position.

She quickly evaluated her options and realized that she would need to do something drastic to cover up the slip- The hallway behind her was empty of other people as the classes had started some time ago, and there was barely any visual cover for her within few dozen feet since Malfoy and his cronies would round the corner and spot her long before she could reach the other end of the hallway and disappear.

So, Daphne put on her best confident and in-control 'Ice Queen' face and walked around the corner to face the conspirators with a haughty and aloof expression on her face, seizing the initiative.

Daphne was glad that she had practiced the frigid look in front of a mirror and trained herself to keep her face steady even in face of surprising events, as she came face-to-face with about a dozen wands that were held by Malfoy and his boy-band of various undesirables of Slytherin, from Blaise who was still kneeling in front Malfoy, to Nott, to Crabbe and Goyle, as well as a number of 'minor' goons of Malfoy's retinue, the names of whom Daphne had not bothered to remember.

Malfoy's face ran through several expressions starting from anger, and as soon as he realized who he was pointing his wand at, the look went to absolute terror, and finally to a well-practiced refined smile.

"Ah- Please excuse us, Young Lady Greengrass." Malfoy put his wand into his sleeve immediately and stepped on Nott's foot as the tall boy's face had paled to the complexity of paper and he looked as if he had frozen in place with his wand still pointing at Daphne. The pain from getting his foot stomped seemed to wake Nott from his shock and he put his wand away hurriedly while Malfoy spoke to Daphne. "Could I ask what brings you to our company?"

"I happened to overhear some rumors." Daphne flared her nostrils as if she had seen something thoroughly disgusting. Which wasn't far from her actual reaction to seeing Malfoy's group, but it was important to keep up appearances. "I hope that these baseless rumors weren't mentioned in a public hallway where anyone could overhear them."

"I-" Malfoy's face became as pale as Nott's as the implication hit him.

"I certainly hope that these rumors regarding the relationship between me and Harry do not spread." Daphne lifted her eyebrow at Malfoy while feeling quite slimy internally. On one hand she felt somewhat bad that she was involving Potter's reputation with whatever brain-dead theories Malfoy's group had just come up with by all but confirming the theories with her 'recommendations', but on the other hand, she knew that playing into Malfoy's fears was the safest way for her to escape the situation with her dignity intact.. "I'm certain that Harry would not approve of these sorts of rumors spreading outside the Slytherin house."

"Yes- I- of course, that was foolish of me. To speak about some baseless rumors, I meant to say." Malfoy nodded nervously, causing Daphne to feel a surge of sadistic pleasure from seeing the previously haughty and untouchable daddy's boy-bully of Slytherin squirm in front of her cold look.

"Very good. Now then, I have places to be. I hope we do not need to have this conversation again." Daphne turned around and walked off with the elegance of a queen, feeling slightly giddy inside from the power trip even if she knew that what Malfoy had spoken about was utter nonsense.

…That was, until she thought about it some more and started to wonder just from where exactly Malfoy had pulled you-know-who and Chamber of Secrets in relation to Potter, and she started to slowly realize that Malfoy had interacted with Potter far more than she had, and thus would know more about what Potter did regularly, and even if Malfoy's current 'guess' was utterly rubbish, there was a chance that Potter, in fact, had some sort of connection to the Dark Lord. Outside the obvious one.

Daphne was glad that she had practiced the 'regal walk' well in advance so her sudden nervousness over her future didn't come through her posture.

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Fleur Delacour shone as bright as the star on the night sky as she recounted a tale that she had repeated at least a hundred times, of her coming across a fairy who granted unto her the knowledge on how to perform an arcane switching spell at the cost of something precious to her, allowing her to use her quick wit and mystic power to overcome the First Task with ease and grace.

Internally she felt quite dead as she finished her tale, once again, to a group of sycophants who seemingly couldn't get enough of hearing about Fleur's brilliance.

She had fabricated the fantastic cover-up story after the shock of the First Task had faded, and she had figured that she might as well equate Potter to a fantastic fairy who just happened to impregnate Fleur's mind with knowledge on how to turn a chocolate egg into a golden dragon egg, with much glitter and fanfare added to the story just to make the story more believable to the average Beauxbatons student who probably already thought Fleur to be half-Fairy in addition to being half-Veela.

Curiously enough the students from other schools of magic didn't bother Fleur much about her performance in the Task, leaving her somewhat conflicted as on one hand she wouldn't have minded being adored by the wider populace, but on the other she was fairly glad that she wouldn't need to shed much more details on the fabricated story in case someone happened to find a contradiction in the story and asked Fleur to clarify herself.

The fact that Potter had outright blown his dragon to giblets with a single spell seemed to be the focus of rumors and newspapers, and for once Fleur was secretly glad that she was not in the center of that particular spotlight.

However, that left her with two problems: Firstly the Golden Egg, which she was somewhat flummoxed by as it screamed at her whenever she opened it, and secondly that she owed a date to Harry I-kill-dragons-for-fun Potter.

…Not to mention that Harry had forced Fleur to swear that she'd be alone on that date with Potter, which meant she would be unguarded.

….And Potter would have a motive for ensuring that she couldn't continue to take part in the Tri-Wizard Tasks, as the competition had quite a hefty monetary reward in addition to honor and glory.

Fleur was fairly certain that her remains could fit into a tinderbox after the date, if those remains could ever be found.

So at the moment she was a bit preoccupied in her internal dread over the H-hour, for when the Reaper came for her head, and-

"Hey."

Fleur screamed as something cold touched her cheek, as did the group of Beauxbatons girls who were sitting in front of her on the floor of the carriage-dorm-system that Beauxbatons students had used to get into Hogwarts, and which they used as their sort-of 'home base' when they weren't roaming Hogwart's grounds.

Fleur lifted her hand to calm the flock of sycophants as soon as she regained her own calm, as the girls had jumped to their feet and were screaming in a mixture of cries for help and shaky threats in babbling French at the invader.

"Bad moment?" Harry Potter asked as he had appeared behind Fleur somehow and had put a cold can of something against her cheek from behind.

Fleur knocked the offered can off Potter's hand with a flick of a wrist, however the can seemed to bounce off the floor in clear defiance of gravity and the boy caught the cylinder mid-bounce.

"Sorry for spooking you." Harry apologized easily while popping the top of the can open and taking a sip, completely calm and in control in a pose that caused Fleur to be quite worried about her safety, given the context. "Got a moment?"

"What do yu want?" Fleur hissed to hide her internal panic and uncertainty over Potter's sudden materialization just as she was worrying about her future.

"I was thinking, would you be interested in going on that date with me?" Harry put to words the event that Fleur had dreaded for the past couple of days. "I found a good location, I think you're going to love it."

"What is zat?" Fleur forced herself to be somewhat calm as she spoke and plastered a thoroughly fake smile on her face, causing the gaggle of girls who were still in the room to pause to contemplate what had just happened.

"A secret. Can't spoil the surprise now, can I?" Potter smirked, confidence clear in his body language all the while his eyes were slightly hazy- The latter of which did not give Fleur confidence in whatever plan Potter had hatched.

'So I can't alert madam Maxime to look for my corpse in that location if I don't even know where the date is going to take place. I'm so dead. Merde, I should have just gone ahead and tried to hit the dragon in the eye with a rock or something…' Fleur felt as her self-preservation instinct screamed at her, but she was honor-bound to the contract so she would have to agree. Not to mention that she had a creeping feeling that Potter wouldn't just nod and smile if she broke her end of the contract- Potter had already shown that he could just appear out of thin air and reduce living beings to atoms, so even if she screamed for help she would probably just disappear one day without a trace and no-one would be the wiser.

Fleur had had stalkers before, and had some currently, but between Fleur's own physical and magical abilities (namely, her Veela-charms and arsenal of hexes), and the fact she was always accompanied by a gaggle of sycophants, she hadn't worried much about her safety. But Potter seemed more than unhinged enough to be a very real threat who had locked his eyes on Fleur for some reason- She guessed that her beauty had enchanted Potter, but it was a shaky guess considering his reaction to her Allure.

The fact Potter was seemingly immune to Allure was also very concerning, as it would mean that if Fleur was disarmed she couldn't just blast Allure at Potter to make him lose grip on reality for a moment to allow her to slip away under the confusion.

'...I need to buy time- I might be able to subtly hint for madam Maxime to send someone to look for me and tag along coincidentally- But I can't be too overt or things will escalate out of hand…' Fleur glanced covertly at the gaggle of girls who were staring at Potter with various looks from incredulity to righteous anger to outright terror, depending on how the girls took Potter's straightforward words. "'Ery well, Potter. I'll bite. But I need some 'ime to prepare… Hm… 'Omorrow would be fine."

"Sure, as it is three hours to midnight, I shall be picking you up in four- That okay?~" Harry bowed deep with his hand against his chest, and his words made Fleur almost scream aloud in combination of fury, indignation and terror as she realized that she had been foolish enough to assume that Potter would get that she intended the afternoon of the next day, and not the literal changing of the date. "I was thinking about clothes that are easy to move in and are durable."

"Zis… is fine…" Fleur choked out as she had walked right into Potter's trap, and trying to squirm out now would probably just make her situation worse.

However, Potter was gone before she could correct the 'misunderstanding', leaving Fleur holding her chest in sudden panic.

'...I'm so dead.'

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"Well, that went good." Harry nodded to himself and took another hit from a roll of weed that he had prepared from the flowers that Olliwander had given him.

Using up his last shreds of Willpower to walk through walls, even with a powerful foci, was a bit indulgent of him but Harry figured that he'd have a good chance of restoring it fully if the date went well- And if he was honest, he didn't really see the date going too badly wrong.

Harry leaned forward over the stonework of the Hogwart's main entrance bridge and waited… And lifted his hand up as he realized that some version of himself had left him a marking on the stone as a message.

'...Hoo?' Harry lifted his eyebrow at the mark as it meant a few things.

Harry blinked, twice, and re-read the message.

'...Huh. Well, I should have known better than to tempt Fate…'.

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In what had felt like ten minutes, or in reality had been four hours if one went by the commonly recognized concept of 'Time', Harry flicked the butt of the roll of weed over the bridge's edge, causing the still-smoldering bit of ember to send a streak down and disappear into darkness like a defiant angel descending upon unspeakable horrors that lay in the waters below.

Harry's eyes followed the charge of the lonely ember all the way down the bridge until he heard a small 'plop' of the ember hitting the water, being extinguished against the flood of horrors that likely took the shape of all sorts of tentacled monsters that crawled all over the innocent angel's-

"'Arry?" A voice with a thick accent broke into Harry's mind, but it was not quite the voice that he had expected. "What're ye doing around here this late? Students aren't supposed ta be out this late."

"Oh! You're… hmm… That big cool dude with a cool beard! Greetings, professor, sir!" Harry turned around and snapped his fingers as he had seen the burly man in front of him once before, amongst the professors but had not caught his name. Or perhaps Harry had heard the man's name, but he had forgotten about it already.

"Name's Hagrid… Oh ye, we haven't met- I… yeh." Hagrid seemed to be experiencing emotions as he stood on the bridge in front of Harry… And then thick tears started to flow down his face and into his beard. "Ye's lookin' just' like James… An… With Lily's eyes…"

The large man pulled an equally large handkerchief and sneezed on it, causing Harry to bend back like a sapling tree from the gale that the sneeze caused.

"I's the one who pulled ye out of ye mom's and pop's house's wreck… When James n Lily died in the hands of You-Know-Who… I… I's sorry that I didnt' find ye earlier, when ye was missing…" Hagrid seemed to get himself under control and put the thoroughly snot-stained handkerchief back into his giant-sized trench coat pocket.

"Oh! So you're the one who saved me the first time around! I haven't gotten to thank you- Mostly because I didn't know who you were or what had happened- but rest assured that I'll pay back this debt-" Harry began but it looked as if Hagrid didn't want such a response as he waved his massive hand.

"No worries, Harry. I'd do anytime. Any'n would, it's common sense to help those in need, yeh? S-sorry, fer getting all teary, ye see… I… just remembered all sorta things… S-o, yeh. I'm Rubeus Hagrid. Keeper of keys and grounds 'ere at Hogwarts. It's… nice ta meetcha again at last, Harry." Hagrid offered his hand at Harry, and Harry shook it even though he felt as if his arm dislocated itself from the massive man's firm handshake. "We haven' actually talked much. Again, sorry 'bout that, getting emotional 'an all… I's just that ye look so much like James, jus' with long hair- We were studyin' in Hogwarts in the same yer, well, at least until I got expelled for having a pet spider and whatnot. I was 'spost tae find ye after the owls failed ta find ye, but I couldn't either- Tried fer three years-"

"Gotcha, big man. It's all good. Nice to meetcha too." Harry nodded several times, glad about Hagrid's sudden appearance as the hand-mauling (that was probably called 'handshake' among giant society) and the adrenaline of getting ambushed by a ten-feet tall guy who looked like he weighed as much as a small truck in muscle, had all but wiped out the stupor left by the weed-joint, and replaced it with the clarity of an adrenaline surge.

"Yeh! Anyway- Don't worry, ye's not not trouble. I can escort ye to the, hrm, Slytherin's common room so that Filch don't get to rag on ye for being out after curfew." Hagrid seemed to struggle with saying the 'House' in which Harry was, but the big man's jolly speech resumed as soon as he got over that little hiccup. "James an' Lily were Gryffindors, you see, I's surprised that their son woulda become a Slytherin, is all."

"I'm glad to hear your offer, but I'm actually waiting for my date. Triwizard-related and all." Harry bowed cordially at Hagrid, causing the large man to pause a bit.

"Er… Triwiz' stuff? I hadn't heard about that takin' place tonite." Hagrid scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. "There was this thing Dumbledore asked me to do, with the mermaids of the lake an' all- They're not happy that the center of them's village is used as a goal for the second Triwizard Task see- but I hadn' heard that there was some date today fer- Oh."

"Oh." Hagrid gained a heavy, embarrassed blush as he realized something, all the while Harry waited patiently. "I, uh, see. Differen' kinda date. That sorta date. 'Oight- Er- Harry, mate, listen- You didn't hear about them mermaids, got it? Nuffing to do with the second Task, got it? I's just… uh… I's like ta swim an' all, an'..."

"Consider it forgotten. I certainly didn't overhear about the Second Task taking place in the lake with a mermaid village, at the center of which lake-village was the goal of said task." Harry nodded seriously.

"Yeh, like that- oh." Hagrid's face lit up with joy for a moment before it turned sullen. "It's not nice to mock, Harry. I jus' thought that-"

"No, I'm very genuine. I'm trying to practice my Prime, you see, and it'd be cheating if I used the things I overheard to skip the process." Harry gave Hagrid a very serious stare-down. Or rather, stare-up considering that the large man was about twice as tall as him and four times wider. "I'm many things but not a cheat. Well, unless it's funny. Or it gets me a date with a hot french girl."

"Oh- Oh! Right- Sorry. I…" Hagrid looked quite ashamed. "...Sorry, Harry. I thought, with ye being Slytherin an' all…"

The large man's face streaked with tears again. "Ye's really James's son… An' Lily's… Ye's too straight-backed to be in Slytherin- A-an'... I- I thought ye's…. I'm sorry, Harry."

"...'Scuse me?" A somewhat wary voice came from somewhere nearby, causing Hagrid and Harry to turn around and look at the newcomer.

"Ah! Hi, Fleur!" Harry waved his hand at the girl who had dressed herself in a getup that could only be described as 'defensive', with thick school-robes in vaguely Beauxbaton's style, and what looked like leather armor underneath- Which was good, as Harry had been slightly worried that the girl would ignore his 'dress-code' for the date and would come in some sort of easy-to-snag getup.

"Er?" Hagrid turned to wave at the girl as well for a moment, at least until he recognized the silver-haired girl. "Student's aren't- Oh, right. Is this yer date, Harry?"

"Yep. Oh- This is good actually. You don't tell anyone about me and Fleur going on a date, and I won't tell anyone about your long swims in the lake." Harry winked at Hagrid.

"Oh- Yeh, right. I can do that. Well, off ye go. I'll go an… let Filch know the Forbidden Forest's spiders are at it again an so forth… Distract'n an all…" Hagrid gave Harry an incredibly unsubtle wink in return and walked off like a moving mountain that soon disappeared into the darkness of the night.

"...What was zat?" Fleur looked suspicious.

"Dark and mysterious dealings in the night, trading secrets for secrets." Harry covered half his face with his hand in a mysterious way, electing a long-suffering sigh from Fleur. "Not your style, hm? I can live with that."

"Please be serious, garçon…" Fleur looked to be somewhat upset and Harry shrugged.

"Hogwarts chief torturer-and-enforcer was about to intercept our date and break it up, so Hagrid over there went to stall him so we can have our date in peace." Harry explained, causing Fleur to mutter something venomous under her breath. "Anyway, nice getup. The leather looks good on you."

"Haa…" Fleur looked slightly annoyed but gave a slight nod anyway. "Zis is manticore hide. Resistant to magic, and physical trauma, but more difficult to move 'in than robes."

"Very good. I was planning on having the date take place in the forest." Harry gestured towards the dark forest in the distance.

"Zis… Locals call zis 'the forbidden forest', oui?" Fleur turned to stare at the dark forest that practically radiated a feeling of certain doom.

"Yeah. There's something I want to take you to see- It's great, I promise." Harry gave Fleur a beaming smile and took her hand. "Just keep your guard up and if you see any suspicious man-shaped forms try to creep on us, shoot first and ask questions later."

Fleur gulped and followed while she looked as pale as her silvery hair.

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'Merde, merde, merde, I should have expected this, he's not planning on leaving behind even a fingernail…' Fleur tightened her grip around her wand behind her back as Potter led her into the dark, nightly forest that practically radiated the aura of certain death. 'If I die here then Potter would be prime suspect, but as long as he can get beast-marks on my corpse, he could claim that some sort of monstrosity killed me while he was trying to defend me… Moreover, that giant man earlier was one of Potter's cronies, if he is trying to isolate me with Potter… Potter must have a deeper network of high-ranking friends and sycophants in zis place than I thought… I underestimated him.'

However, Fleur was not willing to die so easily. The moment the two would be deep enough in the forest that no-one would hear, Fleur would strike first. '...I asked Madame Maxima for a spell to use on enemies that try to kill me… She got my hint, I think… Yes, 'Strike fast, strike hard, and have wild beasts eat the evidence'.'

'...I heard something about giant spiders in this forest… If Potter leads me to their nest and is trying to dispose of my would-be corpse that way, then…' Fleur hardened her heart and prepared herself to use Avada Kedavra when she got the chance- She had never used the Unforgivable Killing Curse before, but she would have only one shot at taking Potter down.