Harry packed his things and stood from the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall with a sigh. His popularity has risen back, especially after the second task. Everybody looked at him with awe clear in their eyes and some even with lust, something that instilled in him a mixture of shyness but also confidence. The sheer amount of magic he used when he was in the lake, even though it was accidental, was untold for a wizard or a witch at that age. He walked slowly towards his next class along with Ron and Hermione, aware of many eyes in the Great Hall gawking at him, but making a fine job of ignoring them. Just as he exited the Hall and started to climb the stairs, a cool female voice distracted him.
“Hello mister Potter.” The voice said and Harry turned around, coming face to face with the beautiful Beauxbaton champion, Fleur Delacour.
His surprise must have shown on his face, as the girl continued speaking.
“I would like to speak with you. Privately, if it is possible.” She said, her accent marring her words lightly.
“Of course.” He said, before nodding to Ron and Hermione that it is ok.
They proceeded on the first floor and found an empty classroom. Harry closed the door as they entered, before Fleur pointed her wand at the door and silently cast a spell. Seeing his raised eyebrow, understanding the obvious question in his expression seeing his hand moving to his back pocket, clearly reaching for his wand, she spoke quickly, in order to assuage his worries.
“Do not worry, I just used a privacy charm on the door.”
Seeing that he calmed down, but not completely, she continued.
“I would like to offer you once again my thanks, for helping me in the lake. I quite possibly owe you my life and that of my little sister’s.”
Before Harry could open his mouth to say that anybody would do the same if they were in his shoes, she continued.
“I would also like to make you an offer, so I can pay back your kindness.”
That shut Harry up, waiting to hear the offer from the beautiful girl in front of him. To be completely honest, his mind wandered to some ways she could repay, her words, not his, his apparent kindness. His admittedly slightly dirty thoughts, made a faint blush appear on his cheeks, something that Fleur pretended not to notice, even though she was a little bit annoyed with him for immediately jumping to that conclusion. Although she could not fault him, not entirely, when she just locked them, with a privacy spell to boot, inside an empty classroom. Also, he was fourteen, it was kind of expected from teenaged boys to have their mind in the gutter.
“I want to help train you, in order to survive in the final task.” Was the words that came out of her mouth, and from how his eyebrows turned slightly downward, he was definitely annoyed.
“And what makes you think that I will not survive? I’m pretty sure that I scored higher than you in both tasks. Also, you just thanked me for saving your life…” he drawled, not unlike Snape, while crossing his arms and looking at her with a challenging expression, annoying her even more.
“For your information, I am a Veela. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Veela are creatures of fire and air, and guess where the second task took place.” She said, raising a delicate eyebrow and matching his challenging stare with one of her own. “Also, I remember that the only spell you casted in the first task was a simple summoning charm, while I put a fire-breathing, nesting mother dragon to sleep, while she was in clear duress. But, if you are that confident that you don’t need my help, how about a duel?”
That brought Harry up short. On one hand, she was correct. On the other, he could not hear her belittle him again, her comment about little boys still clear in his head.
“Okay. When?”
“Now, if it fits with your schedule.” She said with a smirk.
With these words, they silently levitated the desks to the sides of the room and took their place in the opposite sides of the room, before bowing. After exchanging a few spells, Harry realized that he was way out of his league here. Fleur’s spells came to him with astonishing speed and her graceful dodging around his spells made her a difficult opponent. It did not take more than two minutes before Harry found himself disarmed, Fleur twirling his wand in her hand.
“How?!” was the question that came out of his mouth.
“Well it is simple, I am better than you.” Was the reply, but before Harry got a chance to respond, he saw the teasing glint in Fleur’s deep blue eyes. “First of all, I am three years older than you. I’ve been practicing magic religiously for the past six years and I am the best student enchantress of Beauxbatons. Even though I truly excel in enchanting, my charms work is also exemplary. What, did you think that I got picked as Beauxbatons champion just for being drop dead gorgeous?” she finished, pointing her nose in the air hauntingly, but she could not prevent her lips from twitching.
“Hmpf. Seems to me that someone’s ego is bigger than the room.” He said, crossing his arms, still a little bit annoyed from his loss, but mostly mollified from her words.
“As it should be. I am awesome after all. To be honest though, I was aiming for it being bigger than the castle…” she said with a small smile in her face, as Harry chucked.
“Big words from someone who needed rescuing from the big, bad lake.” He could not help but point at her, the smile on his face taking the bite out of his words.
“As I said before, Veelas and water don’t mix!” she repeated, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Of course, of course…” he said in a tone that screamed that he did not believe her.
Taking a deep breath, Fleur asked.
“So, do you need help or not?”
“Well Delacour, it seems to me that you found yourself a new student.”