"You were right … I'm going to find this day strange," Fleur said, sort of wryly, when they were a short distance from Hogsmeade, "nothing weird about being led around by a dog…"
"Don't know what you mean," replied Harry, hiding his smirk.
"Woof!" The same dog echoed happily, wagging his tail at them.
"And he even seems to understand everything I say, and nobody but me finds it crazy," continued Fleur.
"And it's only going to get worse," Harry said casually and kept on walking.
"What?"
"Nothing... nothing at all," Harry sighed. He was so looking forward to this conversation he thought sarcastically. This is actually Sirius, and he's a wanted criminal. Second of all, my name was put in the Goblet by Voldemort, and he's probably going to attempt to kill me during the third task.
His life sometimes sounded like a parodic comedy. Eventually, though, they reached their destination, which was a sort of Sirius Sanctuary. It was an ordinary cave with almost nothing in it except a few copies of the Daily Prophet, the remains of whatever bits of food Sirius had scrounged out, and a makeshift bed.
"Don't tell me you've been living like this," Harry sighed as he watched Sirius come to a stop.
"Woof," barked his Godfather.
"I'll get Dobby to bring you some food and supplies. He's not observant enough to realize what you are if you're not here at that moment. I'll tell him I'm making a bunker or something."
"Harry!" Hermione accused.
"Are we going to leave him here to freeze and starve to death, or are we going to use a house elf for once?"
Hermione just sighed, but she knew he was right, so she didn't argue further.
"Well, let's get this over with, Fleur." He looked at her. "I'm going to let you in on a secret, so let me explain it to you before you act rashly, or I'll have to stun you."
"Excuse me?!" Fleur stepped back.
"I'm serious." He looked at her. "This may come as a shock... so... Fleur, this is Sirius Black, my INNOCENT godfather. Sirius? This is Fleur, my friend, teacher and date at the ball." As soon as he finished speaking, Sirius transformed into his human form. Fleur was already reaching for her wand, but Harry was quicker and caught her hand in his. Seekers' reflexes were just that good, plain and simple.
"Nice to meet you, Miss," Sirius tried to make a good first impression... well, as good as you can when you're a wanted criminal in almost tattered clothes, in a cave, standing on a pile of chicken bones.
"Harry, you really don't make things easy."
"I guess that's why you like me so much," Harry tried to ease the atmosphere.
"Hmph. Who said I like you?"
"Well, you haven't pulled out your wand with your second hand yet, stunned us - not that you could manage that - or tried to make a run for it."
"What makes you think I couldn't?" Fleur challenged.
But it was Hermione who spoke up. "I've had my wand up my sleeve pointed at you since we stepped into the cave."
"As I told you, Hermione always has my back." Harry smirked proudly, this was something Fleur just had to understand.
But that made Fleur laugh almost hysterically. "This is all so absurd," she said, not knowing what to do for a moment, "Anyway... it's nice to meet you too, Mr Black." She carefully held out her hand to him as Harry released her. Now they could breathe a sigh of relief. "At least what you said before the first task makes sense now."
"Yes, I was talking about my godfather."
"But now I'd like to hear the whole story," Fleur said, transforming some boxes into chairs. They all had a long chat about the events behind Sirius's incarceration including who the real traitor, Wormtail was and how Harry's parents had died.
"And while we're at it, I have another bombshell." Harry scratched his head in discomfort.
"Are you actually a female?" Fleur said sarcastically.
"This is a bit of a bigger bombshell... as you probably know, Voldemort…"
She flinched slightly.
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, call him what you want, is dead?" he waited for her to nod. "Well... he isn't."
"Excuse me?"
"The possessed professor I told you about?" Harry hinted, waiting for Fleur to nod, "he was possessed by Voldemort. The basilisk? He was released by Voldemort's ghost... well, and my name in the Goblet of Fire? Bingo Voldemort..."
Now Fleur just stared at him, mouth agape. "Are you telling me that the greatest Dark Lord of recent decades has survived his death, and his goal is to hunt you down?"
"Among other things, Yes," Harry admitted.
"A-Are you sure?"
"Absolutely." Harry nodded sadly. "I guess it's revenge for killing him as a baby or whatever it was I did."
"But people don't come back from the dead, Harry!"
"People don't just survive killing curses either," he countered her, "I'm only a fourth-year student, but even so, I've learned that magic has no boundaries. Maybe Voldemort somehow messed it up, injured me and turned himself into spirit form, or maybe my mother did something impossible... I just don't know. If we're to believe Headmaster Dumbledore, my parents' love for me was the reason for all of this. While I believe my parents were wonderful," he smiled at Sirius, "There must have been plenty of parents in history who loved their children immensely and yet their children didn't survive the Killing Curse."
Sirius gave him a nod in agreement. "I haven't figured out what it could be either. Don't get me wrong, I'm fortunate to have at least you left, but even my brain can't comprehend what happened that fateful day."
"And why doesn't anyone know this?" Fleur didn't understand.
"Well, here's a third bombshell... this time for all of you. That's in progress."
"Tell me, Harry, it's not what I think it is!" Hermione stood up.
"I'll be safe!" He reassured them, and more importantly himself, "but I need to continue with this Tournament so that Voldemort shows up, and when he does, Dumbledore will take care of him."
"You're not going to be a bait, Harry! I forbid it!" Sirius ordered.
"I don't have a choice!" he grit his teeth. He took a deep breath to calm himself before explaining, "the tournament and the whole magical contract isn't over before someone finishes it and wins. I have to at least make an effort to participate according to the contract, so I have to get in on this last task anyway, even if I know who's after me. Our plan is that Dumbledore kind of knows who's coming after me, so he'll be prepared and stop him. If we're lucky, we'll learn where to find Voldemort."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Hermione said, feeling rather hurt.
"I wanted to let it sink in first," Harry admitted, "and it wasn't very easy, to be honest. However, Albus Dumbledore said something when I stopped Voldemort from rising the first time: 'and if someone stops him from rising again, he might never succeed' or something like that. I don't remember exactly. What he meant is clear, though. Voldemort is just a phantom or some shell of what he used to be... and if I don't stop him, he'll become human again, and that is going to be a huge problem for everyone."
"If he's only after you, all you have to do is hide."
"Yes, that might help too," Harry agreed, "but surely he'd find another plan that we wouldn't know about, and how do you prevent something that you don't know exists? At least this way we can be prepared."
"I don't like it, Harry," Sirius took the floor, "but… I trust Dumbledore, and if he knows about everything and keeps an eye on you, I firmly believe that neither Voldemort nor anyone else will be able to lay a hand on you. But you have to be careful, you understand? If Voldemort is out to get you in the third task, you need to be as paranoid as Moody, not trusting anything in there."
"That's good advice, and especially if someone is using Polyjuice. Crouch stole the ingredients for it from Snape."
"Tell me more. There wasn't that much in your letter," Sirius said and Harry sort of ran through everything he remembered from that night. Sirius, in return, told him about Crouch heading for the Minister's office. Still, many things figuratively broke Crouch's neck, including that his son had been charged as a Death Eater and subsequently died in Azkaban.
"But if Crouch hated Death Eaters so much that he imprisoned his only son, he certainly wouldn't have joined them."
"Maybe the person tricked my map, they took advantage of Crouch being sick and pretending to be him," Sirius shrugged, "If you'd asked me last year, I'd have told you that the map couldn't be wrong, but after everything that's been going on... I'm not so sure anymore."
"But the Headmaster has the map now, so if anyone can spot its flaws, it's him."
"I believe that as well," Sirius agreed.
"So what do we do now?" spoke Fleur after a long time. "I wanted you to win this tournament and somehow make a mockery of my school, but that's not the case at all now. How am I supposed to deal with this?"
"If you wish, you can continue to train me," he smiled at her, "or you can take a break from it and rely on it working out. Albus Dumbledore is a legend after all."
"You want me to give up?"
"Give up?" Harry grinned. "You've taught me a lot, made me a superstar in and out of school. They'll even give me the Order of Merin. If anyone ever delivered on anything they promised it was you."
"I said I want the reward when you win." She smiled at him.
"Then let's win and survive." He smiled at her as well. "How about that? Sirius? Hermione?"
They probably wanted to say something along the lines of they didn't give a shit about winning. It was essential to survive. Still, neither of them seemed to want to spoil Harry's fun, so they just nodded and returned his smile, perhaps a little forced. Then they had given Sirius all the food they had brought him and watched him happily eat something decent. They talked about all sorts of things for a few more hours. For a small moment, Harry thought that this was what it would be like if he came to introduce a girl to his parents... and for that small moment, his life was very beautiful.
***
Harry set off with Fleur, Hermione and Cedric towards the Quidditch pitch because that was where Bagman would meet them and tell them what was in store for the third task.
"And how are things with you and Viktor these days anyway?" Cedric asked out of the blue.
"Viktor is fine," Hermione told him.
"That doesn't tell me much," he replied.
"He wants me to visit him over the holidays," she told them after a moment.
"Wow, I honestly can't even imagine how someone like Krum lives," Harry said, "all the commercials, the tournaments, the world championships, he must live in a castle, right?"
"I don't know. We haven't talked about that."
"I didn't mean he's bragging about his fortune!" Harry defended himself for good measure. "But still, being new to the magical world, I can't imagine how famous and rich people live. After all, the Weasleys live... in a unique house."
"Our family lives in a spacious house with a garden," Fleur said, "but I don't think Krum lives in any kind of castle if he's moved away from his parents. He likely lives alone in an apartment somewhere, a luxury apartment, but an apartment nonetheless. He doesn't look like someone who wants to tend to three floors and miles of gardens."
"Probably not," Harry agreed, "but I could see him owning his own pitch."
"Which isn't hard. I have hoops in my garden, too," Cedric joined in. "And how do you live, Harry? In the Muggle world, I mean."
"My aunt and uncle live in a house, it's got two floors, a nice garden... it's a nice neighborhood," Harry said truthfully. Luckily they were asking him about the house and not what his relatives were like.
Cedric just nodded understandingly. "Honestly, when I was a kid, I thought you lived in a castle." He laughed, "I don't know why, but it seemed like the boy-who-lived must have his own castle."
"I don't know. I feel the same way as Krum, probably. I wouldn't want to take care of three floors and a large garden, and if I employed elves, Hermione would hunt me down," Harry said, dodging a slight punch from her.
"There you are!" Bagman called out to them, snapping them out of their cheerful conversation and shocking them a little by lightly pointing towards the pitch, which really wasn't for playing Quidditch anymore. "Don't worry! We'll undo that. Next year you'll be able to play and fly like the wind again, Mr Potter."
"Are you building a maze?" Hermione said immediately.
"And who are you?" Bagman focused on Hermione in the dark, "Ah, Miss Granger! I don't know if you should be here, as well as you, Miss Delacour, but I don't think it can hurt. You would have seen this in the morning anyway." Bagman finally shrugged. "Well, at any rate, you're right, this is a maze, and it will be your third task. I'll be honest with you, this was a task devised before the whole cheating situation happened. However, together with Mr Crouch and I and the others only designed two new tasks. Then Mr Crouch didn't show up... and when we wrote to him to ask if he wished to change the third task too, he wrote us a letter saying that it could remain. We consulted with the headmasters as well, and when we were sure that they hadn't given anything away, we let this challenge go." He smiled at them. "Your task will be simple, find the centre of the maze and collect the trophy that will be there... whoever collects it is the winner. Straightforward, isn't it? Not really, the maze will change as it pleases, and there will be a few surprises and obstacles, which I won't tell you about, of course. Mr Potter will go first because he has the most points. Each point gives you a two-second head start on the others, so all your efforts or failures will be reflected in your chances of winning. It's sure going to be fun, though, all the creatures and hexes."
"You can participate too, Mr Bagman," Cedric replied innocently.
"A few years ago, I would have taken your challenge, Mr Diggory." Bagman laughed loudly. "Yeah, those were the days, but now it's your time to make a name for yourself, and I'll provide commentary again."
"Will we be able to send sparks here to save us?" Harry asked.
"Of course, I hope you all don't give up though, who would win then?" Bagman laughed again, "Now, if you don't have any more questions, I'll head back home and let you guys have a look around if you want. But like I said, the maze will change its layout as it pleases, so don't waste your time surveying or anything."
And with those words, Bagman left them and headed off.
"Don't you want to talk Hagrid out of putting something horrible in there?" Cedric asked half-jokingly, half-seriously.
"Why Ced, don't you wish to see the Three-headed dog there?"
"Unlike you, I can conjure up a musical instrument."
"I think I'll indeed go talk to him," Harry said eventually. Cedric was right, and he got a small meaningless plus for that.
"So what now, shall we go back to the castle?" Cedric suggested.
"I'll escort Fleur to her carriage as usual, so if Hermione doesn't want to go, you can go alone."
"Alright, see you around," Cedric said goodbye and waved them off before heading off. Harry wanted to ask why he hadn't asked Hermione, but she was engrossed in something Viktor Krum had been telling her, and he quickly figured it out as well.
"Shall we leave them here together?" Fleur asked.
"Viktor!" shouted Harry, "make sure Hermione gets to the castle on time!"
"Harry!" Hermione protested.
"I'll escort her," he uttered in broken English, and that was enough for Harry. Hermione trusted Viktor, and he would be a hypocrite to tell her that she couldn't trust him when he had divulged almost everything to Fleur.
"Well, we're good to go." Harry finally smiled at Fleur and together, they walked a short distance away from the Forbidden Forest towards a huge magically enlarged carriage. "What does it even look like inside?" Harry tried to keep the conversation going as he pointed to her quarters.
"We have a bit more luxurious accommodations," Fleur said, "there's plenty of room in there too, but I have one classmate in my room. Only Sebastian has a room to himself... and of course Madame Maxime."
"And you get along with your roommate? After all... you chose me over your school."
"At first, she didn't like me very much for it. Nowadays, she thinks you and I are dating. Since she's a huge romantic," Fleur laughed, "she immediately understood and told me that you have to go for your true soulmate even against your school and that she can't hold it against me anymore. So she didn't understand anything in the end, but I won't refute her."
"And I believed that was exactly why you were with me." Harry pouted playfully.
"That's because you probably read the same books she does." Fleur grinned at him.
"Actually-," Harry was about to argue something, but a deep voice came out, startling them both.
"Harry Potter," said the voice coming from the forest, "Mars was right when he told me I'd meet you here."
"Firenze? Is that you?" Harry turned to the centaur.
"Yes, it's me. Come on, I have something to give you."
"Are you sure?" Fleur whispered, fear in her eyes and voice.
"He saved my life." he smiled at her. "Of course, what do you have for me," Harry ran closer to Firenze.
"I found this man in the forest, so I brought him here and waited for someone of your kind to show up to hand him over. He will need treatment. He is suffering from injuries, hunger, thirst and delusions."
"That's Mr Crouch," Harry recognized immediately and ran over to the injured man who was sitting slumped against a tree trunk.
"Weatherby, get the tickets," Crouch whispered in a sort of half-sleep.
"That's what he kept saying. He probably still thinks he's working. He was asking to be brought tea and letters," Firenze told him as Fleur conjured up a warm blanket to cover Crouch. "And there is more."
"More?" Harry asked.
"Something vital, Harry Potter. Mars has long hinted that what we saw together in the forest was not the last time we would see it, and this man claims the same... claims he's back, that he's killing again, and that he's a lot stronger."
"Voldemort did this to him?!"
"That's what this man said, he wanted to bring this to Dumbledore, and I agreed. Albus Dumbledore will know what to do. You should hurry then."
"And you won't have a problem? Your kind doesn't look too kindly to you carrying a human on your back. I remember that well," he smiled apologetically at the old centaur.
"The world is much bigger. We can't look at it from our perspective alone," Firenze explained almost poetically. "See to it, Harry Potter, that this man gets to where he wishes to go. We may save more lives than we ever thought. That is our fate."
"Of course, and thank you very much... for everything."
"Something tells me we'll meet again, Harry Potter, so I'll see you around."
"Goodbye," Harry said his farewells, then knelt beside Fleur again. "How is he?"
"He needs to go to the infirmary, and urgently," she summed up.
"But will he be safe there?" Harry suggested worriedly. "Look at his shoes and feet. He must have walked a long time to get here. Whatever he wants to tell the Headmaster, I think it's important to tell him as soon as possible."
"Okay, do you have your cloak with you?"
"You're amazing." He smiled at her idea and immediately took out his cloak. Fleur then stuck the cloak on top of him and conjured up a sort of stretcher, then all they had to do was get the invisible Crouch onto this stretcher and start levitating him. "We don't look very inconspicuous," he worriedly grumbled as they reached the gate back to Hogwarts.
"I can't think of anything better, I don't want to be paranoid, but something tells me that if one of us went for the headmaster that the other one could be in big trouble."
Harry just swallowed hard. "Let's hope we get lucky for once and don't meet the guy using that Polyjuice potion."
"Better keep your wand out and your shield on ready," she told him, and then they headed for the Headmaster's office as quietly but as quickly as they could. Luckily they didn't meet anyone on the way, and happened to bump into the Headmaster while speeding to his office.
"Come quickly!" He pointed at them.
"What did you see in you know what mirror?" Harry pointed his wand at him, Polyjuice potions still on his mind.
Albus Dumbledore just smiled proudly at him, but his eyes were somehow sad. "Socks, Harry... specifically woolen ones."
"I'm sorry-." Harry lowered his arm.
"It's okay. I completely understand, but let's go now. We don't have much time." With that, all of them headed to the Headmaster's office together. Crouch's unconscious form was levitated by Dumbledore. It wasn't until the door closed behind them that they allowed themselves to breathe a sigh of relief. Fleur was still shaking a little, though, so Harry did the only thing he could think of. He wrapped his arm gently around her shoulders.
"Am I to understand that Miss Delacour knows at least something of what we have been discussing?" The Headmaster asked without looking at them as he healed Crouch with his spells.
"Yes, sir."
"Very well," the Headmaster accepted this as fact, "if you are wondering how Mr Crouch is doing, he will be fine after he rests and recovers. Someone has been controlling him with the Imperius curse for a long time."
"You can tell? I thought it was impossible to recognize."
"Not always," Dumbledore agreed, "but here, Mr Crouch broke the curse, which cost him an enormous amount of effort, and that will leave a mark."
"So he was the one who threw my name in after all? Someone got him under Imperius and forced him to?"
"I'm afraid the truth is far more terrible and complicated than that, Harry. I was alerted by the paintings that Mr Crouch had appeared and that you were guiding him to me, which is part of the reason I was able to come to meet you. But while I believe that Mr Crouch has done some unpleasant things, there is someone else at work in our predicament, and now we know exactly who. But as you suspect, I can't tell you."
"Why not?" as if Fleur had awakened and wanted to know this at once.
"So I don't make a mistake," Harry suddenly realized.
Dumbledore merely nodded in reply. "For this man to step out of the shadows, he must never even suspect that we know about him, and unfortunately, neither of you have the level of Occlumency to know the truth and not make it known in any way with your actions."
Harry didn't know what an Occlumency is, so he stored this word in his mind, now was not the time. "Will you hide Mr Crouch here then?"
"Probably yes, I dare say I'm on Madam Pomfrey's level when it comes to healing, so Mr Crouch will be fine in my care, and I'll question him when he's better. I am sure his words will be of much use to us."
"What about Fleur and me?"
"I will ask you to go to bed and tell no one about this. I know you trust both Miss Granger and Snuffles, but I would very much like you both to act as if you will have never found Mr Crouch. It is the only way he will be safe, and you as well, Harry."
"You want a lot, sir," he dared to say.
"I know that, but we all want this to end, so I must ask you both to do this and even insist on it. I will give you both a calming potion and a potion for better sleep, the former to drink here and the latter before retiring to bed. I am sure it will help you to forget a little about this night." With these words, he left Mr Crouch lying down and went to fetch the potions mentioned and a few others which were probably intended for their patient.
"Well, cheers." Fleur grimaced and downed the calming potion, Harry quickly mimicking her.
"All the teachers are in their offices, and Mr Filch is on the third floor, so if you leave now, you won't meet anyone," Dumbledore told them as he scanned the Marauder's Map with his eyes. "And Harry, ten points for Gryffindor, I'd give you more, but we want to be subtle," the Headmaster winked at him, "know that you both did a very important thing."
Harry thanked him on behalf of both of them, and then they headed out of the office. Once they were clear, Fleur grabbed his hand. "What did you say the centaur's name was?" she asked.
"Firenze," he answered her.
Fleur just nodded and then took out her wand and pulled up his sleeve. "What are you doing?" He didn't understand. But then Fleur wrote something on his arm with a spell, and that something was just the word Firenze, then she hid it with another spell. She did the same to herself.
"If someone wipes our memory, this will remind us that we met the centaur, and we'll know who to refresh our memory."
"Are you sure you're not too paranoid?" He looked at her half-amused, half-concerned.
"I'm going to do everything I can to make sure you survive this, do you understand?" she told him, retaking his hand, but this time for other reasons than to write names on his hand. Harry knew she was only doing it because she was scared and high on the potion, but he still enjoyed her touch very much.
AN:
Once again heartfelt thanks to the members of the Harry/Fleur discord server (HonorverseFan, Wish, OfficeSloth and x102reddragon) for their beta-corrections on this chapter. This is the first story I am posting in English, which is not my first language and their help was invaluable.
If anyone wishes to join our community, here is a link: "discord . gg / skww8F4RFv" (without spaces)