Fleur’s Surprise

Under Water

"Have you enjoyed the ball?" Fleur asked them two days later, in their secluded classroom.

"It was really nice," Harry replied, "and Hermione had certainly surprised us all."

"That she did. I think everybody expected you two to be together at the ball."

"We thought so, yet Hermione thought it would be safer if we didn't let our true relationship known yet."

"Very prudent of her," Fleur admitted.

"You know, the more I get to know her, the more I like her." She turned to Hermione. "I hope that we shall become good friends, so that when the time comes, you'll find it easier to share."

Hermione blushed at the implications. "There's nothing to share yet."

"Au contraire, ma cherie. There's so much love between you two that I'd really enjoy a small bit of it, if possible. That's sharing as well, not just s*x, you know. Love is even more important."

Hermione blushed some more but felt she had to ask, "Do you already have any s****l experience?"

Fleur looked sad. "I wish I could have. We, Veela, have very strong s*x drive, but we must only experience s*x with our chosen mate. A Veela who doesn't adhere to this rule may find herself losing her mind, her magic or even her life. Too risky, if you ask me."

"So?..."

"I'm waiting until Harry will take you and then he would finally be able to be with me."

"Oh!..."

Fleur shifted to another subject. "Have you found what the clue in the egg is?"

"No. Whenever I try to open that damned egg it only screeches unintelligibly. Neither I nor Hermione can understand it."

"I had no success either," Fleur admitted sadly.

It was a few days later that Cedric called Harry aside. "Have you managed to understand the clue?"

"Not yet," Harry admitted.

"Try it under water. The prefects' bathroom should be good for that. Password's pine fresh."

Harry didn't need it. With his lawyer starting to appoint the Potter delegates for the wizengamot, Harry was getting the media attention again. Surprisingly, it was quite neutral.

"After being forced to participate in the Triwizard Tournament despite being under age, it turns out that this turn of events made Harry Potter emancipated, thus able to claim his rightful position among his peers.

For those who are not aware of the facts, the Potter House controls the most prestigious seat of Gryffindor as well as the two seats of Peverell and their own seat of Potter. By claiming these seats, Lord Potter is changing the power balance at the wizengamot. Only time will tell if this change is for better or for worse."

All eyes turned towards him that morning, when he entered the Great Hall for breakfast. After having read the article, Harry decided it was time to act. He approached his head of house soon after breakfast and requested lodgings appropriate for his new position. "Yes, Milord. Your apartment will be made ready before dinner," she replied. "I do hope you will continue your studies as before, though."

"I'll try, as much as this tournament will allow. And please, I'm still Harry, or Mr. Potter, if you insist. Only in official situation do you need to call me Lord Potter."

Professor McGonagall smiled slightly. "I'll keep that in mind, Harry."

His new apartment had a master bedroom, two additional bedrooms, a large bathroom, unattached to any bedroom, a common room and a small kitchen. The bathroom in his new apartment was almost as large as the whole fourth year dormitory, with a bath that was more like a small pool. He found that he didn't need another bathroom in order to listen to the clue, yet he needed somebody – Hermione. She was first reluctant to visit his apartment. He needed to remind her the lesson she had given him after talking with Fleur for the first time, before she blushingly agreed.

It wasn't too bad, really. It was natural to be naked in the bath, and the foamy water hid most of what was normally hidden by clothes, and then – being so close, hugging each other, feeling each other with no obstacles – these had some merits of their own.

They were still clad only in towels when she returned to the subject. "It's clear that something very important to the champion is going to be taken under the lake and it must be retrieved within one hour. What do you think will be taken?"

"The only possession they can take here at school is my Firebolt, and I don't think that is what they mean." It then downed on him. "They will take a person. You are the person most dear to me." His face turned determined. "I won't let them take you! I don't trust anybody in school anymore. I'll use my Lord privileges if necessary!"

"Then you'll have to disclose our relationship. I think it would be safer if they take me. I don't believe there would be any real danger, or the headmasters would not have allowed it."

Harry was not convinced, but Hermione already had a way with him. A few sweet kisses followed by a long snog made him accepting of any suggestion she could have. Harry agreed to continue keeping it a secret, although quite reluctantly.

He still had to find a way to stay under water for an hour. It was Neville who helped him this time. "There's a plant named Gillyweed which can give you gills and web your fingers, so you can breath under water and even swim faster. If you eat a handful of the weed it would suffice for an hour. You can have an additional portion with you if you need more time."

"Where have you found this information?" Harry wondered.

"In this book that Professor Moody gave me."

Harry, who no longer had any confidence in the school staff thought this action of Moody seemed a bit suspicious. The man wasn't the kind of person to show sympathy or offer help. He decided to pay better attention to this teacher. He wanted Hermione's help as well. This wasn't too easy. Despite her past experience, Hermione still held an unhealthy respect towards authority figures. It took Harry some persuasion, mentioning Quirrell and Lockhart, to get Hermione's full dedication to this project.

It went very slowly. Hermione managed to enlist some help from other students, namely Ginny, Luna, Susan and Cho, in order to cover as much of the time as possible. This still left large holes in the schedule but was better than nothing.

When the time for the second task came, they still didn't have any clear picture about Moody. They only knew he was drinking from his flask roughly every hour, and only a few sips. Everything else seemed to have no pattern at all.

"Why would he drink this way?" Harry asked one evening when they were meeting Fleur as well.

"Maybe he's taking a potion?" Fleur suggested. "With all his injuries that seems quite normal."

This set Hermione thinking. "Most medical potions are taken only once or twice a day," she said, thinking loudly. "The only potion I know which takes effect for only an hour is... Polyjuice potion!"

She was looking at Harry, who remembered their own adventure with that potion, two years earlier. A moment later Fleur said, "I don't remember any other potion either."

This triggered Harry into action. "I think this is an imposter. We must switch the contents of his flask with something else. Fleur, do you know anything that could taste similar to Polyjuice potion?"

"You may use the same ingredients as Polyjuice, brewing it for only an hour, to create a useless potion that would taste almost the same, yet the taste also depends on the person. It is worth a try, though."

"I can brew it!" Hermione volunteered, making Fleur raise a brow.

"Are you sure? That's not taught at school. It's master degree stuff."

"She'd already done it during our second year. It was quite a success, you must know," Harry protected his fiancée.

Fleur's eyes grew wider for a moment. She then shrugged. "Alright. I wouldn't dare try, but if you want to – I'll help you. I can acquire the ingredients within a few days and I can do the switching spell for you." She saw Hermione going stiff, so she added hurriedly, "This way nobody would suspect you if it doesn't go as expected."

Harry thought for a moment. "Alright. We can wait a few days. Can you also find me some Gillyweed?"

"What do you need it for?"

"Second task, you know..."

"Oh, I'm going to use Bubble Head charm. I can teach you if you want."

Harry smiled. "Hermione has already tried, but I fail to concentrate long enough. It would be very bad to lose the bubble when deep in the lake."

The 24th of February was a cold day, even for Scotland. The wind was freezing, and the warming charms cast on the audience, assembled at the shore of the black lake, gave only a little improvement. Harry was glad that one of the effects of the Gillyweed would be in adjusting his body to the water temperature. He felt sorry for the other champions, who were probably using different methods.

Moody was hovering near the champions. Harry noticed his hand deep in his pocket. As he was getting close to Harry, he quickly moved his hand, pushing something into Harry's pocket. "For Luck!" he whispered and moved to his seat in the audience. Harry put his hand in his pocket and found some more Gillyweed, which he dutifully transferred into his swim trunks pocket, thinking this behavior quite odd.

As soon as they started the task, Harry could see Fleur was in trouble. She was trembling wildly, probably of the cold, and her mild warming charms couldn't help much. Her skimpy bikini, while very nice to look at, gave no protection at all. He wanted to help her, but could do nothing while in full view of the judges and the audience.

While Fleur, Cedric and Viktor were using different spells to prepare for the underwater adventure, Harry took a mouthful of Gillyweed from his pocket and started chewing it while disrobing, staying in his swim trunks only. He heard some gasps from the audience, mainly the female part of it, but payed no heed to them.

Harry submerged as soon as he found breathing air a problem. The water, which felt freezing at first, soon felt quite nice as he was swimming downwards, to where he felt the hostages must be. He was just a few meters deep when he noticed Fleur being attacked by grindylows. She was still shivering of the cold and her hand seemed too numb to hold her wand correctly.

Harry didn't think. He just put his hand forward and thought of stunning the malicious creatures. A rapid successions of stunners came out of his hand, stunning some of the grindylows and making the others run for cover. Fleur, still too cold, could hardly move faster than in a sluggish pace. Harry thought of a warming charm as he pointed his hand to her. Fleur stopped shivering. She looked at Harry, mouthing 'Thank you' soundlessly, and then resumed her swimming and Harry followed closely.

With Harry's charms keeping her warm, Fleur had no problem reaching the bottom of the lake, where they could already hear the singing of the mermen. As they approached, Harry noticed four figures tied to large rocks. He was not surprised to see Hermione there, along with Cho and Gabrielle – Fleur's little sister who was introduced to him a few days earlier. He was quite surprised to see Padma there as well.

Thinking carefully, he realized what happened. The hostages were the dance partners of the champions at the Yule Ball, except for Fleur's, as it had been evident that she wasn't really interested in him. This meant that Hermione was Viktor's hostage while Padma was his.

As he was thinking, Fleur released Gabrielle from her ropes and started heading up. Harry did the same for Padma, but still waited until he saw Viktor and Cedric approaching. He then held Padma well and kicked up, passing Fleur on his ascent and reaching the surface first. The other three champions reached surface merely seconds later.

Both Fleur and Gabrielle were shivering again. Harry cast another warming charm at them, not even aware of doing it silently and wandlessly, before handing Padma to the people waiting on the platform and waiting a few minutes for his gills to disappear, so that he could join the other champions on the platform.

He was suddenly engulfed by girls: Padma was thanking him with a hug, Hermione was hugging and kissing him, Fleur was hugging and thanking him and even Gabrielle was trying to find someplace to hug, thanking him for helping her sister. In addition, Madam Pomfrey and Madame Maxime were also approaching.

With all these girls hugging him, he didn't feel the cold, but once they were forced to leave him alone, it was biting just as badly as before. Now, aware of the audience, he didn't dare cast a warming charm on himself the way he had done moments earlier. He was just thankful for the warm towels in which Madam Pomfrey enveloped him and the invigorating potion she fed him.

It was only after all the fussing around him had stopped when Fleur came near him again, surreptitiously sliding a vial into his pocket. "I switched it," she whispered and walked away.

The judges were still arguing. Karakoff wanted to give different marks to each competitor, while the others said they were so close in their time that it was only fair to give them equal marks. The arguments were cut short by another commotion within the audience. Professor Moody was suddenly changing, to the surprise of those near him. He tried to force his way out of the audience, using his wand as a threat, only to have it snatched by somebody. He soon found himself with tens of wands pointing at him. He was no longer the old, war beaten veteran. He was now quite a young man, blond haired with two eyes and two legs and a nervous twitch in his lip.

"This doesn't matter. My master, the Dark Lord, will win! You can't stop him!" he started shouting, sounding quite fanatic, before Dumbledore stunned him, bound him and had four seventh-year Gryffindors take him to a holding cell.

"The marks for this task will be announced at dinner," Bagman informed the audience, as he and the rest of the judges were following Dumbledore to the castle, Karakoff looking much paler than usual.

Harry didn't have much chance to rest, though. As soon as he reached lunch, he was summoned to the headmaster's office, where the three headmasters were sitting, looking very grave, along with a stern lady wearing a monocle, who was presented as Lady Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE. She was the one who spoke first.

"Lord Potter, I have the unpleasant duty to tell you that your participation in the tournament was the result of a plot. The Death Eater who impersonated Mad-Eye Moody, along with some accomplices, whom we are currently searching, had a convoluted plan to help resurrect the Dark Lord and then let him kill you. Fortunately, that was prevented. We are currently interrogating him for more details. Once we get all we can from him, he will probably be sentenced to Dementor kiss, as he has previously been sentenced to life in Azkaban."

Harry had already expected as much. "I understand, Lady Bones. I don't hold this against you. I'm quite happy this was found in time and I hope you'll be able to prevent his program from taking place."

"I promise we shall do our best," she said, bowing slightly.

Harry wasn't sure she would be able to do as promised, but he was sure to contact his men at the wizengamot to track this investigation and expose whoever tried to cover it up.

"What happened to the real Moody?" he asked.

"He was imprisoned in his own trunk. He is now under Madam Pomfrey's good care and will probably be able to teach by next week," Dumbledore answered, "assuming he still wants the job."