The morning rolled around too soon for Harry and Fleur, who had been up very late enjoying their special activities. As the drapes blocked the sun, someone forcefully pushed open the drapes, lighting up the room, and by extension disturbing Harry and Fleur.
As the duo's collective groans filled the room, Harry heard a voice, "Wake up, 'Arry, Fleur. I'm hungry and want breakfast."
"A bit longer, Gabi," Harry groaned out while turning and burying his face in Fleur's bosom to block the sunlight, "We'll leave at ten." Fleur stirred a little, but she just pulled the blanket higher, covering her face and continuing her sleep.
"It's already half past ten, 'Arry!" Gabrielle shook his arm and tried to wake him up.
"You can just go get something to eat with Celine if you're too embarrassed to eat alone," He said.
"I would, but she's also asleep," Gabrielle said, "I don't want to be rude and barge into her room."
"And it's fine to barge into our room?" Harry asked.
"Come on~" She whined while shaking Harry's arm and trying to pull him out of the bed.
"Fine fine …" Harry groaned, "Turn around."
"You'll go to sleep again," Gabrielle wasn't willing to relent.
"Listen to me, honey," Harry said sleepily, "Turn around so that I can get dressed."
"Fine," She grumbled before walking back and turning around to face the wall, "Are you done?" She asked just as she turned around again.
"Yeah," Harry answered, much to her surprise. As she turned around, she saw him already having pulled a comfortable pair of pants up and pulling a t-shirt over his torso.
"Did you shower?" He asked her while examining her clothes. She had put on her uniform which was in pristine condition, having an added blue cloak over the usual silk blazer that was part of their uniform.
"I did, shouldn't you also shower?" She asked.
"Do I stink?" Harry asked, having already cast a spell to clean himself of last night's traces.
"No, but it's very unfair of you to ask me if I've taken a bath when you haven't even brushed your teeth," She said.
"That's because I'm not going to eat anything. I'm just accompanying you," Harry said.
"At least brush," Gabrielle said, "What if your breath stinks?"
"Yeah," He said, not wanting to set too bad of an example for Gabrielle. He quickly made his way to the shared bathroom and brushed his teeth while also washing his face.
Soon enough, the Beauxbatons champion was on his way downstairs with his girlfriend's little sister. She held his hand tightly and stuck close to him while they both made their way down the stairs of the common room. Unlike Gabrielle, who was dressed in prim and proper clothes, Harry was still wearing his pajamas and had merely draped a cloak over himself.
"I finally get to spend time with 'Arry without my annoying sister," Gabrielle spoke on their way down.
"So that's what you were vying for," Harry acted as if he'd just realized it.
"Oops …" Gabrielle acted cute and hugged Harry's arm with both her arms, "Can we explore the castle? I heard people saying that Hogwarts is full of unique views." Harry pushed open the main door of the common room and exited through the portrait, passing the Fat Lady's corridor.
"First, we get you food, then we do anything else," Harry said in a more final tone than necessary as they started descending the grand staircase, "If there's one thing that you and Fleur have in common, it is that you both get cranky whenever you don't get food."
"Hehe~" Gabrielle chirped out an embarrassed laugh before rubbing her head on Harry's arm and closing her eyes. Just as she took another step down, she found herself losing her footing due to skipping the step and then slipping on the next one, "Woah!" Her eyes widened in panic as she tightened her hold on Harry's arm, but felt her arms slip away from Harry.
"Easy there," Harry groaned and wrapped his other arm around Gabrielle's torso, pulling her up to a stable step, "There are safety enchantments on these steps, but you have to be careful," He chided her as she nodded shakily.
"Come on," He wrapped his arm around Gabrielle's shoulder and continued descending more carefully. As they kept going down, Harry said, "Think about it, what if you slip while the staircase is moving to another node, you would fall directly down to the basement floor …"
"'Arry~" Gabrielle whined and shook him, "Don't spook me."
Her reaction made him laugh as he rubbed her head, "You don't have to be spooked, I would never let you get hurt like that."
"I know," She nodded, "That's why I always stick close to you. You're like a guardian angel for me."
Her words made Harry laugh, "Where did learn that from?"
"Did I say something wrong?" Gabrielle asked with some worry.
"Not at all, honey," Harry moved his arm to pat Gabrielle's head, "I'm flattered that you think of me as a guardian angel, but I'm far away from being someone like that."
"But I've heard Mama and Fleur refer to you as our guardian angel several times," She said, rendering Harry mute as a helpless frown appeared on his face. He didn't know what to say to her words and could merely respond with a sigh while patting her head.
"Do you have any special requests for your breakfast?" He asked her after a while when they'd reached the fifth floor.
"I was thinking of eating the breakfast that Aunt Lily makes," She said, "The one with bacon, eggs, and that black pudding that she always makes."
"You're drooling," Harry said with a laugh.
"What?" She got spooked and quickly wiped her mouth, "I'm a lady, it's impossible for me to drool in such an unbecoming manner."
"Stop trying to act like your sister," Harry chided her, "Neither you nor she is lady-like in the slightest. You both try to pretend for no reason. I know your realities."
Gabrielle pouted and whined while looking down at her feet as she stepped down.
Harry shook his head without saying anything and kept his arm around her shoulder, making sure that she was stably descending the stairs with him. As they reached the second floor, Gabrielle seemed to perk up and stopped in her steps at the landing of the second floor.
"What is it?" Harry asked with a raised brow.
"Follow me," Gabrielle said, grabbing Harry's arm — pulling it off of her shoulder and then bringing him with her.
"Where —" "Just follow me, 'Arry …" Gabrielle chided as if she knew something that he didn't. Harry shrugged and decided to indulge Gabrielle. It wasn't like he had anything to do today. At least as far as he could recall.
"You aren't hungry anymore?" Harry asked while keeping track of the corridor even as he passed by it. He examined the portraits on the walls and the doors as they took turns. He had to keep up with where they were going since he wasn't very familiar with the castle just yet.
"I feel that this is more important," Gabrielle said.
"You feel?" Harry was confused, "Describe those feelings to me."
"Just, trust me?" Gabi asked him while still walking with determination, "I feel a very sad cry for help."
"This is very new," Harry said with a frown, "You've never shown signs of an empathetic magical ability …" He was just musing, inwardly thinking that she was just messing around to pull him around the school.
"I don't know everything, 'Arry," Gabrielle said, "I feel a tugging sensation in my stomach that makes me want to go in a certain direction and I'm following it." Hearing Gabrielle's answer, Harry sighed helplessly and decided to follow along for a while.
Soon enough, Gabrielle brought Harry in front of a door, "Here it is," She said, "Can you go in?"
"Did you set a prank inside?" Harry asked with a skeptical look at the door, "I would rather not be blasted with a dangerous hex."
"I'm not messing around, 'Arry," She stomped her foot, "I'll go." She pushed open the door herself and entered the room. That was when Harry heard a very weak sound coming from within the room. It was as if someone was whimpering while desperately trying to suppress the noise that they were making.
"Hm?" He held the door open and heard the sound of footsteps approaching them alongside someone's conversation.
"—here?" One of the voices seemed to have asked a question.
"Yes, Mr. Nott," An almost servile-sounding voice spoke, "I'm sure that she came running this way."
"Good work, Graham," Another voice spoke, "Your contribution to the Dark Lord's cause will be duly noted."
"Thank you, Mr. Zabini." The servile man identified as Graham spoke.
"Now let's take that girl before Greengrass intervenes, shall we?" The first voice, Nott, spoke, "We don't want her running away again." The three of them then turned a corner and entered the same hallway as Harry. He saw that the servile one seemed much younger, at most in his second or third year at Hogwarts while the two older ones, named, Nott and Zabini seemed to be the same age as Harry.
"That's the room she entered," The servile boy pointed directly at Harry, who frowned before entering the room and closing the door. His concealment charm made it seem to the three of them that the door had closed by itself or with magic, giving them the assurance that their target was within the room.
As for Harry, he entered the room and saw Gabrielle kneeling beside one of the benches at the far back of the room. It was the same place that the whimpering sounds were coming from. Through the gaps between the seats and benches, Harry could vaguely make out a shaking figure hidden behind the table.
Sighing, he approached Gabrielle, who was trying to coax the person out from their spot, but the person didn't seem to be very responsive. Harry put his hand on Gabrielle's shoulder, prompting her to tell him, "She's the one who I sensed, 'Arry. I felt a sense of immense sense of pain that led me here." She then turned back to the girl, "Come out, we won't do anything bad to you."
"They're coming after me," The girl spoke with a hoarse voice that was full of pain between her whimpers, "You should leave."
"Too late for that," Harry said with a light laugh, "Miss Champion." His words aroused a sense of panic in the girl as she tried to scuttle away from her spot, dragging the bench with herself in the process.
"Get away," She groaned out while doing her best to get away from Harry.
"I'm not going to hurt you, Astoria," Harry frowned and said with a gentle voice, "You know who I am, right? I'm Harry Potter, the Beauxbatons' champion —" Before Harry could keep going to calm her down, the door started banging.
"Open up, Greengrass," The voice of Nott came through the door, "We're here to help." The tone of his voice was definitely not of someone who came to help.
"They're here!" Astoria was spooked again as she groaned out from the pain.
"Gabi, honey, can you look after Astoria while I take care of our guests?" Harry asked Gabi who seemed to have also been spooked by the banging sounds of the door, "She's in pain from what I can only assume to be a hex from one of them."
Gabrielle nodded, though her eyes were a little shaky, conveying her current state.
"Hey," Harry held her face between both hands and made her look at him, "I got this, you don't need to worry."
"Pwomise?" She asked with a slightly warped voice due to Harry's hands squeezing her cheeks.
"Of course," Harry smiled, "I'm your guardian angel after all, right?"
His words calmed Gabrielle down as she nodded again, this time seeming much more confident. As Harry let go of Gabrielle's cheeks and stood up, a loud thud was heard from the door that made Harry frown as he thought to himself, 'No security again … It was the same when I kidnapped Snape and it's the same now …'
As Harry calmly approached the door, another loud thud was heard as some dust came through the door. He noticed that one of the hinges had been loosened off of its screws. As Harry stood some distance away from the door, another sounded out, almost taking the entire door off.
'Are they ramming the door physically?' Harry thought as he thought of how long it was taking for them to break the door, 'A single Bombarda spell should be enough …'
Finally, the fifth loud thud was followed by some cracking as one of the two doors was taken off of its hinges and fell inside the classroom. The three people came to face Harry who was standing in front of them with his arms crossed and an amused expression on his face.
"Who the fuck are you?" The one whom Harry had previously identified as Nott growled at Harry and aggressively approached him, entering the room.
"Theodore," The other one, Zabini quickly held his shoulder and stopped Nott from getting too close to Harry, whose amused smile had widened ever so slightly.
"He's the Beauxbatons champion," Zabini said in Nott's ear as his eyes widened in recognition.
"So what?" He didn't care if Harry was the champion, "Do you think he dares to go against the Dark Lord?" He scoffed before turning to Harry, "Go away kid, and tell us where the girl went. Maybe the Dark Lord will leave a limb of yours intact." He laughed with a sneer.
"What, with you?" Harry couldn't help but laugh, "Someone who needs to cast four spells to break through a door seriously needs to reevaluate the weight of his words."
"I'd like to hear you say that to the Dark Lord …" Nott was quick to get agitated.
As for the young student with them, Graham had been looking through the classroom to find traces of Astoria, knowing that he would be taking the blame if they failed to find her, "There she is, Mr. Nott." He pointed at the moved desk that Astoria had been hiding behind.
The man who'd just been agitated by Harry's words instantly turned in the direction that Graham pointed in. His gaze first zeroed in on Astoria who was shakily moving out from under the desk, and then he noticed the girl who was helping her get out, "You!" He pointed his wand at Gabrielle who was startled.
Her gaze moved to Harry and saw him giving her a gentle encouraging smile. Somehow, she could easily tell the fury that was veiled behind his bright green eyes and found some confidence. She shakily stood up from her spot, making sure that Astoria was behind her. Somehow, the fourth-year girl's pain seemed to have flared when she noticed Nott's presence, agitating her further. She wasn't even able to form a full sentence, but her eyes easily conveyed her panic.
"What?" Gabrielle found the courage to ask despite the intimidating wand that was pointed at her.
"You both are coming with me," He said, his intentions toward Gabrielle clear from his eyes, "Blaise." He said and his friend instantly pulled out his wand, pointing it at Gabrielle.
"Honestly …" Harry mumbled as he saw the actions that the two of them were planning on taking, "… I don't usually get into fist fights," He brought one his close to his other hand and crackled his knuckles, "But you two are really infuriating me." Moments later, the door to the room flew back onto its hinges, getting locked again as Harry cast a few reinforcement spells just for safety's sake, "I don't know why no one ever tries to check out the source of any loud sounds through this castle, but it's just what I need right now."
"You think you're a big shot just because you became a Tri-wizard champion?" Zabini scoffed, "Scoot off before you find yourself in a situation you can't —" A punch interrupted his speech. Moments later, he found himself on the floor before being kicked in the stomach hard enough that he was thrown to the wall at the front of the room.
Nott heard a thud that forced him to move his focus away from Gabrielle. That was when he saw his friend being knocked against the wall and groaning out in pain. He noticed that Harry had his back facing him and cast a spell as quickly as he could.
"Stupefy!" A jet of red sparky light escaped his wand, colliding with Harry's back. But instead of what he expected, the jet merely passed through and hit Zabini, stunning his groaning friend.
"Coward and a moron," Nott heard Harry's voice right beside his ear. Before he could even move, he felt the man elbowing the middle of his back as a crunching sound was heard, "Did you really think that you could ever hope to match me in combat? Magical or otherwise," He scoffed.
Just as Nott fell onto his knee, he seemed to find some fight in himself, and even though the pain groaned out, "Reducto."
Following his casting of the spell, a jet of blue escaped the tip of his wand before meeting Harry, though that turned out to be an illusion too, causing his spell to explode one of the benches in the classroom into dust.
"Good effort," Harry's praise would have sounded completely genuine if it wasn't for him frabbing the kneeling man's head and directly kneeing his face, destroying his nose in the process.
"You'll die … a horrible … death!" He groaned out even through the pain as he curled up into a ball while cradling his face.
Harry's casual expression disappeared, replaced with an apathetic one, "Right," He said before kicking the man's face once again, hitting his right arm in the process and making another crunching sound. The man groaned again as he was flipped on his back, facing the ceiling as he cradled his now broken forearm with his other hand while also feeling the burning pain in his face.
"You really shouldn't look at my girls the wrong way," Harry said apathetically before stomping on the man's leg, breaking it and getting another scream in response, "Neither Gabrielle," He stomped on the broken leg again, prompting another scream, "Nor …" Harry raised his leg, "… My Fleur," He brought his foot down on the man's other leg, breaking it.
"I think leaving one of your limbs intact should be merciful enough," Harry threw those words back at him while fixing his pajama bottoms that had been on the verge of slipping down. The aftermath of that situation with Gabrielle was something that he really didn't want to deal with.
"Stop right there," The third Slytherin who had been accompanying Zabini and Nott looked at Harry who had now turned to look at Gabrielle. He was standing right behind Gabrielle when he spoke, startling her into pulling out her wand, but she was too late to turn around as his wand pointed at her back.
"Do you really want to play it this way, kid?" Harry asked with a calm smile, giving Graham the feeling that everything was under the Beauxbatons champion's control.
"I'll really attack her," He threatened, "We have to bring this girl with us," He gestured to Astoria who was still in immense pain, unable to do much at the moment.
"See, I might have been inclined to agree if you'd have kept Gabi out of this," Harry said with a little smile, "But you didn't. And that was your biggest mistake. Go, Gabi." Just as Harry said those words, the boy felt some kind of force push him away from Gabrielle as a transparent shield appeared in the path of his wand.
Before he could even come up with what spell to cast, Gabriell had turned around and hit him with a stunner, "Stupefy!" She shouted, hitting Graham with a jet of red that sent the student into the land of the unconscious.
Gabrielle took a deep breath to calm herself before hearing the sound of applause and turning to the source, "'Arry!" She didn't care about Astoria beside her, who was still in pain, and ran up to him, burying her face in his chest as she hugged him tightly.
"There there …" Harry gently rubbed her hair, "I'm proud of how you did," He praised her, "Let's check up on Astoria, okay?"
"Mhm," Gabrielle nodded, still a bit shaken up by the whole ordeal.
Harry got down on one knee and asked her, "What's going on? What did he use to hex you?"
"No hex …" Astoria seemed to have decided to trust Harry a bit even though he had casually told Nott that he would have given her away if it wasn't for Gabrielle.
"Are you going to be okay or do I need to take you to the hospital wing or whatever?" He asked her.
"My sister," She said through gritted teeth as another wave of pain assaulted her body.
"Fine," Harry nodded and grabbed her hand before helping her stand up, "Put your arm around my shoulder." He helped her do that and wrapped an arm around her waist before helping her move.
"Gabi," Harry called, extending his other hand to her as she grasped it. He could feel the light tremors from her hand and gently rubbed her knuckles, "It's fine, honey. I was there, right? I had everything under control." She calmed right down as Harry comforted her.
Soon the three of them left the classroom, abandoning the three injured students in the classroom and locking the door behind them.
"Where do we find your sister?" Harry asked while slowly walking toward the grand staircase. Harry had left some markings that he could follow to retrace his path, so there wasn't any problem with him getting lost.
"Great … Uu!" Astoria's legs buckled from the pain, leaving her almost hanging off of Harry's arm that was tightly wrapped around her waist.
"Easy there," Harry was patient, calmly holding her without any impatience.
It took a few seconds for Astoria to reply, but she finally told him in a pained voice, "Great Hall …"
"Got it," Harry nodded as he started making his way forward once again. As he kept moving through the second-floor corridors, he quickly noticed people giving him weird looks and pointing at him and the two girls with him. He frowned when he felt Gabrielle's obvious discomfort at the situation, "Gabi, honey. Can you take my wand out of my holster and hand it to me?" He asked her. His hands were both busy, one holding Astoria and the other tightly held by Gabrielle.
"Okay," Gabrielle nodded and brought her other hand to Harry's holster under his cloak, grabbing his wand and pushing it between his and her connected hand. She didn't want to let go of his hand.
Harry didn't mind, making some seemingly random movements with his wand, he chanted some spells under his breath. Just as the three of them escaped the view of those people, the charms took effect, making Harry and the girls effectively invisible from the annoying gazes of the insensitive students.
He felt Gabrielle calm down when she felt the effects of the spell taking effect. As for Astoria, she was in too much pain to even notice the leering gazes, let alone the spell being cast.
It took them some time to reach the Great Hall, with Astoria constantly in pain, their pace was very slow. Still, Gabrielle didn't seem to have any problems with the situation as she quietly held Harry's hand and moved at his and Astoria's pace.
The hustle and bustle hadn't died down even though breakfast time was pretty much over. Gabi's detour had completely derailed her plans to get breakfast. Entering the hall, Harry started looking around while making his way to the Slytherin table. He recalled from the champion selection ceremony that he'd felt it weird that one of the sisters was in Ravenclaw and the other was in Slytherin.
"There," Astoria moaned out while gesturing with her eyes at the far end of the table at a corner where a woman with black hair, same as Astoria, was sitting while trying her best to keep her presence as low as possible. Once Harry noticed her, he easily deduced that she'd already been waiting for Astoria. And by her worried expression, she'd been waiting for a while.
At first, Harry wanted to cast a concealment spell on the sister too so that he could talk to her peacefully. But he decided to make the current situation into a little display of allegiance with one of the Hogwarts champions.
While holding on to Astoria, Harry approached the worried girl, "Hello?" He called her. When she didn't respond, he called her again, "I have your sister with me."
The look of aggression that she had on her face when she turned to look at Harry reminded him of a protective lioness who glared at someone who had just tried to steal her cub. Within moments, however, her expression completely changed into a worried one when she saw Astoria moaning in pain while holding this unfamiliar man tightly.
"Tori!" She shouted loud enough to turn more than enough gazes toward them that it broke through Harry's concealment instantly. She quickly approached Astoria and held her face, looking into her eyes with an examining gaze.
She completely ignored Harry at the view of her sister in pain and pulled Astoria away from him before having her sit on the bench. She bent over, ignoring Harry and Gabrielle completely as she examined Astoria's state.
'Holy …' Harry's gaze couldn't help but move down to the older sister's backside, '… arse,' He thought as he looked at the girl's plump backside. That was when he felt a pinch on his hand and looked to the side to see Gabrielle looking at him disapprovingly as she crossed her arms.
Harry couldn't help but chuckle at her expression and patted her head without saying anything. He focused on the older sister who was casting some spells that were completely unfamiliar to Harry. Remembering his mother's words from before, he assumed that those spells were part of the Greengrass family's exclusive knowledge that they hadn't shared with the public.
Astoria's condition seemed to visibly get better as her pained whimpering died down and she was left heaving while her pain was suppressed to a large extent. At the same time, Harry realized that more and more people were looking at them and talking amongst themselves about the display of Harry forming an alliance with the least favorable champion from Hogwarts. He used his Occlumency to focus his ears so that he could hear more specific conversations.
With his more focused hearing, he could hear some people a few tables away forming theories about how he was looking for support. After being rejected by the other champions, he was forced to talk to the underage champion.
'Cursed sisters?' A specific conversation entered Harry's ears where they were talking about Harry forming an affiliation with the cursed sisters. He moved his gaze to the specific group and found a familiar face among them — That of Draco Malfoy. The pale blonde man had a serious expression on his face as his peers talked to him about the two sisters being afflicted by a curse.
'Interesting,' Harry thought as he moved his gaze away after memorizing the faces of all of the five people in the group to look into them later.
By now, Astoria's situation seemed to have stabilized as she leaned her elbows on the table and recovered from her fit of pain while looking as if she was hung over. At the same time, her older sister sighed in some relief before turning to Harry.
"Thank you," She said sincerely, "Harry Potter."
"It's no issue," Harry waved it off with a smile, "What's your name?" He asked with an embarrassed expression, "I remember hearing it yesterday, but it has completely skipped my mind."
The girl's expression froze into an awkward smile.
***
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