The rest of the week passed pretty quickly; Hermione continued to get hate mail, and even a few Howlers appeared. Fleur had taught all of them the vanishing spell and the Howlers vanished before they could even start to yell. Hermione was still fuming about Rita Skeeter and after their next Defense against the Dark arts class she stayed behind and asked Professor Moody if Rita might have been under an invisibility cloak at the second task and he confirmed she wasn't.
"I want to know how she's listening into private conversations when she's supposed to be banned from the grounds!" said Hermione. "If it's illegal, I'll have her."
Friday morning Hedwig returned with a letter to Ginny who had by then developed a good friendship with Gabrielle. She took the letter and turned red as she read it. When she finished reading it she looked up to see everyone's eyes on her.
"Well...uh…obviously it's from mum. She still not very happy with your...uh...choice of girlfriend Harry," Ginny looked nervously at Gabrielle, "She even mentions that..she thought...well...she thought that I would make a better match for Harry. She also said to tell you that," Ginny turned further red, "Remember these are my mum's words, not mine. She said that no matter what mistakes you make she'll always think of you as her son, and you're always welcome at the Burrow."
"Let me guess," Harry said, "Gabrielle isn't though."
"She didn't actually say that, but she underlined the 'He' in the 'He is always welcome' when she wrote it," Ginny replied.
"Thanks Ginny. I appreciate you trying," Harry said.
"Harry, if she could see how much happier you are, she'd come around," Ginny said. "Maybe this summer…"
"I doubt I'll be coming to the Burrow this summer Ginny," Harry interrupted her. "I'm not sure what Dumbledore has planned for me yet, but I've been invited to the Delacours."
"Oh," Ginny replied.
.....
Later while Harry was forcing himself to stay awake again in history of Magic, he felt a wave of sadness from Gabrielle, who he knew was currently in her Arithmancy class.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked her.
"Zere is a Ravenclaw girl who no one ever sits with. She's been in a couple of my classes and it's been ze same in both of them," Gabrielle said. "Ze others go out of zeir way to be mean to 'er. Zey call 'er Loony."
Harry could see the girl in question; she had straggly, waist‐length, dirty blonde hair, very pale eyebrows and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look. He felt Gabrielle go over to the girl's table and sit down beside her.
"I'm.." Gabrielle started.
"You're Harry Potter's girlfriend," The blonde girl said dreamily. "I hope he treats you better than he did Parvati Patil at the Yule Ball. Her sister Padma said he and his friend Ron weren't very nice to them. Oh...I'm Luna. Luna Lovegood."
Gabrielle was slightly taken aback by the opening remarks of this girl, but continued, "I'm Gabrielle, Gabrielle Delacour, yes I am 'Arry's girlfriend and 'e treats me very well."
"That's nice," Luna said.
The two of them started what Gabrielle later defined as an extremely odd conversation.
...
Friday afternoons were torture for Harry. It meant being stuck in the dungeons enduring double potions with his least favorite professor. Fortunately, Snape wasn't taking his hatred of Harry out on Gabrielle who made it through the class unscathed earlier in the week. Though she had complained thoroughly to Fleur about the quality of education he provided.
Snape once again had them working on a different antidote. Frustrating to Harry was that even when he did everything Hermione was telling him to do, his potion was still not quite right. It was red in color instead of a vibrant pink it was supposed to be earning him a sneer from Professor Snape and another failing grade.
"Arry love," He heard Fleur say, after he had put away his ingredients and cleaned his cauldron. "Will you do me a favor? Run your finger over ze interior of your cauldron below ze curve at ze top."
Harry, though confused at the request, did as his bond mate had asked, and when he looked at his finger it was covered in an oily residue.
"Love," Fleur sighed, "You're not cleaning your cauldron well. Ze condensation from ze boiling liquids will leave residue zere, and ze next potion might get it mixed in. When you do a cleaning spell you must remember to think about ze whole interior of ze cauldron, not just what you can see. Also before you start any new potion, run a rag over ze interior just to make sure."
"How did you know?" Harry asked.
"One of ze ways for zat antidote to turn red is if eets contaminated with ginger root. You were working wiz zat ingredient last time," Fleur explained. "It's a common mistake in potions. Any competent instructor should 'ave pointed it out to you a long time ago."
"Thanks my Flower," Harry said, and could feel her happiness and relief. He realized she had been concerned that he wouldn't take the criticism well. "Never think that. I appreciate everything you do for me."
....
After dinner they went down to the Chamber for a short time to check on Sirius and Remus before going back up to the Gryffindor Common room for the Party the Twins had promised that night. They found Sirius and Remus spitting out French sounding words to each other. When the two Marauders saw the four of them, they had some exciting news.
"Harry," Sirius said. "We found another one of those Runes symbols like the one in the bathroom on the wall over there. He pointed to the wall between the legs of the Statue of Salazar.
"Found it?" Remus asked, "Your unique statue cleaning method cleaned the dirt out of it you mean."
"Well it worked didn't it?" Padfoot replied grinning.
All of them walked over and looked, a certain area of the wall looked like it had been wetted down was cleaner than the surrounding area, and they could clearly see the outline of another Eternity Rune.
Harry was about to utter the word to open, when Hermione stopped him. "Wait Harry. Remember the traps Professor Dumbledore had to disable on the steps? What if this is trapped in some way? Or another dangerous creature is behind that door? I think Professor Dumbledore needs to be down here before we try to open it."
"Yeah you're right, but we need to get back to the Common room for the party," Harry replied.
"Let's tell him about it tonight and maybe after our little visit to Surrey tomorrow we can see what that is."
"That works. If there is a door there, it's been closed for at least fifty years and maybe a thousand, another day won't be a problem."
...
Three hours later, a highly embarrassed Harry was sitting on a 'Throne' made by the twins with a slightly smaller throne for Gabrielle. The story of what happened under the waters of the black lake had been told much to Harry's further embarrassment, and Fleur had unofficially been adopted into the house. As Fred told the common room when he proposed the adoption, "We have to claim them if Harry doesn't throw them back." Harry also told everyone that this time there had been no clues to the next task.
"You're going to win it Harry," Neville called out.
"I doubt it. I've just been lucky so far. Something tells me the third one is going to be a lot harder," Harry replied.
"And you don't give yourself enough credit my love," Fleur said.
The party finally ended, Fleur and Gabrielle headed off to the Beauxbatons Carriage after a whistling crowd got to see Harry's good night kiss to his girlfriend, and finally Harry and Hermione went off to their separate dorms.
....
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