reveal her swimsuit. But… appearances were everything, in the end.
Already, she can feel it. The extra power coursing through her. Already, she feels strong again. It feels good.
"T-Thank you, Harry. You've helped more than you could know."
At that, the young wizard gives her a mysterious smirk and a wink.
"Oh… I think I know more than you just how helpful I've been, Fleur. Not to worry though… it was my pleasure."
Fleur blushes, not quite understanding what he's saying. But it doesn't matter. Not wanting them to be seen together, she rushes out of the alcove before he can, making her way towards the Black Lake and the Second Task.
-x-X-x-
As they all gather on the docks for the Second Task, Fleur finds herself reveling in the sense of fresh magical power filling every bit of her body. At the same time, she can't help but look to the stands. Her mother and sister were visiting for this task, and Fleur had to admit that at least a small portion of why she wanted the boost from Harry was so she could impress them. She didn't want her mother and little sister to see her fumble around weakly and fail the task, not if she could help it. Even if they would understand most of all given their shared heritage, it wasn't something she was inclined to let happen.
… However, while Fleur easily locates her mother in the stands, finding the impossibly gorgeous Apolline Delacour standing amidst a crowd of mundane and average witches and wizards… she doesn't seen Gabrielle. Fleur's brow furrows as she makes eye contact with her mother, the Matriarch of House Delacour. Where is Gabrielle? Their mother would never allow her sister to miss this, would she?
Rather than give any indication one way or the other, Apolline's face is expressionless. She looks at Fleur without giving a single thing away. But then… that in and of itself gives the game away, especially when Ludo Bagman speaks up a moment later.
"Alright, everyone! All of our Champions are ready to begin the Second Task, which will start on my whistle! They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them!"
Fleur's eyes dart among the crowd… and she doesn't see Harry's muggleborn friend either. As well, Viktor Krum and Cedric Diggory's dates are also nowhere to be seen, even though Cedric is in attendance in spite of his still healing injuries.
"On the count of three, then!"
No… it wasn't possible. The last two lines from the song that blasted golden egg let out echo through Fleur's mind.
But past an hour, the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.
"One!"
There was just no way. They wouldn't do something so… so ghastly!
"Two!"
And yet, the proof was right in front of her, wasn't it?
"Three!"
They'd taken what they'd sorely miss the most. No, not WHAT… but WHO.
As Bagman's shrill whistle sounds through the air, Fleur doesn't even spend the time to check out what her competitors are doing like she originally planned. She shucks her dress over her head, revealing her one piece swimsuit, and turns around, sprinting for the edge of the dock and jumping into the ice cold water of the Black Lake.
She's submerged entirely a moment later, but the weakness she's come to associate with being in large bodies of water is absent. She feels strong, in fact… stronger than she ever has before. Without missing a beat, she quickly casts a Bubble Head Charm. And then, hoping against hope that she's wrong, Fleur casts a piece of familial magic, a simple spell that gives the location of any who share her blood in a certain radius from her.
Truth be told, this spell would never have worked underwater in normal circumstances. But thanks to Harry's seed settling in her belly, Fleur encounters no difficulties. She quickly ascertains that her mother is behind her and up, back in the stands. Meanwhile, Gabrielle… Gabrielle is down and forward. The merpeople have her.
Letting out an angry hiss, Fleur jettisons herself forward, heading straight for her sister's magical signature. She blasts her way through the Black Lake, not letting even the smallest whiff of movement go without throwing some sort of spell in its direction.
She's somewhat aware that they might have some way of watching her up top, and she should probably focus more on her performance and looking good to the judges… but truthfully, Fleur just doesn't care. Only one thing matters in that moment. Getting to her sister.
The French Veela makes good time to the mermen village, in the end. And fortunately, they don't try to bar her passage either. In fact, upon seeing the wrathful expression on her face and the glowing wand in her hand, they immediately scatter in wide-eyed fear, allowing her to advance to the center of the village alone.
… Except not quite. When she gets to the center of the village, she finds the hostages all unconscious and dangling from ropes tied around their ankles, keeping them anchored to the lakebed. But not just them… Harry is already there, standing on the bottom of the Black Lake with his arms crossed and a thoughtful expression on his face.
He'd beaten her here? How? Then again… did it really matter? He smiles when he sees her, before gesturing to Gabrielle. Blushing a bit, Fleur hastily reaches for her sister, casting a severing charm to remove the rope around her ankle. It seems that Gabriel is in some form of suspended animation. There was probably never any danger of her drowning, Fleur belatedly realizes.
And yet, even as she hugs Gabrielle close and prepares to return to the surface, Harry stays right where he is. When she looks between him and his muggleborn friend curiously, he just waves her off with a shake of his head and a meaningful glance at the other hostages.
In the end, Fleur lets him shoo her away, caring more about getting her little sister out of this horrid, frigid water more than anything else. Even if Gabrielle was in no immediate danger, extended stays in large bodies of water were not good for veela constitution! She didn't know what her mother was thinking, allowing this to take place!
Making her way up to the surface is as easy as the descent, especially since she still has the spell that allows her to see her mother's magical signature active. She also passes Viktor Krum on her way out of the village… but sees no sign of Cedric Diggory either coming or going.
When she breaks the surface of the water with Gabrielle in hand, her sister immediately wakes up with a gasping sputter. Fleur quickly gets them both out of the lake and onto the dock, and casts drying and warming charms by the boatload, even as Gabrielle blinks up at her and smiles.
"Did I do good, sister? They said you would fight all the harder to retrieve me!"
Fleur purses her lips tightly at that, only to jump when their mother suddenly arrives at their sides, kneeling and hugging them both. Her next words, despite Gabrielle's close proximity, are clearly only meant for Fleur's ears.
"They caught your sister alone and talked her into this hare-brained scheme without consulting me first. Then, they relied on her to beg me to let her participate. Well done, my daughter. Well done."
Ah. Her mother was furious. That was never good. Though Fleur couldn't blame her. She was starting to feel rather livid as well. Only, before they can speak any further there's a massive geyser from the water that has all three Delacour women looking over.
There, Harry Potter comes down to gently land on the churning surface of the Black Lake, walking across it like it's cobble stone floor and not liquid. Behind him float three people… Hermione Granger, his hostage, Cho Chang, Cedric's hostage… and Cedric himself, who looks like he's definitely seen better days.
"Ah, Harry! You only needed to retrieve your hostage, haha! Went a little overboard there, don't you think? The hostages were never in any danger after all, Dumbledore and the Merfolk are quite close!
When Harry steps onto the dock, he does so with a scowl directed at the School Heads and the Ministry Officials, and especially at Ludo Bagman for his words.
"The hostages might have been fine, but what about us Champions. Cedric wasn't ready for this. He nearly died down there because you pushed him into continuing this damn contest!"
Dumbledore clears his throat at that.
"Harry, my boy. Cedric's choice to continue was his own. And besides, the Goblet of Fire is a magical contract, as you well know."
"Then he should have just dipped a toe in and then forfeited or something! He should never have been down there with dragonfire injuries!"
Fleur can't help but be a little mesmerized by Harry in this moment. Maybe it's the fact that his magic still suffuses every part of her being, or maybe it's just seeing him launch into a righteous tirade that not even Viktor Krum's own arrival in last place stops… but honestly he's just so much more impressive than she'd ever thought possible when he'd first wound up in the tournament.
Suddenly, her mother's hand grips tightly on her arm, forcing Fleur to tear her gaze away from Harry and look to the older woman. The Delacour Matriarch looks frozen in place as she too stares at Harry in disbelief and… arousal?
"Fleur… who is that young man?"
Shifting a bit, Fleur swallows thickly.
"That… that is Harry Potter, mother. The Boy-Who-Lived. And… he is as powerful as all of the stories say he is. I confess, I understand now how he might have defeated a Dark Lord at one year of age."
"C'est n'importe quoi. I highly doubt he always had the power he now holds, my darling daughter."
Apolline's voice has dropped again so only Fleur hears her words. It helps that Gabrielle is also watching Harry's tirade with a certain fascination, uncaring of the conversation between her mother and sister.
"That boy… is the center of a Wizard's Coven."
Fleur blinks rapidly at that, not recognizing the term. A normal coven was a gathering of witches, an all-female group that bound their magic to one another in order to enact spells of a power that hadn't been seen in centuries. Veela Covens were similar in nature, but without the binding part and more of a community thing.
But…
"What is a Wizard's Coven, mama?"
Apolline hesitates for a moment, before giving Fleur a look.
"It is exactly what it sounds like, my dear. A Wizard's Coven is a group of witches bound to a single wizard, their magic willingly given over to empower him, allowing him to do whatever he likes with it… and them. That boy… that wizard has bound at least six witches to him."
… Oh.