Chapter 14: Night Thoughts. Sometimes silly, sometimes not.
To be honest, Harry wasn't coping very well. The news about the Horcrux had hit him pretty hard. Even though he didn't show it, Fleur saw everything. So she tried to support him as much as possible. To be there for him.
Harry saw that and appreciated it. But what to do, he still hadn't figured out. Not even just where to start. He found a book that described the ritual of creating a Horcrux. Found how to destroy it. It was unlikely that it would survive the flames of hell or the venom of a basilisk. It was also unlikely that Voldemort would repent and put his soul back together. Harry was even surprised. Seriously, he just has to repent to gather his soul? Isn't that... stupid? And actually...
Basilisk venom. He survived a basilisk bite! Dumbledore's Phoenix saved him, but it was poison! Maybe the Horcrux has already been destroyed!
With these thoughts, he jumped up, throwing the sleeping Fleur off his chest. He'd forgotten it was four in the morning.
" 'Arry? What's wrong?" The veela asked sleepily, barely able to open her eyes.
"I need to see the headmaster. It's urgent. Go back to sleep, I'll be back in an hour," Harry said from the living room, already getting dressed.
Fleur, knowing that it was useless to sort things out now, just lay down on the bed, which had immediately become not very cozy. She remembered that she'd had trouble getting used to a new bed before.
"A sandwich and tea... "oh, there's croissants. "and a baguette with butter. oh, yesterday's toast ... is that pudding?" Fleur decided to just drink her tea while waiting for Harry.
The latter was walking briskly through the night corridors of Hogwarts towards the Headmaster's office with an uncharacteristic enthusiasm.
Professor McGonagall was patrolling Hogwarts today and thought about what was going on in the castle. Two eaters in the last year. Both in no hurry to kill or steal Potter. That's very strange.
Oh, and Potter herself has been weird lately. Her cat sense always told her there was something wrong with him, but the human part was quick to shut her up. What could possibly be wrong with James and Lily Potter's son?
But ever since his election as champion, something strange has been going on. This French female champion from Charmbaton is with him all the time, even in his apartment. As an old-school witch, the professor didn't approve of this, but she was, somehow, confident in the reaction of her student, James Potter, to the news that his son was dating a veela three years older than him.
Then there was the first test. She herself could probably replicate what he'd done. But she's an adult witch, a master of Transfiguration. No, Minerva was quite aware that it was unlikely he had pulled this off on a single will. There's some pretty extensive math to keep in your head. And that's very difficult, she had been learning it herself for a few years, and even then with the help of occlumency. Basically, after the first test, she realized why Albus had allowed her to give him the NEWT so early.
Honestly, it wasn't uncommon for exams to be administered earlier than the term of study. Only it's usually demanded by aristocrats for their chads, who are sure that by paying for the best tutors, their children will be able to pass the most difficult exam early. This usually ends in disgrace. NEWT examiners are incorruptible, they took an oath.
Very few people pass the exams. Very few. They can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and it's not because there are no prodigies who have learned the entire school curriculum. Ms. Granger would have learned it in a year if she had been allowed to take the NEWT. It's the magic that's the problem here. At fourteen, it's realistic to learn a couple of senior year spells and even use them. But to pass an exam with about ten of those spells... that's where it gets tricky. Up to the loss of magic from overload. There have been cases like that.
Out from around the corner came what McGonagall could have sworn was James Potter. Same mess of hair, glasses, height. everything! Except the eyes, which was what brought Minerva out of her stupor. It was Harry. The eyes were green, Lily.
"Mr. Potter, what are you doing in the hallway at this hour?" The professor asked sternly, for which she immediately received an appraising look of squinted eyes.
"I'm a champion, I have permission. Professor McGonagall, I need to see the Headmaster urgently. The password to the gargoyle, please," even though Harry was in a hurry, he hadn't completely lost his brain.
"Chocolate and frosting…" Minerva said shocked, but then she realized, "But I'm sure whatever happens, it'll hold up until morning." she said into the darkness. Potter was not in front of her. Sneering, the professor went on patrol. Champions really were allowed virtually anything. They were, like, even unprejudiced for the duration of the tournament.
Honestly, he was looking an awful lot like Lily right now. When she was in a hurry, her sentences became exactly the same. Chopped up sentences with as much information as possible and as little substance as possible.
"I was bitten by a basilisk my sophomore year. Basilisk venom. The Horcrux is gone."
It was the first thing Harry said when he saw Dumbledore. He put aside the papers he was working on, even at this hour, and thought for a moment. At first he seemed pleased, then that expression faded a little. After a few minutes, he spoke:
"Harry, my boy..." Potter noted the address, this hadn't happened in a very long time. So something's wrong, but what? After all, Basilisk poison kills all living things, a Horcrux is a hypothetical living... something. So the poison killed the Horcrux in him, and he himself was cured by the phoenix's tears... just like the Horcrux. Of course. The Horcrux would have died with him, but Fawkes cured them both. Damn. It seemed Harry's rather large self-esteem had just dropped a few points.
Dumb thoughts creep into his head at night, even for geniuses.
Back in the apartment, Harry noticed Fleur sitting in the kitchen, piled up with a mountain of food, slowly destroying all of their supplies.
"Are you sure that diet you're on is for weight loss and not for gaining mass?" the young man asked a little wryly.
Fleur, a little apprehensively turned to him. Harry admitted to himself that even with a mouthful of food, a pile of crumbs on his lips and disheveled hair, his girlfriend looked gorgeous. Veela, what can I say.
"I just decided to have some tea while I wait for you," swallowing what was in her mouth, Fleur said.
Harry looked around at the table piled with everything in the kitchen.
'It seems,' thought the boy a little sadly, 'I'll just have to make do with coffee in the morning.'
Harry liked a very solid breakfast. He could, when focused on something, live on coffee and nicotine for a few days, but then he was sure to make up for the lack of food. And the last few days had been just like that, he'd eaten nothing and that only because Fleur had brought something to snack on along with the coffee. And now the breakfast he'd been hoping for was a bust. Frankly, if it had been any other person but Fleur, he would have cursed him with something rather unpleasant.
"Alright, I'm off to bed. Enjoy your nap," turning around, Potter said.
"Atterendre, tout d'abord, let's eat together, that would be quite romantic actually," Fleur said purring a little, "deuxièmement, why don't you tell me why you blew up in the middle of the night and ran to Dumbledore?" the veela asked, losing all playfulness.
Harry, on the other hand, sat down tiredly next to the girl and gave up:
"You know, even a high mind gets all sorts of nonsense in its head at night."
"Oui?"
"Well, I've never had such outright nonsense pop into my head before. What I was thinking could be disproved in three minutes even by someone who has operated on the terms 'Horcrux' and 'magic' twice in his life, where the first time he just learned what it was. I'd say I'm a little disappointed in myself. I think my thought today made the aikyu of the whole of Hogwarts go down," Harry said self-critically, making himself some coffee. The conversation promised to be long
"And what did your sleepy brain produce, mon amour?" said Fleur, scooting closer.
"Ugh, it's not like I told you about my 'adventures' at Hogwarts itself."
"Oui, you stopped at the distribution when I fell asleep," Fleur clarified.
"Yep, you fell asleep on top of me and I adamantly convinced myself that I didn't want to shake you off just because you were warm," Harry grinned. Fleur smiled as well, "Okay, listen..."
The morning after Harry finished his story, Fleur was very surprised. The two-faced professor, the Basilisk, the Dementors. And even though it was all under Dumbledore's control, it was still happening at school. With her Harry. And even though he didn't show that he was moved by it, she could see by the characteristic gestures that these years had not come easily to him.
As a matter of fact, he fell asleep this time, snuggled up nicely against Fleur on the bed they had finally moved to for the sake of convenience.
Fleur, on the other hand, pondered the story. Yes, obviously the Headmaster's beard was sticking out everywhere, that had already been figured out, discussed, and didn't need to be addressed. But... something was wrong. Some little things. Why had Malfoy decided to give the diary to the petite redhead rather than hide it somewhere? The owner of the mark more than anyone should know that Voldemort is alive, and to leak such a precious thing to him...
A sea of little details, which in themselves amounted to little more than coincidence, together formed a picture that said that there was someone other than Dumbledore who had a slight, but impactful influence on Harry... or even Magical Britain as a whole.
She would be sure to share that thought with Harry later when they woke up. He would likely have an explanation, but Fleur got the distinct feeling that while Harry was sure there was a game of chess going on, where all the pieces were visible, someone was playing a game of cards in which Harry was only a card. Such thoughts made her shiver. Snuggled close to Harry, Fleur soon fell asleep.
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