"Is there somewhere we can go?" she asked quietly. "I"d like to talk to you."
He cocked his head to one side. "What happened to...?"
"My accent?"
He nodded.
"One of the reasons for coming here was to learn better English," Fleur said with a graceful shrug. "And to be honest, mispronouncing everything was starting to irritate me."
Harry nodded, unsure what he could say to the beautiful French Triwizard Champion.
Fleur smiled. "So, can we?"
He sighed and looked at her searchingly. He didn"t know what he was looking for, but looked anyway. Fleur met his eyes unhesitatingly, and he nodded. "Come on," he said with a slight smile as he was hit by a thought.
"Should I be worried about that smile?" she asked, her voice teasing in a way he hadn"t heard from her before. In the past it she had ever used snobbish supremacy or breathless gratitude. This tone seemed normal, almost like when Hermione would talk to him.
"Of course," he agreed. "I"m about to fulfil the fantasy of every male in this school." As soon as he had said it, he wished he hadn"t.
"Oh?" she asked, her eyes dancing in a way that made him wonder if it was entirely natural.
He nodded slowly. "The beautiful Fleur Delacour -- alone in the Astronomy Tower."
She raised her eyebrows at him.
He blushed. "It"s the place where couples go to..." he paused as he tried to find a delicate way of putting it, "expand their relationships."
"Ahh," she said and nodded her understanding. "Like your friends, Ron and Hermione."
He jerked to a stop and looked at her. "So it"s not just me that thinks that, then?"
She lightly took his arm, and continued to move, forcing him to as well. "Is it not obvious?"
"I thought it was," he admitted. "But they..."
"They are still young. Arguing and being jealous of each other will do until they are ready to admit that they do care."
Harry groaned. "How much longer do I have to wait until they get over it?"
"Oh, I"d say judging by the stubbornness they"ve displayed in the short time I"ve seen them. It won"t be for a few years yet."
"Bugger," Harry sighed before going silent. He guided the elegant blonde up to the top of the tower.
"Pretty," she said as she looked out over the parapet.
Harry shrugged. "More importantly, it"s quiet, and people know to check before coming up here, or so the rumours say."
Fleur nodded and looked out at the Great Lake. "I hate that place," she whispered.
"The Lake?"
"I hate water. I hate swimming."
Harry smiled faintly as he sat down on the edge of the parapet. "It was one of the first times I"ve ever swam," he confessed. "A lot of what I did was pure luck."
"No, it wasn"t," Fleur said, as she turned to face him. "We make our own luck, Harry. We always will do."
"Cedric," he said, and then found he couldn"t say anymore.
"He was unlucky, yes?"
He nodded.
Fleur moved over to him and knelt before him, taking his hands. "You are feeling guilty about him, no?"
He glared at her, feeling his insides tense, as he thought about the boy who had been killed so casually in front of him, so very recently.
"You think you killed him, don"t you?"
He tried to pull his hands away, but couldn"t, she didn"t let go, and she just smiled at him in that mysterious fashion that he was starting to find annoying.
"You murdered him, didn"t you?" Her voice had changed, bringing back unpleasant memories of her calling him a little boy.
He reared back as if she had struck him. "What?" he gasped.
"You murdered him," Fleur repeated harshly.
He wanted to hit her, to stop her, to do anything to make her stop her accusations; make her take her words away.
Her eyes seemed to change colour, to change shape, to be different. "Murderer," she spat. "You stood there and you personally cast the Avada Kedavra at him. As he begged for mercy, you stood above him and laughed, didn"t you!"
She swayed back a second, and her hand flew out, smacking him across the face. He touched his tongue to his lip in shock and felt a trickle of blood. "You"re a killer, a despicable traitor, aren"t you?"
He tried to move his hands, to push back, but he couldn"t, he couldn"t move. "I did not murder him," he yelled suddenly. "It was Voldemort. He did it, he gave the command. He said "Kill the spare" and Cedric was dead, before I could do anything. It was Voldemort, not me!"
And suddenly he could move. Fleur kept hold of his hands, but he could move again. Her eyes were back to normal, a blue so deep he felt like he was falling into them.
"It was Voldemort, Voldemort killed Cedric" he whispered broken-heartedly, as the tears started to fall down his face.
She moved back and pulled him down into a hug. He didn"t fight her, but didn"t follow her, just lent stiffly in her arms.
"It"s okay," she whispered gently, and stroked his back.
Slowly, almost as if he was scared of himself, he lent forward and gave into the tears.
He had no idea how long he cried onto her shoulder, or how long he spent kneeling against her, but it was only when he had finished crying and he started to smell the perfume she was wearing, did he pull back, embarrassed.
She smiled at him and stood gracefully. With her wand, she expertly created a sofa, and sat. "Come," she said, as she patted the spot next to her. "We still need to talk."
He nodded and sat down, resting against the side so he could face her.
"Sorry."
"For crying?"
He nodded.
She shrugged elegantly. "Do you feel better?"
He nodded again.
"Then it was worthwhile. Locking up emotions inside you can be dangerous Harry; it can lead to nightmares, as your subconscious tries to deal with something you will not acknowledge on a conscious level.
"But, we shall talk about it now." She pulled out her wand and cast a spell at his face calmly, removing the pain he still felt from when she had hit him. "That is better," she whispered to herself.
"We shall?" he asked. He wasn"t sure why, but he wasn"t scared of her anymore. He suspected that crying on her shoulder had someone changed things with them. He just wished he had a clue as to what and how.
She smiled at him and nodded. "You do not have a choice."
"I don"t?"
"No," she said with a soft smile. "I have kidnapped you."
"It"s the nicest kidnapping I"ve had so far," he replied dryly, smiling slightly as he discovered that he could smile about it.
"I know," Fleur replied. "But all the same, try and leave."
He went to get up, but found his eyes locked on her face. She was so beautiful, so amazing, he just wanted to sit there and do exactly what she said. He paused; he couldn"t remember why he was going anywhere anyway. Why on earth would he want to move away from this creature? It made no sense, no sense at all.
"She"s enthralling you."
He tried to ignore the annoyingly familiar voice, but it wouldn"t go away.
"You want to leave, don"t let her stop you."
He shook his head slightly, trying to clear the annoying voice away, and go back to watching Fleur, watching the way her hair moved, the loving look in her eyes.
With a wrench, he took a step away from her, and then turned, panting. "Turn that damn thing off!"
She did and started to clap softly. "I am impressed," she whispered. "There are not many men who can do that."
"Men?" he asked as he slumped back down. "Not "Leetle boy?""
"I choose my words with care, Harry," Fleur said firmly. "But maybe you are right. You are not yet a man, but you are not a little boy. Now, why do you believe that you are responsible for Cedric"s death?"
"If it hadn"t been for me insisting that we take the Trophy together, he wouldn"t have been there."
"And you told him to take the Trophy with you, because you knew it was a Portkey, right?"
"No!"
"Why did you rescue Gabrielle?"
He blinked at the apparent non sequitur. "Because I couldn"t see you coming, and I knew that time was running out."
"It was the right thing to do?"
He nodded firmly.
"How was that any different from telling Cedric to take the Trophy with you?"
He opened his mouth, and then closed it. "Cedric ended up dead."
"And Gabrielle ended up alive and as irritating as only a little sister can be. Each time, Harry, you took a decision, and you did what was right, not what was easy. Do you have any idea just how rare that is in the world?"
He shook his head. "Anyone would have done the same thing."
"Did Cedric? Did Krum?"
He started to feel that he needed to stop impersonating a goldfish. "No."
"That"s what makes you different, Harry. You don"t take the easy option, you do what you think is right. The first time you did it, you saved my sister. The second time, you fought, one on one, the most evil demon alive, and you escaped with Cedric"s body. That is unbelievable, Harry."
"He"s still dead."
"I know," Fleur said, reaching out and taking his hand again. He found that he liked being touched, it was somehow comforting. "But it is not your fault. It is only one person"s fault. Voldemort."
He gasped at her. "You said Voldemort?"
She nodded proudly. "I will not be afraid of a name."
"Fear can be a good thing," Harry whispered. "It can keep you alive."
"You feel fear?"
"I was terrified when I saw Voldemort being reborn," he admitted. "Some hero, eh?
"Only an idiot does not feel afraid, Harry. Only a hero does what is right despite the fear."
He shook his head at her. "I"m not a hero. A hero would have saved him."
She shook her head hard, her hair forming a halo around her face for a brief second. "No, Harry. A hero will avenge him."
"Avenge?" he whispered.
"How else would you be able to know that he sleeps in peace? How else would you know that your parents are in peace? How else will you know that your friends can live long enough to get over their squabbling?"
"That makes sense," he whispered. "Avenge Cedric. Avenge my parents. But how?"
"That, I am not sure," she sighed. "But I can tell you what not to do."
"Oh?"
"Do not go after Voldemort now. You are not ready."
He nodded in agreement. "I froze when we found out that Mad-Eye wasn"t the real one."
"You were still in shock, Harry," Fleur pointed out evenly. "So I wouldn"t worry about it. But that is not what I am talking about. If we were to duel now, I would beat you."
"You would?"
"Do you want to try me?"
He nodded, and they both climbed to their feet, and turned, walking to each end of the tower.
"When you"re ready," Fleur said, with an elegant bow.
He bowed, and nodded. "Now."
Two seconds later he was flat on his back, his wand yanked out of his hand.
"See?" Fleur asked as she walked over to him.
He nodded, and as she moved closer, he kicked out, catching her legs, rolling and catching her before she hit the ground. He continued the roll, and ended up on top of her, his hands holding hers, with their wands, above her head.
"Well done," she said, a new light appearing in her eyes. "You don"t give in, do you?"
"Not if I can help it."
She leaned forward and breathed into his ear. "Do you have any idea how many men have desired being in this position with me?" she asked in an intimate whisper.
He looked down and blinked, he was lying between her legs, his chest lightly brushing hers. He blushed furiously, and released her hands, scrambling back from her.
She pushed him, and then pounced on top of him, straddling his stomach, her wand pressed against his neck.
"You don"t give in, do you?" he asked with a half-smile.
"Not if I can help it."
"Sadly," he said with an embarrassed laugh. "I can"t tell you that many girls have desired to be in the same position with me."
"I could," Fleur said seriously. "But are you ready to hear it?"
"What do you mean?"
"You are very attractive, Harry."
He could feel himself blush again and wished he could control that.
"And a lot of the girls, from Hogwarts and Beauxbatons see it. You could ask anyone of them on a date, and they would say yes before you had finished the words."