56 You were avoiding me.

Magic or not, teenagers loved drama.

That was the conclusion Magnus reached when, unlike what he expected, the interest in his admittedly complicated relationship with a certain French student did not die down one bit.

If anything, it was growing stronger day by day.

Many times he sought out Fleur, to clarify the situation with the idle masses or at least make sure she didn't take it the wrong way. Alas, the Beauxbatons champion had made herself scarce. He only saw her three times this week, and she seldom allowed him to breach that subject, coming up with an all too believable reason to leave.

The tournament did give her many excuses to desert him.

"I don't like this." He said, leaning back against the pillar, all around him were papers and notes for his Newt exams.

"What?" Padma said, her eyes still stuck in her own homework. She had long since given up on helping him pass his self-inflicted trial, focusing on her own studies instead.

Luna was absent, busy playing around with the thestrals or whatever it was she did in her free time. She could be helping the merpeople start a coup for all he knew, and it wouldn't surprise him one bit.

Magnus looked at her, and from his gaze alone she came to the rather obvious conclusion.

"You know, most people would be happy if people thought they were going out with a Veela." She said with a smirk, her teasing was starting to get on his nerves.

Fleur wasn't just a Veela, she was also the Beauxbatons champion and the crème de la crème of her school year in both theory and practice. He didn't spend time with her because of her looks, so why was it that everyone was focused on the details?

'Maybe they'd shut up if I tricked them into getting in a massive orgy with Filch and Mrs. Norris.'

He looked at Padma, intent on asking her about the possible reasons of Fleur's frequent and sudden disappearances, with her being something of a girl herself, but he stopped himself when he saw her gawking at him.

"I just said it outloud, didn't I?" He asked, but she stayed unresponsive.

"...Please warn me if you do start an orgy." She finally blurted, looking sickened at the words alone.

"Why? You're interested?" Magnus chuckled, doubling down when he saw her horrified expression.

That day Padma learned a valuable lesson; He who teases shall in turn be teased.

What followed was a massacre, Magnus saw the gap in her defenses and took it upon himself to seek retribution for the jokes she made at his expense.

By the end of their so called study session, Padma had a very vivid image of her intense affair with the caretaker and his cat spanning through all her Hogwarts years followed by a sequel where she got married but reignited her old flame with the squib.

Even then, it was still better than 365 days.

'Crap, I forgot to ask her about Fleur.' Magnus thought. He soon discarded the thought, and resolved to sort out this situation in the best way possible.

Through planning, coercion, a sprinkle of blunt honesty and a whole lot of things better suited to a Slytherin's story than your average erudite Ravenclaw.

Could be messy, it would stir up many things...and change is never pretty, but it was a risk he was willing to take.

…

'I'm not avoiding him.' Fleur thought for the nth time, while she sneaked off the library under a disillusionment.

Magnus was good at sensing magic, and according to him her allure was like a beacon letting everyone know her position as long as they knew what to look for.

But even he couldn't be attentive at all times, right?

"Back to being a stalker, Fleur." He said, looking right at her.

"Merde." She cursed under her breath.

The Beauxbaton champion could see the grumpy librarian scowling at them in the background, and unless she wanted her reading privilege to be temporarily revoked, she had to silence him.

'That sounded a bit wrong.' She thought, repressing a blush, she dreaded what Magnus would say if she said it out loud.

"Are you thinking about something dirty?" He smirked, and as much as she hoped otherwise, it wasn't her imagination.

She wasn't that easy to read, was she?

"Yes, you are."

Putain.

The librarian looked just about ready to hex them, and Magnus was just about to loudly say another highly embarrassing thing with no regard for the old witch glaring at them. Fleur could only hurry up and sit beside him, watching him cast a silencing charm around them.

The rascal knew precisely what he was doing.

"You have been avoiding me." Magnus stated, daring her to deny it.

She tried to do so anyway, but there was something in the way he looked at her that convinced her that lying to him would make him walk away for good.

"Yes." she hated how meek she sounded.

Fleur was certain she could beat him in a duel, even if he was something of a transfiguration genius, he was still a fourth year and her a talented seventh year.

'And a Veela' A voice that sounded like her grandmother's whispered in her mind.

He should be the one unsure and impressed by her, she should be the one gently reassuring him that he was a great person and sooth his doubts so he'd stay by her side.

Yet here she was, Gabrielle would never let her live it down if she saw her sister like this.

Magnus seemed pleased by her honesty, he took a moment to continue, seemingly weighing his options before settling for the most efficient one.

"Why?"

Fleur wished she could answer it, she truly did.

Was it because she was afraid of how he'd react to the rumors she brought him? Because she dreaded to find out what little time they spent together was just a fluke, and that he was as fickle and shallow as everyone else?

In the end no words came out, but silence itself was sometimes an answer.

She was afraid he'd leave.

Magnus sighed, looking more troubled than she ever saw him.

"You're too expressive…" He spoke under his breath, shaking his head. "Just answer this, do you want me to leave you alone?"

"No." The answer came easily, if only everything else was that obvious.

"Then I won't." He stated plainly, leaving no room for arguments. "Nor will I allow you to do so because you somehow convinced yourself the world would burn if we spent a couple hours together."

"It isn't like this." Fleur grumbled, but couldn't do much more since the truth was arguably even more ridiculous.

She was afraid he'd end up leaving, so she tried to do it first.

Fortunately, she was very bad at it.