38 Chapter 38: A better date

The Daily Prophet was sporting a lovely picture of Dolores Umbridge on the front page. The woman was seen posing for the camera outside Barty Crouch's home with her wand raised in some sort of supposed raid. Of course, she found nothing on the premises except some parchments and dust. Percy Weasley could also be seen standing beside the woman looking lost and perhaps a tad bit let down by all the negative press his 'boss' was getting. Umbridge being the leading chair in the committee assigned to oversee the investigation into Crouch for his misuse of power seems to be quite happy.

Harry supposed the woman enjoyed wrecking other people's lives. It'd explain the bubbly person she was putting forward while making a show of 'investigating' Crouch. After all, if the woman really wanted to be efficient she could have just assigned a few Aurors on the job. Instead, the pink demon was doing photo-ops to stroke her vanity and ego.

"What a bunch of useless cretins." Harry muttered as he folded the Daily Prophet and handed it over to Katie Bell.

"Disappointed to learn there is no sign of Crouch anywhere?" asked Katie, taking this copy of the Prophet happily and going straight for the sports page.

"I was expecting to be disappointed. So, no surprises there. I just don't like to see that overgrown pink toad first thing in the morning." said Harry, scooping a spoonful of jelly into his mouth.

"Look at you being all grumpy. You didn't sleep well last night?" asked Katie.

"Uh...I manage." Harry said shrugging his shoulders.

As a matter of fact, he was indeed engaged in other activities. Just learning spells from a book doesn't make you an expert in them. The key to becoming a powerful wizard lies in practice. Spells are a combination of imagination, will and magical power. These three constraints have to along perfectly to produce the desired result from a spell. The only way to get said perfect result is through practice. Through regular practice, the mind and the body get more familiar with the spell and it gets easier to cast as time pass by.

Of course, Occlumency helped because a disciplined mind helps in empowering a spell. But lately, his Occlumency has been suffering some setbacks and it was all thanks to Fleur. Usually, he had practised the mind arts during bedtime just before sleep but nowadays his mind was distracted by provocative imageries.

Harry blamed the hormones and it certainly doesn't help Fleur tend to jump on him in the hallways. Pulling him into heated make-out sessions in the many broom closets of Hogwarts was becoming a hobby of the French witch. Having someone as hot as Fleur in a closed confined space with their bodies rubbing against each other has sort of made him incapable of sleep. A better part of his bedtime was now spent on fantasising about Fleur which naturally made his Occlumency training non-existent.

With his mind and body succumbing to lust he was left with only two options. One was to depend on his hand to do the 'job' and the other was to abandon sleep altogether by training himself to exhaustion. In the end, Harry took turns on both options to pull him through the nights. This left him grumpy and exhausted in the mornings.

To make matters worse, he was no longer under the potion regimen of Madam Pomfrey. The resident nurse was quite satisfied with his growth spurt this year and subsequently cut him off from further supplementary medication saying that he was on the right track of growth. His body has to cope with the loss of extra energy provided by the potions which turned out to be a blow in the current situation.

So, all in all, he was quite grumpy in the mornings.

"Hey, cheer up Harry. After all, there will be no classes today and if the grapevine is true you have a date with Greengrass." said Katie, patting him on the shoulder trying to cheer him up.

Being reminded of the date only made him groan and put his head on the table. With all that was happening with Fleur, the constant magical training and his own pet projects with regard to the Third Task he was not exactly in the mood for a date with Daphne. But, he couldn't afford to let go of a potential ally in this game of snakes and ladders. He rolled the dice and he was offered the chance to climb his way into Damien Greengrass' confidence. Daphne, he realized, was a valuable ladder for his ascension into the higher echelons of the Pureblood society. Keeping her friendly for now remained a priority until he could build a power base using his resources.

This is why he was quite surprised by Fleur's indifference to his 'date' with Daphne. He could not fathom why Fleur would shrug away the whole matter if he was interested in him? He was quite sure he read the signals right with regards to Fleur. She was most assuredly interested in him as he was interested in her.

So, why? The answer eluded him.

"Why the long face? Having trouble with handling a snake?" asked Katie, her eyes crinkling with amusement.

"Something like that." Harry mumbled distractedly, as he tried to catch a glimpse of Fleur at the Ravenclaw table to no effect.

"This coming from a snake charmer. Oh, the irony." Katie laughed at his expense.

"Hey, Katie. Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

 "Hypothetically, consider a girl asks a guy to date another girl while they are in a relationship. What does that say about the girl?"

"Hypothetically?" Katie asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes." Harry nodded.

"I'd say your hypothetical girl isn't interested in pursuing a relationship or she is so confident that the other girl can't hold a candle compared to her." said Katie.

"Huh! That makes a lot of sense." Harry mumbled.

"Don't tell me Greengrass asked you to date another girl."

"What? No! Daphne never said anything like that."

It took Harry quite a lot of effort to shimmy out of the hole he dug himself. The only silver line was that Katie agreed to not bring up the matter again. The last thing he wanted was for the Hogwarts rumour mill to get wind of this which would put him under greater scrutiny. Krum and Hermione's 'tragic' love story has been the hot topic in Hogwarts for the last few days. He was keen to keep it that way as the duo kept the attention off his back.

XXXXXXX

It became quite clear summer was fast approaching. The air was far warmer than the last time Harry visited Hogsmeade. He was sitting on a bench near the fountain waiting for Daphne. This time he decided to go full muggle by foregoing the cloak. He was in a pair of simple black jeans, a blue t-shirt and a black jacket. A strong gust of wind wrecked any sort of success he had in taming his unruly hair. He waited patiently as some Slytherin seniors began coming out of Hogwarts with Filch scanning everyone hawkishly.

Funnily enough, he got some friendly greetings from some Slytherins. Most of them were from his ritual partners. He had so far kept them at an arm's length after he found out about their cause of addiction. But, now that they have returned to normal he thought to reconsider his earlier approach. Having more contacts in the Slytherin house ought to be advantageous. Depending solely on Daphne and Tracey would only be detrimental to his plans in the long run.

'Perhaps, I should start with Barbara Collins.' Harry thought.

The sixth-year Slytherin witch was friendly during the ritual days. She was also rumoured to be a runes prodigy. Perhaps, he could let Collins in on his latest project. While Barbara Collins is certainly not part of any great Pureblood families of Britain, she was still a Pureblood and having a friend in her should help him enter other Pureblood social circles.

Suddenly a pair of bright brown eyes were before him making Harry reel back.

"What are you thinking up in that little head of yours Harry?" asked Tracey, withdrawing from Harry's personal space.

"Just some stuff." Harry answered lamely as he climbed to his feet.

"Whatever it is I suggest you put it out of your mind." Tracey said, before she pushed Daphne forward until her friend was level with Harry.

"Stop it." Daphne hissed but it didn't dissuade Tracey one bit.

"My work here is done and you two do whatever it is you want to do. I have some new quills to look for."

With that parting shot, Tracey skipped away leaving Daphne in his company.

"So, what do you want to do first?" Harry asked, offering his arm which Daphne took after a bit of hesitance.

"Honeydukes." came the swift reply from Daphne making Harry stare curiously at her.

"What? I'm low on my chocolate stash." Daphne said, defensively.

"I'm not judging. I'm just surprised you have a sweet tooth, that's all."

A few minutes later, he was sitting in Honeydukes with several sickle lighter in his pockets. Somehow, he ended up buying Daphne's stash of sweets as an apology. Exactly how she talked him into it is still a mystery especially when he was insisting the whole time he did no wrong. This was why girls are scary. They have the uncanny ability to pin blame on their male counterparts. It was certainly a scary ability and an enviable one as well.

"I never asked. How's Sirius doing now that he is free?" Daphne asked curiously.

"He's doing fine except for some complaints about his mother's portrait being a headache." said Harry, taking occasional sips from the cup of hot chocolate in his hand.

"It must have been hard for him to return back home with almost everyone in the Black family being dead and all." said Daphne.

He never gave that little detail much thought. But, now that Daphne brought it up Harry thought about Sirius' future. With everything the man went through for more than a decade, surely Sirius deserved some happiness and stability in his life. Sirius lost everyone except Andromeda from his family's side leaving him alone as the last Black.

'Perhaps, I should push Sirius to have a family of his own.' Harry thought.

But, that thought quickly made him freeze and put more scrutiny on Daphne. Harry suspected an ulterior motive behind this line of conversation. It was no secret that Sirius was now probably one of the richest wizards in Britain. It'd be quite natural for people to get interested in 'bagging' Sirius.

Even though the conversation from then on never strayed to Sirius and instead branched off to the ongoing hunt for Crouch, Harry remained on edge from then on. So, it was to his relief when Tracey joined them when they exited Honeydukes. The rest of the time was spent wandering around the village purchasing parchments and whatnot. An hour later, Harry even managed to cajole Neville into the group. Sadly, Hermione was nowhere to be found as she was supposedly on a self-imposed exile from the village owing to her recent bout of 'popularity'.

"It's sad Hermione chose not to visit Hogsmeade." said Tracey as they neared the entrance hall.

"Skeeter painting her out as the modern-day Juliet and Krum as Romeo did not sit well with her. Wherever she goes, she either gets pitying looks or the usual insults from blood-purists." Harry said, climbing the stairs to the entrance.

"Juliet and Romeo?" Daphne asked confused.

"Muggle fictional characters. They had a tragic love story." Harry explained.

"I don't think Hermione would appreciate that comparison." Neville said.

"Probably not." Harry agreed with a shrug. "But, that's how Skeeter is portraying her. It's sort of funny."

Out of nowhere an owl swooped in and landed on Harry's shoulder. It took all his willpower not to scream in fright. Having a predator of the night sitting a few inches from his eyes was not a welcoming experience. Thankfully, the owl only extended its leg offering a letter clutched between its claws. The moment Harry took the letter the owl took to the sky with several strong flaps of its wings. There was no address outside the cover so he was in no rush to open the letter.

After saying his goodbyes to everyone, he went straight to the Room of Requirement. On the way, Harry broke the cover of the letter after a plethora of detection charms revealed no malicious magic. The letter inside was written in French but it changed into English after a second. The letter only contained one sentence.

'Do you want a real date?'

The parchment flashed theatrically before disappearing into bright blue vapour.

"That's some nice piece of charmwork." Harry commented aloud.

There was tinkling laughter in the corridor from his back. Harry turned around to see Fleur coming out of a disillusion charm.

"You didn't anzzer, 'arry." Fleur asked, a coy smile on her lips.

Harry strode forward and pulled Fleur into his arms before their lips engaged in a tango. Breaking away Harry smiled as he looked into her clear sapphire eyes.

"What have you planned?"

A few minutes later Harry was overlooking the green hills surrounding Hogwarts from the Wooden bridge. The constant gales of wind rustled his hair as he stood there on the Wooden bridge with Fleur nuzzling his neck.

"This is a better date." Harry admitted.

"Of course eet eez." said Fleur, slapping him painfully on the shoulder as if anything else could have happened.

Harry looked around and appreciated the spatial-magic Fleur had performed keeping them away from any prying eyes. Not that there were any on the bridge. Most Hogwarts students tend to avoid the bridge for some reason. Still, Fleur used the charm to ward them off from any prying eyes by creating a private bubble of space.

"This is an impressive piece of magic." Harry admitted.

"Finally admitting Beauxbatons 'eez better 'zzan 'ogwarts?" Fleur asked playfully.

Harry laughed at her pride directed at her school.

"Maybe you have better magical education at your school but this castle can surprise you." said Harry.

"Zzen surprise me 'arry." Fleur whispered into his ear sending shivers down his spine.

"It's a bet then. Winner gets whatever they wish." he suggested.

Fleur showed her agreement by pulling Harry into another snogging session which he was quite happy to comply. His mind went completely blank as Fleur began kissing him deeply and this time her tongue prodded against his lips. He welcomed her tongue in and they made out forgetting everything else at the moment.

Suddenly, Fleur broke off the kiss letting out a moan. Harry was faced with a pair of accusing eyes and that's when he realized his right hand was now on her buttocks.

"Sorry." Harry muttered, hastily pulling his hands back only to be stopped by Fleur.

Fleur placed his hand back where it was a moment ago before she kissed him again. Harry was never the merrier.

AN:

To read ahead of the update schedule; pat(r) eon. C (O) M/Dragonspectre