Women Woes and Quidditch Quarreling (Part Four)

Fred and George had left to find their family and tease Ron about his failed attempt at unassisted flight after the game ended leaving Harry with the other three. They had chatted about the game for a while with Sirius attempting to give Harry pointers on how to use some of Krum's moves and include them in his own strategies.

"Absolutely not!" Shiva yelled smacking the back of Sirius' head. "Harry, it's bad enough you try to use the Wronksi Feint please, for love of the Goddess, do not do that turn!"

"It really didn't look that hard though, Shiva," Harry said shrugging.

Hermione groaned and slapped her head with one hand. "Of course it's not hard at normal speeds, Harry. You do that at full tilt though like Krum did and you're likely to lose your arm if the angle is even a fraction of an inch off."

"But imagine how much faster I could turn if I hook the poles like that!" he wasn't going to give up that easily. Flying was the only thing he could do half as well as runes.

Shiva glared at Harry but then got a scary grin and looked to Hermione. The girl cocked her head and let out a soft, "Oh." A moment later she smiled at Harry and moved to sit right next to the boy. His alarm bells were ringing again. She moved both hands to his cheeks and said, "Harry, you like kissing me right?" He nodded. "And you like when I hug you?" He nodded again. "If you want me to keep kissing you, you won't lose your arm while playing Quidditch. Deal?"

"Can I still try the move at lower speeds?"

"As long as you promise to remain intact," she said after giving it some consideration.

"Deal." He hurriedly agreed. Hermione smiled and pulled him down for a kiss. They broke off as screams sounded from a short distance away.

Sirius and Shiva frowned and stood, moving to the front of the tent. "You two stay here. We'll see what's going on," Shiva said. The screams increased in volume and number. "Scratch that. Head towards the forest, guys. Sirius?"

"I got your back," he said all levity and playfulness gone from his voice.

"Shiva," Harry started but was immediately cut off as his guardian shook her head.

"Harry, please. There are too many people here and you could be a target. This could just be a lure to draw you towards them. I'll catch up, but I need to know what's going on first. Please." Harry scowled but nodded. "Thank you. Hermione, make sure he goes. Both of you protect each other. Worst comes to worst, head to the nearest Floo and get back home, then send off Hedwig to us if we aren't back an hour after you return."

"If he'll listen to you, send my elf. I don't want to call him with this many people around…he's still not exactly stable," Sirius said.

Shiva gave Harry a quick hug and pushed him towards the flap. "Go. Sirius, this way!"

The four split as they ran out of the tent, Shiva and Sirius heading towards the group of panicking attendees while Harry and Hermione ran towards the forest.

Harry and Hermione had made it nearly three quarters of the way to the trees when the tent in front of them exploded. Little balls of fire rained down on them and the two jumped out of the way. With a loud crash a giant piece of the wood used to construct the stadium crashed to the ground. It fell between the two teens separating them and blocking Harry's way forward. He rolled back away from the smoking barrier yelling out, "Hermione! Mione, are you all right!?"

"I'm okay, Harry!" came a coughing reply. "Cut through the next lane of tents and circle around to me okay?"

"On it! Don't move, Mione, I'm coming!" Harry pushed himself to his feet still coughing. 'Got to do something about breathing runes soon. Smoke and toxic fumes are not healthy.' Harry ran through the nearest tents and picked up his Reductor from his utility belt as he hit the back wall, using it to blast a hole through and into the next lane. Thankfully that section was clear of debris so he ran a few tents down before cutting back towards where he had left Hermione. He was still a short ways away as a piercing scream rent the air.

Fleur was quickly learning that tempting fate was probably the stupidest thing she had ever done in her short life. The quick tour of the country had been interesting – especially the ancient magical sites such as Stonehenge and the supposed burial chamber of Merlin and Morgana. Even the World Cup itself had turned out to be more fun than anticipated. Celeste and her group had performed exceptionally, almost too exceptionally. They had grabbed the hearts and minds of nearly every male that Fleur had seen. One particularly sad red-head member of the crowd had actually tried to leap onto the field. She'd been rather amazed that the boy had been coordinated enough to get as far as he had – considering how little blood seemed to be in his head at that point…well, the head on his shoulders at least. For the game itself, Victor Krum's flying skills had proven exceptional just as she'd hoped. While it was disappointing that Bulgaria lost she hadn't much cared for the results either way. It was just exciting getting to see the skill with which all of the participants were competing.

Afterwards, she had been invited to stay with the group of her people for a short afterparty that had quickly turned into a far more intense experience than she had anticipated. When many of the Veela began partnering off with the Bulgarian teammates, Fleur had called it a night. It wasn't that she was opposed to such activities – it was after all, part of her very nature – but she did prefer to at least know something about her potential partner. She was not some floozy who would just jump into bed with the nearest warm body simply because she was aroused. Now if Celeste had been interested the night might have proceeded differently, but her friend had been otherwise occupied. So Fleur had left.

Which led her straight into the current predicament...and cursing herself for tempting fate by expecting a boring trip. In her inebriated state, she hadn't noticed that the screams in the distance hadn't been simple shouts of delight but were in fact sounds of panic. By the time that had penetrated her mind it had been too late. She'd been surrounded by five men in black robes and white masks. She knew enough of recent history to recognize Death Eater garb when she saw it and it had sent a chill down her spine. Fleur tried to grab her wand but an ever so slight fumble was all it had taken.

Her first spell missed by a fraction of an inch and the man behind her slammed something into her head. Fleur went down with the world spinning. She tried to pull herself together enough to transform into her avian battle form or even just ramp up her Allure but…between the alcohol and the head injury she wasn't able to concentrate well enough. Whoever had reached down and grabbed Fleur succeeded in unintentionally further complicating matters. He pulled her torso up and locked her arms behind her back with his knee between her shoulder blades lewdly pushing her chest forward.

"Ne me touche pas! Lâche moi, espèce de pourriture!" Fleur screamed. The position of her arms and his leg effectively limited her ability to shift as her wings weren't able to form and that prevented the rest of her from changing as well.

One of the men grunted from behind his mask and reached a hand into his robes near the groin. Fleur screamed, fighting as hard as she could against her attackers. Another of the masked men sent a spell into her side knocking the wind out of her. The world swam in front of her eyes and Fleur sucked in a deep breath. This was going to be it. This was how her life was going to end: beaten, raped and killed by arrogant rioting terrorists who had had the good fortune to be lucky at just the right time…

Or perhaps, not such good fortune after all.

The man standing in front of her with his robes parted and his manhood swinging was suddenly hit in the chest with a bright red disarming spell. His wand shot away and his body was thrown backwards nearly ten feet from force of the spell, crashing to the ground in front of his other companions. The four men, plus Fleur, simply gaped for a moment as the prone attacker gave a shuddering gasp and fell still.

Spells flew past Fleur, streaking towards two of the other men, but they sufficiently recovered their wits enough to start blocking. Fleur felt her arms released as her captor shouted from behind. She twisted out of the way, trying to kick or punch the man but he had already started to fall to the side, a mass of brown hair riding his back into the ground. Fleur blinked. Whoever her rescuer was, the girl – for she looked to be a teenager only slightly younger than Fleur herself – had delivered a flying knee into the rioter's back and latched onto his shoulders as he fell to the ground. The girl rolled off the man as he hit, her elbow driving into his neck – and quieting all his flailing – before her maneuver was finished. She turned just in time to raise a shield around Fleur and herself as spells came flying at them.

"If you can stand, get ready to run!" the girl yelled. Fleur tried to nod but it was still hard to focus and she only succeeded in grimacing as the world swam around her again.

"I don't zink I can," Fleur hissed between her teeth as she blinked away the pain. "But I can fight from 'ere."

"You don't have your wand!" the girl shouted back. Her shield cracked as more spells impacted. "Here! It's a Concussor," she tossed a small stone at Fleur who stared at the little engraving dumbly. A rune stone? "It launches confrigos, point it at them. On my mark, three, two, one – "

Before the girl could finish her count the battlefield erupted again. Another small stone hexagon soared into the clearing and almost immediately exploded into a shower of light and raw magical energy. Two of the attackers were caught in the blast, one dropping unmoving ten feet away from where he started while the second was pushed into the wall of a nearby tent dazed but still standing. He had no chance to raise his wand to counterattack though. An arm's length stone spike at least 14cm thick shot through the air and embedded itself in his chest.

Fleur shifted her eyes and saw a messy haired young man with blazing green eyes charging into the space between the tents, fury and panic written across his face. His right hand was clutching his wand while his left was holding a rune stone. Spells shot from his wand while another spike formed, shooting from the rune and streaking towards another one of the remaining attackers. That man managed to shatter the stone but the brown haired girl dropped her shield and launched a cutting hex. He turned at the last moment and instead of striking his arm, her spell hit him in the chest and caused a spray of red to blossom, the rioter collapsing to the ground. The green eyed man jumped towards Fleur and the girl completely missing the final attacker now positioned just behind him. The girl tried to shout something and the man started to turn back but the attacker had already raised his wand to curse them.

Fleur snarled. She didn't have time to fully transform, but she was angry and scared enough to force the shift in her arm. A light downy sprinkling of pure white feathers sprouted along her right arm as the fire formed above her palm. Fleur drew her arm back and launched the ball of liquid flame towards the final rioter. She coalesced a second fireball before the first had even impacted but it turned out to not be needed. Despite her condition, Fleur's aim had been true. Her fire hit the attacker dead center and flowed over him. He dropped his wand and screamed but a Veela's fire was not as simple as normal flames. These were hungry. Before her two saviors could do anything beyond raise their wands the masked man, dropped dead to the ground, his clothes still burning.

Breathing hard, the green eyed man and the brown haired girl turned to each other. "Are you okay?" They asked simultaneously. Both nodded and replied, "I'm fine."

The girl turned to Fleur and dropped down beside her. "Are you okay?"

"Oui, je ne suis pas blessée. Est-ce que tu vas bien?" Fleur said levering herself into a sitting position and attempting to ignore the spinning sensation.

"I'm sorry, I don't speak much French," the girl said with a frown.

"Ah, oui, of course," Fleur said with a groan. "Apologies. I am mostly fine. Are you 'urt?"

"I'm okay. A little bruised, but fine," she said turning to the man who came up and put his hand on her shoulder still looking around the clearing. "I'm, Hermione and this is Harry. If you can stand we should leave before more of them come."

"I…may need some assistance with zat. Ze hit me on the 'ead and I am still a leetle dis…dis…I do not know ze word. It iz spinning."

"Disoriented. Harry?"

"Got it," Harry said. "Take the Spiker, Mione. But…be careful…I knew it wasn't exactly a nonlethal cluster but…" His voice faltered slightly before hardening again. "Nevermind. If they're going to wear Death Eater robes and try to kill you then they deserve it." Handing off the rune stone to Hermione, the boy moved to Fleur and helped her to stand. She groaned and held her free hand to her head, waiting for the world to calm down again. Her other arm was draped over Harry's shoulder as he supported some of her weight.

"Alright, let's move," Hermione said holding her wand out and leading the way. Thankfully they made it into the trees without further incidents and Harry carefully let Fleur slump against one of the trees a short ways into the woods.

"Merci, vous m'avez sauvée. Je vous dois la vie," Fleur said smiling at the two youths. Harry cocked his head at her and Hermione was about to say something before Fleur waved her off. "Sorry, I meant, zank you. You both saved, at minimum, my virtue and more likely my life az well. I owe you a great debt."

Harry blushed. "Don't worry about it. Saving people seems to be a habit of ours…"

Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes. "More like a habit of Harry's that we all just keep getting dragged along with. Do you know any healing spells…?"

"Oh, where are my mannerz…I am Fleur Delacour," Fleur said with a wry grin. "And no, I not know any of ze healing spells. I will be fine in a few minutes zough. I imagine I am quite sober by zis point and the world has been spinning far less for some time now. Ze head injury was not bad, merely frustrating."

"You should still get it looked at," Hermione said frowning. "Concussions are never something that should just be brushed off."

"I will. I promise, 'ermione," Fleur said nodding. She was quite pleased when there was only a dul twinge of pain at that movement.

"Good. Harry, are you alright?" Hermione said turning to her companion.

"I'm fine, Mione," Harry's eyes narrowed as a burning green and black skull shot into the sky with a snake curling through its mouth. Screams rang out anew and distant pops heralded a retreat by the remaining rioters. "That's the Dark Mark right?"

"Yes, it is," Hermione said growing pale. "You don't think…?"

"I doubt it," Harry said. "Voldemort's not that stupid. He'd never attack something this big without a ton of followers and he'd probably be more organized about it."

"I hope you're right, Harry," Hermione said softly.

"Voldemort? I zought he was dead?" Fleur asked looking between the two. "Wasn't he killed over a decade ago?"

"He's only mostly dead," Harry said sighing and rubbing his forehead. "It's complicated and now's not really the time to explain. Hang on a second and let me see if I can contact Shiva or Sirius. Comm on, contact Shiva."

Fleur's eyes widened as she turned from Harry to Hermione. "He can do wandless, long distance voice throwing charms? I didn't zink that was possible!"

Hermione chuckled. "It's another rune cluster just a miniaturized version." She turned her head and tapped her earring. "See? Harry's quite skilled with runes. We all have a Comm Stone so that we can contact each other in emergencies. I think his guardian rather forgot about it in the heat of the moment earlier when she told us to send an owl after her if she was missing," Hermione finished with a soft grin.

"Don't worry about it, I promise not to tease you. Yeah, we're fine but we found an older girl and she's hurt. Not badly, but someone should still take a look at her…By the pink flaming tent and about two rows further north and a hundred feet in…err, I'd prefer to talk about that at home, Shiva…no, I'm fine…yes, really…yeah, I did…I'm okay. I do want to talk about it but not over a rune line, Shiva, that's why I said I'd wait til we got home…Hermione am I in shock?" Harry asked shaking his head in exasperation and turning to the brunette. Fleur just peered between them utterly lost. Hermione shook her head and gave him a thumbs up. "Hermione says I'm fine. Oh, I see you guys. Hang on," he took out another hexagonal rune stone and held up it. A second later the most beautiful silver panther jumped out of it and prowled through the trees towards the tents.

"Mon Dieu...Is zat a Patronus? From a rune stone?" Fleur asked, gaping.

"Like I said, Harry is good with runes." Hermione sighed. "It's not technically a Patronus. We're not entirely sure what it is to be honest. He's kind of breaking new ground with the Silver Spirit. Oh, there they are."

Hermione stood and waved to two adults striding up to them following the silver panther as it loped back through the woods toward the teens. The woman appeared a few years older than Fleur though the man was quite a bit more mature – perhaps mid-thirties? As soon as she caught sight of Harry and Hermione, the woman sped up from a quick trot into a full out sprint with the man only slightly slower behind her. She crashed to a stop as the panther dissipated and pulled Harry into a bone-crushing hug.

"Shiva, I said I was fine," Harry muttered pushing her back and running his brilliant eyes over her critically. "You're hurt though." He reached out a hand to gently touch a burn on her right arm.

"It's nothing, kid," Shiva said brushing off his worry. "I have a paste at the house and it'll be gone in a day." She eyed him. "And your 'fine' tends to translate to 'I almost died a few minutes ago but everything's cool now; excuse me while I bleed out over here'."

The other man – Sirius? – came forward with concern also evident in how he checked over all three of the teens. Fleur noticed his eyes slightly unfocus as he looked at her. Cursing inwardly, she reigning in her Allure not realizing it had been leaking out. Her injury must have been greatly diminished now going by that. Sirius' eyes refocused and he nodded at her before pulling Hermione in a quick hug. "You guys are really alright?"

"Yes, Sirius," Hermione said with a sigh. "After the adrenaline wears off I doubt we will be okay for long, but yes for the moment, Harry and I are uninjured beyond some bruises. None of their spells hit. Fleur has a concussion though she said the dizziness is abating. I believe she also has several bruises, but we managed to reach her before they had much of a chance to go further than that."

"And the attackers?" he asked.

Harry and Shiva both scowled while Hermione grimaced. Before either of the youths could say anything Fleur cut in, "Ze have been dealt with. 'Arry and 'ermione saved my life. They were quite impressive and quite...determined?"

"I'd say decisive not determined," Hermione sighed. "They're dead. Five bodies back near the flames."

"Better them than you," Sirius said and Shiva nodded her agreement.

"Is anyone going after the others that got away?" Harry asked.

"Sorry, kid," Shiva sighed. "They used portkeys to escape when someone sent off the Dark Mark. No way to track them now unless they were stupid enough to use Ministry registered keys which seems very unlikely."

"You can't track portkeys?" Harry asked looked incredulous. At the shaking heads he scowled. "Another thing to add to the To-Do List," he muttered.

"Kid..."

"It's just folded and overlapping spaces. Tracking it will be easier than making the Silver Spirit."

"Harry!" Shiva said tone harsh. He looked up and shut his eyes before taking a deep breath and nodding.

"Right. Sorry. We should get Fleur to a Healer," he said.

Fleur pulled herself to her feet. The world stayed perfectly still this time. "My muzzer has some basic healing skills. Our tent was near ze stadium with ze Veela mascots from Bulgaria."

Hermione nodded. "Oh, that would explain how you could throw that fireball then."

Fleur grimaced but nodded. She hesitantly turned to the four but surprisingly none seemed to care about the revelation. She blinked at that. Fleur and her mother had been facing prejudice somewhat regularly since entering this country. Yet another good reason for leaving Gabi at home.

"That's pretty cool," Harry nodded. "Did you have friends in the cheerleaders then?"

"Yes," Fleur said still shocked. "A distant cousin once or twice removed..."

"Nice. Hope she got you good seats then." He pulled away from Shiva and walked towards her offering his shoulder again. "Need help still?"

"I...oui. Zank you," Fleur almost shook her head but caught herself before starting the movement. As the group started towards the tents to find her parents, Fleur couldn't help but wonder just who these people were.

"Bloody cowards. Pathetic, weak, despicable, little bloody cowards," Barty Crouch Jr. muttered as he limped through the alley. His father had been distracted and lax ever since the truth about Sirius Black came out and his control had been steadily slipping for weeks. Barty had used the confusion in the riot at the game to fully shatter the control. He'd killed his father right there but Winky had banished him before he could steal the man's wand. Stupid house elf. Wouldn't even come when he called now. Knocking his father's body towards her shouldn't have counted as giving her clothes. She was a fanatical little beast and she wouldn't have wanted that to count. Whatever. He didn't need a house elf. He had done fine on his own long before getting chained.

At least he'd managed to steal that fool redhead's wand. The boy had left it in his back pocket of all places! Did he want to get his arse blown off? That sister though...she was a sharp one. She'd seen Barty slip the wand and managed to get a cutting curse off at him. A powerful one at that. He'd just barely gotten the Dark Mark up before her wand came up and he'd had to immediately apparate away in order to try and dodge her curse. The little bitch had still managed to get his leg pretty good. Barty grunted that in actuality it was a nice shot. After binding his wound and despite the danger, he'd been unable to stop himself from dipping back into the World Cup grounds for a short kip. He found it deserted of his kin – the Death Eaters having run as soon as the Mark appeared.

With a scowl Barty had left to start his plan. Finding his master had been deceptively easy. Riddle Manor was not really the most secure of hiding locations though it was true next to no one in the ranks had been trusted enough to be told of the significance of the building. Barty was relatively certain that only he and Bella had been told and even then it had only been after enough magical rituals that little if any of his master's birth father's genes remained in the body. Seeing the coward rat, Wormtail, attending his master was shameful. Oh how he longed to torture the fool! But no, his master had forbidden it...for now.

The plan to infiltrate the upcoming Tournament was both simple and ingenious. Taking his father's place would certainly have worked better, but Black had closed off that option. He was forced to go with the second best solution. Alastor Moody. The man was known as horribly paranoid with those he didn't trust implicitly so it wouldn't look odd when Barty kept drinking from his own flask of polyjuice instead of school supplies. There was even once a time that Barty had enjoyed acting so playing a curmudgeonly old veteran skilled at both Dark defense and Dark offense should be simple enough. It might even be fun. The decision to willingly give up the use of his leg for months was made far easier after the damage that girl had done to him.

No the real trick to this plan would be keeping Harry Potter in a position to win the Tournament. The boy may be more competent and powerful than originally anticipated, but Barty had heard the rumors about the Tournament being far more intensive than the original plan. Dragons had been difficult enough and he didn't relish finding ways through the newer challenges. Assuming he even bothered...if the boy died during the Tournament his master would be disappointed certainly but...there was a large assortment of enemies who could be used for the solstice ritual. Harry Potter didn't need to survive to bring his master back...

Eh, he'd wait and see how things progressed. Perhaps the boy would surprise him anyway. Right now, Barty had a paranoid old man to kidnap.