The night before they were scheduled to return to Hogwarts, Pansy got up late at night to find Fleur also up.
"Couldn't sleep either huh?" Pansy concluded.
"Just couldn't stop thinking about the new year," Fleur confessed, "its just all so crazy, I never really imagined my life turning out like this."
"The slave thing or the going to Hogwarts thing?" The younger girl asked.
"Both." Fleur replied after several moments of thought, "I'm worried about what Hogwarts will be like but I'm also wondering about how everyone will treat me. First of all I'm a Veela, so I'm still going to get all of that unwanted attention just because of what I am, not only from guys but from girls that are jealous."
"Well I'm not going to deny that I'm one of them," Pansy admitted, "I'd kill to have a body like yours."
"Trust me it really isn't as great as you'd think..." Fleur replied with a sigh, "Some attention is nice but when every guy that you talk with can't stop staring long enough to even have a decent conversation with you it becomes a problem. Veela always have trouble in that regard."
"I'm sorry if I offended you, I just don't really understand what that's like." Pansy answered.
"You've still got plenty of years to grow up," Fleur said, "and I'm not offended by that comment, we all want what we don't have after all. If I weren't a Veela it might not be so bad to be beautiful, but people tend to assume that I only exist for sex."
Pansy could see her point, that certainly did not sound fun.
"Then the only slave thing is likely to exacerbate the whole issue." Fleur continued, "I know that Harry is a great guy and all and he's been nothing but nice to me, but I can't imagine everyone acting that way towards me if they ever find out."
"We'll just have to make sure it stays a secret." Pansy told her optimistically.
"That's what I'm hoping for but I'm still trying to steel myself in case it ever gets out." Fleur took the route of realism.
"If it ever got out Harry would support you and get you through it, and so would I, Su, and Susan." Pansy replied.
"You don't even know me though." Fleur pointed out, surprised and unsure at the sudden show of complete support.
"We know you well enough, besides its not like each of us hasn't faced similar problems, each of us might easily have been in very undesirable marriages." Pansy answered, "Draco and Nott for example were already forcing me and Su to do stuff, I can't imagine how bad it would have gotten as we had gotten older."
Pansy shuddered at the thought.
"You still wouldn't have been slaves though." Fleur tried to remind her.
"No, if I had ended up with Draco I might as well have been." Pansy said wryly, "In a lot of ways slavery to someone else other than him would have been preferable to the alternative. Did I tell you I even offered to bond myself to Harry?"
"You actually wanted to?" Fleur exclaimed, aghast.
"It was the only thing I could think of so I wouldn't have to worry about him losing me to Malfoy again, it might still be an unlikely possibility but I just didn't want to take that chance, I still don't," Pansy confessed, "in a lot of ways I actually envy you. You don't have to ever worry again about who you'll belong to, and with your looks I can't imagine Harry not loving you."
Fleur scoffed, "Being able to truly love someone goes further than simply looks. Though I get the attention of virtually every guy I meet their attraction to me is just skin-deep, they don't really want to get to know me, just my body. I could be an absolutely horrible person and it wouldn't make much of a difference. I think that's why I actually find myself liking Harry so much, he's the first boy I've met who's made a real effort to get to know the real me."
"He has a way of doing that." Pansy confirmed with a fond smile, "How I was forced to act around Draco is something I'm not really proud of, but he managed to get me past that and start to act like my true self."
"Though he may be just a boy, in a lot of ways he seems a lot more mature than that, its like he tries to take on responsibility way above his years." Fleur commented.
"We're all pretty young. Even still I feel I'm already falling in love with him." Pansy confessed, looking at Fleur, nervous about how her declaration of love would be received by the older girl.
Fortunately Fleur seemed to be gracious enough to not simply discount it as a still pre-teen girl's crush, but instead moved to reassure her.
"I'm happy for you then." Fleur finally answered, "One day I hope to really fall in love with him too."
DUELDUELDUEL
As Harry waited for his turn to go through the barriers between 9 and 10, Amelia and Mr. Delacour were already starting to say their goodbyes, while they stood just behind the Weasleys who were just now going through the barrier one by one.
"Make sure to have someone around watching you when you practice flying." Amelia cautioned Susan, who was now allowed to bring her own broom, the Nimbus 2000 that she had gotten her for Christmas. Fleur on the other hand was given the broom that her father had purchased over in Panama for her birthday. The diamond necklace that Harry had given her from his family vault had earned yet another kiss from her.
Harry noticed that there was only Ron and Ginny left and as Ron ran into the barrier, instead of him simply going directly through, he crashed right into it, the barrier for some reason becoming totally solid.
With him having fallen over and his cart banged up, Ginny went over to help him up, but Ron rejected it.
"I don't need your help!" He shouted at her.
"I was only trying to help." Ginny claimed, but Ron wasn't having any of it.
"The stupid barrier is broken!" Ron said, kicking it for good measure, "Some shoddy piece of magic from a lousy Slytherin no doubt."
"We'll just have to find someone to get it fixed." Ginny suggested calmly.
"No way," Ron claimed, "I have a better idea, way better than the stupid train, I'll be traveling to Hogwarts in style."
Ron righted his cart and ran off somewhere without explaining just what he meant.
Meanwhile Amelia had noticed what happened and went to go inspect the barrier before saying, "It appears the magic on it allowing people to go through seems to have turned off, don't worry I'll have it fixed in a second." She told them.
After checking to make sure it was really fixed, she allowed Ginny to go through, followed by Susan, and then the rest of them.
They quickly made their last minute goodbyes right there.
"Now you be good Harry, and don't you dare be doing anything that 12 year old boys shouldn't be doing or I'll make sure Dumbledore has you doing owlery cleaning duty every day." Madame Bones warned him.
"I will." He promised, giving her a hug and causing her to actually tear up.
"I'm going to miss all of you." She told them, before finally allowing him to leave so she could finish saying goodbye to Susan.
As soon as they entered the train, they quickly found a compartment and they all sat down. Fortunately none of them was particularly big so there was still plenty of room for all of them.
While Pansy explained a bit more about the house selection process to Fleur and Gabrielle, he allowed Susan to lay her head down on his shoulder so she could take a nap.
"Thank you Harry." She muttered as she snuggled into his shoulder.
"No problem." He said.
"Is it all right if I do the same?" Su asked on the other side of him.
"If you want to." Harry told her as she lay down her head on his other shoulder.
He decided to risk grabbing up some of Su's hair, which was currently put in front of her on his side and gently run his hands through it, he knew how much Su loved having her hair played with.
"You getting enough attention there Harry?" Fleur asked, noticing the rather close proximity to him and the two girls.
"Sometimes there are benefits to being in a crowded train compartment full of pretty girls." Harry told her.
"Just don't get too comfortable, you're lucky I haven't hexed you." Su told him.
"You know I'd just have to hex you back," Harry countered, knowing that it was an idle threat on Su's part. While she could no doubt kill him if she so chose, he had for the most part managed to escape her ire. Evidently he was doing at least something right.
"How long until we get there?" Gabrielle asked.
"Several more hours maybe." Pansy replied.
"Well if we don't switch seats before then, I get dibs on sitting next to Harry on the way back for Christmas vacation." Gabrielle claimed.
While he wasn't exactly sure what he had done to become so popular, he wasn't complaining as he allowed both Su and Susan rest on either side of him.
DUELDUELDUEL
Upon arriving at Hogwarts, Fleur and Gabrielle were asked to go along with the first years so that they could be sorted, leaving Harry, Pansy, Su, and Susan to sit at each of their 4 tables.
The first years were all sorted first, including Ginny, who came up last to be sorted into Gryffindor.
"Delacour, Fleur!" Ms. McGonagall called as Fleur came up.
The hat was on her head for perhaps a minute before it called, "Gryffindor!"
Fleur happily went over to sit next to him as he made a space for her.
Gabrielle was next and also took another minute before she was also sorted into Gryffindor.
Obviously happy to be sorted into the same house as her sister and him, she went to go sit on the other side of him, her hand finding his as she sat down.
Dumbledore was just now getting up to deliver his beginning of term speech when the wall directly behind the headmaster and the teacher's table made a very loud crash, causing everyone to look over at what was the matter.
To their amazement, they noticed a car suspended for just a second, just outside the window, which apparently had strong enough magical protection to have handled the blow without breaking. The car then crashed to the ground below making a loud metallic crunch as it did so.
As Dumbledore went over to look out the window and see just what had happened for himself he then turned back to the still curious students and faculty and announced, "Please do not panic, the teachers will go see just what is the matter. In the meantime let me tell you of the various announcements. First, our caretaker has recently updated the list of banned activities and items at Hogwarts."
Of course at this point nobody was really listening, all still staring out the window, wondering just what had happened and how a car had managed to crash that high up, much less get into the school grounds in the first place.
"Does stuff like this always happen at Hogwarts?" Fleur asked.
"Every once in awhile." He said truthfully.
DUELDUELDUEL
It wasn't until the next morning as they came down to breakfast that they found out just what had happened as Ron Weasley got a Howler from his mother, yelling about stealing a car and other stuff he wasn't able to determine was said as Ron had ran far enough away from the Great Hall for it to no longer be discernible.
Fortunately Ginny who was sitting nearby explained the details.
"My brother decided it would be a good idea to drive my father's flying car to Hogwarts." Ginny explained, "I'm surprised he managed to make it this far, but I'm not surprised he crashed into something while trying to land."
"Its a miracle he wasn't killed." Fleur claimed.
Harry couldn't help but notice all of the stares that were coming the French girl's way, which she ignored and instead gave him another kiss, which caused them to stare in shock at both of them before immediately going back to concentrate on eating. It appeared none of the Gryffindors wanted to try anything since she so explicitly showed that she was taken, the troll incident and couple of duels he had taken part in already had apparently given him a reputation of someone not to be messed with. Even though Fleur was using him in a way to get people to stop staring so much, he really didn't mind as long as it meant the occasional kiss from her.
Ginny, having already seen this display in Flourish and Blotts, chose to ignore this. He could tell she was somewhat jealous, but at least she was nice enough not to take it out on Fleur.
"You need help finding your classes Ginny?" Harry offered, "I was going to show Fleur and Gabrielle whee everything is so you can join us if you'd like."
"Sure, that would be nice." Ginny answered gratefully.
Eating quickly, they managed to get done and Harry hurriedly showed them around the castle before classes began.
Leaving Fleur and Ginny at their first classes, he headed back to the Defense Against the Dark Arts room with Gabrielle and sat down, waiting for their new teacher Professor Lockhart to enter.
When he finally did, Harry noticed that he still wore that ridiculously huge smile that all of his posters had displayed him having at the bookshop.
"Good morning class!" He said grandiosely, "I am Professor Lockhart, your new teacher, Order of Merlin Third Class. I'm sure that you are all aware from my books that I am the greatest fighter of magical creatures on the planet by now and my reputation precedes me. I know it may be difficult to be in the presence of such a well known celebrity but I wish to assure you that I will try to be respectful of you ordinary people as well."
Harry noticed that most of the girls were there looking at him with lovestruck faces, including Parvati and Lavender who both sighed as he handed each of them a pink carnation.
'This guy was seriously milking his looks for all they're worth...' He thought. 'At least...' Harry looked over at Gabrielle tp gauge her reaction, only to immediately smile as she didn't seem at all fooled by him, even wearing a look of disgust on her face.
She looked over at him as if to silently ask, "Is this guy for real?"
He sent her a similar look back as they turned back to look at Lockhart and wonder just what kind of idiotic thing he would say or do next.
After going on about various things that he did in his books, he set them to the task of answering a long list of questions about things in his books.
Since he himself had not read more than a few pages of the first one as he found it to be a load of nonsense, he barely knew any of the answers so he made up his own.
Gabrielle however took it a step further and as she showed him what she had written He realized it certainly wouldn't gain her any favors with the new professor but were hilarious nonetheless.
What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color? Isn't it obvious, the color that the camera makes as it flashes in front of his face.
What is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement? Managing to dress himself in the morning.
Harry couldn't help but laugh, even though he was worried that she might get into trouble for her answers
Still, Lockhart chose to ignore hers as he looked each of them over after handing them in, concentrating more on Hermione's, who of course got all the questions right.
After that, he went over to a covered object that they all had noticed when coming in and had been making a few banging sounds occasionally.
"Now what you are about to see next may alarm you, but I must ask you not to scream, you might provoke them." Lockhart cautioned dramatically, lifting the cover off of it, revealing a cage full of small blue creatures.
This earned a laugh from Seamus, "Cornish Pixies?!" He choked out between guffaws.
"They are much more dangerous than you realize." Lockhart claimed, onlt for Seamus to laugh harder, other boys joining him. "Well let's see what you make of them."
He opened up the cage and pixies began to fly out and immediately wreak havoc, obviously not being too pleased with being cooped up into such a small cage.
Lockhart tried to cast a spell at one of them but two others lifted him up a few feet before he crashed back down.
As Hermione tried to swat one away with her book, Gabrielle managed to take the two down that were trying to hoist Neville up onto the chandelier and keep him from hitting the ground too hard.
Lockhart, the coward that he was, ran for it and went to go hide in his office, leaving the class to handle the situation.
It didn't take long for either him or Gabrielle to do so, with a bit of help from Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati while Ron and his gang all hid in a corner of the room.
After subduing them all and putting them back into their cage, Ron spoke up, as if he had actually accomplished something, "Well good work team, we sure showed them."
"Like you actually did anything." Hermione claimed angrily.
"I was there for moral support!" Ron insisted, causing Gabrielle to roll her eyes at him.
At that moment Peeves, no doubt having heard the commotion, showed up.
"Hello Peeves." Harry said, still grateful to Peeves for last year, but also hoping that he didn't cause anymore problems for them, having just gotten all of the pixies back into their cage."
"What gives?" Peeves demanded, acting unhappy, "It looks like I missed all the fun?"
"Actually Peeves," Harry answered, getting an idea as he went to go whisper into his ear, causing Peeves to look all conspiratorial, "why don't you go ghost those pixies into Lockhart's office and release them? He could do with a little excitement."
Peeves grinned, liking the idea as he picked up the cage and went through Lockhart's locked door with it. Exactly 5 seconds later there came a scream as Lockhart evidently discover the pixies now loose in his office.
He tried to open up the door, but Harry noticed that Peeves had already come back to the other side and was holding onto the doorknob to keep him from opening it.
"Open this door at once poltergeist!" Lockhart demanded shrilly, by now desperately trying to escape.
Peeves, who kept his head partially through the door, kept up a running commentary for each of the students, clearly enjoying being able to describe the display.
"Now the pixies are smashing all of his framed photographs of himself," Peeves commented with glee, "he really has too many, I'll have to get some once the pixies are done with them, make him look more distinguished."
"Now the pixies just ripped his pants off, did any of you know he has pink underwear? Oh, Lilac, my mistake."
"Now... well I won't tell you what just happened but let's just say there's no fixing that underwear."
The brilliant commentary done by Peeves caused howls of laughter from the students, minus Hermione, who seemed rather put off that her crush was being humiliated in such a way.
"You know, maybe Hogwarts won't be so bad?" Gabrielle concluded beside him.
DUELDUELDE
At lunch, they all sat at the Gryffindor table to discuss classes as well as relate what had happened in DADA, causing each of them to have a good laugh when Ginny came in looking a bit unsure just where to sit, he beckoned her over so that at least she would feel more welcomed, but by chance the next available spot was over by Pansy who quickly made room for her.
Still, he tried to make sure she felt included by asking her how classes were going so far for her.
While she began describing how they went, Ron came in with Seamus, Dean, and Neville.
When he saw Ginny sitting by Pansy, he told her loudly, "You aren't allowed to sit there Ginny!"
"Why not?" She snapped, having been enjoying her conversation.
"No relative of mine is allowed to associate with any slimy Slytherins." Ron claimed.
"I think I'm allowed to decide for myself who I want to sit next to." Ginny countered angrily.
"I can't believe you Ginny, you're completely shaming the entire Weasley family!" Ron intimated.
"As far as I know the only person that has managed to shame the Weasley family is you." Ginny countered, obviously meaning his reckless driving of the flying car.
Ron flushed with embarrassment but still he tried to grab her and pull her out of her seat.
"Let go of me Ron." She objected loudly.
"I think you had better lay off her." Su said, drawing her wand and pointing it at him.
"Shut up, this doesn't concern you Chinese pasty-face, this is a family matter, one you have no right to interfere in." Ron sneered.
Harry could tell that Su was angered by the comment and he could tell that things would escalate fast. While he had no doubt that Su could take Ron out and reduce him to a pile of ash in roughly a quarter of a second he'd rather not see her get into any trouble.
Fortunately Pansy came in right at that moment.
"I challenge you to that duel you still owe me, Weasley." Pansy challenged.
"I don't have to agree to any duels from you, snake." Ron countered.
"Actually you do, brother of mine." George said with a grin from down the table, having listened to the whole conversation with Fred, who piped in and added, "Besides you wouldn't want anyone calling you a cowardly spider would you?"
As Harry looked over at the two of them, he realized they would be more than happy to spread such a rumor.
Ron looked decidedly unhappy at having his brothers get involved as well.
"If I win you have to let Ginny sit wherever she wants." Pansy suggested.
After looking around to see if he could get any backup, only to find that Seamus, Dean, and Neville were staying out of this and remaining totally silent, he realized his only option was to accept, demonstrating that he at least had Gryffindor courage even if it was usually foolhardy.
"If I win you have to agree never to sit at the Gryffindor table again." Ron told her.
"Agreed," Pansy said, "we'll have the duel right after dinner then, right here in the Great Hall, as long as Dumbledore doesn't have a problem with it."
Ron nodded before going and taking a seat at the very other end of the Gryffindor table.
Turning back to their meal, Ginny told Pansy, "You know you really didn't have to do that for me."
"No, its no big deal." Pansy claimed, "Your brother has had it coming to him for a long time, I've been looking forward to beating him up for awhile now. You just provided the perfect opportunity."
"You seem much more confident now than your last would-be duel." Susan remarked.
"Well I've done a lot more practicing since then." Pansy admitted proudly, "I very much doubt Ron has done the same."
"All Ron usually does is eat, belch, prattle on about his stupid Cannons Quidditch team, and crash into things when he tries to go flying." Ginny claimed, "The twins have gotten so fed up with him that they've started pranking him daily."
Harry shook his head, would the boy never learn?
DUELDUELDUEL
During dinnertime and right before the duel, they found an abandoned classroom to practice in, while the 4 experienced duelists gave her pointers. While Pansy would have been quite easy to defeat by any of their standards, they had no doubt that it would be more than enough to beat someone like Ron. Personally Harry would guess that a monkey could beat Ron, although they might have to handicap the monkey in some way in order to give Ron at least a fighting chance.
"I think you're going to crush him." Susan claimed, earning a smile from Pansy. While she looked slightly nervous, she had good reason to feel confident.
"I think its just a question of how badly you beat him." Su said, offering her own opinion.
As they made their way back to the Great Hall they entered to find that the tables had already been cleared, Dumbledore, who seemed to enjoy conducting duels by now, started the process.
Harry listened, but was still intent on watching Pansy get ready as she faced off against Ron, who looked at her with derision, trying to pretend that she wasn't even worth his time.
As soon as the duel began, it became immediately clear who was the better duelist, and when he meant immediately he meant immediately. Literally the first spell that Pansy fired at Ron with met its mark, and Ron's rather pathetic attempt to dodge it caused him to trip on his robes and fall on the end of his wand, causing a howl of pain as it went right through his robes and poked directly up his rear end. The term that Su had often claimed Ron of having, of having a stick up his butt, was now painfully true.
Allowing Ron to try and get back up again in order to prolong the fight, Pansy waited for him to pull it out, as Ron was dismayed to find that his wand was somewhat bent and damaged.
"My wand!" He yelled, "You're going to pay for that Slytherin, eat slugs."
Unfortunately for Ron due to his obvious discomfort he failed to notice which end of his wand he was actually pointing at her as instead it hit him right in the face, causing him to suddenly belch out one huge fat slug after another.
Barely able to keep from laughing, which might actually have been a possible strategy of Ron's if he intended for Pansy to simply laugh herself to death, she cast another spell at him, causing him to immediately turn red as a steady drip of yellowish-brown liquid ran down his pants and onto the floor, the result of the laxative spell that Pansy had been planning to use on him.
Completely shamed, Harry almost felt sorry for Ron, it certainly hadn't been a good day for him, and seeing as how he was now more focused on regurgitating slugs then he was dueling, it was almost merciful for Pansy to knock him out with her next spell.
While everyone stood away from Ron as the duel ended, not too keen to be anywhere near the slugs and his excrement, they instead chose to congratulate Pansy in so soundly defeating Ron.
"Well... that was easy." Pansy couldn't help grinning.
DUELDUELDUEL
Later on as Harry headed up to bed, still grinning over his memory of the duel, he headed up to his dormitory expecting to find it empty as he doubted Ron or the other boys in his dorm would want to show their faces around him for the next few hours at least.
Instead he was surprised to find a house elf currently standing on his bed, looking quite like the one that Susan owned but this one was evidently male.
"Mr. Harry Potter?" The house elf asked.
"That's me." Harry confirmed, "Who are you?"
"I is Dobby sir, Dobby the house elf." Dobby replied.
"How may I help you Dobby?" Harry asked kindly.
"Dobby wonders where to begin..." Dobby began.
"Try starting at the beginning." Harry suggested.
"Dobby is not allowed to say," Dobby admitted, "but Harry Potter must leave Hogwarts at once."
"If I don't know the reason for it I can't see why I would be able to justify leaving all of a sudden." Harry insisted.
"It is not safe," Dobby told him, "Dobby has heard of Harry Potter's greatness and he must not let Harry Potter be put in danger!"
"I'm in danger on a constant basis," Harry argued, "it seems to follow me wherever I go."
"Harry Potter doesn't understand." Dobby countered, trying to tell him something but seeming to be incapable of saying it. He realized that whatever Dobby was doing it was probably against his master's wishes, whoever they were. From what he knew about house elves this was probably already causing him great pain.
"I simply can't leave now, if something dangerous will be happening at Hogwarts I've got to be here to protect my friends." Harry told Dobby as he pulled out a picture that he and the girls had taken over the summer with each of them smiling.
Dobby glanced at the photo and then asked incredulously, "Harry Potter is brave enough to risk himself for his girlses?"
He supposed Dobby must have some innate magical way of knowing the exact relationship he had with the girls because of what Dobby said next.
"Harry Potter must be a truly great wizard to be wiling to do so for slaves and his betrothed!" Dobby answered, "Dobby doesn't like Harry Potter being in danger but he cannot let Harry Potter watch his girlses be hurt. I will have to let you stay."
Without another word, Dobby cracked out of the room, leaving him alone and wondering just what that was all about. While Dobby had tried to warn him of an impending danger he had no idea just what it was or how bad it would be meaning he couldn't actually warn anyone of it or prepare for it. He supposed he would find out soon enough whatever it was.