A Chance Encounter

Chapter 7

-Dumbledore-

Pacing back and forth across the ancient stone floor of his office, the ancient Headmaster of Hogwarts contemplated and plotted, trying to think of a way to turn things back to his design. "Damn the ICW," he muttered under his breath, "if they hadn't revoked his citizenship-" at that he trailed off, realizing something. Rushing over to his file cabinets he opened one and pulled out the minutes from the ICW hearing and grinned at what he saw. "Yes, they only removed his citizenship." It was a little-known fact about his position of Supreme Mugwump was that it did in fact have a few obscure benefits besides being able to sit as judge. The one that was important here is that gave him a type of citizenship in each country that was a member of the ancient magical body.

"I'm still the brat's magical guardian." He grinned, moving over to a different cabinet and began pulling out students' files. "A marriage contract should help me fix this." He muttered to himself, not caring about the paintings, the sorting hat, or Fawkes listening to him as none of them were able to betray his secrets due to his position as headmaster.

"Ginny Weasley is out." He muttered, putting her file into the 'no' pile without a second thought along with that of every muggleborn "Molly alone won't be enough to control him and Arthur wouldn't sign the contract.

"Susan Bones? No, too free willed and her Aunt would be a hindrance."

"Hannah Abbot? No, too close with Ms. Bones and her aunt."

"Mandy Brocklehurst? Too free spirited."

Remembering a thought he had while waiting for the carriage he double checked the file of one Lilith moon "Hmmm, a family that's dark but not too dark so perfect to be saved. Her family isn't poor but isn't anywhere close to rich so would jump at the chance to have access to the Potter money. Lilith has some spirit but not enough to disobey her father and has a massive crush on Harry. Yes, this will do nicely." Dipping his quill into ink he began to pen a letter to Lord Moon to begin the negotiations for a marriage contract between the girl and Harry. Things were finally looking up.

-Harry-

Grinning, Fleur next to him, Harry walked up to the Portrait of the Fat Lady and nodded in greeting as she smiled at him kindly. "Hello Dear, welcome back." She said to him with a smile, "I heard what happened and I can assure you, Gryffindor is on your side."

"Thank you, kind lady." He said, giving the roguish grin that, according to Sirius, was so much like his father's "But before we go in I'd like to introduce you to someone. Fleur, this is Emmeline Dawn, guardian of Gryffindor tower."

"It's a pleasure to meet you dear." The Fat Lady, Emmeline, said with her typical kind smile before her eyes became cold and sharp, akin to that of a raptor "But listen to me well. You hurt a single hair on this sweet boy then I will make sure you live to regret it."

"Emmeline takes just about every student in her House as her children." He explained sheepishly to Fleur who smiled understandingly before facing the portrait "I assure you, I have no intention of hurting Harry. Not now, not ever."

"Good, now I won't hold you two any longer, there are people waiting inside." With that the portrait swung open as the Gryffindor common room became silent as the grave before erupting in a cacophony of noise, hands grabbing him and Fleur, pulling them into the sea of questioning people. It was impossible to hear any one question over the multitude of others being all but screamed at him by the throne, it was so bad he couldn't even hear himself think. Getting tired of it Fleur put her fingers in her lips and gave a sharp whistle that echoed off the stone walls in the enclosed space, everyone wincing in pain and trying to clear their ears.

"Thank you, Fleur." He said with a smile as Fleur grinned smugly at the praise before he turned to face what was once his house "Alright everyone, if you're going to ask questions I have a few rules. One, ask them one at a time. Two, give me a chance to answer them. And three, ask them, don't yell them." Once making sure the now sheepish sea of red and gold understood he nodded for them to begin.

"Where did you go during the attack at the World Cup?" it was Ron who asked, his normally lazy friend looking decidedly serious "I tried learning from the trial but mum took away the radios during the day it happened, refused to tell me, and made sure we couldn't get access to the Prophet."

"Well after we got separated I came across Fleur here-" he began explaining what had happened, leaving out the details of all his new powers as well as how he got them, merely saying it was a magical mutation he had developed.

"Well…that's…um…" Neville trailed off, not sure how to comment after hearing about all that had happened.

"Just the sort of thing that would happen to you." Hermione sighed "I'm almost surprised you didn't surprise a herd of unicorns from a lethifold and have them declare you their king or something."

"It's still the weekend, that's nine to five stuff." Fleur giggled "I'm sure Harry will save plenty of Unicorns when Monday rolls around."

"Is she your girlfriend Harry?" the question, laced with jealousy, came from Ginny who was giving Fleur a critical eye, as opposed to most of the guys in Gryffindor who were giving Fleur a very different kind of eye.

"No." He and Fleur denied in tandem, both of them turning a shade of crimson that matched perfectly with the multitude of Gryffindor red around them. Doing his best to calm his breathing and prepare for the next question he never saw the challenging look the two girls sent each other.

"Enough of this heavy shit!" Fred yelled before anyone else could ask a question "We've got Harry back. Let's Party!" for the rest of the night he and Fleur were paraded around the tower, people wanting to shake his hand, give him a hug, a slap on the back. Drinks flowed like water, good jokes ran freely, and bad jokes ran rampant.

As the party started to wind up Fleur went off to use the loo while he sat down with Ron and Hermione, most of the house having sluggishly dragged themselves up to bed. "So, not your girlfriend huh?" Hermione asked him teasingly as he waved Fleur off to the loo.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he already said that Hermione." Ron said confused, a sentiment he shared with his ginger friend.

"Boys." Hermione sighed at them, much to their offense "I can tell you like her Harry."

"Hermione, I'm fairly sure over half the castle fell in love with her at first sight." Ron snickered while Harry felt a wave of jealousy ripple through him, a faint scowl appearing on his face at the thought. Apparently with his new build it was intimidating as Ron flinched.

"And I also know that she likes you." His bushy haired friend continued, completely unfazed by his scowl.

"I highly doubt that." He snorted, rolling his eyes while Ron looked just as skeptical as he did, much to Hermione's ire as she pinched the bridge of her nose before looking skyward in a clear gesture of 'Lord give me strength'. "Hey!" he protested at said expression "I do not deserve that reaction."

"Keep telling yourself that Harry." Hermione sighed, patting his head patronizingly.

"So, who do you guys think will be the champions?" Ron asked, his friend's one track mind quickly going from romance to sports.

"Beauxbatons is going to be Fleur, without a doubt." He told them seriously "I've seen what she can do and trust me, she'll definitely make champion."

"Well I think it'll be Krum for Durmstrang." Ron said, proud of his own deduction.

"Karkaroff probably won't let anyone else enter given how much he was obsessing over Krum earlier." He said with a snort, remembering the Durmstrang High master snapping at his students earlier for asking a question.

"What about Hogwarts though?" Hermione asked, "I know Marcus Flint from Slytherin is going to enter, along with Cedric from Hufflepuff and Angelina. The twins too if they can figure out how to bypass the age line."

"Angelina." Ron said without even taking a moment to think about it "Without a doubt Angelina. A Gryffindor has to be the Champion."

"I'd have to say it will likely be Cedric." He said, not agreeing with Ron who gaped at him with a look of utter betrayal. "Oh, don't give me that look Ron." He rolled his eyes and flicked his best friend in the nose, finding the resulting yelp somewhat amusing "Look, Angelina's great, I'm not denying that. The problem is that Cedric not only has a stronger than normal magical core but is one of the best students in his year. Added to that I've heard that his dad hired him professionally trainers and duel instructors since last year. Probably having heard of the tournament from his job at the ministry and wanted to prepare his son."

"That's cheating!" Hermione looked aghast.

"Can you honestly tell me you don't expect Karkaroff to have done the same thing?" he asked with a raised eyebrow "Or if we were seventh years for Snape to go out of his way to prevent anyone besides Draco form entering?" when neither of them could answer he just gave a nod.

"Ready to head back 'arry?' Fleur asked as she walked over, giving a friendly smile to Ron and Hermione at their presence.

"Yeah, just let me say a couple goodbyes and we can head back." He nodded before going around to say goodbye to his other friends, leaving Fleur along with Ron and Hermione. When he returned, Ron looked even more perplexed than usual, something he hadn't been aware was possible, Hermione looked smug, and Fleur was blushing. "I don't want to know." He sighed before giving his closest friends a hug "See you guys tomorrow."

"See you then Harry," Hermione returned the hug but her voice had a mischievous tone that was knew to her "you two be sure to behave yourselves. Don't want to go making Sirius proud after all."

"HERMIONE!" he and Fleur yelled together in tandem, both bright red as Hermione cackled gleefully.