章 7: Good ol’ spying and some eavesdropping

"Come on Harry. We are going to be late for lunch and I don't know about you, but I don't want to be hungry when casting charms," she said while tugging one of his robe's sleeves.

"Yes ma'am," he said, giving Hermione a salute.

Hermione didn't seem to appreciate his sassy attitude as she slapped his shoulder.

"Have I done anything wrong ma'am?" he asked in a mock innocent tone.

Harry's barb earned him another slap.

"Why yes, you impudent child," she claimed.

"Ma'am, I'm obliged to inform you that unless you stop assaulting me, we'll be late for lunch," Harry graciously informed Hermione.

Hermione turned around to look him in the eyes and he stared back.

Was it Hermione or Harry who went first? They didn't know.

They both started laughing. Two full-blown belly laughs.

Harry even dropped to his knees, he was laughing so hard!

When Harry had finally managed to get ahold of himself, he noticed that Hermione had disappeared from his near vicinity.

He slowly got up, his abs screaming in protest, and detected her some meters ahead of him.

She was running towards the castle.

"She thinks that she can outrun me to the feast," he mumbled as realisation dawned on him.

Hermione saw the chance and she took it. That was a Slytherin-isque move in his opinion.

'Not bad,' he thought fleetingly as he started running behind her.

It took no time for the heavily trained quidditch seeker to start catching up. His lithe form, which had only formed thanks to Madam Pomfrey's potions and care, together with his godlike stamina -Wood's work- were no match for Hermione.

He almost caught up when something caught his attention, a bright flash of silver in his peripheral vision that came from behind a small, nearby hill.

Unluckily, as everyone who spent enough time with Harry knew, Harry had a very inquisitive nature.

'Even if I go over there and check it, I'll still be able to outrun Hermione,' he quickly determined.

Unbothered by Hermione's growing distance between them, Harry reached the hill and tried to find the source of his curiosity.

His gaze stopped at a girl who was gracefully moving around the grounds. Her silvery blonde hair, which no muggle could be born with, was put in a bun, presumably to be out of the way.

She was tall. Even though he couldn't say her exact height from that distance, she was definitely taller than him, albeit not by much.

She was also thin, though not a bad thin, and the way she moved made it obvious that she was strong for her size.

From what little Harry managed to gather, she was fighting imaginary opponents.

Her wand kept flashing different colours and most of the spells that followed were unlike any Harry had seen before.

The only spells that Harry recognised were the stunners that she seemed to throw every so often, each one hitting at what he assumed were pre-placed marbles of stone. He also perceived some summoned wind gusts, but couldn't for the life of him understand how she achieved utilising them for moving her long slender legs.

And lastly, he couldn't miss those terrifying fireballs that she first conjured and then banished in all directions; they flew at astonishing speeds.

He was mesmerised watching her glide around and cast spells with deadly precision; his eyes never failing to follow her form.

What little he could see from her face showed she was completely concentrated on performing her task.

Eventually, due to some unknown means, Harry managed to reacquire a semblance of control over his mind.

'That's Fleur Delacour. One of the other champions,' he realised.

How long he stood there, transfixed, he couldn't say. But he had to move! He couldn't be found out spying on her.

"God, that'd be embarrassing," he mumbled.

And he was about to leave, but she was turning around…

'Did she hear me?' he wondered incredulously.

Her long lustrous hair shook from the sudden movement as she cast another spell. Some kind of a whip made from fire materialised next to her. She flicked her wand and the whip cracked, its end finding another small stone and turning it into dust.

'Shit,' he repeated in his head as her face turned towards his direction.

Her dark blue and oh-so-entrancing eyes locked with his.

Harry, trying to act casual, waved at her. He WAVED at her!

After what felt like an eternity Fleur smiled and then opened her mouth, she was going to say something, Harry realised.

But Harry moved.

He ducked.

And who could blame him?

An impossibly good-looking young woman caught him watching her.

'I'm an idiot. Big brainless monkey!' he instantly decided.

Without further to do, he started running again, quickly putting the gorgeous French out of his mind.

'Hopefully, I can still catch up to Hermione and Fleur will leave me be,' he thought defeatedly.

Sometimes, it was hard being a teen.

[BREAK]

It turned out that his once bushy-haired friend was already in the great hall when he managed to reach her. He reluctantly concluded that he must have spent more time gawking at the French than he realised.

The charms lesson was much better than the transfiguration as he managed to perfectly cast the charm in the first quarter of the class, being the first to do so, and then proceeded to try and help his only friend, Hermione, to do the same.

They were learning how to cast the banishing charm, a charm that sent the target away from the caster, the opposite of the summoning charm. As Harry had already mastered the latter spell, he found it easy to learn the former one.

Shockingly, Hermione didn't protest at all and accepted his help. This led to Hermione managing to cast the spell as well as Harry by the end of the lesson.

It had another reaction as well, this one not of the good variety…

They were heading to the library, Hermione thought it'd be a good idea to research the past tournaments. It was something Harry was planning on doing by himself, but he was pleasantly surprised when Hermione recommended it.

"An excellent idea Mione," Harry remarked.

As they were about to turn around a corner, they both heard Ron's loud voice coming from somewhere behind.

"I tell you guys. Potter is trying to manipulate our kind-hearted Hermione into siding with him," he stated.

Dean and Seamus both voiced their agreement, adding their own derogatory comments on Harry.

They had moved to another hallway and Harry found Hermione's eyes looking at him pleadingly.

She knew he was to as going act, Harry always did.

"Go to the library, I'll catch up this time," he couldn't help adding the last part and flashed her a smile.

Hermione was about to open her mouth and say something but Harry's hand was faster.

His index finger massaged her lips, stopping whatever was about to come out.

"I promise," he added as he took off his bag and opened it.

He took out his invisibility cloak, surprising Hermione, and handed her the bag.

Hermione knew a lost cause when she saw one. Once Harry set his mind on something, it was almost impossible to make him relent.

"I'll be quick," he said and they parted ways.

As Hermione walked towards her second home, Harry put on his cloak and turned back, walking to the charm classroom's hallway.

Ron was still there, albeit not for long, and he was talking with whoever cared enough to listen to him.

Rather unsurprisingly, that did not include a lot of people.

Harry started jogging toward the boy, not wanting to miss anything he was going to say.

After Asmodeus' revelations, he wasn't too concerned about being found out while wearing his cloak.

Speaking of Asmodeus, Harry left him in the chamber as he didn't want to risk his existence coming to light just yet.

"No, I don't know how he did it, Seamus. The git didn't bother telling me. However, he did tell me why he did it, his reason for becoming the fourth champion of the Triwizard Tournament," the dick lied.

Satisfied that he at least got two of his roommates' attention, Ron started speaking again.

However, his voice level dropped, prompting Harry to go closer.

"… obvious if you think about it. The tosser didn't feel like he had enough fame and with an act of desperation, he managed to land himself in the tournament. You should have seen how gleeful he was when he told me," he revealed.

"Blimey mate!" came Dean's voice.

"Shhh. Don't shout," Ron quickly said in an undertone.

"What are we going to do Ron? We can't just let him hog poor Cedric's glory," declared Seamus with a resolute expression.

Ron made a hand movement, causing the two boys to move even closer to him.

"Listen here. I've got an excellent idea. When Potter comes to the dormitory tonight, we'll ambush him, cast a few spells and make him understand that even if his life's ambition is to only get more famous, he can't go hogging it from good guys like us and Cedric," he professed, lighting his mates' faces.

They were nearing the great hall so Harry had to leave. He heard more than enough as it was…