บท 7: Chapter 7: Runic Project
November 20th, 1994. It's been… smooth so far. Classes are manageable, I started to improve on all aspects of the subjects. The toughest is Arithmancy as I don't really like math, but it's fine I guess. I continued my practice in the spells aspects, I wrote down every spell that I studied in my own notebook in a short and compact way, started to delve into nonverbal magic and stuff like that, overall it's been good so far.
My entire daily routine is just waking up in the morning, going to class, going to the library to practice runes and other stuff if I'm too lazy to climb to the seventh floor, or just going to the room of requirements to practice magic if I have time. I started to see people less and less because of that, not that it's different from before mind you.
With Fleur, I sometimes meet her at the dinner feast, just chatting about mundane things. She's a passionate person, I could see the fire in her eyes when talking about winning the tournament, which worries me a bit… I have to do something about that.
Today, Fleur came to me bringing a box of clothing at breakfast time, it was quite heavy for some reason, and she gave the box to me.
"What's this?" I asked her in confusion, she looked quite excited.
"It is my uniform." she answered casually. "Now, you are going to 'elp me with it."
I look at her as if she said something unbelievable. "Help you with what?"
"You said that you will 'elp me enchant it, Non?" she pointed out, she then leaned towards me and whispered to my ear, probably making a lot of people misunderstood. "Let's go to your… private area…"
As soon as she did that, I could hear whispers around the dinner table, I could see the gossip will start to spread now… fuck me Fleur…
I could see her smirk as she sat back down, what the hell did I just get myself into…
"Fine." I grumbled. "But can you please not do that? People will talk?"
"Oh, you will find that being near me 'as some benefits." she said, her smug smile appeared widely.
I just shook my head in amusement and continued to eat my breakfast, ignoring the whispers around the table.
B====D~~~
As I climbed the stairs towards the seventh floor, I could feel my back throbbing from all the walking, not to mention, I was bringing Fleur's box, which is heavy, what the fuck does this made of? Bricks?
"Fuck… my back…" I said, trying to crack my back to make it more comfortable. Fleur was watching me rather amusingly.
"Are you an old man or what?" she questioned, teasing me.
"Try to bring this and climb six floors." I snorted.
"You should exercise, Archie." she said to me, continuing to walk as she followed me. "If you already feel sore climbing six floors, then you can't deal with me, a part-Veela."
I raised my eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
She didn't answer, she just giggled at my question and winked at me. I sighed, perhaps she's right, I need to improve my stamina and work out… I'm incredibly out of shape…
As we arrived at the entrance of the Room of Requirement and entered it, I noticed that the arrangement of the room was a bit different. There's a new space at the right side of the room, there was a single mannequin and a long table beside it.
"This room is really 'elpful…" she murmured, walking towards the mannequin. I quickly dropped the box on top of the table, and unpacked it.
It was a powder blue robe, with a studded leather vest as the inner layer, a quite fashionable one I might add.
"Do you like it?" Fleur questioned, leaning against the table.
"This design screams 'you'." I said, quickly putting the vest to the mannequin. I heard Fleur chuckled at my words as she also grabbed the robe, before putting it to the mannequin.
I stood in front of the mannequin with Fleur, watching the uniform in front of us. "What do you want to do with it?"
"The usual."
"You have to be more specific than that."
Fleur shrugged. "I 'ave no idea… I will leave it to you."
"I feel like you're not treating this seriously." I frowned, looking at her casual expression. "This is your only defense Fleur, at least for the next task."
"I will trust your judgment Archie." she said to me, giving me a warm smile. "I saw you work 'ard these two weeks, I am sure you will 'ave something for me."
"You put a lot of faith in a fourteen year old boy Fleur…"
"I am sure my judgment is correct." she said, leaning on the table again. "So, what will you put in my clothing?"
I sighed as I walked closer to it. I inspected the cloth of the robe, thinking about what I should do. I am no master in runes… but Fleur will probably help me in this, though I don't know about her school problems except her social life… so I don't know if she's good at it or not.
I can do charm, but it's probably not as powerful as runes… okay… first task… Dragons right? So anti-flame runes or charms are a must… strengthening runes too just in case… I don't know what else…
I looked towards Fleur's pretty face again, looking at me with curiosity. Wait, what did she do at the first task?
"Fleur, do you know what the First task is?" I asked her.
She shook her head. "Non, I don't know it yet. But Madame Maxine said that she will try to find something."
I clicked my tongue at that. How do I tell her that I know what the first task is without telling her that I know it…
Or I could just be honest with her… or twist some lies…
"I researched the history of the Triwizard Tournament the other day." I lied.
"Oh yeah?" She was pleasantly surprised. "What did you find?"
"I find that the first task always deals with a magical creature." I continued. "I mean, at the last Triwizard Tournament before this, the first task is catching a cockatrice I think."
Fleur raised her brow. "So what are you suggesting?"
"Well, one of the most common farmed dangerous magical creatures are Dragons." I stated, lying through my teeth. I could see that Fleur's face started to pale. "So there's a possibility of that…"
"Dragons?!" she shrieked in horror. "But they said that they will make it less deadly this year?!"
"Well I said that it was just a possibility." I shrugged, trying to calm her down. "But… let's say… if… hypothetically… it is true… what will you do?"
"I will be dead Archie!" She answered my question. Not going to lie, I almost laughed at that… I don't know, it seems funny to me…
"Well even if death is inevitable, you must at least fight." I said.
Fleur gulped at the suggestion. She pondered for a little while before answering. "W-Well… I would probably sing to it…"
I raised my eyebrow. "Sing?"
"Veela magic…" she murmured. "I could enchant the dragon to sleep… to run away from it, or at least make it easier to kill it while it was asleep."
Put it to sleep huh… I guess I can't do anything with that… well, maybe I could find something… like magic amplifier or some shit.
I was about to walk to the sofa to retrieve some parchment, but then I noticed that a whiteboard appeared beside the mannequin… convenient innit?
I took the chalk from the bottom of the board and started to write some runes on it, to quickly design how I'm going to arrange the words.
"So what will you put on my robe?" Fleur asked, walking to me.
"Just basic things." I said, continuing to write. "Strengthening rune, anti-tear rune, probably anti-flame rune too."
"Anti-flame? What for?" she frowned.
"Well, maybe it's a dragon after all." I shrugged, making her gulp. "Who knows."
I turned to Fleur, she looks quite nervous now, seems like she finally saw the direness of the situation, perhaps before she only saw this as a sports competition… But I stated that she can die in this… so perhaps she's just overconfident.
I decided to just divert the conversation as I continued to write on the board. "By the way, where's Gabrielle?"
Fleur looked at me. "She is in the carriage. She 'as a private tutor teaching 'er while she is 'ere."
"But she's nine?"
"Papa decided that it would be best to teach 'er early." she answered. "There is no 'arm in it."
"True…"
B====D~~~
As hours passed by, Fleur was still watching me scribbling nonsense to the board. I had opened my personal notebook to check the validity of it. She sometimes corrects my writing, she has a neat writing style, which I quite like seeing.
When she thinks that I wasn't looking at her, I sometimes catch Fleur staring at me warmly, seemingly happy that I'm doing this for her. It feels… well… warm, I never been treated this way before, a really nice feeling.
"I think you should loosen up a bit." said Fleur suddenly, breaking my concentration.
I turned towards her. "Pardon me?"
"You're too focused on studying." she continued. "You should relax."
"Well, I think you should focus more Fleur. The task is in a couple of days."
She ignored my words, and walked towards me to touch my shoulder. ""Ow about you accompany me to the outing tomorrow?"
"Hogsmeade?" I raised my brow.
"Oui. that." she nodded.
"Are you asking me on a date Fleur?" I tried to tease her, but apparently, it didn't work.
"Oui." she nodded. "You need to loosen up Archie. I feel like you 'ave been studying too 'ard these two weeks. I don't know what is going on with you, but I am genuinely worried.."
I looked her dead in the eyes, she's serious… "Okay… sure…" I said, patting her hand on my shoulder.
She gave me a gentle smile before kissing my forehead. "Then I look forward to tomorrow."
…
I think I just blushed a bit.
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง