His Angel

Chapter 12

Yesterday had been unnaturally short. The day was over within a few blinks of an eye. Fleur had been gone for the whole morning. Aurélie and the others informed him that she had been in her room with her parents. She had later come back looking simply ecstatic about something and had clung onto him from then for the remainder of the day, refusing to tell him what she was so happy about.

The sight of the two of them at dinner earned them a lot more envious and longing gazes which went unnoticed by the couple. They were simply put, in a world of their own, oblivious to everything else much to the Delacour's amusement when they were informed by Fleur's friends that this was a common occurrence. Neither Fleur nor Harry even batted an eye at anyone else, although both were mercilessly teased by all parties afterwards.

Mrs. Weasley glowered at the pair from her place down at the Gryffindor table with Ron, Ginny and Hermione. Things had not been well for her since her confrontation with Harry. She had never dreamed that Harry would ever talk back to her. She had tried to speak to him again only to find him smile mechanically at her before excusing himself and walking off rendering her speechless. That was only the beginning of her worries.

Lupin, an old acquaintance and the one she suspected was Harry's guardian was refusing to listen to her advice. That the best thing for Harry was to forbid him from associating with that silver haired scarlet woman. Why couldn't he see that she wasn't right for Harry? He should have someone that knew how to properly look after him, someone who was around his age, someone who was not a Veela.

She didn't like the things she heard from Ron and Ginny. From what she heard, it seems that Harry had drifted far away from them. Even from Hermione. She was slightly guilty about this, but she had been extremely happy when she first found out that Ron had befriended Harry Potter of all people. The position he holds in the wizarding world made him an invaluable friend to their family. Now it seems that has slipped out from under their grasp.

She'd thought Harry would have stopped fooling around with the French girl after reading the letter she sent him. This had been her way of opening the path for Ginny but it seemed that plan had gone down in flames too. She knew of her daughter's affections for him, from the way she had been pining for him all summer. It had all been going so perfectly and one night at the National Quidditch stadium had changed everything. She had heard about Harry meeting the French girl at the match from an annoyed Ginny but had dismissed it seeing there was no way that the two would meet again. How wrong she was.

She was extremely disappointed and furious with her eldest sons. Both Bill and Charlie had refused to talk to Harry about the French girl. Charlie was actually happy for him and Bill…Bill had a slightly dazed look when he gazed at her. They were both sitting farther up at the table with the twins, Delacours, Lupin, the annoying black dog, Harry and the girl. She was going to be having words with them once they got back to the Burrow. This summer was not going to be a pleasant one for her older sons.

Harry did not have a pleasant night. He had been a fool thinking that he could have gotten even a wink of sleep.

He was prepared. How could he not be? He had spent the last few months preparing for it. Gone over every possibility. The third task…all he had to do was navigate through it to the center and get past whatever obstacles were thrown at him. Considering the last two tasks this seemed almost tame. He didn't care if he won or lost, after today it would all be over.

Why then was the old uneasiness settling in? Why did he feel that today was going to raise a storm? A storm that had been biding its time, slowly building itself up. Why did he feel that today was the beginning of the end?