Harry Potter Veela's Embrace

A feeling of relief swept through Fleur as the dragon collapsed. She watched it for a minute before she started to creep toward the nest of eggs beside the dragon. Foot by foot she moved, always keeping a watch on the eyes of the Welsh Green in case it started to awaken.

Fleur was sweating nervously as she edged around the snout of the dragon. She could feel its hot putrid breath across her body. She'd just began to feel more confident that she was going to complete the task when the dragon let out a mighty snore of sound and fire. Though Fleur instantly leapt, ducked and rolled away, her skirt was ignited. Quietly she extinguished the flames and with no further hesitation she grabbed the golden egg from the nest and dashed away.

"Very well done Fleur," Madam Maxime called in french. "Are you injured?"

"No Headmistress," Fleur replied.

"You still need to come with me," A middle-aged witch who wore the uniform of a healer said. "I'm Madam Pomfrey the school nurse and I need to check you over."

"I'm fine, I assure you," Fleur replied. But though she argued, it was to no avail, she finally gave up and followed the nurse to the medical tent for a thorough check over.

It seemed to take forever for the Healer to check her for any unseen burns or other injuries, but finally she said. "Well Miss Delacour, it appears you are just fine. Maybe you should lie down for a while just to make sure..."

"Non," Fleur cried out. "I want to go see 'a...I mean ze ozzer champions," She desperately wanted to see Harry go against the Horntail.

"Very well," Pomfrey said. "If you do wish to return you're more than welcome to do so."

"Thank you," Fleur replied as she dashed out of the tent still holding her egg. By the time she made it back to the arena and found a seat Krum had just blinded his dragon. Fleur watched in horror as the dragon destroyed most of her own eggs but was glad Krum had not gotten injured.

Because of the damaged eggs, it took a while to settle the Chinese Fireball down and get her out of the arena. It took just as long to get the ferocious Horntail in position. Even the handlers who worked with it every day didn't want to get any closer than they had to. Finally when it was all settled, Bagman called for Harry to enter the arena.

The noise of the crowd reached a zenith as Fleur watched the young man enter. She swallowed hard as she looked from champion to dragon. Harry looked so small and the Hungarian Horntail looked to large and vicious with its yellow eyes, furled wings and smoke escaping from the sides of its mouth.

Again Fleur swallowed as she waited. Harry raised his wand and yelled something that was lost in the wind. Fleur glanced around quickly trying to find out what he had done, but she could see nothing as Harry stood still. A sudden sinking feeling spread inside of her. "I knew he was too young. He doesn't know what to do or how to do what he wanted," she thought. "I hope he doesn't do anything stupid."

Suddenly a whistling sound cut through the noise of the crowd. Fleur was still focused on Harry when a broom came hurdling into the arena and stopped next to him. She watched the young man climb on the broom and in an instant, Fleur Delacour witnessed a miraculous thing; Harry Potter on a broom. Her father had taken her and her sister to international Quidditch matches before including the World Cup the previous summer, but she'd never seen such flying, especially against such an opponent as a Hungarian Horntail.

She watched in astonishment as Harry dove and weaved around the dragon with ease. Once he flew very near her seat and she was able to catch a glimpse of his face. Where she expected to see fear, she saw excitement; his eyes seemed to be dancing with fun. Fleur couldn't say why she was so concerned about Harry, but that she was came very apparent when a scream almost escaped her throat when the dragon's tail grazed him and a long cut appeared on the young man's shoulder.

"How does he keep flying?" She asked herself in amazement. "He doesn't even seem to notice the injury," Again Harry was ducking and weaving, drawing the dragon's attention, until he suddenly reversed course and swooped past the dragon, scooping the golden egg from the pile and pulling up in triumph.

Fleur's cheers were among the loudest as she cried out in glee at Harry's performance. She was also among the loudest to voice their displeasure at the score given to Harry by Durmstrang's Headmaster.

Fleur wrote to her sister weekly if not more often. Gabrielle was everything to the Beauxbatons Champion. She knew the pains of loneliness her sister felt as she watched her friends abandon her as her body had ceased to mature four years earlier. That part of the Veela heritage was cruel but it developed because of survival needs of the Veela race long before modern social pressures developed.

Despite the questions from her sister, Fleur always sidestepped the subject of Harry Potter after the original letter. She'd talk about Hogwarts and how cold it was there compared to southern France. She'd describe the various foods the English seemed to enjoy compared to the fare normally served at Beauxbatons, anything and everything but Harry Potter. She'd of course told her sister about Harry being selected as Champion but had never been able to bring herself to accuse him of cheating to enter the tournament. Now Fleur was thankful she hadn't. For some reason she now believed him.