A/N: Here's the neter! Which also means the four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the ce to vote on the dire of the story!

  Fleur has been training for this~

  -x-X-x-

  Fleur has to admit, she’s barely listening as one of the Tour Officials rambles on and on about the Third Task. She gets the gist of it, after all. Big massive magical hedge maze with dangers galore and the grand prize at the ter of it. Easy enough to uand.

  Ultimately, she has her eye on that prize. She’s going to win… she HAS to win. It’s funny, Fleur always wao wiriwizard Tour. She was the ambitious sort, and she wouldn’t have put her name in the Goblet of Fire in the first pce if she didn’t want to e out on top.

  … But that inal desire to beat the other Champions feels almost like a distant memory if she’s being ho. It’s no longer about winning for the sake of accodes and glory, for the fame of having won a test that was sidered so dangerous it’d been distinued for decades.

  No, now Fleur has to win so she prove herself to Harry Potter. She has to win so she show him, ond for all, that she’s worthy of joining his Wizard’s and having her magic bound to his own.

  … She’s reciled with her mother, as Harry wished her to. Apolline aill don’t see eye to eye on this, but Fleur has ultimately fiven the Deatriarch for her betrayal. Harry was right. Her mother loved her and though the betrayal still stung, it wasn’t nearly as deep of a wound as Fleur had initially thought. In the end, time healed most things Fleur supposed.

  That didn’t ge what she wanted out of this though. She was going to prove to Harry ond for all that she was worthy of his … even if that meant having to beat him in this petition.

  Fortunately for Fleur, she had a huge advantage… as it turned out, she’d somehow wound up in First Pce after the Sed Task. Despite her somewhat abysmal performan the First Task, Fleur had heless done well enough that pg first in the Sed Task had pushed her ahead of Krum and Harry. Cedric was… a non-issue, though Harry’s full healing of his injuries meant he would likely be able to give a much better performahis time around than in the Sed Task.

  Still, the advantage for being in First Pce was that Fleur got to ehe Maze first as well. Followed by Harry and Krum, and then Cedric. It was the best possible sario she could hope for, really. Beating Harry to the ter of the Maze wouldn’t just take all of her skill and iy… it would take luck too. Fleur aowledged that fact. But maybe, just maybe, the head start would be enough to push her over the edge…

  “Are our Champions all ready?”

  At their nods, Ludo Bagman clears his throat, his eyes flickering to Harry for a moment before fog on Fleur with a smile.

  “Very well the’s begin. Ms. Decour, you’re up!”

  Moving to the start of the Maze, Fleur waits for the Ministry Official to let a bang off with his wand. Then, she’s off to the races. Sprinting into the Maze, Fleur immediately casts a Point Me spell as soon as she’s out of sight. One might not think it would be all that helpful… but it does actually work in pointing her in the dire of the Maze’s ter, which is in and of itself hugely beneficial in helping her keep her bearings.

  Once she knows the general way she has to go, Fleur begins navigating the hedge maze. She moves swiftly, but also cautiously, keeping her head on a swivel for anything that might e after her. The Maze was supposedly poputed with all sorts of monsters and traps galore, and Fleur would be damned if she fell afoul of any of them.

  Of course, it’s not long before her time advantage is used up and she hears aelltale bang behihat lets her know the other Champions are being allowed to begin their own runs of the maze. Fleur tries not to flinch at the loud sound and tries to stay focused on what’s right in front of her eyes.

  Of course, theurns a er and runs smack dab into a se straight out of her nightmares.

  “Oooh~ oh… Fleur, I’m sorry you have to see this baby, but you should know he prefers a real woman. You’re just not good enough.”

  Fleur’s teeth audibly grinds as she points her wand at the… debauched sight in front of her and ihe Boggart-Banishing Charm with a bit more forcefulhan necessary.

  “Riddikulus.”

  She puts so much power behind the spell that the Boggart, which had most defiaken the form of her greatest fear, doesn’t even transform into something silly. It just s and screeches and flees from her as fast as it possibly . As well it fug should! Showing her something like that… ugh!

  Fortunately, the Boggart flees towards the e of the Maze, rather than towards the ter. So, putting it firmly out of her mind, Fleur keeps moving. She’s spent the st few months training night and day for this. Ever since she and Harry had their talk, Fleur has put her o the grindstone and been hard at work. Truth be told, she barely reizes the witch she used to be before this year. The Fleur Decour, whinally came to Hogwarts all those months ago… would be shocked to find what’s bee of her.

  Fleur didn’t care though. That other Fleur had been shallow. Weak. Arrogant. She’d been so sure of herself, an unjustified amount of fidehat even now made Fleur shudder in remembrance.

  Now she khat the world was a much bigger pce than she’d ever realized. Now… she knew what she truly wanted out of life.

  Harry was going to be her Master. She was going to join his . And no one was going to stop her… not even Harry himself.

  Aainly not the magical creatures thrown in her way. Fleur sneers as she fights her way through the Maze. The biggest thing that gives her trouble is an overly rge monster Fleur had been informed was called a ‘Bst-Ended Skrewt’, but while that sort of thing might have been the downfall of Fleur from yesteryear, the Fleur of now has no trouble with it.

  Then, she turns a er and finds herself face to face with a Sphinx. This brings Fleur to a halt, mostly because… well, even if she’s riding high on life, she’s not stupid enough to tah a Sphinx directly.

  “Hello. Will you answer my riddle and perhaps receive a clue to the st threat fag you before the middle? Or will you turn and try to find another route to the ter?”

  Fortunately, it’s not a fight, but rather a test. Fleur straightens up as she realizes she’s on the correct route to the grand prize. Otherwise, the Sphinx wouldn’t be here. Still, if she fails the riddle… she’s likely out of the petition. But she doesn’t have time to find another path. While Krum and Diggory are petitors in their ht, Fleur knows her true petition is Harry Potter. Always has been.

  “Give me your riddle!”

  Humming, the Sphinx smiles and then begins to speak in a melodic, ethereal voice.

  First think of the person who lives in disguise,Who deals is and tells naught but lies., tell me what's always the st thing to mend,The middle of middle and end of the end?And finally give me the sound often heard,During the search for a hard-to-find word.Now string them together and answer me this,Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?

  Fleur blinks and then immediately begins going over the lines in her head. Fortunately, it’s not that hard of a riddle actually. You just have to pull it apart and take it line by line before ‘stringing them together’ as it says at the end. The first two lines… refer to a spy, obviously. The wo lines… only meater ‘D’. And finally, the sound often heard when someone was searg for a word oip of their tongue. Err.

  Spy-D-err, or rather…

  “The answer is spider!”

  The Sphinx smiles all the wider… and steps aside. Fleur releases a breath she didn’t even know she was holding as she races past. She doesn’t fet what the Sphinx said however… about the riddle also being a clue for the st threat that stood between her and the prize. Fleur was so close now, but that didn’t mean she was going to let her success go to her head.

  Thank fuck too, because keeping her head on a swivel and her eyes up as much as down is what lets her see the Aantu before it’s too te. The massive magical spider, easily twice her size, screeches as Fleur makes eye tact with its myriad eyes. With a snarl, she raises her wand and casts her stro spell.

  “INDIO!”

  Vee had something of a fire-based heritage. Some even liked to cim they were distantly reted to Phoehe greatest magical bird in the world. Fleur didn’t know about all of that, but she did know she had an affinity for fire.

  A jet ht blue fmes thirty feet long crosses the space between her and the arg Aantu in a single instant. The massive spider screeches and rears back as the fmes hit it’s underbelly. That’s not enough to kill it though… nor was Fleur expeg it to.

  She dives forward into a roll just as the huge magical spider flings itself through her spell and at her st location. Then, ing up into a crouch, she spins around and jabs her wand at the Aantu’s backside.

  “Indio!”

  Another jet of fmes just as hot, delivered so soon after the sed… this time, the spider is sent careening forward, hissing and screeg as it flees from her. And just as Fleur had pnned, it flees away from the path it was guarding, away from the ter of the Maze.

  ing out of her crouch, Fleur checks with another Point Me spell one more time just to make sure… but yes. The ter is directly in front of her. With a grin on her face, the part vee charges forward, sprinting to the finish line as fast as she .

  Finally, she reaches the ter. She sees the Champion’s Cup, a glittering diamond thing, sitting in the ter of the clearing. And… she sees Harry Potter reag for it just as she enters, skidding to a halt.

  Sensing movement out of the er of his eye, Harry looks over and blinks, actually surprised to see her.

  “Fleur. I knew you were getting close but… to get past both the Sphinx and the Aantu that quickly… extremely well done.”

  Wha- he… he knew she was getting close? Was he trag her or something? No, rather… he robably trag all three of his petitors wasn’t he? Damn it all! Why didn’t she think of that?!

  More than that, he even knew about the challenges she’d faced along the way. Tch… she never had a ce, did she?

  “Why the long face, Fleur? You should be proud of yourself.”

  Pouting, Fleur crosses her arms over her chest and gnces away.

  “… I wao win.”

  Harry tilts his head to the side.

  “Sorry, what was that?”

  Huffing, Fleur stomps forward a few feet so he hear her better.

  “I wao win! To prove to you that I was worthy! So that you wouldn’t sed guess your decision to bind me over the Summer! But I guess… I guess I never had a ce, did I?”

  On the one hand, it kind of makes her even more aroused. Beied by Harry like this… what witch doesn’t want a wizard who’s strohan her? A man to hold and fort and protect her?

  Oher hand, Harry already has so much power at his fiips. Aire Wizard’s . What makes her special? What sets Fleur Decour apart? Why should he bother with her when he has plenty of other witches at his bed call… including Apolline?

  “You didn’t, no.”

  Fleur fli Harry’s blunt, if gentle admissiorying to be nice about it, but at the same time, he’s being brutally ho… which she kind of appreciates, at least a little bit.

  “Fleur, this was the way it always had to be. This cup… it’s a portkey. And to be fair, it was meant to be a portkey. When you touch it, its supposed to take you out of the Maze, to the Winner’s Podium. But it doesn’t do that.”

  Fleur blinks, even as Harry shrugs as if to say ‘what you do?’.

  “Instead, this portkey will take whoever touches it to a graveyard in a pce called Little Haon. There, the remains of the Dark Lord Voldemort and his cky are waiting to capture the winner, namely me, so that Voldemort resurrect himself using my blood and a profaual.”

  Eyes widening at that information, Fleur takes another few unscious steps forward.

  “What?! We o tell someone, Harry! We o tell the Judges or the Minister or… or someone!”

  But Harry shakes his head.

  “I’m going to ha, Fleur. Everyone else would just muck it up. It has to be me.”

  His fidence radiates from him like an aura. Or maybe that’s just his magic. Fleur swallows as she’s reminded of just how much power Harry is pag. His boasts might not actually BE boasts… they might just be pin old statements of fact.

  Even s-still…

  “Then take me with you! Let me help you! I’ve been training for this!”

  Harry pauses at that, before raising an eyebrow at Fleur. C, she ducks her head.

  “W-Well… I mean, I’ve been training for the Third Task. Still, a Dark Lord and his cky ’t possibly be that much more dangerous thahing I’ve faced tonight!”

  Harry chuckles and shakes his head again.

  “You’d be surprised, Fleur. You wouldn’t think so, sure… but you’d be surprised. No, I’m sorry but you o stay here. Stay where it’s safe a me deal with this.”

  And then… he reaches for the cup again. Fleur hadn’t even realized she was doing it, but she’s beeing closer all this time. In that split sed, the part vee sees that she’s close enough she could lunge forward and grab the portkey at the same time as Harry would. He’s not moving particurly fast. He clearly doesn’t think she’ll disobey him.

  And… maybe she shouldn’t. M-Maybe she should do as she’s told. Could she live with herself though, if anything happeo Harry due to her ina?

  -x-X-x- The Vote: [ ] Fleur grabs the portkey, i on helping Harry. And maybe a little i on proving herself still as well - 38%[X] Fleur stays bad does as she's told, trusting Harry to have it under trol - 62%

  -x-X-x- If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry. and QuestionableQuesting. where I have over a thousand stories!

  If you'd like to tribute to funding my writing at all, check me out on Patreon./Cambrian

  Thanks for reading!