Harry Potter: The Golden Viper

0636 Used

'Fleur is using...me?'

Harry felt his alcohol-numbed thoughts rapidly clearing up. He blinked and stared at the stern-faced Hermione as waves of confusion welled up from the depths of his heart.

"Oh come off it, Hermione," Ron slurred, having regained his boldness with Harry's arrival. He eyed Hermione suspiciously and questioned, "You're saying Fleur invited Harry to the Yule Ball just to use him for something? What could she possibly want from him?"

Ron's eyes widened as a thought occurred to him. "Wait a minute... you can't possibly be jealous, can you? I know Fleur isn't exactly popular with you girls, since you all think she's too pretty and steals your spotlight—"

Harry also turned to Hermione, his eyes wide with innocence behind his glasses.

"Jealous? You think that's what this is about, Ronald Weasley?!" Hermione snarled, her brown eyes flashing with enraged fury. She was so furious that she even fleetingly regretted her impulsive decision earlier tonight in the castle entrance hall. Tilting her head, she gave Ron a sarcastic glare, and her lips were pursed into a tight line.

Sensing the imminent explosion of Mt. Granger, Ron immediately shut up, giving Harry a warning glance signal and shrank back into the crimson cushions of the Gryffindor common room sofa.

"Hermione..." Harry began tentatively, choosing his words with caution, as if crossing a field of Blast-Ended Skrewts. "I'm not quite following what Ron's on about. What exactly do you mean when you say Fleur wants to 'use' me?"

"I'm so glad you asked, Harry," Hermione said coldly, shifting her gaze from Ron to focus on Harry. Her scowl deepened. "When she asked you to the ball, did it not cross your mind to wonder why? Oh, don't believe that rubbish of her about because of a bouillabaisse and giving her directions."

Harry opened his mouth with a rebuttal on the tip of his tongue, but Hermione pressed forward.

"And you can't possibly believe that girl doesn't realize the dress you gave her was bought by Professor Watson. Honestly, Harry, don't be so naive. You underestimate the perceptiveness of us girl's mind too much!"

Ron continued to eye Hermione warily, eager to hear what brilliant deductions she had made, while Harry just blinked his eyes as his confusion was growing by the second.

How had Hermione figured out that Fleur knew Professor Watson had purchased the gown? And if that was indeed the case, then what possible reason could Fleur have for inviting him to the ball when they had hardly exchanged more than a handful of words outside of a few chance encounters?

"Let me ask you this, Harry - what do you make of that last little request Fleur made of you?" Hermione inquired coldly.

"Huh?" Harry responded automatically. Then he remembered, before Professor McGonagall called them away, knowing they were about to meet with Professor Dumbledore and Professor Watson, Fleur had asked him to help pass a message to Professor Watson, to convey that they were going to be a date for the Yule Ball.

At the time, Harry had found the request rather odd, but he had been preoccupied with the two Professors summoning him and his best friends, so he hadn't dwelled on it further. But now, with Hermione drawing attention to it, he had to admit it was quite odd.

What did Professor Watson have to do with any of this? Why had Fleur wanted him to specifically inform Professor Watson of their date to the ball?

"As it turns out, Fleur had previously extended an invitation to Professor Watson to accompany her to the ball, only to be rejected," Hermione finally divulged what she had found and a hint of smug satisfaction tinged her tone as she watched the gobsmacked expressions of shock and disbelief appear on the faces of Harry and Ron, just as she'd anticipated.

Poor Ron looked as if he might topple right off the sofa at any moment.

"Blimey, Fleur asked out Professor Watson and got shot down? I can hardly believe my ears! Where in Merlin's name did you come by this juicy bit of gossip, Hermione?" Ron sputtered incredulously, hastily correcting himself on the cushions and staring at Hermione with saucer-like eyes. 

"Oh, it's hardly a secret amongst the girls—" Hermione sniffed haughtily, pursing her lips as she looked at Ron. "But you boys are so hopelessly oblivious to anything that doesn't involve Quidditch or are only racking your brains trying to find a pretty girl to go to the ball with!" 

Ron awkwardly shrank his head in embarrassment. To be honest, what Hermione said wasn't exactly wrong.

"But this news..." Meanwhile, the gears in Harry's head were spinning swiftly, his butterbeer-dulled mind worked in overdrive to connect the dots. He finally realized something was off. His brows knitted together as a deep furrow was forming between them.

"There's something else you likely failed to notice," Hermione continued, reading the blank looks on Harry and Ron's faces. "About a week ago, Fleur was in a foul mood for a couple days. Every time she came up to the castle for lessons, she had this cold expression and wouldn't speak to anyone."

Seeing no hint of understanding appear in the boys' eyes, Hermione let out a sarcastic snort. "Why am I not surprised? I suppose you were all far too busy ogling her face to pay attention to anything else, weren't you?" 

"Hermione—" Harry called out, both exasperated and slightly insulted by the implication.

Hermione took a deep breath, visibly reining her anger. "Parvati told me - and she heard it from her Sister Padma who is in Ravenclaw. You know the Beauxbatons lot have been attending classes with the Ravenclaws. Well, Padma and her friends noticed straight away that something was off with Fleur those few days, so they tried every way to find out what exactly happened to her—"

"Blimey, you girls really are bored," Ron blurted out subconsciously and Harry nodded vigorously in agreement, but one glare from Hermione was all it took to intimidate the two boys into submission once more.

"—They went to ask the other Beauxbatons students, but no one knew what had happened," Hermione simply rolled her eyes and pressed on. "Finally, they found Fleur's sister, that little girl named Gabrielle. They spent some effort before getting the story out of Gabrielle's mouth. Padma told Parvati, and then when she was discussing it with Lavender, I overheard."

Having said this, Hermione's emotions also stabilized quite a bit. She looked at Harry calmly. "So, do you understand now, Harry?"

Uh— Harry and Ron looked at each other, neither daring to speak first. 

The revelation that Fleur had asked Professor Watson to the ball only to be rejected was certainly a juicy gossip, but what it had to do with her inviting Harry was still unclear. Hermione claimed Fleur was using him, but for what purpose?

Harry hemmed and hawed without speaking. Hermione also realized that hoping for him to figure out girls' intentions on his own was purely her 'overly beautiful' fantasy.

"I believe," She explained slowly and carefully, as if talking to a pair of especially dim-witted trolls, "Fleur must have known Professor Watson for a long time, and moreover, she has a crush on him. A crush. That's why, on her first day arriving at Hogwarts, she asked you for directions to his office, Harry."

Hermione paused, allowing this to sink in before continuing. "I doubt she expected he would refuse her invitation to the ball. That's likely what had her in such a bad temper. So, due to her wounded pride, she decided to find someone even more famous to take in his place - to make Professor Watson realize what a big mistake or so….. he made in rejecting her."

Hermione shared her view, also letting Harry and Ron understand why she had been so angry about Harry accepting Fleur's invitation. But they still couldn't comprehend it. 

"Girls are so weird." Ron said slowly, his freckled face scrunched up in concentration. " Let me get this straight, you think Fleur only asked Harry to the ball to make Watson...jealous? But Hermione - what if you've got it all wrong? What if she really does just fancy Harry?"

Hermione just moved her lips without saying anything, seemingly disdaining to respond to Ron's doubts.

"If Fleur wanted to find someone famous—" Harry also frowned, pondering over his words. "Why didn't she go find..."

Harry had originally wanted to say, couldn't Fleur have gone to find one of the Triwizard champions? After all, they were currently the most sought-after boys. But then thinking of Cho Chang, he was unwilling to utter Cedric's name no matter what.

"Krum has already invited Daphne Greengrass to the ball—" Hermione's sharp eyes swept over the gloom in Harry's eyes. She seemed to see through his thoughts and calmly revealed another piece of shocking news to the two boys.

"Of course, the champions would indeed be better choices, but Fleur no longer has a choice, does she? She can only choose from outside the champions. And besides the champions, at Hogwarts, which boy is more famous than you, Harry?"

Harry was already somewhat accepting Hermione's theory. He didn't say any more, just felt a wave of deflation and became bored.

First, he'd had to watch as Cedric swooped in and snagged Cho, and now it seemed that even Fleur had invited him with the intention of 'angering' Professor Watson. Taken together, these twin blows had all but extinguished what little enthusiasm he'd had for the Yule Ball to begin with.

Seeing the gloom etched on Harry's face, Ron grimaced in sympathy.

"I dunno, Hermione," Ron said at last, and his voice was thick with skepticism. "Maybe you're being a bit too hard on Fleur. The way I see it, the whole thing seems pretty straightforward to me. Fleur fancied Professor Watson, he turned her down flat, and now she's stuck without a date to the ball. But she's a champion and has to find someone to go to the ball with.

She already knows Harry a bit from their previous run-ins, and she reckons he's a decent enough bloke, so she figures why not ask him to go with her instead? It's that simple, if you ask me—"

But Hermione was not so easily deterred. "Then how do you explain her asking Harry to give Professor Watson that message, hmm?" she demanded, having her arms crossed.

Ron opened his mouth, then closed it again, clearly stumped. When no counter-argument was coming, Hermione nodded briskly, vindicated.

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