Rune stone path

The first task

Fleur walked into Madame Maxime's office in the carriage a bit confused. The Headmistress had been rather annoyed with her pursuit of the two younger Hogwarts students. The fact that one of them happened to be a competitor certainly hadn't helped things. Maxime had ended up mostly ignoring Fleur…which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It'd certainly made things easier on the seduction part. Somewhat easier at least. Both were surprisingly noble so she was actually having to work far slower than she'd initially planned once she'd learned they would be spending the year together. And there was of course the whole 'life endangerment' thing concerning Harry. She sighed absently. That boy certainly seemed to attract trouble from what they'd told her. She and Harry's other tutors had managed to bump his skills up quite a bit in the last month and a half, but she admitted to being slightly worried. He was skilled, strong and smart but he was still several years behind the others.

"Fleur, I 'ave some information to pass on," Maxime said as Fleur sat down in front of the larger woman's desk.

"Oui? What type of information, Headmistress?" Fleur brushed off her annoyance at still speaking English despite being in the French carriage. She did need to keep practicing after all if she was going to try and make this a long term thing. Hermione would probably pick up French quickly, but Harry could take quite some time to learn. Maybe she should just introduce him to Gabrielle…that would certainly speed up the volume of French vocabulary he'd be exposed to at least. Her sister could talk faster than an auctioneer when she got going.

"I was…invited on a walk last night," Maxime blushed slightly and stared down at her desk. Fleur rolled her eyes. She didn't even need her Veela insight to see that the Headmistress was interested in one of the English men herself. The groundskeeper was most likely. " 'agrid mentioned ze imminent arrival of several creatures on ze grounds," Maxime continued. Her voice hardened at she looked up to meet Fleur's eyes sending a shiver of ice down the Veela's back. "I advise you to prepare quite carefully, Mlle. Delacour. Zey have acquired not just a dragon and a hydra, but a manticore and a true chimera as well."

Fleur blinked and the shiver of ice turned into a steel spike of panic. Her mouth went dry as she stared at the woman all thoughts of romance gone. "A-a chimera, a manticore, a hydra and a dragon?" she whispered. "What are ze thinking?!"

"I agree. I found a dragon distasteful, but acceptable and I know you would likely have few problems with ze hydra. But a manticore is a one of ze most dangerous creatures after a nundu. And zen a Greek chimera…to even zink of pitting you against somezing zat is perhaps ze closest zing to immortal zat magical creatures can come…" Maxime scowled. "Go, Fleur. Ze Task iz in two days. I would very much like to not have to bury one of my best students."

Fleur nodded numbly and walked out of the room. Harry's friends had been right. This wasn't simply a dangerous, but mostly friendly game. This was a blood sport.

She froze with one foot in midair and her eyes widened. " 'arry does not know…" The next instant she was leaping into motion and bowling aside anyone who made the mistake of stepping in front of her. She needed to find him and tell him.

Afterwards she should probably find Fred and Viktor as well.

Viktor Krum leaned against the wall in Karkaroff's cabin on the ship with his arms crossed. His Headmaster was passing back and forth across the deck looking about wildly. Viktor was starting to get worried. The former criminal was relatively hard to frighten – which didn't bode that well at all for whatever news he was working up to deliver.

"Krum," Karkaroff said abruptly stopping and turning to his student. "I've found out the list of beasts you are all to face in the coming days. A dragon, a hydra, a manticore and a chimera."