Chapter 11: Chapter 11: Dancing with someone I know

Next morning, Fleur walked to the great hall for breakfast only to feel this strange atmosphere in that place. Everyone was looking at her. Now that is not an uncommon thing for her to feel, but today… it feels different…

The girls were looking at her not with envy or hate, but with confusion. Fleur scrunched up her face, a bit weirded out at the sight. She walked towards the Ravenclaw table, before sitting beside Archie, who was enjoying his breakfast alone in the corner of the table.

“What is going on today?” she questioned him, still looking at the girls and boys who were staring at her.

“What?” Archie said casually, taking a spoonful of pancake.

“These… people…” she continued. “They’re looking at me…”

“That’s really nothing new Fleur.” Archie rolled his eyes at her words.

“No… it is different today.” She refuted. “They are… confused at me I think…”

Archie just chuckled at her confusion. “Probably because of this.”

Archie put a bundle of newspaper on the table, so Fleur unrolled it, reading the headline.

INTERSCHOOL ROMANCE? FRENCH TRIWIZARD CHAMPION SPOTTED KISSING HEIR OF HOUSE WHITLOCK

By Rita Skeeter

There was a moving picture below the title, a picture of Fleur peppering Archie’s face with kisses. Fleur’s face contorted as she saw the headline, simply disgusted by the sheer importanceness of the headline.

“What is this?” Fleur spat. “It is so… Cheap…”

Archie laughed. “Cheap?”

“Why would you report on student romance?” she pointed out. “Do they ‘ave nothing important to report or something? I see no report on the standings of the tournament.”

Archie pointed out the author of the headline, Rita Skeeter. “It’s her speciality.”

“Well it is really unimportant.” she huffed, rolling back the newspaper.

“You don’t mind?” Archie asked her.

“I don’t mind what?” she asked back, confused.

“Being seen with me.” He said. “No doubt both of us will get hate letters just for this.”

Fleur giggled. “Archibald, are you implying that you are famous?”

Archie shrugged. “My house elves have to burn a lot of letters of middle-aged women who want to get to know me. I suppose a huge manor in the middle of nowhere with no one to inhabit it will attract a couple of people.”

Fleur went wide-eyed as he stated that. She didn’t know about that at all… That doesn’t sound good at all… “‘ow about the students ‘ere?” she suddenly threw a question.

“How about them?” He asked back, stuffing his mouth with pancakes.

“Do they… want to ‘get to know’ you as well?”

Archie thought about it a little bit, making Fleur’s stomach churned by the suspense. “No… I don’t think so… At least not yet. Well, there’s this one girl—”

“Who?” She quickly cut him off.

Archie was surprised at her anticipation. “Well… she has graduated now…” he murmured, confused at why Fleur’s acting like this.

She just hummed noncommittally, grabbing some pancakes and stabbing it using her fork, before chewing it.

—

Days have passed since the first task, and I must say, gossip annoyed me. I mean, how the fuck does she get that photo, that should be illegal right? Are there any privacy laws in the Wizarding world? I’m a minor for fucks sake.

I need to check on that later…

Anyway, ignoring the weird gossip problems, I’ve been trying to exercise every morning now… I went on a run yesterday, circling the lake, but half-way I almost passed out from exhaustion, so for now I will just run around half the lake, trying to snowball my stamina.

So for now, my legs will be sore every day until I can bear it.

Other than that, I’ve been practicing doing Runes a lot. I sort of like it, I missed that feeling of ‘writer's block’ when you were trying to write an algorithm, I loved the feeling of seeing my runes work, honestly it’s addicting. I’ve been messing around, enchanting everything that I own. I have a couple of runes in my robe right now, a warming rune and a ‘massaging’ rune around my thighs to release some of the tension because of the exercise.

I also started researching about making my own spells, though I don’t quite understand it yet and I don’t really have a passion for it right now. I have a lot of spells in my book, no need to make one right now.

I’ve been sparring with Fleur too, she seems happy to help me and we started to do daily duels for about half an hour. The score is about 6-9 right now with her leading, but still, I got six wins, which is good enough for me.

Right now, I was walking through the corridors of Hogwarts to go to Charms Class, taught by my head of house Professor Flitwick. The Ravenclaws quickly scoured to the inside of the room, sitting on the chairs that had been provided.

“Alright class! As I have said the last time we met, today, we will be studying about the Severing charm.” Flitwick spoke as he walked across the room, bringing a target practice for today. “Open your book on Page 17, and practice the wand movement first.”

Flitwick set up the target practice against the wall, while the other students practiced. “All students who think they can do it now can come to me for practice.”

I quickly raised my hand, but the others seemed unsurprised as always. Flitiwick smiled as he saw me raise my hand. “Can I do it now professor?”

“Of course Mr. Whiclock of course!” he squealed as he moved away from the target practice, giving me some space. I stood up from my chair and stood in front of the target practice, distancing myself for a couple of feet.

“Alright Mr. Whitlock, if you’re ready.” said Flitwick, seemingly already knowing what the result will be.

I raised my wand towards the dummy, quickly drew an exaggerated ‘u’ on the air and spoke the incantation.

“Diffindo.”

A wave of sharp light traversed through the air and split the dummy in two, even surprising Flitwick himself. I could see that the walls behind it were chipped off from the magic.

Oops… I forgot that I put an amplify-magic rune on my watch…

“Sorry Professor… went overboard a bit…” I said, casually waving my wand and casted a Reparo charm, repairing the dummy.

“I-It’s alright Mr. Whitlock.” Flitwick sighed. “Excellent work as always! Ten points for Ravenclaw. Oh, do stay until the end of the class Mr. Whitllock, I have an announcement to make.”

“Okay Professor.”

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—

At the end of the class, Flitwick told us to move the chairs to the side for a bit. He told us to sit on the table as he set up some sort of make-shift dance floor. A Phonograph was being dragged from the outside by Filch, and after all that preparation, Flitwick separated us, boys at one side, girls at the others.

“I am sure that you have read about this event somewhere one way or another in these past few weeks.” Flitwick squealed excitedly. “The Yule Ball is a tradition of the triwizard tournament—”

But then he was interrupted when the rest of the Ravenclaws entered the room, hurriedly sitting on the sides.

Flitwick cleared his throat. “As I was saying, The Yule Ball is a tradition of the triwizard tournament. At Christmas, there would be a formal dance, and fourth year and above are expected to go, third year and below could go if they had an invitation.”

I could hear the boys and girls start to discuss it, a bunch of teenagers, well I guess I am a teenager too…

“Be quiet now,” said Flitwick, calming down the crowd. “Now, I want you to practice dancing today, find a partner from the opposite side of the room and just follow Mr. Whitlock and Miss MacDougal’s lead.”

I snapped my head to Flitwick. What? “Excuse professor?”

“You have learned how to dance right?” he asked. “I assumed that all purebloods do know some form of dancing.”

“W-well yes but—”

“Then excellent!”  Flitwick squealed. “Now, would you please show your housemates how to do it?”

I turned towards MacDougal, I don’t even know her man… I barely know my housemates. I just sighed and stood up, walking towards her.

“You know how to dance?” I asked her.

“Of course.” she said casually, grabbing my hand and putting it on her waist, and grabbing my other hand. She put her other hand on my shoulder, and the music played. Truly, I’ve taken some dance classes before all this happened, and Whitlock’s muscle memory’s there, so I guess it’ll be fine…

We then slowly move around the dance floor, showing how to do it to the other classmates, just some simple stuff.

“I’m surprised that you dance quite well, Whitlock,” said MacDougal.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I raised my brow.

“Well I just thought, considering that your nose is always stuck to books… you would be horrible at it, but of course, you have captured the heart of a Veela, I should’ve known better…”

“I see gossip interests you MacDougal.” I commented sarcastically.

“But it is true right?” she threw back a question, our other housemates following our lead.

“I have no comment.” I shrugged, making her chuckle.

After that, the quick dance lessons finished, and we were allowed to go back to the tower.

—

In the evening, me and Fleur were inside the Room of Requirement. Waltz were playing in the background, and we were practicing on the empty space at the side of the room.

“I ‘ad never noticed that you are taller than me.” Fleur murmured in front of my face. “You are still fourteen, I would bet that you would be taller when you turned seventeen.”

“You don’t like me being tall?” I asked, twirling her, making her giggle.

“Non, I like it.” she said, holding my shoulder once again.

I just smiled at her, her face getting closer. I could feel her breath hitting my face. “Will Gabrielle go to the ball?”

“Yes, she will.” Fleur nodded. 

“With whom I may ask?” I asked again.

“She is going alone, silly.” Fleur chuckled. “She is still nine, no one is going to ask ‘er on a date.”

“Oh.” I raised my brow teasingly. “Should I ask her instead?”

She gripped my shoulder tighter and leaned her body towards my chest. “Are you leaving me for a little girl Archie?” she said in amusement.

“I am just worried about Gabrielle.” I said, raising her to the air for a little while, before dropping her to the ground again. “She would be lonely if she’s not going with someone, no?”

“She will be going with me.” Fleur refuted.

“But you will be with me.” I countered.

“Will I?” she said with a challenging tone.

“Oh you won’t go to the ball with me?” I said, following her games with a smirk. “Then I suppose I should ask Granger instead.”

“You will not dare.” She frowned, practically smashing her forehead to mine.

“I don’t know, I just saw her accept Krum’s invitation a couple hours ago, so I suppose I can’t now can’t I?” I chuckled, making her scoff. “Seriously though, how are you going to leave Gabrielle alone in the ball?”

“She will not be alone.” said Fleur, continuing to dance. “She will be with Madame Maxime.”

“Oh that’s good then.” I hummed.

The bell of the clock suddenly rang loudly on top of the door, signaling that it is almost curfew. We separated from the dancing position and turned off the music.

“Tomorrow again? After spar?” she asked me with hope.

I smiled at her. “Sure.”

She then leaned towards me and kissed my cheeks.  “I will see you tomorrow Archie, bonne nuit.”

“Bye.”

She quickly exited the room, leaving me alone in the place. I looked at the time, the bell still ringing and sighed. Tomorrow’s weekend, what the heck, let’s just stay here and tinker with some stuff…

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