28 Turbulent thoughts

"Ugh, was I right to give him a chance after his hurtful words?" she wondered out loud in her mother tongue, tiredly plumping down on her queen-sized bed.

Her contemplation was put on hold as she blissfully enjoyed the comfort provided by the bed's mattress.

The girl was no other than Fleur Delacour, the Beuxbatton's tri-wizard champion.

"I don't get it… I didn't want to accept his apology. Not only that, but I also had a strong urge to curse him and leave. Then, why in Flamel's name didn't I do just that?" she mumbled confused while looking at the room's ceiling.

It was adorned with a simple, yet elegant, silver chandelier that she transfigured herself. Just like her other few possessions inside the room, all except her mattress and pillows of course…

Despite all of her considerable skill in the magical art of changing the form and appearance of both objects and people, she couldn't conjure or transfigure an object into comfortable versions of the aforementioned items.

'No, it's not my skill, I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it. But still… Both the pillows and mattresses are soft, albeit there's something missing and I don't understand what. Maybe I should take it to the professor, though I doubt she'll be of much help,' she mused before shaking her head.

'Why am I thinking about that now?' she wondered with exasperation.

Sighing, the young beauty got up from her bed.

"There's no point in thinking about Harry now. I told him that I would give him a second chance and I'll keep my word. If he continues to be an imbecile though, I can always curse him later," she muttered with a sadistic gleam in her eyes.

Fleur glanced at the clock on the bedroom's wall, noticing the time.

'I have a charm's lesson in ten minutes. Should I go?' she pondered, mentally noting the pros and cons of doing so.

At least she tried doing that.

'I can't think of any reason to go…' she thought, dismissing the idea.

As a champion, Fleur was allowed to skip classes as she wanted, something that pleased her immensely.

'I've long since finished the year's curriculum anyway.'

The only reason she still showed up at classes, few times as they were, and disturbed her self-study, was to combat the feeling of loneliness that seemed to have developed an ever-constant grip on her.

"Come to think of it. Back in the tent, while waiting for my turn to come up and talking with him, there was a short instance where that dreadful feeling stopped," she voiced out softly.

Whether that was because the famous boy wasn't fawning over her, or because he seemed to show many similarities with her, she couldn't say.

"Sure I'm no orphan, but my situation's not that much different… At least, I have Gabby! He also seems repulsed by the attention that's given to him and if I'm not wrong, he wears a mask in public, though I've not spent enough time with him to know for sure. That he also disappeared from the face of the earth doesn't help either," she listed while walking back and forth in her room.

She suddenly froze, her cheeks becoming slightly pink.

"I never apologised for calling him a little boy back in the antechamber," she realised sheepishly.

Back at the time, she was both incredibly anxious and angry for being chosen as her school's champion and she wasn't thinking very clearly. Hearing that the boy in front of her had probably tricked his way into the accursed tournament, made her lose the control that she somehow managed to hold on herself.

'Ah, that same boy is a dragon slayer now.'

[BREAK]

With a loud crack, Harry materialised in King's Cross.

Many of the muggles near him turned around, trying to see what caused the sudden sound.

They all laid their eyes upon him.

Albeit, they didn't know it…

He was under his father's invisibility cloak.

'Where's Fawkes when I need him... I have to learn how to apparate silently,' Harry thought annoyed.

One would think that Harry would be able to perform the flash himself, however, just like apparating, reappearing a dozen meters away was not the same as jumping to the other side of the continent.

Harry was reluctant to push his mastery of the fiery transportation method just yet, at least not without Fawkes on hand.

Even if he could Phoenix Flash over vast distances, it would have been dumb to do so inside King's Cross.

'Muggles and randomly conjured fire probably don't go too well together...'

After a little while, the confused muggles in his near vicinity were unable to find the source of the sound, Harry, with almost reluctant steps, continued to their destinations.

The boy himself was moving to the nearest alley he found, careful not to stumble upon anyone in the busy streets.

After all, while someone could easily ignore and choose to forget about a strange sound, no one would be as ready to disregard their sense of touch screaming at them that they hit something.

Taking off his cloak and storing it inside his trusty pouch, Harry made his way back to the street.

'I suppose the tournament isn't all that bad after all,' he mused while watching the mundane humans go their ways.

Harry, a fourteen-year-old wizard, had just performed magic in the middle of London with none the wiser.

"Now how the hell do I find Grimauld Place?" he muttered.

Despite his words, he had an idea and he was hoping that it would work, otherwise, he may just have to cut his little adventure short.

'There's on there,' he thought, moving towards a black cab.

Upon reaching it, Harry got the driver's attention by lightly knocking on the cab's front window.

There was a yellow sign that read "TAXI" on its top.

"Good morning, lad. How may I help you?" asked the aged man after rolling down the window.

"Morning, sir. Do you happen to know where Grimmauld Place is?" Harry inquired, waiting for the negative response that would no doubt follow.

"Of course, I do… How do you reckon I got this job?" the man asked perplexed.

'Huh?'

"Well, are you going to sit in or do you perhaps want the directions, it's not far away after all," the cab driver said, breaking Harry from his reverie.

"I'll just get in if it's no bother, then" Harry muttered and opened the car's back door, getting in.

'Did my plan just meet reality without miserably crashing?' he wondered incredulously.

The world usually didn't allow any chance to pass by without putting some more obstacles in his path…

'And they say that I'm heading into life-threatening scenarios myself. They don't get that, usually, it's the other way around…'

"We'll be there in seven minutes tops," the man informed him as Harry put on his seat belt.

By the time they had reached the address, Harry was barely able to contain his calm.

'What if Sirius regretted offering me home last summer and he simply mentioned it in the letter out of some sense of obligation? What if he found out about me slaying the abyssal reaver and now thinks that I'm some cruel madman? What if-'

"Cough. Young man, we've reached the place," said the cab driver, mercifully putting a stop to his thoughts.

Harry quickly paid the man, he had paid Gringotts a quick visit and got out of the cab.

'Gotta look for the twelfth building,' he thought, glancing at the nearest house and noticing a tiny bronze symbol of the number one on it.

Moving down the street, Harry passed by number ten, eleven and finally, he was standing in front of the Grimmauld's place number twelfth.

'Sirius is here,' he thought and anxiously moved towards the house's door.

The door's knocker consisted of an elegant silver snake head that had a matching ring in its fangs.

There was also an ornate plaquette, above the knocker, that read "House of Black", and bellow that, "Toujours Pour".

"What's that mean," he wondered absentmindedly and used the knocker to announce his presence.

While waiting, Harry was pondering deeply whether to use the mind arts to magically calm himself down or not.

Salazar had advised him against depending too much on his occlumency to keep himself composed, as that would cause his ability to do so by himself to deteriorate…

"See, occlumency was made with the goal to defend the mind from outside forces, not the ones within. That's why, despite how convenient it may be at times, you shouldn't become overly reliant on magic to keep yourself collected," echoed the man's words in his mind.

Thankfully, Sirius had come to the door by then, albeit with his wand at Harry's face.

Noticing who his uninvited guest was, he immediately lowered his wand.

"Merlin's balls, kid. Aren't you supposed to be at school right now?" the man asked, clearly trying and failing to sound stern.

It probably had to do something with the radiant smile that he was looking at Harry with.

"Hey, Sirius," Harry voiced with a steady voice, surprising himself.

"Hey, pup," the man replied and then, hugged his godson.

The hug felt warm and comfortable.

Harry for the first time in his life, felt truly wanted…

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