Harry Potter Breaking Free

Even knowing why Fleur felt the way she did, Harry's psycho senses were currently going off and he shivered involuntarily. No, he berated himself mentally. None of that. It's time to start improving the situation. Screwing up his courage, Harry injected every scrap of his desire for friendship into his aura. "Thank you for helping me Fleur... You're a good person, a good friend."

Over Fleur's shoulder, Harry could see Appoline trying to stifle a random fit of mad giggles, with a knuckle shoved deep into her mouth.

On the other hand, Fleur was completely frozen in place as she'd been completely poleaxed by his comment. Harry had just forced her to either accept or deny their friendship. She could no longer fly all over the map like a lunatic...

Appoline threw a thumbs up at Harry, before breaking down again and returning to chewing on her fist.

"I need to use the bathroom," Fleur suddenly declared, before marching out of the room with Delacour levels of dignity.

When Fleur was finally out of the room, Appoline began openly laughing as she walked towards Harry with a wide and happy smile on her face. "Ah 'Arry... That was a nice try and it may even have worked, but she pulled the old bathroom defense. It works every time, no?"

"Arry I want to dance," Gabrielle interrupted with an angelic smile on her face. "Let's start the music."

Appoline smiled down at her absolutely thrilled daughter, before kneeling next to her. "Okay Gabby. He's all yours, but start slow. 'Arry is a complete amateur. He desperately needs our help..."

.....

Fleur Delacour was boiling over. She was an overheated cauldron of poorly channeled frustration and misdirected, irrational anger. What's more, she realized just how unreasonable she was being and that was making her feel even more out of control.

It really wasn't in her character for Fleur to be this bent out of shape by anything. Fleur was an extremely intelligent witch, top of her class and qualified for several Masteries. She was also a Veela, thus, under normal circumstances, she was far more in touch with her feelings than a regular teenager could hope to be. For that reason, Fleur knew that 'Arry had just manipulated her by saying thank you like that. She also knew that he'd used the term friend in tandem with his aura shroud, to show her his good intentions.

"Gods that boy is so damned infuriating," Fleur muttered as she stared at the bathroom mirror.

Of course, Fleur was self-aware enough to understand exactly why Harry just did what he did. Fleur could see that her own persistently rude behavior was inconsistent with all of the attention she was giving him, and she suspected that he was picking up massively mixed signals with his magic as well…

What was she to do about it though?

Harry was only a little boy, and Fleur refused to roll over and bask in his magic like a dog or worse, like a Gabrielle. She was being drawn to his presence though, and that much was obvious. Her allure was all over the place for the first time in years, and she found herself sitting in that damned Entry Hall reading when she could be doing something more productive.

Needless to say, Fleur couldn't wait until Harry got his aura shroud under control. In an ironic twist, she thought she might even understand how men feel around the allure of a Veela. It wasn't a fair comparison because Harry's magic didn't enthrall her like an allure would, but Fleur wasn't in the mood to be fair.

This situation could no longer continue. Something had to change and Harry wasn't really the problem... Fleur decided to take charge exactly like Harry had... She was going to be extraordinarily direct and then see what he makes of it. It was time to see how Harry likes taking some of his own medicine...

...

Harry was dancing very, very slowly with Gabrielle... The reason for that was simple. The little girl was far, far too adorable. Harry was absolutely petrified of stepping on her tiny little feet, to the point that he was having a hard time moving at all.

Gabrielle didn't care in the slightest. She was having a fantastic time holding onto Harry Potter while pouring out every scrap of allure that she could muster.

Even as Appoline played the slow piece on her piano she was paying special attention to her youngest and Harry dancing. Appoline had every intention of making this a Pensieve memory. Her daughter was just sooooo cute.

All of the sudden, Fleur Delacour stormed back into the room, all business, large and in charge.

"I feel better now," she declared, while looking at her mother. "'Arry!" Fleur pinned the boy with her eyes. "'Arry, you are a good person and I am your friend."

Everyone in the room could immediately sense the massive, incoming BUT...

"I also hate you with a passion just a little bit," Fleur declared bluntly. "Don't try to understand me because even I don't. Just deal with it because I am trying my best."

At Fleur's declaration, Harry just stood there, completely stunned and he began to wonder if this is how other people feel when he says and does crazy things. Then finally, after several very long moments passed, Harry started laughing. Soon enough he was laughing so hard that he was bending over and holding onto his kneecaps just to stay on his feet. A tear of mirth was falling down his face when he finally stood back up, and he quickly wiped it away. "Fleur... I have friends at Hogwarts that've felt exactly the same as you since the very first day they met me, and they've never once told me the truth about it. One of my two closest friends decides at least once a year to have a jealous fit and hate me for a few weeks. I have more reason to trust you than I do any of those people."

At the tail end of his words, Harry smiled apologetically down at Gabrielle before looking over at Fleur again. "Would you care to teach me to dance?"

....

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