Chapter 22.2- Doom Days

Fleur took her position opposite Krum on the duelling stage. I’d tried to spend the night with her- not like that. But Maxime had ushered her back to carriage, insisting that Beauxbatons took care of their own. The goblet’s contract meant that she had no choice but to participate in the duels but I’d seen how she looked when she had arrived at the field. The ICW healer attached to checking her for cheating didn’t look too enthused at the fact that she’d be competing so I took that to mean she was in as bad a state as she looked.

Still, she carried herself well. She dodged out of the way of Krum’s first curse with a smooth slide before returning fire with a salvo of flashy curses- each one was silent and with an economy of movement that would have gotten a compliment from Flitwick. Regardless, Krum was just sharper and more rested. He hunkered behind a powerful mage shield before tearing it down and returning fire with a trio of dark curses aimed around her. She shielded the one that had been in danger of hitting her. Krum’s next curse shattered the shield- a simple protego, and the one after had her doubled over, clutching her stomach. A retching curse.

I tightened my grip on my wand involuntarily. I shouldn’t have cared about Fleur. She was competition, and I was well aware that we were both supposed to be using each other, but I could never forget the look on her face on seeing her father’s dead body. I didn’t know if it was pity or something even more twisted but the fact of the matter was that I cared for her after seeing that. She still managed to stagger out of the way of the next curse and I could see the rage on Krum’s face.

He aimed a bone breaker right at her left knee, and she was too slow to avoid the fast moving curse and fell to one knee. He had had two chances to disarm her and still he hadn’t yet. Fleur hadn’t cried out in pain even if I knew that combination of curses would have hurt like a mother fucker.

He aimed a bludgeoning hex at her midsection after batting aside the spell she tried to retaliate with. She was fully on the floor now, but she hadn’t let go of her wand. Krum’s eyes met mine and everything began to make sense. This wasn’t about Fleur. It was because she had been my date to the ball. He shot a powerful stinging hex that made the air vibrate with its movement at her back, and finally, she cried out, letting go of her wand. The stands were silent at the brutality.