Next day, I am now sitting inside the library, trying to design the runes that I will put on Fleur’s uniform. So Obviously it’s anti-flame for the dragons, strengthening just in case, anti-tear so no one would be able to see something they shouldn’t see, maybe amplify magic on the neckline for her voice?

So I guess, for the anti-flame rune is…

ᛁᛗᛗᚢᚾᛖᛏᛟᛒᚢᚱᚾ

For the Strengthening rune is…

ᛊᛏᚱᛖᛜᚦᛖᚾ

For the Anti-tear rune is…

ᛁᛗᛗᚢᚾᛖᛏᛟᛏᛖᚱ

So while worn, the runes will activate… that means…

ᚹᚺᛁᛚᛖᚹᛟᚱᚾ ᛁᛗᛗᚢᚾᛖᛏᛟᛒᚢᚱᚾ | ᛊᛏᚱᛖᛜᚦᛖᚾ | ᛁᛗᛗᚢᚾᛖᛏᛟᛏᛖᚱ

And then the amplify-magic rune around the neckline will be…

ᚨᛗᛈᛚᛁᚠᛁᛈᛟᚹᛖᚱ

So adding the ‘while worn’ syntax, and the runes will be…

ᚹᚺᛁᛚᛖᚹᛟᚱᚾ ᚨᛗᛈᛚᛁᚠᛁᛈᛟᚹᛖᚱ

That’s a lot of runes… pretty redundant to be honest, eh, it’ll do for now… but will it work though? I used Elder Furthark so there’s a lot of shared letters… but if I used the younger one the magic would diminish by a lot…

Whatever, I’ll try this later…

Damn this reminds me of college a little bit…

“What are you doing?” Someone suddenly asked in front of me. I looked towards the source, and saw that it was Granger.

“Oh hello there.” I said. “Fancy seeing you here, considering that we haven’t really met in over two weeks.”

“Well I was busy…” Granger murmured. “You know… Harry became a champion, I’ve been helping him.”

I hummed noncommittally, she’s probably not saying the whole truth but whatever.

“What’s that? Runes?” she asked, peeking at my parchments. “That is… quite complicated to look at… what’s this for?”

“Protective clothing.” I answered. “For Fleur.”

I see the light in her eyes dim for a bit. “Oh, you’ve been helping her?”

I looked at her like she just said something psychotic. “Well yes. I don’t want her to die…”

“But she’s… from Beauxbatons…” she murmured, sitting back.

“So?” I raised my eyebrow, don’t tell me… “Do you want to say that I’m fraternizing with the enemy Granger?”

“No…” She said, a bit bitter. “The whole point of the tournament is to make friends, or in this case, arranged marriages…”

I just snorted at her joke. Wait, is that a joke or not? “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well you’ve been… distant lately.”

“Aren’t I always?”

“Yeah but more distant.” she pointed out. “I used to see you everyday in the library, now, not so much.”

I hummed. True, I’ve been in the Room of Requirement a lot I guess. “Yeah, well, a lot has happened.”

“No kidding…”

I looked towards her, and she started writing her essays. “Granger?”

She just made a sound to say that I heard her, and I continued my words. “Thank you by the way.”

She looked at me. “For what?”

“Accompanying me. Here.” I said, Whitlock wanted to say it, so I’ll say it. “I know I’m a hardass sometimes, but you stuck with me in these four years, and I’m thankful for that.”

She just smiled at me as well. “Well I quite like the company as well.”

I just chuckled as I tapped my quill to the parchment. “Know the first task yet?”

“I don’t know…” she sighed. “I haven’t met Harry today… maybe he has something, last night he went to Hagrid’s.”

“Well I’m sure you’ll find something, the task is in a couple days.”

Suddenly, Fleur entered the library and rushed towards me with fear in her eyes. Her face was paler than normal and she’s hyperventilating a bit. Ow, looks like Madame Maxine told her.

She stopped in front of the table with me and Granger looking at her, she looked at Granger, but then decided to ignore her as she walked towards me, grabbing my arm.

“Come with me.” she said hurriedly.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

“Just… Come with me Archie.” she said, eyeing Granger a bit.

“Okay…” I said, quickly packing up my things. Without saying goodbye to Granger, she dragged me out of the library, towards the stairs.

“Dragons!” she whispered to me loudly, walking up the stairs. “You are right! It is dragons!”

“Okay… you know how to deal with it?” I asked calmly, touching her shoulder so she slowed down.

She took a deep breath as we stopped for a quick second, before continuing to walk more slowly.

“I-I don’t know.” she stuttered, trying to calm herself. “I-I suppose I should do that plan you made me think of, Non?”

“You mean sing to the dragon? That’s a solid plan.” I hummed. “But what’s the actual task though? Do you have to kill the dragon, or…”

“I don’t know Archie, I don’t know… Madame Maxine just told me that it will involve dragons…” she breathed, climbing the stairs.

“Okay… let’s go to the Room of Requirement first.”

—

As we entered the Room, Fleur quickly sat on the sofa, clenching her silk robe to calm herself down.

“Hey it’s alright.” I said to her, “It’s not that bad. Could’ve been worse.”

“Worse?! It’s Dragons Archie! Dragons!” she complained. “Do you want to face a dragon?!”

Do I? Nah… “‘course not.”

“Then I think I ‘ave a right to panic.” she breathed, taping her feet rapidly out of nervousness. “I-I ‘ad thought that they would decrease the difficulty of the task… but dragons! Merde!”

“Well, I’ll enchant your robe with anti-flame runes, so you should be safe from the fire… and you’re part Veela, so you have some resistance to fire right?”

“But that doesn’t deal with their s-sharp teeths, o-or claws…” she murmured, making her even more nervous.

I quickly grabbed her hand, making her stop tapping her feet. “As long as you’re prepared, you’ll be okay. Let’s study how to deal with dragons, yeah?”

She looked at me for a second, before nodding meekly.

I quickly summoned the book about dragons using the Accio charm and put it on the table in front of Fleur.

“Here, you should read this.” I said to her, “Meanwhile, I will work on your uniform, so don’t panic anymore, it’s not going to help.”

“Sorry… I was just—”

“I know, I know how it feels.” I said, patting her shoulder. “But you should approach this with a calm mind.”

“I will.” she nodded. “Thank you.”

I hummed. There’s a lot of things in the future I need to deal with for her safety… she probably won’t like one of them…

I just sighed and walked back towards the robe to work on it while she studied things about dragons.

I took out my rune writing kit, and turned the robe inside out so I could write it.

And so, I started to work.

—

A couple hours later, I finished runing the whole of the robe and the tunic, and only the leggings were left. Before I went to the leggings, I decided to just test the protective clothing first, testing the effectiveness.

I grabbed the mannequin and dragged it to the empty spot of the Room. I took a couple of steps back and pointed my wand at it.

“Incendio.” A jet of flames shot through the air from my wand, but when it hit the robe, it did nothing. Good start.

“Diffindo.” The force of the severing charm hit the robe, knocking the mannequin down, but once I checked that there were no tears, I was satisfied with it. I checked the mannequin as well, checking if there’s any damage from the inside, but none, all of the runes worked, too effective I might add…

“Is it done?” Fleur suddenly called. I turned around to see her walking towards me, finally kneeling down to also inspect the robe.

“Only the robe and tunic are…. I haven’t done the leggings.”

She was checking the runes that I wrote and looked impressed. “You ‘ave talent in runes… this is complicated, I cannot even understand this…”

“Yeah, well, all Whitlock have talent in runes…” I murmured. “How about you? Calm down yet?”

She just smiled at me. “Yes, thank you for telling me to study. It calms my mind a little bit.”

“Then what’s your plan?”

“Like we previously thought, I will enchant the dragon to put it to sleep.” she said. “I will stay as far away from the dragons as possible, so I will not get hurt, do not worry.”

“I am not worried.” I pointed out. “I trust that you are capable.”

She smiled widely at my words and stood up. “I will go to Madame Maxime to tell my plan about the task, see you at Dinner Archie, À bientôt.”

I just hummed at her goodbye, before bringing the mannequin to the previous spot again, working on the leggings next.