Fleur gave a shudder while she enjoyed her chicken stew. The ‘periodic cough’ had been a lot more frequent than they had expected- but while Hailey had told her that a cough suppressant spell would be useless, it had turned out that muggle cough suppressants were extremely effective. As a result, the only ‘symptoms’ she had, when anybody could see her, were the sudden appetite for soups and stews, and a general lack of energy. Not that she had ever been very active, so nobody had really noticed anything- she simply sat in the Hogwarts library all day basically every day, studying anything and everything she could get her hands on.
She knew Madame Maxime was trying to woo the gamekeeper, Hagrid, into telling her what was coming before the time came, but it wasn’t going very well. At the moment, Maxime’s best guess was something to do with treasure-hunting in tunnels- but then, she had asked Hailey if Maxime was right..
“Yeah, not even close,” Hailey had told her, once she’d stopped laughing. “And no, I can’t tell you what it is either.”
So, she had analyzed the first two tasks.
The first was a fight. The second, a search. Specifically, she had realized after the fact, in the deepest part of the lake- it wasn’t supposed to be a very difficult search at all, it was more the journey and the time limit that had been the challenge.
The third likely was something different. It wasn’t going to be a battle, nor a simple search and retrieval. Perhaps a puzzle, of some sort? But how would that be dangerous?
It would have to be somewhere the stands could be set up, too- around that enclosure for the dragons, around the lake for the second task…
Or, perhaps they would use the stands already set up for their Quidditch field? It hadn’t seemed too likely, but it was a distinct possibility.
They would also need a safety team, which could presumably intervene in the event of a deadly situation. For the first task, it had been a bunch of dragon-handlers and, apparently, a talking dragon called Norberta (she hoped Norberta wasn’t the one that had faced Krum). For the second task, it had been the Patil Twins, a pair of water elementals that didn’t need magic of any sort to be able to dive under the lake, and could control the water so powerfully as to use the water itself as a weapon. Reportedly, they had been seconds away from stepping in to rescue her from the Grindylows when she’d managed to free herself without them.
When she put those together, she realized she knew something about the coming task.
First, it would be outside. Hogwarts didn’t feature a single indoor space large enough to put those stands, nor to hold all those students, stands or not.
Second, she would be able to see the sky. They wouldn’t do two of them in the lake- and anywhere else wouldn’t allow rescue teams to reach them very quickly while still conferring some sort of challenge to the Task.
So, she had reasoned that it had to be some kind of random challenge- perhaps in tight spaces, one after another, or as surprises in paths she could choose- perhaps a maze?
She didn’t know what it was… But, she had chosen to go with the assumption that she might not know how to complete the Task even by the time she started it. As a result, she had, after asking the Librarian a couple of carefully-worded questions, located and practiced a few spells that let her get a birds-eye view of her surroundings, without leaving the ground.
Then, she had gone to Hailey for some recommendations on what to study.
Hailey had raised her an eyebrow, promised her that she wouldn’t be able to make recommendations based on the task to come, and given her a copy of the ‘Study List’ the Student Instructor Program had published to all Hogwarts students. It was organized neatly by year and subject- and included both ‘main course’ materials, which were covered in class, and ‘extra study’ materials, which were based on the materials of the class. Even within each class, they were neatly organized by difficulty, techniques, and so on.
She had been studying everything she could off of that list in both Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. She already knew most of the Charms stuff through sixth year- she was in her final year at Beauxbatons- so most of the rest of it came easily to her. When she had difficulty, it even told her who to go to for assistance- Hermione Granger, the Head Student Instructor for Charms… or Hailey, for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Hermione was an astoundingly good teacher, who had only needed to take her to see Professor Flitwick once- and, rather luckily, she only had two titles on her office door, and both readable- but she’d ended up seeing Hailey more often, since Beauxbatons didn’t have that subject.
But, exactly as she had expected, it was all comparatively easy. Even just studying out of books- she already knew most of the principles. Hailey had helped her with a couple she had never encountered before, like the novel way she taught her to resist the Imperius Curse… Then she had, finally, run out of those two classes- even the ‘extra’ material. She just learned too fast.
It was at least partly because she had spent a good ten hours a day studying them, whereas everyone at Hogwarts couldn’t spend much more than an hour or so a day without skimping on their other classes.
So she had asked Hailey what Arithmancy was. Apparently, it was the science behind magic decision-making- and a thorough grounding in Arithmancy would allow her to design a single charm that could assemble a bunch of sticks out of the dust in the air and make them assemble themselves into a doll and dance across a desk before falling off to vanish in a puff of smoke on the floor.
That had been the example Twilight Sparkle, one of the best Arithmancy students despite being in their psychology unit instead of being a student instructor, had demonstrated for her.
So, she had started studying Arithmancy with the same diligence she had put towards Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was sorta annoying how the Papa Tango thing, even with all the spells and remedies for the symptoms, still took away all her energy for walking around… Yet didn’t quench her mental energy at all. Twilight, who periodically wondered aloud how Hailey managed to find the time to discharge all of her duties, was helping tutor her in Arithmancy- and Ancient Runes, since Twilight had combined the two disciplines to be able to define the magical instructions she had constructed the demonstration charm from.
And now, she had been notified by Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts, that she- and the other Champions- were to report to the Quidditch field at nine o’clock.
Which told her about where the Task would be taking place.
She glanced up at the clock again. She knew where the Quidditch field was- she had plenty of time to finish her meal before heading down on schedule.
A maze.
Fleur let out a sigh of relief as she stepped across what looked like short hedges all across the Quidditch field. No doubt they would be too high to realistically scale by the time the Task started- but it was a maze. Probably with extra challenges placed throughout, of course; a simple maze would be too easy. Unless it was a maze-race, but even then, too easy- and that would make it difficult to score each Champion independently. And it wouldn’t exactly be dangerous, either.
But there was a part of her mind that immediately started concocting an Arithmancy-based algorithm to find any and all non-looping solutions to the maze… and tell her what was along each route. She’d have to cast it whenever the Task started, assuming it was what she thought it was.
She kept going until she reached the center, where Ludo Bagman, one of the judges, was waiting.
Fleur leaned back in her seat, up in the Hogwarts library, and stared at the ceiling. It was the day before the Third Task- and her Papa Tango was not done yet. Today, though, it almost felt like her insides were squirming about, and it was making it impossible to study. Not that she really needed to- she was already entirely confident that she’d be able to not just complete the task but complete it well. Madame Maxime had tried to help her, but her efforts had paled next to the raw skill that had been made available to her through the Hogwarts Student Instructor Program.
But she was still living at a school, so she hadn’t seen any reason not to take advantage of that. She had studied- to a much more limited degree- the other subjects and study materials that Hogwarts had and Beauxbatons didn’t, but admittedly hadn’t gotten very far on them, especially Potions.
Even if it didn’t help her in the Third Task… it would help her later in life.
Quite suddenly, the queasy shifting feeling just… went away- and she found herself just as suddenly restless. Strange.
She rose from her seat, put her book away, and headed outside. It was only afternoon- but, presumably at least, her Papa Tango had just finished. She had some energy to release- and she also wanted to find a mirror to examine herself in, and figure out which tribe she had ended up with. And, of course, what color her hair was.
Slipping out of the castle, down the grounds, and into her little room in the carriage without anyone seeing was almost easy. That was funny- her Veela-aura usually called her out, making her absolutely terrible at sneaking.
It was as she was looking in the mirror, at her silvery hair that had gained a little bit of a wave and even more shine than it already had, when one of the Equestrian magics Hailey had mentioned came to mind.
The ‘Unique Talent’, it was called, on Earth.
If her Papa Tango had completed- which it certainly seemed to have- then she would, at least theoretically, have one too. And of course, those talents were absolutely ridiculous for those that had been Papa Tangoed. Hailey’s, for example, rendered her completely and totally indestructible- even when a near-literal sun goddess had attempted and failed to breach the weakest shield Hailey could make.
So… What if hers had something to do with stealth, despite her Veela-aura and highly distinctive appearance?
That would certainly explain how she managed to slip through the busy castle and the occupied main room of the carriage unnoticed.
Suddenly, her hair seemed to be growing… No, it had an aura. No, she had an aura- a silvery aura to match her hair. It was growing stronger- and she felt her feet leave the floor.
She let out a squeak of fright. What was this?
Then, just as suddenly as it had started, everything stopped. She dropped heavily back to the floor, then stabilized herself on the dresser underneath the mirror, breathing heavily. At least she didn’t have to worry about a roommate seeing that- once she had become the School Champion, Madame Maxime had arranged for her to have a room to herself, despite the limited number of bedrooms in the carriage.
She turned back to the mirror.
Nothing seemed to have changed.
She took a deep breath… then, after checking to be sure the door was locked, removed her robe and shirt, before looking in the mirror again.
She immediately noticed that her muscles were much more sharply defined than they had been just that morning. She tried flexing a few muscles- and quickly discovered that she had suddenly, magically, gained six-pack abs.
“I’ve gotten even more attractive,” she muttered, and sighed. She liked to look nice, it was true- but she did not like how attractive she was to members of the opposite sex. That always drew the wrong type of attention. Though, as she examined her muscles in the mirror, this probably wasn’t all bad. Most people wanted a soft and perhaps slightly plump girl that was all weak and fragile, not one that looked like she could rip them apart with her bare hands- muscles like that were often attractive on men.
Then she turned her back on the mirror, and glanced over her shoulder.
No wings, or any other feathery appendages.
“I must be an Etrah,” she muttered, and sat down on her bed with a second sigh. “That means impossible strength, right?” She looked down at her hand, clenched it, and released it. She could see her muscles rippling with the motion- they’d never done that before- but she didn’t feel all that much stronger. “It must be a ‘don’t know your own strength’ situation,” she scowled. “I’ll need to be careful.”
Finally, she sighed, stood up, and put her shirt and robe back on. Her robe was a lot more willing to drape than the Hogwarts robes, even on her arms, so her sudden muscularization wouldn’t be all that noticeable to anyone that didn’t get in a fight with her.
She winced. “Right, and that. If I’m an Etrah, I better not be getting into any more fights. I’ll be killing people by accident.” She scowled. “I don’t know how useful it’s going to be for the Task… Though, I suppose it means I can take more abuse before I fall.” She chuckled gently. “Not as much as Queen Indestructible herself, but…”