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Yeah! Here's the new chapter!
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Seeing that the one who came to her aid in this moment of danger was Harry, her friend and fellow champion, Fleur couldn't help but sigh in relief.
"Fleur, are you okay?!" Harry asked as he stopped next to the Veela, looking at her with an anxious and worried look.
And even though she was still feeling a little scared and distressed from almost facing death head on, Fleur still nodded to Harry's question.
"I'm fine, thanks to you," she said, truly grateful.
"Oh, thank goodness!" and hearing this Harry sighed in relief, happy to have managed to get there in time.
And noticing the relief in her friend's tone of voice, Fleur smiled softly, feeling happy that he was worried about her.
But even though she was happy about it she couldn't help but look at Harry with her own look of concern, "But what about you, Harry? What are you doing here?"
"I came to help you obviously," he replied.
"But it's dangerous here"
"I know, and that's why I came back." Harry shrugged, as if that reason was more than enough to justify his actions.
"But—" Fleur began again, not understanding why Harry had decided to risk himself like that for her.
However, the French witch was unable to finish her sentence as she and Harry heard an angry grunt coming from the fallen Bulgarian champion.
And turning to Krum, they both saw him slowly getting up, without any sign that Harry's spell had hurt or affected him.
"Damn, I thought my attack was enough to free him from the curse's control," Harry said with a grimace.
"Curse's control?" Fleur asked, turning to Harry in confusion.
"Yes," he replied with a nod, "I can't say for sure yet, but I'm almost 90% sure that Krum is under the Imperius Curse."
And hearing this Fleur's eyes widened slightly, "The Imperius Curse?!" she repeated in shock.
"Uh-huh," Harry nodded again with a heavy look.
And with the confirmation that she hadn't heard Harry wrong she quickly turned her dazed gaze to Krum.
'Is someone controlling him with the Imperius Curse!?' she wondered in her mind, finding it hard to believe.
However, she began to compare Krum's appearance and actions with those under the effect of that curse, and after some reflection she realized that Harry was probably right in his assumption.
'I knew there was something weird about him, but the Imperius Curse?' she thought, a grimace on her beautiful face, 'That sure makes things a lot more complicated and dangerous.'
And she was right, because the moment Krum recovered from Harry's surprise attack he once again fixed his eyes on Fleur, before raising his wand and pointing it at her.
"{Fractus}!" and without any warning he attacked.
"{Protego}!" Harry then stepped in front of Fleur, creating a fragile shield that was just enough to stop this spell before it broke, pushing Harry back slightly.
"Urgh... I knew I should have trained that spell more," he said with a groan.
And even though he was still feeling the impact of Krum's spell, he was already on standby, waiting for another attack from him.
However, after waiting a few seconds, he realized that Krum had not yet attacked, and looking at the Bulgarian wizard, Harry saw that he just stood there, staring in silence and with his eyes glazed over at Fleur who was behind him.
"Huh?" Harry blinked in confusion, 'Why isn't he attacking?'
And he didn't have time to think about the reason for Krum's inactivity because Fleur pulled his arm, before starting to drag him somewhere.
"Come on, we have to get out of here!" she said, running quickly towards the nearest path in the maze, with Harry following behind her.
What followed was a frantic chase, with Harry and Fleur running and going through various paths and passages in the maze while Krum chased them.
And this would have continued for some time longer, but unfortunately for the Hogwarts and Beauxbatons champions the last path they took led to a dead end.
"Damn it, we're trapped," Harry swore, scowling at the large wall of hedges in front of him.
And Fleur also frowned when she realized they were cornered, but instead of staring at the wall she turned to the entrance they came from.
Raising her wand she then began to create a barrier at the entrance, wanting to prevent Krum from reaching them, at least until they thought of an escape plan.
And seeing this, Harry stopped staring at the hedge wall, turning to help Fleur reinforce the barrier.
"Okay, I think this barrier will hold him for a while," Fleur said, lowering her wand as Harry did the same.
And just as she finished saying that, something powerful struck the barrier, causing it to tremble slightly.
""!!"" the two looked at the barrier in alarm.
"{Ruptuos}!" and then they heard Krum's hoarse voice, before another attack hit the barrier, followed by another, and another.
"He's already here." Harry grimaced, watching the barrier tremble as Krum cast several sequences of destructive spells at it.
"Tsk, if he keeps attacking the barrier like this he'll end up destroying it in less than 2 minutes," Fleur said, feeling a growing sense of danger.
She then began to look around, looking for a way out or a way to escape this situation.
But unfortunately for her the only things she could see were the big, thick walls of hedges that surrounded her and Harry.
'These walls are very strong and resistant, so there would be no point in trying to destroy them with spells to create an exit'
'And besides, these walls are made of a living magical plant that would probably attack us if we tried to hurt it, and since we're in an enclosed space we'd be at its mercy,' Fleur began to reflect, considering their options.
And even after thinking a lot she couldn't find a way to escape,
'Damn, we really are in a very bad situation right now' she thought.
"Fleur, what are we going to do?" she was then taken out of her thoughts by Harry's question.
And she thought about his question for a moment, before sighing helplessly.
"Sigh, I guess the only option we have left now is to defeat Krum," she said, not at all happy about it.
And Harry already knew she would say that when he asked that question, and so he wasn't surprised or distressed by her answer.
"Okay then," he said, nodding almost robotically.
However, he knew that now was not the time to be nervous or panicked, and so he took a deep breath to try to calm himself, before turning to Fleur.
"Well, it looks like we're going to have to work together to defeat him," he said, with a small, encouraging smile that didn't entirely hide his nervousness.
Noticing his attempt to cheer her up, Fleur couldn't help but smile as well, "Yes, it seems so" she said, a little less stressed.
And alongside a friend and ally, she began to feel her confidence and determination return, knowing that Harry's presence in the fight would increase their chances of victory.
And Harry knew that too, and so he looked back at the wall that separated them from Krum, holding his wand tightly as he listened to the spells of the 'hypnotized' boy hitting the improvised barrier.
"So, what will our strategy be?" Harry asked, bringing Fleur's attention back to the fight.
Hearing his question she frowned slightly, beginning to quickly analyze the situation.
"Well, we have a slight advantage over Krum because we are 2 against 1, but because he is under the effect of the Imperius Curse he is not aware of his own conditions, such as injuries or fatigue, so we cannot prolong the fight with the intention of wearing him down because in the end it will be us who will be tired."
"And besides, he also doesn't mind using lethal or dark spells on us, which makes our situation worse because we can only stun or immobilize him while he tries to kill us."
"So what you're saying is that we're screwed?" Harry asked in a playful yet concerned tone.
"Oh, I didn't say that," Fleur said, a twinkle in her eyes, "Krum is like a locomotive now, unstoppable and aggressive, moving forward without caring about what or who is in his way."
"But what happens when a locomotive runs out of fuel?" she asked, turning to Harry with a mischievous smile.
"The locomotive stops working," he replied.
"Exactly!" she nodded, "Then all we need to do is force Krum to completely drain his magic, and after that he'll be just like any other normal person without magic."
"And when that happens, he'll be completely defenseless against us," Harry concluded, finally understanding the meaning of Fleur's analogy.
And now that he had a better understanding of what the French blonde's plan was, he also couldn't help but smile just like her, starting to feel a little more confident and excited for the fight.
"Well, in that case, what are we waiting for? Let's defeat this ugly guy!" he said.
"Right!" and Fleur nodded.
End.
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