Abandoning his assault for a moment, he animated the effigies along the walls, commanding them to bind her still, and weathering her renewed attacks behind his Shield Charm, deflecting those he could back at her, carefully choosing where he placed his feet to prevent her from trapping him along the edges of the ring.
She gasped with surprise when one of the stone snakes curled around her leg, but shattered it with the Blasting Curse and stepped along the edge of the ring, forcing Harry round towards the horde of serpents so that her stray curses destroyed his supporting animations.
Her back was to the pool now, so in between casting he Impedimenta Jinx and the Stunning Spell he conjured his shield of butterflies, ignoring Fleur's gasp of surprise when the swirling insects swarmed into existence around him.
A unwavering stream of transfigured butterflies hissed across the ground between them, forcing Fleur to hold her ground and shield herself for the first time. Slashing his wand across his chest he drew the water from the pool behind her, conjuring a liquid serpent the length of the bridge that twisted forwards through the air to encircle and shatter her shield.
'Expelliarmus,' Harry murmured, just as her defences faltered, and then it was over, and Fleur's wand was in his hand. Grinning triumphantly he waved it at her.
There was a bright flash of blue and something hot struck him on the chest, knocking him out of the circle and across the floor.
'I do not need my wand to conjure fire, Harry,' she reminded him, waving back. Her hand was coated in bright blue flames and glowing menacingly.
'I had already disarmed you and won,' Harry pointed out, standing back up. 'You said normal rules, that includes no sneaky veela attacks.'
Fleur scowled, but shrugged in what Harry assumed was agreement.
'So what did you think?' He asked.
'What do I think?' Fleur repeated incredulously. 'I am a talented duellist, eighteen and did the best I could, but I still got overpowered by a fifteen year old. It's annoying.'
Harry looked at her helplessly.
'I am not angry with you,' she relented. 'I just expected to win. I didn't expect you to be this good.'
'So I did well?' Harry inquired. 'I've never duelled anyone other than Voldemort above the water and to the best of my ability.'
'I use a counter attacking style,' Fleur began, waving her wand to repair the damage they had done to the chamber. 'It has proven effective against every opponent, and is even more effective without the ring, but I never even came close to touching you. You're defences were simply too powerful,' she said simply. 'Every spell just dissipated against your shield, and those that did not you deflected away like they were nothing. It was very frustrating,' she added in french.
'That's pretty much how I felt while watching you weave around everything I did no matter how fast I tried to go,' Harry commented.
'You were casting spells incredibly fast,' she told him, 'only the duelling instructor at Beauxbatons is close to being that quick, and me, perhaps,' she decided. 'You are a very dangerous duellist,' she continued, 'powerful, fast and creative. I don't even know how I could defend against what you did at the end.' She scowled angrily, the wrinkling her nose very attractively. 'I can't dodge at that speed, I can't transfigure them myself because your magic is too strong for me to overrule and I can't block them without leaving myself vulnerable.'
'Those two pieces of magic are among my best,' Harry admitted. 'The butterflies are a shield foremost, but they are quite versatile.' 'A shield?' Fleur frowned. 'Surely a Blasting Curse would go straight through?
'They are meant to defend against things like the Cruciatus Curse,' Harry replied. 'I can deflect most other spells.'
'At least I know you can look after yourself,' Fleur decided after a moment. 'I still can't believe you beat me already,' she sighed.
'Already?'
'I expected you to win eventually, I'm good at duelling, but I'm better suited to enchanting and other subtler aspects of magic. I wasn't expecting you to surpass me at fifteen though,' she griped. 'Gabrielle is going to laugh at me.'
'If it had been real what would you have done differently?' Harry asked. 'I'd have had more room to move, and I could have used my elemental medium spells, but there's not I could have done other than making it a bit more difficult for you. That's why it's annoying,' she sulked, looking for all the world like a lightly older Gabrielle. 'What about you?'
'I probably would have been casting some much more dangerous spells,' he answered as Fleur closed her eyes, 'and I could have made more use of my surroundings.'
'This place is amazing,' Fleur said after a moment. 'I can feel the magic around it, it's almost as strong as the Room of Requirement.'
'Don't let Salazar hear you say that,' Harry laughed. 'He designed this himself and Rowena and Godric created the room, they were quite competitive about things like this.' 'I can understand that,' Fleur smiled. 'Gabrielle is always trying to outdo what I was like at her age.'
'Does she?'
'We have different magic,' Fleur shrugged, 'so sometimes she does, and sometimes she doesn't. Her enchantments weave together better than mine, but my magic is stronger and holds for longer.'
Harry sat underneath one of the effigies, leaning his back against the smooth stone, then shifting along to give Fleur space when she moved to join him.
'I feel quite selfish,' she said, leaning into him.
'Why?' Harry asked, slipping his arm around her shoulders.
'I asked you for all your secrets, but I have none to share with you in return.'
'Clearly you're just not as mysterious as I am,' Harry grinned.
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