'Why must they all stare?' Fleur Delacour couldn't help but wonder as she walked through the halls of Hogwarts. She knew that while she was dressed simply in her school uniform, she was still an attractive woman. That of course sounds like a brag, but it was the truth. She was very attractive, at least as far as the majority opinion on what was attractive. Some people like obese girls or bald girls, to each their own. Still, Fleur was very attractive, even without her veela influence, and she knew it.
Ever since she was old enough she had gotten far more attention than she liked or wanted from her classmates, both male and female. The boys desired her, and the girls wanted her to stay away from the boys. Not that she had much interest in the boys in her school, they most certainly were interested in her but she had seen their wide and entranced eyes and wanted nothing to do with them. The last and only time she had accepted a date had resulted in the boy trying to grope her and her finding out the next day that he had a girlfriend when the girlfriend in question confronted her in front of the whole school.
Ever since she had decided it was better to stay out of the way of others and do her own thing, ignore the boys and the girls. It was a lonely existence, but it was better than dealing with all of the shouting and drama that came when she tried to socialise. And now, she was in Hogwarts, with a whole new set of boys and girls to stare at her with lust, hatred and sometimes even weird combinations of the two.
"Well, hello there," A voice drawled as she turned the corner and found herself face-to-face with a trio of boys. Two of them looked like they might have some relation to a troll while the one in front of them was a thin boy with a cocky smirk, blonde hair that had clearly taken a long time to slick back the way he had and lust in his eyes. "A pleasure to meet the Beauxbaton champion," The blonde boy said with a grin as he eyed her up and down. "Miss Delacour, the French champion, right? I am Malfoy, Draco Malfoy," He introduced himself, the way he said his own name made it clear that he expected her to realise that he was someone important.
"Of course," Fleur said simply before she started to go around, only for the blonde boy to jump in front of her quickly.
"Now, wait a minute, there's no need to be impatient," He smirked. "I was wondering if you'd like a tour around the school. I'd be happy to show you around it, nobody here knows it better than myself." He bragged, offering her arm.
"Garçons stupides, pourquoi pensent-ils tous avec leurs stupides organes génitaux?" Fleur sighed, pinching the top of her nose in frustration whilst closing her eyes tightly.
"Eh?" Draco blinked intelligently.
"Oh, tu ne comprends pas le français?" Fleur looked back at him. "Je suis surpris que vous soyez assez intelligent pour comprendre l'anglais. Espèce d'idiot incompétent."
"What?" Draco asked. "Speak English!" He said irritably.
"That's a bit racist, Cuz." A voice said as Tonks walked in. She stood next to Fleur and stared at the trio of Slytherins with her hands on her hips. Crabbe and Goyle shifted nervously while Draco sneered at her.
"What are you doing here?" He glared at her.
"My job as an auror," Tonks said simply. "What about you? I hope you're not bothering Miss Delacour,"
"Oh yeah, such a good auror, walking around a school and looking after school kids while the other aurors are out risking their lives stopping real criminals," Draco mocked.
"I do what I am ordered to do, Draco, perhaps you should try that," Tonks said, narrowing her eyes at him. "Besides, I don't think you really have room to criticize anyone. From everything I've heard - from multiple sources, I might add - all you're good for is trying to bully people and then running to Snape and your dad when it doesn't go your way." She added, causing Draco to swell up with indignation and anger. He opened his mouth to speak when Tonks cut him off. "Now, perhaps you should be on your way to wherever it is that little brats like you go before I inform Professor McGonagall about you bothering the French champion." Draco glared at her for a moment, she glared back and her hair began turning red along with her eyes, causing Draco to falter and take a step back. He recovered quickly enough and straightened his clothes.
"Crabbe, Goyle, let's go, the air around here is starting to stink," He sneered at Tonks before his gaze shifted back to Fleur. "Come and find me if you're ever in the mood for a good time," He smirked before he walked off, with Crabbe and Goyle following behind him as always. Tonks glared at his back before she quickly pulled her wand and sent a tripping hex at him, causing him to fall over with Crabbe and Goyle nearly falling on top of him. Draco, red-faced and embarrassed, quickly stood up and glared at Tonks who already tucked her wand away and was smiling at him innocently with her hair and eyes back to pink and violet. The angry blonde growled before storming away with his two bodyguards.
"Sorry about him," Tonks said to Fleur. "A lot of the boys around here are dumbasses, but he's a particularly bad one."
"I can tell, he seems..." Fleur trailed off as she tried to find the right words.
"Like a spoilt brat?" Tonks guessed. "Like a stupid little princess? Like a dumbass? Like an idiot? Like a cunt?"
"All those," Fleur agreed before frowning. "What is the meaning of the last one?"
"Oh, basically it's something that belongs to..."
"Tonks! Fleur!" A voice called as Harry walked up to the pair. "Good to see you both."
"Hi Harry," Tonks smiled brightly. "How are you doing?"
"Same old, same old," Harry shrugged. "How about you? How's auror work?"
"Same old, same old," Tonks shrugged. "Just had a nice chat with your 'pal', Draco, who was bothering Miss Delacour over here."
"Of course he was," Harry rolled his eyes before turning to Fleur. "Please ignore Draco, he's been an irritant ever since I started school. He still holds a grudge against me because I didn't want to be his friend in our first year. Please don't judge all of Hogwarts because of him."
"I will not," Fleur assured him. "My school has our own share of brats. So, Harry, have you read the paper?"
"Beg your pardon?"
"The newspaper, the 'Daily Prophet'," Fleur replied. "There was an article about you,"
"Huh, hadn't read it yet, what does it say?"
"Well," Tonks cut in. "Basically, it went somewhat along the lines of 'twelve-year-old Harry Potter, standing awkwardly in the room, his little green eyes brimming with tears and glistening with memories of ghosts that have long since passed, lips trembling at the thought of disappointing his deceased father, James Potter.' Long story short, Rita Skeeter made you look like a pathetic twelve-year-old who was crying for his parents, by this afternoon everyone would have probably read it."
'That's some bullshit!' Venom protested loudly in Harry's head. 'WE DO NOT CRY!'
"Hold up, ignoring all the crap, why did she only mention my dad?" Harry questioned. "Why didn't she go all the way and mention my mum too?"
"I don't know, maybe she just doesn't think or care enough about her." Tonks guessed. "Could be a blood purist, that would explain it, disappointing pure-blood James Potter is worse than disappointing muggleborn Lily Potter, I guess."
"She is...how you say..." Fleur thought for a moment. "...a super bitch." She nodded decisively.
"Well...that's not quite how I would say it but agreed," Harry smiled widely at her before turning to Tonks. "Anyway Tonks, I was actually looking for you, do you mind chatting with me in private please?" He asked hopefully.
"Yeah, sure," Tonks nodded.
"Great," Harry grinned before turning to Fleur. "It was nice to see you again, Fleur." He told her before gesturing for Tonks to follow.
"I..." Fleur trailed off as the two had already started walking off.
'What the hell?' She thought as she saw the two disappear from view. 'He barely looked at me!' Fleur thought, feeling somewhat offended for some reason. 'What's so interesting about that Tonks woman?' She wondered. 'Sure she can change her shape, but I am a veela, my shape is perfect. So's my hair and my face and...why the hell am I thinking about this?'
"Thanks for taking me, Tonks," Harry smiled as he and Tonks walked through Diagon Alley, as usual, the place was filled with plenty of wizards and witches going around the place, buying ingredients, broomsticks and everything in between. Harry was dressed in casual muggle-style clothes while Tonks wore her red auror robes.
"No sweat," Tonks waved him off. "It's part of my job, anyway, I think we should start with your wand." She suggested.
"Right, so Ollivander's then," Harry nodded.
"Yeah, unless you want to go to one of the other ones," Tonks replied.
"Wait," Harry stopped, Tonks stopped with him and stared at him questioningly. "What other ones?"
"The other wand shops," Tonks responded. "Didn't you know about them?"
"Not really, it's the first I've heard about it," Harry admitted. "Only ever heard about Ollivanders,"
"Yeah, because he's the most famous wand maker," Tonks began explaining. "His family has been making wands for ages and ages, that's why he's got a reputation as THE wand maker. Everyone goes to him, muggle-borns because he's cheap and because he's usually the only one they've ever heard about. Purebloods because they know that that's where everyone goes. Only very few people go to the other wandmakers."
"How come?" Harry asked, leaning forward. "Are their wands not as good?"
"No, it's mostly just because they're more expensive," Tonks shrugged. "Old Ollivander gets discounts on all the materials and ingredients he buys so he can afford to mass produce wands. You go in and he picks the wand that's best suited for you. A lot of the other ones either get second-hand wands and sell them or they'll make a custom wand for you."
"Custom wands?" Harry asked, intrigued.
"Yeah, you know, they find the best materials and core for you, while Ollivander will see if any of his existing wands will match with you. Though, if you want then Ollivander can make a custom wand for you as well, but that's really rare. He doesn't make them much, though if you're willing to cough up a little extra dosh then he'll do it." She told him, watching as a focused expression appeared on Harry's face. It seemed like he was having a mental conversation of some sort, she opened her mouth to speak when suddenly Harry opened his.
"Take me to see one of these custom wand-makers," Harry told her before pausing. "Please," He added, remembering his manners.
"Are you sure?" Tonks asked. "You don't want to go to Ollivanders instead? I..."
"Positive," Harry cut in. "Where are the shops?"
"Well..." Tonks seemed to hesitate. "They're in there," She pointed down to an alleyway. The alleyway seemed much darker and bland than what one would usually see in Diagon Alley, the grey walls were covered in cobwebs and graffiti and the floors were covered in litter, standing next to the alleyway was a signpost with a sign pointing into the alley, Harry took a moment to read it.
"Knockturn alley," Harry sighed. "Of course it's in there,"
"Yeah," Tonks nodded. "You sure you want to..."
"Positive," Harry told her before walking towards it, Tonks blinked before she quickly followed after him.
"Harry, are you sure about..."
"Yep," Harry cut her off as they walked down the alley.
"Harry, it's dangerous here," Tonks whispered to him, pulling out her wand as she saw many people staring at them. Some looked fairly normal, others looked like the witches you'd hear about in muggle folk tales, and one of them even had green teeth.
"Don't worry," Harry said unconcerned. "We're the most dangerous thing in this alley,"
"I don't know if that's accurate," Tonks frowned as she looked around while walking side to side with Harry.
"Don't worry," Harry told her. "I'll keep you safe,"
"Hey, I'm the one that's supposed to protect you," Tonks reminded him, staring at him with a disbelieving look on her face. "And I'm perfectly safe, I'm an auror. No offence, Harry, but you're still a Hogwarts student, I don't think that..." Tonks trailed off when Harry suddenly spun around and rushed past her. She heard what sounded a lot like 'oomph!' before she managed to turn around and see Harry pushing a sickly-looking old woman against a wall. The woman looked more like a wrinkled mummy than a woman, she was about a head or two smaller than Harry who had pinned her against the wall with one arm while the other hand gripped her wrist tightly. Tonks looked down and saw a knife on the ground.
"Don't...hurt...my friends," Harry's voice came out slowly, coldly and very powerfully as he stared at the woman who was now shaking in her boots.
Tonks let out a deep sigh as she waited outside of the wand shop for Harry who had gone in about twenty minutes earlier, she decided she would give him another five minutes before she went in to make sure he was okay. As she did so she thought about what had happened earlier.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the first time that someone had tried to stab her, and she highly doubted that it would be the last, luckily she had enchanted her auror robes so that while the knife would have hurt her, it wouldn't have penetrated her robes. But Harry hadn't known that and had reacted very quickly, grabbing the woman and disarming her before Tonks could even know that there was a threat. She still wasn't sure how he did that, she had been looking around consistently and yet the woman had managed to sneak up on her. But Harry hadn't been, his head had been aimed forward the whole time and his peripheral vision surely couldn't see that far back, right?
She could still picture him pinning the woman against the wall, looking calmer and more powerful than some senior aurors that she had worked with. She had quickly called in backup to take the woman away and Harry had simply nodded and walked off from the situation as calmly as he could once he had been allowed, looking really unbothered by the whole thing. Acting as if she had simply nearly tripped over a stray rock instead of nearly getting stabbed. Sometimes she couldn't work out what to think about him, sometimes she wanted to treat him like the teenager he was, but other times she couldn't help but think that the boy was more mature than she was.
'He's certainly powerful,' She thought, her body gave a small shiver as she thought about the power radiating from him earlier.
"Tonks," A voice echoed from her side, making her jump as she saw Harry standing next to her.
"Merlin on a bike!" Tonks blurted out. "Jeez, Harry! Need to put a bell on you,"
"Sorry," Harry said, sounding somewhat amused. "So, you want to see my wand?"
"Harry," Tonks said in a dry voice. "In my experience, most guys at least wait until the third date before they get to that," She said, hoping to see a blush on his face.
"You're mother was right about you," Harry said, his mouth twitching as he tried not to smile.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tonks asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You have a mind that's almost as dirty as Sirius's," Harry answered with a grin before pulling out his wand. "Ta-da!" He said dramatically, holding it up for her to see.
"Hmm," Tonks hummed as she looked at his new wand. The base of the wand was divided into two parts that twisted and curled in an intricate swirl that connected the shaft to the handle like a pair of black tentacles, the rest of the wand was straight and smooth with a pointed edge that looked like it could poke someone's eye out. The handle was a smooth metallic black with a white band at the top and bottom. "Looks pretty impressive, got a nice mysterious look to it. What's it made of?" She asked curiously.
"It's eleven inches and slightly flexible," Harry began explaining. "The wood is 'Blackthorn,'"
"Wow," Tonks whistled, she wasn't the most knowledgeable about wand making but she did know bits and pieces of information regarding the subject, blackthorn was a type of wood that was best suited for warriors and apparently if they did bond with the owner properly then they were about as loyal as one could hope for. "What about the cores?"
"I had him take a strand of my phoenix feather core from my holly wand," Harry told her. "And then he added in the heartstring of a 'Swooping Evil'."
"What?!" Tonks blurted out. The 'Swooping Evil' was not a common magical animal, not in Britain at least. It appeared similar to an extremely large butterfly but with a wolf-like skull in place of an ordinary head. When it was not flying with its spiked wings, the Swooping Evil shrunk into a green spiny cocoon. It could be quite dangerous as it fed on human brains and its skin was tough enough to block most spells. It secreted venom that, when properly diluted, could be used to erase bad memories. If stung by a Swooping Evil, a person could quickly lose their mind, although the affliction was reversible if treated in time. Long story short, it was not one of the commonly used ingredients for wand making. "I hope he had a permit for that," Tonks frowned.
"He assured me that he did," Harry told her.
"So, phoenix and swooping evil, an odd combination," Tonks said while making a mental note to check the shop later.
"Maybe," Harry agreed, choosing not to mention the third ingredient in the wand, the one that bonded the ingredients together, a strand of Venom. The hardest part had been trying to get the owner to keep quiet, that had taken a lot of extra money but at least the man had signed a contract saying that he would not reveal anything, the man had revealed that it was not his first time dealing with unknown ingredients and had ready-made magical contracts for when such situations occur. This was the main reason why Harry had not gone to Ollivander, he didn't trust the old man to keep his secret, maybe he would if the ministry asked but most likely not if Dumbledore ever wanted to know. "Now, let's go see your dad, I need a lawyer."
French translation according to Google:
Garçons stupides, pourquoi pensent-ils tous avec leurs stupides organes génitaux? - Stupid boys, why do all of them think with their genitals?
oh, tu ne comprends pas le français? - Oh, you can't understand French
Je suis surpris que vous soyez assez intelligent pour comprendre l'anglais. Espèce d'idiot incompétent. -I'm surprised you're intelligent enough to understand English. You incompetent prat.