Chronicles Of Arth: Prince Of Shadows

Soon, Fleur woke up and the first thing she does break down into insanity.

Madame Maxime had to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.

"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! I need to go to her!"

"She is out already, she's perfectly fine!" Arth tried to tell her, but he was ignored.

Fleur had realized that her sister was ok and broke free of Madame Maxime and ran towards her sister.

Gabrielle hesitated before reluctantly letting go of Arth and hugged Fleur.

"It was ze grindylows . . . Zey were stronger than usual. . . zey attacked me . . . oh Gabrielle, I thought . . . I thought . . ."

Arth felt himself getting embarrassed.

Maybe he should have trained the grindylows a bit less.

"Come here, you. You've been standing there with wet clothes long enough," said Madam Pomfrey. She seized Arth and pulled him over to Hermione and the others, wrapped him so tightly in a blanket that he felt as though he were in a straitjacket, and forced a measure of very hot potion down his throat. Steam gushed out of his ears.

"Arthur, well done!" Hermione said with a smile. "You were so cool, saving Gabrielle for Fleur instead of your object."

"Ahahaha, yeah. That's right."

He didn't have the nerve to tell her that saving Gabrielle was actually an accident.

"You haff a water beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny," said Krum.

Arth had the impression that Krum was drawing her attention back onto himself; perhaps to remind her that he had just rescued her from the lake.

How cute.

Hermione brushed away the beetle impatiently and said, "You're well outside the time limit, though, Arthur. . . . Did it take you ages to find us?"

"Nah, found you guys early but decided to wait at the village."

"Ooh! Was it to make sure that all of the hostages were taken out safely? That's really kind of you."

". . . ."

Dumbledore was crouching at the water's edge, deep in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson, a particularly wild and ferocious-looking female. Finally he straightened up, turned to his fellow judges, and said, "A conference before we give the marks, I think."

The judges went into a huddle. Madam Pomfrey went to fetch Fleur and her sister. Fleur had many cuts on her face and arms and her robes were torn, but she didn't seem to care, nor would she allow Madam Pomfrey to clean them.

"Look after Gabrielle," she told her, and then she turned to Arthur. "You saved 'er," she said breathlessly. "Even though she was not your 'ostage."

"Ahahaha," laughed Arth awkwardly. "Yes I did."

Fleur bent down, kissed Arth twice on each cheek, then said thank you before sitting right next to him with Gabrielle beside her.

Arth felt intense glares on his back and sighed.

He was now heartily wishing he'd left all three girls tied to the statue and grabbed the c.h.e.s.t and finished first.