Harry Potter and Morpheus's Plea

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Occasional bad language, action violence, fluff, spoilers for those who have not read the books & ooc main characters.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and do not own any of the copyrights to any borrowed characters or locations used in this work and this is not written for profit. All other known characters and locations borrowed in this work belong to their respective copyright owners.

Authors note: I thought I'd try my hand at one of my favorite alternate pairings of all, but try and dodge the usual life debt in the lake, or meeting at the world cup scenario and come up with something completely different. I love Harry/Fleur but there's hardly any good fics with plausible scenarios that have actually been completed or totally ruined by certain plot elements. What would happen if a more intelligent Harry took more offence to Fleur's reaction to his selection as Champion? What if Harry took some rather creative action to prove himself in her eyes as well as fighting Voldemort? To pre-empt a few comments, I already know the Latin in this probably isn't perfect, as I took it from Google translate.

Prologue: Of Dreams and Princesses

'leetle boy,' seethed Harry as he brooded in his bed that night, his brain refusing to let go of the utter humiliation he had suffered only hours ago. Even Ron's subsequent betrayal and refusal to believe him hardly mattered in comparison. His jealously and narrow mindedness was at least partly predictable if unwelcome, at least Hermione still believed in him and could understand why he didn't want to participate. But the sting of this insult…..

'The one person I meet who didn't stare or make any fuss over who I am, and she refused to see the truth, or apologize even after I made a magical oath?'

After a few hours tossing and turning, Harry gave up on the idea of sleep for the time being and pulled out his invisibility cloak and the Marauders map. Quietly activating the enchanted parchment Harry scanned the surface gazing at the names, most were in their quarters including the few Harry had no desire to meet in the night. Getting out of bed, Harry crossed to the window and gazed down to where he knew the carriage which had brought the witch to Hogwarts now rested.

'I'll show her, I'll show her if it's the last thing I do.'

With his mind made up, Harry walked out of the dormitory and into the corridor. The fat lady was not amused to be woken up but Harry promised he wouldn't be long and she begrudgingly promised not to say anything.

'You're too much like your father for your own good Harry, I know that look, and I remember it well from his sixth year. I don't know who she is, but try not to get carried away with whatever you do to win her favour.'

Harry left, rather startled by the revelation and headed down the corridors, but soon came up short when he saw a door that wasn't on the map. The only visible landmark he recognized being a painting of man trying to train trolls to dance. Opening the room, Harry was astonished to find a space decorated like the pictures he saw of ancient temples. A lectern lay in the middle of the room with a book resting on top of it….

Curiosity propelling him forward, Harry opened the book and saw it was a grimoire of spells and rituals collated from the Greeks and Romans. Harry flicked through it, fascinated by the spells until he came to a ritual that was rather amazing in its effect.

The Plea of Morpheus

The purpose of the holy plea was once to show the guilt or innocence of those accused of crimes committed. He who was accused could with the aid of the ritual show the truth of the events as recollected to the victim. The victim would them dream the events as though present to witness them. None could lie under the influence of the spell as the dreams were made directly from the mind of the one who projects them into the ritual…

Harry was astonished at the discovery, somehow he had stumbled across exactly the sort of spell he needed to prove himself. The implications were somewhat of a dilemma though, he knew he could use this to prove he didn't go near the goblet but at what cost? Did Fleur really deserve to see into his mind?

The ritual did not look complicated and indeed everything he needed was already present in the room…..

After a time, Harry decided. 'Maybe this will showed the spoiled princess just how much of a "leetle boy" I am not, it doesn't look like it will actually hurt her if it was a holy ritual used by priests to show people the truth.'

Harry drew a pentagram around the stone basin called for in the ritual and lit fires at each point of the star. Drawing his wand and holding it forth he began to chant the incantation…

'Mea memoria depromere,'

'in somnis mihi reflexione excurrere.'

'Ut deorum iudicat in veritate mea.'

'Mica somniorum veritate mea autem Fleur Delacour!'

Harry held his wand to his temple and began to draw forth the memories he desired to show her, beginning with a few of the better memories of the Dursleys, followed by each and every one of his adventures that had happened so far at Hogwarts. Finally he finished with the memories of the days leading up to the drawing of the champions to show he had never even touched the goblet of fire.

Holding his wand over the basin which was now full of a swirling substance that looked to be neither liquid nor gas, Harry cast the last part of the ritual.

'O Potens delevit veritatis visione clara nomine, qui reum condemnaret!'

There was a wave of magic that released in a golden flash of light, the basin emptying and the fires dying out instantly as Harry smiled at his success, and meanwhile less than a kilometre away, a witch named Fleur Delacour fell into a much deeper sleep…..

The next morning, Harry felt surprisingly calm despite the turbulence of the day before. Even though the majority of the students eyes seemed as hostile as before, if not more so, the fact he had done something that could help to clear his own name made him feel all the better. As Hermione led him out of the castle, he thought he even caught a glimpse of Fleur going in, her face clearly showing remorse and sadness as she caught his eyes.

Hermione seemed to know something was up, and soon enough she asked.

'What is going on? Last night you looked terrible, but now, you look so calm. I remember second year, before I was petrified. You never looked this calm when everyone was accusing you of being the heir.'

Harry smiled, 'I never could get anything past you could I?'

Hermione blushed, 'no.'

'Last night I couldn't sleep, so I ended up going for a walk and I found a hidden room, inside it I found a book of rituals used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to divine the truth.'

Hermione looked shocked, 'oh Harry you didn't? If you'd been caught…'

Harry shook off her concern, 'I had the map and the cloak, and in this case the need was too great to ignore.'

'Hermione was silent for a long time before she finally asked, 'you obviously did something, but what? What did you do, which ritual did you cast?'

'The plea of Morpheus.'

Hermione was astonished, 'you found a copy of the ritual? And you got it to work successfully?'

'Yes and yes, you know about it?'

'I remember reading about it, the instructions for it were lost centuries ago. But if you did it, why is Ron the same? Unless you didn't use it on him, but if nor Ron, then who?'

Harry smiled, 'I used it on Fleur, The Beauxbatons champion.'

'What, why?'

Harry frowned, 'you didn't hear her last night, leetle boy she called me. Even after I gave a magical oath she didn't apologize. The one magical person I have ever met in my entire life who didn't stare at my scar or make a fuss about my name, even only at first. I thought that if I could at least show her the truth about me, it would make all the rest a little easier to bare. Malfoy, Ron, the Hufflepuffs, all the others. Most of the people around here are sheep and I can understand their reactions even if I don't like them. But for her, to throw it all back in my face the way she did, she had no right to do that.'

Hermione looked almost in tears as she pulled Harry into a hug and as she said.

'Oh Harry that's awful, if you'd only told me earlier I would have helped you and your right, she had absolutely no right to act like she did. Spoiled airhead looking down on everyone, what did you show her?'

'Everything, everything that was even slightly out of the ordinary that's ever happened here over the time we've been here. Plus a few of the more tolerable memories of the Dursleys.'

'Hermione was shocked, 'oh Harry you didn't? She'll be having nightmares for weeks.'

'Who said the truth is always nice? Besides, it'll probably do her good to be dragged out of whatever pretty tower her family's kept her in.'