Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: The following one-shot concerns the participation of Fleur Delacour in the Triwizard Tournament of a marginally alternate universe. (Or at least that is to say that it was only marginally alternate before the contest commenced.) This piece is unrelated to 'Triwizard Muddle'. This piece is rated 'M' to be on the safe side for a couple of moments in the latter part.

Moving with the loping grace of a natural predator, Fleur Delacour stalked her way forward through the maze, her senses working overtime as she tried to detect where the next threat would come from. The fact that someone was clearly out to 'get' her beyond the obvious competition was by now transparently clear. She'd assumed at the time that it was mere chance that the dragon had shifted and snorted in its sleep almost setting her on fire during the first task, but the way in which the grindylows had homed in on her and attacked her in such a frenzy during the second had definitely been suspicious – later analysis of her bathing suit had detected very faint residual traces of some unknown magical oil, no doubt responsible for the way in which those particular lake denizens had made quite so determinedly for her. Still, across the first two tasks Fleur had managed to both cope with dragon and (driven by a desperate need to rescue her little sister) deal with the pack of water-demons to get Gabrielle out of the lake in record time, and she'd placed quite a respectable second going into the third and final task. And all that remained now was to be the first to reach the cup, in the middle of this maze.

Of course, the twists and turns of the maze were hindering her progress forward considerably. At times she had almost a sense that someone was trying to control the way that the avenues shifted and changed to hinder her route to the cup. It was possible that the other contestants were being equally obstructed – well the other two still in the running – but it was equally possible that someone was trying to dictate who reached the cup first and won.

Fleur had already had a run-in with Viktor Krum, his eyes filled with the glazed look of someone under magical control, which would have no doubt been highly convenient for someone else if he had taken her out of the running. Fleur had acted without hesitation, and taken Viktor down with a rapid stupefy whilst he was still lifting his wand and the first syllables of something likely unpleasant rolling off his tongue (Fleur allowed the possibility that perhaps Viktor had been fighting very hard against what he was doing, slowing his own casting speed) and she had then fired up the red sparks from Viktor's wand so that someone would come and remove him.

But the run-in with Viktor had made her wary – and more determined than she had already been to succeed, in despite of this latest demonstration that outside interference was likely occurring. She certainly couldn't imagine Cedric Diggory having forced his will on Viktor to take Fleur out, although it was possible that the other Hogwarts champion might have done so, she supposed. The other Hogwarts champion was rumoured to be a dark wizard who spoke Parseltongue and who had mastered magic well in advance of that of his peers to give him control over dementors – and he had got himself selected for the tournament despite the measures which the British Ministry of Magic and Albus Dumbledore had put in place to prevent those who were 'underage' from even entering.

Fleur rounded a corner, and came upon that same Harry Potter, at a junction.

She had researched him and knew his reputation as a seeker with unbelievable reflexes, and acted to incapacitate him, hard and fast.

He was good, and had actually got the first part of what sounded like a disarming charm out of his mouth, as he dodged sideways slap bang into the path of the carefully positioned stupefy she'd sent at him.

Fortunately her age and experience counted for something against whatever unnatural talents he may possess.

After dealing with her own dragon during the first task, she'd left a remote scrying sensor behind once she exited the arena, and she'd watched Harry Potter attentively during his encounter with the horntail, and noted which way he tended to dodge when peril threatened. She'd aimed her stunning spell just now accordingly. A good thing too, otherwise that might have developed into quite a messy scrap, for all his apparent youth.

And then Fleur heard a rustle and somebody swearing violently, and turned and hexed someone who turned out, as they toppled, in the grip of her full body-bind curse, from under the cover of an invisibility cloak, to be the insane Hogwarts defence teacher, Alastor Moody.

Apparently he'd been trailing Potter, either to help him or to eliminate him from the contest at an opportune moment – Fleur didn't care too much which at the moment, as the crazy one-eyed Hogwarts professor wasn't a named champion in this contest and shouldn't have even been in the maze as far as she knew. She stunned him for good measure, pocketed both his and Potter's wands, and then proceeded on forwards, having sent up further sparks, to get Potter and Moody removed in her wake. She'd left the unconscious Viktor alongside his wand, but at this point with at least one finally proven source of outside interference, having wands in reserve was starting to look sensible, and she felt less than inclined to leave either Potter or Moody behind her, however seemingly removed from proceedings, with their wands.

Almost at once, she had a sense of the almost malign force opposing her progress through the maze having been dissipated or temporarily subdued, and with no sign of Cedric Diggory in sight she soon reached the centre, and the Triwizard Cup.

She stepped confidently forward (eviscerating, as she did so, an oversized spider which was an attempt at a last-minute surprise), and lifted the cup…

Three-quarters of an hour later, a bemused Fleur Delacour was back at Hogwarts and being treated by her headmistress for the handful of minor injuries that she'd acquired in the maze and subsequently in the graveyard, despite the fact that they were little more than a few scrapes. She'd have paused in Beauxbatons, if she'd considered them serious injuries.

The cup had been a portkey, which had taken her to a sinister setting she'd initially assumed had been some further part of the tournament, where a seedy little rat of a man had tried to ambush her. She'd dealt with him easily with a stupefy, but the monstrous wizened little creature with a wand which had been with him had been another matter altogether. It had taken her by surprise and disarmed her, then revived the pathetic excuse of a wizard she'd just incapacitated who turned out to have the improbable name (or nickname?) of 'Wormtail' and to apparently be its servant. This thing and Wormtail had seemed to have been expecting the portkey to deliver Harry Potter to them (a notion Fleur found laughable, unless perhaps the crazy Hogwarts defence professor had perhaps been in their employ with instructions to make sure Potter got to the cup?) and the thing wasted no time with questions but instead proceeded to force its way into Fleur's mind with brutal legilimency to try and discover why she was there instead.

And then the thing had scowled, leaving Fleur gagging from the mental intrusion, and withdrawn contact and informed Wormtail that they would 'have to go with the fallback plan, using the samples Barty collected from his captive against this contingency'.

And then Wormtail had asked 'and what about her?', meaning Fleur, and the monstrous little thing had said 'she's a treat you can have later', at which point Fleur had drawn one of the wands she'd taken in the maze and turned it against the monstrous thing, which had pointed its own at her with unbelievable speed, being apparently quite an accomplished duellist.

For some reason, the wands had generated what Fleur had recognised as a twin core effect, which she had (her opponent not knowing it for what it was) turned to her advantage to temporarily incapacitate it, then she had swiftly dealt with Wormtail (again) before retrieving her own wand, the cup, and apparating back to a folly in the grounds of Beuxbatons, from where she had been able, via her own school, to return to Hogwarts in reasonable time to reassure her headmistress that she was still alive, in one piece, and to demand answers for what in Merlin's name had just happened?

Unfortunately, she got the immediate impression that what had been going on at Hogwarts during her sojourn elsewhere had confused things considerably further, rather than simplifying the situation.

Apparently the crazy Hogwarts defence teacher (seldom seen in public without his swigging from a hip-flask at least once an hour) had turned out not to be an alcoholic, but a polyjuice addict (or something like that) and during Fleur's absence he had reverted to his 'normal' form. That had caused a sensation because he was supposed to be dead – or something like that.

And there were politicians involved now, with some sort of huge cover-up operation getting underway – and explaining things to foreigners, even if one of those foreigners had just won the Triwizard Tournament, wasn't currently a high priority.

The British Minister for Magic, Mr. Fudge, presented Fleur with a bag of gold, and then went off arguing loudly about something with the Hogwarts headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.

"During your absence, Miss Delacour, we interrogated Mr. Crouch, whom you had left behind stunned in his disguise as our defence teacher, with veritaserum." Severus Snape loomed suddenly adjacent to the Beauxbatons delegation. "We have a reasonably good idea of what was intended to happen, but it would be helpful if you could fill me in on your own side of what you actually experienced, between departing as the cup portkey triggered and your return to Hogwarts."

Fleur felt disinclined to explain anything to one of these crazy British witches or wizards right now, unless she was legally required to do so, but Severus Snape had impressed her as being about the only competent, sane, member of the Hogwarts staff (from what she'd seen of them) – and he was, moreover, very handsome, in his own dangerous way, and he had a smooth and powerful voice.

"We trade, perhaps, oui?" Fleur offered. "You tell my headmistress and I some of what is going on, here, and I will tell you what I think happened to me since I reached the cup?"

His eyes met hers – a dark glitter in his – and it took her a few moments to realise that he was subtly (and wandlessly!) attempting to employ legilimency upon her.

She responded by rapidly creating a few false 'memories' of how she imagined his naked body to be, entwined with hers, and after a few moments, he broke contact.

"That would be acceptable, Miss Delacour." he said, without missing a beat. He hadn't even broken into a slight sweat at what she'd just been presenting to him. He was controlled and dangerous – he was unbelievably sexy. "Although," he grimaced slightly, "it would be best if you and your headmistress do not spread what is discussed. There are powerful political interests at the moment, here in Britain, who would rather certain things do not become public and risk 'frightening' people."

Author Notes: (expanded, 20th August, 2013)

Barty Crouch junior was active in this universe right from the start of the tournament in his efforts to sabotage other contestants and get Harry as big a lead as possible going into the last task. (It strikes me as certainly possible, even though it's never indicated to have happened that way, that he might have meddled in such a fashion in canon, too.)

I assume that canon Voldemort must have had some sort of plan to restore himself to full working order had Harry Potter not made it through to the end of the third task, and Barty Crouch junior having forcibly taken blood from Alastor Moody, and sent that blood on ahead, made as much sense to me as any other fall-back plan.

I took a slight liberty in Fleur recognising the twin core effect for what it is, but she has several years training over canon Harry, and attended a school where presumably the equivalent of Defence doesn't have a different teacher every year. (Although of course neither canon nor this universe's Voldemort apparently recognises the twin core effect, despite having attended Hogwarts at a potentially more stable time in the staff turnover.) Yes, Fleur had a fifty/fifty chance of pulling the wand she'd taken from Harry out on Voldemort, and might well have got into trouble without the twin core effect, but it's canonical that at times people in the way of Voldemort get lucky breaks.

I have assumed that there was some method in place to allow for rapid travel between Beauxbatons and Hogwarts, on the basis that at least the headmistress of Beauxbatons would need to stay in regular contact with her school, and for instant communications to be possible should a crisis pertaining to either the school or its pupils arise in either Scotland or France.

Possible long-term implications of what has just happened are that Voldemort is about to restore himself using Alastor Moody's blood (which might mean his 'connection' to Harry in subsequent years is weaker than in canon) and that he will have trouble touching Harry. The moment in the graveyard with the twin cores is something Voldemort may well dismiss as some 'foreign trick' previously unknown to him, and although Harry is very much in his thoughts still, he's not as obsessed with him (or with trying to get hold of the prophecy, at least initially) as he is in canon during the 1995-1996 school year. After all, Harry just got taken down by a French witch considerably Voldemort's junior in terms of age and experience - clearly, from Lord Voldemort's point of view, there is little extraordinary about Harry other than his mother's protection, and Lord Voldemort can find ways to work around that. (Voldemort would naturally reassure himself that Fleur only managed to get the better of him, because she had some trick he hadn't seen before, and he wasn't himself at full power.)

This story is a one-shot.