Author's Notes: This is what I believe influenced Fleur to be egotistical and rude. She isn't the little ***** that everyone believes her to be, at least that's what I think. Read on, and I hope you get my drift throughout the story. More of a character study.
Disclaimer: If I owned Fleur or Harry Potter in general, maybe I'd have a life. But I don't, so you can correctly assume that I don't have claims over them.
See Past Me
"Oh, God! Here she is again!"
"That slut. What right does she have to come here, criticize everything around her and flaunt that she's part Veela?"
"I completely agree. Just because she's pretty and all doesn't mean that she's better."
"Yeah, and the Triwizard Tournament proved that."
"I laughed so hard when I heard about it. Third place! She came in last!"
"She deserves it, coming around, stealing our boyfriends…"
And on it goes. They think I don't hear them, but they wouldn't care if I did anyway. They wouldn't care if they knew what their blather led me to.
To get the facts straight, I have never attempted to take someone else's lover. I wouldn't ever stoop that low. The boyfriends are the ones who gawk at me, and it is no fault of mine. And yet it is.
People say that I tried to steal Cedric from Cho Chang, the girl from Hogwarts. I was only looking for a friend. Then there's the girl with the bushy hair, who glared at me every time I tried to talk to Harry Potter, or smiled at his red-haired friend when he complimented me. If I counted how many girls who have looked at me like that, I would have to take a few years off from my life just to do so. It isn't my fault.
I was born a quarter Veela, and that is what is the cause of all this. I wouldn't be who I am today if I wasn't one. Men drooled at me and talked bull about me, and the girls immediately labeled me as either competition or a whore. Who said I was out to ruin their love lives? Who said I liked men who'd as soon talk bull about me if I so much as said Bonjour?
"Darren! Will you stop staring? She's not that good looking."
"I beg to differ."
"She's a hanus bitch and a complete snob. Just because Fleur looks beautiful doesn't mean she's nice. Haven't you ever heard the saying 'beauty is only skin deep'?"
"Whatever."
"Stop it! You don't even listen to me when she's around!"
There's a hypocrite if I ever saw one. When has she ever tried to get to know me? She speaks against judgement at first sight when she does the exact same thing to me. I wouldn't want to know people like that anyway.
I'm aware that I do call almost everything unsatisfactory. And it is. Nothing is ever good enough. If I'm not good enough for them, then they're not good enough for me. And that goes for everything they use, think, and accomplish…
Perhaps I am a snob. It's hard to judge yourself, though. I went into life as a child with idealistic values. "If you love them, they'll love you. Do unto others as you would have then do unto you." These morals seem to work for most people, but my first experience alone with other people taught me otherwise.
"I worry about Fleur."
"Why is that, Marie?"
"She doesn't like a single soul outside the family. And people don't like her at all."
"Marie, you can't pretend that people don't like Veela."
"Nobody has talked about me like that! Or Gabrielle. It's only Fleur, Michael."
"That's because neither of you have taken it so personally. You held your head up high, and did your best to be as good a person you could be. Fleur took it to heart."
"You don't worry about her? No one can survive through life without friends."
"I know what you're saying, Marie. But she's 20 now, and she needs to sort it out on her own. Neither of us can really help her."
"Do you think it was how we raised her, Michael?"
"I think it's how the rest of the world raised her."
My first day at a baby sitter's house was horrid. Mon Pere was away at work, as he is the Minister of Magic, and Ma Mere had to visit my ill cousin. I was only five, and Gabrielle was not born yet.
The babysitter had her own children, and I was expected to play with them. She had been extremely nice to me; offering me sweets and letting me go for a ride on the horses. Their son, a year older than me, was less than pleased.
He had slapped me. He shouted at me over my crying, accusing me of stealing his parents. "They only like you because you're rich and pretty! It's not fair! I'm not allowed to ride the horses! If I'm not allowed, then you can't either!" I suppose his parents were buttering me up for my family's wealth, but he had no right to do so. Especially since he never hit any of the other children who got special treatment from them. Only me.
He had rejected me in what, at the time had seemed to me, the worst way possible. If he didn't like me, then I wouldn't like him. It was then that I began to shut myself away from the world.
I have followed this mantra my whole life. I eventually ended up hating everyone after so many times of being seen only as a spoiled Veela. And everything.
"No one's making you stay!"
I wanted to prove that I could be more than just another air-headed pretty face. I worked so hard at everything I did, I came out top in my year, winning trophies here and there, and even entering the Tournament. This only seemed to make people hate me even more. I wanted to win at everything, and rub it in their jealous faces. They deserved it. But I do even more.
I never bothered to be friendly with those people who only saw my exterior. Cedric looked passed that. And I didn't realize it until later, but Harry did too. They saw me as a real competitor, as a real witch capable of more than modeling.
I only wanted their friendship. I need someone who can see me. I talked to them and was nicer to them because they did so. A total of five people in my life have done so, Cedric and Harry included. The other three were my family. But Cedric's dead now, and I will probably never see Harry again.
Maybe I should stop waiting for people to come to me first. Maybe I should try to make friends first. Maybe I need to talk to some one. Will you listen to me?
Will you see past me?
I probably emphasized the fact that people overlooked her way too much in the story. I probably made a thousand mistakes for her character. Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated. R & R!