A/N: Bill and Fleur get trapped together. pre-Bill/Fleur. I do not own Harry Potter.
Submission for:
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments): Arithmancy Assignment #5 - Write about somebody's day (or more) at work
'Would You Rather…' Challenge!: Be Stuck With Your Worst Enemy In A Gringotts Vault For 5 Hours
Broaden Your Horizons Challenge (Platonic Pairings): Enemies become Friends - Write about people who used to dislike each other, reaching an understanding
Bill groaned inwardly as he walked a few steps ahead of the blonde girl as they descended the stairs to the lower levels of the bank. Out of everyone Mr Bertram could have asked to train her, why did it have to be him?
Bill normally didn't have a problem with anyone but this girl was different. When he had first met her at the beginning of the summer, Bill had been the perfect gentleman, introducing himself and pulling out her chair in the lunchroom, but as soon as she snubbed him and took another seat on the far side of the room (thus embarrassing him in front of his coworkers), their relationship had gone downhill. She often tried to push his buttons and their conversations never went longer than a few seconds without the inclusion of snide remarks and hurtful comments. How were they going to get through this afternoon together?
"Don't count on me to hold your hand if you get scared down there in the dark, Princess," he said, his voice echoing a bit as tile walls turned into stone.
He heard a small indignant sound before she said, "I can take care of myself, thank you."
Bill simply shrugged. "Just be careful of the dragon," he said.
She let out a little laugh. "Is zat supposed to scare me? I've faced a dragon before," she said.
Bill frowned, having forgotten about her stint as a Hogwarts Champion. I mean how could he? Everyone else around the office liked mentioning it whenever they could.
Eventually, the passage opened out into a large cavern. The sound of flowing water could be heard in the distance, falling to depths even Bill didn't know. They climbed into the nearest cart and Bill gave instructions to the goblin to the correct vault before they took off. For what it was worth, the girl kept her face expressionless, seemingly unfazed by the height and the speed of their ride but he still noticed the whiteness of her knuckles as she gripped the sides of the cart.
The cart came to a screeching halt, and she fell forward into his back, letting out a startled squeak as she righted herself and quickly climbed out, Bill stepping out behind her but saying nothing. They walked in silence towards their destination. Luckily, the vault they were checking out today was not guarded by a dragon. Though Bill knew how to take care of them, they were a lot to deal with.
Soon they stood outside Vault #318. Bill waved his wand to open door to allow them to go inside.
"All right, our instructions for this vault is to scan the items for dark magic. There was a report that one item was infecting the others, so we have to scan them all to remove the magic and find the origin. We also have to cast a spell every thirty minutes so our magical signatures don't trip the wards," Bill said. "Do you know the spells?"
The blonde said nothing but merely tossed her hair over her shoulder and moved towards one corner of the room. Bill glared at her back but moved to his own corner. She seemed like she could handle this.
They both got to work, removing the spells from the cursed gold pieces. It was tiring wand work but they seemed to be making good time.
"Could you cast the door spell, Princess?" Bill asked, as he wiped his brow, waving his wand carefully over an ornate gold cup. He could feel the magic thrumming within the metal, slightly hot beneath his fingertips. The next door spell was due in a few minutes, but he couldn't stop his work on this cup now.
She made a small noise and he continued on what he was doing. Soon they were finished and they both made their way to the door. He waved his wand and said the spell but nothing happened. He pushed against the door, but it wouldn't budge.
He turned to the girl. "Did you cast the spell like I asked you earlier?" he asked.
"I was a bit busy at ze moment," she said. "I thought you would. You did after."
Bill groaned. "If the wards were tripped, then any spells I cast after are useless."
"What will we do now? Don't you know another to open it?" she asked, pushing against the door herself.
"No. All we can do now is wait," he said, taking a seat on the ground and leaning back against the wall.
"What!" she cried. Her desperate pushing against the door increased as she began to mumble under her breath in French. Then she turned to face him. "Do something! Send a patronus or zomething!"
Bill shook his head. "This vault was warded against that, to prevent robbers from signalling for help and therefore dying in here for their crimes." He actually saw her face whiten as her eyes darted between his face and the door again. He turned his head away from her. "But I'm sure someone will notice we haven't returned," he added.
"Zat could take hours!" she said.
Bill shrugged. It could take hours but he knew someone would get worried, if not Mr Bertram, then David, Melissa or even his family. He'd get out soon, but for now, he was stuck in here with little Miss Perfect.
When she realized Bill had nothing more to say, she stalked off to the other side of the room and took a seat on an antique chair. They sat in silence for awhile before Bill began to feel a bit antsy. He had grown up in a loud household and even after he had moved out, his days still weren't this quiet. He needed something to keep him occupied before he went mad, so he asked, "So Princess, what do you do for fun? Paint your toes and go shopping?"
She frowned and said, "If you must know, I like to go hiking with my sister in the woods behind our house."
Bill made a sound of disbelief. "I never would have pegged you for someone who got her hands dirty," he said.
"Zere's a lot of things you don't know about me," she said, giving him a slight smirk.
Bill leaned forward with a smirk of his own. "Then tell me more," he said.
She looked away a moment, her cheeks tinged pink by the light of the torches they had lit inside the vault before she said, "We like to go horse-back riding as well."
"Never ridden a horse before," Bill said. "Most I've done is flown on a broom."
"It's a lot of fun. The wind in your hair as you go through the trees," she said, her eyes taking on a wistful look as she got lost in her memories. Along with the slight glow of her hair, Bill found he quite liked how she looked, especially when she's not sticking her nose up at him or hurling insults.
He shook his head of such thoughts. "It can't beat flying on a broom. It's faster and higher, and..."
"More chances to get hurt," she said shortly, but he detected a teasing tone in her voice.
"Ever ridden a broom before, Princess?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.
"Of course I have!" she said. "I just prefer staying closer to ze ground."
Bill chuckled. "Then you should come over my house one day and we can fly together," he said before he could stop himself. Had he just asked the girl who had been teasing him for the last few months home already?
She gave him a strange look as well before she said, "That could be nice."
Time passed by as they continued talking about themselves and their families. He found out that she was brave, smart and not as snobbish as he first thought. He shared more stories about his brothers' crazy hijinks, a few of which he admitted he orchestrated when he was younger. She told him more about her sister, who she loved to death and hated leaving behind in France while she worked here. Sometime during the conversation, she had rose from her gilded seat to sit beside him on the floor, and up close, she was even more breath-taking than before. Her eyes sparkled as she spoke and the smell of lavender lingered around her even in this damp vault.
They were just laughing at something that happened during her last visit to her grandmother's when the vault door opened between them. A bright blue-eyed man stuck his head in and said, "I saw your things on your desk and Bertram told me you had been sent down here. You guys alright?"
Bill nodded, almost reluctant to leave the sanctity of the vault. Their relationship was different and now, he and Fleur were friends. He gave the blonde a sly smile above David's head as they followed him back to the cart, and she responded with a wink. Maybe someday, something even more.