Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything that is related to it.

A/N: This is set at the beginning of the fifth book.

Charming

By: MadCreed

Thanks to: My sister for being my editor

Chapter 1: Not so bad

Fleur's eyes slowly fluttered open at the beeping of her alarm clock. She longed to hit the snooze button and roll back under the covers. However, today was the beginning of her job at the Gringotts in Diagon Alley; she couldn't be late.

Fleur threw the covers aside and slipped her feet into the slippers by her bed and strode to her closet. She discarded the vest she wore to sleep in and pulled on a white blouse buttoning it up deftly. Fleur slipped out of her blue silk trousers and pulled on a black skirt tucking in her shirt. She left out a sigh and could feel the beginnings of butterflies in the pit of her stomach.

'C'mon Fleur, you've faced a dragon! Can't you be calm about your first day of work?'

She thought inspecting herself in the mirror before pulling her sleek silver hair back in a low pony tail.

She padded through her flat and grabbed a muffin from her kitchen counter. Fleur took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. This was it really, the first day of life on her own…what amazing things could possibly happen? The Veela girl smiled as she put on a pot for tea. She missed her sister and her mother but so far nothing was a as good as the feeling of being out on her own.

"Today ees going to be ze best!" She declared confidently.

"Today ees ze worst!" Fleur complained quietly to herself rubbing the feather tip of her quill against her cheek.

Her first day working at the Bank and she was entirely swamped. Fleur was completely flustered for the first time in a very long time. She couldn't remember being this upset since the grindylows attacked her making her completely unable to save her sister during the second task.

All the forms she had to fill out! Complicated English word after complicated English word. She huffed in confused frustration and nearly tipped over her inkwell.

The people who noticed her trouble hid little smirks and sniggers at the fact that the "Beauty" wasn't capable of pulling her own weight.

' Don't pay attention to them. They're just jealous.'

She thought with a nod, chastising herself before forcing the familiar haughty look of certainty to her features when they talked behind her back.

Around lunchtime the people filed out, talking with each other. Fleur watched them go, feeling a bit lonely for her friends from school.

Fleur heard some laughter and looked up to see the last two people leaving. One was a rather pretty girl with bright pink hair and the other was a slightly familiar redhead pony-tailed man wearing a pair of dark jean trousers , a t-shirt, and dragon hide boots.

'Oh let them laugh and have fun. I'll do my work just fine.'

When the Bank reached closing time she was still far behind and had to stay later than everyone else.

Fleur piled the extra files into her arms and sighed at the large tower she had to deliver before leaving.

Unfortunately, she'd opted to wear heels like normal instead of something a little more sensible. As equally unfortunate was the fact that the floors of Gringotts were quite slick.

Fleur was graceful by nature, but if you combine slippery floors, heels, a stack of paper work the height of the Eiffel Tower, and a somewhat angry and flustered girl then, well, you end up with a problem.

Fleur slipped, letting out a shriek as she did so. The girl fell hard on her bum and papers rained down around her.

"Per-fect." She muttered beginning to swear under her breath in French. She looked down at her shoe seeing that the heel had broken off.

"Merde." Fleur huffed and then heard something that began soft and grew louder.

Laughter.

Fleur turned her head her hair whirling behind her making a much more graceful picture than she had moments before. A few feet away was the red headed man from before minus the pink haired witch.

"You theenk zat was funny?" She asked furiously as she began to grab papers from around her.

He didn't answer due to still chuckling at her misfortunes.

Fleur dropped the papers and stood up nearly falling again before taking off her second shoe.

"I don not know who you theenk you are Meester "I theenk I am soo cool 'cause I 'ave an earring!" but w'ere I come from Genteel men 'elp ladies up w'en zey FALL!" She snarled shaking her heel in his face.

"I'm sorry, it was just so cute I couldn't help it… and when you started cursing…" He managed through peals of laughter.

"Oh I am glad you are 'aving so much fun!" She seethed turning and going back to her fallen files.

"Oh c'mon! I'm sorry let me help you." He apologized with a hint of amusement still in his voice.

" I do not want your 'elp now." Fleur announced coldly, not meeting his eyes as he got down and started scooping up the papers with her.

"Too bad you're stuck with me." He said with a shrug.

The mess was quickly cleaned up with two people working and the man handed the papers to her. Fleur sighed straightening the pile.

"It took me all day to do zis an' now…" She frowned picking herself up off the floor.

"It took you all day to do that?" He asked in shock and then regretted it after receiving an icy glare from Fleur.

"Vhy do you ask?" She inquired slowly, arching an eyebrow at him.

"Well…" He began rubbing the back of his neck nervously. It's a few files….they took me about fifteen minutes before I became a curse-breaker."

'Perfect now I look even more stupid.' She thought to herself and sighed.

He seemed to register the look and waved his hands in a form of surrender. "Not that it's bad you took awhile just a different way I suppose. Do you speak English very well?"

Fleur paused a moment. "No…" She admitted with a sigh.

"Well there's your problem. Now what do you say I help you organize this now." He began taking the papers away from her. "And perhaps set up an English lesson sometime after work."

Fleur's eyes narrowed slightly as she inspected him. The laughing at her from before aside, he'd been nice when helping her and she did need help with her English.

Not to mention he was extremely good looking. It was too bad that Pink Haired witch was probably his girlfriend.

"Fine, but on one condition." Fleur said drawing herself up to her full height.

"Okay…what?"

"Tell me your name."

"Bill. Bill Weasley." He said extending his hand holding up the papers with his other arm.

Fleur took his hand and shook it with a small smile. "Fleur Delacour."

Bill grinned cheekily. "Well Miss Delacour, I look forward to our next meeting. However, now we must get to work or you won't be getting your beauty sleep tonight."

They finished organizing the files, but it took a considerably larger amount of time than the fifteen minutes that Bill had bragged.
He was funny, and often distracted her with a joke or an embellished story about his days in Egypt.

When they'd managed to get out the door he bid her farewell leaving her alone on the steps of Gringotts. She smiled after him holding her broken shoes.

'Maybe today wasn't so bad after all…'

Hey guys I hope you like the first chappie. I always liked Fleur and I want to portray her as somebody intelligent and has some issues of her own.