Fleur interviewed for eight jobs before she started at Gringotts. She was offered each and every one, and rejected them all. The interviewers seemed to forget what her resume said as she walked into the room, they leered and letched and asked when she wanted to leave; "go on a date with me," or "marry me," or once "just fuck me." She'd barely contained herself from punching that last person square in the jaw.
So when she sat in the interview room at Gringotts with two small goblins before her, barely even looking at her as they studied her resume and when they did, giving her the same look at vague disgust they gave every other human they saw, she felt fully confident in accepting the position.
All the same, it was horrifically boring, counting all day long. She served customers occasionally, their looks lingering on her skin for hours after they'd gone, but the goblins were fine and her English improved rapidly.
Within a week of starting, she stood at the very end of the entrance hall, slowly counting the gold galleons being deposited into one of the smaller vaults. The sound of the colossal doors opening and heavy boots striding in made her look up, her eyes latching onto a woman with bubble-gum pink hair. She looked nervous, like she'd really rather not be here, her pretty, dark eyes that hinted at some East Asian ancestry flicking between each of the goblins flanking the doors. When her gaze caught Fleur's she smiled and almost bounded towards her. Dread pooled in Fleur's stomach; she braced herself against the likely onslaught.
Women leered at her much less often than men. The ones that didn't tended to hate her on sight; both were awful in surprisingly similar ways. This woman, however, wasn't leering at her, and the smile on her face stayed genuine. Fleur jotted down the current Galleon count in her notebook and pushed her scales away.
"Wotcher," the woman said, looking very relieved that she didn't have to speak to a goblin. "I've come to take money out of my parents' vault." She smiled up at Fleur, and said no more.
Fleur couldn't quite help the smile that pulled at her lips. "And what is zer names?"
The woman flushed prettily, and said, "Andromeda and Edward Tonks, sorry." This admission seemed to start a flood. "And I'm Tonks, they've been asking me to get it for weeks and I just keep forgetting, you know?" She rummaged around in her bag, continuing on, "They gave me a note to prove I'm who I say am, please don't tell me I left it at home… Ah! Here it is!" She pulled out a small piece of parchment that had been folded over and over and with large coffee stains covering it. Tonks grinned at her nervously.
"I 'ave to check with my colleague," Fleur said, almost managing to contain the laugh threatening to burst from her. Tonks wasn't a particularly pretty woman, but her eyes were kind and her smile quick, and between the pink hair and the slight crookedness of her teeth, Fleur found there was something very attractive about her.
Fleur decided not to think about Tonks. She was attractive yes, and she'd smiled a lot of her, but that meant nothing. Everybody thought Fleur was stunning but that didn't mean Tonks wanted anything past a professional relationship with her. To think so after such a brief meeting would be insane, and Fleur was anything but.
Two days later Fleur was minding her own business counting the rubies about to be deposited into a vault when she heard to the doors open and close, two sets of feet walking towards her. She barely even had time to look up when a gruff voice asked; "Has there been any strange activity in the vaults recently?"
The man asking had probably been attractive in his youth. He was older now, heavily scarred with a false, magical eye that made no pretence of ever being anything else. Beside him stood Tonks, a full head shorter and smiling at her sheepishly.
"And who are you?" Fleur asked, forcing herself to keep her eyes on the man rather than Tonks.
"Auror Moody," the man said. "This is Trainee Auror Tonks."
"I shall check with my supervisor," Fleur said, going off to find said goblin and unable to stop herself flashing a smile at Tonks with a blush. The other woman smiled back, and Fleur thought she would perhaps not be so insane after all.
"Do you want to go for a drink Fleur?" Trainee Auror Tonks asked a week later. She'd been in nearly every day with Auror Moody, working on some investigation in people tampering with the vaults. Moody was absolutely sure it had to do with Death Eaters; Tonks, like Fleur, wasn't so sure.
Tonks was different, Fleur had realised. Not just because of her hair or her eyes or the way she said, "wotcher," every time she saw her. She liked Fleur yes, but she wasn't making it obvious. For the first time in years, Fleur didn't feel suffocated by someone else's attraction. In fact, she liked it.
"Oui," Fleur said, unsure if Tonks was asking her out on a date or not. "Tonight?"
"If you like," said Tonks. "There's a bar I like just round the corner the Witching Rooms."
"Yes," she agreed. "Meet me there at six."
And that was that, and Tonks was off following Auror Moody back to the ministry. Fleur grinned as they left, unable to contain her excitement.
The Witching Rooms was a small bar and a band were softly playing in the background. Tonks arrived, not in her robes as Fleur had expected, but in tight black jeans and a t-shirt with the phrase, "Weird Sisters," embellished on it. She looked relaxed, and rather gorgeous.
"Wotcher," she said, smiling broadly as Fleur sat down on a stool beside her. "What do you want to drink?"
Fleur ordered her normal, and was surprised to find it tasted as good as it did at her local bar at home. Tonks talked, and danced, and made her laugh, and smiled, and blushed, and at the end of the night, Fleur kissed her. And kissed her. Ans kissed her some more.
Two weeks later, she met a man who worked for Gringotts named Bill Weasley. He was nice, but by then, she much preferred her girlfriend.