I'm Going Home Today
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Author's Note: Hey guys, this thing was written for the Hide them in the Family! Challenge presented by Blackwolf-20 on HPCF. It was a really interesting premise and I don't know if I've done it justice, all I can say is it certainly was a challenge for me to write this particular piece. This is my first time writing anything significant with Fleur and Viktor involved so I hope they're not to OOC. Without further ado...the story
The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck
Fleur stared at the woman in the mirror. Her altered reflection was, even after all this time, disconcerting to behold. It caught her off guard and Fleur sometimes felt that she was spying on a stranger whenever she happened to look into a reflective surface and found herself gaping at the person shown there.
This woman Fleur had never met except through letters and pictures and stories told by her sisters was beautiful in her own way. Long curling black hair still wet from the shower framed a pretty face given character by her regrettably hawkish nose, a curse of genetics shared by all of the Krums, and large limpid brown eyes.
The woman in the mirror looked as exhausted and heartsick as Fleur felt and letting her eyes fall to her navel Fleur watched as the woman in the mirror smoothed a hand over her mostly flat stomach.
When Fleur had found out that she was pregnant so soon after her wedding she and Bill had both been so indescribably happy but also terrified of what could happen to the baby with the war going on. Bill had insisted that she go and stay with Charlie, but, realistically, living with a Weasley even as far away from the bulk of the fighting as Romania was dangerous. The family had put themselves firmly in the crosshairs of ever death eater wannabe, pureblood fanatic and dark supporter in Europe. As a compromise Fleur had written to Viktor Krum.
Viktor was staying in his small house in Sofia because the International Quidditch League was cancelled with the war making everything so uncertain and unsafe. He had agreed to let her stay with him for as long as she wanted and it was he who had suggested that in order to ensure her safety that she come in disguise.
The disguise had been easy enough to manufacture, Fleur simply posed as one of Viktor's six sisters, the youngest one Nadia, to be exact. Since Nadia had left to study the bones of ancient muggles in Turkey and hadn't really been heard from in a year it was a simple matter to fabricate a story about how she'd gotten into trouble and had run home to her big brother's protective embrace.
Fleur had quickly been taken into the bosom of the Krum family, which, much like the Weasleys, was loud and boisterous and much, much larger than Fleur's own family. For the past three months she had concentrated on nothing more strenuous than learning how to make a proper Bulgarian meal and picking out names for her unborn child and it had been wonderful not to have to think of death and fighting.
She missed Bill terribly. Charlie, who made the trip in between England and Romania several times a week passing along information to the international members of the Order of the Phoenix and smuggling supplies and information into the country and refugees out. She and Bill passed letters along through him but it wasn't the same as being with him. More than once she'd thought of simply leaving and returning home to her husband's loving embrace, but thoughts of the baby and its safety and future had managed to hold her back from actually doing it.
Now there was no baby.
Tears welled in her reflection's eyes and Fleur grit her teeth and swallowed, blinking them away stubbornly. It had been a week since the miscarriage and there had been enough tears and misery, she was so sick of it, crying wasn't going to bring her baby back and it didn't make her feel any better.
She hadn't left her room in the time since it had happened. She'd slept for days and found no rest, and though her body was completely healed her heart still ached with her loss. The Krum family, especially Mama Krum, had been in and out trying to lift her spirits with comfort food and words of sympathy she didn't want. She appreciated their efforts but more than anything else Fleur wanted desperately to go home. She needed to see her husband to tell him what had happened in person, to grieve for their loss together and to protect him.
She had lost her baby but she wasn't about to lose Bill especially not while she lay weeping in a room on the otherside of the continent.
Her trunks were already packed and shrunken down. All that remained for her to do now was walk out of the door of the Krum house and leave the safe cocoon she'd been wrapped in for harsh reality and war.
There was a soft knock at the door.
"Fleur?"
"Just a minute," she called before turning back to the mirror.
The close fitting trousers and tailored shirt and jacket that lay on the bedspread behind her would never fit over Nadia Krum's voluptuous frame, and the young woman's over-long, coltish legs would make walking in the stylish high heeled boots a challenge.
With a wave of her wand the woman in the mirror shrank her solid frame becoming shorter and more slender her feet becoming dainty and her arms and legs taking on the solid muscle of an athlete. Her eyes lightened to a piercing blue and her lips lost their perpetual pout as her nose shortened and straightened turning up a bit at the tip, the heavy masses of dark luscious curls became sleek and straight and the silver blonde that was a mark of her grandmother's people.
Fleur looked at the woman in the mirror and for the first time in three months she saw herself. A hint of a sad smile played in the corners of her mouth and she quickly dressed and opened the door of the bedroom that had been hers for the duration of her stay in Sofia.
"Fleur," Victor said, taking a step back in surprised, "You look like –"
"Like myself," Fleur said firmly in English not bothering to try and moderate her thick French accent, "I am going home."
"Is that safe? Your Bill vanted you to remain here until the end of the var."
"I do not care about being safe, zee only reason I agreed to zis was because of zee child. Now zee child eez gone and zere eez no reason for me to stay 'ere. I am going to join my 'usband!"
Viktor cursed under his breath in Bulgarian.
"I do not like this," he said, "I do not like this at all, Fleur. You are a dear friend to me and I do not vant to see you in danger."
"I will not be swayed, I am leaving right now and you cannot stop me!"
"No," Viktor agreed, "I probably cannot stop you if you are determined to valtz into peril. But I am coming vith you. No arguments."
The surprise must have shown on her face because Viktor shot her a teasing smile.
"Vat? You did not expect me to let my sister vander into a var without me?"
"But I am not you sister," Fleur pointed out.
"Close enough that it makes very little difference," said a softly teasing voice.
Fleur and Viktor jumped and turned, wands at the ready, to face the intruder only to see Charlie Weasley leaning against the wall a little ways down the hall.
"'Ow did you get een 'ere?" Fleur demanded as she lowered her wand with an annoyed huff and tossed her hair over her shoulder reflexively.
"I have a key, sister-mine," the redhead grinned.
"And 'ow exactly did you manage to get your 'ands on zat?"
Viktor's typically stoic face flushed slightly as Fleur shot him a knowing look.
"I'd tell you but I think poor Vik would die of embarrassment and I kinda want to keep him around awhile. How are you feeling?" Charlie asked more seriously gesturing to Fleur's middle, "I came as soon as I got Mama Krum's letter."
Fleur's hands dropped to her stomach instinctively smoothing over the bulge that was no longer present.
"'Orrible but zis ees not a hurt zat can be mended so easily, and I want to go home, now," she said determinedly her heels making a sharp clack as she stamped her foot on the floor.
"Alright, alright," Charlie agreed raising his hands in the universal gesture of surrender, "Don't get your knickers in a twist, we'll all go together. Merlin, it's a good thing I got here when I did if you two were about to try and smuggle yourselves into England without help."
"Eet cannot be zat difficult if you can manage eet, brozzer-mine."
"Ouch, that hurts, really, right here," Charlie responded sarcastically wrapping one heavily-muscled arm around her shoulders and giving her a gentle squeeze.
"You can take eet," Fleur sniffed leaning into his embrace.
"Let's get you home, yeah? Bill know's about the miscarriage by now and he'll be dying to make sure you're alright."
Fleur nodded her agreement taking comfort in the presence of these two men who had managed to worm their way into her heart so thoroughly. Before she'd met Bill and become a part of the Weasleys she'd only every had her parents and Gabrielle to rely on. She would never have believed it if someone had told her that one day her extended family would be able to fill the grand ballroom of Beauxbatons on its own and that she would not wish for it any other way. Fleur had always been independent not needing large numbers of friends and not enjoying the throngs of attention her looks brought her. She had at one time believed that such a large family was going to be the price of finding her true love, that she would feel suffocated as an outsider in their midst. It had turned out to be quite the opposite, though they had their differences Fleur had managed to become a part of the Weasley family. The Krums too had brought her into the fold as just another one of their many daughters, treating her the same as they would one of their own. She found had a whole network now of people who were supporting her and were there for her no matter what happened and she found that rather than being suffocated by it she was in fact buoyed by their love.
"Fleur, vat is it? Vhy are you crying?" asked Viktor with his usual gruff concern as he gave her shoulder a supportive squeeze.
"Fleur?" Charlie asked anxiously.
The frenchwoman smiled up at them through teary eyes.
"Pardon, I do not mean to cry eet eez just zat I am just realizing all over again 'ow lucky I am to 'ave such a wonderful family."
AN: And there you have it folks, meant to be a serious piece about family relationships and support...don't know how well it qualifies. This just proves that challenges are challenging!
Thanks so much for reading! Please review and let me know what you think.