The Love Dilemma

The houses competition:

House: Slytherin

Year: Sixth

For round four:

Prompt list 1: (trope) Love Triangle

Prompt list 2: Gabrielle Delacour

Prompt list three: Chocolate (smell)

The Golden Snitch:

Ollivander's wand shop: Cedar (Wood)

Through the Universe challenge (TGS):

prompt is 199, Belt

Words: 1821 (For everything)

The Golden Snitch:

North Korea: between facts and fiction:

Prompt 4 from the way she came to the palace: Write about someone moving to a place that changed their life forever. (Note: the place cannot be Hogwarts; we all know how it changed lives!)

Shipka, Durmstrang

Thank you Kristina for doing what you can probably guess!


Gabrielle Delacour was regretting her decision to take the flat Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley had decided to lease out. She knew Ginny hated her at the best of times; with Gabrielle's fondness for Harry, and Ginny dating him now, having Gabrielle living above them was going to be very awkward.

Sadly, renting in this country in wizarding areas was very expensive, and Gabrielle did not have that much to spend on renting at the moment. Not until she was settled in and had gotten a job; she had a bit of money, but not enough to risk spending too much while she was unemployed.

Right now, Gabrielle was standing outside her home, (as soon as she got the keys); she looked up to the top floor, where she thought she would be living, at least for a while. Gabrielle adjusted her elegant belt around her middle, then she knocked.

Thud, thud, Gabrielle heard, she flinched and then wondered if she should flee the scene. Instead, she stood there, her muscles were tense, ready for running if the person who opened the door was angry. One thing was for sure, Gabrielle had never been very brave when it came to facing angry people.

The door opened, and Gabrielle saw Ginny Weasley: she looked more mature; that was the main difference since last time Gabrielle had seen her. She was looking very happy, which was a relief for Gabrielle. As the door opened, Gabrielle got a strong whiff of chocolate; It made her feel very hungry.

"Ah, Gabrielle: your stuff arrived an hour ago, so come in," Ginny said cheerfully.

"Hello, Ginny, it is nice to see you again," Gabrielle said nervously as she stepped into the house and shut the door behind her. Her French accent was still there but put it this way, she sounded much more English than even a couple of weeks ago.

"Just through here: Harry is looking after your keys which has your flat's key on it, and the front door's key, too," Ginny said, leading Gabrielle passed some largish stairs and down a corridor.

When they reached what looked like a dining room, the smell of chocolate got much stronger, it was already strong, but it just got stronger. As they entered, Gabrielle saw there was a lot of chocolate in here. Harry was sitting at the table eating chocolate; but as they entered, he jumped up. As he turned to face them, Gabrielle felt butterflies dance in her stomach.

"Gabrielle, you're here! Nice to see you," Harry said picking some keys off the table.

"Hello, Harry," Gabrielle responded, still sounding nervous.

"These are the keys. If you need anything or the flat is not to your satisfaction feel free to let us know," Harry said handing her the keys.

"Thank you. You both are being very kind: I feel very much at home already," Gabrielle responded with a nervous nod.

"Well that's good; we want to keep you, after all, it has been hard to find someone to take the flat," Ginny said with a small laugh.

"Really?" Gabrielle asked. After she said that, an awkward silence spread over them so she said, "I will go and sort my stuff out."

"Good idea. By the way, you don't mind the smell of chocolate, do you? The whole building smells of it, that's all and we can't get rid of it," Harry asked.

"No, I love it. It is very homely," Gabrielle responded honestly. "See you later: just up the top of the stairs?"

"Yes: there is just one door that goes into the flat right at the top," Ginny nodded. Gabrielle thanked them both, and then she rushed out, and up the stairs.

When Gabrielle reached the apartment, she put her handbag down and had a small smile: she had only just got here and she felt like it was her home, she had never felt like this before, so she was quite happy about it. But a little scared too: if Ginny decided Gabrielle had to go, she would feel broken-hearted about being forced to leave home.

Gabrielle shook her head and decided not to think of that. Then she pulled her wand out and summoned the little table from her grandfather and place that next to the door. Then she took off her belt and placed it on that, while her robes returned to looking like robes instead of clothes fit for the Muggle-world or the wizarding world.

Gabrielle had been spending some time around muggles, which was why she was wearing her robes designed to make her look normal in whatever crowd to practice her Veela abilities, and now she was in wizard company she could take off her belt and allow them to be robes, again.

Gabrielle then rolled up her sleeves and got cracking with unpacking.

{([-_-])}

As Gabrielle had suspected from her first second there, her new flat felt like home and stayed that way. She was not sure if it was the smell of chocolate, the house itself or the hospitality Ginny and Harry were giving her: it was a tough contest.

But she found the behaviour of Ginny and Harry odd, especially Ginny: they were treating her as someone who had always been there and was part of the family; Gabrielle thought at the very least Ginny would act a bit defensive around her.

Then Harry. She was he was not being so kind to her: it only made her fondness for him get stronger, and dare she say it, turn into love; which made the whole situation a love triangle of sorts, but she was just the only corner of it, trying to fit in without a hope.

She tried to live through it and hope it went away, but it stayed here, and if anything, it got worse. It was times like this Gabrielle would spend ages polishing her favourite, and the only belt, thinking about what she should do.

She loved it here, and she felt as though she had just come home here, but her feelings for Harry were problematic, and as part Veela, she could not always guarantee she could keep her hormones under control and not do something really stupid.

If Gabrielle wanted to now, she could go and buy her own house or rent somewhere else: she had a job and a reasonable amount of money, but this flat had changed her life, and honestly, she did not want to leave. But Gabrielle did not want to do something to put a black mark against her, which only left her with the option of leaving, really.

That evening, Gabrielle made up her mind. She could not cope with being part of an invisible love triangle that only existed in her eyes, and it was not an ideal lifestyle, no matter how at home she felt: so, she would give her weeks' notice of her leaving, then she would move out.

She thought she could find a new place fairly quickly, especially with the new apartments being built in Hogsmeade. She had enough money now to try somewhere a bit more expensive, and in the meantime, Fleur had offered to store her furniture if she ever needed it and the Leaky Cauldron supplied cheap accommodation.

Wizards, until recently had not been into apartments and built normal sized houses instead, but a Muggle-born who had a parent who did that stuff brought the idea in, and it stayed; now it was being accepted in leaps and bounds.

As Gabrielle walked downstairs, she swallowed nervously: she knew Harry and Ginny would understand, but she was worried they would think she was ungrateful for their hospitality, which was not true. She was worried about how they would react.

Knock, knock, Gabrielle, knocked on the door to their kitchen, and a few seconds later, the door was opened by Harry, and she had to use all her willpower to not let any unwanted emotions show themselves.

Gabrielle saw Ginny doing what looked like cooking in the background: she was doing something, and flicking her wand to various sorts of foods. As the door opened Gabrielle got a very strong whiff of chocolate, again; it was stronger than in the rest of the house, so it seemed very strong to her.

"Gabrielle! What can we do for you?" Harry asked cheerfully.

"I am giving you a week's notice of me leaving here. I thank you for letting me stay here and being so kind to me, but things have changed and I think it would be best for everyone if I left," Gabrielle said sadly.

"Why? You seemed so happy? What's changed?" Ginny asked surprised.

"Things," Gabrielle said, looking uncomfortable. She was glad she was wearing her belt: that always made her feel less uncomfortable.

"Is it to do with your Veela side?" Harry asked, guessing.

"Yes! But how do you know about that? It is not a normal thing for people to find out the nitty gritty details about it," Gabrielle asked looking shocked.

"Fleur told us; she also told us how fond you are of Harry," Ginny said, setting everything up for Gabrielle just to spit the truth out.

She had to give in. "Alright, I like Harry, and that feeling just got stronger, especially when I started living here. Things have turned from a nice friendship to a blasted one-sided love triangle! I have to go," Gabrielle said throwing her hands into the air.

"You don't have to go. We can work it together," Harry said as Gabrielle turned to leave.

"That is awfully sweet of you, but I could not do that, and what about Ginny?" Gabrielle said smiling as she turned around.

"I am alright with it, I have grown to like you with you living here, and people say living like this with a part Veela is different anyway," Ginny said smiling.

"Your both dead serious, aren't you?" Gabrielle said after staring at them for a few seconds.

"Sure are," the other two both nodded.

"Well, I stay then," Gabrielle said trying not to sound ecstatic and just happy.

"Group hug!" Harry said as Ginny came around, grabbing Gabrielle then Ginny and pulling them both into a hug. At the same time, Gabrielle got a strong whiff of chocolate from Ginny! She must wear chocolate scented perfume, but Gabrielle was not going to mention that.

But Gabrielle was happy; as the feeling of her arm against her belt crept into mind, she thought about how glad she was to be home, and how the future would be with this maybe love triangle relationship. If it actually worked with no one broken hearted it would be a miracle, but she would not think of that now.

No, she would just think of chocolate, and how glad she was she moved here, because of how much it had changed her life.