He had to get out. He couldn't stand it anymore. Since the war, his father had been sent to Azkaban, and his mother went crazy. Draco couldn't stand being in the dark, gloomy house by himself for much longer. The public of the Wizarding world practically hated him, so he didn't enjoy going outside unless it was necessary. It was necessary at this point.
Draco had decided to go to a local park, staying near the trees. Staying in the dark had worked for the eighteen year old wizard. That was until he caught sight of silver-blonde hair. He, for whatever reason, had been drawn to the soft features of the obviously younger girl.
"Have we met before?" Draco asked with a confident smirk as he walked up next to the female, "Because I feel like I've seen you, but I wouldn't ever forget such a pretty face."
He watched as the girl turned to face him with a goddess like smile, "Non, non," She answered, Draco immediately recognizing her being French, "I- I don't think so."
"Wait, wait," Draco said, realizing something, "Hogwarts, Triwizard Tournament."
He saw the girl's face drop for just a moment before the grin radiated her face again, "No, I'm sorry. That was my sœur, oh how you say?" She started muttering to herself, obviously getting frustrated whenever she couldn't come up with the word.
"Sister..?" Draco suggested.
"Oui, oui," She responded with a smile, "My sister," She stumbled a little on the word, but kept going nonetheless, "Fleur. Fleur Delacour, well, Weasley now."
Draco couldn't help, but feel bad for the girl whenever he confused her for her sister, something that probably happened often. He gave her a genuine smile as he spoke, "My apologizes. So, she's the veela that married the oldest Weasley then?"
The blonde nodded, "Oui."
"So you're..?" Draco asked her name, waiting for a response.
"Gabrielle," The soft reply came, "Gabrielle Delacour. La plus jeune sœur du infâme Fleur Delacour."*
Draco, as he couldn't understand most of her reply, assumed that she had gone back to her native language, "I'm sorry, but what does that mean?"
"The younger sister," Gabrielle responded struggling with her words again, "O-Of the," She put her head down, "I-I'm sorry," She said, her voice quieter than it had been before, "I don't speak English very well."
Draco took this opportunity to place his pale hand on her tan one, noticing how she felt cold to the touch, "You don't have to apologize, at least you're actually trying to learn."
Gabrielle's face visibly flushed, but she was hoping she could pass it off as the cold weather invading her face. She didn't respond, instead she just smiled shyly, tilting her head towards the ground.
Draco noticed how truly cold the female seemed to be, "You seem cold. How about we go and get a hot drink, and figure out what you were trying to say?" He suggested, actually taking her hand.
Gabrielle jumped a little at the surprise action, but quickly adjusted to it. She bit down on her lip as she nodded, "d'accord," She muttered, "Okay."
Draco smirked as he led her away from the park, "So exactly how old are you?" He asked, not wanting to have a thing for a much younger girl.
"Seventeen," The blonde replied after a moment of silence for translating.
Draco smiled as he nodded, keeping the conversation going as they walked.
*Any and all French is being translated by Google Translate, I apologize if it is wrong. The only French I speak is the little that Lafayette and Eliza sing in Hamilton.
They ended up in a Muggle coffee shop, sipping hot coffee close to a fireplace, sitting across from each other.
Draco had Gabrielle laughing hard enough that tears were starting to roll down her face.
He didn't mind, he loved hearing her laugh. It was music to his ears, a sound that he rarely heard, and a sound he had never heard coming from the most beautiful human in the world.
Whenever she could finally breathe again, Gabrielle just smiled, "So.. What's your family like?" She asked, titling her head with interest.
Draco tensed, and his eyes drifted to the floor, his grip loosening on her hand, "You don't want to hear about that, tell me more about you."
She shook her head, "Non, non. I do," She assured him, trying to get him to look at her, "Tell me, please?"
"I'm Draco Malfoy, as I told you, as in that Malfoy. My parent's were death eaters," He muttered this, leaving out everything about him, "Served Voldemort as if he was a God. After the war, my father was hauled to Azkaban, and my mother, well she- she went insane." He finished, focusing on the wall behind the French girl.
Gabrielle rubbed her thumb against Draco's, tightening her grip on his hand, "I-I'm sorry.. You're a much better person than that.." She whispered to him, "So, so much better."
Draco shook his head, kissing her hand lightly, "You don't have to pretend to care, I'm nothing special. In fact, most of our people hate me. A lot."
Her eyes widened, "Hate you?" She asked, astonished, "How could anybody hate you?"
He couldn't help but laugh at how surprised she actually seemed to be, "It's quite easy actually. In fact, I don't think there's a single Weasley who doesn't hate me."
Gabrielle put that on her mental check list on things to ask her sister, "Malheureux," She muttered, "Unfortunate," She told him, seeing he was puzzled at her words.
"It's astonishing really," Draco told her, lacing his fingers with hers, "How you can memorize not only one, but two languages."
Gabrielle was the one laughing that time, "I can teach you sometime, if you would want." She offered, biting her lip, waiting for the response.
Draco lit up at the offer, rubbing her hand with his thumb, "That would be great." Any reason to see those sky-blue eyes again was a valid enough reason for Draco.
She smiled, relief flooding as she didn't get rejected. As her mouth turned up into a smile, Draco couldn't help but notice how soft, pink, and kissable her lips looked.
Everything about the girl was perfect to Draco. Her waist length silver-blonde hair, her navy blue, the way her laugh sounded like music, her accent, and everything and anything else that Draco didn't already know about her.
Gabrielle fiddled with the bottom of her hair a lot whenever she got nervous. That was something Draco quickly noticed. Whenever she was struggling to find a word, her lip went between her teeth, and her eyes were always filled with obvious annoyance. No girl had ever done to him in a year what Gabrielle had done to him in a matter of hours.
The same thing happened to Gabrielle. Over the years she had had many suitable males who wanted to be her companion, mostly because of her looks, or her sister, but Draco had done something to her. He had made her fall for him, despite what every instinct she had told her. Something inside of her told her that this boy was trouble.
Draco almost dreaded having to leave the blonde an hour later.
"Until we meet again," Draco said as he kissed Gabrielle's hand once again as they stood outside the shop.
Gabrielle, being a considerable amount shorter than Draco, even in heels, had to reach up to kiss the pale boy's cheeks, "Au revoir pour le moment," She whispered.
Draco laced both of his hands with hers, standing in the cold the comfortable silence settling in between them.
"I really do need to go now.." Draco finally spoke.
Gabrielle pulled the boy into a hug, resting her chin on his shoulder, "jusqu'à la prochaine fois." She whispered in his ear. Just as quickly as she had appeared, she was gone.
Draco was in a wonderful floating state as he walked back to his house, ignoring the glares he got every time he passed somebody.
"Master," He was greeted whenever he walked through the door, "Welcome home."
"Oh hi," Draco muttered, his mind still spinning as he flopped onto the couch, a happy sigh leaving his mouth.
"Good day?" His mother asked, sitting at the couch across from him.
"Oh, um, it was alright," Draco lied, staring at the ceiling, his mind racing still.
"Hm," Was simply his mother's reply as she left the room, leaving Draco alone again.
He had never felt this way. He couldn't stop smiling, his thoughts always went back to the little French girl he had met.
"Is this what love feels like?" Draco muttered to himself.
Gabrielle opened the door to her sister's house in London, flinging her coat onto the coat rack that stood there.
"Hello," Her brother-in-law greeted.
"Bonjour," She responded, her voice still in a dreamy state.
"Good day?" Fleur asked, her accent thick.
"Oui," She responded, a smile returning onto her face.
"Not to ruin your day," Bill said, taking her arm, guiding her to their family room, "My family's here."
The room was littered with red hair, making her sister's blonde hair stand out.
"Bonjour," She greeted, the smile not fading from her face.
"Pourquoi es-tu si content?" Her sister asked, appearing by her side.
The Weasley's all looked at each other before looking at Bill, trying to get somebody to translate the French the girls were exchanging. Bill, like the rest of his family, had no idea what the sisters were saying. That was the single good thing about being the only foreigners in the group, if you wanted to talk about something, nobody would know what you were saying.
"J'ai rencontré un garçon," Gabrielle responded, "Je vais vous en parler plus tard."
Fleur giggled to herself, "Ok qui?" She questioned.
Gabrielle pulled her sister closer to whisper in her ear, "Malfoy," She muttered to her, "Draco Malfoy."
Gabrielle could hear her sister's intake of breathe, "Bonne chance," Fleur mumbled to her, shaking her head.
"Je pense que je l'aime," She muttered to herself, wrapping her arms around herself.
Fleur rolled her eyes, going back over to her husband.
Gabrielle huffed, watching the rest of the family continuing to socialize.
"They threw Lucius in Azkaban," One of the ginger's said, attempting to make conversation.
"It's about time," Ron spoke in response, "Now if they do something about Draco, then the world might be at peace."
Gabrielle perked up at the saying of Draco's name, "Who-" She asked, taking a seat on one of the armrest of a chair, "Who is this Draco? I've heard about him before." She lied just to hear what they might say, earning a glare from her sister.
"Malfoy," Ron started, turning to the blonde, "Is a terrible man."
"He's nothing but an ignorant, bullheaded, stubborn, cold man. He's one of the meanest people you will ever meet," Ginny spoke.
"Just like his father," Molly said.
Gabrielle just nodded along, chewing the inside of her lip. After everybody had seemed to be done talking, she talked again, "Excuse me," She muttered, walking out of the room.
She ended up back in the kitchen, sitting at the table, putting her chin in her hands.
"Qu'est-ce que c'était?" Her sister hissed at her.
"Casse toi," Gabrielle shot back, her eyes not leaving the patterns on the wall.
Fleur inhaled sharply, "Dîtes-moi" She demanded.
"Non," Gabrielle argued, "Maintenant allez-vous-en."
"Parle moi," Fleur declared, "Je t'aime, s'il vous plaît dites-moi."
Gabrielle sighed as she got up, and went to the door, "Adieu, Fleur." She muttered, shutting the door behind her.
The only problem with her plan was that Gabrielle had nowhere else to go. She was staying with Bill and Fleur for the rest of the month.
She sat in the cold, wet grass, pulling her knees to her chest. She tried, but failed, to stop the tears from rolling down her face. Her face stung slightly, but she couldn't help it. After about a half an hour, she heard the door open.
"Si vous êtes ici pour parler, je ne veux pas," Gabrielle growled, "Laisser."
"I have no idea what you're saying," Her brother-in-law told her as he sat beside her.
"Look, I'm sorry, but please leave," She muttered, turning away from Bill, "I don't want to talk."
"Then don't talk," He said, putting an arm around her, "But at least come back inside, it's cold out here."
Gabrielle shook her head, pulling her knees closer, "Je ne préfère pas." She muttered.
"Bien," The Weasley muttered, it being one of the few French words he knew, "But please talk to me, or someone."
"Non," She refused, "pas tout de suite."
Bill sighed in frustration, "At least speak English."
"Apprendre le français," Gabrielle shot back, "C'est la langue maternelle de votre épouse."
"She told me," He finally muttered, pulling the blonde closer, "Y'know. Told me everything. She loves you, and she's really upset about this."
"And that concerns you how?" Was the sharp response he got.
"Because I love your sister, and I don't like seeing her upset," He told her, "And over the past couple of months, I have grown to love you also, and I don't want you to be upset."
That earned a small smile from Gabrielle, tears starting to roll down her face again.
"So.." Bill said, "Malfoy, huh?"
Gabrielle groaned, turning her face away again, "Cette salope." She mumbled.
The red head laughed, "My family wasn't all too happy about your sister at first."
"And they still aren't, your point?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"My point," Bill continued, "Is that yeah, my family hates the Malfoy's, your sister hates them-"
"Are you trying to make me feel worse?" The blonde asked.
"No, I'm trying to say, you go and you get that boy if that's what you really want. If you're truly happy, then that's what you do."
That was the plan, get the boy she loved, Draco could have the girl he loved, and happily ever after. If only it worked that way.