Chapter 7: Love in Your Eyes
"It's not-"
"What you think," Fleur says, finishing her comment, crossing her arms.
"What? I mean I wasn't thinking-"Gabrielle stops for a second and chuckles nervously. "Okay you got me,"
Fleur chuckles and walks over to her coach. "Beside you knew what happened yesterday so don't go teasing her like that,"
"Because you're the only one allowed to do that?" Gabrielle asks in French with a grin. She averts Fleur's glare. "Kidding, kidding," She laughs and says in English, "What? It's in my blood," She looks over at the brunette. " Sorry Hermione, just wanted to have a bit of fun," she says with a wink. "Well anyway I should go, I'll see you both later, make sure to get to breakfast on time," She waves at the two and takes a step back then closes the door.
After a couple of seconds of silence, Hermione looks over at Fleur and asks, "So how'd she know? About what happened yesterday?"
"I ran into her yesterday night while I was bringing you here," Fleur explains with a grin and picks up the invisibility cloak. "Shall we go?" She pretends to be an escort and opens up the door politely.
The door slightly creaks as the two walk out of the bedroom and into the hallway. Curious to as where they are exactly, Hermione looks around to see a few other wooden doors on both sides of the hall with golden plates and names on them. Must be the other students. She gazes up at the ceiling to see a row of glass chandlers.
Turning back to the front, she sees large polish oak double doors. She shields her eyes as Fleur opens them, the morning light bursting through into her view. Taking a few steps forward with her hand covering her eyes, she hears Fleur saying something but misses it. "What did you sa-" She falls forward as her feet touches nothing but thin air. Fleur quickly catches her in her arms and laughs.
"This is why I said 'watch your step' Hermione," she says with a bright smile and uses one of her arms to close the carriage door. "We don't really have steps leading down except that small one on the side to board so we tend to be careful," She helps Hermione to her feet. "Are you okay?" She hands her the cloak.
"Yeah, I'm okay," she says with a nervous chuckle "Especially with you around always catching me," Hermione brushes back her hair with her hand, looking around at the ground. "I really would've had a nasty fall there,"
Fleur laughs and strokes the top of Hermione's head. "Well that only assures you more that when I say 'I'll make sure to catch you if you fall' I will, no?" she teases Hermione, surprised to see the other girl is not blushing.
"You know speaking of which, I just noticed that I fall an awful lot when I'm around you, maybe you're bad luck," Hermione retaliates and sticks out her tongue playfully at her. With a giggle, she walks off leaving a spellbound Fleur standing there for a few seconds speechless. After walking a few feet ahead, the brunette doesn't hear footsteps behind her and turns around to see Fleur still standing next to the carriage. "What's the matter?" she yells.
"I was just escorting you out," Fleur shouts back
Hermione's face drops for a second and her heart falls. Touching the area over her heart, she bites her lower lip and stares at the ground. I don't know why but- Not knowing why she does this herself, stares at the other girl in disbelief and retorts back "I thought you said that you'd catch me if I fall?"
Fleur looks at her, a bit taken back and laughs. "Are you saying you're not eligible to walk back by yourself?"
Hermione puts her hands to her hips. "No, I was just saying that I don't think you can keep to your word," she yells, "Because you know, I can trip anytime when I'm walking back so," A bright smile forms on her face as she sees Fleur shaking her head but walks over to her. She flashes a victorious smile as Fleur stands before her.
"Well I should keep to my word now shouldn't I? I can't have you fall a hundreds times before you get to your room," she says and grasps Hermione's left hand. With a smirk, she states "Just as a precaution,"
Hermione playfully frowns and laughs. "You just can't keep your hands off of me,"
Fleur stares at her for a second in shock and laughs. "What's with all these teasing you have coming back at me? Are you still Hermione?"
The brunette giggles and shakes her head. "I'm just learning from the best," The two look at each other as if challenging the other and burst out into laughter.
"Okay okay, fine, I give, I'll admit it," Fleur says and leans forward to Hermione's ear, "I can't keep my hands off of you," She grins and begins to walk off, satisfied with winning the round this time, leaving Hermione speechless and blushing.
I can never win when I'm with her. Hermione chuckles and looks around at the scenery, admiring it's beauty.
One by one or in a cluster, leaves begin to blanket the ground, covering the dirt path as a breeze blows pass. Turning to the side, Hermione gasps to see the sun's ray shining on the surface of the lake, causing it to glimmer and sparkle with light. It's so beautiful out here in the morning. Bringing back her attention to her companion beside her, she sees her walking silently, admiring the beauty of nature as well. She smiles at this and looks down at their clasps hands. Wanting to experiment, she slips her hand out of Fleur's grasp to notice her body feeling a rush of emptiness and desire of warmth.
"You okay?" She hears Fleur asks and she shakes her head. "Oh, no, it's nothing,"
She takes a hold of the blonde's hand and feels warmth rushing back through her body, her mind content. That's strange, I always feel this funny warm feeling when I'm with her. Especially if we're touching. What's this feeling? It's like- She pauses for a second and remembers feeling a somewhat familiar feeling but less intense feeling with Ron. Quirking an eyebrow, she decides to probe more about this feeling and gazes upon the ground. Thinking back upon yesterday night, she suddenly remembers Gabrielle's words earlier and purses her lips together in thought.
She said my eyes told her. Her mind slowly retracts back to the time of the library. If she said that, that technically means that she can tell I like someone because I saw them. She blinks. Fleur. Thankful that the other girl is in her own thoughts, she glances up at her. She's saying I'm in love with Fleur? She quickly turns away as Fleur glances over at her.
"Something on my face?"
Hermione shakes her head. "N-no,"
Arriving in the courtyard, the two walk down the stone path through the school to the staircase leading up to the Gryffindor House.
"Thanks for walking me back Fleur," Hermione says appreciatively.
"Anything for you cheri," the older girl says. She begins to take a step forward but hesitates, trying to resist the temptation of giving Hermione a kiss before she leaves.
Fleur? Hermione gazes up at Fleur to see a hint of inner conflict in her eyes. But before being able to ask, Fleur turns away.
"Well then, I'll see you later," Quickly turning away before she does anything she'll regret, she waves a hand to Hermione to gesture to her go to her room and walks down the staircase.
"Later," Hermione murmurs, knowing that the other girl couldn't hear her. She turns around and enters her room.
A few minutes later breakfast starts in the Great Hall and students begin to pack the hall ways bustling about, talking to their friends. Others on the other hand rush towards the Great Hall in excitement to get their meal for the morning. Meanwhile on the other hand, Hermione walks down the staircase to breakfast, sighing in relief that no one had noticed her absence yesterday.
"Hey Hermione!"
She turns around to see Ginny rushing up to her with a large smile on her face. "Hey Ginny," she says "What're so excited about?"
"They're announcing the champions today, aren't you excited?"
"Huh?" I completely forgot. "It's really today?" she asks.
"Yes of course it's today," Ginny says, with a grin and begins walking with Hermione. "I'm surprised you of all people forgot,"
"Why's that?"
"Well you're always up to date about practically everything, especially something major like this," Ginny states
The loud commotion of a mix of students talking and eating flows through Hermione's ears as she enters the Great Hall. She steals a glance over at the Ravenclaw's table and doesn't see Fleur. She's not here?
"Hey 'Mione," Harry says with a large grin as the brunette sits down.
"Hey Harry," she says and turns over to Ron to see himself busy stuffing his mouth with food, "Morning Ron," She frowns in distaste and hears him say a muffled hello. Suddenly the thought of her feelings to Ron comes back to mind and she looks back at him. She calmly places her hand on her chest and notices her body reacting normally. No rapid heart beats or flutters. No knots in stomach or butterflies. I.. don't feel anything.
"So Hermione, how have you been doing?" Ginny asks, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Hermione quirks a brow. "Um, well fine, why do you ask?" She laughs as Ginny continues to smile at her. "What?"
The red haired girl chuckles. "So how was yesterday? I heard you needed the -" She lowers her voice and whispers, "Invisibility Cloak,"
Hermione puts down her fork and looks at her quizzically.
Ginny looks at her in disbelief and laughs. "Um, Earth to Hermione, don't you remember something? I'm going out with Harry, we tell each other everything,"
"Oh-gosh, that's right," Hermione slightly grins. "Sorry, I can't believe I forgot,"
"It's okay, I forgive you," Ginny says and pats Hermione's arm. "Just tell me what's been happening with you lately and I'll call it even. You know I hardly got the chance to talk to you these days,"
Hermione guiltily bites the bottom of her lip. "That is true huh?" She sees her friend nod. "Well, things have been f-"
Ginny frowns. "Hermione, I'm sure you noticed that you've been hanging out with Fleur an awful lot lately-" She stops as she notices the students interacting start to cease, all of them growing to a soft hush. Glancing up at the front, the students watch in anticipation as Dumbledore stands before them. Not wanting to let Hermione off the hook, she quickly murmurs a "We'll talk later".
Hermione rolls her eyes at her friend's determination and grins.
After announcing the Durmstrang champion, Hermione straightens up her posture in anticipation as Dumbledore grabs another burnt parchment.
"Beauxbaton's champion is," He glances down at the paper in hand. "Fleur Delacour!"
Resisting the urge to jump up, she claps enthusiastically as Fleur rises up from her seat with a gleaming smile. The entire Great Hall burst out into an applauses. Before taking one step, Fleur turns around and beams Hermione a winning smile and walks off toward the back.
"Was it just me did you guys just had a moment?" Ginny teases.
"Ginny!" she exclaims, keeping her voice low to a minimum due to Dumbledore beginning to announce the next champion. "We'll talk later okay?"
"Cedric Diggory!"
"Oh come on Hermione, admit it, you guys did just have a moment," Ginny whispers, lightly pushing Hermione's arm. Seeing Hermione ignoring her by having her attention up to the front, she crawls up closer to Hermione and whispers "You're in lo"
"Harry Potter!!"
Both girl's eyes shot open wide in surprise and turns over to Harry.
A/N: Hey everyone! Did you guys enjoy the chapter? (laugh) It's a really fast update but I really hope it hadn't rushed or anything. Thanks again for your reviews, it makes me so happy to read them! And as you can tell, the story is starting to pick up the pace with Hermione noticing her feelings (grin), the tournament coming up(which I have to say, I tweaked with some of my ideas) as well as progressing relationship with Fleur. Anyway, hoped you like it, and I'll try to update ASAP. Oh- and before I forget, would anyone like to be my beta?
