Il faut que je t'aime
Sarcasm
"Of course, if I was as bee-you-tiful as that French cow, I wouldn't bother to get much work done either. Why do they even give jobs to people who can't speak proper English?" Gladys Porlock's audience of three giggle, and Fleur – who has heard, as of course she was meant to – has to pretend that she hasn't.
"Ignore them," Gisela Schenke, the Austrian trainee who started at the same time as Fleur, whispers. "They are yust yealous because you are prettier than they are."
Fleur likes Gisela. Not just because they have something in common in being new and foreign, but because she is a genuinely nice person. She is more popular with the English girls than Fleur is, and it is she – not Fleur – who has worked out why. "I am not efen pretty. You are beautiful. They are yealous off you," she pointed out, when they had been here less than a week.
This is so much harder than Fleur had thought it would be. Not just the English girls' hostility and bitchiness, but the work itself. She had thought her English was pretty good, but she has soon discovered that speaking English well enough to get by at Hogwarts and using it all day every day for work are different things.
Her boss, Miss Payne – everyone calls her The Payne, and Fleur's English is good enough to understand that – will not let any mistakes pass, and has a sarcastic tongue that stings when she reprimands those under her – as she does numerous times a day. "Really, Miss Delacour, I would have thought your English was better than that"; "I know you are used to more attention as a Triwizard Champion, but you're no better than anyone else here, my girl"; "Please pay more attention to your work and less to your appearance, Miss Delacour." Fleur would not mind if the rebukes were justified, but she has an idea that The Payne's remarks are as motivated by jealousy as the other secretaries' more overt hostility.
Gisela has a plan to cheer her up. "We need to find you a boyfriend – preferably a good-looking vun. Give that Gladys something to be properly yealous off, and take your mind off The Payne being horrible."
With that in mind, Gisela is marking all the men in the bank out of ten, and insisting that Fleur join in. Fleur points out that Gisela has a boyfriend at home in Vienna, and should not be looking at other men in that way.
"Ach, vot Gottfried doess not know vill not hurt him. Frank Noble?"
Fleur pulls a face. "Five."
"You are generous. I vould say three. David Ziebler? I say seven."
"Yes, I sink zat is right. Zoran Madic?"
"Eight."
"Oui. Eight. Delloran Gumble?"
"Gott in Himmel! Vun, and that is being kind. Bill Weasley?"
Fleur can feel herself blushing. "Ten."
"Only ten? I think at least tvelve."
"Gisela! You 'ave a boyfriend!"
They giggle like a pair of schoolgirls. And for once, Miss Payne's sarcastic admonitions are fully justified.
