She woke up smiling, her cheeks hurt. Apparently, she slept smiling. The first thought that crossed her mind was her, and immediately she felt her stomach flutter. She touched her own lips, not really believing she had the courage to ask that one question. A mate? She never believed those fairytales, never expected to find her prince charming. Well, in this case princess. Obviously, those tales came from a truthful place. She closed her eyes once more and felt the blonde's lips on hers. Opening her eyes again she noticed it was late and near lunch. An idea struck to her. She remembered seeing a French restaurant somewhere near… Would it be too clingy?

"Whatever…" She murmured to herself after sighting.

She took a quick shower and dressed something casual. Jeans and a t-shirt. And, hoping both of her friends were still sleeping or at least locked on their room, she descended the stairs.

"Well, she is finally out of bed!" Ginny said, smiling at her as soon as she stepped into the living room. She groaned hearing the ginger's voice. "You have plans." She added taking note of Hermione's clothing and obviously ignoring her friend's reaction, an eyebrow flying up. At that, Harry appeared from the kitchen.

"Shoot…" Hermione said, under her breath.

"I believe, Gin, she wants to enjoy a certain veela as much as she can…" He smiled.

"Exactly what I thought, Harry. Should we let her go or demand details of their night right now?" The redhead smiled at her boyfriend, who feigned deep thought.

"We should certainly demand details. But we have an entire week to do so…" He smiled at his friend, who sighted in relief.

Hermione nodded (too eager to see the blonde to say anything to her friends), picked up her favorite pair of all-stars and went through the door before Ginny could change her mind and try to make her stay. Outside, she put on the shoes and proceeded to Fleur's building. Thank Merlin it was right across the street or she would have cowered. Her courage ended just when she got to Fleur's door. She took a deep breath and knocked.

"Coming!" A few seconds later the door flung open and a surprised Fleur faced her. "'Ermione!"

They starred each other, no words were exchanged as they only smiled. Hermione felt herself drowning on the blonde's eyes once again.

"Bonjour…" Fleur said as soon as she snapped out of her own trance. She stepped aside so Hermione could get in.

"Bonjour…" Hermione was obviously in a loss of words. As Fleur closed the door, she looked around and noticed a delicious aroma coming from the kitchen. "Oh! You are cooking…" She felt her smile falter a little.

"Oui. I was zinking of calling you, 'arry and Ginny to 'ave lunch. I figured you are going back to school zis afternoon…"

"Yes… Actually, I came to ask you if you wanted to have lunch with me… But I can call home…" Hermione looked at the ground, her courage faltering once again.

"Oh, zat would be a shame…" The brunette's head shot up. "I was going to call zem only as an excuse…" Fleur smiled at her. In no time, the blonde was painfully close to her. The lack of high heels remembered both that Hermione was slightly shorter then Fleur. Hermione felt a light touch on her chin followed by a peck on her lips. She leaned on Fleur so she could return the kiss.

"Oh…" She murmured, feeling the blonde chuckle.

The veela took her hand and went back to the kitchen.

"Wine, pumpkin juice, water…?" She asked after checking the food, the brunette already seated on her usual spot.

"Whatever you are having…" And was served a glass of wine. "I figured…" She said, chuckling.

"So, I'm a drunk veela?" Fleur laughed.

"I can only hope you are not. But you do like wine…"

"Oui… I give you zat."

Hermione took a sip of the wine and bit back a moan.

"This one is different from the one you usually drink."

"Yes. Maman sent me this one last night, I imagine. It appeared in my wine cellar…"

"You have a wine cellar?"

"Oui…"

"Yeah, you are a drunk veela!" Hermione smiled at her, making sure she understood it was a joke.

"Zen I guess I'll 'ave to suspend the wine for you…" Fleur said, quickly taking the glass of Hermione's hands and placing it out of her reach.

"Oh, come on…" The brunette said, trying to get the glass back, only to stumble out of the bench she was and almost fall face first on the floor.

After she rightened herself again, her face flushed, Fleur gave the glass back to her. The blonde skirted the counter, laughing, and gave the brunette a tight hug. Hermione fought a little but soon leaned into the older woman.

"Now, are you 'ungry?" The brunette simply nodded. "Good, it's ready."

They sat facing each other and ate.

"So…" Hermione begun, as they finished eating.

"Oui?" Fleur answered, smiling.

The blonde reached for her wand before she could say anything else and set the dishes to wash themselves with a simple spell.

"What time you 'ave to leave?" Fleur asked, as she got up from her seat and motioned to Hermione so they could seat comfortably at the couch.

"Well, I don't really have a curfew, but I am expected to head back today…" The brunette said, leaning on the veela as they sat.

"I see… And I imagine you want to talk about yesterday…" Hermione nodded.

"Thank you for the date, it was wonderful. And for lunch today…"

"You are welcome, but zere ees no need to zank me."

"It was perfect and yes, I do since you didn't let me pay for anything." Hermione crossed her arms and raised a brow, making sure to distance herself from the blonde.

"Eet was zee right zing to do. I invited you, I should pay. Zat's 'ow french do zings."

"Ok, then. I guess I'll have to ask you on a date too…" Hermione said nonchalantly leaving Fleur stunned.

"Uhn…"

"Oh, dear merlin! I can't believe I left the French lady in a loss of words!" Hermione laughed. "But would you? I probably shouldn't come to London often, but I suppose we could go somewhere in Hogsmeade…" She began to rant as she got nervous at Fleur's lack of response

"Oui."

"What?"

"Yes, I'll go out wiz you. Again."

"Good" Hermione kissed her cheek, lovingly. "Now can we discuss some important maters?"

"As much as…?" Fleur looked at her curiously.

"Uhm. This mating thing. I understand what the book say, I was just wondering if there were any other books I could learn from…"

"Oui. Most of zose books are about veela's and mates." Fleur pointed to the shelter that held mostly french books. "And you can ask me. Or my maman and papá, I'm certain zey will be pleased to explain what zey can to you. But you 'ave to understand that zee veela culture ees really restricted, zere ees only a few zings we can tell you since you are not one or mated to one."

"I see. I understand that the mating is related to the veela and her mate having sex. But…"

"Zee mating ees much more zan sex. Eet only 'appens when both are conscious about eet."

"And it brings me to my next question…"

"'ow on earth you are mine." The brunette nodded, smiling. "As far as I can understand, zee veela soul only chooses a mate zat ees able to challenge 'er. I only saw you were my mate after you came back from your 'orcrux 'unt with 'arry and Ronald…"

"But you knew me before that…"

"Oui, you always caught my attention but I guess either of us were mature enough for us to recognize…" Fleur sighted. "The zing with veela mates ees zat eet ees zee soul's choice, eet's not conscious. Zee souls recognize each ozer. Differently from what most believe, a veela can find anozer mate, eet ees difficult and could take years, but ees possible." Hermione nodded, she had understood it from the book the blonde gave her. "Eet only happens eef zee mate revoke zee connection before zeee mating ceremony. Which is zee sex… After that…"

"The veela dies and later the mate does too." Fleur nodded.

"Zee veela magic works in both ways. A mated veela can't live without her mate and a veela's mate can't live without eet's veela. Zat part of zee 'eritage ees present in full power to anyone who 'as even a slight part of veela blood." Fleur continued her explanation. Hermione sat straight and looked at the blonde.

"Your father says in the book that a full veela can completely turn into its animal form. I saw your eyes yesterday, it matched with his description of veelas eyes…"

"Zee changes occur in steps but I can't fully transform. Not as far as I know. My maman doesn't talk much about eet. Zee eyes are zee first thing to change, actually. Zen nails into taloons. Zat ees as far as I've been." Fleur smiled at Hermione. The brunette starred deeply into her eyes.

"Your eyes are beautiful." She said as if in trance, then quickly looked away. "But I guess you hear that a lot…"

"I do, indeed. But coming from you ees much better." Fleur smiled and kissed Hermione's cheek. She, then, lightly made Hermione look at her again. "Your eyes aren't blurred with ze thrall."

"Your veela eyes are too." Fleur blushed slightly.

"Zank you."

Hermione leaned on Fleur so she could feel her embrace. The blonde kissed her forehead and sighted contently. Moving quickly, Hermione kissed her on the lips. They both moaned as they deepened it. They stayed like that for about half an hour until Hermione snuggled further into her and her breathing became slower.

Fleur felt Hermione fall asleep and carefully she summoned a blanket so the lioness wouldn't get cold. She watched her sleep, as the brunette moved from her shoulder to her lap, and smiled contently hoping she could do it for the rest of her life. Her mind began to wander as the time passed and something began to plague her thoughts but she decided that it definitely wasn't the time to talk about it. It was too soon. Remembering Harry would probably wonder if Hermione was going back to school with him and Ginny, she conjured her patronus and sent it to him as a message. She felt the younger woman stir and looked down to her, grinning.

"Oh my god! I fell asleep! Why didn't you wake me up?" Hermione sat up straight quickly.

"You look quite magnifique while sleeping and I didn't want to disturb you." Fleur smiled reassuringly. "I sent a message to 'arry to let 'im know 'e doesn't 'ave to wait for you to go to 'ogwarts. I 'ope I did right…"

"Yes, it's ok." Hermione said, kissing the blonde's cheek. "Thank you. I should have told him that…"

"De rien…"

They talked about almost everything that came into their minds. Fleur cooked again, she loved being able to cook for Hermione and couldn't stop grinning the whole time. They ate in silent and it was not awkward, but surprisingly relaxing. The whole dinner they exchanged lingering touches and glances. After cleaning the table, something Hermione insisted to do, the brunette stood next to her awkwardly. Fleur realized she should actually to back to school. Without a word, Fleur kissed her. It was obviously a goodbye and both clinged at each other, not wanting to let go. With a sigh, Hermione pulled back and looked into Fleur's eyes. Telling by the way she could see the different shades of brown into the other's eyes, the french knew the lioness was looking into bright orange ones.

"I should go." Hermione stated the obvious.

"Oui. I could accompany you to your house…"

"I was actually thinking about using your fireplace to go…" Fleur nodded. "About that books…"

Fleur smiled. "You can take any of zem. Alzough I would recommend you reading zis two first. Eef you need, I can cast a translating spell…" She trailed off as she saw the younger shaking her head.

"I know the spell… Don't worry. Those are in french?"

"Ancient french to be accurate. But a common spell should work."

They smiled at each other and Fleur braced herself for the goodbye. Not thinking twice, to quiet her inner veela and her own heart, she leaned in and kissed the brunette. She felt her smiling into the kiss and couldn't help but to do the same.

"What happened? You are quite smiley and it doesn't happen ever since a certain brunette went back to Hogwarts." Bill asked Fleur as soon as she entered their office the next day surprising him with her good humor.

"I just gave you good morning!" She said with feigned offense.

"And you usually does that in a grunt." He smiled at her as he saw her drop the acting.

"Well, I actually 'ad zee courage to ask 'er out." She paused to watch her friend's reaction, which was raising both his hands to the sky as if in praise, "we went to zee zeater, to watch 'er favorite play as a matter of fact, and 'ad dinner." Once again, she paused. "And as I was getting 'er back 'ome, she kissed me." She finished her story triumphantly and grinned. Bill simply smiled at her.

"Finally!"

"Yesterday…" She started again.

"What? There's more?" She grinned more widely, if that was even possible.

"Oui. I was cooking and zinking about inviting zem for lunch when she knocked at my door. So, we actually spent the whole afternoon together." Bill nodded, smiling.

"Ok. Now I see why you are in such a good mood…" And he spent the rest of the day pestering her about her good mood. Thankfully they weren't with the trainees as they had to do paperwork and the group was being trained by Tonks.

Hermione arrived at Hogwarts long after dinner and by the sounds she could unfortunately hear from Harry's room, her friends had retrieved to bed already. She smiled thankfully, not really wanting to spend half of the night telling with details what happened on the weekend. The thought of it made her remember Fleur and she sighted contently. Hermione knew she would have to wake up early the next morning so she went to bed, smiling widely.

She woke up smiling and quickly jumped out of her bed, getting ready so she could head down to breakfast. When she got to the first floor she was greeted with an extremely excited Ginny and a smirking Harry.

"So… Came back late?" Harry said, teasingly.

"Early enough to hear you two." She answered with a raised brow, making him blush and Ginny laugh. "Thankfully this whole part of the tower has noise isolation. Or everyone would hear you being loud as fuck." The redhead was yet to stop laughing and Harry was too embarrassed to say anything.

"Your brother is really good. What can I do?" Ginny said as soon as she calmed down, making Harry's blush deepen and Hermione laugh. "Seriously though, spill the tea."

"Impatient much?" Hermione smirked. She wanted to tell everything but was also hungry…

"I told you we should have made her tell us about the date yesterday before she left…" Ginny whined to her boyfriend, who simply laughed.

"Relax, I will. Just with Luna together I'm pretty sure she wants to know too." Ginny groaned for having to wait but began to move towards the exit. Her face lit up as soon as she opened the passage.

"Lun!"

"Hi! I came to see if you were here already…" Luna smiled at her ginger friend.

"Yeah and 'Mione is about to tell us how the date went. And yesterday's afternoon!"

"Oh! You met yesterday too? Smooth!" The blonde giggled her brows, laughing and making Hermione blush.

"I was not about to tell you anything! I just want some food and caffeine right now, so I'm heading to the Great Hall." She brushed through both girls still blushing but clearly feigning annoyance. Her three friends followed her suit, laughing at her reaction.

A/N: HELLO again! So much fluff I think I need to see the dentist now... I really like them being sweet and all. I don't have much to say... Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing!

Thanks for reading, please review! I'm looking forward to read them! See you Wednesday!

Now, to your reviews:

FB-FistFighterPhoenix: I'm glad you enjoyed it and hope you read this chapter with a smile… Trust me, much more to come. For future reference I'll refer to you as FB cuz come on, a damn long user… Is it ok?

MilandaAnza: Thanks! Really, she thought 'Mione hated her so yeah. (How about MA in the future?)

Dark Nerdy Weirdo: Hey! Glad you liked it! And to me you'r DNW to me from now on ok?

wkgreen: Hallo again! Thanks! And actually I meant that the update took too long… About them dating… Are they? I like to think that their relationship is kind of a dance where both lead at some time. (And will call you WK, ok?)

Yes, I'm lazy with the nicknames. Hope it's ok to you guys…

;3

PS: Oh, just so you know, at the moment the story has around 80.000 words and about 30 chapters and I'm not really near the end… And I'm trying to keep the chapters' length around 3000 words.