Fleur was sitting on her bed when she heard a light knocking on her door. A muffled voice which she made out to be from Eloise told her they were almost at Hogwarts. She told her she'd be right out and got up from her bed.
As soon as she did this, she had a strange feeling settle inside of her, near her heart. She frowned a couple of seconds, but decided she was starting to feel nervous with her upcoming affairs in Britain. She walked out of her room and was greeted by a bunch of schoolers wearing their summer uniforms. She rolled her eyes at this, since she was against that choice of clothing when Madam Maxime put forward that idea. However, she simply nodded when she was addressed with that matter.
The next thing she noticed were the three other Veelas, not far from her, chatting. They looked relaxed and somewhat excited, which she could understand, although she herself still had that odd feeling from earlier. She could not pin point what it was, but as they got closer to their destination, the feeling was becoming a real hassle. Fleur got closer to the other Veelas and joined their conversation.
"I hope Hogwarts is nice enough, I can't imagine living somewhere where it's always raining" Zelia said. She was the shortest of them, and had her haircut in a bob style. While she said this, she had a look of worry on her face, and Fleur could understand why. "And we have to wear these ridiculous skirts as if it wasn't freezing out there". She then looked at Fleur. "Can't you convince Madam Maxime to let us wear something comfier?" she gave Fleur her 'Veela look', at which the blond smiled and joined their nagging for a bit.
After some minutes of conversation, her professor came out from what Fleur supposed were her quarters and called them up in a circle. Once all their eyes rested on her, she informed the group they were about to land, and once that was done, they were going to go straight to the castle, as it was already dark outside and their tour would have to wait until tomorrow morning. Fleur was glad their night would end soon enough, as she still hadn't shaken off that feeling and just wanted to get some rest.
However, her plans of a restful night went down the drain as soon as she stepped on the Gounds of Hogwarts. A shiver ran down her spine, and at first, she thought it was because of the cold weather, but then she noticed she wasn't cold at all. She looked around and frowned when the rest of her classmates were rubbing their arms and cursing in French. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to see it was from Zelia.
"Are you cold?" she asked Fleur. The Veela said no with her head and sent a reassuring smile her way. Zelia reciprocated it and the four of them walked a little behind the rest of the girls, Fleur standing next to Madam Maxime. This gave them an opportunity to gaze at the castle in front of them. It was illuminated from different spots, and the lights and shadows surely gave the structure a majestic appearance.
They were greeted at the door by a big bearded man named Hagrid, and he spent some time informing them of the dangers of the castle at night before going inside. He was the one supposed to give them the tour he next morning.
All the way to the Great Hall, she was becoming more and more nervous, and the other Veelas seemed to notice something was up, as they stayed closer and kept sending her strange looks. When the big doors to the Great Hall opened, a warm feeling invaded her body. She couldn't help but close her eyes and inhale deeply. Something in the air soothed her, she could smell something that warmed her and before she knew it, her Thrall came to life. It wasn't after a couple of seconds that she noticed what was happening, and her eyes shot open when she did.
"What happened?" said Fiona. Her red hair was almost shimmering, and a glint in her eyes told her that the Thrall had also affected her. The other two Veelas also noticed something was going on, and were waiting for an instruction. Fleur swallowed before answering.
"I'm not sure, it's like..." she lost her train of thoughts when the girls in front of them started moving down the hall, forcing them to follow suit. Fleur kept looking around as they were told to sit at one of the four large tables. her heart was beating faster than ever, but still the feeling was weird. She wasn't nervous, and even if she was, she had never behaved in such a way. She was so engulfed in her own thoughts that she didn't realize, after sitting down next to a blond girl, that said girl was looking at her with a gigantic smile plastered on her face.
"hi, I'm Luna. I hope you didn't bring any Nargles with you in the carriage, we seem to have plenty of them in the castle already" Fleur looked at her confused and from the corner of her eye, she saw some other students snickering.
"I'm Fleur. Fleur Delacour. And I am sorry, but I am not sure I know what a Nargle is" she said. She looked at her left, where her other three friends were sitting and asked them in French if they knew something about it. When they said no, she turned back to the girl. "I'm sorry. 'owever, I don't zink we brought anyzing from France with us".
"Oh, they are really hard to see. Actually, nobody has ever seen them. That's how they steal everything they can, because nobody can see them. But it's ok, I know I can trust a Veela's word". Hearing the last part, Fleur's eyebrow shot up and a faint smile was forming on her lips. She could sense that girl was odd, but maybe she was also smarter than she first thought.
"H-hello, I-I'm Cormac". Fleur looked in front of her and saw a boy sitting across from her. She stopped herself from rolling her eyes, she knew it wasn´t his fault he was so flustered. "If you need to, I can give you a tour of the castle later".
"Zank you, but I zink we can manage on our own" she answered curtly, not wanting him to make a fool of himself in front of everyone else at the table. She looked around and noticed every other boy were looking their way, and some girls too. She was used to this, so she just ignored them and started talking with the other Veelas
"This boy is irritating; I have been sitting here for less than a minute!" She exclaimed in French.
"He moved fast" Replied Fiona with a smile. The others snickered and Fleur rolled her eyes. "I think he is your number 1 fan".
"By the way, what happened earlier? You thrall seemed... unstable for a second" Zelia was careful when she said this, not wanting to offend Fleur.
"Yeah, I could barely manage to keep mine down after I sensed yours". It was Eloise who said this. She was the tallest of them, and had silvery long hair that cascaded down her back.
Fleur thought for a second but shrugged her shoulders, and when she was about to add something, she was interrupted by the voice of an old wizard with a long white beard. He seemed to be the Headmaster, if the attention he gained in a second was anything to go by.
After welcoming the students from Beauxbatons, he announced that Durmstrang's would be arriving late at night, but would be joining them the next day during breakfast and for the tour of the Ground of Hogwarts and the castle itself.
"And now, it is time to eat. Enjoy". With that, all type of food appeared in front of them.
The Veelas talked among themselves and occasionally Fleur would direct a comment or two towards Luna. The boys at the table had certain difficulties concentrating on their plates, but the intensity of their stares had come down a bit. Fleur had accidentally altered them when entering the Great Hall, and was worried it would last longer, but was relieved to see them returning to their normal selves. The only exception was Cormac, who kept looking at her with wanton.
"Ah, Anna and Monique finished the bouillabaisse by themselves, those stupid bi-". Fiona was saying this with her hand gripping a knife, and Fleur was scared she would use it on the other girls if she let her.
"It's ok, I zink there is more on zat table, I will go fetch it" Interrupted Fleur. She made a move to get up and when she did, Comrac offered to do it for her. "Non, zank you"
She started moving towards the table in question when she made eye contact with the most beautiful girl she had ever seen. She thought Veelas were supposed to be the most attractive women in the world, given their status as magical creatures, but that just didn't make sense with that girl a few meters away. She was glowing in Fleur's eyes, and could not think of anything else other than the bushy haired girl. She snapped out of her daydreaming and walked directly towards her, who was now talking to a redhead boy. A strange feeling set in her gut when she saw them interact, but didn't understand what it was. When she was close enough, the scent from earlier caught up with her again. 'Could this mean...'. She smelt incredible.
"Hi, are you going to eat zat?" The Veela said. She was looking directly at the girl, who was looking back at her. Fleur felt her heart beating faster with each passing second, and was convinced it was going to burst.
"Yeah, no. You can have it" a boy with glasses answered. He was sitting next to the girl, and Fleur was disappointed because she didn't have a chance to listen to her voice. Instead, she smiled at him, thanked him in French and went back to her table. Once she was sitting down, she looked straight in the eyes of the other Veelas. "I think I found my mate".
A spoon fell to the floor and Fiona was coughing nonstop, as she had been drinking when she heard the news.
"Are you sure?" Eloise asked while patting her friend's back but not averting her eyes from Fleur.
The other just nodded and looked at her hands on her lap, trying to remember the sensation she had when she was near the witch, and the scent that radiated from her that had affected her so much. And the fact that she was about to lose grip on her thrall again was the best indicator of them all. "I'm sure". She concluded.
"Oh my God. That's... amazing? I mean, you just found your mate. That's incredible, and before you even started looking for him. Who is it, the boy with the glasses?" Fiona had stopped coughing by then and was smiling widely at Fleur. She had seen the boy handing her the dish, so she could only guess it was him.
"No, not him. Her, the girl next to him". After their confused faces, she sighed and closed her eyes for a second.
"Is that possible?" asked a confused looking Eloise. To be fair, Fleur didn't even know if it was possible. She would have to send a letter home earlier than she thought, but she needed to know how to act now. Everything had changed for her.
On one hand, she had found her mate very early in her life, and that was something that rarely occurred and was the most important part of the life of the Veelas. While some would say they are pushed by desire, Veelas were destined to either find their mate or die from lonliness if their time came and they hadn't found their mate. Usually, a non-mated Veela could live up to 30 years, whereas the mated ones would live until their mate died. Sometimes that could vary, though.
However, she didn't know of any other Veela mating with another girl, all the Veelas she knew were mated to men. She frowned at this and was becoming impatient as she couldn't recall anything about it from the hundreds of books she had read about the matter. She needed to know more, but what really bugged her was that she didn't even know the girl's name.
"Hey Luna. Do you know who ze boy I was talking to was?" She tried asking the blond. If they had attended Hogwarts together, she must know who they were.
"That's Harry. He is really nice, helped me find my shoes once when the Nargles hid them. They were awful on my first year here, always hiding my things" She replied with a smile. She was also looking somewhere near Fleur's head, but not directly at her. "Oh, the lobains have attached to you! That's great".
Fleur looked at her confused but decided to ignore the girl's antics in favor of her research. "What about the ozers? Do you know zeir names?"
"Yes, the readhead is Ron, also nice but a bit rougher, and the girl's name is Hermione. She's the brightest witch of her time, you know. Just bloody brilliant, although I don't think she likes me that much."
Hermione. That name felt so warm in her tongue, she couldn't wait to hear how it sounded aloud, coming from her own lips. She smiled at Luna and thanked her.
"If you need 'elp wiz ze nargles again, we can 'elp you find your zings, oui?"
After dinner, the girls left the Great Hall and went back to their carriage. Fleur couldn't help but think of Hermione and smile when she did. Her friends were behind her the whole time, and they could feel the energy from their Head Veela and fed on it too. The four of them were glowing, and all the boys stopped to look at them as they passed. Their thrall could be subdued to some point, but it was still painful to do so. Their true nature was with the thrall, and after everything that happened, Fleur would let them use it as long as they didn't harm the other students.
Once inside the magical carriage, Fleur said goodbye to her friends and left to her room. She took some parchment and quill and started writing her grandmother a letter. She told her everything that happened since she arrived, and asked her to send her all the information she could about mating and same sex mating. If there was anyone who could help her with that, it was the former leader of her clan who also happened to be her grandmother. After finishing it, she realized she wouldn't be able to send it until the next day. All their owls were already at Hogwarts, but she didn't have a clue to where the owlery was. Instead, she closed the envelope and laid on her bed.
She could not be able to sleep that night, or at least that's what she thought. To her surprise, she found herself falling into a peaceful slumber while thinking of a certain brunette and dreamt of dragons and sunrises.