A/N:
Hogwarts Auction
Day 4, Auction 2: (Fandom) Grease
Word count: 5,395
Fleur glanced nervously into each train car as she went, pulling her trunk behind her. She'd expected Hogwarts to be different from Beauxbatons, but she'd thought the summer months she'd spent in England would have better prepared her. Instead, the culture shock was even stronger now that she knew she had a whole year, at least, ahead of her.
Perhaps a train was practical when Hogwarts students only came from such a small area, but it certainly felt strange to her. At Beauxbatons, students came from a number of countries and from all different directions. It was far more convenient to have the flying carriages pick up students wherever they were, and though some had to travel with students they disliked, it was better than finding a seat amongst so many students you didn't know.
She reached a car with an empty seat and paused outside to take a deep breath. She was usually considered herself a confident person, but being at an entirely new school where everyone already knew each other was throwing her off.
The three girls in the compartment turned to look at her as she opened the door. She offered them her best smile and said, "Hi. Sorry. I'm new here and don't know where to sit. Is this seat taken?"
She motioned at the empty seat right next to the door.
"Go ahead," a petite girl with brown hair said with a shrug.
They watched Fleur closely as she stored her trunk on the rack above the seat. She sat down, feeling strange knowing that they were still watching her instead of talking amongst themselves. She smiled at them again.
"I'm Fleur Delacour. My family just moved here from France. I used to go to Beauxbatons."
The explanation didn't diminish their curiosity. They looked around at each other as if deciding who should be the first one to speak. The only one who appeared confident was the brown-haired girl who had first spoken.
"Toni Parkinson," she said, holding out her hand for a shake. "And this is Antonia Dolohov." She motioned at a tall girl whose brown hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail. "And Esther Mulciber." Esther was between the other two girls in height, with a head full of tight curls. "We're sixth year Slytherins. What year will you be in?"
"Sixth," Fleur said. She was even more determined to make a good impression now that she knew these girls were likely to be in many of the same classes as she was.
The girls shared another look. Antonia looked apprehensive about Fleur's arrival, and Toni looked like she was a split second from eating her alive. But Esther, at least, looked like she was merely curious.
"Why have you transferred to Hogwarts?" she asked, eyes wide.
Fleur had expected the question, and she launched into the explanation that she'd already gone over several times in her own head. "My dad had some business to complete in London this summer, but it took longer than expected. My sister Gabrielle is so young that she hasn't started at Beauxbatons or Hogwarts yet. My family decided it would be best if I stayed in the country for school, so we were all in the same place."
They seemed satisfied with the explanation for the most part, nodding along as Fleur spoke. Only Toni continued to look at her with suspicion, as if she thought Fleur was some kind of spy who wanted to uncover Hogwarts' secrets. Fleur had kind of expected such suspicion, considering how secretive each of the different wizarding schools could be. If someone new showed up at Beauxbatons, people would ask questions.
"You've spent the whole summer in England then?" Toni asked, narrowing her eyes as she gazed at Fleur.
"Yes," Fleur said, keeping her posture straight and poised. "We stayed in London, but we travelled around the country quite a bit as well while Dad was working in the city."
"Did you like it?" Esther asked, sounding merely curious unlike Toni. "England, I mean? Did you have a good time?"
Fleur hesitated. Most of the time, she wouldn't think twice before speaking her true opinion, but she thought better of it. She would be spending the whole school year with these girls, and they were likely as protective of England as she was of France. In truth, she was feeling incredibly homesick. But she stuck to mentioning the brightest part of her summer.
"Yes, I met someone, and it was rather romantic." She couldn't keep the large smile off her face. It gave her away every time she thought back on the summer.
"A romance?" Antonia asked in surprise, looking at Toni as if gauging her reaction. She needn't have bothered. Her friend still looked as suspicious as she'd been before and now she also looked annoyed.
"He was so sweet," Fleur said, unable to remain reserved when she thought about him. "We ended things believing that I was going back to France. I haven't seen him since I decided to stay. Truthfully, he's the reason I agreed to attend Hogwarts so easily when my dad asked. I'm looking forward to seeing him again."
"Is this another sixth year?" Toni asked.
Fleur wanted to ask if Toni had a boyfriend of her own, if she was worried that he had cheated on her with Fleur. It was the only explanation Fleur could think of for the slight anger in Toni's eyes when she looked at her. But Fleur knew that, if that were the case, Bill couldn't have been the boy in question. What they'd had was too special for that.
"Yes, he is," she said, ignoring the way Toni was acting.
Before she could explain further, Esther jumped in. "He can't be a Slytherin, surely."
Fleur frowned. She didn't understand why that would matter. She knew from what Dumbledore had said while they were going through the process of officially transferring that Hogwarts had four houses, one of which was Slytherin, but why would such things matter beyond collecting house points or knowing where you slept every night?
"What was his name?" Toni asked.
Fleur had half a mind to respond angrily. It was such a rude way to speak to someone, but she was so baffled by their strong responses that she merely said, "Bill Weasley," and watched the looks of horror appear on their faces. It only confused her more.
"That Gryffindor boy with the long hair?" Toni asked, her nose crinkling in disgust. "You had a tryst with ihim/i?"
Their romance may have been short-lived, but Fleur was offended on Bill's behalf by the way Toni spoke of him. He had never been anything but a gentleman, and he was handsome too. There was absolutely no reason for them to insult him.
"What's wrong with Bill?" she asked, her earlier attempts at an easygoing smile forgotten.
"He's a Gryffindor," Antonia whispered, her eyes flickering towards the door as if Gryffindors would jump out and hex them all for speaking the name. "We don't associate with Gryffindors."
Fleur repressed the urge to laugh. "Why not?" she asked.
Toni's lips pressed into a thinner line. "You're new, so I wouldn't expect you to understand. But it's always been this way. Slytherin is the most respectable house, while Gryffindor is known for their—" she looked around the compartment as she considered her words "—questionable beliefs and behavior."
It felt like the more she talked to these girls the more confused she became. "Forgive me. Like you said, I'm new, so I don't understand the history here. I didn't even know the names of the houses until a couple of weeks ago. Why is Slytherin the most respectable?"
Toni held her chin high. "Our house was founded by Salazar Slytherin himself," she said, crossing her arms against her chest. "He was the greatest wizard of his age."
Fleur distinctly remembered Dumbledore explaining that the four houses had each been started by a particular founder and that each one of those founders had been just as accomplished as the others, but she knew better than to say as much to these girls. After all, what did she know about Hogwarts history?
"It's also just a better house now," Esther added, leaning forward as if they were conspiring. "Better witches and wizards end up there. It's part of what we stand for. Each founder got to choose who would join their house back in the early days of the school, and Slytherin said he'd only take the most talented. That's why we're the best."
She leaned back as if she'd finished what she had to say. She looked quite satisfied with herself. Fleur blinked at them, unsure how to respond to all of that. She hadn't realized that where she was sent would mean so much.
"You'll understand when we get to Hogwarts," Antonia said, still in a hushed voice.
"Definitely," Toni said with a smirk. "Especially if you're good enough to get into Slytherin. Then you'll realize just how pathetic Gryffindors like Weasley are."
Fleur swallowed, feeling even more nervous about what she was getting into than she had while back on Platform 9 and ¾.
"You'd think my parents would have let me stay home for just one summer," Seth complained, tapping his fingers against the table as they waited for the first years to arrive.
"At least you tried to convince them," Clark said, patting his friend on the shoulder. "You sent them at least ten letters last year with all the reasons why you were responsible enough to stay home alone. Maybe they just need to sit on it. Next summer, you can have the house to yourself, and we can have a blast."
Bill shook his head at his friends' antics. "I don't know why you're so against going on those vacations. I'd kill to go to the places you do every summer. My family never leaves Britain."
"Yeah, how was your summer?" Seth asked, leaning forward with a smirk. "Is your dad still making you visit those Muggle towns or wherever it was they dragged you?"
Bill sighed. He didn't think his family's trips were as bad as his friends made them out to be. Sometimes they did learn things about Muggles that were actually interesting, and some of the places they visited were relaxing.
"This year we actually went to a wizarding village for a bit, and it was nice," he said. "Not super exciting, but there was a family from France there. They had a daughter our age."
His friends' faces lit up, and Bill averted his gaze to the table. He wasn't sure why he felt bashful about it. He was usually quite confident around girls. He'd even helped Clark get his last girlfriend when he'd been too nervous to talk to her.
"Yeah?" Clark asked. "How much time did you spend with her then?"
"What exactly did you do with her?" Seth added before Bill could speak. He and Clark shared matching smirks.
Bill rolled his eyes, but he couldn't get a word in before Dumbledore stood at the front of the hall and raised his hands to quiet the students. Bill turned away from his friends to listen. The sorting was always exciting, even in years where he didn't know any of the first years. He liked getting to see the happiness on the new Gryffindors' faces. But Dumbledore surprised him.
"This year things are a little different," he said, smiling down at them. "We have an exchange student coming to us from Beauxbatons. She'll be a sixth year, but she must be sorted."
He smiled down at the student in question, and Bill followed his gaze to a blonde girl who was nearly a foot taller than many of the first years she was standing beside. Bill gasped, unable to believe he was seeing her again.
"Someone from Beauxbatons?" Clark whispered across the table. "Is that the same girl you were talking about?"
Bill could hardly manage to nod. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Fleur as McGonagall beckoned her forward and placed the hat on her head. She scrunched up her face as it went over her eyes, and Bill fondly remembered her making the same face when she'd stepped on a piece of trash on the beach.
It only took a few seconds for the hat to shout, "Slytherin!" Bill sat frozen as McGonagall removed the hat. Fleur's face was unreadable as she moved to the Slytherin table and took an empty seat with the other sixth year Slytherin girls.
"Tough luck, mate," Seth said, clapping him hard on the back.
Bill shrugged him off, shaking his head as the first years began taking their own turns under the hat. "It doesn't matter anyway. It was only a summer fling."
But that didn't stop him from glancing over at the Slytherin table several times during the meal.
Antonia motioned at the seat next to her the moment they arrived at Transfiguration, but Fleur couldn't stop looking at Bill. Two boys who she suspected were his friends sat at the table in front of him, but the space next to him was empty. It seemed almost too good to be true.
Her new housemates had spent hours the night before explaining why Gryffindors and Slytherins didn't mix, including claims that Bill wouldn't want anything to do with her now that she was a Slytherin. She just couldn't believe that without seeing it for herself.
"Fleur, no," Antonia whispered desperately as Fleur began walking towards the open seat.
It might have been bad form to abandon one of the only friends she'd managed to make so far, but she needed to prove something, whether it was for herself or her new friends she wasn't sure, but she had to know.
"Is this seat taken?"
She watched Bill's shoulders stiffen when he heard her, and Fleur gripped the strap of her school bag tightly. For the first time, she considered that maybe her new friends did know what they were talking about. It seemed too ridiculous to be true, especially after the magical time she and Bill had spent together that summer, but as he turned to look at her, his face was emotionless.
"It's taken. My friend is coming," was all he said.
It might have been true, but the way he said it sent a shiver down Fleur's spine. He didn't want her there, whether his friend was going to take the seat or not. The two boys in front of him were watching her as if she were a curiosity. She nodded, not wanting to prolong the embarrassment, and headed straight for the seat beside Antonia. She felt the eyes of others on her, but she refused to look back as she began pulling things from her bag.
"We told you," Antonia whispered. "It's a mutual thing. We don't mix with them, and they don't mix with us."
Fleur nodded, still staring into her bag so no one would notice the tears stinging her eyes.
Everything was green and dark in the Slytherin common room and dormitory. Knowing that the eerie glow came from the lake sent shivers down Fleur's spine, so she tried to avoid thinking about it whenever possible. As highly as the others spoke of their house, she couldn't understand why a supposedly proud group would want what felt like the worst possible rooms in the castle.
She didn't want to say anything at first, aware of her place amongst the group, but it was becoming more and more difficult the longer it went on. Despite what the other girls had claimed about her understanding the house rivalries once she was at school, she only felt more frustrated by them.
At least things made sense at Beauxbatons, and the school wasn't afraid to use more than two colours in its decorating.
"So, tell us more about yourself," Toni asked, sitting cross-legged on her bed and watching Fleur across the room. She had grown slightly more friendly once Fleur was sorted into Slytherin. It felt a little like Fleur had passed the first stage of a test, but wasn't quite there yet. She still felt like she was being watched every second, and it left her feeling a little queasy.
"What would you like to know?" she asked, leaning against her pillows and willing the feeling in her stomach to go away. "I'm French. I used to attend Beauxbatons. But you already know all that."
"First there's the obvious question," Esther said as if Fleur hadn't spoken. "I'm not familiar with the French pureblood families, so what is your blood status?"
Fleur sighed. She'd known blood status was just as important here as it was back in France. It wasn't a huge surprise that it would matter to her new friends, and she also knew how the conversation would probably go.
"I'm a half-blood," she said, staring back at Esther. "It's rather difficult to be a pureblood when one is part veela."
The girls were quiet as they stared at her. Fleur stared back, ready for their reactions whatever they might be.
"So that's why you look like that," Toni said, motioning at Fleur's whole body.
"Yes," Fleur said with a sigh, "I suppose so."
Her stomach gave another lurch. She clutched it tightly.
"I think I need the hospital wing," she admitted.
Esther squinted at her. "What's wrong? How could you possibly be sick just a few days into the year?"
"I think it might have been the food," Fleur admitted, swallowing back the bile that threatened to come at the thought of their dinner. "Some of your British food still doesn't agree with me."
She hadn't meant for it to be an insult, and she was in too much discomfort to notice the offended looks the girls shared with each other. She got up from the bed, willing the nausea to stay down long enough for her to reach the nurse.
"It's on the first floor," Antonia said, finding it in her to sound a little sympathetic.
Fleur nodded and hurried from the room, worried what her stomach might do if she didn't hurry. The last thing she needed was to humiliate herself.
The other girls watched her leave, with Toni going so far as to lean over and watch the door swing shut. As soon as it did, she leaned against her headboard with her arms crossed against her chest.
"Can you believe her?" she sneered, jerking her head towards the door. "Not only isn't she a pureblood, but she isn't even part Muggle! She's a veela! And she has the nerve to go on about our food. Merlin, what do veelas even eat?"
Esther shrugged, confused by the question. She only half-remembered what veelas were, let alone what they ate.
"She seems pretty nice for a veela," Antonia said hesitantly. She shrunk back when the other girls looked at her. "For a veela!" she repeated. "I thought they were mean and nasty, but she hasn't been scary at least."
Toni snorted and shook her head. "She might be on her best behavior now, but who knows what she'll do when she reveals her true self. She's already in love with that Gryffindor. I can't believe we have to put up with her for the whole year."
"And maybe next year," Esther pointed out.
Toni cried out and sunk down until she was laying on her bed and staring at the hangings above her.
"This is ridiculous," she said, slamming her fist down against the mattress.
"But it's kind of amusing when she doesn't have a clue what's going on, isn't it?" Esther said with a smirk.
Toni shared her smile. Antonia tried to too, though her heart wasn't really in it.
Fleur clutched at her stomach as she hurried to the hospital wing. She knew what the others must be thinking back in the dormitory. She'd lost friends at Beauxbatons when they'd learned about her veela heritage too. It didn't matter. Especially not when she was worried about her stomach and what she might do to the Hogwarts floor if she didn't reach the hospital wing in time.
She was on the right floor but struggling with finding the right room when Bill appeared with the two boys he'd sat behind in Transfiguration. She froze, her hands still on her stomach.
Bill stopped when he saw her, and his friends followed his lead. They stared at her with the same distrustful curiosity the Slytherin girls did. It didn't matter. She didn't care about the other two boys. Her eyes were only on Bill and the unmistakable way he'd looked at her before he'd wiped his emotions from his face.
"I'm looking for the hospital wing," she said, keeping her tone matter-of-fact. "Can you tell me where it is?"
Bill swallowed. "Fleur, look—"
"Did the Slytherins turn on you?" one of the boys joked. "Or did they get you to join in their idea of fun and it backfired?"
Fleur had no idea what he was talking about, but it further soured whatever she'd felt when she first noticed Bill. Bill looked stricken but didn't seem to have a response to his friend's comment.
"The hospital wing?" Fleur pressed. Her stomach wouldn't allow for chit-chat anyway.
"It's that way," Bill said with a sigh, pointing in the direction that Fleur had already been going. "It's the door right at the end of the hall if you go straight."
"Thank you," Fleur said, brushing past them and refusing to look back to see if Bill watched her go.
Bill collapsed into an armchair in the Gryffindor common room, his bag discarded at his feet.
"What's up with you?" Clark asked, half his attention on the broom he was carefully polishing in his lap.
"We just saw Fleur Delacour in the corridor," Seth said, not bothering to see if Bill would answer the question himself. "She was kissing Malachi Zabini."
Clark cringed and reached over to punch Bill in the shoulder. "I'm sorry, mate, but you know nothing will ever happen between the two of you now, right? She's a Slytherin. She's only going to date other Slytherins."
Bill shrugged. Of course he understood that. Six years at Hogwarts was plenty of time to learn that Slytherins didn't befriend people outside their own house, let alone date them, but things had been so good between him and Fleur over the summer. He couldn't believe that she'd been sorted into Slytherin. Even months later it had him baffled. It didn't feel right. Just like her kissing Zabini in the middle of a corridor didn't feel right.
"How's the broom?" Seth asked Clark, perching himself on the arm of the sofa where Clark was working.
Neither of his friends cared much for discussing Fleur when she came up. Usually, Bill could also pretend like he didn't care, but inevitably, something like her kissing Zabini would happen, and he'd reveal how he actually felt.
"Amazing," Clark said, holding the broom up for Seth to admire it. "I still can't believe I have one. There's no way we're going to lose to Slytherin with this thing."
"Course not," Seth said. "Especially with the likes of you and Bill on the team. Eh, Bill?"
He nudged Bill's shoulder, and Bill managed a slight smile. "Yeah, of course. You know this is our year."
He sat up and let himself be drawn into the Quidditch conversation. Because if there was one good distraction, it was always Quidditch, and not even Fleur was going to stop him from helping bring Slytherin down on the pitch.
It took a month, but Fleur and Zabini broke up. Bill's excitement was so obvious that Clark and Seth had bothered him until he'd asked Fleur to Hogsmeade. He'd been shocked when she said yes.
He'd hoped that it would feel just like the summer when everything had been simple. They were out of their Hogwarts robes, but they were in heavy winter clothes instead, which were just as strong of a reminder that nothing was the same as last summer.
They walked through the village streets, and Bill struggled to come up with something to say. It was Fleur who broke the silence.
"I'm glad you asked me to come with you," she said.
She was smiling, and Bill couldn't stop himself from smiling back. Maybe some things could be the same as they'd been the previous summer.
"Thank you for saying yes." He reached out and found her hand, locking their fingers together. "I was worried you might say no now that you're a Slytherin. I know your new friends hate us."
Fleur laughed and shook her head. "Everyone keeps telling me that I'll understand the house rivalries, but it's been months, and it still seems as ridiculous as it did in September."
Bill stiffened. It wasn't like he enjoyed hating Slytherins, but the way Fleur laughed rubbed him the wrong way.
"Maybe it is," he said. "But it's not Gryffindor's fault. Surely by now you've realized what kind of people you share a house with."
"The pureblood supremacists?" she asked, waiting for Bill's nod before she continued. "I know them, yeah. They're not particularly happy about me being part veela, you know? So I do understand why you hate them, but turning it into a whole house thing is too much. We have those people in France too. They don't all have to be Slytherins. It's such a weird thing to conflate with each other."
"But that's not our fault," Bill pushed. "You have to recognize that it's Slytherin's. They're the house who wants all the pureblood supremacists."
Fleur rolled her eyes, and Bill started to feel his blood boil.
"I'd rather not do this," Fleur said. "If you're going to make a big deal about this and keep going on about Slytherin this and Slytherin that, I think we should end this here."
"But, Fleur, Slytherin is—"
She held a hand up to stop him and shook her head.
"Maybe it really is better if we don't see each other," she said. "Bye, Bill."
He watched her go before kicking at the ground and swearing, unable to believe that he'd gotten so close and then managed to screw it up.
The day of the game came, and the Gryffindor team was prepared. Adrenaline rushed through Bill's veins as they entered the pitch and took off, flying circles over the stands as the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs all cheered. It was invigorating and when Bill felt at his best.
Clark sat tall on his new broom. He knew that people were admiring it from the stands. Bill smirked. Though his own broom was older, he felt proud just knowing someone on the team had a broom like that.
When the Slytherins took to the air, Bill's focus narrowed. He watched Zabini as he raised his arm and encouraged the Slytherins to cheer louder. Bill felt a pang to his gut as he remembered that Fleur was somewhere within the smaller crowd of green. He hated to admit it, but he cared more about that than the two-thirds of the school in red and gold.
It had been a couple of months since Fleur and Zabini broke up, yet Bill couldn't repress the rush of jealousy he felt when he looked at him. It made him more determined than ever to win.
The game began, and Gryffindor got off to a great start by scoring several goals in a row.
Then the Slytherins did what they're famous for and knocked into Clark too roughly. Clark bent low over his broom, clutching his arm. Hooch called a timeout to yell at Slytherin while the Gryffindors gathered around Clark.
"Are you okay?" Bill asked. "Can you still play?"
Clark cringed in a way that was far from encouraging. "I can still move it," he said with a sheepish smile. "I don't think it's broken or seriously injured, but I won't be able to throw as well as before."
"We've still got this," Charlie said from the back of the crowd. "We're strong enough as a team. We can win against Slytherin even when we're not at our best."
Everyone nodded, but they were more apprehensive than they'd been ten minutes before. Bill kept a determined look on his face as he glared at Zabini, who was guarding the goal posts. Charlie was right that they were a strong team, but they were also at a disadvantage. They couldn't afford to let their guard down even a little bit.
Luckily, their keeper was as strong as ever. She blocked shot after shot that Slytherin sent her way, only letting a few through. When the Slytherin seeker, Bulstrode, caught sight of the snitch, Gryffindor still had a sizable lead. Charlie was right on Bulstrode's tail, determined not to let him have the snitch, but Bill felt a surge of frustration. Despite Gryffindor's lead, they would tie with Slytherin if Slytherin got the snitch now.
Bill motioned for Clark to toss him the Quaffle, and he did so without any interference from the Slytherins, who were busy watching their seeker. It was true that Bulstrode was good. He was the best player on their team. Bill had a lot of faith in his brother, but he had to make sure.
He shot towards the Slytherin goal posts and only had to dodge one Slytherin to get there. Clark stayed on his tail, which Bill was thankful for. Their beaters were too busy protecting Charlie to have noticed what Bill was up to, but luckily, the Slytherin beaters hadn't noticed either. By the time most of the Slytherin players realized what Bill was doing, it was too late.
Zabini dove for the Quaffle, but he misjudged Bill's aim just enough for the Quaffle to go zooming through the goal post, giving them 10 points. Bill looked up just in time to see Bulstrode's hand grab the snitch. He held it up high, only to grow confused when the Slytherin crowd didn't respond.
A delayed cheer went up from the other two-thirds of the school instead as they caught on to what had just happened. Bill laughed softly to himself as his teammates surrounded him and almost tugged him off his broom in their effort to get at him.
In the Slytherin stands, the girls groaned as the other houses celebrated, with more than a few people cursing at Bulstrode for not realizing that Bill had scored seconds before he reached the snitch. Fleur hardly paid them any mind. She was too busy staring at Bill, or what she could see of him with his teammates gathered around him at least.
She bit her lip. It had been a long year, and while she still thought the house rivalries were silly, in that moment, she understood how proud he must be to be a Gryffindor. Her heart tightened, and she hardly noticed when Antonia started tugging on her sleeve to leave.
No matter what houses they were in, Bill was the only one she wanted.
Fleur hurried through the crowd of students as they made their way back up to the castle. She was worried that she would miss Bill entirely amongst all the people, but she spotted his red ponytail quickly and made a beeline for him, knocking into a few Gryffindors on accident who were less than kind about it.
His eyes widened when he saw her, and Fleur came to a stop, unsure of what she wanted to say.
"Fleur," Bill said as if he couldn't think of anything else.
"You looked great out there," Fleur said motioning towards the pitch.
She vaguely noticed Bill's teammates leaving them alone, but her focus was only on Bill as he scratched nervously at his neck.
"Yeah, well, lots of practice I guess," he said.
Fleur took a deep breath. "Look, Bill, you're the one that I want no matter what houses we're in."
Bill swallowed and took a step closer. "I want you too. I don't care that you're in Slytherin."
Fleur smiled and stepped forward to embrace him. Bill met her halfway, meeting her in a kiss. Fleur couldn't help but smile against his lips.