Just as the door to the library shut behind Dumbledore, Hermione realized where the blonde was familiar from.
"Fleur Delacour? Didn't you compete in the…" Hermione halted mid-sentence as realization struck her.
Fleur looked away in anticipation for the reaction to come, but instead of hurried niceties, there's only a quiet 'Oh' of recognition, and then a few beats later, another 'oh', this one filled with horror and pity. Fleur didn't know which one she preferred - the niceties, or this - but at least this reaction seemed genuine.
Whenever she was introduced to new people, she got dragged back to that fateful day by their reactions. The day of the last task of the Triwizard Tournament, five years ago. The day she dueled Viktor Krum. The day she dueled Viktor Krum and lost, inches away from gaining the title of champion. The day she suffered an almost fatal accident in front of a live audience. The day one of her spells quite literally blew up in her face.
She let out a calming breath, trying to get rid of the phantom ache behind her eyes. Krum's last, shouted spell echoed in her mind, followed by the resounding sound of explosion. She tried to cling to reality with all her might. She reminded herself how far she'd come, despite her drawbacks. She didn't need pity. She channeled her focus back to the present conversation - or lack thereof.
"I'm Hermione Granger, by the way. For what it's worth" Hermione started haltingly, sensing a heavy moment "I think it was Viktor's fault, not yours. I know what people were saying back then, but if it wasn't for-"
"Thank you, but I'd rather get to the matter at hand."
"Of - of course, I'm just saying, in case you'd ever wonder, I've cut ties with him after that."
Ah, but of course, Hermione Granger's name was also dragged across the tabloids back then. A young woman's eternal vice, to be attached to a man - but which of the many eligible bachelors should she choose? Fleur allowed herself a bitter smile, looking sideways at Hermione. The sight of the girl gave her goosebumps all over. It wasn't quite normal, for a blind person, to just start seeing people. Luckily, she didn't let panic and confusion consume her entirely. She'd experienced this before. Hermione didn't know it yet, but she was incredibly lucky they met.
After a brief, but no less embarrassing pause, Fleur cleared her throat and led the way to a sizable oak table with benches on both sides, deeper inside the library. Even if she couldn't read the books, this place served as a quiet refuge from the presence of other people. It was only a matter of counting steps, and remembering painstakingly memorised turns, and they arrived at their destination in no time whatsoever.
They both settled, and Fleur heard - and felt - the thump of something heavy hitting the tabletop. Despite Hermione having her hands on the object, it remained invisible to Fleur - just another part of the blackness that was customary after her accident. She tried not to gape at the spectacle that was her research partner, but the novelty didn't wear off quite so fast.
"So…" Hermione started "Secrets of the Darkest Arts… Dumbledore sure wasn't playing around. What are we doing exactly?"
"Catching you up, I'd guess. But first… Muffliato!" Fleur cast into the air, to seemingly no effect. "Wouldn't want anyone to overhear who's not supposed to."
"Catching me up on… what? All I know is, I'm supposed to be helping a… house elf with some task, and somehow, I can do that by helping you?"
"And yet you agreed without question. Are you sure you didn't belong to the house of the Griffon d'Or?" Fleur let out a chuckle, but after seeing Hermione's displeased expression, she quieted quickly. In the back of her mind, it made her wonder if she wasn't as funny as she thought she was - and people were just too polite to say.
"Mais non, you'll not be working with the elf. Maybe it's better if I start at the beginning? If you look up chapter two in the book, you'll see what we're dealing with."
A few seconds of ruffling pages later, Hermione was already pouring over the ancient text.
"The introduction to… Horcruxes?" Hermione asked, confused. It wasn't very often that she came across a word she didn't recognise, but she was sure she'd not seen this one before in her life. Her eyes were already flying over the text, and soon she found herself turning the page, and then another, her expression growing more and more horrified. Fleur waited for her to finish patiently, knowing it was a lot to take in at first. The furious page turning concluded with the book being shut, and after a beat, Hermione spoke up uneasily.
"Am I supposed to help you… make one of these?" She asked, tangible fear in her voice.
"Heavens no! We're supposed to unmake one - but before we do that, Dumbledore asked us to study its mechanics closely. I'm going to jump ahead and tell you that it's relatively easy to destroy a horcrux if you are not afraid to use some questionable magic, or you have access to some rare substances. Destroying the vessel destroys the piece of soul inside it, but -"
"But Dumbledore wants us to figure out how to destroy the piece of soul without also destroying the object?" Hermione cut in, already excited about the intellectual challenge
"Precisely. Hence my usage of the word "unmake". He wants us to be able to neutralize this threat while remaining undetected in our efforts."
A loaded silence settled between them, but not for a lack of things to say. Quite the contrary, Hermione had so many questions in mind, she couldn't decide what to start with. Whose horcrux was this? Why couldn't it be destroyed normally? Where do they even start? Who else knows about this? Why was she told about this? Was there a deadline?
"So… where do we start?" She asked, her fingers already toying with the cover of the ancient tome.
-O-
A good four hours in, having answered a myriad of questions, and having assigned reading material to last a sane person a lifetime, Fleur was keen on wrapping their session up for the day. Hermione showed great promise to be useful with her critical thinking and extensive knowledge, but Fleur could only focus for so long. Besides, there was the worrisome circumstance of her seeing the brunette right in front of her as she sat, staring intently at what Fleur supposed was one of the texts. She spared a fleeting thought to Dumbledore, and how she'd have to thank him for getting her help on such short notice - she herself wasn't on the task for long before she realised assistance might be needed.
It never occurred to her to ask why she was chosen for the task, for it was in a way self explanatory. She was a skilled cursebreaker, but next to useless on the frontlines. Dumbledore, however, saw her as worthy amongst surely a dozen others. Trusted her with this crucial piece of the puzzle, although not unconditionally. As eccentric as Dumbledore was, he was far from a fool. Her oath of secrecy to him came to the forefront of her mind, and she guided her focus back to Hermione, who was mumbling under her breath as she read.
"Hermione?"
"Yes?" Hermione answered absentmindedly without looking up, and Fleur had to resist to react, or to call out her name again. She wasn't supposed to know, after all.
"Before I leave you to your reading, there's one thing that we must do - that is, if you're willing to carry this task out to the end." She said somberly.
Hermione waited for her silently to continue, and after a beat, Fleur did so.
"When Dumbledore entrusted me with this task, he made me swear an oath of secrecy. Nowhere as powerful as a Fidelius Charm, or an Unbreakable Vow, but seeing as he crafted it, I'm willing to bet it's not to be trifled with. He'll want the same commitment from you. If you've decided, we should go to see him before taking any steps."
Hermione took a good two minutes to mull the whole thing over. She closed the book before her with a bit more force than necessary, making the thud echo between the shelves in the empty library.
"Lead the way!" She exclaimed, standing up abruptly, only to earn a confused smile and a raised eyebrow from Fleur.
"Um, I mean, I'll lead the way. How - do you need help getting around?" She added sheepishly.
"I don't have the house memorized quite yet. If I could hold onto your elbow, that would be nice."
"Oh, of course! Sorry, you just had me fooled with how confidently you led us here, sorry."
"Some places take priority over others." Fleur added with mirth in her voice. She stood up, dispelled the privacy charm, and reached out for Hermione's elbow with a deliberately wide motion.
"That I can understand." Hermione answered, relieved. "Ready?" She asked Fleur after the blonde caught onto her elbow.
"Lead the way!"
Fleur was heartened to see a tiny smile of amusement on Hermione's face. Maybe there was hope for her sense of humour just yet!
-O-
After Dumbledore swore Hermione to secrecy about their task, Fleur left her to continue reading at Grimmauld Place. Before she could go home to relax, however, she first made a detour to Bill's apartment, as she knew he could lay her worries about the girl to rest.
As calm as she perceived herself to be, when she got to his door, she just about kicked it down to get to talk to him sooner. Her fist banged on the door with resounding thumps, and lacking sight, she almost clocked Bill upside the head when he abruptly opened it and stepped in front of her.
"Whoah, Blondie, easy there, hello!" He said with a breathy laugh as he reflexively caught her fist in midair.
"Bill, you have to help me, it's happening again!"
"Wha- what? What's happening? Don't tell me it's-"
"I saw someone again."
"Shit."
Bill ushered her in quickly, and they settled in his living room with two hastily poured mugs of tea.
"So, tell me everything from the beginning."
"There isn't much to tell. Dumbledore assigned her to help me with my task, and I can't deal with that and THIS at the same time. I can't be bothered to pretend not to see her, but I don't want to tell her I DO see her when I'm not exactly sure yet why." Fleur told Bill with a tired huff, and took a sip from her tea. She set down the mug on the coffee table on the second try, as she slightly misjudged the distance the first time. She sighed defeatedly. "This whole thing just reminds me of how helpless I felt in the beginning, you know. Seeing one person, but nothing else… it's like a slap in the face, all over again."
"I remember how badly you took it back then. But hey, I'm still here to help, just like the first time." Bill said reassuringly, and put a hand on Fleur's shoulder. Fleur allowed herself a weak smile, unbothered but also not comforted by his touch.
"It was different between you and me. We were already friends, almost lovers - I trusted you not to think me mad. And after that… Well, that's my new normal. I haven't even known her for a day yet, I can't just spring this on her!"
"Wait, who is she again? There weren't so many new faces at the meeting earlier, so… if it was a she… is it Hermione Granger, then?"
Fleur nodded, giving a hum of agreement.
"She did assure me she's no longer close with Viktor Krum, though, as if that's supposed to count for something." Fleur continued in an incredulous tone.
"Ouch. Well, at least there's that. She never did have a lot of tact."
"You know her?"
"My brothers can't shut up about her, for one reason or another. I know OF her, but that doesn't help us much. Anyhow, if it's anything like last time, you better tell her right away. Besides, I don't think she'd take it kindly if you kept working with her and held it a secret from her. She's annoyingly intelligent, she'll know something's the matter."
"Why does it have to be another puzzle? With my luck, it will be exactly like it was with you, and I'll waste moths of valuable time-"
"Or it will be like other times when you get it over with in a matter of seconds. We won't know until you start." Bill said in what he hoped was a reassuring tone, and clasped Fleur's hands in his.
Fleur had a fleeting thought to resist Bill's attempts to calm her down, but in the end, with a deep breath, she let go of all of her jittery energy. After all, that's why she came here.
When Bill saw that she settled, he let a tired smile spread on his face. He took in the woman sitting in front of him, so far from the seventeen year old girl he first got to know. He took a long, hard look at the unseeing slate grey eyes that were once full of life, mystery, and adoration. Now they were staring in his general direction, unfocused, as they had been the moment he vanished from Fleur's vision.
It wasn't just Fleur who this new development took back to her accident a few years prior. Bill remembered vividly her recovery, the resulting frustration, and the rift that grew and grew between them until he realised that what Fleur needed was a friend, rather than a romantic partner. He made the decision to step back, and hasn't regretted it for a minute since. Their relationship strengthened as friends and so far, stood the test of time through respective new partners and new situations.
"Bill?" called Fleur, and he realised he zoned out for a bit too long.
"Ah, yeah, still here, sorry." He added quickly, sheepish.
"Where did you go?"
"I was just remembering, back when… back when you told me, and what came after."
It was Fleur's turn to grow silent. She could guess what Bill was referring to. They didn't speak of it often, opting to gloss over the transition from their budding relationship to their friendship, as if it wasn't worth remembering. In truth, Fleur wished she'd forget it all. If asked, she would deny it, but she took the loss of her sight terribly. Between the nightmares about her accident, and having to relearn to do the most basic things in life, she was stretched too thin, ready to snap. When she realised that she was still able to see Bill, she clung to him like a lifeline. There was no separating her from his side, because that would have meant that she's completely blind, alone, and afraid. She didn't want to be those things. So she stayed in England. She relied on him to get around. She got a job at Gringotts, so they could go to work together. Slowly, she relied on him to go about more and more parts of her life, just because it would mean she could hang onto the last shred of normality just a bit longer.
At first Bill didn't seem to mind, but then, as she asked more and more of him, both of them started to mind at the same time. Fleur wanted to be independent, but wouldn't dare to take the steps, and Bill wanted to help, but in other ways that didn't include him being an almost literal guide dog. The strain on their relationship grew until one day, Fleur saw someone else at work, and suddenly, the question of WHY that she pushed so eagerly aside with Bill rushed to the surface. The question also had an answer that was the most terrifying that they both could have guessed. The person carried a remnant of a curse that threatened his life, as further investigation found.
Fleur felt even more torn, guilty, and selfish when she realised she'd been reliant on a curse's side effects that almost ended Bill's life, too. By that time, tension ran high between the two, and Fleur wouldn't have blamed Bill if he bolted. In the weeks leading up to the removal of the ancient curse, both of them felt that it would change something between them permanently.
Only as she embraced the invisible form of the man she saw just seconds before, and wept, did Fleur realise that this was a goodbye of sorts. Bill asked to step back from the relationship soon after, and she agreed. She didn't want to use him anymore. Miraculously, they also found a new, fresh start as friends, and worked through their past hurts one after the other. After everything, though, Fleur still felt ashamed that she let the situation get that far, back then. She shouldn't have let herself. And now, she won't.
"Don't worry, Bill. I won't let myself get… attached." She pressed the word out between her teeth, condemning her past self.
"Hey, easy there. We were young, we got tangled up in a shitty situation. I know it still eats at you, but it shouldn't. Merlin knows I might have acted the same, given the circumstances. What's important is we figured it out, and now you help so many others with this."
Fleur felt a warmth fill her chest at Bill's optimistic words. He was always there to support her. She still didn't think she deserved it.
"So, what do you recon? Which diagnostic spells should I cast on her first?" She asks in an attempt to return to the subject of her visit, and thankfully, Bill takes it in stride.
"And how would you do that if you don't want her to know something's up?"
"You tell me, you're my senior in the field! I can't cast things at random, I don't know what kind of a light show I'd make! Remember I learned this trade completely blind!"
"Honestly, you've gotten so good at it, I can hardly tell anymore."
Fleur tried to raise an eyebrow at him in question, attempting to call him on his bullshit, but seeing as she stared a foot left of him made him give a snort.
"And then you do something like this…" He chuckled
"Like what?" Fleur deadpanned, continuing to look in the wrong direction.
"Anyway, so you'd better use Finite at first, just to see if it is a fluke, and then…" Bill started, and they went on discussing possible plans for the rest of the night. By the time Fleur got home, the sky on the horizon was starting to turn red, and she was too tired to worry about any of her haphazardly thrown together plans going south.