True to his word, Bill had taken my hand as soon as we left Honeydukes and apparated us to a new destination once he was sure I was prepared to go.

The place we ended up was on a sandy beach, the waves softly rolling in to hit the sand. It looked amazing with the rock pools off to the sides and a small incline behind us making it seem like we were in a little beach valley.

"It used to belong to my aunt," Bill explained, turning me around to face the little white cottage I hadn't noticed. "Shell Cottage. Mum and dad used to bring us here in the summer."

"It's fantastic," I whispered, truly feeling blown away by this small paradise.

"I remember Charlie saying you loved the beach," he added, his hand grazing my back as he directed me over to a picnic blanket arranged with fluffy blankets and pillows and with a large variety of food and drink. "I must admit, I did get a little help from Charlie. He set this up for me while we were in Hogsmeade."

"He's the best," I muttered, allowing Bill to pull me over to the blankets and dropping down when he gave me a pointed look. "I mean you're totally better, the best even for planning such a lovely evening," I added, teasing him at the fact he used to get so jealous of his brother.

"Oh, shut up," he groaned, dropping on the blanket next to me and shifting around so he was perched behind me. "Come here." He pulled me into him, my back hitting his chest and his chin resting on my shoulder. "Look up."

It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I could understand now why Bill said it needed to be tonight he took me here.

There were hundreds of shooting stars flying across the sky, making it truly feel like we were in a magical place.

"Wow," I muttered, feeling completely at a loss for words. All the years I had taken astronomy at Hogwarts and I had never seen something like this. "Did you plan this," I asked, lifting my hand and gesturing towards the beautiful sky.

"Not the shooting stars, no, that's a cosmic event, but I did want to bring you here to see them." His fingers brushed away some of the strands of my hair that blew in my face and he pressed a kiss to the side of my head.

It was cute.

We probably looked like one of those cute couples in a romance book.

"This is perfect, Bill. The best date I've ever been on." It wasn't a lie. While Charlie seemed to have put a ban on my dating life at Hogwarts there wasn't much he could do while he was in Romania.

I had dated a few guys in the last couple of years, none of them had lasted more than a couple of dates.

They all seemed to change their minds about me when they realised who I was and who I was related to.

Sighing in content, I leaned back into Bill, lacing my fingers with his as he wrapped his arms around me.


To my surprise we returned home just after twelve. We apparated directly into the kitchen and I was beyond surprised to find Sirius and Remus hanging around.

I knew instantly from the look on Sirius' face that he knew we weren't meeting Fleur.

"Nice date?" he said, a raised eyebrow as Bill shuffled behind me.

"Yes it was actually," I replied, lifting my head slightly daring him to challenge me. If he wanted to be an arsehole about it, then I was prepared to play ball.

"Look, I don't care if you're dating, but if you're planning on keeping it a secret maybe you should be back before midnight." He glanced over to Remus, an amused smile on his friend's face. "Molly was having a fit. She thought something happened to you both. We've only just managed to send her off to bed."

"Right, okay, I guess we'll apparate upstairs then," I said, reaching back and grabbing hold of Bill's hand.

"Sleep in your own room!" Sirius called as I apparated out of there.

I couldn't help but laugh as I released Bill's hand, collapsing back onto my bed.

"You know, I thought Sirius was going to be a little sterner with me," Bill confided, leaning back against the wall as he watched me tug off my boots.

"He probably will be but he'll catch you by surprise." I gave him a soft smile and rose off the bed, walking towards him. "I really did have a lovely night, Bill."

"Yeah? Would you go out with me again then?"

It was cute how he was getting so flustered about it.

"I will, but first I think we should have a lunch date with Fleur. Maybe we can convince her to be our scapegoat with all these dates."


A few days later I was actually getting to meet Fleur for the first time. Well, okay, I'd met her before but it wasn't like I was meeting her to be friends with her, I was taking care of her injuries during the tournament.

She was just as beautiful as before, her silver locks glimmering in the light as she came bounding over to our table in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Oh, Bill, she is amazing," she greeted, her voice heavily underlined in her French accent.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Fleur," I greeted in French, watching as her eyebrows rose in surprise.

"You speak my tongue?"

"I am a Black, we were taught French as we are taught English. It's my second language." I rose and brought her into a hug, pressing a kiss on both cheeks before gesturing to the seat opposite Bill. "I hope you have settled in well? I know the weather hasn't been fantastic but I assure you that the weather is about to turn around. We'll be lucky to have a sunny summer with a couple of beach days."

"As nice as this is," Bill interrupted, his hand settling on my leg as I sat back down next to him. "Can we please speak in English as I have no clue what you're saying."

Fleur gave me a look at the slightly intimidated look on Bill's face and it seemed we both had the same idea.

"We could use this against him," I said, mailing in delight as Fleur nodded in agreement.

"It would be fun, yes." Bill's huff of annoyance was enough to let us both know that we had officially annoyed him.

"I think this is going to be a great friendship, Fleur."

"I think this was the worst thing I've ever done," grumbled Bill twenty minutes later as he sat there in silence and listened to us chatter away over lunch, this time in English.

"Oh, hon, don't be sad. You were worried Fleur was going to struggle to make friends because everyone is intimidated by her. You should be happy we're now friends."

"Yeah, but I didn't want her to steal my girlfriend!" His face went that adorable red it does whenever he got angry.

"Don't worry, William." I rested my hand on his arm and leant over to press a kiss to his cheek. "You'll get to keep your girlfriend. No matter how beautiful Fleur is, she won't steal me away from you. Unfortunately for me, I've only ever had eyes for you," I told him, not afraid to admit what we both knew. Bill's grumpy face turned into one of excitement and he reached over to grab my face, planting a kiss to my lips.

"You are adorable," Fleur exclaimed, clapping her hands together in excitement. It was like she'd never seen couples act like this before.

"Sorry, Fleur," I apologised, pulling away from Bill and giving him a pointed look. We had agreed to keep all displays of affection on the down low in case someone spotted us and mentioned it to Molly. "We should do this again. Not the kissing, the getting together."

"I agree," Fleur said, taking a sip of her butterbeer, her smile clear in her eyes.


The beginning of August came with the news of Harry being attacked by Dementors and the expulsion from Hogwarts.

Sirius was all pent up from his anger at nearly losing Harry and being trapped inside the house for months on end.

We'd received letters from Hedwig and according to Dumbledore, it was best to keep her here as he planned to retrieve Harry soon from the Dursley's.

All we had to do now was wait.