Fleur Delacour
A/N: Not so happy with this one, but Fleur insisted on going this way… and who am I to argue with a strong-willed woman?
I perch on the moonlit windowsill, watching my Bill – my husband, I correct myself quickly – sleep. The soft moonlight forms strange shadows over his face, a legacy of the attack by Fenrir Greyback the night Dumbledore was killed. I force my thoughts away from that night; it is not something I wish to dwell over on my wedding night.
But they slip back in again; it is hard not to remember when I am confronted by them each time I look at Bill's scarred face. I do try, because it hurts Bill when others stare and make comments, even if he does not show it. His family are used to them now, rarely do they make comments that draw attention them. This is something I have learned and taken to heart – as much as the family bicker amongst themselves, they will close ranks against any outsider who they feel will threaten the family in any way. And as one who was an outsider until that night, it is a formidable wall to break through. But once you are inside, you are given the same "protection" from outsiders, and I am more grateful than I can say for this.
Bill murmurs and screws his face up, as if in pain. Even though the Healers have said that Bill had suffered no lasting effects of the attack – except the ever-present scars, of course! – we believe that something has infected him as he is always more restless on nights of the full moon, as if the beast within is trying to escape.
With a sigh, I slip off the windowsill and close the curtain. Immediately Bill quietens as the light is no longer shining directly on him. I'm still too restless to go back to bed, and would have preferred to stay on the sill, but I cannot let my momentary selfishness override Bill's need for untroubled sleep. Learning to live with each other's foibles is part of what we must do to make our lives together work.
We both have to learn ignore the ill-bred people who comment openly about Bill being "trapped" by a part-Veela into marriage, or myself feeling obliged (or bullied, as one charming old aunt put it!) into marrying someone who will be visibly scarred for life. These people don't realise, or want to know, that it is not the external appearances which made us fall in love with each other, it was our common thoughts, dreams, ideas. And that's the most important thing of all, not the fickle outside which will fade with time.
And we made a vow today to love one another no matter what – and really, I am beautiful enough for the both of us.