Hermione felt as if she was walking like a robot, her every move jerky. She really didn't want to go. Didn't want to pass that door. But she knocked and was told to enter. It didn't take long for her to be standing in front of this huge polished desk. There was not a speck of dust on it, a few items in order. Professor McGonagall was more stern than usual, sitting there, hands clasped on top of the desk.

"I came as soon as I could." Said the Gryffindor, standing very still and as straight as she could.

"I'm sure you did." Replied the teacher as she slowly stood up, her chair making a noise as it was pushed back on the floor. She walked around her desk to stand in front of Hermione.

"It's not something I thought I'd ever say to you Miss Granger, but I'm very disappointed."

The young Gryffindor couldn't help but feel a pang in her chest, she had always looked up to her transfiguration teacher. She looked down and saw feet appear in her line of sight.

She had moved closer before speaking again. "Do you have any idea how many rules you broke last night?"

Hermione couldn't herself but breath out "None."

"What did you just say?"

She had felt so small confronting her favorite professor, then she had felt something, strength, pride…was it Fleur sending it to her? Or her own soul standing up?

Pulling her shoulder back to make sure she wouldn't slouch or back down, she slowly looked up. "I…I didn't break any rules. I didn't…break curfew. I was in my own bed."

"With your lover."

"There is nothing… against that, if…if it's not a boy. There is nothing about two girls sharing a bed."

"You know pretty well that it is implied."

"It…is not in the rules. I didn't do anything…Wrong."

"I can see Mister Potter isn't the only with having a bad influence on you."

Hermione wasn't sure how she felt as she heard that. Harry and Fleur tended to get her out of her shell, they were in a way pushing her to be…more.

She felt like something was expanding in her chest again. It had to be Fleur! "Just stop!"

"What did you just say to me Miss Granger?!" Seethed out Minerva McGonagall.

"No! I… I wasn't speaking to you. I was…Sorry." She looked down once more.

Her professor walked back to stand behind her desk. "This will be two months detentions. And if it wasn't for the possible diplomatic incident, I'd restrict you from going to the Yule Ball. Not to forget that you just made your house loose fifty points."

Hermione's jaw dropped. She had to keep up with her school work. She needed that time to help Harry. When was she ever going to see Fleur?

She closed her mouth then opened it again. Not able to say a word as her mind was running too fast.

"There is nothing left to say. I expect you to be spending at least 2 hours a day, after the holidays, helping professor Hagrid with his classes" Hermione relaxed a little, it wouldn't be so bad if it was with Hagrid "He could use the help with his Blast-Ended Skrewts." The Gryffindor groaned. She was all for helping her friend when it came to organizing his courses, not so much when it came to…his pets.

McGonagall sat down. "You may go now."

Hermione didn't need to be told twice, she walked out the door as fast as she could without actually running.

Fleur was still giggling as she made her way down the stairs, suddenly coming face to face with frowning red heads didn't help.

"So?" Was all Fred asked.

"Don't worry. Nothing happened." Then she couldn't help but think about her friend pushing a girl right off bed and was laughing again. "I'm sorry. I need to sit down." She gracefully lowered herself on the red couch before laughing harder.

The Weasley were looking back and forth from the stairs to the blonde. She was always so poised, seeing her crack like that wasn't really reassuring.

Upstairs the girls were decent and appeared calm. Laetitia opened the door. "Ladies first."

"Thank you." Ginny bowed a little as she walked past the older girl, usually she didn't like people calling her a lady. It just felt off, but this time she went with it, mostly because she had a pretty good idea of the kind of reception they could expect downstairs and it would be better for her to be in front of the French girl.

Ginny relaxed as she finally reached the common room, her brothers were busy ogling Fleur, that could give them the opportunity to slip away for now.

The blonde's face suddenly changed, she went from laughing to concerned, which is when her best friend had to ask. "What's wrong Fleur?"

Ginny groaned at that blatant mistake, they had been made, her three brothers were already closing in on them but a completely oblivious Laetitia walked right passed them to her compatriot.

"Fleur are you okay you look…how could I describe it…constipated? Ouch!"

Fleur was glaring at her friend after she slapped her shoulder. Laetitia rolled her eyes before apologizing. "Sorry. I forget you are a princess, you have no bowel movement. You have a pony to do that for you."

The blonde hit her shoulder harder. "Hermione is upset, I'm trying to send her positive vibes. And that would be unicorn, thank you."

"What?"

"A white horse with a horn…you know! Not a pony."

"No! The Hermione thing!"

"Our link has been growing lately. I know she feels kind of down so I'm trying to…tell her to go get it, fight back. Be the Gryffindor lioness she is supposed to be."

Laetitia was amazed. "Your connection is already that strong. How far along in your mating ritual are you?"

"Something is wrong with Hermione and that's what you got from it?" Asked Fleur.

"That, and you got it bad." Laetitia tilted her head a little as she spoke.

The blonde opened her mouth, obviously worried, but Harry interrupted, frowning. "Hermione is in McGonagall's office right now, getting a lecture about getting caught in bed with her French girlfriend. I don't think that's the best time to send her…vibes."

"Positive ones."

"This is Hermione. Knowing her, she probably has enough going on in her mind. Don't you think?"

"I think people should always know they have the support they n…oh! Maybe you're right." Frowned Fleur.

"What just happened?" Asked Laetitia seeing the look on her friend's face.

"I think she just told me to shut up."

Ron snickered and Fleur glared. "At least I know we can still go to the ball together." She gave one last stinky eye at Ron as she got up.

"Now that you're done…with that. Didn't we have someplace to go?" Enquired Laetitia, glancing from time to time at the Weasley twins who were encircling their little sister, and looked like they were arguing.

"Do you think it will be a while before Hermione comes back? I want to see her before I go."

"We don't know, and you always want to see her."

"True." Nodded Fleur. "You are right." The blonde didn't verbalize that she needed to get over it, this connection was making her slightly irrational. She needed to be in control for this tournament. "Not that you are in any rush either."

"You know me. We'll get scolded at for disappearing all night, what's ten more minutes?"

Fleur rolled her eyes at the rhetorical question. Typical. "Come on then." She grabbed her friend's arm and pulled her towards the common room door. They were stopped when two identical read heads appeared. Fred and George, arms crossed were standing in front of the only way out, glaring at Laetitia.

"Not so fast." Started Fred.

"Did you sleep with our sister?" Asked George while Fred winced.

"We shared a bed, but don't worry Ginny acted like a perfect lady."

The raven-haired girl took advantage of their shock to run past them with her best friend.

"Hurry!"

"You are acting like you are scared of them." Commented Fleur as she ran next to her friend.

"I'm not! I just…I hear they can be a pain."

"They are just pranksters, nothing you've never handled before."

"Handled?! I destroyed that bitch!" She stopped as she exclaimed that but Fleur pulled her forward. They weren't merely trying to get away from the Weasley twins, they really needed to see Madame Maxime asap.

"He had to switch school. What you did to Baptiste nearly got you expelled."

"No, it didn't. They never knew it was me. As for him, people know better than to start anything with me if they can't handle it. He deserved it."

"You cursed his penis." Drawled the blonde.

"So it shrank every time he reached for it…" Trailed of Laetitia like it was no big deal

"He could barely grab it! And! He had to go to the infirmary to explain his problem!"

"I repeat, he started it."

"He just pranked you a few times."

"And I got him back, then he grabbed my butt and touched my breasts without asking, thinking it was funny and telling me he liked me. This dick deserved it."

"He didn't learn anything from it, other than not to mess with you."

"Here it is. Hermione's rubbing off on you."

Fleur smiled, liking the idea, but without losing track of what she meant. "In his mind you're crazy and he is probably convinced he did nothing wrong. He needed to be scolded at by Madame Maxime and taught a proper lesson about how to treat women in general."

"He learned a lesson, mess with a woman you'd better be ready for the consequences."

Fleur nodded, keeping in mind that she herself had put an itching spell on his underwear as soon as Laetitia told her, at the time not knowing her best friend had cursed his genitals. "Don't think I didn't see you how you dodged the subject about the Weasleys."

Hermione was pushing her food around with her fork, in some kind of sullen silence.

Ginny glanced at her not sure about what could be done. She looked at Harry for support.

"Don't look at me. It's girl trouble. I'm worse at it than she is" He looked longingly at Cho and Ginny seemed a little hurt.

"Maybe it's the strangely long detention thing." Offered Ron though is mouthful.

"No. You know she would have done it anyway, help Hagrid I mean. I saw her write down plans for some lessons before she got caught by McGonagall." Countered Harry.

"True, but she'll still have to face the Blast-Ended Skrewts on a daily basis once the classes start again." Commented Ron, there was a pause and they both winced.

"Boys, I swear, you can't get any more wrong. This is all about Fleur. She's barely seen her in the last few days, and as the tournament progress it most likely just going get worse."

They were interrupted by an annoyed voice "I can hear you, you know?" Cut Hermione.

They all looked away as they formulated some kind of excuses.

"Professor McGonagall just wants to keep me away from Fleur, she thinks she has a bad influence on me." Explained the muggle-born.

"Or she doesn't want you helping the enemy." Couldn't help but add Ron, causing his female best friend to glare at him again. "Could we please not start this again?"

"I'm just saying, there are some rumors going around about her being the first one to figure out her clue for the second task because of you."

Hermione's mouth dropped open. "That's not true. We don't do or even really speak about anything concerning that stupid competition. The only one I'm helping is Harry because he needs it."

"Thank you Hermione." Drawled out the boy in question, giving her a look.

"No!" Brown eyes grew wide. "I didn't mean it like that. You know I…have complete confidence in your capacities, they just have more knowledge than you do because they are older. And you didn't even ask or need my help to figure out the clue."

Hermione eyebrows lowered as she watched her friend start to squirm. "You figured it out. Right?"

Harry squirmed some more, not looking at the girl.

"Harry, tell me you figured it out."

"If you really want me to." But he didn't actually say it, and she knew.

Hermione rolled her eyes, typical.

"He's got ages!" Snapped Ron and they glared at each other.

"Are we interrupting something?" Asked Laetitia, not really care about the answer as she sat down next to Ginny, which made Ron's glare turn to her so she couldn't help but kiss the red head's cheek to greet her the French way.

Fleur only had eyes for her girlfriend. She gave her a peck on the lips before sitting next to her, as close as she could. "How was your day so far?"

"Better now that you are here." They were giving heart eyes at each other and the people around them groaned.

"There goes my appetite." Said Ron.

"I didn't know it was possible." Was his sister come back.

"So, it's Christmas tomorrow, does your school have anything special planned or is it just the Yule Ball" Asked the raven-haired girl.

"Just the ball." Said Harry, he didn't seem very happy about it.

"Sorry you won't be with us." Expressed Laetitia to the younger Weasley.

"What?"

"You know, only the fourth years and above have been invited."

"Oh I'm going. With Neville." Ginny pointed him at their table and he blushed.

Laetitia straightened up on the bench while Fleur gave her a look. "That's…nice." Was all she could say. Fleur winced and Hermione frowned.

"I didn't know you were going out with him." Fished Laetitia next, she wanted to know more.

"We're not going out per say."

"Per say?!" Interrupted Ron. "You are not going out at all!"

The siblings glared at each other once more. Neville was still bright red as he looked down.

"We're just good friends at the moment. He knew I really wanted to go and was nice enough to ask me"

"Sure." Interjected Laetitia.

"That and you are too young to date of course." Stated Ron.

"I'm sorry? What did you just say?" Angrily exclaimed Ginny towards her brother before turning to the French girl next to her "Did you just nod?"

Laetitia's eyes grew wide, she did, without thinking. "That's not…I'm not…far from me the idea to tell you what you should or should not do."

"Or who." Cut in Fleur, which earned her a slap in the thigh by her girlfriend. Ron spit out his tea, some stared and others like Laetitia glared. "Could you not?"

"I just wanted to clear things up." Innocently said Fleur.

"Really, because I could have a conversation with your girlfriend to clear thins up too."

Fleur raised her hands. That was it.

"Back to our point and in English." Ginny had her arms crossed.

"I would never tell you…how you should act. It's just…traditional in my…family to wait until people are fifteen to…date." It was terrible, Laetitia knew it. "I'm truly sorry. And I really feel the need to add that…I'm nothing like him!" She pointed Ron with her index finger.

"I'd like to think of it as a non-judgmental, nor restrictive opinion on my part." Laetitia nodded after that. That was better.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Exclaimed Ron. Harry patted him on the back while both girls ignored him, they were just looking at each other.

"Fine." Finally said Ginny " Well as a non-judgmental, non-restrictive opinion on my part, I think you fooling around with all these people around the castle is slutty, whether it's a boy or a girl doing it."

Laetitia's jaw dropped open. "I thought we agreed it was a cultural thing?"

"We do. We did, but I'm imbued by that culture, I know it's not rational but I don't like it. And! And I don't like it."

Laetitia turned to her best friend for support, Fleur raise both hands once more, she was not getting in the middle of this, whatever this was.

"I guess we all agree. Ginny is too young to date and Laetitia is a slut." Both girls turned to him and glared.

A few minutes later Laetitia got up. "I'd better get back to the carriage. I have…loads of homework to do." She didn't look at anyone as she left.

Ginny was stabbing a piece of toast when Fleur turned towards Hermione. "I'm really sorry, but I have to…"

"I know." After that Hermione kissed her. "Go."

Fleur left them in a tensed silence.

It felt awkward. Harry couldn't stand it. "Ron, want to play chess?"

Fleur was getting frustrated, she had been looking for her friend for a while, that was precious time with Hermione lost. She concluded that she was not in the carriage. She roamed the grounds then, finally she felt something, it wasn't familiar. She realized it was the Veela inside of her. Enough was enough, the hunt was on.

It didn't take that long afterwards to find her best friend, she was so familiar with her energy, her scent. She didn't expect to find her in the forbidden forest, in wolf form.

"You are always so cute like that. May I pet you?" The huge wolf whose head was at Fleur's chest level growled. "Fine. Be that way." The wolf was dark as night with glowing yellow eyes, nearly golden.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

The wolf's head turned away as it sat down.

"Okay" Fleur sat down next to her.

Before they realized it, Christmas morning had come. Fleur was the first one running out the carriage, she couldn't wait to give Hermione her present. Laetitia was behind but far less motivated.

"I could have slept so much more."

"I didn't force you to come and join us."

"I know." Whined the raven-haired girl.

"Still doesn't want to talk about the whole Ginny thing?" Fleur received a glare after that question.

"Could you at least explain to me the whole she is too young to date crap?"

"That's not crap! Do I call your Veela things crap?!"

"Oh so it's a Lycan thing?"

"You Veela recognize your mate at first sight, we do at first sent, but only once the scent is set, when we reach our prime. Most of the time it's around fifteen. It has become a tradition of ours to wait until you could recognize your mate to fool around with people. Ginny is just too young."

"Too young for her or too young for you?" Asked the blonde.

She received a murderous glare and the conversation was cut short by a somewhat sarcastic tone. "Oh and here we reached the castle. Too bad that conversation can't go on."

As they got into the great all there were just a few people there already, including Hermione. She stood up as she saw the French girl. Fleur greeted her with a not so chaste kiss. "Merry Christmas love. I got you something." The blonde handed her a heavy package wrapped in blue paper.

Hermione sat down before carefully unwrapping it. Everyone knew it was a book before she opened it, she read the cover. " Quill & Parchment: Enchantments. Oh, Fleur thank you! I love it." She kissed her before exchanging her gift.

Fleur wasn't as delicate as the tore off the red paper, to discover a little box. She looked up at Hermione before lifting the lid. There was a little locket inside, it was oval in shape and engraved on the top of it was a Celtic design representing two swans interlaced. Fleur opened it to discover a picture of them by the lake. She remembered that day.

The young Gryffindor was starting to get worried, Fleur was very quiet, staring at the locket. Maybe she didn't like it? Maybe it was too much? Did she go too far, too soon, with a picture of them both in it? "I can change it if you don't like it, I mean…"Fleur looked up into worried brown eyes as the other girl kept on going. " The swan has so many different meanings and I thought it would be appropriate for us, and it's my Celtic astronomical sign too, yours is the butterfly but I thought…I'm so sorry if I…" She was cut off by Fleur as she put her hand on Hermione's neck and kissed her. They broke apart, Fleur took a deep breath, enough to say "It's perfect." before kissing her again.

Someone cleared their throat close by before whishing them "Merry Christmas." It was Professor Dumbeldore. Hermione froze before pulling back. They were both breathing a little hard. Hermione licked her lips. "I'm glad you like it."

"Hmm hmm." Was Fleur reply.

"Does that mean you are done?" Asked Laetitia from the other side of the table after swallowing a piece of waffle.

Hermione licked her lips once more as Fleur nodded.

"Then here is my gift to you Hermione." She pushed what was obviously another book, not too thick.

"You got me something, you really didn't have too. Thank you." Said Hermione as she unwrapped this one, without thinking she read the title out loud too. " Sapphistry: The Book of Lesbian Sexuality." And that was when the young Gryffindor blushed hard and hid the cover. She didn't want to get in trouble.

Fleur gave a look to her best friend who just shrugged. "That's not all."

Hermione's eyes grew wide for a second and Fleur wondered what went through her mind, but just kept going. "Marguerite sent you a little something."

Hermione carefully took it, unwrapped it and breathed out. It was just chocolates. "Would you please thank your grandmother for me."

"Of course." Agreed Fleur before kissing Hermione again.

At the professor's table Dumbledore cleared his throat again as they started. Hermione was still blushing when the rest of their friends joined them. Ginny didn't make eye contact but chose to sit next to Laetitia.

The rest of breakfast was loud as more and more students got down from the dorms. Some thanked each other for gifts, some talked about the upcoming Yule ball. Laetitia and Ginny didn't speak to each other until Laetitia got up to leave. She dropped a strangely shaped gift in front of the younger girl. "I bought it before…you know, you called me a slut, so I might as well give it to you."

Ginny's mouth dropped open, her eyes went to the package and before she had time to process everything, Laetitia had already disappeared. She looked up at Fleur.

"Don't look at me. I don't know what it is."

Ginny's could feel her hands shake as she reached out, before tearing off the paper.

Ron who caught sight of his sister opening a new present was the first one to comment. "Merlin Ginny! These are brand new Quidditch gloves with arms guard and all. Look! It's even been magically autographed by Gwenog Jones!"

" Gwenog Jones?" Asked Hermione.

"She is the captain of the Holyhead Harpies." Explained Fleur.

"And Ginny's favorite player!" Exclaimed Ron "Look at these. They must have cost a fortune!"

Ginny traced the signature with her fingers before trying them on. They were a perfect fit, probably magically designed to do so. She took them off immediately before offering them out to Fleur.

The blonde shook her head. "What are you doing? I'm not taking them."

"I can't accept this. It's too much."

"What?! Are you insane?!" Asked Ron.

Fleur did her best to ignore Ron, as usual. "Ginny. If you don't want them you'll have to tell Laetitia yourself."

Ginny carefully put them on her lap and bit her lower lip.