The following day they sat comfortably having brunch and discussing silly things when a large owl entered the window and flew towards them. It landed in front of Hermione and she gave the owl a treat after retrieving three well known envelopes.
"Our letters?" Ginny asked and Hermione nodded. "I'll let mom know. Do you want to buy the books today? She will probably come as soon as I tell her."
"I suppose we could." Harry answered as Hermione nodded. Ginny got up and leaned into the fireplace in order to let her mother know about the letters and that they would go shopping later that day. When she got back, Hermione gave her the letter. The three letters felt strangely heavy to Hermione. As they motioned to open them, a face appeared in the fireplace.
"Hey, Lun! Come on in!" Ginny, who was nearer, greeted the face.
"Are you going shopping today?" The face that resembled Luna asked.
"As soon as mom gets here."
"Okay. I'm going with you, if you don't mind…"
"Sure."
In a moment, Luna's full body appeared in the fireplace. Holding her letter still untouched. The four of them opened the letters.
"Oh, I'm prefect once again!" Luna smiled. "I imagine who will be the Head Girl and Boy…"
"I suppose it's someone from your year. Harry and I are supposedly no electable for it nor any of the others who are coming back from our year." Hermione said, smiling at the blonde and realizing that the weight of Ginny's envelope probably meant she was also prefect again.
"Uhm, Gin? Are you okay?" Harry looked at her girlfriend, worried. The girl was looking at her letter and clinging at the envelope. She looked up and slowly nodded, smiling. Luna looked over the redhead's shoulder and squealed.
"Congratulations, Ginny!" The blonde hugged her friend from behind which caused the ginger to snap back to reality. Looking at the other two in the room who had confusion written in their faces, Ginny grinned.
"I'm the new Head Girl!"
"Merlin's Beard! That's brilliant!" Hermione squealed and ran to her friend so she could congratulate her with a tight hug.
"Excuse me! Let me congratulate my brilliant girlfriend!" Harry said laughing as he managed to detach Hermione from Ginny. He hugged her tight and kissed her.
"What's the occasion?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she entered the room, followed by Mr. Weasley.
"Ginny is Head Girl!" Hermione promptly answered. Mr. Weasley immediately applauded his daughter and Mrs. Weasley begun to cry.
"I'm so proud of you!" The older woman managed to say as she hugged her daughter.
Shortly they were at the Alley, shopping. Hermione, Harry and Luna calmly following the excited three Weasleys.
"Have you read your letter yet?" Harry asked his friend.
"No, I have it with me, though." Hermione answered.
"Yeah…"
They fell into comfortable silence, thinking about the following year. Each of them completely aware that the other two besides them were also having the same thoughts. After they brought everything listed on their letters, the group decided to make a stop before heading to Hermione's and then to the Burrow as Mrs. Weasley insisted in making a dinner in celebration to Ginny. Unconsciously, or not so much, Hermione led them to the cafe she and Fleur went every Friday.
"It's really cozy. I bet you will love it!" She said to the matriarch as they walked towards it. As they entered the place, the house elf she had grown to know well approached happily.
"Miss Granger! We missed you and Miss Delacour yesterday, something wrong?"
"Oh, no, Jilpy! Everything is okay. Fleur just needed to work after hours so we skipped the meeting." Hermione smiled at the elf. "Jilpy, these are Molly, Arthur and Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood and Harry Potter." The elf made a deep bow at all of them and smiled when the three younger corresponded the gesture and the elder nodded.
"It's a pleasure to meet you! Would you like the reserved section, Miss Granger? It's vacant."
"There is no need…"
"Table for six, then. Follow me."
When they sat down, the menu was distributed to all of them and a few moments later Jilpy was back to take the orders. When she left, Luna inquired Hermione about the elf and she explained happily.
They were halfway through their drinks when Hermione saw the glimmer of a well-known platinum hair entering the cafe. She smiled. Harry noticed the change of mood of his friend and followed her gaze as did Ginny and Luna. Soon he was waving to her, trying to get her attention.
"Oh, 'ello! 'ow are you? Long time…"
"Hello Fleur!" Arthur greeted her and soon everyone in the table was talking to her.
"Sorry, I see you are in a family gathering. I'll leave you be."
"Bloomer! We are just taking a break from shopping." Luna said.
Hermione had been quiet all the while the Blonde was talking to them. Unable to trust her tongue to say the right thing. Decided to explain.
"Our Hogwarts letters arrived this morning…"
"And Ginny is the new Head Girl!" Harry completed the information.
"I assume eet's an important position… Congratulations, Ginny!"
"Fleur, sit down, dear. Join us." Mrs. Weasley said, smiling. Shortly Fleur had her usual beverage in hand and they were all happily chatting.
When they had all finished their drinks, Molly tried to pay everyone's beverage but it turned out Hermione had gotten up a few moments after finishing her own drink and payed for everything.
"I know it's short notice, but do you want to join us celebrating Ginny?" Mrs. Weasley asked Fleur as they left the cafe. Hermione noticed Fleur glance at her best friend and saw the latest beam and nod.
"Sure. I just need to go 'ome for a while. I just got back from zee ministry. Bill and I spent zee morning on field and had to report to zee minister."
"I see. We will be waiting you then."
"Harry, I completely forgot I need to buy an owl, would you help me choosing?" Hermione realized she wanted to buy a present to Ginny and hoped to get away with this bogus excuse.
"Sure." Harry smiled. Ginny began saying she would help too when Mrs. Weasley grabbed her hand and dragged her complaining about how the two of them seemed to be attached by the hip these days. When they were at a safe distance, Harry faced Hermione: "What should we get her?"
"I should be the one asking you that!" Hermione laughed.
"Quidditch supplies?"
"Yes, I believe it would be for the best…"
"Where are zee Weasleys?" Fleur had been talking to the owner of the cafe and approached them.
"We needed time to get a present to Ginny and 'Mione made up an excuse. Thankfully, Molly dragged Gin home with her. Now we have to figure out what to give her." Harry promptly answered.
"It was actually true. I need an owl, I just don't exactly need help picking it up…"
"And what are you zinking about? Eef I may ask. Zee present, I mean."
"Something with quidditch. I risk saying she is even a bigger fan than Ronald…" Hermione said. "We could give her a new broom? Since she got an owl from Molly…"
"May I join you in zee present? I have no idea of what to give 'er."
"Sure." Harry said.
As they entered the Quality Quidditch Supplies shop and brought a Firebolt, which still was the best on the store. Hermione decided to buy a book about the team Ginny loved so much, one she was pretty sure the redhead didn't have and Harry got a servicing kit too. They apparated home promising not to take too long. An hour later, Fleur knocked on their door so they could go together.
The night was pleasant but Hermione couldn't keep her eyes from Fleur. She was thanking every single possible God of every culture she knew that the night was over but the moment she stepped inside her flat, she missed the older woman madly. She was beginning to question her sanity by then. She had faked a headache so she could go home earlier. Hermione got to her room, prepared herself to sleep and remembered that she was yet to read the rest of the own letter. She sat on the armchair she had on her room and retrieved the letter from her purse with a flick of her wand.
Dear Miss Granger Black,
As current Headmistress, I have been presented with the task of deciding if you will be able to continue your internship during your last year in Hogwarts. I personally believe you are completely capable of once again having a perfect score at your tests while working at the ministry. I hope you prove me right. Along with your work I believe you and Miss Delacour aren't finished reporting the war, so you are expected to do so. Given you will have so many responsibilities, you will have a permanent free pass for after hours and that will be communicated to the prefects by the Head Boy and Girl.
Also, being a war hero and an employed alumnus, you are given a new room. Notice your quarters will be linked to the Gryffindor common room but will also have an external access. As you and Mr. Potter share a flat in London I believe you will have no problem sharing a living room. Once arrived in Hogwarts, after the welcoming feast you and Mr. Potter must direct yourselves to your quarters and change the password. The living room's fireplace is fully connected to the Floo network and I strongly advise you to charm it so only authorized people will be able to access it. You and Mr. Potter have special permission to leave the school if needed, but you need to inform me about your absence.
That being said, I'd like to welcome you back.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Headmistress
P.S.: I hope you and our Head Girl will be able to keep Mr. Potter from trouble and in line.
Hermione finished reading the letter and sighed. She was actually relieved with the news but quite worried given the enormous amount of responsibilities she would have. Hermione decided to sleep and flicked the lights off after laying down.
A week after was Harry's birthday. He had agreed on leaving the preparations of the party to Ginny, who insisted she would throw the best party he ever had. Not that it was a hard thing to do, given he spent his previous birthday either with the Dursley or being attacked by death eaters. After the war, they all felt like celebrating, although Harry felt quite guilty for being alive. Hermione and Ginny knew Harry well enough to know that if Ginny didn't take the responsibility of organizing the party, he wouldn't do anything. The brunette received a note from her friend the day before, asking her if she could get Harry out of the house for about two hours and now she was dragging Harry out of the door after having lunch with him and Ginny, who pretended not to know what she was up to.
"Hermione! Where the hell are we going?" He asked loudly.
"I need company to buy clothes and you need new ones." She answered.
Harry rolled his eyes and stopped resisting. Two hours later, they were heading back to the house with an enormous amount of shopping bags. As they entered the flat, Hermione noticed Ginny had completely changed the furniture, the couch was gone as well as the bookcases and apparently, she had transfigured the dinner table into a longer one that stood by the side of the room holding a big variety of drinks and foods.
"Good, you are here!" The redhead sighted as she saw them both. "Thank you, Mione."
"Anytime, Gin!" Hermione nodded, grinning.
"We should get ready. They will arrive in about an hour." Ginny said, looking at Hermione and grabbing her arm. "Harry, you should go too!" He just nodded, still taking in the room.
Harry got ready in less than half an hour and settled downstairs, wearing plain white shirt and black trousers and knowing he should greet the guests that arrived. He decided to read a little bit and sat at one of the small tables Ginny scattered around the room. Fifteen minutes later, he heard the doorbell.
"Hi Fleur! How are you doing?" He said, as he opened the door a let the blonde enter the room.
"Quite good! And you?" She answered, looking around.
"She's not ready yet." He said, making her look at him. "I guess she and Ginny will be here any moment. They are almost late" He added, looking at the clock. Fleur nodded.
"Oh! 'appy birthday!" She fully turned to him and hugged him. After they pulled back, she gave him the gift she had brought for him.
A few moments later, Ginny and Hermione met them downstairs. As soon as Fleur saw Hermione she was in awe. The brunette wore a simple black dress but was barefoot just like Ginny and Harry, she didn't promptly notice the other, though. With a few sharp breaths, she recovered enough to look at the other girl and praise them both. Ginny had also chosen a black dress. Hermione blushed a lot when she heard the compliment.
"You look good too, Fleur." Ginny said, Hermione nodded. Fleur was wearing a blue dress that clung to her body in all the right places, its color remembered her of Beauxbatons' uniform and she knew it would bring up the color of her eyes. "And you can take off your heels if you like…" Fleur stopped to think for a minute, walked to the corner Ginny suggested she could leave her shoes and drew off the heels.
In a couple of minutes the fireplace begun to lit up and allow every guest to the party. Hermione, as Fleur observed, lined up with Harry and Ginny to welcome everyone. She actually knew all of them, most of them were already attending Hogwarts when she visited the castle in Harry's fourth year and the rest of the guest consisted basically of Order Members. She greeted everyone and forced herself to look anywhere but Hermione. Within about half an hour, of her tragically failing on her only task for the night, Bill approached her with a smirk as he got closed to her, he raised an eyebrow.
"Your mate look quite good, Fleur but I think you need some air right now."
"Uh, why ees zat?" She looked straight into his eyes and saw him rolling his eyes.
"And here I thought you were in complete control of you body and transformations…" Fleur startled and noticed her vision was sharper than usual. The redhead nodded.
"Merde! Would you be a dear and get me glass of water, Bill? I'm 'eaded to zee balcony." He agreed and they parted ways, Fleur stopping by the restroom so she could look at herself in the mirror. The Fleur she saw in the mirror was a raw version of herself, one she had seen only when she was livid or years before, when she couldn't control her veela instincts. Physically the only change that occurred was the color of her eyes, they were now deep orange. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. How the hell she didn't notice the change? She was too focused failing on keeping her eyes from Hermione and didn't notice how aroused she was from the mere sight of the brunette. With a few more deep breaths she managed to make the color of her eyes go back to the usual dark blue. She sighted, now fully conscious of her body thanks to the technique she used to change back. The second took a step closer to the sink so she could wash her face, she regretted. She had just become fully aware of how much Hermione had turned her on (she was probably too worried when she made her way to the bathroom to notice).
She startled as she heard a knock on the door.
"Oui?" She heard her own voice sound harsh.
"Sorry, Fleur. Are you all right? I saw you hurry in." Harry's voice sounded through the door.
"Yes, 'arry. I'm fine. I'll be out in a minute." Obviously, she had no choice but to ignore her needs for now. She opened the door with a sigh after looking at her reflection one last time. Seeing Harry standing outside with a worried look, she forced herself to smile at him and walked as calmly as possible to the balcony in order to find Bill (walking was rather uncomfortable). She didn't allow her eyes to roam through the room and managed to get to the redheaded. He was leaning on the rail, facing the party. She sighed and hid her face on her hands as soon as she got to him. Fleur was highly ashamed of her lack of self-control so she avoided his gaze, looking to the stars.
"That bad?" He said, chuckling.
"I'm 'opelessly drawn to 'er and I don't even know eef she likes me. I mean, more zan just as a friend." Her accent growing thicker as she grew frustrated with herself.
"Calm down, Fleur."
"I should 'ave imagined she would dress fancier. Eet's 'er best friend's birzday after all. I mean, even I did. I was caught off guard and I wouldn't 'ave noticed eef not for you. Zank you, by zee way."
"Shit happens. Just please promise me to stop torturing yourself and ask her out soon. It's not good for you. Your veela heritage…"
"Maman sent you a letter."
"Yes, she is worried that's all. She explained me what she could about how you would start behaving if you don't take action and wait until after her school year."
"Oui, I won't wait. I'm just afraid she doesn't feel zee same for me and I don't even know eef she considered being wiz anozer woman."
"You won't find out any of these if you don't ask."
"I know. I could use some of zat Gryffindor courage…" Fleur sighted as Bill hugged her.
The rest of the party went on quite well. Fleur got a hold of her veela and managed to suppress her eyes transformation. Controlling herself required so much energy from Fleur that after leaving the party she could only get to bed and pass out, thank god the weekend had just began. About noon next day, Fleur woke up to a consistent noise. Nonstop knocking. No one ever came to her apartment and those who did had instant access thanks to the charm she had casted on the door. She had added so a few permissions these last days but actually the only person that had ever came unexpected was Bill and he knew he had access. Sighing she reached for a robe and went to answer the door. She yawned as she opened the door. To her shock, Hermione stood on the other side, her face quite reddened. She couldn't help but smile.
"Bonjour, 'ermione." Fleur stepped aside to let the other woman in.
"Bonjour… Were you sleeping?"
"Oui," Hermione began to apologize, "but I actually should 'ave been awake by now. No problem."
"I'm sorry anyway. I was just worried, you left kind of pale yesterday. I just wanted to see if you were okay." The brunette said with a faint smile.
"Yes. I was just exhausted, I didn't work zee 'ole day but zee morning was quite strenuous. Probably why I overslept. Eet's almost lunchtime, right?" Fleur was still a little dizzy from waking up so quickly. Hermione just nodded. "I guess I'll skip breakfast zen. But a cup of coffee might be in order…" The veela was basically reasoning out loud. "Uh, would you like some? Or you prefer tea? Now that I come to think I've never seen you drink coffee…" She begun to move to the kitchen and motioned to Hermione follow her.
"I'll take the tea, I guess… Yeah, I don't really like coffee…"
"That's probably because you never tasted French coffee…" Fleur looked to Hermione with a smile only to find Hermione blushing a little. After the tea was ready, she gave the mug to the brunette and begun to prepare her own coffee. Once ready, they headed back to the living room.
They sat there for about two hours talking about everything they could think, probably to keep the thoughts of kissing each other. And that thought had been on Fleur's mind since the other woman entered the flat. Hermione left when she saw the late time, apologizing for not being able to stay and have lunch with Fleur because she had to meet her parents as it had been almost a month she didn't visit them. Fleur sat there, cursing herself for not being able to either act on her feelings nor talk about it with Hermione. She knew that holding back her feelings would probably make her get sick but not even that notion gave her courage to say anything to her. She was aware that they were now quite good friends and didn't want to risk that.
A month later nothing had changed, Fleur was quite certain she was the biggest coward in the history of veela and was yet unable to make any move to change that. In three days, Hermione would leave to Hogwarts and even though she knew the brunette would be allowed to meet with her from time to time to discuss the reports they were supposed to deliver in four months, Fleur felt the veela inside her growl in frustration every time she thought about it. It was long past midnight and she was yet to sleep, she tossed and turned the entire night only being able to sleep from exhaustion as the sun came out. Thankfully it was Sunday and she would be able to oversleep even though she had scheduled dinner with Hermione to discuss some last-minute things they had to before she went to the wizarding school. They wouldn't be able to meet before the brunette boarded the train, given she would work on the field with the auror trainees that whole week. Even having slept after the sun had risen, Fleur woke up about two hours before the time she used to have lunch. With a sigh, she rose from the bed stretching a little and went to the kitchen to prepare a cup of coffee for her and retrieve a croissant for a quick breakfast. After that, she served herself again with the dull liquid and headed to her bathroom to take a long calming bath as her nerves had only grown since the day before.
Six hours later she opened a bottle of wine so she could have a glass while cooking. She had cooked a lot for Hermione as they were now used to meet at Fleur's to discuss the report and she insisted on making dinner for both. She had decided to make pasta for them, actually she would make the same food she had done the first time she had been in her house. A few minutes later, a knock on the front door announced Hermione arrival along with her voice from outside calling the blonde. She smiled, it was always good to see the brunette outside workplace and, even though being about work, as it was the case. She told her to come in, not being able to leave the kitchen.
"Fleur?!" She heard the brunette call for her after closing the door behind herself.
"In zee kitchen!"
"Hi!" Hermione entered the kitchen to greet her. They had an unspoken agreement that the brunette wouldn't cook as both knew about her inability to do so. The younger woman took a glass from one of the kitchen cabinets and filled it with wine, refilling Fleur's too. "What are we having?"
"Chicken breast wiz bacon and pesto pasta."
"Lacked creativity?" Hermione said mockingly with one brow risen. "No problem, I just love that one."
"Good. I'm not changing zee menu." Fleur laughed. They had evolved to be more carefree between each other, mocking each other. The veela liked that but was completely conscious that it was just a way to cope with her feelings. At least from her end. Not that it worked very well.
Hermione entered the flat asking herself where the veela was.
"Fleur?!"
"In zee kitchen!" She heard the other answer.
After greeting her and getting a glass of wine for herself, she sat by the counter. They talked until the food was ready that way, Fleur cooking and she drinking wine by the counter. She set the table and they had dinner and talked a little, avoiding anything related to work until they cleaned the table. Then they got to business and discussed the last reports they had received from their comrades. When they finished, Hermione sat in silence for a second.
"I guess that's it." She said.
"Oui…"
"Oh, we should schedule our next meeting. So I can let professor McGonagall know about it…"
"Yes, but you should get some time to get used to being back to school…"
"It takes about a week." Hermione smiled.
"And you will be working."
"Okay, two weeks. The work is basically studying, anyway…"
"I 'onestly can give you 'ow much time you need…" Fleur reasoned.
Hermione couldn't help but smile at the blonde. She knew she would be completely used to her schedule by the end of the first week there. And she was conscious that she wasn't willing to go more than two weeks without seeing the other woman.
"Seriously, two weeks is more than necessary. I swear!"
"As you wish…" Fleur smiled. She seemed to be relieved.
"We see each other in two weeks then?" Fleur nodded. "We just need to decide where…"
"'ow about we do eet zrough owl?" It was her turn to nod.
Hermione looked at the clock on the wall and startled. "It's quite late and you will have a busy day from what you told me. And that's all Ronald is able to talk about these days… I have to work tomorrow myself. I should go." Fleur nodded. Hermione was too engrossed with her own sadness to notice Fleur's, but it was written on her eyes. With a flick of her wand the papers scattered across the table arranged themselves into two piles and she put them in her bag.
"See you in two weeks, zen. 'ave a good journey." Fleur smiled at her and hugged her.
Hermione made everything possible to make the hug last, she was quite comfortable. In a last minute decision, she decided something. As she pulled back, she kissed Fleur's cheek. That was the closest she was able to do with the courage she had at the moment. But she had kissed quite close to the blonde's lips. Then she turned around, opened the door and left. She felt her face grow hotter as she thought about that moment.
She had almost kissed Fleur.
A/N: I must confess that the chapter actually had a normal length so I joined the next one (that was rather short) just because I kind of promised a longer one. Anyway, now it has a great cliffhanger (please don't kill me, the one next will be up by Saturday as scheduled)
Did you like it?
An aroused Fleur…
Please review!
Thanks for reading!
;3
