They woke up startled, at loud thumps on their door. Groaning, Fleur got up and answered the door. Hermione had simply hidden her face in the pillow.
"Oh! I did wake you up… Sorry…" Harry smiled apologetically. "It's just that we are going to the Great Hall, have breakfast… I thought you were already awake. Sorry…"
"I TOLD YOU, HARRY!" Fleur heard Ginny from downstairs.
"Not a problem. Go ahead, we'll be zere soon. Good morning…" She answered. When she closed the door, she heard Hermione groan and extend her hand to her, in a motion to make her get back to bed. She went to the brunette's side of the bed, "Mon Ange, I'm sure you are 'ungry and I'm positively starving."
The lioness moved her head so she could look to Fleur, "Not hungry." at the same time her stomach growled.
"Sure… Come on, sleep head or I'll go without you." She laughed.
Hermione quickly tackled her on the floor, Fleur was actually surprised with her quick reaction. "You are not leaving without me," Hermione growled a little, making Fleur laugh and hold the younger girl by the hips.
"Of course not, Jealous Girl." The brunette simply eyed her and kissed her.
"Morning, babe!" She kissed the veela passionately and chucked as she saw amber eyes looking back to her after pulling back.
"Bonjour, ma Belle…" Fleur answered in a low voice.
After changing for the day, she gave Hermione her potions and they headed to the Great Hall. The day was quite a bit chili so Hermione wore a light jacket (that luckily covered the bandages on her left arm). The mail came and left an envelope in front of Ginny, who frowned and quickly opened it.
"We are lucky she didn't send us a howler." She grimaced after reading, looking pretty pale. "Mom." She added as she saw the confusion on the others face. Harry's eyebrows shot up and he reached for the letter in Ginny's hands. "Apparently she read Ron's report. After he went home with Bill, in obvious distress, yesterday."
Harry handled the letter to Hermione, looking down. Luna had read it with him.
How DARE you not tell me?!
You are ALL absolutely lucky I remembered you would receive this letter in the middle of the school! I almost sent you a howler!
Now, I hope you are all taken care of. If something else happens, make sure to reach me. I'll visit you later tomorrow (Sunday), to see how you are.
Ginevra Weasley, you better take care of Harry.
Fleur, darling, take care of Hermione, she is family!
You all better look after Luna, she too is family.
See you soon,
Mom.
Fleur took notice that the content of the letter wasn't the problem, reading it was. She could picture a very angry Molly yelling at them while reading the first lines. After the first shock was down, she resumed eating and the other four did too.
"What are today's plans?" She asked as they finished eating.
"I don't know." Hermione was the first to answer. "My plan was sleeping until late but my beautiful girlfriend woke me up." Fleur rolled her eyes.
"Not my fault. 'arry woke me up and I got 'ungry." Fleur added. "And you were 'ungry too." she pouted slightly.
"Sorry about that." Harry said, "again…"
"We could spend the day out. It will start snowing in a few weeks and it's not too cold yet…" Luna suggested. They all smiled at her and agreed.
As they got up, Hermione leaned to kiss Fleur's cheek and smiled. "How do you handle it?" she asked in a whisper.
"I've been dealing with eet for most of my life, I imagine I just got used to eet." She answered, knowing the woman had been annoyed with the attention directed to her by the rest of the students. "And I only care to 'ave your attention, 'ermione." She smiled, knowing she would calm the jealous in the other's head. "Eet will stop, you know? After we mate." She added with a whisper so only her girlfriend would hear.
"Oh…"
She smiled and kissed her on the lips. "And don't zink I didn't see zee stares you got too." She added, smiling and knowing the other woman had no idea of how many stares she too received.
"I didn't…"
"Yes, you did!" Ginny chimed in. "From both girls and boys. And just as many as Harry always receives." She laughed. "I think they all envy us, Fleur."
"Zey should. Zey are awesome!" Fleur laughed, both (Hermione and Harry) were completely dumbfounded. "You two really don't see eet, right? You both are basically two of zee most desired people 'ere"
"Ugh…" Hermione managed to say, after receiving a peck on the cheek.
They walked to the lake in a comfortable silence. Fleur noticed Luna smiling as if knowing something none of them knew but said nothing.
Spending the morning outside was truly a good idea, they were all in a great mood when lunch time came. After eating, they went to the common room to wait for the visit from the healer and from Molly.
Hermione and Fleur sat on their usual couch in the living room. Her nerves were starting to act, not knowing who would be the healer nor what she would say. She felt a wave of soothing thrall invade her and smiled at Fleur, thanking her silently.
"Zey must be 'ere anytime."
As on cue, a patronus tabby cat appeared and McGonagall's voice resonated in the room. "The healer arrived, we will be there soon."
Still no clue on who's the healer. Not much later, they heard a quick knock and the painting-door swung open giving way to their stern headmistress and a well-known platinum witch, who held everyone in the room (except for McGonagall) in shock. Hermione felt Fleur straighten herself beside her, along with a clear wave of awareness coming from her. The veela's grip on her tightened.
"Good afternoon." The headmistress said and they all answered in small voices, still surprised by the presence of the Slytherin. One look towards the older blonde and Hermione recognized the apprehension stamped on her face, she was looking towards her general direction but not exactly at her. The woman was looking directly at Fleur, who was still in defensive stance. The room fell quiet as the blondes starred at each other.
"Narcissa," Ginny said, breaking the tense silence and making everyone look at her.
Being cut out of her almost scared haze, the older blonde looked at the others in the room, "Ginny, Harry, Luna," she looked almost surprised at the sight of the two pureblood witches. "Hermione… A pleasure to meet you, despite the awful setting. I feel I must apologize once again for my part on the events that led to the reason I understand I'm here today." She returned her attention to Fleur as she finished speaking, "Miss Delacour, delighted to meet you. I'm afraid I only met your partner while I've been called to testify."
Before the veela could respond, Hermione doubled her efforts to try and calm her girlfriend down. She knew she was still shaken due to what happened at the mansion. She heard the Fleur take a deep breath.
"Hello, Miss Black. I understand you managed to get rid of…"
"Yes, I divorced as soon as possible. Given his involvement with the Dark Lord and Harry's testimony I got rid of him once and for all." Narcissa interrupted her, clearly not wanting to talk about the monster that her ex-husband was. "I hope you find him… He deserves to be severely punished."
Hermione almost smiled at it, the woman in front of her always knew what to say. She felt Fleur relax a little and loosen her grip on her sightly.
"I didn't know you were a med-witch…" Harry said, still quite surprised.
"Lucius made sure I studied healing, he… wanted me to fix his play-toys." Her voice somber, heavy with sorrow. She looked at Ginny. "I reached St. Mungu's as soon as I was cleared by the Ministry to see if I could be of any help. After a long month of tests, I was admitted as a resident. When my supervisor said he received mail from the headmistress regarding Hermione and a severe wound from the war, I immediately offered to come." She eyed Hermione, worriedly. The brunette read in her eyes the unspoken question and nodded. "I'm sorry." She added. Hermione sat straighter and began to remove the blood-stained bandages when she felt the Slytherin's hand stop her. "Let me. I know it must hurt, my sister was crazy enough to rejoice over other's people suffering and would be sure to make it at least sore." She placed the purse she was carrying over the coffee table and kneeled in front of Hermione. Narcissa started to undress the wound carefully and winced as she saw the word carved on her arm and how swollen it was. She sighed and informed both, Hermione and Fleur (who was hovering, them to see what was happening) that she would perform some diagnostic charms to see if she could identify what curses the mad witch used. After three casted spells she shook her head and looked at Hermione. "The knife Bella used was covered with plenty of spells and potions, apparently. Most of them were created by her. I'll search the mansion to find the blade. With it, I'll be able to develop the right counter-spells and potions. I'm sorry I can't do much now… What I'm sure right now is that what keeps the wound open for longer than it normally would is a family potion. As I've known my sister since, well, forever, I guessed she had used it and brought the antidote."
She looked up, making Hermione follow her gaze. Fleur was currently nervously anger, the brunette caught her eye and understood the other woman didn't trust the Slytherin. She squeezed the veela's hand. Hermione had decided to trust the older blonde after the first gathering of the Blacks, one Harry presented himself as the head of the family and explained what had happened when the family members stared at each other in shock. Hermione was actually aware of Narcissa's divorce and the fact that Andromeda was accepted back into the family but the older woman had simply no idea about her. Narcissa had been as much welcoming as her sister and it left Hermione in a small shock. She had been warming up to Draco since then too despite the awful story between them.
Hermione felt Fleur calm down, she was sure the blonde understood she trusted the woman in front of her and accepted. "If you say it will work…" She said to Narcissa.
The blond woman nodded and moved to get the flask in her purse. "I'll need something to collect the potion that will fall out of your arm…" Dobby appeared quickly after with a basin. The med-witch smiled at him and thanked. She poured the silver liquid over Hermione's arm, slowly. The brunette watched closely as each carved letter absorbed some of the potion and the raw wound quickly become a scar. "I'll leave some of it with you, just in case. I hope you won't need it. I'll ask Draco to start searching the house today, the sooner we find the blade, the better."
"I'll ask Bill to send some Aurors to 'elp" Fleur said, quietly.
"Thank you." Narcissa looked at Hermione once again, "I believe both potions are written on one of the books you and Harry have at your flat. The family had the habit of writing every spell or potion created by them so there's a collection of books holding all the information. Here is a copy of all the information I have about the potions and the antidote. My mother's books held much less information than the ones held by the Head."
Fleur extended a hand to help the older blonde stand. "Zank you for zee 'elp."
"Not a problem." Narcissa looked at the others and smiled a little. "Luna…"
"I know you had no part in what happened to me, Cissy…" The younger blonde smiled, the usage of the nickname clearly left the Slytherin dumbstruck. "You have nothing to be forgiven."
"I'd like to apologize anyway. I could have helped you. At least relief you from the aftershocks. You really are strong, Luna. I've seen older wizards go insane with much less. I admire you. You mind if I check on you too? It's long due. I should have offered my help earlier…"
"Go ahead…"
Once again, the witch performed a series diagnostic spells. Nodding as she registered the results, she looked at Luna, then Hermione, then Fleur. "What Madam Pomfrey gave to them?" She asked directly to Fleur. The veela explained what Hermione was taking and then Ginny did the same, about Luna. Nodding, she turned to the headmistress (McGonagall had taken a seat as she saw Hermione scarred arm), "I have a few suggestions about their treatment and I'd like to discuss it with her…"
"Sure." The stern professor glanced at Hermione worriedly. "Good afternoon to all of you."
Ginny startled as the stern Gryffindor opened the door to accompany the Slytherin to the hospital wing. "Professor, Mom…"
"I'm aware, Miss Weasley. I asked Dobby to arrange anything you need to receive her. I'd have asked him to arrange dinner, but I'm certain Molly is bringing it with her." McGonagall smiled at them then closed the door.
About an hour later, the fireplace lighted up in green flames and the redhead matriarch stepped into the room. She took her surroundings after cleaning the soot from her clothes with a quick spell. They were comfortably sat in their usual seats, Ginny, Luna, and Harry were quietly chatting, Luna laying on her back, her head over Ginny's lap and her feet over Harry's legs. The other two women were reading, Hermione had her head resting on Fleur's thighs and the blonde was stroking her head. The noise of the fire made them look towards the fireplace, knowing who had come in.
Hermione realized only then that she had never really talked to the older witch in front of them about her relationship. She froze on spot. What if her reaction was close to Ron's? She saw the Weasley's matriarch as a mother, the redhead family was her magical family. She was certain she wouldn't feel that great if the elder woman were to reject her, or her relationship with Fleur. She felt Fleur's hand on her shoulder and the now known soothing thrall. It all happened quickly, basically in less than ten seconds. Mrs. Weasley looked around and smiled at them.
"Mom!" Ginny stood, Luna had sat when she heard the matriarch arrive.
The redhead elder smiled at her daughter, hugged her and moved so she could hug the others. When she held Hermione, they shared a stare. The lioness looked down but felt herself being engulfed in one of the tightest embraces she ever received from the older woman.
"I…" She began quietly.
"Oh, dear, I knew the minute I saw you two together on that party after she returned from France. Even before." Molly interrupted her, equally quietly. She stepped out of the embrace and held Hermione's face lightly. "I want you to be happy. I can assume from your reaction to seeing me that my younger was in no way as understanding as I hoped he would be." Hermione nodded, holding back the sorrow she felt when she thought about Ron's reaction. "He will come around. Ronald is thick minded but would be a straight idiot if he ended his friendship with you, dear. That is if you still want to be friends with him. I wouldn't blame you."
Fleur was close enough to hear the whispered conversation, she knew Hermione had no problem with her hearing. What she wasn't expecting was to hear about Ron's reaction, nor the crushing sensation of sorrow invading her. She yearned to comfort the young witch but held herself in place, watching Molly talk to her, she knew the older witch was something like a second mother to her girlfriend. She felt it herself. Molly had such a big heart that she basically adopted her children's closest friends. The woman took care of her even after she and Bill had broken up. Even after she promised it was not his fault, but hers. She was the last one to receive the warm embrace from the elder. After giving her a tight hug, she motioned for Hermione to get closer. Placing a hand on their cheeks, she smiled warmly.
"Take care of each other," then she looked at Hermione, "ignore the prat I have for a son. Only a blind person can't see how perfect you are for each other." She, then, hugged them both. "And the rest of the family sends their regards."
Fleur felt herself smiling, she too was afraid of Molly's reaction. She had come to deeply respect the redhead.
"Zanks, Molly…"
"Sure!" She moved away, picking up the bag she had brought with her. "Now, I believe a dinner is in order!" She began to take out some carefully wrapped dishes from the bag and place them on the table. Dobby was called and asked to bring plates and cutlery. They were soon sat, eating the comfort food the redhead mother had carefully cooked. The silence that took place after all the dishes were basically licked clean was thick. Dobby quickly appeared and took everything to wash, promising Molly her platters would be at the borrow when she arrived there (The redhead tried to keep him from doing it, but he quickly vanished before she could really say anything).
"Mom…" Ginny was the first to talk, knowing it would be better (or hoping so).
"Ginevra Molly Weasley!" The older woman snapped. Hearing her full name made the younger Gryffindor visibly tremble. "How come I only got to know about all that now? You wrote that reports on Tuesday for Merlin's sake!"
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Weasley…" Hermione began, in a small voice
"No, Hermione, dear. It's not your fault. Your mind was in another place. But certainly, my daughter could have at least sent me a note, saying you were being taken care." Molly calmed down as soon as she saw how broken Hermione seemed to be.
"Molly," Fleur began, knowing Ginny wouldn't counter her mother. "Ginny 'ave been taking care of both, 'arry and Luna. Zee night zey 'ad nightmares she went to my apart so I could know something was happening and come to 'ermione. She 'as been doing a lot, eet's understandable that she forgot to inform you. We are all sorry for not telling you."
The older redhead sighed and nodded as she finished talking. "You're right, Fleur. Obviously. I'm not sorry for my reaction, though. You are all family, I worry about you."
"That's understandable…" Luna said.
"Now, how are you? Has anyone seen you?" Molly seemed to have calmed down and now divided her worried attention to the three affected.
"Madam Pomfrey has seen us Friday and gave us a few potions to take. And earlier a Mungu's med-witch came to examine my… wound." The brunette motioned to her arm. As it was now closed, it was free of bandages. Molly shuddered at the sight of the carved word. Fleur trained her eyes on Hermione's face, away from the word. "I'm getting better." She stated. Luna and Harry made agreeing noises.
"Good to know… Do I know the med-witch?" As Hermione moved to nod, there was a loud knock and three witches came in.
"Good evening, Molly." The headmistress said as soon as she saw the redhead.
"Hello, Minerva! Poppy, I'm sure you thought these two wouldn't need your services this year…" Molly smiled.
"Certainly they have been away from the hospital wing for longer than usual!"
"Narcissa! What are you doing here? I assumed Draco hadn't come back to school…" Molly looked a little shocked.
"She is the St. Mungu's med-witch," Hermione informed. Fleur observed the stunned elder Weasley.
"But…"
"Unfortunately, yes. And me being her sister makes me the best person to deal with what she has done." The blonde held her head high as if waiting for a bad response from Molly. It didn't come.
"You are not her. I couldn't agree more. Thank you for helping them." To everyone's surprise, she walked to the blonde witch and hugged her. "I assume you came to talk to them. I'm going."
"Molly, you can stay. It will take but a minute."
"No, I was on my way anyway. Ronald is home, dealing with the same…" She quickly said goodbye, after making them promise to write and inform her how they were dealing with everything. The med-witches made a small modification on the treatment and left with Narcissa promising to find out how to deal with the scar as soon as possible.
Soon they were all retrieving to their rooms to sleep, all of them very tired. After going through their night routines, Fleur and Hermione cuddled on the bed. Happy to simply have each other close. Then the blonde remembered to ask Hermione about what she had heard about Ronald.
Hermione felt Fleur practically purr as they hugged each other in silence. Then there was a slight change of demeanor. She looked at her girlfriend, waiting for her to speak what was on her mind.
"Uhm, 'ermione, what was it zat made you so sad earlier? Something about Ron…"
"You heard that…" Of course, she did, Hermione knew that, not only because of the worrying wave that had come across her but also because, yeah, she didn't mind the woman hearing… She was looking down and missed the short nod from the blonde. "Uhm…" She felt her own face become hot, telling this story meant explaining the obvious change in her friend's behavior since the end of the war. More exactly since that party at the Burrow. Looking at her girlfriend, she was met with curious eyes. They were just tad worried. "Right, that's actually a long story. It will not only explain why I was sad for a moment earlier but also explain why Ronald was being such an idiot to you ever since you came back from France. I hope he is doing better, by the way…" She watched Fleur nod, clearly hearing intently. "Don't be mad at him. He is simply an idiot. He has been pinning over me ever since, I don't know, fifth year? His way of showing it to me was… close to a five-year-old's. He was never too awful but obviously not pleasant. When we were Horcrux hunting, we kind of had a thing. I was really hurt when he left us that time, but also realized I didn't like him that way. When he came back, I told him that. He accepted but kept trying to woo me. I was even more certain that I didn't want anything with him at the last battle." Hermione took a deep breath. She knew Fleur was aware of how she felt towards her, but she had never put into words everything until now. It was kind of nerve wrecking. "We never talked about this… Anyway, sometime after we arrived here I felt a kind of a pull. Which now I realize was a type of thrall… It was absurdly strong and it only eased after we went down and joined the battle." Fleur nodded. Hermione still felt her face hot, talking about it in that way was… weird. "After we locked eyes when Harry went to Voldemort, I felt a constant pull towards you." Hermione sighed, she was absolutely embarrassed. "Well, skipping forward, after I came back with Mom and Dad, and you went to France, Harry saw my reaction to your present - the book and the letter and made me promise to try to understand what I felt about you. He's quite sensible…" She smiled, remembering how he made sure she would understand by herself. "Well, after those two weeks, I understood I was actually falling for you." Hermione laughed and received a quick peck on the lips. "When I arrived at the Burrow, I made sure to talk to Ginny - I knew she was kind of thick headed but not as much as Ronald - and asked Harry to talk to him. That shout we heard from upstairs was Ron's reaction. I don't know exactly what Harry told him, but he obviously didn't take it well. I didn't meet him a lot after that - or thought about him - because he began the training and all. When Harry got your owl about him, we asked him to meet us. He was acting that way because he was jealous."
"Of you. I can understand zat…"
"Of both of us. Her pinned over you ever since fourth year, Fleur. I don't think it was simply the thrall." Hermione laughed as her girlfriend looked at her, surprised. "Well, we tried to make him see it, I got frustrated and left the room. He… He argued with Harry, saying you did something to me, that they shouldn't simply believe that I had fallen for you on my own. Ginny pointed I've always been immune to you usual thrall." Hermione held her breath, knowing how Fleur would react to what she had to say next. "Then he called me dyke." She saw her face transform. The anger obvious in her orange eyes, the brunette was used to see them full of lust - they looked different. Anger irradiated from the veela. "Fleur, breathe. It's of no use being angry, he is an idiot. His own mother agrees. Ginny, Luna, and Harry fumed at him, Molly probably did too. He always expects she will agree with him, he must have told her himself what happened here. The apology letter he wrote me must have been her doing. He did apologize…"
"By letter."
"Yes."
"And you accepted?"
"Kind of. I haven't seen him that much. Since then I've seen him once."
"Zee first DA meeting." Hermione nodded. "'ow do you zink you will deal with 'im over 'olidays?"
"Uhm, I wasn't really thinking about it, but since we basically have to go to my parents and yours…"
"You know we 'ave to go to zee Burrow for at least two days, mon Ange…"
"Yes… I don't know how I'll react… Babe, I know you. You are thinking of a way to turn his life into hell…"
"I might…" Fleur was hugging Hermione now.
"Please, don't."
"Don't you dare defend 'im! Zat idiot 'urt you! 'e was basically one of your best friends! 'e should know better!"
"Ok, I won't defend him. But don't do anything to him, Fleur."
"I can't promise you zat. I'll do my best to simply ignore 'im. I guess I'll talk to Bill about zat when I come back."
"And I'm hoping you are not eager to go back…" Hermione changed her tone and kissed the veela's neck.
"Uh?" Fleur blinked, being quickly pulled out of her planning.
Hermione laughed and kissed the blonde, ending the conversation. She would have to take the redhead boy out of her mind and she had until the next Sunday.
A/N: Hola! Yep, I'm rubbish at keeping an update schedule. Sorry about that... Anyway, Uhm... Next update you will have mostly Luna...
Did you like this chapter?
Please review!
Thanks for reading!
;3 Luv yah
see you soon...
PS: JustAGlitchInTheSystem: What do you mean steal Moire? LOL she's a bundle of cuteness!
despitethedesperation: The chapter is coming! Thanks for your opinion!
wk: Grandmère will probably have a lot to say! hehe
Guest: Hallo, stranger! (are you Tori?hehe)
aussie'n'proud: Welcome! I hope you are enjoying the story!
PPS: Oh, right, my other story is up. So go read it (I managed to keep it shortish) hope you like, please review it!
PPPS: If you feel like sending me requests suggestions or prompts, feel free to reach me by PM or email me: celticdaughterfics (gmail)
