Chapter 5

Fleur was sitting quietly in Hermione's hotel suite and watching the brunette angrily pace back and forth. She hadn't seen the witch in a year and a half and she took the time to take in her appearance. Hermione was as beautiful as she remembered. More so, in fact. Fleur wasn't used to seeing such rage in her former friend but she had expected it, having spent the previous hour down in the hotel bar preparing for it after all.

She had sat there at the bar sipping a club soda, empty chairs on either side of her, and thankfully only a couple of men had approached. Fleur was very much in control of her thrall nowadays so it was only her appearance that lured them in, and she couldn't do much about that except to firmly turn them away. The time was also spent reflecting on the moments that led up to this point. She'd done a lot of that over the last few years but knowing Hermione was upstairs, waiting, she couldn't help but think of all the different ways she'd screwed up.

As a teenager, Fleur knew she wasn't perfect but she tried to be. She lived her life with purpose. Growing, bettering herself, trying not to hurt anyone. She tried to stand for what was right and also to bend in forgiveness and understanding when the occasion called for it. But try though she might to understand and accept grey areas in others, Fleur was very inflexible when it came to her own actions. Like anyone else, she'd made mistakes and choices she'd regretted but she always had a difficult time accepting her failings and moving on from them.

When she was sixteen, Fleur cheated on her first boyfriend by kissing another boy at school. She had been content to wait to have sex (and did so until she was seventeen), still happy enough with kissing and heavy petting. Her boyfriend who she'd been dating for three months, however, was shy and didn't kiss her as often as she would have liked. So one night at a student party her boyfriend did not attend, she found herself enjoying the attention of another boy. After their kiss, guilt consumed her and she promptly confessed to her boyfriend, who immediately broke up with her. Fleur berated herself over the pain she had caused and swore she wouldn't do anything like that again. Her friends thought it an extreme overreaction to a kiss but they didn't understand how dishonorably she had behaved, how the lack of faithfulness made her sick to her stomach. It may have been a human mistake to them but to her it was an example of a moral defect within her that might carry on to her future relationships. Her guilt and shame led her to view honoring one's promises as paramount to everything else, no matter what.

It was a more extreme view to that of her family but its beginnings came from them just the same. The Delacours were not overly concerned about who she dated once she reached the Veela age of majority, which was sixteen, and they often reminded her to have fun, be safe, and always be honest with her partners. And if or when she wanted to marry, her family stressed the importance of being absolutely certain about her lifelong commitment to that person, not because they didn't believe in divorce but because marriage directly affected two people's lives. Her mother told her it wouldn't be fair to that spouse, to build a life with someone, if she didn't think she could keep her vows.

For them, it had been about being mature and responsible with one's choices. For Fleur, she understood it to mean that there was no going back once a promise like that had been made. That sort of rigidity was not for everyone but having a code to live by was very comforting to Fleur. She liked clear-cut rules and uncrossable lines; having them made sense to her and provided safety.

William Weasley was a charming, handsome man. He was kind and came from a good, loving family. When they met briefly at the Triwizard Tournament, she was dating a girl from school. Fleur found him attractive but didn't feel the pull to pursue anything until she started working at Gringotts and he befriended her. This time she broke up with her girlfriend before anything happened with Bill. That ending was sad but they'd been growing apart and she was getting tired of the off-again, on-again nature of that relationship. Bill felt like a move in the right direction.

They got along well and his determination to fight against Voldemort and his followers matched her own. When he proposed, she carefully considered it, discussing it at length with her family. Fleur did wish the courtship had moved more slowly and that they could have had a longer engagement so he could get to know her family better, and they could get to know each other better. In addition to those misgivings over how quickly things had progressed, Fleur also admitted to a worry of never being truly accepted by Bill's family. Her mother advised her not to rush, that her concerns weren't insignificant and that they likely hinted the match wasn't meant to last, but war was approaching and she had to make a decision. Fleur told herself she did love him and that if it wasn't a complete love now, she believed she would eventually grow into it. She accepted Bill's proposal wholeheartedly, firmly committed to spending a lifetime with him.

The thing Fleur had yet to learn, unfortunately, was that the heart was not always a perfect instrument and it wasn't always perfectly understood. When she committed to marrying Bill, she thought she meant it, she thought she knew herself, she thought she was ready.

That all changed when Hermione Granger and her friends arrived at Shell Cottage after escaping from Malfoy Manor.

She hadn't really known the girl apart from what she'd heard from Bill and what she'd gleaned in those distant greetings at the Burrow or Grimmauld Place. Fleur barely noticed her at all on her wedding day. But when Hermione's care fell into her hands, knowing her importance to the war, she dedicated everything to healing the young witch. In doing so, Fleur found that she admired her strength and resilience. As broken as she was, the young witch fought and kept fighting. Fleur had heard about the girl's thirst for knowledge and interest in magical creatures so she tried to keep Hermione distracted with stories about her people as she nursed her back to health. Those conversations quickly evolved to discussions about Fleur's work as a curse-breaker, various theories and practical usages of runes, the differences in laws regarding magical creatures between their countries, and so forth. Fleur felt her knowledge tested and at the same time expanded. Hermione's curiosity and intelligence knew no bounds and yet at the same time she was so innocent and naïve about people and interpersonal relationships that Fleur enjoyed teasing and flustering the girl. In that at least, she could always best her.

It also surprised Fleur at how her thrall responded to Hermione. She hadn't noticed it before in those prior gatherings but now she sensed how it didn't move through the brunette as it did others. It was exceedingly rare for those without Veela heritage to sense a Veela's thrall as anything other than an allure. She had a feeling the Lovegood girl had a Veela ancestor somewhere but Hermione did not, which meant there was a slight difference in how she felt it. A fellow Veela would have a sense of Fleur's emotional state but there would be no further interaction, no tangling of magic. With a magical non-Veela who sensed her emotions through her thrall, the sense would strengthen over time because the thrall, and by extension Fleur, would become more familiar with the magic of the other person, recognizing it and seeking it. When the bookworm asked Fleur about what she felt, she explained some things and did mention how few could feel it the way Hermione could, but she didn't mention how rare it was for a non-Veela to do so. And she ignored how she'd once read that Veela tended to find comfort with such a person as it made them more open and more free to be themselves. Fleur told herself it didn't really mean anything other than that Hermione would make a very good friend once the war was over.

When it was time for Hermione and her friends to continue the fight, she worried for her young friend. She hadn't made very many of those since moving to England and she let herself imagine a future where they would meet for coffee and continue their long conversations. Almost losing Bill to Greyback's attack had been awful but the thought of losing Hermione seemed worse somehow. There existed so much potential in one witch, Fleur was convinced it would be a great loss to the world if she perished.

After the final battle at Hogwarts, Fleur was incredibly relieved the girl had survived. Her wish to form a true friendship with the young witch came to fruition and they grew close very quickly. Just friends, she told herself. It was true that Hermione was beautiful and she saw the brunette come into her own in that respect, growing in confidence and how she held herself, but Fleur had always admired beauty and refused to think there was anything more than that. Their meetings became more frequent and at times, Fleur never wanted them to end.

"I'm meeting 'Ermione for dinner. I might be a bit late tonight," Fleur called out, gathering her purse and coat.

Bill casually walked down the stairs. "You know we'll be seeing her tomorrow for breakfast at the Burrow."

"It is utter chaos there. This way, I can 'ave 'er to myself for a few 'ours and can then concentrate on conversing with others tomorrow."

"You see each other all the time, though. I'd like to have nights out with my wife, too. Or nights in. Don't get me wrong, I know she's your best friend and you don't have any of those here but I invite you to gatherings with my friends, and I'm told I can be a good conversationalist…"

The question in his eyes made Fleur feel guilty. He was right, she had been spending more time away from him recently.

Pushing away her reluctance, she said, "Then by all means, come join us tonight. I'm sure 'Ermione won't mind."

They apparated to an alley around the corner from a new restaurant Hermione wanted to try. It was a muggle establishment, and Bill looked surprised but took it in stride.

Hermione was inside waiting at the bar. Fleur saw how her eyes lit up at seeing her but then those eyes noticed Bill behind her and she saw the flash of disappointment. To Hermione's credit, she quickly recovered and gave a friendly greeting to him.

Dinner at first was awkward but they managed to include Bill in their conversations. He was intelligent with an engaging sense of humor, and could keep up in subjects related to curse-breaking and his family or reminiscing about missions for the Order. But after a few glasses of wine, Fleur forgot to keep including him in the flurry of topics which ranged from muggle art and literature to Hermione's work trying to advance creature rights. She and Hermione got caught up in old arguments and inside jokes and it wasn't until she noticed Bill staring at them that Fleur realized her mistake.

Bill was quiet when they arrived at home, not saying much as they prepared for sleep. Once in bed, with the lights turned off, Fleur turned on her side facing away from him and closed her eyes.

"I don't think I've ever seen you like that before," Bill said quietly into the darkness. "So comfortable and talkative. I didn't know you knew so much about muggle literature. Or any of those things, really. And I've never seen her like that either. I mean, she's always been talkative and opinionated but this was different."

"She and I just 'ave a lot in common," Fleur murmured softly into her pillow, hoping Bill would take the hint that it was time to sleep.

"Yeah. Makes me wonder what she has in common with my brother."

Fleur rolled her eyes. On that, she and Bill could agree.

Bill fell quiet. After several minutes she thought he went to sleep and she started to let herself drift off, too. But before she did, she heard him whisper.

"It makes me wonder what we have in common."

If Fleur had to choose when her marriage started to break down, it would have to be that night. Bill saw something she hadn't yet seen herself and he never again went out with her and Hermione without others there to provide a buffer. It was around this time that she stopped talking about Hermione with Bill. And where she had once been comfortable occasionally bringing up Bill and their adjustment to married life without the pressures of war, after that night Fleur began avoiding talk of that part of her life altogether. It wasn't as if she and Hermione didn't discuss their romantic histories but when it came to her marriage, she became protective. The brunette would speak of Ron at times but eventually she, too, stopped mentioning him.

It wasn't until much later that Fleur realized she hadn't been protecting her marriage at all but rather segmenting her life, isolating Bill and Hermione into separate pieces, and Hermione's piece had steadily grown in importance as time went on.

She spent more time thinking about the girl than thinking about Bill, coming up with activities and gifts to surprise her with. If a unique case came up at work or she had a funny story to tell, the first person she thought to talk to was Hermione. If she had a problem or a worry, the first person she sought comfort from was Hermione. Fleur loved how the young witch smiled, how she blushed at her innuendos, how her mind worked. She was smart, she was witty, she cared so much about equality and equity. Being around her made Fleur feel more like herself than she did with anyone else. Even when they were at Weasley family gatherings or get-togethers at Harry's, her thrall would seek Hermione out, wrapping itself around the girl as if it belonged there. Like Fleur belonged there with her.

And her eyes, those gorgeous chocolate eyes that she wanted to sink into, the freckles on her nose that called for her attention, those soft lips that she frequently found herself staring at...

Just friends, she kept telling herself but by then it was too late. And she didn't know how late it really was until Hermione told her at lunch one day that she and Ron had become engaged.

Like a dutiful friend, Fleur had smiled and wished her well on this new path but inside she was shocked. Ronald was not a match for Hermione's intellect and she had thought her friend would have seen that on her own before it had gotten this far. If she could overlook these things, it meant that Hermione truly loved him. As her friend gushed over his proposal and their tentative plans for a wedding date, Fleur's devastation grew. So did her jealousy. It took every ounce of willpower she had to keep her thrall contained so her friend couldn't tell. When she got home, she frustratedly cleaned the whole house in an attempt to ignore what she was feeling. But when the cleaning was done, there was nothing left to distract her from that day's revelation.

She was attracted to Hermione Granger. She wanted her. And she didn't want anyone else to have her.

The guilt that came over her took her breath away. It may not have counted as physical infidelity but to Fleur it was still faithlessness and she was ashamed. Just as she had suspected and feared all those years ago when she was sixteen, she was a terrible person. And now Hermione was going to be married, too, and she couldn't interfere with that in any way. Fleur may have disrespected her own marriage but she couldn't do that to Hermione's. She resolved to re-devote herself to Bill and to keep Hermione from finding out how she felt. It was easier said than done. Hiding her thrall one time at lunch was one thing but they saw each other all the time. How was she going to be able to consistently hide her attraction and jealousy from someone who became more attuned to her thrall with every encounter? How was Fleur going to be around her while trying to get over it? It wouldn't be possible. And then Hermione would know and she couldn't let that happen. She would have to find a way to get rid of these feelings first. Separating herself from the young witch was the only way forward.

It was difficult cutting herself out of Hermione's life. Not answering every letter, making excuses for missed lunch dates until it escalated to not even trying to reschedule anymore. Reading Hermione's increasingly worried letters was painful but Fleur knew she was doing the right thing. They were still connected by the Weasley family and seeing each other at the Burrow was unavoidable but Fleur held strong and kept her distance.

"Fleur, I know we don't usually talk about her but I have to ask… what's going on with you and Hermione? I thought you two were as thick as thieves. And now you don't go out anymore, and you barely speak to her at the house. You're kind of making my job to keep the bride happy very hard to do."

Fleur sat across from Ginny in a small café in Diagon Alley, and she gripped her coffee so hard, she was sure she would crack the cup.

"Nothing's wrong. I've just been very busy and I needed to spend more time with Bill."

"More time to fight with him, you mean," replied Ginny.

She gasped and glared hard at the redhead, wondering if Bill had broken his promise not to tell his family they'd been fighting.

"It's just… you two don't seem very happy lately." Ginny paused, and Fleur was suddenly uncomfortable. She knew Ginny was very perceptive and she had a feeling this conversation was going to lead someplace she very much wanted to avoid.

"Marriage 'as its ups and downs. You'll find that out with 'Arry eventually. And so will 'Ermione," Fleur replied diplomatically, hoping that would satisfy Ginny's curiosity.

"You like her, don't you?"

"Ginny…"

"And the timing of this break with her is suspect. Didn't it start at the time she got engaged?"

"I don't like what you're implying, Ginevra."

"And what exactly am I implying, Fleur?"

Fleur scoffed but didn't say anything.

Ginny clenched her jaw, seeming like she was trying to choose her words carefully.

"Look, I know it must sound strange coming from me, and I love both my brothers, but you and Hermione are my friends. I see things. If there's anything you're thinking of doing, you're running out of time."

"There's nothing I will do, Ginny," answered Fleur quietly after a long moment of silence. "It's 'ow it should be. She will marry Ronald, I will concentrate on my marriage, and you will promise me not to say anything to 'er about this."

Ginny grumbled, opening her mouth to protest. "But…"

"Promise me," Fleur interrupted, imploring Ginny to understand.

"Fine. But I reserve the right to give you the biggest 'I told you so' ever when the time comes."

A/N: Thanks for reading and sticking with this story. I hope you're all safe and healthy out there.

:

tomatotuna: Thank you, I appreciate that.

Shadow994: so clueless! lol

Phooenicis: hopefully this chapter gave you more to think about with Fleur :)

zerodawn22: Oh yes, there will most definitely be plenty of feelings

Retrograderabbit: We'll just have to wait and see