Hermione couldn't deny that it really bothered her that Fleur was ignoring her. She still hadn't had the chance to make amends after Monday's class, but it seemed that Fleur was giving her the cold shoulder, not giving her the chance to apologize. Then again, she had really stepped in it during Potions class, so maybe she just needed to give the French girl some space.
After all, that's what she had meant to do in the first place. She needed to focus her energies on the bigger picture, the important tasks at hand. A girl took lower priority on her ever-growing list of issues. Even if that girl was Fleur Delacour. At least that's what she kept trying to tell herself.
But she couldn't deny that she felt a growing attraction to the Frenchwoman. Despite her efforts to ignore it, it had hit her hard and it had hit her fast. She couldn't help herself from sneaking glances at the blonde in class or in the Great Hall, but every time she looked, Fleur was engaged in a conversation or activity.
She also felt increasingly annoyed, almost irrationally so, whenever she saw the group of boys trailing after the blonde beauty. Which was all the time. All. The. Time. She wanted to smack them all upside the head and send them packing. But she knew Fleur could handle herself so she just scowled after them and buried her nose in whatever book she was reading instead.
By the end of the week she was something of a mess. She wasn't sure if it was her sleep deprivation or just general depression from her PTSD, but her exceptionally logical mind went straight out the window. Her thoughts started to darken and she began to doubt herself. Why on earth would Fleur ever be interested in someone like her when she could literally have anyone she wanted. There was a constant line of hopeful suitors tripping over themselves to ask her out. Besides, what could she possibly offer the Heiress of the Delacour Clan, France's most influential Veela clan?
To Fleur, she was just some bookish teen with exceptionally bushy hair and a loud mouth. At this point time there wasn't really anything special about her other than being a know-it-all and one of Harry Potter's best friends. It wasn't until next year that she really started to make a name for herself and prove what she was capable of.
Fleur on the other hand was a goddess walking among them. A goddess she would never admit she was pining after. But she was. One-hundred-and-ten-percent.
Besides, unless she found a way to stop Voldemort's rise to power, she didn't exactly have a particularly promising future.
So Hermione did what she did best. She went to the library. Thankfully this really wasn't out of character for her and no one suspected anything. She spent all of her free time tucked away in the dusty shelves, trying to distract herself from thinking about the Veela.
When her search of ancient runes came up empty, she started researching time travel. There were many fascinating theories and first hand accounts but so far she was coming up empty on anything remotely close to her situation.
Hermione was actually grateful when Friday finally came around. She was looking forward to the weekend. She had already finished her homework assignments, so she planned to spend as much time as possible in the library. But she had also secured a vial of dreamless sleep potion and she wanted to get some well deserved rest.
All that was left to do was survive her three hour long Defense Against the Dark Arts practical that afternoon and she was off to dreamless land.
Today's topic… dueling. The classroom had been rearranged. The tables had been removed and two full length dueling stages occupied the space instead.
Hermione couldn't help but grin to herself. With her war experience she knew that she could duel any of her peers with one hand behind her back. While she couldn't show off too much, she was expected to perform at 7th year level or close, so she could afford herself a little slack. This would be fun.
Moody walked between the 24 students with a bag of colored marbles. That way the duel pairings would be randomized. They would all take turns, each pair dueling for three rounds, up to 10-minutes per round while the others watched and critiqued. If there was not a clear winner before the end of the round, the winner was the one with the highest scores based on grading criteria the observers were filling out. Whoever won two out of the three rounds was the duel winner for the pair.
Hermione reached into the bag and pulled out a royal blue marble with gold and silver swirls inlaid in the smooth surface. It was actually rather pretty. For some reason it reminded her of Fleur. She quietly cast a reverse-Gemini charm she had developed. Instead of an object multiplying into identical replicas, two identical objects would become attracted and try to merge into one. This way she could just follow the tug of the marble in her hand.
"Well, zis will be interesting indeed." Fleur said stiffly as she approached Hermione, holding her own blue marble between her pale fingers. Her tone was calm and cold, her head held high giving off the air of indifference. Just how Hermione remembered her from the first time.
"Only time will tell." Hermione replied casually.
"You seem razzer confident, non? You zink you can 'andle me?" Fleur raised an eyebrow as she looked her over. "Do not zink zat I will go easy on you because of your age."
Hermione narrowed her eyes, glaring back defensively "I would expect nothing less. But I warn you not to underestimate me."
Fleur scoffed "right zen. As I believe ze phrase ees 'bring eet.'" And with that challenge she bowed and turned to walk to her side of the dueling stage.
Cocky git. Hermione rolled her eyes and returned the bow before turning and taking 10 paces before turning and assuming her starting position.
Hermione watched Fleur closely, noticing that the Frenchwoman uses a combination of spoken, wordless, and sometimes wandless magic. And she moved with such grace and fluidity. How one could duel in 4 inch heels and stay upright was an absolute mystery. She couldn't help but be impressed. It was more of a dance than a duel and it was absolutely mesmerizing, up until the first incoming hex, which Hermione deflected with ease.
As much as she hated it, she chose to cast her spells aloud, even though she was more than capable of wordless magic. She was supposed to be in her '4th year' after all. Wandless magic was a different story and it made her appreciate Fleur's skills even more. She had never been on the receiving end of Fleur's fighting. The Frenchwoman was a formidable opponent even, at this age. Hermione knew she would only get more deadly and skilled with time.
The two women exchanged wave after wave of offensive spells and defensive maneuvers. Hermione was glad she had started building up her physical stamina because the strength of Fleur's attacks was actually starting to wear on her more than she cared to admit. It seemed her 15 year old body just didn't have the strength needed for dueling and she tired more easily than the 19 year old version of herself.
Before the end of the first round, she managed to disarm Fleur with an unexpected, silent Expelliarmus.
She was surprised to feel the rosewood wand tingle in her hand and emit a small burst of colorful sparks when she caught it midair. She didn't know much about this particular wood, other than it was rare and very temperamental against anyone other than its witch or wizard. Ollivander had told her that he didn't use it when she had talked with him at Shell Cottage while they were recovering from Malfoy Manor.
The next round went to Fleur when she cast a spell that Hermione had never seen before. It was an impressive show of magic to say the least. It started with a single burst of light. As Hermione was focused on deflecting that beam, three bursts of light shot up from the ground and bound her in place, rendering her completely immobile.
The third was deemed to be a tie. Somehow the 10 observers at their dueling stage had scored them equally.
After their duel the two women separated without another word and moved to opposite stages to watch the remaining duels.
As the class dismissed, Hermione rushed to catch Fleur and stopped her just as she reached the hallway. The other students just moved around them as they exited the room. "Fleur, wait! Can I have a minute of your time?"
Fleur barely tilted her head in acknowledgement of her presence. "Fine. A minute. Make eet count."
"You are a really good dueler."
"You want to use your time to tell me what I already know? And for ze record, zat was not my full ability."
Hermione stared incredulously. "What!? You said you weren't going to go easy on me!"
"Non. I said zat I would not go easy on you because of your age. I did try to make eet a challenge for you. I did eet because I could not risk revealing my strategy, not wizz Diggory in ze class."
Hermione nodded "I guess that makes sense."
Fleur scoffed "I zink you will find zat I am razzer intelligent, if you cared to get to know me razzer zan just assume I am a… what is ze phrase..." she tapped her chin dramatically to emphasize her point "ah, oui, just a dumb blonde."
"Right, about that. I actually wanted to apologize for what I said to you earlier this week... And for calling you a tart last week… And for suggesting that you weren't ambitious or capable of being a Champion." Hermione kept eye contact to try to convey how sincere she was. She hadn't realized how much of an arse she had been.
"And so you zought zat trying to 'ex me into next year was ze best way to apologize?" Fleur stared back. "You are truly a confusing girl, 'Ermione Granger."
"I'm serious. I was being an ignorant git. I shouldn't have assumed your heritage based on your looks… I'm sure you get that enough from others and I'm truly sorry for falling into that group. Can you forgive me?"
Fleur regarded her cautiously, her bright blue eyes guarded. "I suppose I am a believer in second chances…" She offered a small smile. "And I should also apologize. I sent you ze tart. And I was not being exactly easy to be around."
"I know." Hermione returned the smile.
"May I suggest zat ze next time you want to apologize to me per'aps a duel ees not ze best way? I would appreciate eet eef you did not try to take my arm off. I like my body ze way eet ess. I will admit, you are very talented, zough. Per'aps you should 'ave been in zis tournament, non?"
Hermione was blushing heavily at Fleur's compliment. "I… well… thank you. And if you are interested, perhaps we could have a rematch and you can go full tilt at me. I won't tell anyone your strategy, I promise."
Fleur nodded slowly "I might like zat. You challenge me. Unfortunately my free time ees very limited wizz ze approaching Task but per'aps another time?"
"Sure! So, perhaps we can be friendly acquaintances?" Hermione asked tentatively.
"Acquaintances." Fleur agreed.
Hermione was absolutely beaming. "Great! Brilliant. So, I guess I'll see you around then." She put her hand out to shake.
"See you around." Fleur smiled again and then leaned in and planted two soft kisses on her cheeks.
Hermione froze, unable to move or think, her face burning hotly as she watched Fleur twist and strut out of the room. After a few seconds she chastised herself for thinking that it meant anything. That's just how the French said goodbye.