Summary: Fleur and Nymphadora grew up learning together, at Académie de Magie Beauxbâtons (Beauxbatons) and felt a desire for each other, only to keep it hidden. As the years go by, the war came and went, and they both got stable jobs. However, when tragedy strikes at their Alma Mater, they find they can't keep things secret for long.

QLFC:

Team: Pride of Portree

Position: Chaser 3

Main prompt: Wait For It - Write about someone holding back about something

Other prompts: [Restriction] Only female characters, [Object] Book, [Location] Park

Lyrics Used: "Love doesn't discriminate / Between the sinners and the saints / It takes and it takes and it takes / And we keep living anyway"

QUIDDITCH SUPPLIES:

Prompts: [Setting] Beauxbatons, [Pairing] Tonks/Fleur (Mystery Box #7)

14 Galleons Earned

LIBRARY CHALLENGE:

Book Title: Annie on My Mind

Challenge: Write a femslash pairing

Story Title: The Secrets We Keep

Wordcount: 1424

A/N: This is set after the Battle of Hogwarts, but doesn't have a specific time in the HP-verse. It is also set in an AU where Nymphadora Tonks was born in 1977, and went to Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts.

Trigger Warnings: Character death is mentioned, and there is a slightly graphic description of it at the end, as well as there being a femslash pairing.

The trees glistened with frost, and the footsteps leading through the small layer of snow and ice toward the gazebo was the only disturbance aside from some leaves that had fallen. The lake nearby was frozen over, the wind was ice cold, and it had been a spot of bother for everyone when they first arrived. The snow that was falling seemed almost transparent in the dawning sunlight, and the peace that came from the sun helped Fleur clear her head.

Fleur had always loved to be around France in the winter, something about it was just magical. And not in the sense that she had magic, either. The Beauxbatons Charms Professor had started liking the Christmas period in her third year, when it was only her and Nymphadora Tonks from Bellefeuille, a Beauxbatons house, who stayed for the break. Nymphadora had asked everyone to call her either Tonks, Nym or Dora, simply because she didn't like her first name. While most had decided to call her Dora, Fleur had wanted to be different and so started calling her Nym, which Nymphadora had been secretly pleased about.

When Fleur had walked down the stairs into the Dining Hall, she hadn't expected to see anyone there, but had found Nym. She had been wearing light blue pajamas that had sleeves and legs that reached her wrists and ankles, but fitted her perfectly. Fleur had gotten a glance of her on the way down the Grand Staircase, but now, seeing Nym in her pajamas and not caring what anyone thought, Fleur felt her little crush on Nym growing.

Over the years at Beauxbatons with Nym, Fleur found her mother's words had started to mean more than they did originally. The words were ingrained in her memory, and she would never forget them.

"Love doesn't discriminate, between the sinners and the saints. It takes and it takes and it takes, and we keep living anyway."

Sitting on the ground of the gazebo in the local park with Nym, Fleur thought back to her seventh year.

The NEWTs had finished, and the results would be coming out soon. Nym and Fleur were relaxing in the park, and their friends were on their way. Amelie and Violette were finishing up their Theatre NEWT, and had arranged to meet Nym and Fleur out here. While France's magical community was more accepting of members of the LGBT+ community, it wasn't something anyone would broadcast to the public.

"Fleur? How - how do you think you went on the NEWTs?"

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure I got decent marks. What about you?"

"Same."

The silence that descended on the two of them was comfortable for Fleur, but suffocating for Nym. That was until Amelie and Violette came up the hill and plonked themselves down beside the two girls. The book they were carrying was instantly recognised and the four girls fought with each other to get into a position to see the book well. The scrapbook they had been working on since first year was almost done, and the photos and paper cuttings they used all featured at least one of them. Amelie tore open her bag and the girls dove into making the pages look the way they wanted.

After wasting away the afternoon continuing and finishing the book, Violette pulled out her wand and cast a duplication charm on it, creating four copies. Each girl took a copy and wrote their name on the inside of the cover, before they parted ways to head to their dorms for their last night at Beauxbatons together. They left the school the next day, not to return as a student, and never looked back.

Fleur still had the scrapbook, and was pretty sure Nym did as well. The four girls had agreed to meet every other month to catch up, and they were having a movie night the next day. The fact that they still kept close through the war was a miracle in itself, what with Fleur helping the Order of the Phoenix over in Great Britain, and Nym heading over to help the Aurors as well.

Sending letters to and fro using owls to communicate was always annoying, as it took longer than a day to get from England to France, and Fleur had come up with a solution. Fleur had gotten her hands on some scrolls of parchment, and had charmed them to show whatever was written on the other scrolls. Now, with the war over, the girls kept the scrolls on them, but only in case there was an emergency.

The two girls' parchment scrolls glowed blue before fading to normal. Wordlessly, Fleur and Nym grabbed their scrolls, before they apparated to the edge of Beauxbatons' grounds. The blue glow returned to the scrolls brighter than before, and continued to grow in brightness until they reached the front doors to the school, when the scrolls' lights faded back to normal.

The doors were pushed open and the girls rushed in to find a path of destruction leading from the Grand Staircase to the Dining Hall, before heading out the front door, and the Dining Hall entrance had been blasted to smithereens. The tables were all over the place, with chair legs, backs and seats in various places. The other Professors were working to get the students out from under the rubble, but Nym and Fleur made a beeline for Amelie, who was helping Violette out from under a flipped table.

The three girls worked together to get Violette free from under the table, when a sudden magical shockwave sent them flying into the walls. The last thing Fleur saw before she lost consciousness was a black orb, which she managed to identify as an obscurus. Then, everything went black.

Upon waking, Fleur noticed she was in a park unlike any she had seen before, with Nym, Amelie and Violette standing in front of her. The three were mirages, and were only able to speak with her for a little while, to explain what happened. Just after Amelie and Violette left, she asked to have a word with Nym, and said something that had been on her mind recently.

"Look, I don't know how to say this, but I don't know when I'll see you again, so I'm just going to say it. I love you, Nym. Like, really love you. I don't know if you like me back, but if I never see you again, I just want you to know."

"I- I like you too, Fleur. Nothing will ever change that, and I'll see you again, someday."

Nym woke in the Medical wing of Beauxbatons, with Amelie and Violette at her side. She had had the weirdest dream, where Fleur had said she liked her? That thought brought her to remember that Fleur had been slammed into the wall as well, but when she looked around and at the other two girls, they just shook their heads.

"She's gone now, Dora. She passed on while you were unconscious. Wait, what are you doing?"

"Going someplace to remember some things."

Nym had stood up and grabbed the book, pleased to see she was in the coat and pants she had been wearing before she lost consciousness. She strode through the corridors, and out to the edge of the grounds before apparating away. When she landed, the crunch of snow slowly calmed Nym down, as she made her way to the gazebo that contained so many memories of the two of them; when Nym had stayed with Fleur's family for Christmas, and Gabrielle, Fleur's little sister, had shut them out of the house; when they had each snuck away from their homes for a few hours leading up to the New Year the year after.

As Nym flicked through the scrapbook, she started getting emotional at the memories that were brought forward. There was a photo Nym took when they were having a food fight, and Fleur had just been hit with a pie. On the same page, there was news clipping from Les Nouvelles Hebdomadaires (The Weekly News - French Daily Prophet equivalent) of the national Charms competition, which Fleur and Amelie got second and fifth in, respectively. As the memories came rushing through her mind, Nym slipped and hit her head on a rock, resulting in blood flow.

When a muggle came through the park an hour later, she found Nym's body lying face-down on the ground, with her head covered in blood and red-stained snow.