A/N: Hi all! I just wanted to say thank you so much for your reviews. They really are what keep me writing. Well, that and the total lockdown thanks to a certain pandemic.
It is tricky writing a fic where I don't show Fleur's POV at all... But rest assured, she is processing her own things in her own way.
Hermione caught up with Fleur as she stepped into the living room. The blonde had frozen and suddenly doubled over, covering her mouth.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked, concerned. Fleur was as pale as a ghost.
"Just—" Fleur winced, "I'm going to be sick! The smell!"
She stumbled her way out the door.
Ron, dishing up dinner, looked a little hurt.
"Blimey… It's just some roast beef," Ron said a little defensively. Harry, standing nearby, patted his red haired mate on the shoulder.
"I'm sure it was unrelated, mate," Harry reassured.
Hermione nodded.
"Pregnant women can get a little more sensitive to smell," Hermione explained, "Sometimes the most unexpected things can make them feel sick. I'd better go help her."
Hermione rushed out the door. She could hear the sound of retching coming from the downstairs bathroom and hurried to help the Frenchwoman.
She found Fleur kneeling in front of a toilet, being violently ill. Hermione came and stood behind her, holding back her hair and rubbing her back.
"Non… I am disgusting," Fleur whimpered, before throwing up again.
"You aren't, Fleur," Hermione soothed, "Just get it out of your system. Don't worry about dinner, I'll find something plain for you later."
Fleur whimpered some more, throwing up until her body was limp and weak.
"You get quite bad nausea, huh?" Hermione asked.
"Most days," Fleur said weakly, "Usually during the day, though. That smell just set me off."
Fleur got to her feet shakily, still deathly pale.
"Oh, no you don't," Hermione said, sweeping the blonde into her arms, bridal style.
"Hermione," Fleur whined weakly. But Hermione could tell she wasn't seriously protesting.
Hermione carried Fleur out of the room and up the stairs. Despite Fleur being far more pregnant than the last time Hermione had carried her, Hermione found it even easier than last time. It was as if she had gained strength without even working out.
Reaching their room, Hermione deposited Fleur on the bed.
"Merci," Fleur replied, "I loathe how nauseous this pregnancy makes me."
"It is only temporary," Hermione said. She went over to the windows and pulled the curtains for the blonde.
She slipped back downstairs, unsurprised to find the boys already tucking into their dinner.
"Fleur okay?" Harry asked, pausing. Ron, on the other hand, kept stuffing his face, although he was watching Hermione with mild curiosity.
"She will be," Hermione replied, "Can you just put a plate aside for me? I'll eat later. I just want to make sure she's okay."
"Sure," Ron managed to get out from a mouth stuffed full of food.
"I'll make sure Ron doesn't eat it," Harry added with a grin. Ron shoved the raven-haired boy playfully.
"Oi!"
Hermione left the boys to their play-fighting, pouring a glass of cool water. She headed back up to her room, taking out her wand and charming the water to be even icier. It would help with Fleur's nausea.
"You're back," Fleur murmured, still looking quite pale.
"I couldn't just leave you on your own while you're ill," Hermione replied. She came and handed Fleur the chilled water.
"Merci," Fleur replied, sipping lightly at the water before placing it on her bedside table. She leaned back against her pillow and rested her hands on her protruding stomach.
Hermione shuffled up the bed to lie beside Fleur, putting one hand on top of her hands.
"You are doing such a good job of growing our little baby boy," Hermione murmured soothingly. She looked up and was astonished to see Fleur had tears in her eyes. It must be the baby hormones messing with her again.
"You're… You're really quite supportive," Fleur sniffled, "I have given you no reason to be so supportive. Is it just because I am carrying your baby?"
Hermione's fingers wrapped around Fleur's on top of her stomach.
"Not at all," Hermione reassured, "Of course I'm protective of our baby. But, I really do care about you too."
"Why?" Fleur asked, tears still running down her face.
Hermione leaned in closer to the blonde, feeling bad that she was upset—hormones or not. There was, as always, an underlying tension between them. There always was, whether they were bickering, teasing each other, or upset.
"I don't quite know…" Hermione said honestly. Her face was getting quite close to Fleur's now. She could almost count the long dark eyelashes framing Fleur's azure eyes.
Fleur's eyes were downcast. Hermione cupped her chin gently, raising Fleur's face up to look directly at her. She swiped her thumb over Fleur's cheek carefully, wiping the falling tears.
"I just… care about you," Hermione finished. Fleur's deep azure eyes were locked with Hermione's own honey flecked brown ones. The tension was building between them; Hermione could feel it. If there was ever a time to be bold, now was it.
Hermione leaned in, closing the little distance left between them, and kissed Fleur. Unlike the accidental kiss of the morning, this one was intentional and gentle. All of the care and affection she had bubbling under the surface was channeled into this kiss.
It was chaste and quick, Hermione pulling back slowly after she had done it. Fleur looked a little surprised, but her tears had stopped.
"I'm sorry," Hermione said, a little nervous now of Fleur's reaction, "Between the accidental one this morning and just now, I can't quite seem to stop kissing you."
Fleur's eyes appeared stormy again. Hermione wondered if she was imagining small flecks of silver in them.
"I really don't mind," Fleur said finally. She reached up and hooked a hand behind Hermione's neck, pulling her in close again.
This time Fleur was the one that initiated the kiss, her soft full lips pressing against Hermione's ones in earnest.
Hermione felt a great warmth rush through her. She had never in a million years imagined Fleur initiating a kiss with her, and especially not while sober and serious. Her stomach felt like a mass of butterflies were fluttering to get free. Her veins felt like they were pumping some kind of wonderful blood through her system. As Fleur slipped her soft tongue into Hermione's mouth to deepen the kiss, Hermione felt like she was on top of the world. She felt whole for the first time since the war.
She wasn't sure how much time had passed. It could have easily been a second or an hour—the kiss just felt that incredible. But when Fleur finally released her and broke the kiss, Hermione stared at the beautiful creature before her, dazed. Fleur no longer looked upset. Beyond that, Hermione was unable to read.
'Heck, if this is the best way to cheer her up, bring it on,' Hermione thought giddily.
Fleur sighed and reached for the glass of water on the bedside table, sipping at it again. Hermione stared at her impassive expression. The woman's ability to hide her emotions should be criminal. She was too much of an enigma for it to be fair.
"Erm, are we going to talk about that?" Hermione asked, breaking the silence.
"About what?" Fleur asked innocently, her eyes carefully on her glass of water. Hermione inwardly smiled at the blonde's insistence on dodging anything possibly uncomfortable.
"You know what," Hermione replied gently.
Fleur sighed.
"Must we overthink things?" Fleur said, turning her azure eyes back to the brunette.
Hermione shrugged.
"I don't know if you've heard, but I'm pretty well known for overthinking," Hermione joked, trying to ease the tension. It seemed to work, as the hint of a smile played at Fleur's full lips.
"Can we talk later?" Fleur asked, "I am still feeling a little ill. I would prefer to lie down for a while."
Hermione half wanted to push Fleur to talk, but she decided to go easy on the blonde. She clearly wasn't adept at having difficult conversations from everything Hermione had observed so far.
"Okay," Hermione relented, "I'll head downstairs and have my dinner. I'll be back soon."
"Merci," Fleur replied, a hint of relief in her voice.
Hermione padded out of the room, shutting the door behind her quietly. She headed downstairs, her mind absolutely whirring at what had just happened between Fleur and her.
When she got to the dining room, Harry and Ron were still there. Ron was sipping on a beer as Harry played idly with a snitch.
"Oh hey, Hermione," Harry greeted, swiping the snitch out of the air, "I saved your dinner from Ron."
"Saved?!" Ron scoffed, "As if I would have eaten it."
Hermione snorted. He definitely would have eaten it.
She grabbed her plate from the countertop, coming to sit across from the boys as she ate.
Harry released the snitch, allowing it to flit around Ron's head before swiping it from the air again.
"Not long 'til the semester is over," Harry said idly, releasing the snitch again, "Hard to believe it's almost exam time. We should probably start applying for Auror jobs."
"Probably," Ron concurred, "Or we could start planning an epic end of semester party?"
"Ronald!" Hermione chided, "We have exams! Not to mention a pregnant woman living under our roof! It would be beyond irresponsible."
"You'll be fine with your exams," Harry reassured.
"Yeah, don't get your knickers in a twist," Ron replied, "As if you would screw up exams. Besides, you've got laid at both parties we've hosted here! You should be the last one complaining!"
"And yet I am complaining," Hermione shot back, "Let's all try and keep a minimum standard of commonsense."
"Put it to a vote?" Ron suggested, smiling boyishly. Hermione groaned.
"You know I hate when we vote," Hermione said stiffly.
"Democracy!" Ron replied, grinning wider.
"Hardly!" Hermione scoffed.
"Close enough!" Ron responded, "Okay, all those in favour of an end of studying party? Harry, take into consideration it marks the end of ALL study!"
"You might decide to do study later in life!" Hermione tried. But the boys were already beyond excited at the thought of no more homework or classes. They both raised their hands.
"And all those not in favour?" Ron asked, grinning at Hermione like the cat that had got the cream. Hermione raised her hand despondently.
"I hate these votes," Hermione groaned.
She spent the rest of the evening playing Exploding Snap with the boys, appeased a little bit about the vote when Ron inadvertently singed his eyebrows. The redhead usually absolutely destroyed Harry and Hermione at games. He was a natural strategist and it drove the know-it-all part of Hermione crazy.
As soon as Ron singed his eyebrows, Hermione took her opportunity to call it a night.
"Well, I'm tired," Hermione over-exaggerated a yawn, "I think we'll just call it there at Ron's loss."
"Hey!" Ron squawked, "You always try to wriggle out whenever I lose! Where was this tiredness when you were losing and I felt sleepy?"
"What can I tell you, Ron? Seeing you lose that round so fantastically must have just taken it out of me," Hermione shrugged with a grin.
Harry chuckled at the antics of his two best friends.
Hermione was still giggling as she finished brushing her teeth and headed into her room. The lights were out but Hermione could see well enough in the dim light to find her way to put her clothes away and change into an old tee and a pair of boxers.
She hopped into the bed, instinctively sliding over to spoon Fleur from behind.
"You smell like gunpowder," Fleur commented in the dim light.
"Oh, sorry," Hermione replied, "I didn't realize you were still up. I was playing Exploding Snap with the boys."
"And you won?" Fleur assumed.
Hermione groaned lightly, tightening her arm around Fleur and resting her hand on Fleur's pregnant belly.
"No, but we will raise our little man to be a natural strategist… Raised from birth to take down Ron and his infuriating winning streaks," Hermione said in a faux-sinister voice. Fleur laughed at that.
"Ron got on your nerves tonight," Fleur commented playfully. Hermione sighed.
"He is insisting that we throw an 'end of our studies' party," Hermione groaned, "I told him that we need to concentrate on exams and you're pregnant but—"
"Ooh, magnifique! Some of my friends from France are in town!" Fleur gushed, wriggling excitedly in Hermione's arms, "It would be the perfect opportunity to catch up with them!"
"Not you, too!" Hermione groaned before softening her tone, "Are you hungry after missing dinner?"
"Non," Fleur said in her little haughty tone, "I am fine."
Hermione snuggled closer with the blonde and soon they found themselves falling asleep.
Of course, it was only a few hours later when Hermione found herself being shaken awake. Hermione sat up suddenly, grabbing her wand in her sleepy reaction.
"Who? Wha?" Hermione mumbled, aiming her wand blindly into the dark.
"Hermione, it is just me," Fleur murmured in her soothing French accent. Hermione put down her wand and rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand, yawning.
"Oh, what is it?" Hermione asked sleepily, "Is everything okay with the baby?"
"Oui, oui," Fleur replied, "But I am hungry Hermione."
Hermione sighed heavily. She had enjoyed a few nights' without Fleur's mid-night cravings.
"I knew you shouldn't have gone to bed without any dinner," Hermione groaned, "What do you feel like?"
"A sandwich," Fleur said contentedly.
"Oh," Hermione responded, surprised, "Well that is actually quite ordinary for once—"
"With peanut butter and pickles," Fleur interrupted.
"And there we go," Hermione retorted, getting up with an amused smile. It was a little cold out of bed so she hurried down to the kitchen and made the sandwich as rapidly as she could before dashing back to bed.
She hopped in beside Fleur before passing the blonde the sandwich. Hermione crinkled her nose as she watched Fleur wolf it down, shutting her eyes as she savoured the strange combination.
"That can't taste good," Hermione frowned.
"Magnifique," Fleur smiled, offering the last piece of the sandwich to a disgusted Hermione, "Suit yourself."
Fleur polished off the sandwich, beaming. Hermione had to admit, the Frenchwoman looked adorable right now.
Fleur began to nestle back down into bed and shut her eyes.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Hermione asked, outraged. Fleur peeked one eye open.
"Going to sleep, what does it look like?" Fleur replied simply.
"I'm wide awake now! You can't just go back to sleep!" Hermione retorted, struck by how unfair the situation was. Dashing around the house had got her too wide awake to simply go straight back to sleep.
"But Hermione, I am tired," Fleur whined playfully, opening both eyes and pouting at the brunette.
"Brat," Hermione teased back, acting as if she were far more annoyed than she was.
Fleur shifted closer to Hermione in the bed, her eyes seeming almost silvery again.
"Well, I can make it up to you, I suppose," Fleur said slowly and deliberately.
Hermione felt a heat bloom within her as Fleur ran an elegant hand up her arm before cupping her face. She was putty in the beautiful part-Veela's hands.
Hermione wanted to say something but all breath had halted in her throat.
Fleur leaned forward in the dim light, her lips brushing Hermione's gently before pressing against them with fervor. Hermione melted into the kiss, her hand snaking it's way into Fleur's hair and giving it a light tug. Fleur moaned slightly and Hermione took the opportunity to slide her tongue into her mouth, her body positively thrumming with pleasure. It was even better than the two previous kisses, Hermione pouring all of her affection into it and taking charge. Fleur moaned again into the kiss and Hermione felt a jolt of arousal course through her. Her hand released Fleur's hair and travelled down her body, getting lower and lower…
Fleur broke the kiss suddenly, pulling back.
"Erm, sorry," Hermione muttered, "I didn't mean to push things too far,"
"I just… I should sleep," Fleur muttered.
Hermione wished she could see Fleur a little more clearly in the dim lighting of the dark room. Not that it would help her with the blonde's notorious ability to keep a straight face.
Fleur rolled over in the bed, turning away from Hermione. Hermione sighed and lay back in bed, staring up at the ceiling.
Hermione was at her desk, cramming for exams as she had been all week. She had gone even more over the top with her studies in the time since the Great Kissing Day (as she had come to refer to it inside her own mind). Fleur had continued her pattern of avoiding any uncomfortable discussions, distracting Hermione more and more wildly any time the brunette came close to discussing the kisses or what Cassandra had said she must tell her.
So far, they had created a list of no less than one hundred possible names for the baby, decided on what the baby would call each of them (Maman for Fleur, Mum for Hermione), and even started discussing where in the room a cot would fit.
Hermione smiled absently. She had to hand it to the blonde, the baby was the most delightful distraction.
Finally giving up on initiating the conversation for now, Hermione did what she knew best: threw herself into study.
Hermione leaned back, stretching in her chair and clicking her neck. She'd been poring over books for hours.
The door opened and Ginny burst in.
"Finally! I've been trying to get that door open for at least an hour!" Ginny exclaimed.
"Sorry, had a silencing spell on the room so I couldn't hear a thing outside of this room," Hermione commented, flipping a page in her textbook.
Ginny came over to lean on her desk. She had a beer in her hand that she was sipping at.
"You're really going to miss your own end of semester party, huh?" Ginny asked idly, kicking at some scrunched up parchment on the floor.
"Not my party, Gin," Hermione reminded in a sing-song voice.
"Well… A party at your place, anyway," Ginny corrected, "Come on—take a break from study."
"And why should I do that?" Hermione grumbled, looking up at Ginny.
"Well, you're going to pass your exams anyway," Ginny said, "Ron's trying to crack on with Fleur's French mates which is making for fantastic entertainment, and Amelie is here."
"You're not enticing me, Ginny," Hermione said flatly. She hadn't told her friends about the kisses with Fleur and thus had not told them about her need to distract herself from her urge to push the blonde into talking.
The blonde was dealing with ridiculous pregnancy hormones on top of a Veela temperament; if Hermione pestered her again, it was only a matter of time until the blonde would snap. Best to lay low and wait for an opportune time to raise the issue.
"Come on, just half an hour? Humour me," Ginny requested.
The redhead began to play with quills on Hermione's desk. The brunette sighed heavily, realizing that Ginny was not going to leave her alone until she relented.
"Fine," Hermione said begrudgingly.
Ginny fist pumped, dragging Hermione away from her desk before she could change her mind.
The second Hermione left the sanctuary of her room, she was hit by the booming music blasting through the house. Of course Ron would have insisted on it being a large party. Ginny and Hermione weaved through already heavily intoxicated people in the hallway and headed downstairs.
Hermione saw Fleur immediately, surrounded by a throng of women that looked like they could easily be models. Fleur looked in her element, reminding Hermione of how truly intimidating Fleur had been at Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament. Fleur was actually smiling and laughing easily.
A part of Hermione was jealous. She wished that Fleur was laughing and at ease with her right now, not avoiding a conversation she desperately wanted to have.
'Maybe now would be a good time to get her to talk about the kisses..' the obsessive part of Hermione's brain suggested. Hermione bit her lip.
'No way, it would be dreadful timing—right when she is finally relaxing with her friends she hasn't seen in a long time…' Hermione told herself firmly.
"Oh God, here goes Ron about to make another pass at one of Fleur's friends," Ginny muttered, elbowing Hermione in the ribs.
A drunken-looking Ron was slyly sidling up to the group of beautiful Frenchwomen. Hermione's resolve broke.
"Let's go talk to them," Hermione said, not even waiting for a response before she strode over to the group. Ginny scampered after her.
"You know, my favourite cuising has always been French," Ron drawled drunkenly, wiggling his eyebrows at a dark-blonde girl standing near Fleur.
Ginny stifled a guffaw, nudging Hermione again.
But Hermione wasn't here to watch Ron's appalling flirting tactics. She walked right up to Fleur.
"Hey, Fleur," Hermione greeted.
"Salut, Hermione," Fleur smiled radiantly, "These are some of my friends from Beauxbatons…"
Fleur began rattling off a number of French names, prompting beautiful women around Fleur to flash welcoming smiles at Hermione.
"This is Hermione," Fleur told the throng of women around her, "She is a friend of mine. I actually recently moved in here with her."
"Oh, Fleur, I thought the interior design positively screamed of your influence!" a curly haired redhead next to Fleur purred in a strong French accent.
Hermione felt jealousy rear inside her.
"I'm actually the parent of her child," Hermione interjected bluntly.
An awkward silence settled over the Frenchwomen at Hermione's sudden tone. Polite smiles were affixed to pretty faces as Fleur's friends decided to ignore the harshness in Hermione's voice.
"Ooh, congratulations 'Ermione!" various women cooed at Hermione. It was doing nothing to soothe her possessiveness over Fleur.
She'd wanted to talk to Fleur about the kisses badly enough. Now Fleur was surrounded by a throng of beautiful women, the urge was becoming more and more unbearable.
"Fleur can we talk about what happened the other night?" Hermione blurted.
Gazes turned curious and flicked between Hermione and Fleur.
Fleur frowned slightly, familiar iciness descending over her features.
"Let us talk outside a moment," Fleur suggested neutrally.
Hermione knew she had set off Fleur's hormonal temper but she didn't care, anything to discuss the kisses she so desperately wanted to read more into. She simply nodded and followed Fleur outside.
She could feel the curious eyes of Fleur's friends and Ginny watching them as they left.
Once they were out in the solitude of the dimly lit garden of Grimmauld Place, Fleur turned to Hermione, her azure eyes flashing with annoyance.
"Must you bring up such delicate subjects in front of my friends?!" Fleur snapped, "I was enjoying finally having some time to catch up with them. I felt normal for the first time since getting pregnant!"
"Look, I just want to talk about what happened between us," Hermione started, her own temper beginning to flare, "Is it so much to ask to just have some clarity?"
"I'm just not ready to talk about it!" Fleur snapped.
Hermione found herself being wound up even more. She couldn't stop the long overdue frustration at how closed-off Fleur was.
"I can't believe I'm chasing you out of some kind of slim hope that you could want to be with me!" Hermione shouted, exasperated, "I could be with someone open and readable! I could be with Amelie! I could be with anyone!"
Fleur suddenly, unexpectedly, reacted. She looked as if she had been struck across the face.
"Yes, you could be with anyone!" Fleur retorted in a hiss, "You could be with anyone but I have no choice but you!"
"Just because we're having a baby doesn't mean you can't go off and date someone else, like you so clearly would love to do," Hermione shot back.
Fleur's eyes flashed with definite sparks of silver.
"Don't you get it?" Fleur said from between clenched teeth, "You're my mate."
"I'm… What?" Hermione was entirely thrown.
"You're my mate," Fleur repeated, even more temperamental, "My cursed blood binds me to one lifetime mate. Once I have become pregnant by them, I cannot date anyone else for the rest of my life. Whereas, you! You get stronger! You can date anyone you want! The sun shines on Hermione Granger!"
"Wh-what?" Hermione stammered, "Fleur—I didn't know that! I'm so sorry…"
"I didn't know how to tell you without getting this," Fleur said with disdain, waving at Hermione, "Your pity."
Hermione opened her mouth to explain that it wasn't pity. That it didn't matter that Hermione could date anyone, she didn't have any interest in doing that.
But Fleur turned on her heel, her long mane of silvery-blonde hair billowing out behind her. She stormed off inside Grimmauld Place, slamming the door behind her.
A/N: Please don't jump to conclusions or judge either too hard on the argument! Both are just at that breaking point that people reach when they snap over a situation that has been simmering too long - it isn't always fair and it doesn't always come across well... But we'll see in the next chapter if at least prompts some long overdue talking!