To everyone's horror, they landed metres away from a group of Snatchers. The group froze as Harry deftly pulled out his invisibility cloak, throwing it over them, although it was struggling to hide them all. Hermione let out a small yelp of surprise as Fleur released her waist and slipped out from under the cloak, breezing confidently towards the Snatchers.

The Snatchers were facing the other way, a tall skinny man in his fifties with a grey buzzcut and the other two in their twenties. One was a heavy set boy with dark, lanky greasy hair, and the other was a pale, feral-looking witch with blue hair pulled into a topknot and an undercut.

The trio and Griphook crouched, frozen in fear as they watched Fleur sway towards the Snatchers. Her long silver-blonde hair fluttered behind her and seemed to shine more with each step. In fact, everything about her was becoming more radiant…

"Of course, the Veela is using her thrall," Griphook hissed to the others.

Sure enough, as the Snatchers whirled around at the sound of footsteps, their faces slacked at the sight of Fleur.

"Bonjour," Fleur purred in a friendly tone, stopping in front of the Snatchers, "Are you fighting in ze war?" She was hamming up her French accent for them.

"Uh, yeah, we are," said the heavy set boy, puffing his chest out, "You could say we're soldiers, really."

"We're dangerous sorts, love" added the skinny older man, flashing a leering gummy smile at Fleur.

"Oh, zat sounds so impressive," Fleur giggled, flipping her hair over her shoulder. She waved her hand meaningfully behind her back. The trio and Griphook started painstakingly moving backwards under the invisibility cloak, trying their best to move without creating any noise.

"What are you doing all the way out here?" the blue haired witch said suspiciously, raising her wand at Fleur.

"Oh, simply enjoying ze countryside of ze United Kingdom," Fleur said cheerfully, moving closer to the witch, "You know, ze English 'ave ze most attractive accents…" she purred, putting her hand on top of the witch's hand that was clutching the wand.

"R-really?" Stuttered the blue-haired witch, a blush rising on her cheeks.

Hermione, Harry, Ron and Griphook were moving more rapidly now, almost entirely out of earshot of the Snatchers. Hermione's heart was in her throat at how close they all were to being caught.

"Really," purred Fleur, leaning forward and slowly kissing the blue-haired witch on each cheek. The old man gurgled, his eyes widening. The heavy set boy dropped both his jaw and his wand. The trio and Griphook took this opportunity to break into a full run, making it up and over the hill.


Harry and Ron were setting up the tent and campsite while a resentful Griphook sat on a nearby rock and watched them. Hermione was pacing around the area, beginning her incantations to protect them. She was nervous because she knew she could only get so far before Fleur would be unable to get through. However, she had only got about a third of the way through when the blonde witch appeared through the trees, calmly walking towards them.

"Fleur!" Hermione exclaimed, running forward to wrap her arms around the blonde witch. Fleur was startled, but returned the embrace. Hermione buried her head in Fleur's hair, relieved that she had got away from the Snatchers unscathed. She breathed in the familiar scent of vanilla and flowers, before pulling away awkwardly, realizing they had been hugging for some time now.

"What happened?" Harry said, pausing with the tent and looking up in relief.

"I gave them all a fake name and address to owl me at and then told them I had seen some people hiking in the opposite direction to where you were heading," Fleur said with a proud smirk, "They all ran off quite fast to show me how skilled they were at tracking."

Hermione resumed her incantations quickly as the others congratulated Fleur. Fleur walked over to join them in setting up the campsite, starting to gather dry wood for a fire.

The usually spacious (for three) tent was now a little cramped with their two additional travelers. Griphook ambled in and crankily slammed his small satchel on the bottom bunk of the bunk beds in one room. Harry and Ron exchanged displeased looks before hoisting both of their backpacks on the top bunk.

Hermione had been sleeping on the fold out couch in the other room of the tent. Fleur walked up beside her, observing the creaky fold out with disdain.

"I guess I will have to share this… contraption… with you then, Hermione," she said sulkily.

"You must have known it wouldn't exactly be glamorous camping," Hermione said with a chuckle. Fleur fixed her with a haughty look.

"Non, I have never been camping!" she replied, "How was I supposed to know it was so dirty and dilapidated?"

"So you haven't had camp food before?" Hermione asked, trying to suppress a laugh. Suddenly the beautiful French witch was no longer intimidating, and was instead a curious and amusing woman.

"It is different to normal food?" Fleur asked innocently, raising her eyebrows. Hermione laughed in spite of herself, waving Fleur over to help her gather some old tins and pans to take out to the campfire.


They had just finished dinner and Fleur was quietly tending to Hermione's wounds in front of the campfire. The light was dying out and a silence had fallen over the small group. None of them wanted to talk about the planned break into Gringotts. Now they were on the road, the reality was scary.

Ron pulled out a box of beer and walked around the camp circle, handing out warm bottles. Fleur took one and scrunched her nose up before waving her wand quickly to chill the bottle. Ron looked enviously at the thick condensation on the bottle.

"'Mione, we could have been drinking chilled beer this ENTIRE time?" he exclaimed.

"You never asked," Hermione said, wincing as Fleur resumed wrapping a fresh bandage around her arm. Ron shook his head in disgust.

They all sat around, watching the sky slowly turn to dark, sipping on beers. Fleur taught the boys the spell to chill their beer and they found themselves far more willing to indulge in the beverages.

"Well," Harry said, clapping his hands after his fifth beer, "How about we take our minds off our inevitable grisly deaths from breaking into the strongest wizarding bank?" Hermione threw a bottle cap at him.

"Harry, none of us were thinking that until you said it," she said, irritated.

"Nah, nah, he's right" Ron said, swinging an arm around Griphook amiably, "I know, lets play Truth or Dare."

"Ronald, we aren't thirteen years old anymore," Hermione said crankily, but Harry was already nodding and urging the others to join.

"Oi, okay, Griphook, you start, mate," Ron said to the cranky little goblin beside him.

"Fine. Truth or dare, Potter?" Griphook asked cunningly.

"You can't ask me for the sword of Gryffindor, mate." Harry said laughing, "But, dare,"

Griphook frowned, obviously foiled in his latest attempt to get his hands on the sword.

"Fine. I dare you to let me touch your scar," Griphook said, peering curiously at Harry's forehead. Harry shrugged and nodded. The short Goblin clambered down from his seat and ambled slowly over to Harry. Harry bent his head down and Griphook ran a long creepy finger down his scar, fascinated.

"Okay, that's enough of that," Harry said, looking a little creeped out and sitting up again, "Ron, truth or dare." He asked, swigging at his beer.

"Erm… truth…" Ron said finally, after much deliberation. Harry looked gleeful.

"Okay, tell us the weird thing Lavender made you do when you were dating," Harry asked. Hermione looked up with interest. She had never heard of this before. Ron turned a dark scarlet, spluttering.

"Erm, she, uh… ugh…" Ron stumbled, blushing harder and pausing for large swigs of his drink, "…she got me to wear her underwear to class under my clothes…" he said covering his face with a hand.

Harry and Hermione burst into raucous laughter, tears streaming down their faces. Fleur spat out her mouthful of beer, she had not expected that from the clumsy younger brother of Bill. Even Griphook was smirking, to Ron's annoyance.

"All right, all right," Ron said, clearing his throat and waving his hand at them, "Next one, Fleur, truth or dare,"

The laughter died down as Fleur considered this. She arched a perfect eyebrow before replying in her calm, melodic voice.

"Dare."

Ron's eyes widened and glazed over, his words stumbling out excitedly, "Okay, I dare you to make out with—"

Harry interjected, "This is your brother's wife you're talking to, mate," Ron paused, a little crestfallen. His eyes widened again as he got another idea.

"Hermione!" he said, looking excitedly from one witch to another. Hermione groaned. Ron could be such a perv sometimes. Hermione looked to Harry for back up, but to her surprise, Harry was looking at Fleur, a curious look on his face.

"Fine," Fleur said dismissively. Hermione felt her stomach pang. Despite being outed all those years ago at school by that snoop Ginny, she had never actually kissed a girl before. Let alone a girl that looked like Fleur Delacour. She turned to face Fleur, trying to hide the slight tremble in her.

Fleur appeared unphased, lifting a hand up to cup Hermione's face quickly and leaning in. Hermione could see those long dark eyelashes again, flickering over those deep blue eyes. Her gaze moved down to Fleur's plump pink lips. Before she could register it, Fleur had moved in and pressed her lips against hers. Hermione opened her mouth a little in surprise at the softness of Fleur's lips, and Fleur's tongue slipped inside her mouth, gliding against her own tongue. She felt a deep jolt of arousal pang within her. Fleur pulled away as suddenly as she had started the kiss, and leant back calmly in her seat.

Hermione gaped at her. She could not believe how much that kiss had affected her. Surely Fleur could not have been on the other side of such a kiss and felt nothing? But Fleur's face was unreadable. Hermione looked at the boys who looked just as flustered as her.

"Blimey…" Ron sighed.

"Okay, Hermione, truth or dare?" Fleur said, a smile playing at her lips.

Hermione instinctively selected truth, knowing that she was generally less afraid of revealing knowledge than she was of being dragged into doing something stupid.

"I once heard Ginny teasing you about a shoebox of photos you kept under your bed for your, ah, private time," Fleur laughed, "What wizarding world celebrities made the cut? You can leave out any muggle ones since none of us will know them…"

Hermione blushed heavily as Harry and Ron burst into laughter, relishing the awkwardness that Hermione was in right now.

"Erm, most of the Holyhead Harpies quidditch team…" Hermione said uncomfortably, "Elizabeth Gurgodich, the auror… Henrietta Pilkington, another auror…" she descended into unintelligible mumbles.

"Sorry?" Fleur said, cocking her head to one side.

"Erm… Maybe some Triwizard Tournament articles… about… erm… you…" Hermione said, looking at her shoes and thoroughly hating this game.

Harry started choking he was laughing so hard. Fleur looked at the boys laughing at Hermione's discomfort and then looked at Hermione, beet red, staring awkwardly at her shoes.

"Ah, well I do remember thinking you looked quite cute when I saw you at Hogwarts, how funny…" Fleur said with a smile. Harry and Ron abruptly stopped laughing, surprised. Hermione looked up again, blushing harder but relieved that whether Fleur had meant it out of pity or genuinely, it had shut up the boys.

"Truth or dare, Harry," Hermione said, regaining her composure.

Harry leant back cockily in his seat, putting his arms behind his head, "Either one doesn't really bother me. Truth."

Hermione smirked. Now was her chance to get Harry back for laughing at hers and Ron's discomfort and dish him a little taste of his own medicine.

"So… we all know the story of how McGonagall caught Ginny having sex…" Hermione began, and Harry paled, "But how exactly did you come to know that juicy little tidbit of gossip, Harry?"

Harry's smile fell off his face and he took a nervous sip of his beer.

"Well… erm, it so happens I knew about it because I happened to be there…" Harry said awkwardly.

"And where were you Harry?" Hermione said with a smirk.

"Erm, I happened to also be in the cupboard that Ginny was in…"

"Oh wow, you must have had a good look at the twat that was in there with her," Ron said with a chuckle, before it dawned on his face, "Wait a second… HARRY?"

Harry grimaced, "I might have been the only other person in the cupboard with Ginny…"

With a roar, Ron pushed Harry out of his chair and the two began to wrestle on the ground, half playing, half serious. With that, it was now time for bed, and the others retreated into the tent to ready themselves.

Hermione sighed and stretched, looking at the fold out couch and remembering all the nights she had spent sleeping on it so far. She would miss the comforts of Shell Cottage. She looked up at Fleur, who was brushing her long silver-blonde hair carefully. Her beautiful face was tinged with sadness again and Hermione felt a pang in her stomach. She sighed softly and put her brush down before climbing into bed, her back to Hermione. Hermione put out the lamps and climbed into the other side of the bed carefully, trying not to disturb Fleur. However, as she got in, she remembered how saggy in the middle the old fold out was, and felt herself slide down into the centre of the bed.

Hermione was glad it was dark so Fleur couldn't see her blushing. Her face was lost in a mane of vanilla scented silver-blonde hair, and she was painfully aware of Fleur's ass pressed against her hips.

"Erm… sorry…" Hermione mumbled awkwardly, pulling herself away. Fleur didn't respond. Hermione rolled onto her back and stared up into the darkness, playing with the edge of the bandage on her arm. She couldn't get to sleep. She was afraid of the nightmares that might come. Of Malfoy Manor and Bellatrix and the knife. She flinched at the memory. She tried to turn her mind to other things to calm herself down. Remembering each chapter of Hogwarts: A History and mentally reciting the chapter titles in order. She had just about finished her second cycle of meditatively reciting the chapters when she heard a quiet sniffle. Fleur was crying.