1 September, 2005

I knew there was something, Bill. I have always known it. Not the moment when I first met you, though.

You looked so handsome. You were the most handsome wizard I had ever seen. But it lied in the way you carried yourself; you were so cool, you did not care what people thought about your earring, about your long hair and stubble, or your Weird Sisters shirts. And when I got to knew you, it got confirmed that you were exactly the way as I had thought you would be: cool, laidback, funny. I can not remember having laughed more in my whole life than I did in our first weeks together.

You were always so kind to me, helped me with everything. When I met your family, I immediately felt at home. They were all so nice. I felt accepted. Well, not so much by your mother at first, but she turned around, eventually, and now I'm proud to say that we can get along well. But now, it's of no use. What do I need a good relationship with my mother-in-law for, if my husband is not interested anymore?

You were also brave. I had never met a braver man, too. When you got attacked by Greyback, your mother thought I would not love you anymore. Well, she was wrong! I may be part Veela, but I am not superficial. I only loved you more! You were a hero. My hero. But that doesn't matter now anymore, does it?

You betrayed me, Bill. You deeply betrayed me. You should have been honest. Then I might have an ounce of forgiveness left. But no! You wanted to use me as a mask to convince others that you were 'normal'. Guess what, Bill. Being homosexual is normal and le enfer, I would have eventually started to get used to it that he's your goddamn brother, too. But not anymore. Now I despise you.

Bonne chance with the rest of your life, Bill.

F. I. Delacour

Fleur crumbled her letter, while tears streamed down her high cheekbones, rosy-colored in anger. No, even such an elaborate letter was too much for her husband, too much for what he had done. Instead, she made all the text vanish and only wrote one sentence.

"I know I'm not the only one. Goodbye, William."*

That would do. She packed her things and left, feeling quite miserable. But she told herself that she was strong. She would get over this - she had survived dragons, moody merepeople and Death Eaters, for Merlin's sake! Sure she would survive Bill, too. Bill was not even on par with the other things she had dealt with; he should wish he was.

She got a strange thought; one that made her worry if she hadn't only inherited one quarter of her Veela grandmother's great beauty, but also a tad of her madness. She wanted to take revenge on Bill. She had never liked taking revenge. She had always been of the belief that it couldn't bring anyone any good, ever. But this need for vengeance was strong, that it did not feel like petty, cruel vengeance at all.

It felt more like a task that had already been planned to be performed in the future. It felt like a simple fact of nature: There were too much opportunities for punishing Bill for her not to take, as if it was meant to be and she was merely going to execute the thing life gave her many hopeful hints about. And the idea formed itself in her mind, as if it had already been there for years but she only needed to know it now.

She had to try to seduce Percy Weasley with her Veela charm. That even was a challenge, because Percy Weasley was one of the few wizards which seemed way more resistant to Veela charms than others. Not because he had learned how to deal with them; or maybe he had. Even though Percy Weasley wore glasses, short-sightedness when it came to wizards and witches was not one of his flaws.

Fleur smiled. Maybe her formerly boring life would get exciting again, at last.

In front of the mirror, she brushed her hair. Her hair was the dearest part of her appearance. It was light blonde and shiny, with glittering silver streaks, and emitted a faint silver glow, just like an unicorn. She was satisfied about her face, too: her eyes were way bigger than those of ordinary witches, with longer, darker eyelashes and a dark-blue color that she rarely saw in anyone else. She was tanned from her youth in France and she was tall and slender, yet curvy in the places that all men secretly liked to look at.

All men who weren't gay. Furiously, she tried to banish Bill from her thoughts. She was lucky that Percy was bisexual.

She put on a airy, almost-translucent seagreen robe that was tight at the waist. She decided to put on high heels made from chic goblin-made leather instead of the usual dragon hide ones. To charm Percy, she had to be seductive but not too much - she knew he valued properness. She was at a loss why he had then chosen for Bill, but she figured that he needed a forbidden fruit of some sorts, somebody he couldn't be seen with in public - that was probably part of the kick. Well, she would show him that she was as wild as Bill, but also someone you could be seen with in public.

In fact, she was the superlative of someone to be seen with; if a wizard was seen with her it basically shouted through a megaphone that he had made it. Bill hadn't appreciated that enough. No, he had not appreciated her at all.

Fleur smiled to herself in the mirror, a smile so disarming it could make most men faint. She knew it did not have too much effect on Percy, though.

Or was that so because she had rarely ever smiled at him?

* This sentence comes from the fanfiction 'I'm Not the Only One' by OCDdegrassi