Scene 1
The Black Lake, between tasks two and three.
She sits there with golden curls cascading down the back of her light blue robes, her hair glittering in the evening sun.
You walk over and sit down next to her.
You've not been getting enough sleep.
You just can't find it in your heart to forgive Hermione and Ron and you see the same haunted look in her eyes that you see in the mirror whenever you see her walking by in the crowded corridors.
In the middle of all her admirers, she's also alone.
You're not eating enough, your eyes are bloodshot, your robes are wrinkled and your hair is chaotic in a greasy, dirty way.
If she minds she stays quiet.
It feels nice knowing someone doesn't mind.
She looks over at you, her hair perfect, her face and clothing immaculate.
Her eyes are blue and beautiful and not bloodshot, but they are the same as yours.
She looks at you.
You look back at her, and give her a real smile. A broken one.
She smiles back and it's beautiful and real but your heart doesn't soar because you're just grateful to see something real.
You know she's grateful as well.
You know because she told you she was, after you rescued Gabrielle from the lake.
She told you again in private a couple of days later but you didn't need her to tell you because you could see it in her eyes.
You told her you were grateful she was there.
The sun sets, and the cold feels nice and safe and like a blanket and breathing the cold air into your lungs is freeing in a way you need because suddenly it feels like you've not taken a breath since your name came out of the goblet, or since that ragged, raspy, bloody breath after you surfaced from the lake.
You breathe more, and although you can't hear Fleur breathing you know she must probably breathe as well.
She's looking out at the lake. At peace maybe? More at peace than you?
You take her left hand in yours because your hands are cold and you wanted to take her hand, so you did. You hold her hand in both of yours, and blow into it to warm it up, but her hand is already warm.
She looks up at you, wonder and puzzlement in her eyes.
"Your hand is warm," you say, like it's the answer to all her questions.
and it is.
you keep holding her hand in both of yours and she doesn't mind.
you take it up to your mouth and press your lips to it, kissing it softly.
you use it to warm your cheeks.
She's blushing, because it's so fucking sensual, and you both know it.
but to you it's warm and soft and you didn't expect yourself to do it, but it felt right and you're too fucking spent to keep worrying about what's right when you're sitting in the grass next to her.
you take her hand and put it back in your left.
you look back at the lake.
you look back at her, and she has a small smile dancing at the edge of her lips, and her eyes have another dimension of light and you wonder whether it's puzzlement or something else.
You sit together until curfew, and then you sit together for a bit longer before you both stand up and she's still holding your hand and you squeeze it softly and kiss it goodnight before letting go and walking up the school.
You don't look back but you don't feel the need to.
Scene 2
Hospital Wing the day after the third task.
You're laying in bed in a white room in a white bed with a white bandage on your arm and you're just looking up at the white ceiling.
You don't blame yourself. You don't even blame Voldemort.
You're just spent and tired and so fucking sick of people caring and people pretending to care, and people whispering and you just wish they'd find something else to focus on than you.
You ignore the footsteps, but the curtains open and there she is.
She's not out of breath, but she's breathing heavily, and you knew she would breathe because that's what people do.
You look into her eyes and you see pain, but you also see compassion and rage and fire and it makes you feel safe and you don't know why.
You feel safer than you've felt in a while.
You look at her, but she doesn't speak
She sits down in the chair next to you, and she takes your right hand in her left.
"Your hand is warm," you say.
She intertwines your fingers and places your hand in her lap.
You look back up at the ceiling, and you can feel her pressing her soft lips to the top of your hand, but you do not smile because you're not sure if you remember how to.
But if she looks at your face and sees your eyes soften she might know it's not a trick of the light and if she learns something she didn't know before about you that's okay because you trust her with it.
She sits in the chair until you hear voices in the hallway, and she gets up and gives your hand a squeeze before walking out of the curtains.
You listen to her steps walking away.
Scene 3
Letters
She gives you a hug before running over to the carriage and promises she'll write you letters and she does.
She writes about France and her family and how she loves them and it makes you love them too. She writes about the house she grew up in and the gardens and the nature, the flowers blooming in the summer heat. She describes Paris, and the art and the buildings and the food.
She describes her family and her mother and her father and her sister who understands her in a way nobody else does.
She doesn't ask you how you're feeling or how you're doing. She ends the letter with "love, Fleur."
You write her back.
You write about your worries and your pains, you write about your adventures and your dreams. You tell her about your nightmares and the gruelling summer heat, but also tell her that the name of your owl is Hedwig.
You tell her Hedwig was your first friend, before telling her about Hermione and Ron and about their loyalty and about how you know they care for you after all.
You tell her you miss her warm hands.
You end the letter with "love, Harry".
She tells you about Beauxbatons and how her classmates were jealous of how the boys looked at her after she matured, and she tells you about her mother and how Fleur cried when she told her what it meant to be a Veela.
She tells you how she wanted to be invisible, how she looked at Hermione in the library and how all the pain was back again in that one moment and how she was jealous because Hermione could be just herself. She tells you about how she learned to own her beauty, to be proud of her heritage and her magic and her fire. She tells you how she had to act aloof and she tells you that now she is proud to be aloof.
She tells you about Gabrielle and how she's going to have the same talk with Apolline soon and how her heart is going to break when she learns what it means to be a Veela.
She ends the letter with "love, Fleur"
In the next letter you tell her you miss her.
She tells you she misses you back.
You tell her she would be amazing even without her beauty and you mean it and she knows you mean it even without looking at your eyes because she tells you so.
She tells you that you're strong and brave enough, and you know she means it without looking at hers.
Scene 4
Order of the phoenix meeting at the Burrow (Beginning of DH after the broomstick escape from the Dudleys)
You see her standing outside the Burrow after the meeting is over.
She has moved back to Britain for the war.
She works at Gringotts as a curse breaker now but you know she'd rather work in France because she told you in her letters.
You walk over to her, and she looks at you over her shoulder and she smiles but she doesn't run over to you she just keeps on standing there looking out into the horizon.
You walk over to her and you have so much on your mind, but you also just want to enjoy the silence together, because you know you have to leave.
You know it has to be you or him.
She knows too.
She knows because you told her, and you'd seen the tear stains on the next parchment.
You take her hand in yours.
She squeezes it hard and holds yours tightly.
She looks up into your eyes, searching for something, her gaze frantic in a way you've never seen before.
"Your hand is warm," you say, like it's the answer to all her questions.
and it is.
but you have to tell her more this time.
"I'm in love with you, you know," you say, your voice cracking but she doesn't mind.
She gasps but then she smiles and then she hugs you and everything is okay for the ten seconds she's wrapped in your arms and you can feel her breath on your neck before you hear her whisper.
"I know" and her voice cracks as well and you look into her wet eyes and you believe that she's in love with you as well.
You hold her until the sun goes down, and if you both cry and sob and scream nobody knows because you're hidden away for this one moment.
Just this one moment.
You give her a ring because fuck it why not, and you tell her it's not an engagement ring but that it's a promise because if you don't make it, you want her to fucking remember you. It's cruel and it's evil and she wears it on her ring finger.
You kiss then, before you break away her arms from around you
before you go into the night, and you meet with Hermione and Ron and you're determined to make it out alive out of fucking spite.
Scene 5
After the Battle of Hogwarts
You stand over his dead body, and the world is silent again.
The death eaters have put down their wands and everyone is looking at you and at the body of Voldemort because it's over, but nobody quite believes it.
And then you see her and all the noise is back and you hear screaming and crying and sobbing and the sound of spellfire in the distance but you ignore it all because this time she's running and she's screaming your name and this time you smile because suddenly you remember how to smile.
She throws herself into your arms and she sobs and she says your name again and again and again and again and you hold her so tightly you know she's going to break but you don't care because she's here and you're here and it's over.
You take her face into your hands, and you look into her teary eyes and you hold the small of her back in your arms and you kiss her.
And she kisses you back.
And your lips break away and you breathe and the air is freezing and smells of sulfur and smoke but she's so fucking warm. You look into her eyes and you say.
"You're so fucking warm" like it's the answer to all her questions.
And she knows what you mean because she says
"I love you."
And you whisper "I love you too," and you know your voice is breaking and you know you're breaking down but she holds you tightly and you fucking won.