A/N: Hello! I know its been a wee while and this is a shorter chapter, but I lost steam for a little bit there. This one gets a little cheesy! x
As always, thank you for the reviews, they make me smile.
Chapter 6.
Hermione walked Fleur home in the chilly night air.
"We could just apparate, you know," Hermione said, turning her jacket collar up against the wind chill.
"You do not need to escort me home," Fleur replied, seemingly oblivious to the cold. This confused Hermione, one of her most startling memories of Fleur at the Triwizard Tournament was how much the cold had bothered her.
"Fleur…" Hermione began, reaching out to touch the blonde's arm, "Oh! You're freezing!"
"I am fine," Fleur said flatly. But Hermione had already whipped off her jacket and pulled it around Fleur's shoulders.
"You're not, Fleur, just let me look after you!" Hermione exclaimed. Fleur stepped backwards, removing Hermione's hand from her.
"Why do you care what happens to me?" Fleur said, suddenly snapping. There was an intense look in her eyes that Hermione couldn't quite place. She stepped away further and Hermione felt a wrench deep in her stomach. They were all alone on this dark suburban street.
"Because I can't stop thinking about you!" Hermione shouted. Fleur froze, rooted to the spot.
"Hermione…" Fleur said, so softly the wind almost carried her voice away.
"I don't care if you hurt me," Hermione said, more confidently. She stepped forward, closing the gap between her and Fleur, and in one swift motion grabbed Fleur behind the neck with both hands and pulled her into a kiss.
Fleur's lips felt impossibly soft against her own. It took a moment, but Hermione found Fleur returning the kiss with vigour. Mouths opened and tongues brushed playfully. Hermione felt a heat building within her like she had never felt before.
The women pulled apart to breathe.
"Hermione… I… I can't…" Fleur began, as a very uncharacteristic blush rose in her face.
"I don't care if you think you don't deserve happiness, Fleur. I'm going to care for you until you believe you do." Hermione said passionately, "One moment doesn't define the rest of your life."
Fleur stood stunned. It almost appeared as if tears were welling in her eyes but she quickly cleared her throat and brushed at her eyes.
"Now will you let me walk you home?" Hermione said with a gentle smile, holding out her hand.
"Oui."
The next morning Draco was sitting on a couch at the office reading the Daily Prophet when he saw Hermione and Fleur arrive at work. He watched with vague curiosity over the top of his paper.
Hermione held open the door for Fleur, who gracefully walked past her. Draco smirked as he saw Hermione's eyes run down the back of Fleur's body. The two walked into the common area, where Fleur seemed to make a gesture towards the kitchen area. Hermione kissed Fleur on the cheek and the blonde exited. Draco pulled his paper hastily back up.
Hermione came and took a seat beside Draco.
"You're here early, Malfoy," she commented.
"I could say the same about you," Draco drawled, "But really, Granger? Shagging the secretary? Such a cliché," he teased with a smirk. Hermione grabbed his paper and jerked it down violently.
"We are not shagging!" Hermione said in a scandalised tone. Draco smiled lightly and pulled his paper back out of her hands, flapping it a few times to straighten it. She would say it in a moment, he was sure.
"But… we are giving things a try," Hermione said quietly, barely hiding the glee from her voice.
"Good work, Granger," Malfoy laughed, "Didn't think you had it in you."
"Oh shut up, you're proud," Hermione interjected with a grin. Malfoy smiled back.
"I really am."
Despite Fleur tentatively giving in to some very early phases version of dating, Hermione was able to work with even more vigour. Instead of being distracted by the stunning blonde being around the office, Hermione found herself being boosted into more productive heights.
It seemed Fleur's flair for pushing boundaries coupled well with her intelligence. So much so that by the end of the day she was beginning to think that Fleur was being wasted in her current position.
"Fleur, I seriously think you should consider working here in the capacity as a potion creator," Hermione said, holding up some fairly complex recipes that Fleur had assisted her on.
"Non, you have done enough," Fleur said with a wave of her hand, "I am sure I would just mess up at that job anyway."
"Fleur! What have I told you?" Hermione interrupted, "You're not going down that spiral anymore, it would be fine."
"Oh well in that case, let me cross out the Granger in the company name and put in Delacour," Fleur joked, crossing out the letterhead with an inky quill. Hermione grabbed her hands and they wrestled playfully as Fleur attempted to scribble over the company document.
Suddenly, Fleur fell into Hermione's lap, her face centimetres from Hermione's. They both stopped moving at the same moment, lost in each other's eyes.
"Fleur, I've never met anyone quite like you before…" Hermione said softly. Fleur had the same pain in her eyes.
"That isn't a good thing," she said, barely above a whisper. Hermione wrapped her arms around her.
"Fleur, don't talk like that…"
Fleur shut her eyes and shook her head, turning her face away from Hermione.
"I'm broken, I'm no good for you… All I can give you is my looks," Fleur said in a trembling voice. It looked like tears were threatening to fall from her eyes. Hermione had never seen her quite this vulnerable before.
"That's not true, Fleur," Hermione said softly, "You are so much more than your looks. All I want is to be around you."
Fleur turned back to look at Hermione, finally meeting her gaze again.
"I want to be around you too," she quietly admitted. Hermione finally closed the gap between them, brushing her lips lightly against Fleur's.
"Will you let me take you on a date?" Hermione asked, pulling away. A shadow of a smile graced Fleur's beautiful features.
"Oui."
The next afternoon, Fleur and Hermione arranged to finish work early to go on a date. Malfoy enthusiastically encouraged it, citing that he could not remember the last time Hermione had ever left work early.
Signing the last documents on her desk, Hermione got up with a smile and left to seek out Fleur at her desk. Fleur was looking distastefully at a bouquet of flowers on her desk.
"What are those?" Hermione asked. Fleur looked at her, wrinkling her nose.
"Pansies… From Pansy," she said with a frown. Draco laughed as he swaggered over.
"Yeah… I probably should have warned she has a rather persistent personality," he chuckled as he leaned against the wall next to them, "So, what is on the agenda for this afternoon?"
"It's a surprise," Hermione said with a grin.
"Hermione is rather cruelly ignoring my repeated reminders that I hate surprises," Fleur added with a playful pout.
"Ah, sounds like the cruel Hermione I know and love," Draco teased.
"All right you two, enough of that," Hermione laughed, "Its time for Fleur and I to head off,"
Fleur picked up her handbag, and with a wave goodbye to Draco, took Hermione's hand and walked out with her. As they stepped out onto the footpath outside Malfoy & Granger, Fleur looked expectantly at Hermione.
"Well?"
Hermione smiled and pulled a small vial out of her pocket, quickly swallowing the content.
"Okay," Hermione smiled, holding out her hand.
"That's the surprise?" Fleur asked with a smirk, "Watching you have a drink on the footpath?"
But with a jerk, they apparated away.
Arriving in a small town square, Fleur let out a gasp and a series of exclamations in French.
"Yes, we really are here," Hermione chuckled, gesturing around the small village in the South of France, "I remember in one of the profiles in a magazine about you they mentioned you used to summer here with your family. It stuck in my memory because I also came here one summer with my parents."
"And the potion you drank… that is how you managed to apparate so far all in one go?" Fleur said with wide eyes.
"A Malfoy & Granger specialty," Hermione said with a confident grin. Fleur grinned back.
"So what other surprises do you have in store?" Fleur said, with a rare expression of pure happiness gracing her features. It made Hermione's heart soar to be the cause of that expression. She reached out, taking Fleur's hand, and began to lead her to the small eatery nearby.
Pansy leaned against the bar, sipping at her tumbler of firewhisky. She nodded every now and again as the former Slytherin girls gossiped idly. She wasn't really here for a catch up. She just knew that this gaggle of well connected girls would be her best bet at finding out more about Delacour. Sure enough, they were all talking about how Delacour had abruptly dropped out of the social scene.
Pansy was a woman obsessed. The way that the French bombshell had ignited sensations within her had driven her wild ever since her night out with Delacour, Granger and Draco. She was already hooked and wanted to see more of the mysterious woman. Unfortunately, her gesture of flowers had gone ignored. She had to change tactics, find out more about her.
"She was an Unspeakable though, wasn't she?" Pansy prompted, reverting back to sipping her drink as she waited.
"Oh yes, she gave that up along with everything else when she broke up with that Weasley boy," Daphne said confidentially. The other girls nodded.
"Bill Weasley, wasn't it?" one of the others asked, prompting more nods.
"She was such a bore before that, such a goodie two shoes," Tracey Davis said with a smirk, "I don't know why all those Gryffindor types refer to it as a 'breakdown,' she's much better these days."
"A breakdown?" Pansy interrupted, curiosity piqued.
"Oh yes, she never talks about it though," Tracey answered, "Although Daphne got a little cosy with her one night when she was really wasted and she did say that something "terrible" had happened."
"She really wouldn't talk about it though," Daphne chipped in, "No matter how much I pushed it."
"Maybe had something to do with what happened to Weasley in the end?" Tracey suggested.
Merlin, Pansy loved her old school friends' love of gossip. It never ceased to come in handy.
Hermione walked Fleur home, hand in hand. It had been a fantastic date. She couldn't recall a time she had seen Fleur look this relaxed and carefree, and it filled her with joy.
"So you had a good time?" Hermione prompted, casting a sideways glance at the blonde. Fleur burst into a large smile again.
"So good," she grinned, "It is as if you could sense how homesick I was getting for France,"
"Just the refresher you needed, huh?" Hermione smiled, "I'm glad I'm getting to see that smile a little more."
"I smile plenty," Fleur pouted.
"Your real smile," Hermione clarified, as they reached Fleur's door. Hermione released Fleur's hand and then moved her hands to rest on Fleur's hips. Fleur met her with her same intense cerulean gaze.
"Do you ever think about going back to be an Unspeakable?" Hermione asked, watching Fleur's face carefully.
"I do miss the challenge of the work," Fleur admitted, "I just… I had to leave that job for good reason."
"I know, but lots of people have had periods of acting out when things get bad," Hermione pressed, "That doesn't mean that you can't return to something that challenges you that you're passionate about."
Fleur snorted, "I can't imagine you having a period of 'acting out'… you are the Golden Girl after all."
Hermione smiled, "I know you think I always have been and always will be an incurable nerd… But right after the war… I did struggle a bit."
"You had a wild period?" Fleur asked incredulously. Hermione laughed.
"No, not quite," she chuckled, "But I did have a period of aimlessness and emptiness. Then I got back to things that made me feel alive again."
"You make me feel alive," Fleur said so softly that Hermione almost thought she had imagined it. But then Fleur leaned in and kissed her so softly, and with such feeling, that she knew she had heard correctly.
"Goodnight, Fleur," Hermione said, blushing a little but attempting valiantly to recover from the surprise kiss, "I'll see you tomorrow. I'm glad you enjoyed the date."
"You don't want to come in?" Fleur asked, flabbergasted. Hermione's blush darkened.
"I mean… Obviously I want to… Erm," Hermione inwardly cursed. She had been doing so well at keeping her composure around Fleur lately.
"Then?"
"Its not the right time," Hermione finally choked out, "I want to build up to it naturally. For it to be special."
Fleur shook her head in disbelief. "You really do like me for me," she muttered.
"Obviously," Hermione retorted. Fleur shook her head, still incredulous, as Hermione kissed her cheek gently.
"Goodnight, Fleur," Hermione said warmly, before turning on the spot and apparating away.