Golden Haze: Scene Change: Interlude One
AN: It has been brought to my attention that while this story is told primarily from Fleur's POV, that a lot of other characters in this story could use a voice. Here is one of them.
Thanks to shetan83 for helping me with this part too. :3
Gabrielle Delacour, twelve years old and second year student at Beauxbatons Magical Academy, sat in a small alcove in the school's library, hurriedly penning a letter before nine-thirty curfew. She wrote in messy French, half-tainted with crass, angry slang that betrayed her hurt and anger at the addressee.
Fleur -
(None of this 'my dear sister' or 'elder sister' crap, her sister did not deserve it now.)
William wrote Mother on Tuesday. I read the letter when she wasn't looking. You took a job at Hogwarts? I thought you said that job was cursed and that no one stayed for longer than a year. Why did I have to find out from him? Why didn't you think that something like this wasn't important enough to tell us? William obviously did.
Does this mean that you're finally going to stop ignoring what's so clearly before your eyes? Is she even there? Are you still hiding from who you are?
Mother doesn't understand it. She and Papa fight about you all the time. She thinks you're an idiot - a fool for trying to be noble about a love that you can't deny. Does this mean that I was right about you all along? I've always thought you were kind of an airhead.
But really Fleur, you're a mess and terrible at hiding it.
Gabrielle paused, thinking of the gravity of her words. She did not want to hurt her sister, but a harsh reality check was obviously needed or her sister was probably never going to understand how gravely she was harming all of those around her. Not even William, the young man who she had clearly married out of convenience (and probably protection from the barbaric laws of the English Ministry) deserved what she was obviously putting him through.
How did you become so selfish, sister? Why do you deny who you are? It's in your very breath, as Grandmere says, but you deny it. You ignore owls and floo calls from me, Mother, and Grandmere – I hate it. Please talk to me.
Mother says that it's stupid to dismiss your whole family like this - just because you're the one who's acting like an idiot. They only recently started to explain this to me, but even I can see. Fleur, you can't deny this love.
When Mother and our aunts were teaching me about our heritage, they said that you and the veela are one and the same. Mother says you've separated your consciousness so completely that they're afraid that you can never be one with yourself again. Stop denying yourself so that I can have my sister back. Grandmere has done so much for you, you're her favorite grandchild. (By the way, she hates me in comparison to you, and is constantly comparing us. Please tell her to stop, because I hate hearing about how I'll never measure up.)
She picked her words carefully here, trying to sound as much like her mother and grandmother as possible. She wanted her sister to know that she was not the only one who was being hurt by Fleur's flat-out refusal to do what was right for own happiness.
Since I'm afraid that you're going to drown yourself in self-pity even though it's your own fault, please write me back. I want to know what it's like to actually teach at a school as important as Hogwarts. Are the ghosts still the same? Are there any new passageways that you've discovered?
Gabrielle paused.
Is she even there? The question was a quiet one, but there all the same. If she was right, and the one that Fleur loved was indeed back at that school, then maybe things could get better and her family life could return to normal.
Maybe then Fleur would stop denying her heritage altogether and embrace it.
She signed the letter, your loving sister and folded it neatly. She would send it on her way to her dormitory when she was done with her essay. Fleur would get it in the morning and hopefully have the good sense to respond promptly.