I'm really glad you guys are enjoying reading this story, it's super gratifying knowing people care about this couple as much as I do.
A quick response to Piceaabies' comment - I honestly don't know when Hermione fell in love with Fleur, or to be more precise, when Hermione realised she was in love with Fleur. I always imagine Hermione to be rather good at supressing her emotions and self denial, so as to was Hermione in love with Fleur when the Bellatrix thing happened, or whether Fleur was just the one she felt most strongly for, who knows. I'd like to believe the former, but then again I'm a hopeless romantic!
Anyway, thanks to all you commenters and all you silent readers, it's all appreciated!
Cheers!
"So you are not 'ungry?" Fleur asked, needing to break the painful silence.
"Pardon? Oh, you mean as it's dinner time. No, not particularly hungry, plus I don't really fancy facing the rest of the school just yet. Why aren't you at dinner?"
"Not really 'ungry either, I was just going to 'ave some toast later."
"That'll be nice," replied Hermione politely, her mind running round in circles. Why the hell am I here, I didn't need to help her carry those books, she could have just spelled them to follow her, god I don't know what to do, I can't be here so close to her-
"Just put the books on the table, please. Thank you."
Hermione gently put the books down, the table reminding her of the previous night's meal. She stood up awkwardly, placing her bathing bag next to the books, taking a deep breath before looking up at the blonde.
"I never got to thank you for last night. It'd been a while since I'd…I just really appreciate what you did for me, Fleur."
Fleur couldn't place her finger on what it was, but there was something different about Hermione tonight, she almost seemed preoccupied. Whatever it was, it was making her nervous.
"You bought me a bottle of wine to thank me, but like I said yesterday, it's no big deal," she shrugged, sitting down.
"Well…it meant a lot to me." Hermione could hear Harry's words constantly replaying on her mind. But never had she felt so underserving of love as she did now, knowing that the dark circles beneath those blue eyes were due to her.
"Please take a seat, if you're not going to eat, maybe un café au lait?" she asked, not wanting the Englishwoman to leave just yet, even if being near her was just as frustrating and painful.
Hermione hesitated, knowing the longer she spent in her presence, the more difficult it would be to stop herself reaching out and touching the blonde. But to be with her, even in the strictest platonic sense…she couldn't refuse that. She nodded, sitting down at the head of the table next to the blonde.
Fleur quietly spelled a French coffee press into work, before silently levitating a pair of fine china mugs and saucers to the wooden table. A quick tap with her wand steamed the milk before she poured both the coffee and milk simultaneously into the mugs. She passed a mug of coffee to Hermione, the mug rattling in its saucer.
"Muggles have ingenious machines that make fantastic cups of coffee," Fleur commented, both hands cradling her mug, eyes focused on the pale liquid.
"Coffee machines are pretty good, my dad doesn't wake up properly until he's had his fix of espresso in the morning. When you were travelling, did you spend much time in the muggle world?" she asked quietly, her gaze focused on the blonde's lips as she took a silent sip of coffee before averting her eyes quickly when she became aware of what she was doing.
"Most of my time was in the muggle world. Their world is so different, but the people are no different from us. I must admit, I 'adn't spent so much time in the muggle world before the last five years and so I didn't really know what to expect, but I thought that they would be more different. Thinking back about it now, I realise now that it was silly thinking such things considering so many of us have muggle blood," she said, giving Hermione a small smile.
"People are just people at the end of the day. Did you like the muggle world?"
"Oui, I did. It was…it was a break. Life is slower in a lot of ways, mainly as they spend so long doing things that take us an instant to do with magic. And they're so unaware of things that could hurt them, like dementors, that it was almost if you spent enough time in the muggle world, you could almost forget about them too. It was peaceful in a lot of ways. But you'll know these things already being muggle born."
Hermione nodded, understanding her sentiments.
"After the war I had to get away from the magic world, although I think a large part of that was that I needed to go somewhere where people didn't know who I was. Having people constantly...I…it doesn't matter, just being there was liberating, an opportunity to escape and hide for a while."
Fleur could see Hermione becoming lost in her thoughts, her face serious, and she wondered what the brunette was remembering.
Was I part of the reason you needed to run away and hide?
Fleur turned her head afraid of her face giving her away, her gaze falling on the scarf that hung on the coat stand.
"I 'ave your scarf. You left it at the Three Broomsticks a couple of weeks ago. I meant to give it back to you sooner, but…things got in the way." Fleur instantly regretted mentioning the scarf, seeing the darkening of Hermione's expression, remembering what had happened, what she had said.
Fleur could see Hermione standing behind him, and she caught and held the brunette's gaze.
"I didn't love 'im anymore. I was in love with someone else."
Fleur cleared her throat, breaking Hermione from her reverie.
"'ow is Ronald?" she asked delicately, trying to keep her voice neutral.
"He's fine. He's…distracted with things these days." How do I stop him being distracted by me, I don't want him. There's only one person I want and you're sat here next to me, and still I can't touch you.
"I'm sorry for what I said that day." It was as if they couldn't stop the lies spilling from their lips, lies which fooled no one.
Do you mean that you didn't love me?
"It's in the past Fleur, we're past that now." Have we really moved on? "I hope you didn't take too much notice of what he said that day, I think it was just a shock for him seeing you here." Hermione wasn't entirely sure why she felt compelled to defend him, remembering how much she had wanted to protect Fleur when he had said derogatory things about her.
"I was surprised to see him too. But his hatred of me is understandable. Not only did I divorce his brother, I broke –"
"He doesn't know."
"Oh."
"Does Bill know?"
"He knew I no longer loved 'im. And that was enough for us to divorce. But if you meant did he know the specific reason of why I ended our marriage, then non," she replied bitterly, recalling the image of a man she thought she had loved, crumbling before her, wanting to know who she had fallen in love with, wanting to know when she fallen out of love with him, wanting to know if she had ever really loved him.
"So I was the reason you…" she asked, knowing the answer the moment the question left her lips.
"I couldn't love Bill the way he wanted me to, the way he should be loved."
"I'm sorry."
All those lies, balancing precariously upon one another.
Enough.
Fleur angrily pushed her cup of coffee away, liquid slopping over the sides, into the saucer, onto the table.
"Non, you are not really sorry. Look me in the eyes and tell me you did not want my divorce to 'appen," she shouted, accent becoming stronger with each word.
Hermione pushed her chair back, the urge to flee overwhelming, but a cool hand around her wrist kept her in place. The fingers barely rested on her skin, no force was required to pull her arm away, but she doubted she would have been able to break that contact if her life depended on it.
"Can you tell me that you did not want my marriage to end?" she repeated, voice quieter, feeling the Hermione's pulse flutter rapidly in her wrist.
Hermione looked into Fleur's angry eyes, frightened of voicing the truth.
"I'm sorry you had to go through the divorce."
"Don't avoid the question 'ermione, just answer it!"
"I can't-"
"Non! Enough is enough 'ermione, you cannot avoid the question forever-"
"I can't tell you that I didn't want your marriage to end ok?" Hermione shouted, yanking her arm from Fleur's grasp. "I wanted your marriage to end! I didn't want him touching you, I didn't want him loving you, I didn't want him calling you his wife! Is that enough? Do you want to hear more? Would you like to hear how it felt like I was being stabbed in the heart when you kissed him when he came home? You kissed the bloody man in front of me!" Suddenly all the hurts that Hermione thought she had put to rest, resurfaced. "You told me you were mine, but you lied! The moment he came back and you were his again!" She didn't cared that angry tears spilled from her eyes, all she wanted was Fleur to feel all the pain that she felt.
"You didn't give me time to tell 'im!"
"We didn't have any bloody time! We were at war! That could have been the last bloody time you saw me alive, but you stayed with him!"
"And you stayed with that imbécile Ronald! You never gave me a chance to find you! You left within an hour! I was going to tell 'im, but you didn't give me time! You think one hour just as he came back was enough time to tell my new 'usband that I wanted a divorce? I wanted to find you, I wanted to owl you, but what if I gave away your position? Everyday I'd read the newspaper and be afraid to find your name in them! I did not know if you were alive or dead, whether you were captured or being tortured again! You didn't let me know! Do you think that you were the only one who was 'urting? Do you think that I slept soundly at night wondering where the 'ell you were? I was the one who nursed you after the last Bellatrix tortured you, I bathed those wounds, I 'elped 'eal them, I kissed those scars, I traced them with my fingers and all I could think was would you 'ave more scars the next time I saw you, would I see you again…" she trailed off hoarsely, eyes blazing, shining with unfallen tears.
"If you really wanted to you could have found a way of letting me know you cared! I'm sure when you had a difficult night sleeping Bill was right there in bed with you to comfort you and help you sleep soundly!"
The hateful words escaped her mouth without thought, just wanting the woman to feel as bad as she felt, as much as she had hurt. Fleur raised her hand and Hermione instantly stepped back thinking the part Veela was going to slap her, but instead she found her hand pressed against Fleur's chest, feeling the rapidly rhythm of the woman's heartbeat, cool fingers wrapped tightly against her wrist, hard enough to bruise. A harsh whisper reached her ears.
"Do you feel that? If you weren't 'ere I wouldn't care if that was there or not. Without you I'm just a shadow of myself. Money, beauty, friends, family, intelligence, success, none of that means anything without you."
"Don't," Hermione whispered hoarsely, losing sense of everything but Fleur. She felt the space between them close as Fleur brought her lips to Hermione's ear, her breath warm on her skin.
"You don't want to 'ear that I love you or you don't want to 'ear 'ow I 'aven't stopped thinking about you since before we ever kissed? You don't want to 'ear 'ow the bed is empty without you, 'ow I 'ate waking up knowing you won't be there? You don't want to 'ear that I accepted this job just because you were in the same country, 'ow I told myself that I would never seek you out? You don't want to 'ear how my body yearns for yours, 'ow the touch of others don't compare, 'ow when others have touched me I imagined it was you, 'ow when I touch myself I think about you?"
And suddenly the few inches between them became too many for Hermione, but still she pulled away one more time, pulling away so that she could look Fleur in the eyes. Brown eyes searched those stormy blue eyes, seeing that imperfection, that fleck of grey which made them all the more beautiful, and she realised that there was only one thing she could say.
"I love you."
And nothing else mattered.
She pulled Fleur against her hard, lips crashing together, moaning as Fleur immediately demanded more, moaning loudly as their tongues caressed. She whimpered as Fleur roughly nipped her way down the sensitive skin of her throat, knowing that the Frenchwoman didn't care about the bruises that she knew would form, wanting the world to know she was taken. She placed her hand against Fleur's face, suddenly needing to feel her lips against her own. The kiss was reciprocated with vigour, and all she knew was the smell of Fleur's skin, her perfume, the softness of her lips, the taste of her lips. But it wasn't enough.
She found herself pulling off Fleur's top, eyes momentarily appreciating the fullness of her breasts, the flat, toned planes of her stomach before needing to taste her skin by running her tongue down her neck, her hands running down the toned arms, feeling the muscles quivering under her touch. She felt the blonde's hands deftly unhook the clasp at the back of her dress and tug down the zipper. Hermione shrugged off the straps and she barely felt the cool air hit her skin as her dressed pooled around her ankles, before she felt Fleur's hands run over her bra covered breasts, both desperate for more contact. She unzipped Fleur's skirt, roughly tugging the skirt down.
Both were left in their underwear as they leaned into each other, skin against skin. And the need to possess her overwhelmed her. She pushed Fleur roughly towards the desk watching books cascade onto the ground. She pressed her body against Fleur's back before kissing her way down her spine. With no warning she reached round and thrust her hands into Fleur's pants, groaning loudly at the wetness that greeted her, savouring the sound of the blonde's intake of breath, her hip thrusting into her hand.
"Hermione…" the blonde whispered gutturally, turning her head to kiss Hermione. And Hermione realised she was doing it all wrong.
She pulled away her hand, hearing Fleur whining slightly at the abrupt loss of contact, wrapping her arms around the blonde's waist, pulling her body flush against her own.
"Fleur," she whispered, "I don't want to do this-"
She wasn't able to finish before the blonde whipped around, hurt and confusion written all over her face.
"What-" her face beginning to contort in anger.
"Let me finish, will me finish what I have to say first Fleur?" she asked quietly, eyes intent on Fleur's. Fleur paused for a moment before closing her mouth, nodding her assent.
"I don't want to do this like this. Fleur, I want to do this properly."
"You mean…"Fleur barely dared to hope, she wasn't sure she would be able take the disappointment.
"I…I want to do this properly. We've never done it properly, I want…I mean, if you would like…to date you-"
"Oui. I would like to, anything," the Frenchwoman blurted out, heart pounding, wondering if this was another of her dreams, would she wake up filled up regret yet again. She broke their gaze, looking past her, the sight of the scarf jolting her mind.
"Aren't you…I mean are you…I saw you and Ronald together and I need to know that you're not back with Ronald, I can't do this-"
"I'm not back with Ron, I promise you. I mean, he wants to be, but I'm not with him, I've told him I don't want to be with him. The only person I want to be with is you Fleur. Unless, are you involved with someone else…?"she trailed off, panicking.
"Non, no one else but you." Fleur hesitated, wanting to ask a question, but afraid of the answer. "'ermione, I need to know, do you mean this? I really don't think I could wake up tomorrow only to 'ave you change your mind. I'm just…I'm just not that strong," her voice trailed off to a whisper, reluctant to meet those brown eyes.
"I won't change my mind Fleur. I'm not saying I won't be scared, but I'm tired of lying to myself…I was doing a terrible job of lying to myself anyhow."
And for now, that was enough for both of them.
She pulled Hermione to her, wrapping her arms around the brunette, breathing in the scent of her hair, feeling the beating of her heart…and the heat that flared between them as their skin touched. She pulled away, sweeping her eyes over the brunette's semi clad body.
"We should probably get dressed then, seeing that we're going to do this properly," she said reluctantly, "Unless of course, you want to start doing this properly tomorrow?" she smirked, raising an eyebrow. She grinned seeing the conflicted thoughts that ran across Hermione's features, but tossed the dress to Hermione, already knowing what the answer would be.
Fleur perched on the edge of the sofa as she smoothed out her skirt and pushed her hair from her face as she watched Hermione finish dressing. She really wanted to be happy, but she was afraid, what if Hermione changed her mind, she wasn't sure-
A soft palm caressing her cheek ceased her thoughts and she turned her face upwards, looking into Hermione's serious face.
"I promise you I won't run away this time Fleur."