Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling; various publishers including, but not limited to, Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books; and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

A/N: Finally a bit of Gabrielle. Unfortunately, this is the only bit you'll get until approximately chapter eight or so - please don't throw things at me. *ducks*

And this really is the last chapter I'll post today. Check for the next one on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Shades of Gray

Chapter Two: Becoming

Château Delacour was situated squarely in the middle of the wizarding section of the French Riviera. Though it wasn't as grand as some of the mini-palaces gracing the surrounding area, it was still respectably large and beautiful. Unlike many of their neighbors, the Delacours firmly believed that money didn't automatically bestow good taste; so many of the houses in the area had been built solely to show off their inhabitant's wealth. Château Delacour on the other hand, though smaller than the homes on either side, had a subtle beauty and poise, well befitting the women who lived there. The men who had graced Château Delacour over the years may not have looked like they belonged among the polished marble and intricate carvings, but closer observation would reveal they were just as much a fixture of the property as their elegant, entrancing counterparts.

Gabrielle Delacour was Fleur's little sister. Fleur Delacour, Beauxbatons' Tri-Wizard Champion, head of Beauxbatons' ballet club, top in her every class… the list of accolades went on and on and oh, how Gabrielle hated it. She was average in her classes, had little to no interest in most of the extracurricular activities, and loathed the fact that she was a little under half-veela. Here she was, three days before her sixteenth birthday, and she still looked like a little girl only half her age. Why, oh why did the veela side have to be active in me? Why couldn't I have been more like Fleur? All she ended up with was the looks and passive charm! She didn't have to wait until she turned sixteen before looking her age! It isn't fair! Gabrielle slammed her hairbrush down on her dressing table and glared at her childlike reflection.

Her only real consolation was that she already knew who her lifebonded would be; she had met him just over a year earlier. And if that doesn't just irk Fleur to no end, her thoughts turned from angry to vindictive. She'd hoped that she would have a latent lifebond pull… HAH! I guess I won this round. I get the boy everyone wants – and may I say I think I'll look particularly good hanging on his arm? – and she's going to have to fight off every man who wants her just because of that passive charm she still doesn't know how to turn off. Gabrielle smirked and picked her silver hairbrush back up. One last day of school before summer vacation starts, and only three more days until the Becoming… I don't know how I'll manage to sleep at all this week!

A knock at her door forced her to derail her thoughts. "It's open," she called out.

Her mother entered wearing her perpetual expression of exasperation. "Gabrielle, good morning. I hope you slept well?"

Gabrielle nodded, "Yes, mother, I did."

"That's good. Your darling sister wanted to remind you that she would be leaving for Egypt the day after your Becoming, but that she would only be an owl away if you needed her advice on anything."

Gabrielle grimaced, "And why does she think I'll need her advice? She didn't Become. Grandmother Arianna did, but I can't very well ask her, now can I? Not without a necromancer, at least."

Apolline narrowed her eyes a bit at her younger daughter's tone. "Though that may be true, there is no reason for you to be so vicious about this. You know how much dear Fleur hoped to Become."

"Why should she have everything? It's about time I got something she didn't."

"Gabrielle! You know your precious sister loves you dearly – I can't believe you would be so spiteful! Dearest Fleur has never asked anything of you but your love as her sister, and yet you seem to begrudge her even that much."

Gabrielle huffed and finished brushing her hair. "Was there anything else you needed, Mother, or can I finish getting ready for school?"

Sniffing in her superior way, Apolline turned from Gabrielle and left the room.

Finally, she thought, tying her long blonde hair back into a tail. I thought she'd never leave me alone. Honestly, does she think I don't notice how she dotes on Fleur? 'Darling Fleur' this and 'Dear Fleur' that! It's not my fault I wasn't the boy she and Papa wanted! At least Papa doesn't try to hide how he feels. I may not be the son he wanted, but that didn't stop him from teaching me how to hunt or how to duel when I asked. Glaring one last time at her hated reflection, Gabrielle hurriedly dressed in her school uniform. I wish Mother would let me cut my hair. It's always in the way. In truth, half of her hair had already escaped the tie and was tickling her face and neck. The blonde strands were too smooth and fine to stay in place unless she braided her hair so tightly it gave her a headache.

The last day of her sixth year of school went well, she only had two tests to finish before term ended; one in Warding Principles and Theory and the other in Defensive Strategies. Both were done shortly before lunchtime, and Gabrielle could have left the school and gone home if she wanted to, but she didn't really feel like dealing with her mother just then. Instead, she sat with her friend, Nicole, on the rim of a fountain in the courtyard of the school. Nicole was her exact opposite in coloring; where Gabrielle had platinum hair and skin the color of fresh milk, Nicole's Sicilian ancestry was quite apparent. Her hair was coarse, short and curly, and a red so dark and rich it appeared black unless backlit. Her eyes, as well, were a shade of liquid brown that brought to mind images of forest-shy deer. Nicole's skin sported a perpetual tan – something which Gabrielle was envious of, as she could only burn and peel and burn and peel in the sun – sprinkled with a smattering of freckles across her nose. Though Gabrielle's veela heritage would ensure that she would grow another twenty inches or so, Nicole would be lucky to add another inch; at the moment, the two friends were precisely the same height.

Despite their apparent opposition in looks, they were closer than friends. Gabrielle felt that Nicole was more of a sister to her than Fleur ever could be, and she knew that Nicole felt the same way. In a country that prized overt femininity in women, the two girls were outcasts, tomboys who would rather spend an evening fox hunting than dancing, who liked fishing more than sunbathing. "Are you nervous?" Nicole asked, idly toying with a summoned ball of light.

"No," Gabrielle replied. "I was, don't get me wrong, but lately I just want it over with. I want to look my age for once."

Nicole laughed a little, "You know your mother's going to drag you out to buy a whole new wardrobe, and you know she won't let you get away with trousers, let alone jeans."

Gabrielle sighed, "I know. It sucks."

"I'll ask if Michel will give you some of the things he's outgrown." Michel was Nicole's older brother.

Gabrielle grinned at that, "And wouldn't that put a dent in Mummy-dearest's day?"

"You're going to have fun with this, aren't you?" Nicole knew her friend, and knew her well.

"You bet I will. I think she's been holding onto the misguided notion that once I Become, I'll suddenly change everything about myself and be her darling little doll."

"Hormones can do a lot," Nicole said thoughtfully, "but they can't change you that entirely. I suppose it'll help that you already know who the lifebond wants, right?"

Gabrielle nodded, "It will. Grandmother Arianna's journal said that until she met Grandfather François the lifebond drove her to do all sorts of things she wouldn't have normally done."

"Like what?"

Gabrielle laughed, "Well, she said that this one time she was walking from a coffee shop to the Louvre and had to sniff all the men she passed!"

Nicole grinned, "Really?"

"Really!" Nicole joined Gabrielle in giggling. Neither of them could picture the poised, late Arianna Delacour actually sniffing random men. Once their giggles ran their course, Gabrielle stood up and began walking along the fountain pool's rim. "So… Nic, what are your plans for the summer?"

Nicole shrugged, "Hiding in the stables, mostly. Mother wants to throw a 'coming out' ball for my sixteenth. I don't know how I'm going to survive being paraded around in a ball gown all night."

Gabrielle winced in sympathy. "I hope my mother doesn't have similar plans." Suddenly a thought struck her, "Although… I think I have an idea."

Nicole's expression was hard to decipher. It seemed to be a blend of apprehension and eagerness. "What?"

"What if we were able to spend most of the summer away from here?"

"It sounds like a great dream, Gabs, but I don't see how that's going to happen."

"Well, your birthday is only two days after mine, so once that blasted ball is out of the way, you won't have to worry about it any more." Nicole nodded and motioned for Gabrielle to continue. "And, since Mother knows that I know who my lifebond is, even if I haven't told her who, she won't be expecting me to attend most of the balls."

"'A ball is a requirement for young ladies to allow the opportunity for young gentlemen to pay them court'," Nicole quoted her own mother, mimicking the overbearing tones precisely.

Snickering, Gabrielle nodded, "Exactly! So, that frees me up. Now, what I'll do is tell Mother that my lifebonded is English and I want to go there to explain the situation to him."

Comprehension suddenly dawned on Nicole's face. Her eyes widened in wonderment and she smiled broadly, "You don't speak English!"

"But you do," Gabrielle replied, her expression echoing Nicole's.

Nicole forcefully made herself calm down somewhat. "What relatives do you have in England? I have an uncle who lives there, but he and Father aren't on speaking terms."

Gabrielle completed her circuit of the fountain and plopped down next to her best friend. "Hmm… I know we're distant cousins, on Mother's side, with the Malfoy family, but I don't want to stay with them. Their allegiance to the Light is constantly in question. I wouldn't put it past their reputation to try Chaînes de Sang."

Nicole shuddered, "That bad?"

"There is question as to whether they willingly follow England's Dark Lord."

"That bad." Nicole waved her hand dismissively, accidentally dispelling her ball of light. Growling a little at her own negligence, she re-summoned the ball and asked, "Who else?"

Gabrielle took a deep breath and thought. "The only other one I know for sure is the Prince line – first cousins on my father's side – but Eileen died about fifteen years ago. I don't know if she ever had children or not."

"It's worth looking into, otherwise we'll have to see if Michel will come with us."

"And he's not likely to want to. Isn't he still dating Danielle?"

Nicole nodded, "If I'm lucky, he'll ask her to marry him sometime this summer and distract Mother from me for a change."

"I'll check into it when I go home. All things being equal, I'd rather your brother didn't come with us."

"That makes two of us. Why don't we go check?"

"What? Now?"

"I don't see that you have any more-pressing engagements for this afternoon."

"Touché. How are we going to avoid Mother?"

Nicole chewed on her lower lip for a moment. "I think we should stop by and see Madam Petit before we go to your house."

Gabrielle grinned, Esmée Petit was always good for wanting to talk with Madam Delacour. It didn't take long to convince Madam Petit that she was long overdue for a visit with Madam Delacour, nor for her to believe it was her own idea to visit her longtime friend. Once the two matrons were ensconced in an out-of-the way parlor, Gabrielle and Nicole hurried up to Apolline's study. The family records were in her desk, Gabrielle knew, and it shouldn't take long to find out if her father's cousin had ever had children.

As Gabrielle had expected, her mother's meticulous nature made it quite easy to first locate the documentation on her father's family tree and then to find that Eileen Prince had married Tobias Snape. Her son was listed as being thirty-seven and the current Potions Master of Hogwarts. Taking care to replace all the parchment scrolls back in their proper places, Gabrielle and Nicole headed for Gabrielle's room. "That was easier than I expected," Nicole commented, flopping onto the white velvet loveseat that faced Gabrielle's personal fireplace.

Gabrielle shrugged and sat at her own desk. "Mother is rather particular about the family records. Now," she pulled out a clean sheet of expensive vellum, "what do we say to him?"

Nicole shrugged, "Why not the plain truth?"

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. "Because I've no idea whether or not he even realizes we're related, let alone whether he and Papa get along."

Nicole sprang up from the loveseat and nudged Gabrielle on the shoulder, "Budge over, Gabs. Let me have a crack at this. I think I know what to say that won't reveal too much, but just might intrigue him enough to reply."

It took three drafts before Nicole was satisfied with what she'd written. Handing the final copy to Gabrielle, who had retreated to Nicole's previous location on the loveseat, Gabrielle read the letter and grinned. "I'll copy it over and send it this evening. How long before he replies?"

Nicole shrugged, "No idea, but I'd say no longer than a week at most."

"What if he decides not to?"

"Then we try something else. We're both smart enough to figure out how to get to England for the summer; we'll think of something."

Sighing and pulling out a fresh sheet of vellum, Gabrielle muttered, "I wish I had half your confidence."

"Oh, shut up and write," Nicole said, teasing apparent in her tone.

Gabrielle took quite some time to recopy the letter, making sure her calligraphy was perfect. She so wanted to make a good impression on her cousin. When she finished, she handed it to Nicole who read it quickly to make sure Gabrielle hadn't inadvertently skipped anything. "Looks good, Gabs. I'll go ahead and spell it for you." The spell Nicole placed on the parchment would do two things; firstly, it would make it so that the letter would reach its destination without suffering exposure to the elements, and the second portion would make the contents automatically translate to whichever language the reader was most comfortable using.

Later that night, Gabrielle stood in her dressing gown, watching as her owl winged its way northward into the night. Regardless of her earlier bout of pessimism, she couldn't help but feel that everything was going to turn out all right in the end. Now, all she needed to make her week even better would be a positive reply. The hope filling her even managed to obscure some of the combined nervousness and impatience regarding her Becoming.

The night before her sixteenth birthday was stressful. Gabrielle only really had her grandmother's journal and a small, obscure tome on the maturity of veela to guide her through the Becoming process. Both references stressed the importance of making sure she had plenty to eat as she would need all the energy she could muster to complete the process. However, at a quarter to midnight, Gabrielle felt as though she would vomit if she had to swallow another mouthful of anything, even water. Though both her parents and her sister wanted to be present to witness the Becoming, Gabrielle had put her foot down and locked them out of her room. She didn't want her family gawking at her, especially since she would be naked for most of the night. Fleur had always teased her about her body modesty, but Gabrielle didn't care. It was her body, and she didn't like displaying it.

As the small clock on her mantle began chiming midnight, Gabrielle held her breath. Twelve chimes passed into silence before she let it out. The books must be wrong, she thought just before a sudden, gut-wrenching pain blossomed in her bones. The suddenness quite took her breath away, and as such she was unable to do much more than gasp helplessly as her skeleton began growing, stretching her muscles and ligaments. She could hardly catch her breath, and a glimpse of herself in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors on her closet confirmed that her skin was acquiring a bluish tinge while her bones creaked and groaned and ground against one another.

Ever so slowly, the pain began to fade. Gabrielle took the chance to breathe in great gulps of air. The first stage of Becoming was done. She knew she had approximately two hours before the second stage would begin, and so she carefully got to her feet. The difference in her height was very obvious. When she had awoken that morning at a scant four feet, seven inches, she was now at least a foot taller, if not a shade more. Walking to the mirrors was a chore. Not only was she exhausted from the sudden growth, but she had to pay far too much attention to the actual process of walking. She felt clumsy, something she hadn't had to deal with since her ninth birthday halted her physical development.

Examining her reflection, she noticed that she still looked like a little girl, albeit one who had been queerly stretched. Her limbs were stick-thin, and her bones were easily seen at her ribs, collar, spine, and hips. A slight puff of breeze from her open window whispered across her skin and she couldn't help shivering, though the room had been pleasantly warm before the night's event began. She pulled a couple of blankets off her bed and wrapped herself in them, sitting on the loveseat. She was disgusted with how weak she felt. She was also ravenous. Calling for her house elf, Gabrielle ordered some hot coffee and a tray of éclairs. No wonder the books said to eat as much as possible. She thought, biting into her snack.

She quickly finished the coffee and éclairs, and curled up under her blankets to take a quick nap. She knew she'd awaken when the second stage began.

Her dreams were filled with confusing images of a blonde boy and Nicole, a man with eyes as black as his hair, and of a large castle, hidden in a mountain valley. Slowly, the gray granite walls of the castle morphed into visions of flames. So hot, she thought, springing to a sitting position and fully awake, her dreams shattered and forgotten for the moment. So hot, so hot, she kicked the blankets off of her and hurried across her bedroom to the open windows. Too hot, she thought again, opening all the windows as far as they would go. Her skin was definitely no longer bluish, but a high pink, hot to the touch, and covered in a slick sheen of sweat. She felt queasy, and the slight breeze that had sent her shivering mere hours earlier was doing nothing to cool her down. A low burning itch began in her pelvis and spiked up through her chest. Intellectually, she knew this was just the result of hormones suddenly maturing her reproductive organs, widening her hips somewhat and otherwise wrecking havoc on her body. It didn't help with the sheer misery she was feeling. If she hadn't felt so hot, so queasy, so miserable, she might have had the presence of mind to retire into her bathroom and run a cold tub to cool down. As it was, she hadn't the energy to even think of doing so.

She lay down on the cool marble floor, pressing her overheated skin into the stone and prayed that this stage would pass quickly. She suddenly understood why Fleur was so bitchy once a month; if her sister felt even a fraction of this misery each month, she was entitled to be bitchy.

What felt like hours, but in reality was only about twenty minutes, passed with Gabrielle wishing she had been born to a normal, completely human lineage. Once the heat began to fade from her body, she slowly rose to her hands and knees. Not having the strength or presence of mind to walk, she crawled over to the mirrors to see what changes the second stage of Becoming had on her body.

She still had a stretched, underfed, skeletal form, but now she was definitely more womanly than girly in her figure. She knew from reading her grandmother's journal that the skeletal quality would go away after a couple of days of rich foods. She was a little disappointed that her figure wasn't much in comparison to Fleur's. Her breasts were small – hardly a handful for her future lifebonded. Her hips weren't all that wide or round, but both were enough to make people realize she was no longer a child. She was a little amused to see that her pubic hair was just as white, just as fine as the hair on her head.

Her house elf appeared without Gabrielle having to call for her. "Miss needs to eat," she said, setting a silver tray beside Gabrielle.

"Thank you, Darla. Would you stay with me?" Gabrielle removed the cover of the tray and found a full plate of all her favorite foods – none of which would qualify as 'high class' or 'French'. There was a single-serving size pepperoni pizza, two hamburgers from an American fast-food restaurant in the muggle section of the city, and a box of jelly donuts. There was also a six-pack of Coca-Cola and a bag of Hershey's Kisses. She looked up at her elf and grinned, "You're a lifesaver, you know that?" She seized the bag of chocolate and alternated Kisses with bites of burger, interspaced with the soda.

"What is Miss needing?" Darla asked, her hands holding tightly to the edge of her drape wrapping.

"Just some company, Darla," Gabrielle replied, licking pizza sauce off her hand. "Was there any mail for me today?"

Darla shook her head, her eyes – which were almost as blue as those of her Miss – wide. "No, Miss. Are yous waiting for a letter?"

Gabrielle smiled around a mouthful of burger. "Yes, I am. It will be from Papa's cousin at Hogwarts."

"Darla will make sure yous gets it when it comes."

Gabrielle would have nodded, but at that moment she was too busy draining the can of cola. When she finished it off, she popped the tab on a second and belched loudly. It made Darla giggle. Gabrielle, too, for that matter. Unwrapping the second burger, she asked, "So… How are you and Jean doing?" Jean was the house elf of one of her neighbors. Gabrielle and Jean's owner had both agreed that the elves could court one another.

The elf took on a bluish hue – a house elf blush – and smiled brightly. "Jean is very nice to Darla. He gaves me this drape."

Gabrielle smiled indulgently at her elf. "And it's so pretty, too. Want me to show you how to tie it a little better, Darla? So it won't come off accidentally?" Currently, it was tied rather loosely in toga fashion.

The elf's eyes grew even larger, "Would Miss? Darla would be oh-so-happy!"

"Get me the scissors from my desk and come here, honey." Gabrielle quickly finished off the second can of soda and the last of the pizza before the elf returned to her side. "Take it off and watch, so you know how to do this if you get any other drapes from your young man."

Darla's eyes, brimming with tears of joy, carefully observed Gabrielle as she cut a strip off the side of the pristine white lace drape. For the curious, Darla wore strips of white linen torn from an old bed sheet as undergarments. One strip was wrapped around her chest, and the other was used as a short loincloth. After Gabrielle had cut the strip off the side, she trimmed a semicircular piece out of the top of the drape and from the sides, leaving the rest of the drape in a roughly apron shape. Gabrielle beckoned to Darla and stuck another Kiss in her mouth. Talking around the melting chocolate, she told her elf how to tie the drape so it wouldn't fall off. "Start like this, with these longer ends around your waist," she wrapped the drape as she spoke, "and tie it with this long piece I first cut off. Then take these two pieces and cross them over your shoulders and around your back, tying them in front, like this." The drape no longer resembled a toga but a sleeveless sarong. "Once it's all tied tightly – but not so tight it makes it hard to breathe – you can take the pieces I cut from the sides and tuck them into the belt-strip like this," Gabrielle tucked the scraps of lace in so they made a ruffle around her elf's waist. "See?" she gestured to the mirror. "You look so pretty, Darla." Grinning as she finished off her last burger, she further said, "Your young man won't be able to resist you."

Examining her reflection in the mirror, Darla couldn't help herself. She hugged her Miss as hard as she could, "Thank you, Miss! Darla looks so much better! Yous is the bestest Miss ever!"

Laughing a little, she patted Darla's long, green hair. "I think I'm full, Darla, and the last bit of my Becoming should start any moment. I don't think you should be here for that."

Nodding, Darla picked up the tray and snapped out of the room. Gabrielle stretched out on her loveseat, slightly surprised when she had to hang her legs over the arm. I don't think I'll ever get used to being taller. Feeling somewhat content, she tucked one arm behind her head and draped the other over her eyes. I hope Papa's cousin writes back soon, and that he says we can visit. If he doesn't let us, I don't know what I'll do. Maybe I'll just take off on my own and kidnap Nicole to go with me.

A rippling sensation along her spine broke off her train of thought. It wasn't painful or unpleasant, merely odd. Taking a deep breath, Gabrielle stood and walked over to the mirrors gracing her closet. Without any more warning than the singular ripple, Gabrielle suddenly felt an unknown, unnamable anger surge up within her. Rage unlike anything she had ever before felt seeped into her heart and drenched her brain. With a primal scream that made the glass in the windows and mirrors shiver, but not break, her form melted to reflect her inner wrath. Wings sprouted from her shoulder blades, talons erupted from her fingers and toes; her feet actually shifted into birdlike claws while her face stretched and sprouted a wicked, toothed raptor's beak. Her crystalline blue eyes dimmed until she could almost see the fire of her fury burning deep within.

As quickly as it seized her, the rage ebbed and dissipated, leaving her leaning forward on the mirrors, trying desperately to catch her breath. Her hands, face, eyes, and feet all returned to their normal state, but her wings remained, though they were no longer the bat-like structures they had been moments earlier, but more birdlike and covered in downy soft, pale feathers that were the precise same shade of blonde as her hair. Curious, she stretched them out to their full span, which was approximately three times wider than she was tall. Closing her eyes, she followed her grandmother's journal's advice and willed the wings to go away. The earlier rippling sensation in her back returned for a moment. When it quit, she twisted and looked at her back in the mirror. She now had a faint outline of feathery wings on either side of her spine. The marks looked like a tattoo, but were only half a shade darker than her skin. If she hadn't known what to look for, she doubted she would have been able to tell they were there.

Suddenly exhausted, Gabrielle dragged herself to her bed and climbed under the sheet. Finally, she thought as sleep claimed her. I have Become.

A/N2: The term 'lifebonded' is borrowed from Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. I prefer it to 'soul mate' or, in the case of veela fics, 'mate'.

I don't normally do this, but I feel compelled to respond to the anonymous reviewer who said this was 'contrived' and insinuated that muggle technology had absolutely no place in the Harry Potter fandom - if you don't like it, don't read it! This is FANfiction. If you want canon, go read the books. I indicated in my A/N of the first post (prologue) that this was AU; the type of AU is glaringly apparent from that first, short chapter. In fact, I even made sure to hint (and it wasn't even oblique) at the type of AU this is in my summary of the story (or did you not understand what was meant by "a muggle contraption from a parallel universe"?) Your whining 'review' only makes you look like a fool. Doubly so, as it adds to the number of reviews posted (which I know is a factor for a lot of people when deciding what to read). I would have been happy to respond to the review itself, and thus keep this out of the public eye, but since the reviewer didn't sign in, this was my only option.

My apologies to everyone for taking up valuable space.

Kind thanks to everyone who have reviewed - even 'anonymous' from the rant above (I'll appreciate the higher numbers if nothing else!) - and to everyone who simply lurks without reviewing, I keep track of my hit-counters, too, so I still know you're out there. Thanks everyone, be ye reviewer or reader.

Edit 07/31/2012: Caught a typo. Its head is now hanging above my floo.