Hermione paid attention that evening at dinner, vaguely dismayed to discover Tom was right.

Whenever she spoke, Viktor did make eye contact, and he held it. He would glance at other people when they were talking, like when Draco went on about the Tutshill Tornadoes, but whenever Hermione said something, Viktor's eyes lingered on hers, dark and warm.

And being aware of it made it worse. With her being ultra-aware of her eye contact with Viktor, she couldn't seem to look away. What had started as trying to see if his pupils were expanded or not had ended up as lingering gazes, ones Viktor seemed to pick up on and return. And then his eyes were darker, pupils larger, and because of all Tom's attractiveness lessons, Hermione knew what caused that…

It was apparent enough that her peers confronted her in their dormitory as they got ready for bed that night.

"Hermione, I thought you were dating your lovely French veela," Tracey said, undoing her robes. "What happened to that?"

Hermione gave Tracey a warning glance. "What do you mean, what happened to that?"

"Wellll," Tracey drawled. "One day, you're being pulled into alcoves and kissed by Fleur, and the next day, you and Viktor Krum are making moon-eyes at each other—"

"We were not," Hermione said, embarrassed.

"Oh, you were," Millie said, smirking. She folded her arms. "He could scarcely look away from you tonight."

"We were talking," Hermione defended.

"Even when other people were talking, though, he kept looking back at you," Daphne added, joining the conversation. "Draco seemed to be getting quite frustrated with it by the end of dinner. Viktor's attention was only on you."

"I can't imagine why," Hermione protested, lying through her teeth.

"Regardless," Tracey pressed on, "I thought you were dating Fleur. What are you doing now with this hunky Quidditch player?"

"Hunky?" Hermione said, astonished. "I'm sorry, but Viktor's not what I would describe as 'hunky'—"

"He's tall, dark, and handsome," Daphne pointed out. She paused. "Well, tall and dark, at any rate. His nose is a bit large."

"Again, not the point," stressed Tracey. "What happened with Fleur?"

Hermione gave Tracey a skeptical look, glancing over at Daphne.

"Are we really doing this…?" she asked, folding her arms. "Is this really what you want to discuss?"

"Oh, please don't worry about me," Daphne demurred. "Tracey spoke to me, and we all rather overreacted to that whole thing. I apologize for that, by the way. And it was unfair to blame you." She gave Hermione an almost mournful look of sympathy. "After all, if I was targeted by a veela, I don't know if I'd be able to resist their charms, either."

Hermione looked at Tracey, who winced.

"Veela, not veela, not really the point," she said airily, waving her hand dismissively. "What is the point is you are – or were – romantically entangled with her. And now you are flirting with Krum. And—" she hopped onto her bed with panache, "by the rights of the Slytherin Girls' Dorm, you have to fess up about your love life."

"I'm sorry, what?" Hermione protested. "I absolutely do not—"

"Yes, you do," Pansy interjected, giving Hermione a sharp smile. "So, Granger, tell us – what happened with your lovely French companion?"

Hermione gave Pansy an annoyed look, but Pansy was giving her a sharp look right back – wide-eyed, nodding towards Daphne where she couldn't see her – and Hermione belatedly understood; by making her love life just part of the usual girl gossip at bedtime, they were normalizing it – which would make Tracey and Daphne gradually less prickly about her attraction to the fairer sex.

"Well," Hermione said, sitting down on her bed. "It's a bit complicated."

"Tell us," Tracey prompted, laying belly-down on her bed to prop her head up with her hands, looking at Hermione intently. "We've got time."

Hermione sighed.

"Well… it started over a year ago, in France…"

The whole story came out, hesitant at first, then more steadily; meeting Fleur, exploring Paris together, the discovery about the veela allure not affecting her, and Fleur returning her affections. Then the whirlwind that had been their time in Nice on the beach, and the fancy dinner they had gone to, where Fleur had given her the butterfly and promised to court her if she could. The girls all listened, gasping and reacting at just the right moments, and Hermione was quietly glad to see that even Daphne was getting invested in her story.

Hermione skimmed over the letters they exchanged, focusing instead on Fleur's increased allure and the agony it caused her, which prompted Hermione to make her a crown for her birthday. Yes, it was jewelry, but… And with the knowledge that Fleur was coming to Hogwarts, and would be there for the entire year…

"It was going to be the first time I'd seen her in months," Hermione recounted, remembering the quivering excitement she'd felt in her heart. "We were all excited to meet the other schools, dressing up a bit. And I dressed carefully, pinning my hair back—"

"With that clip," Daphne gasped, a hand to her mouth. "That beautiful butterfly – that was Fleur's courting gift to you?"

"It was," Hermione said, nodding.

"And you wore it in front of her?" Millie asked, delightfully scandalized. "You know what that means, right?"

"Of course I know what it means," Hermione snapped. "But…" She trailed off wistfully, with a sigh. "Well. Anyway…"

She continued, explaining how Fleur had reacted with such joy at seeing her wear the clip, how she had pulled her aside in passion, and how it had all come crashing down – Fleur's friends interrupting, the argument in French, and the reveal of Madame Maxime's edict that the champion focus on the tournament above all.

"If anyone else had been chosen for the tournament, we would have been okay," Hermione said. There was an aching quality to her voice, pulling from the pain in her heart. "I'm glad for Fleur, really – but… there's part of me that was hoping…"

Daphne's big blue eyes were full of tears.

"This is so tragic," she said, her voice heartfelt. "What then?"

Hermione explained how Fleur had been afraid Hermione would hate her at first, and their agreement to keep their romantic liaison secret for now, to hide it from Madame Maxime. So long as Madame Maxime could be satisfied that Fleur was not obviously eschewing the tournament in favor of love, she would be appeased, but it meant that they had to keep to the shadows for now and meet without observers when they could.

"So is dating Krum a cover?" Pansy wanted to know, invested now. "So no one suspects?"

"Not quite," Hermione said, uncomfortable. "It's more like…"

"Because you can't actually court, you're free to date whomever?" Tracey asked. She made a face. "Pureblood rules are weird."

"Her not courting you publicly after promising to do so is rather an affront," Daphne said primly. "Regardless of the situation and your forgiveness, Hermione, it is a big deal."

"Are you trying to make her jealous with Krum?" Tracey wanted to know. "Is it to get intel for the tournament?"

Hermione paused, trying to think of how best to word this.

"Fleur… is very big on love in general," Hermione said, careful. "I don't know if it's because she's part veela, or because she's French. But she doesn't experience jealousy over other romantic partners I have – she gets excited for me, somehow, and encourages me on – and if she were to find another partner, I expect it would be the same with me towards her."

"She'd expect you to not get jealous?" Millie repeated, skeptical. "You're not part-veela, so how would that work?"

"I imagine we would talk about it," Hermione said uncomfortably. "But if Fleur was happy, and she reassured me that she still cared for me as well, I would be happy someone was bringing her joy—she's planning on asking Blaise to the Yule Ball," Hermione said abruptly, cutting herself off. "She told me beforehand – not quite like she was asking my permission, but to see how I felt about that."

"To the Yule Ball?" Daphne gasped. "Asking him?"

"Oh, bully for your gender stereotypes," Pansy said, snarky. "Good for her, asking him."

"How do you feel about that?" Tracey wanted to know. "To be honest, I expected Blaise to want to ask you—"

"Well, he hasn't," Hermione said curtly. "So—"

"That's because you can't ask someone to the ball until it's been formally announced," Daphne cut in, ever the society hostess. "It's considered gauche and tacky. Even your Fleur hasn't asked anyone yet, merely expressed that she plans to ask him—"

"Well, I don't know, then," Hermione said, shrugging helplessly. "I don't know who Blaise plans to ask, if anyone. But I gave her my blessing, kind of – Blaise is one of the few boys not affected by her allure, for whatever reason – so if she wants to have any kind of decent time at the dance—"

"Can you imagine if they fell in love?" Millie said, grinning. "It'd be perfect for you, really. You'd both share the same boyfriend, and then you'd still have each other, too—"

"Blaise is not my boyfriend," Hermione said, annoyed.

"Well, he could be," Tracey said, as if it were obvious. "All you'd have to do is say the word, and he'd fall at your knees."

"Or between them," Pansy said, raising an eyebrow with a smirk. "He does so like to serve you…"

"Pansy!" Daphne shrieked, scandalized, and Pansy laughed.

"So who are you going to go to the ball with?" Tracey pressed. "They'll probably announce it next week, so you should have a plan soon."

"I guess whoever asks me," Hermione said, shrugging. "I don't really want the stress of asking someone myself—"

"But what if more than one person asks you?" Millie pointed out. "Are you just going to go with whoever asks you first? Or ask them to wait a few days, see who else asks you, and then decide?"

Hermione frowned.

"I don't think I'm going to accumulate that many invites," she said. "I mean, I might wait a couple days? But really, I doubt—"

"But who do you want to invite you?" Daphne wanted to know. "Even if you want the boy to ask you – which is how it should be done, in normal society – you still need to know which boy you like and go after him beforehand. You know, partnering in class, running into him in the halls…"

"Batting your eyelashes," Pansy added, giving Daphne a knowing look. "Curling your hair, laughing at his jokes…"

Daphne blushed hotly.

"You tease me," she said, tossing her hair. "But it works."

"I don't know," Hermione said slowly, considering. "I… maybe I should make a list, write down possible pros and cons. Take my destiny into my own hands, so to speak, instead of waiting to see what invites come my way."

Tracey made a strangled noise, some combination of both a laugh and a groan.

"Only you, Hermione," she said, rolling her eyes, "would decide to approach your love life by making lists."