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Chapter 10

After the party they had over their O.W.L. results, not much was happening. Harry was waiting on the engraving equipment he needed, Fleur was working most of the day, and Hermione was going a little stir crazy with nothing to do. When she realised that, she grabbed Daphne and Tracey and they all went out into muggle London for a bit of a girls day. Hermione managed to find a salon that had enough room in their schedule for three walk-ins, and they had their hair trimmed and neatened up as well as having their nails done. It wasn't really something Hermione normally did for fun, but going with her friends was nice. They had to be careful about what they talked about as this was a non-magical area, but the three of them talked about what classes they were going to take in September. They got around naming the subjects by using the professor's names.

"Well I'm definitely stuck taking Snape's class. If I want to continue my parents' business then it's essential," Tracey said as a woman was applying an undercoat of polish to her nails.

Hermione was currently in the care of the stylist, having her hair straightened and trimmed. "I'll probably be joining you. He is a terrible professor but the subject is useful."

"Well I'm out, and quite frankly I'm happy about it," said Daphne, who was sitting and waiting for her turn with either the stylist or the nail technician. "I assume we will all be in Professors Babbling and Vector's classes together though?"

"Definitely," The other two agreed.

"What classes are you dropping, Hermione?" Tracey asked.

"Well I'm dropping Lupin's history class, I like him better than Binns but I'm keeping room open for more practical subjects. I'm dropping Hagrid's and Sprout's classes, I won't miss going outside for those this winter. I'll keep McGonagall's and Flitwick's classes, and whoever takes over from Kingsley in September better be up to snuff."

"I doubt any of our friends will drop McGonagall or Flitwick's classes, well maybe Neville might drop McGonagall's class. But everyone loves Flitwick's lessons and his class is one of the most important ones for most careers."

The chat went on for a while as they were having their hair and nails done. One thing Hermione noticed was that both Daphne and Tracey had solid plans for their future. Tracey was going to take over her family's business, and Daphne was going into business on her own until either her grandfather woke up and invited her back into her family, or the old man kicked the bucket and her father invited her back. At that point, she was going to integrate herself into the family trading business and work her way up until she was ready to take over when her father retired.

Hermione, though, had no solid plan for after Hogwarts. She knew she would probably look into an academic mastery, but what about after that? Fleur was planning on staying with the bank, Harry was planning on inventing more stuff and selling that, possibly with Daphne if the few conversations she had overheard from them weren't just idle musings. But Hermione had no real plans for earning her way in life. A part of her wanted to work in the Ministry, see what she could do about better laws protecting house elves. Yet she knew as a first generation witch she would be fighting an uphill battle to even get an entry level job at the Ministry. Sure, being married to Harry would make that easier, but it just shifted the marker from impossible to extremely difficult.

Hermione covered the cost, with the salon being a mundane establishment she was the only one with the correct money. As she was paying, Hermione noticed a number of leaflets in a rack by the till. They were for local businesses, probably run by some of the women who regularly had their hair done there. Most of it was of little interest to her, but two caught her eye, both of which for classes offered locally. The first was a class on making decorative candles, and the second was a cooking class. What peaked Hermione's interest was that she thought Fleur would like both of them. That got Hermione thinking, and she pocketed one of each of the leaflets.

-ϟϟϟ-

Hermione shared her ideas with Harry when the girls returned, and together the two of them had expanded on the plans. Once they had an idea of what they were doing, it was over to Harry to sort out the first date, as that was exactly what Hermione had thought of when she saw the adverts: a couple of good dates for Fleur. Harry thought the idea of each of them taking Fleur out on a date was perfect. Their girlfriend was focused a little too much on work for her to plan or do anything with them, so it was on him and Hermione to step up. Harry added that they should also add a couple of group dates as well. It didn't need to be anything fancy, just something the three of them did together. After a little back and forth, they settled on surprising Fleur with a picnic during her lunch break in the next few days. Hermione wrote to Fleur's mentor enquiring about how long Fleur had for her lunch, as they wanted to surprise Fleur without hurting her schedule.

While Hermione did that, Harry cornered Sirius about locations around the country that would make for a scenic location with enough privacy as to be unlikely to run into any magicals. After all, it was hardly a good day if some magical spotted them, word got back to the wrong people, and they were attacked. Paranoid? Probably, but some people really were out to get Harry and anyone close to him. Sirius did know a few spots, and Hermione quickly heard back from Fleur's mentor, who gave them the times they needed and only cautioned them against alcohol as Fleur would be expected back at work after. Harry knew what he was going to do for food as well, everything was coming together nicely.

A few days later, Harry and Hermione were waiting in Gringotts a few minutes before Fleur was due to get off for lunch. They knew there might be a little bit of a wait as Fleur was likely to finish whatever job she was working on before leaving for lunch, but they got lucky and she came strolling out of the door to the employees-only doorway almost two minutes early. She was surprised to see them obviously waiting for her, and if it wasn't for the fact that they were calm and relaxed she was sure she would be worried they were there with bad news. "Hey guys, what are you doing here?" she asked, obviously a little confused.

Harry just grinned at her. "We are here to kidnap you for lunch." He indicated the large wicker basket he was carrying.

Fleur looked both happy and worried at that. "You know I only have forty-five minutes, right?"

"Yep," beamed Hermione. "We checked how long your break was and we should be back early. Now, we just need to step outside." Hermione put extra emphasis on the word step, telling Fleur how they were travelling.

The trio walked outside, and once they were at the bottom of the bank steps Fleur pulled Harry and Hermione into a group hug, so that when they disappeared it looked like she was the one to Side-along the two teens, while it was in fact Harry Stepping the three of them. Harry had kept the destination secret from Hermione as well, so the two girls looked around at the green valley that stretched out before them before it gave way to a large lake. The midday sun was shining down on them walking them through. "Oh, the lake district!" Hermione said as she recognised the area.

While the girls were appreciating the views, Harry pulled a blanket out of the basket he was carrying and laid it out for them. The food wasn't overly complicated, just a collection of deli meats, cheeses, crackers, olives, and little tomatoes. The part Harry was proud of was the macarons he had made using the recipe that Fleur had shown him after the incident at Easter.

The three of them settled down to enjoy their lunch together. For a few minutes it felt like they were the only people in the world. There was no war, no terrorists targeting them and their families. It was a much needed moment of peaceful bliss, a taste of what they were aiming for. They mostly talked about nothing, until Hermione pulled out the leaflets to show Fleur, who loved the idea and was up for both classes. There was some talking about which of the cooking classes they should aim for, as the tutor focused on a different cuisine every day of the week. They agreed that French cooking wasn't worth it, Fleur was already proficient and Harry could easily learn from her. They wanted to focus on a cuisine they were both unfamiliar with, but was interesting to both of them. They ended up choosing Chinese cuisine, it was something they both had tried and liked but had no experience in cooking.

As they decided that, Harry pulled out the tray of macarons and Fleur's eyes lit up. She immediately snagged one and bit into it. "Delicious," she purred, which considering it was Harry's first time making them Harry took as quite the compliment. Unfortunately their lunch wasn't as long as they would have hoped, and Fleur had to get back to the bank. Harry and Hermione said they would take care of cleaning up, so Fleur Apparated back to the bank. Harry and Hermione cleaned up everything before Harry Stepped them right back into their Hogsmeade house.

-ϟϟϟ-

Hermione's candle-making date with Fleur came first. The class was held on the weekend, first Saturday then repeated on Sunday, which was Fleur's day off. The class was all day because of the time it took the wax to harden, so Hermione and Fleur Floo'ed to Grimmauld Place and set off from there that Sunday morning.

When they arrived at the community hall that was hosting the event, the biggest surprise to them was that they weren't the only 'lesbian couple' in the group. The term didn't really fit Fleur and Hermione, but when they were approached by two women who looked to be in their late twenties or thirties who were obviously a couple and had referred to them as such, Hermione had tried to say that she and Fleur were actually bi. The older couple had just laughed it off as "close enough." A part of Hermione wanted to explain about Harry, yet doing so would single her and Fleur out and she didn't want for her and Fleur to have to spend their entire date explaining how their relationship worked, so she let it drop.

Soon their instructor arrived and showed them all into the hall she had set up. There was some brief fuss over everyone paying, and despite this being Hermione's idea Fleur insisted on being the one to pay. "I am the one with an income, non? Then I will cover it. Besides, with living in Harry's house and your parents buying most of the food, I haven't actually been able to spend much yet."

The class included a starter kit of basic supplies for everyone. The first thing the instructor showed them was moulded candles and how to do different things with them, like making little wax sculptures that you could press against the inside of the mould, so that when the rest of the wax was poured in, there would be wax designs on the outside of the candle. She showed them how to mix and layer different colours so they wouldn't mix and a few other little tricks, then it was their turn.

Fler decided to do a set of candles that were pink at their back that faded into white as the candle went up, with darker pink flowers dotted around the outside. Hermione, however, decided on layering bands of white and baby blue with a single large seashell design on the side. As they worked, the two talked. Hermione confessed her anxiety over not having a solid plan for her future, unlike those that Fleur and Harry had.

"Well, there are a few options for you. For example, I could easily see you being a…oh what's the word in English? The French is auteure."

"Author," Hermione supplied the English with a smile.

"Another word you stole from us," Fleur joked as she shook her head at just how much English was just stolen from French.

"Well Britain has a history of taking anything worth keeping from France. That's why you're ours now." And she gave her girlfriend a quick kiss.

"Or you could look into teaching, I could see you as a teacher. Just don't try to be a librarian," Fleur added as a joke.

"Why can't I be a librarian?" Hermione asked, a little confused.

"Because a librarian needs to be willing to let other people take the books away. You could never do that."

Hermione stuck her tongue out at Fleur and the two of them ended up giggling. Once they stopped, Hermione said, "But an author…I could see myself doing that, not sure anyone would buy any though."

"Just write the official Harry Potter's story book. You know Harry would let you and it would be an instant best seller," Fleur suggested.

Hermione considered it. Yes, such a book would fly off the shelves and it would establish her as an author that would give any books she wrote after that a running start. But she would have to exploit Harry's goodwill for that, which she would rather not do. She should probably at least try writing other stuff first.

After that the teacher started to show them a different way to make candles by warming the wax just enough in a water bath that you could mould it like clay. Fleur had a little experience with doing something similar with fondant icing and set about making Hermione a rose candle. Hermione wasn't anywhere near as good at moulding like that. She could picture the form she wanted to make, a cat figure in the colours of Fleur's cat Poe, which was a side effect of the visualisation she had practised a lot for Transfiguration. But just because she knew what she wanted it to look like didn't mean she had the skill to make it without magic.

-ϟϟϟ-

A few days after Hermione and Fleur's date and a few days before Harry and Fleur's, Harry surprised Hermione not long after Fleur had gone to work for the day by taking her out on a date. Hermione was surprised because their time with Fleur had an end date, on the first of September the two of them were returning to Hogwarts and wouldn't have an opportunity to spend time in person with Fleur again until the Hogsmeade weekend. Because of that, for the most part they were focusing on Fleur. However, Harry had realised that during the day when Fleur was at work, there was also time to take Hermione out. They travelled from Grimmauld Place by mundane taxi to a mundane book store and together they chose a book that interested them both, then Harry Stepped them directly to the garden of the Hogsmeade house. There the two settled under the large apple tree and snuggled up together. Once comfortable, Harry cracked open the new book The Northern Lights, the first in a new series called 'His Dark Materials', and began to read.

-ϟϟϟ-

Fleur arrived home from Gringotts and collapsed into one of the more comfortable chairs. Her boss / teacher Elaine had run her ragged today and her feet were killing her. She kicked off her shoes and couldn't help but smile when Sassy brought her a glass of wine.

"Thanks Sassy, I really need this today. Where are Harry and Hermione?" Fleur asked before taking a large sip of the sweet, almost clear liquid. Normally the two came to greet her and ask about her day when she got home, but today there was nothing.

"Master Harry and Mistress Hermione ate in London. Mistress Hermione is spending a little time with her parents while Master Harry is shopping for your cooking date this evening," Sassy said.

That was right, she had a date with Harry today. She briefly considered what she would need to do before she left. "Sassy, can you please get a foot soak potion, take the gold from my vault, and then can you lay out a change of robes for me?" Fleur half begged. She didn't normally ask so much of Sassy, but her feet really were sore and she really didn't want to miss her night out with harry.

Sassy was more than happy to help and was back in under five minutes with the potion. Fleur conjured herself a large enough bowl, filled it with water, warmed up the water and added about a third of the bottle of potion. As soon as she added her feet she could feel the results of running all over the bank today being healed. She relaxed back into the chair for half an hour to let the potion do its work and to finish her wine.

Almost two hours later, Fleur stepped out of the fire in Grimmauld Place ready for her date with Harry. Hermione was with Emma in the kitchen and informed Fleur as she was vanishing the soot from her mundane summer dress (that admittedly she had added a few stain-repelling charms to) that Harry was just upstairs and would be down in a few minutes. The three women made small talk for a few minutes, Hermione being rather complimentary about Fleur's look for the evening, until Harry came walking in. His face lit up when he saw Fleur and he immediately rushed to complement her as well.

"Thank you, you're looking good yourself." Harry was wearing jeans, a green button up shirt, and a dark blue suit jacket. It was smart casual at its best.

The class was luckily only a few minutes walk from one of London's many green spaces, which meant that Harry was able to step them there. Ever since he had used his Stepping ability in his latest fight with Dumbledore against Voldemort and no one said anything about it, Harry had gotten a lot bolder with its use. As family magic he didn't legally need a licence for it, and having used it openly against Voldemort there was no need to keep everything about it secret anymore. He just wasn't going to advertise he could Step through wards the same way elves could.

The cooking class was held in a modified apartment. The classroom had seven workstations, six for the students and one for the woman teaching the class. It actually reminded Harry of Snape's Potions lab, only this space was brightly lit and you could actually picture happy people being in this room.

"OK class, I see all of the work stations are filled, are we waiting on any more partners?" The instructor, a woman in her late forties, asked. Harry and Fleur weren't the only couple here, there were two other couples as well, while the other three looked to be there on their own as no one spoke up to say anything. "Right, then let's get started. I trust everyone has brought the ingredients that were on the shopping list you were given when you booked the class? Good, let's begin." The instructor proceeded to talk them through making a Char Siu marinade for pork first. They covered the pork tenderloin they had brought in the marinade and put it on a labelled tray in a fridge at the side of the hall.

There hadn't been much opportunity for Harry and Fleur to talk during the first part, as the instructor was giving them instructions step by step. The next step was more open, as they were shown how to prepare rice for Chinese cooking. It was a little different from rice in European cooking, because in Europe you wanted to keep the starch in the rice as you cook it, so that it thickens up when making a dish like risotto. In Chinese cooking, you apparently needed to wash the rice first. Either way, Harry and Fleur now had a good ten minutes to talk.

"So how are you finding life in cold damp Great Britain so far?" Harry asked jokingly, as they hadn't had a single cold day or any more than the occasional spot of rain since Fleur arrived in the country. Considering it was August, though, that wasn't surprising.

Fleur decided to run with the joke. "Oh, I have been freezing and I have to hide all my lovely clothes under thick heavy coats and jumpers." She smiled at him.

"I didn't realise you were suffering so much." Harry layered on a fake sounding voice of concern.

"Yep, I am suffering here. But at least there is some compensation for being in this icebox of a country." Fleur fiddled with one of the buttons on the front of his shirt to indicate exactly what she meant by compensation.

"How is your rice coming along?" The instructor asked, causing the two teens to jump.

Harry quickly checked the clock to make sure he and Fleur hadn't gotten too caught up in their flirting. Fortunately, there was still a good four minutes left before the rice needed to be taken off the heat. "It's fine, it has four minutes to go," he answered.

The instructor nodded. "Is that a French accent, dear?" she asked Fleur.

"Yes, I am French," Fleur answered.

"So I doubt I can interest you in my French cooking classes, maybe your boyfriend here would appreciate it if you learned a few of his home grown favourites by signing up for my British class. Or perhaps you may both be interested in learning something from further afield? I also do classes on Mexican and Creole food." The instructor was on the hard sell, looking to get them to sign up to more classes.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible for a while. Harry here will be off back to finish off boarding school in a few weeks, and I just got my first job and I don't get a lot of time off," Fleur answered, deliberately making it sound like Harry was starting his last year in school so that the instructor wouldn't feel the need to say anything about their rather small age difference.

Understanding that her chance of additional sales here was none, the instructor moved on to speak to the other people learning, leaving Harry and Fleur alone.

Harry pulled the conversation back. "In all seriousness Fleur, how are things for living in Britain and working for the bank?" He really was interested.

"It's honestly fine. I miss being close to my family, but that's no different than when I was in Beauxbatons. The work is hard and there is definitely a learning curve, but they don't treat me as bad as a lot of men do." She used the word men to indicate the problems that often came up from her Veela heritage; goblins were apparently unaffected. "I'm gonna miss you and Hermione in September, and I could use a few more friends, but those will come in time and this year will be a lot better than last year. This year I get one weekend a month. It's no moonlit stroll in the park, but it's manageable and things are getting better."

"You know if you ever need help or just to talk about it, I'm here, right? Even when I'm back at school I'm just a call away, and the house is so close I doubt McGonagall would even notice if Hermione and I slipped out for a few minutes to give you a hug." He meant it too, there was nothing stopping him from Stepping between Hogwarts and his house in Hogsmeade.

Fleur nodded and switched the focus. "What about you, Harry? How are you holding up after what we learned in the Ministry? That was a massive responsibility to drop in your lap, yet you have barely said a word about it."

"Honestly I don't know what to say. In a way it doesn't exactly change anything. I have been dealing with this for over five years already, now it's just officially my responsibility. The only problem is I can't actually do anything currently. The only plan I can come up with would paint a target on you, Hermione, Tracey, and Daphne, and it would also make the target on me much bigger. Like a "needing to check everything I eat, and making jewellery with automatic shield charms built in"-sized target."

"You know we are ready to stand by you Harry. Whatever it takes." Fleur sounded determined and serious, yet Harry couldn't help but wonder if she really understood what she was saying. She was talking about fighting, possibly dying, and even killing like it was the Triwizard tournament. She hadn't ever been in a real fight for her life, she hadn't ever cast to kill, she hadn't watched as a friend died unable to do anything. Sure he knew that Fleur understood those things on a detached academic level. If he was to ask her to make a list of the things that would result in Harry placing himself as the Death Eaters' primary antagonist, he was sure those would be on the list. Yet there was a difference between knowing something and really understanding it. That you could only get from experience.

Harry's musings were interrupted by the instructor. Apparently, rice had to sit in the fridge overnight to make proper fried rice, so she was switching out the rice they had made for some that she had made the day before. They put their pork (which Harry felt had barely had any time at all to marinade) in a little toaster oven that was built into her work stations, and then they watched as the instructor showed them that the key to fried rice was to keep the rice constantly moving. Then, it was their turn to try.

Harry didn't know if it was because he and Fleur both liked to cook, or if it was because they had each had years of learning Potions, but when it came time to cut up their vegetables for the fried rice they were leagues ahead of everyone there except the instructor. For example, it took Harry maybe 90 seconds to finely dice a whole onion, whereas the table next to him took almost an entire five minutes and the result was more chunky than diced. Their vegetables were prepared long before the rest of the class, so much so they had to take a break. If they didn't, their rice would be cold long before their pork was ready.

"Fleur, do you really think I even could do it? I offered Tracey and Daphne a place in my house to protect them. How could I throw them into the middle of a war?" Harry asked as he was cleaning up all the vegetable peelings.

Fleur sighed, obviously thinking Harry was being a little on the slow side. "Harry, why don't you just ask them? Give them the choice. Both of them will be adults in a few months, they can make their own decisions. And frankly, I think you're underestimating Tracey. She is just as in this as you are, and Daphne will follow her anywhere."

She was right, of course. Harry would need to talk to everyone before he made any moves. "But what if one of you or them gets hurt? It would be my fault." That was the crux of Harry's issue. The prophecy seemed to say he had to be the one to fight Voldemor, but the Dark Lord also had an army to fight, meaning that Harry would need an army of his own. But all Harry had was the family he had been able to cobble together for himself over the last few years, and he didn't want to risk losing them. Fleur pulled him into a hug. She knew from the look on his face exactly what he was thinking, the problem was she also knew he wasn't wrong.

Not long after they broke the hug they started on the fried rice. It wasn't difficult between the two of them. Harry kept everything moving in the pan while Fleur kept track of when to add everything. They sliced up the char siu pork tenderloin and plated it up with the rice and tried it. It was delicious, and both of them were sure that with a few tweaks (like marinating the pork for longer and using a more flavourful cut of meat) it would be even better.

As the two of them ate the meal they had just made, they couldn't keep the smiles off of their faces. In truth, it hadn't been the best date; sure they felt closer to each other, but the lesson format had gotten in the way of them having any fun like they had when working together and competing over Eton mess and macarons. It was pleasant, but Harry was sure he could do better next time. The two walked hand in hand back to the park where they could Step home, Harry carrying what was left of their ingredients while Fleur carried a potion of the pork and fried rice for Hermione.

A/N

The Northern Lights has an alternate name of The Golden Compass in America.

Yes I know it's pretty much common knowledge now to wash rice, but in 90s Britain this knowledge was not so common.

Remember my writing is fuelled by energy drinks and your comments and if you're not supplying energy drinks...