June 2023 Monthly Poll Winner - Harry/Fleur You're Losing Me Part 2

Spring had finally brought warmth to Britain, and Fleur was thankful for it. After the chilly fall and the dreary winter, she was grateful for the beauty of spring, even if it still paled in comparison to her life back in France. The rolling hillsides around Hogwarts were all in bloom, bringing some much-needed colour to the castle’s surrounding landscape.

The water of the Black Lake rippled. Ever since the second task, Fleur had avoided the dark waters. It wasn’t so much that she was scared of the water itself; this place just held bad memories for her, and the creatures were more than a little concerning to a being whose affinity with fire made the water a concerning place. She still remembered the absolute feeling of anguish and failure when she’d been forced to resurface and leave her darling sister underwater. 

But then Harry had rescued Gabrielle, and Fleur had nearly wept out of sheer joy at seeing both of them alive.

It was that day that Fleur realised that she loved Harry Potter.

“Are you sure the Giant Squid is nice?” Fleur asked warily as she dipped one of her bare toes in the cold water.

Harry shrugged. He was walking along the rocky shore beside him, barefoot as she was. “Nice enough. We’ve lost Quaffles in the lake before, and the Giant Squid’s always threw them back to us. Fred, George, and Lee swear that they even tickled its tentacles once, and the Giant Squid just tickled them back.”

Fleur was still unconvinced. It was one of those times that she wished she had taken more classes on Magical Creatures. She’d always avoided the subject due to the awkward air in the room whenever avian creatures came up. Everyone’s gazes would fall on her and she’d be subjected to countless questions about her Veela heritage. Some were innocuous; others were decidedly not so. It was one of the things she appreciated about Harry. He never asked her about her Veela heritage unless she brought it up first. It was comforting to feel like he cared about her as a person rather than what biology dictated she was.

“And you’re sure that it likes toast?” Fleur asked, glancing down at the steam-covered bag in her hand. 

“It’s always eaten it from me before,” Harry answered as he skipped a stone across the lake’s surface. It made six hops before it plunged downward.

Fleur glanced at Harry curiously. Despite how close they’d gotten since the Yule Ball, he’d always been very reticent to talk about his history. Sure, he’d tell her about his hobbies and interests, but never about what his school or home lives were like. “When did you feed it toast before?”

Harry smiled sadly and threw another stone across the lake. “The first time was in my second year. I was . . . going through a rough time, so I usually came out here to have my meals. I used to throw bits of toast to the Jobberknolls that come down from the hills, but there weren’t any one day. So, I just tossed some in the lake and the Giant Squid snatched them up.” Harry laughed. “Gave me quite the fright, but at least I made a new friend that day.”

Fleur smiled at his story and brushed her hand against his. Harry had learnt quickly what that meant, so he opened his fist and interlocked his fingers with Fleur’s.

“Well, I’m happy to meet your friend,” Fleur told Harry. “But if it tries to eat me—”

“That won’t happen,” Harry chuckled.

“But if it does,” Fleur insisted. “I want you to know that I’ll haunt you until the day you die.”

“And if it doesn’t, I’ll expect a proper apology,” Harry replied.

“What kind of apology?” Fleur asked coyly.

Harry’s smile made her heart sing. “I’m sure you can think of something.”

Fleur’s gaze dropped to Harry’s soft lips. He’d certainly gotten much better at kissing since the Yule Ball. Fleur dreamed of his touch regularly now, and she took every opportunity she could spend time with him. It was hard given the fact that they were trying to keep their relationship a secret, which was why they were up so early on a Saturday morning together.

“Deal,” Fleur said. “Now, let’s go find us a Giant Squid.”

Their laughter blended together into a musical song as they ran along the shoreline in search of the Giant Squid. With the warm sun above and the cool water lapping at their feet, Fleur felt like she was in paradise with Harry. Even if it was just a lowly British paradise, Harry’s company made up for whatever faults there might have been.

They ran far along the shore, leaving the castle distantly behind them. Eventually, Harry spotted a reddish tentacle poking out of the water far away from the shore. They hurried to the closest point they could reach, and then the two of them reached into the bag of toast. Some of the pieces had already gotten a bit mashed, but that didn’t matter when they were throwing them in the lake anyway.

Fleur and Harry took turns tossing bits of toast into the lake while the other used their magic to blow a gust of wind on it, propelling the toast closer to where the Giant Squid’s tentacle had been. After a few failed attempts, Harry managed to guide Fleur’s toast to just the right spot. A spray of water exploded away from the surface as one of the Giant Squid’s massive tentacles breached the water. The small piece of toast went flying into the air, but the tentacle deftly shot out and grabbed it before retreating back underwater again.

As the surface water settled and the Giant Squid disappeared, Fleur felt a little disappointed that it was over so soon. But then Harry’s face lit up.

“It’s coming!” He exclaimed, pointing to the dark shape below the water’s surface. Fleur hadn’t noticed it at first because of how large it was, but once she recognised it for what it was, it was clear that the shape was moving towards them at a fast pace.

“We should back up,” Fleur said, fearing the fast-moving creature that was quickly closing the gap between them.

“It won’t hurt us,” Harry assured her. That didn’t stop from Fleur grabbing onto his robes for comfort. He looked up at her with a sincere expression. “Do you trust me?” He asked.

That was a question they both knew the answer to. “Of course,” Fleur answered regardless.

“Then stay with me,” Harry grinned. 

He turned back to the water and watched the Giant Squid come closer and closer. Fleur kept her grip on Harry’s robes and waited with baited breath for what was going to happen next. A hundred scenarios ran through her head of the Giant Squid crashing into them or pulling them down into the lake’s depths; all were terrifying and equally implausible, but that didn’t stop her mind from focusing solely on those thoughts.

“Breathe,” Harry murmured to her gently. “Everything will be alright.”

Fleur sucked in a deep breath and watched the dark shape rise towards the surface. Suddenly, half a dozen large arms and two longer tentacles shot out of the water, lightly spraying Harry and Fleur with water. Fleur gasped but held firm when Harry didn’t move. 

The two tentacles slithered through the air towards Harry and Fleur, but they moved slowly as though they could sense Fleur’s fear. They came to a stop a few meters away, and the tips curled in on themselves to form two tiny bowls.

“I think it wants us to put the toast there,” Harry explained, sounding very amused with the Giant Squid’s antics.

Fleur glanced down at her feet. They’d have to walk into the water to reach the Giant Squid’s tentacles. It was only calf-deep water, but the Giant Squid’s other arms were still below the water, swirling menacingly around. “Harry—”

“Just take it one step at a time,” Harry said comfortingly. “Watch.”

He took a step forward, shivering slightly as the cold water rose above his ankle. He took another step forward, and Fleur had to lean to keep hold of his robes. He stopped there and glanced back at her. 

“Come on,” he gestured her forward. “I’ve got you.”

Harry offered his hand out for Fleur to take. She paused, looking between him and the tentacles that were slowly undulating above the water’s surface. She had to make a choice now to face her fear or turn away. Maybe she would have turned around and left if she were back in France, but she wanted to prove herself to Harry.

Fleur accepted Harry’s hand and stepped forward into the water. It was cold against her skin, but her fear stopped her from really feeling the chill. He guided her slowly forward, taking care to walk at her pace and to not push her too quickly. Fleur stayed in step with Harry, relying on his strength to keep her in the water beside him.

When they were barely a meter away from the Giant Squid’s tentacles, they suddenly moved towards Fleur and Harry. Fleur froze up, a curse already on her lips as her fingers searched for her wand, but Harry put a comforting hand over hers.

“It’s okay; trust me,” he murmured. He took out a handful of toast from the bag and forced it into Fleur’s hand. Then, he gently guided her hand forward.

Fleur felt like a marionette as Harry guided her actions. She didn’t pull away from the Giant Squid, but neither did she actively participate in delivering this first handful of toast to the creature. Harry had to pry her fingers open to let the toast drop into the makeshift tentacle-bowl. Then, Harry grabbed a handful for himself and dropped it into the second tentacle-bowl.

“You see,” Harry smiled encouragingly at Fleur. “It’s harmless.”

The two tentacles disappeared beneath the waves, zipping back to the Giant Squid’s beak-like mouth where it feasted upon the toast. Then, the tentacles came back. They reformed into the same bowl shape and waited patiently for more toast.

“Go on,” Harry urged Fleur. “Give it a bit of toast.”

Fleur’s hand shook ever so slightly as she forced it into the bag. There wasn’t much toast left, but there was enough for one last gift to the Giant Squid. She grabbed it all in her hand, feeling the rough edges of the toast scraping against her skin. Harry took the empty bag from her and waited expectantly as Fleur held her hand out in front of her.

The Giant Squid waited for Fleur to drop the toast, but after several seconds had passed, it grew impatient. The tentacle-bowl came closer to Fleur’s hand until it gently poked her. Fleur gasped at the tentacle’s touch but didn’t run away like she wanted to. She saw that encouraging smile on Harry’s face and knew what she had to do.

Slowly, Fleur dropped the toast into the Giant Squid’s tentacle. Its second tentacle danced happily in the air as the one she dropped the toast onto submerged itself back under water. Then, with a gentle splash, the other tentacle disappeared too.

“See, I knew you could do it—”

Harry’s words stopped as Fleur mashed her lips against his. She kissed him passionately as she cupped his cheeks in her hands. His hands settled on her waist and he kissed her back as the seconds passed by.

When their kiss ended, they both had goofy smiles on their faces.

“Thank you, Harry,” Fleur whispered sincerely. “Thank you for letting me do this with you.”

PAGE BREAK

“Thank you,” Fleur croaked as her eyes fluttered open. The Weasley’s living room swam into view as she blinked away her sleepiness. Sunlight was pouring in from the nearby window and the sounds of pots and pans clattering in the kitchen faintly trailed into the living room. Someone must have put up a silencing charm recently, Fleur faintly realised.

As she tried to sit up, she realised that someone had put a blanket over her. It was made of dark-brown wool and looked to be hand knit. There was a large, golden ‘H’ embroidered on it.

“Hey.”

Fleur’s head snapped around to the voice that had spoken. Bill was standing on the bottom step of the staircase, looking thoroughly exhausted but at least showered and dressed in nice clothes. He had a steaming mug of tea in his hands.

“Hey,” Fleur murmured back to him. She knew that she should probably say something more, but she just didn’t know what to say to him. The memories of last night hadn’t left her, and, frankly, Fleur was embarrassed with herself. She’d shut down when Bill returned, and now his entire family thought that they were engaged. Harry thought that she was engaged.

“How are you feeling?” Bill asked her nicely, showing that same concern that he had last night.

“Okay,” Fleur answered honestly. Whatever potions she had taken last night had done wonders to help get her nausea and dizziness under control.

“Good,” Bill nodded and took a sip of his tea. “I was really worried when I didn’t see you in bed this morning.”

“Yeah, I . . .” Fleur trailed off. What could she say to him? She didn’t want to sleep in the same bed as him when she had been about to break up with him through a letter? There was another man plaguing her thoughts and it almost seemed disrespectful to pretend that there was anything still between her and Bill at this point? Instead of saying any of that, Fleur settled on a lie. “I was feeling sick, and I didn’t want to disturb you.”

Bill looked hurt by her words. “You can lean on me if you ever need help, Fleur,” he said, his voice full of sincerity and love. “I was so worried about you; I nearly woke up everyone again in a panic. I’m just glad that Harry was here to look after you.”

“Harry?” Fleur’s voice hitched.

“Mm hmm,” Bill hummed as he took another sip of tea. “Apparently, he found you down here in the middle of the night. He brought you that blanket and sat in that chair all night watching over you,” he explained, gesturing to the chair opposite the sofa Fleur was on.

Perhaps it was too soon for Fleur to say that she was okay; her nausea seemed to be making a return.

“And where is he now?” Fleur asked.

“Taking a shower,” Bill answered casually. “I think he stayed up the whole night making sure that you were alright. He said he was going to shower and go take a nap now that I’m up to watch over you.”

That both hurt and heartened Fleur to hear. Even after everything, Harry was still willing to look after her like that, but she couldn’t imagine the turmoil of emotions he must have been feeling all night. Thinking about it made her heart ache.

“Bill, we need to talk,” Fleur said in a quiet voice. She couldn’t leave this until later; she needed to get everything off of her chest now while she still had her courage.

Bill seemed to sense the graveness of the situation as he nodded and walked down the last step and into the living room. “I know,” he replied in a similar tone, setting down his mug of tea on a nearby table. “Can I go first?”

That caught Fleur off guard. What did he have to talk to her about? “Okay,” Fleur said tentatively.

Bill seemed to mull over the thoughts he was wrestling with before he spoke. “First of all, I want to say that I’m sorry about the engagement stuff. I shouldn’t have pressured you to have an answer for me right when I came back from my mission, and I shouldn’t have accidentally let slip last night to my parents that I proposed to you.”

“How did that come out?” Fleur asked.

Bill cringed. “After you collapsed in the kitchen, I woke up everyone in the house by calling for help. I was so worried about you, and, in my panic, I blurted out that I didn’t want to lose the woman I loved. The woman I proposed to. Mum overheard, and the whole story spilt out after that. She just assumed that you said yes to my proposal, but don’t worry, I corrected her this morning.”

Well, at least she wasn’t going to have to pretend that she was engaged to Bill, but this was going to open a whole new set of problems for her. What was Molly going to do or say about this now? The snide remarks and passive aggressiveness was sure to increase ten-fold until Fleur gave Bill an answer.

“Look,” Bill said, scratching the side of his head awkwardly. “I know that we’ve had a lot of troubles lately, and I haven’t been as attentive to you as I should have been . . . but I want to make things work out between us. I love you, Fleur.”

Fleur’s heart skipped a beat. Where was all of this coming from? For the entire time they’d been together, Bill had never wanted to talk or admit fault for being inattentive. For months now, she’d slowly resigned herself to the fact that their relationship was dying and that she was going to have to be the one to break it off since Bill wasn’t doing anything to save it, and now he was trying to do exactly that.

For a moment, in the early morning sunlight, Fleur saw the man she had fallen for: a handsome, intelligent, and caring man who had promised to give her the world.

PAGE BREAK

“Delacour!”

Fleur huffed and dropped the enchanted galleon on her desk. If the goblins wanted her to put a stop to this counterfeiting scheme, then they needed to leave her alone for more then twenty minutes so that she could figure out how these damned enchantments worked.

“Yes!” Fleur replied hotly as she shot up from her desk.

At the other end of the cavernous room she shared with seventeen other workers, her boss, Glurdack, stood tapping his foot impatiently. He was the oldest goblin that Fleur had ever seen. His head was shaved bald but he had thick, gray whiskers sprouting from the skin above his upper lips. His expression was always in a perpetual appearance of fury, but his narrowed eyes told her that he was actually angry today.

Fleur shuffled her way down the central walkway in the room until she reached Glurdack. Despite the fact that he didn’t even stand as tall as her waist, he had a domineering presence about him. He just snapped his fingers, turned on his heels, and started walking out of the room, expecting Fleur to follow.

It wasn’t the first time she’d been summoned like this, and she was sure it wouldn’t be the last. Goblins were notoriously a punctilious bunch, always critical to the highest degree; it was something that Fleur actually respected about them, but it meant that they sometimes summoned her like this to explain something that she’d done if they didn’t feel that it met their standards. Usually, Fleur was able to explain herself well enough that they let her off with a warning to do better next time—despite her work already being far above the standards of her colleagues—but sometimes, especially if the goblins were in a mood, she’d be berated until the goblins ran out of breath.

Glurdack led her down the winding corridors that made up Gringotts. Like the vaults, much of the administration wing of the bank itself had been carved out of naturally-formed caverns beneath the ground’s surface. The tunnels followed a naturally random layout, and they frequently changed in elevation without warning. It made for a good workout but made it quite difficult to navigate unless you already knew your way around.

After a couple of minutes of walking in silence, Fleur realised that she wasn’t being taken to one of the head administrator’s offices. Instead of rising towards the surface, they were going deeper underground towards where some of the goblins’s private vaults were. They were used to store Gringotts’s own moneys, contracts, and various objects that the bank had collected over the years and intended to sell off.

However, just before they could reach those vaults, Glurdack turned sharply down a branching corridor to an area of the bank that Fleur was unfamiliar with. They passed by what looked to be barracks, but they were clearly designed for humans rather than goblins due to the proportions of things.

As they passed by the final room, the corridor veered sharply to the left and led into another cavernous room. It was laid out very similarly to her own with various desks spread out across the room and several work tables with hundreds of magical artefacts laid out on top of them. 

Glurdack opened his mouth to shout another name, but a redheaded man was already hurrying over towards them. He looked quite tall and handsome with his fang earing. His hair was done up in a tight ponytail, and he was wearing a stylish and protective set of dragon hide boots. Almost immediately upon seeing his slightly unprofessional appearance—at least, according to goblin standards—Fleur realised that he must be one of Gringotts’s Curse-Breakers.

Glurdack grunted as the redheaded man came to a halt just a few feet away. “She’s the one I told you about. I expect to see a working solution by the end of next week.”

“You’ve got it,” the man nodded, not fazed by the strict deadline.

Fleur looked curiously between the two of them, but Glurdack just turned on his heels and started back down the way they came from. Fleur quickly tried to remember the path that they had taken to get here, realising that Glurdack wasn’t going to be around to lead her back to familiar territory, but it was a futile effort; she’d just have to find one of the main corridors and work her way back from there.

“By the look on your face, I take it Glurdack didn’t explain to you what it is that we’d be doing?” The man asked rhetorically. He had an easygoing grin on his lips as he shook his head in amusement. “Goblins. Come on; I’ll show you what we’re up to over at my desk.”

Fleur followed him a short distance away to the edge of the room. Unlike the desks in her office, these ones were mostly clean. This man’s desk didn’t have so much as a small picture of his family on it. 

The man sat down in his seat, brimming with excitement, and opened one of the drawers in his desk. He then reached in and fished out a small object that fit nicely in the palm of his hand. He showed it to her before setting it on his desk; it looked like an old, miniature candy roller. There were two cylinders with circular indents covering nearly the entire surface. They were fitted between two round sheets of metal, and there was a hand crank attached at one end.

“Glurdack tells me that you’re working on the fake enchanted gold case,” the men began, still smiling brightly at her. For a moment, Fleur considered if her Veela nature was making him so friendly towards her, but he didn’t seem to be focusing on her body. In fact, his eyes only seemed interested in staring back into hers—it was a welcomed change of pace given the usual quality of men she came across. “Well, this is one of the things that makes them, and we’ve got to figure out how to track more down and dismantle them. I . . . oh, I haven’t even told you my name yet, have I?” The man laughed at his own stupidity for overlooking something like that. “My name’s Bill.”

“Fleur,” she replied.

He raised an eyebrow. “French, huh. They didn’t tell me about that part.”

“But they told you about the Veela part?”

A slightly awkward grimace came across Bill’s face. “Well, they wanted to make sure I’d have no trouble working with you.”

“And you don’t?” Fleur asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nope,” Bill answered simply. “Never had a problem working with goblins, half-giants, or even a vampire once on one of my digs. I can feel your allure, but I’ve fought back against stronger enchantments in Egyptian tombs before and kept myself under control.”

Well, if that last part was true, then that would make things easy. Fleur couldn’t turn off her passive allure, and not everyone had the will to resist it. She supposed it would make sense that a curse-breaker would be better off than most at resisting her effects.

“Anyway, what I really care about is that you’re supposed to be the best enchantress at Gringotts,” Bill explained.

“Who said that?” Fleur asked.

“The goblins.”

It amused and annoyed Fleur to hear that. She’d never once received such positive feedback from anyone at Gringotts directly. “Well, I certainly am better than most of the workers here,” she boasted. Some might have shied away from being so prideful, but Fleur wasn’t going to hide the truth of the matter.

Thankfully, Bill only seemed to grow happier at her boast. “Brilliant!” He exclaimed. “I’m sure we’ll take care of this in no time then.”

There was an easiness and confidence in his smile that drew Fleur in. Something about him seemed so approachable yet capable. He acted like a passionate professional, but he didn’t lord that above anyone.

It reminded Fleur of Harry.

Fleur cringed and forced her ex-boyfriend out of her mind. She’d made her choice, and she needed to stop dwelling on him. He’d find someone else, someone better than her, and he’d forget all about her, eventually. And she needed to do the same.

PAGE BREAK

Glurdack stood in front of Bill and Fleur alongside Bodrag III, the governor of Gringotts. The two goblins were inspecting the detailed report that Fleur and Bill had spent the past week and a half painstakingly working on. After their successful prototype counterfeit tracker they’d made a month ago, they’d been working tirelessly to complete the finished model. And now they had it in hand, alongside a report detailing its inner workings, mechanisms, and intended effects.

Fleur could feel the sweat dripping down her brow. The last time she’d been pushed to the brink of her talents like this had been during the Triwizard Tournament. She’d been alone there, but she had a partner now. 

Secretly, Bill squeezed her hand in a reassuring manner. They’d both taken to relying on each other heavily over these past few weeks. Between the late-night work at Gringotts, the constant stream of tests, revisions, and meetings, and their habit of eating all of their meals together so that they could talk about their work, they’d become very close friends.

Fleur glanced at Bill out of the corner of her eye. He looked as nervous as she felt. His hair was a mess, and he had large bags under his eyes, but there was still a glimmer of hope and pride in his work in his expression. 

Glurdack looked up from the parchment and narrowed his eyes at Fleur. The warning in them was clear: if this finished model failed to work in front of the governor of Gringotts, she’d be finished here. If she succeeded, she’d be justly rewarded.

Bodrag III cleared his throat and dropped the report back down onto his desk. The finished model, a simple metal cube with two ruby-like buttons on top of it, was resting on the desk beside his hand. He picked it up and examined it closely.

“I need only press the left button?” Bodrag III asked as he inspected the device.

“Yes,” Bill answered succinctly, offering a slight bow of his head as he spoke.

Bodrag III hummed and tapped his long nails against the side of the device. “Well then; let’s see if this works.”

He pressed the left button. Nothing happened.

There was a moment’s pause where everyone held their breaths, waiting for something to happen or go terribly wrong. Fleur felt like she was choking on nothing as she stared at that damned cube in Bodrag III’s hand, begging it to work.

A gentle chime sounded, and Fleur let out a sigh of relief.

The bottom of the cube opened up, and a tiny sheet of parchment was dispensed. There was a long list of numbers in the form of coordinates on it; there were hundreds of them written in tiny script. 

Bodrag III deposited the slip of parchment on the desk and pressed the right button on the cube. The bottom of the cube closed back up, and Bodrag III placed it back upon his desk. Then, he took out a magnifying glass and examined the parchment closely, mouthing the numbers as he read them off one by one. His expression was neutral the entire time until he came upon one set of numbers.

“Is this . . .” he murmured.

“Gringotts,” Fleur confirmed, taking the initiative. We have one of the counterfeiting devices in our possession; it’s what we used as a basis to create this device.

“Fleur did an incredible job reverse-engineering the enchantments,” Bill told the goblins.

“And Bill proved himself more than capable at crafting a perfect spell matrix within the ruby inside of the cube,” Fleur added.

Neither of the goblins seemed impressed with their achievements, but Bill and Fleur smiled at each other. Even if the goblins wouldn’t outwardly show appreciation for the feat they’d accomplished, they’d shower each other with their deserved praise.

Bodrag III practically shoved the slip of parchment into Glurdack’s hands. “Contact the British Auror Office immediately and inform them that I wish to speak with their head, Scrimgeour. We’ll see these counterfeiters behind bars within the week, if these numbers are to be believed that is.”

Fleur and Bill had no doubts that they were.

That was as much of a dismissal as they were going to receive, so the two of them left to return to Bill’s office deep within Gringotts. They were giddy nearly the entire walk back, but when they realised that they’d be going back to their normal jobs now that this task was done, an air of melancholy set over both of them.

Truthfully, Fleur had loved working with Bill. It was a breath of fresh air to work with someone who not only understood a vast array of material that was outside of Fleur’s main skill set, but also wasn’t afraid to admit when he didn’t know things and allowed Fleur to take charge. As a Veela, most men either spent all their time leering at her body or talking down to her. Bill was nothing but a respectable gentleman the entire time.

The fact that he was handsome made the long hours much more bearable too.

Their walk back to Bill’s office had practically slowed to a crawl as they reached the corridor outside. Neither of them seemed to want things to end quite yet, but they didn’t have much choice in the matter. One way or another, they’d be off in their own separate parts of Gringotts, working different jobs with different people.

Fleur was trying to work up the courage to say something when Bill spoke first.

“It was a real pleasure working with you, Fleur,” he murmured. He wasn’t quite looking at her as he spoke; his eyes were focused on the ground in front of them. “I wish we could’ve stuck together longer; we make a great team.”

“We do,” Fleur agreed. 

Was she really going to do this? She hadn’t ever thought about anyone romantically since Harry, but, well, spending so much time with Bill had reignited a spark within her. The guilt of breaking up with Harry had never left her, but it was smaller now than it was before.

“Do you—”

“Would you—”

They both stopped as they spoke up at the same time. Bill’s cheeks flushed to the same colour of his hair, and Fleur looked away, holding back a nervous giggle. When she looked back at him, Bill had stopped walking and was looking at her seriously.

“I know you must get this all the time, but I can’t get you out of my head,” Bill said, cracking a grin. “Working with you has been an experience unlike any other, and I don’t want our connection to end just because our jobs are pulling us apart.”

“I don’t want that either,” Fleur replied quietly.

A look of hope shone from Bill’s eyes. “Then, let’s not end it. How about we get dinner? Tonight.”

“Is this two work colleagues getting a meal together or—”

“It’s a date,” Bill interjected. “That is, if you want it to be.”

Fleur took a step towards Bill and grabbed the front of his robes. His eyes went wide with surprise. “Does this answer your question?” She asked before she kissed him.

PAGE BREAK

Bill stood up and walked towards Fleur. The morning light shining into the Burrow’s living room made his skin glow beautifully. “I promise that I’ll make the changes that I need to in order to make things right,” he said sincerely. “All I’m asking for is a chance to do right by you.”

It would be so easy to say yes to him. Even now, even after everything he’d put her through, Fleur wanted to say yes to him. She hadn’t been lying last night when she told Harry that she didn’t love Bill anymore. At least, not entirely. She wasn’t in love with him like she was during the early days of their relationship, but she still had love for him in her heart. It was a sort of love like she felt for her family, a love born out of care and compassion rather than passion. But the memory of her passionate love for him was still there. Maybe she could feel that again. Maybe he could make her feel that way again if he tried.

But what about Harry?

It felt like she was drowning with no clear direction on where to go to find air again. There was one path that seemed safe on the surface but she knew that it was only hanging on by a thread. Then there was another path that felt so right and yet was filled with unknowns after years away from it. Which one was the right path for her?

Bill gulped and crouched down in front of Fleur. He took her hand into his and stared deeply into her eyes. “I’m done with the missions for the Order. I promise you, I’m going to put my foot down at the meeting tonight. I’ll tell them that I’m done, that I need to put my priorities in order. I’m going to go into Gringotts and put in a request for desk duty for at least the next year; I’ll even quit if they refuse. You’re what’s really important in my life, Fleur, and it’s long past time I proved that to you.”

Fleur hated that she started to cry. The well of sadness inside of her just exploded. How long had she dreamed of hearing these words from him? How many times had she begged and pleaded for him to stay with her only for him to promise that he’d stay longer the next time he was back? Why did he have to wait until she’d fallen out of love with him to say the exact thing that could have made everything right?

Bill threw his arms around her and cried with her. Fleur sobbed against his shoulder, grabbing onto him like he was the only thing keeping her from drowning.