Days before the first task of the Triwizard Tournament…

Hermione’s front teeth had been shrunk down that her overbite had all but gone, due to Madam Pomfrey reversing Draco’s lousy curse. She still wasn’t very happy though. Sure it was true that beauty on the outside is superficial and the truly important thing is what’s on the inside. Take her intelligence, for example, she shone brighter than anyone else, however, she was but a teenage girl and things like appearances do make her self-conscious especially since she laid eyes on the Beauxbaton girls, one specifically.

She had gorgeous features, deep blue eyes, platinum blonde hair, flawless skin and gracefulness in all her movements. Her name was Fleur and she was just announced as the champion of the Beauxbaton which proved that she had to be a smart and powerful witch, on top of everything else that makes the older girl who she is. It felt like the blonde girl had the best of both worlds – looks and books. There was no way girls like Hermione would ever end up with girls like Fleur. Her name captured her well, a flower, and everyone else, the bees attracted to the best scented and brightest flower in the field, including Hermione.

To make things worse, when Hermione decided to just give up her stupid crush on a beautiful girl. Said girl just had to start appearing in the library where Hermione always spent her time. It only made the blonde that much more desirable to the brunette.

AND THEN, to make things triple worse, that famous seeker, Viktor Krum had also started appearing in the library at almost the same time. Most probably drawn in by the blonde too. Where Hermione usually sat to study by herself, she could see Fleur sitting close by, at one of the other tables and Viktor would be not too far off, a few tables away. They both look amazing, powerful enough to be chosen as champions; and that only cemented the fact that Hermione would have no chance in hell or heaven with the blonde. This fact only made Hermione hate the seeker and quidditch even more. Hermione wasn’t sure why the seeker could be caught watching her sometimes, did the seeker think Hermione was going to be a romantic rival to such a perfect girl? It just didn’t make sense.

Having had enough of her jealousy towards the seeker, she decided that she needed time off for herself, because finally for once in her magical life, Harry decided not to cause more drama and she could breathe easy. Maybe getting away from the seeker thinking up of the right time to make a move on the pretty blonde would do her some good.

She packed up her bag, stood up and harrumphed Viktor under her breath. She spared one last longing look towards Fleur before closing the door to the library. Unbeknownst to her, a pair of dark eyes from a certain disliked seeker had been casting the same longing look at her back.

The girl dumped her school bag in her room and made her way to the Black Lake. There, she skipped a few stones on the lake before she finally laid down and closed her eyes to think. She was thinking of the multiple ways that she could be rejected by the blonde and why she just wasn’t good enough to be standing beside her. When it had suddenly started getting noisy, she thought of leaving when everything went black.

Hermione gasped at the remembered pain on her head, bringing her hand up to touch the spot. The warmth surrounding her made her remember where she really was – in bed with her fiancee, her princess, the love of her life. There was no residual feeling of pain on her head but on her heart. She snuggled deeper into Fleur’s embrace and wrapped her arms tighter around her. That dream felt dreadful, a world where she had no chance with her love, she shivered upon remembering her thoughts from her dream.

The arms around her shifted a little as the older witch began to stir from her slumber. A gentle sleepy shushing was heard from the blonde, “Shhhh, n’aie pas peur, mon amour.” Followed by a sweet sleepy kiss on the younger girl’s forehead.

“Fleur.” The brunette tried to urge the blonde awake softly. Her response was a sleepy mumble.

“Fleur.” She tried again and this time, she received a sleepy acknowledgement, “Mmmm?”

“Fleur, my princess, open your eyes for me please?” She whispered softly, “I want to see you.”

Although still sleepy, the blonde obliged and opened her eyes slowly. Only to have her eyes closed again, as she felt soft lips against her own in a long chaste kiss. Once the pair of lips pulled away, she sighed blissfully and opened her eyes again. She found soulful brown eyes looking back into her own and the brunette said to her, “You know I love you, right, Fleur?”

The blonde blinked her eyes a few times slowly, each slower than the last. Once she was done, she was almost fully awake and had her brain finished playing catch up with her other senses. With one last blink, her eyes opened wide because Hermione had just kissed her and said she loved her. She knew the girl couldn’t mean it, in her current scrambled head but she could feel a change in herself. Her veela felt more alive and stronger than she had ever felt her whole life, it was as if she could sprout wings.

With a totally way too delayed reaction, Fleur gasped out loud, her veela had been fully awoken by their mate! Hermione was her mate! Fighting the urge to pull the scrambled innocent girl back into a passionate kiss, she finally responded to a teary-eyed Hermione in the best way she thought. Smiling gently at the girl in her arms, “Always, mon amour, I love you, always.” Which really was way too true for comfort, since Hermione was actually her mate. She could only hope that Hermione would think that she was only being friendly or just not freak out when she returned to normal.

Hermione’s face immediately brightened, she hugged herself tighter into the blonde’s warm soft body, burying her face in the others’ chest. This was not any different than what they had been doing for weeks but Fleur could feel her cheeks heating up now. Due to the realization that this now felt a lot more intimate to her.

Muffled words sounded from her chest area and she had to make the girl repeat herself. Hermione pulled away a little but kept herself in the circle of the French’s arms, she commenced her story of why she had woken the older girl up. Letting the older girl know of her horrible dream where she wasn’t good enough to be with the blonde and the blonde ended up being with a tall, dark and handsome guy.

Fleur then reassured the girl that none of it was true because Hermione was a beautiful, intelligent, kind and all-around amazing girl and anyone, including herself, would just be the luckiest person in the world to have Hermione as their mate.

Once that episode was over, Hermione felt closer than ever to her princess. She wasn’t above the others and she felt so proud of herself that she just had to brag to her classmates about her beautiful love life. Words such as their love blossoming and that they were fated to be (if only she knew how true that was). Other than that, Hermione started showing her romantic feelings towards the older witch in a very welcomed new way (kissing Fleur on the lips) by both parties and most of their school mates, if only it didn’t make Fleur feel a little guilty every time that it happened. Most of the other students were either happy for the new couple or they mostly just enjoy the girl-on-girl action, except for a few jealous ones, including one Viktor Krum.

On the day of the first task, Fleur was beyond nervous that she couldn’t sleep much, she got up early, leaving the brunette in bed when she left for the dining hall herself. The reason she was nervous wasn’t due to the fact that she was about to face a dragon. A dragon, she could deal with any day, but Hermione was going to regain her memory very very soon and she had no idea how that would change their current dynamics. She had gotten so used to the presence and warmth of Hermione, she didn’t know how she could go back to not having her at all.

She hardly had an appetite for her breakfast but knew that she needed the energy to face the rest of her day, thus forcing herself to consume what she needed and then left to prepare for her task.

When she was finally nervously waiting in the champion tent, she saw a blur of brown hair before she was tackled to the ground with an ‘oof’.

Muffled words could be heard from her chest, “Af whas soo whorried wen you weerent ‘ere when I whoked up thhis morning! (I was so worried when you weren’t there when I woke up this morning!)” She felt so awful for having left the girl by herself this morning when she felt the wetness on her shirt, letting her know that the girl was crying.

“Desole, mon amour. I did not mean to make you worry, I was just nervous and couldn’t sleep.” With both hands encircling the younger girl’s face, she brought her face up to shower her face with soft kisses. Fleur kept Hermione encased in her arms as the younger witch tried to regain her composure. She had been having a lot of dreams lately, all seeming to have stemmed from the … same plane? World? Something, that seemed like her but didn’t feel as happy as her. But all of them had in common was the absence of a certain blonde in them and it made her scrambled mind very afraid of what all that may mean.

Once she was calmed enough, Hermione allowed herself to be taken to the stadium to watch the competition that was about to begin by Glasses… Harry? And Freckles… Ron? They had shown up about a few minutes earlier when Hermione was still being comforted in the blonde’s arms.

When watching the fight, Hermione was not anxious at all because she knew her princess was one of a kind and was very powerful. She was proven right when Fleur single-handedly made the dragon fall asleep with a strong charm and obtained her golden egg without an injury whatsoever, earning her the highest points among the competitors.

Once the winner of the first round was announced, Hermione rushed out to meet with Fleur and tackled her again. However, Fleur was ready this time and held her ground. Although Hermione’s momentum did make them twirl around a few times.

“You did great, Fleur!” Hermione beamed up at the blonde.

“Merci, mon amour.” Fleur was going to reward Hermione with a forehead kiss but she was instead ambushed with a big kiss on the lips.

“I love you, Fleur,” Hermione confessed honestly when she pulled back. Fleur only smiled back in response, lest that she said it too many times and recovered-Hermione would think her insane.

“Miss Delacour, Miss Granger, come with to the infirmary. The potion is ready,” Madam Pomfrey appeared out of nowhere and a dreadful feeling settled in the bottom of Fleur’s stomach.

The pair followed behind the nurse, one being rather cheerful while the other was solemn. Once they arrived, the smell of the room was overwhelmingly strong, it wasn’t an awful scent, per se. However, if it hadn’t been so strong, it probably would have been a rather pleasant scent.

The nurse swiftly handed the potion to the brunette when she saw said girl trying to grab for a few of the potions, probably intending to mix them and make things go ‘boom’. “Drink this potion and you will be bed-ridden for a day but after that, she will be good as new.”

“But I feel great, I’m not sick!” Hermione insisted with a frown.

“Mon amour, she is a nurse, I’m sure she knows what she’s talking about. Why don’t you try it?” Fleur pleaded softly. More than nervous, Fleur wanted Hermione to be well, even if it meant that she would lose her mate, if only momentarily. Because she knew that fate would always bring them together sooner or later since they were mates.

Hermione gazed deep into Fleur’s eyes. “Promise me that you would still be here when I wake up.”

“I promise, mon coeur.” Fleur smiled sadly, she guided the brunette to lay on one of the cots and coaxed the girl to drink her potion. So the girl did, she drank them all and immediately felt sleepy yet overwhelmed. Her eyelids felt heavy and she mumbled one last thing before a memories-induced sleep overtook her, “I love you, Fleur.”

Fleur watched as her mate started her recovery, she pressed her lips softly to Hermione’s, whispered, “Je t’aime aussi, mon coeur.” The veela stood up from her seat beside the bed and left.

Note: “Shhhh, n’aie pas peur, mon amour.” – “Shhhh, do not be afraid, my love.”
“Je t’aime aussi, mon coeur.” – “I love you too, my heart.”