When Hermione woke up, she felt an immense sense of loss – loss of warmth and love – there was a source of warmth only in her left hand. But even with her eyes closed, she knew that warmth wasn’t the one she sought after, it was not the one she needed. She could hear voices too and she could distinctly tell which voice belonged to who: Harry, Ron and Ginny. They were worrying over her.
For the last how many hours, she had felt like she had been submerged in water, watching but not acting upon, as she loomed over watching all her jumbled up memories past her by. Now that she had awoken, she could scarcely remember platinum hair and a blurred face, holding her hand, holding her close. The one she could feel her heart yearning for, that should be holding her hand now, but she knew none of her best friends had anywhere close to a blonde shade of hair.
She groaned in pain and loss, drawing the attention of her friends. A squeeze of her hand and Ginny spoke softly, “Hey ‘mione, g’morning, sleepy head. How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been run over by a firetruck, my head hurts,” Hermione moaned in pain, moving her unoccupied hand to massage her temples. She tried to blink her eyes open but the glare of the light blinded her and she had to squeeze her eyes shut again.
“Hey, careful now, you’ve been sleeping for one and a half days, Madam Pomfrey told us that you’d have a severe headache upon waking up.” Harry tried to push the brunette back onto the bed so that she could rest some more.
“Yeah, she also said that you aren’t allowed to take any potion for the headache, because it might overdose you. The potion you took to regain your memory was very potent,” Ginny gave another squeeze of Hermione’s hand to reassure her.
“Most importantly though, do you remember who we are now, Hermione?” Ron asked.
“Wah, what a silly question,” Hermione had finally managed to adjust her eyes to the bright light of the day and squinted at her friends. She pointed first to Ginny, said her name, then to Harry and said “Glasses” and finally to Ron and muttered “Freck-” before she stopped herself suddenly. Her eyes widened comically with her left hand covering her mouth. She excused herself with a bright red flush appearing her face, “I’m so sorry, I have no idea why I said that. I meant Harry and Ron!”
All three of her friends laughed out loud, the boys having teary eyes before all of them clambered up to the recovered girl and hugged her tightly. Hermione wasn’t quite sure why they were so happy but she could feel her circulation being cut off by their fierce hugs. However, she endured the tight hug for her friends.
As if on cue, two loud grumbles were heard in the room and two redheads with faces matching their hair muttered something about it being time for breakfast. Ginny and Harry helped Hermione out of bed and as Ginny was about to walk her to the Great Hall, Hermione swatted her friend away.
“I am not an invalid, I can walk by myself,” The brunette huffed indignantly and walked with her friends to breakfast.
As they entered the Great Hall together, Hermione could feel a pair of eyes looking her way. She glanced around until her eyes connected with brilliant blue eyes that almost stole her breath away. The yearning that had previously subsided came back tenfold stronger than it was, almost bringing the brunette to her knees, the want- no, the need to get to the blond veela, hold her close and kiss her senseless. She could also feel something magical slither to her, crawling up her wrist then her head before it was everywhere. Turning her brain to mush and everything else around her fuzzy, bringing only the blonde veela to focus.
She must have stayed in that exact spot for way too much because her friends nudged her and tried to make her go to their table. When she did move one step forward though, her steps, guided by the thrall, were trying to take her to its owner.
“Hermione, I know you love your ‘fiancee’, but it’s breakfast time now, and that means you’re ours now.” Ginny tugged on Hermione’s hand, making her move to the Gryffindor table.
Hermione finally snapped out of it when Fleur forced herself to look away from her mate and the thrall released her. “Pardon, what did you say?” Hermione thought she heard some really interesting thing from the redhead just now.
“Just come and have your breakfast,” Ginny sighed.
When Hermione sat down at her usual seat and her mountain of scrambled eggs popped up in front of her, she blinked her eyes in confusion. She hesitantly dug into her scrambled eggs and found that she didn’t mind the taste at all and was even more surprised when she could finish all of her breakfast.
Hermione could feel eyes on her sometimes and the thrall trying to reach out to her but always shirk back before it could reach its destination. When Hermione sneak a peek at the Ravenclaw table, she watched Fleur laughing at a joke one of her friends, Amelia, made. An image of the blonde laughing beside her, holding her hand while Amelia told of a story of her younger self flashed before her eyes. When it was gone, blue eyes were looking back at her, she watched as a small smile appeared on her lips before the blonde averted her eyes again. Almost as if a bolt of lightning had struck her, flashes of the memories of her past few weeks caught up to her. She almost choked on thin air at how quickly and aggressively it came through her.
She hacked so powerfully that alarmed her friends, Ron immediately patted the brunette’s back. Ginny slapped her brother’s hand away after a few hard pats that were only making Hermione’s cough worse. “You okay, Hermione? Do you need to go see the nurse?” the bespectacled boy asked worriedly. Another pair of blue eyes were watching the scene in concern.
Hermione held up her hand to signal that she was fine and her cough abated after a few more seconds. She then stood up quickly, trying to get to the veela, only to notice that the hall was mostly emptied out and the blonde was gone with her friends. A sense of loss pricked her heart again, but she pushed it back down and proceeded with her day, together with her friends.
When dinner time came around, Hermione took a fortifying breath upon entering the Great Hall. She steeled her resolves and made her way to the Ravenclaw table. Without asking for permission, she placed herself in her usual seat beside her blonde. Before the blonde even glanced her way, she felt herself being engulfed by the thrall, replacing her nervous energy and making her feel at home. She unconsciously leaned into Fleur’s space just as the older witch turned to her.
When their eyes met again this time, Hermione could feel a surge of electricity passing through her body, making her surge forward to claim those pouty lips with her own. The younger witch swallowed the blonde’s gasp of surprise as she eagerly kissed her veela. Mine echoed through her brain with a foreign voice she never heard before.
The moment passed quickly and she realized that she was assaulting the beautiful veela who wasn’t returning her affection. When she finally withdrew, an apology on her lips, she felt hands on the back of her head and neck, drawing her back in. The blonde finally kissing her back, the joy she felt could not be described in words, it was like she found heaven on Earth. She could distantly hear some wolf whistles echoing through the hall and a tease from Amelia’s lips but she couldn’t care less when the most divine lips were on her own.
When they finally parted due to lack of air, forehead connected, those bright blue eyes shining with love in their depths told Hermione all she needed to know. “Mon coeur,” Fleur whispered wistfully, the puff of air brushing Hermione’s wet lips, making the younger witch shiver.
Hermione took in a deep breath, infused with the thrall, she shook her head and refused to let Fleur off the hook. She removed herself from the blonde’s arms with a stern look on her face.
“If you think that I have forgotten about our promise, you have got another thing coming, Fleur,” Hermione glared at the blonde, she could feel the thrall trying to soothe her. “And stop that with your thrall, it’s not going to work.”
A look of guilt passed through Fleur’s face before she banished it, she cleared her throat, “Maybe we should discuss zis later in my room?”
“No, why were you not there when I woke up this morning?” Hermione crossed her arms and glared at her veela.
Fleur sighed, “I wasn’t sure whether I would be wanted after you regain your memories.”
Hermione’s glare softened, “You know I would always need you, princess.”
Hearing her nickname from Hermione’s scrambled self, a soft smile tugged on Fleur’s lips before it gained a teasing edge, “Does zat mean you still expect me to marry you?” Although Fleur had never heard Hermione announcing that they were to be married, she had heard rumours about it.
Hermione sputtered and smacked Fleur’s arm softly, “Fleur!”
“Iz zat a no?” Fleur teased jokingly, but her eyes gained a sad edge.
“It’s- it’s not…” With a full flush on her face, the brunette buried her face into the blonde’s shoulders and mumbled softly, “One day… maybe.”
“That’s all I’m asking, mon coeur,” Fleur pressed her face into Hermione’s hair and laid a soft kiss on her head.
“Alright, love birds, y’all can do zat back in your room, but right now, you’re stealing my appetit.” Amelia pretended to gag. Hermione detached herself from Fleur and threw her napkin at the teasing brunette.
“Rude, who taught you table manners?” Amelia’s pretend-gasp rang out loud. All three girls chuckled after a moment and dug into the meals.
That night, Hermione followed Fleur back to the blonde’s room, even though the permission given by their headmasters were only that Hermione was allowed to stay in the carriage only until her memories returned. Be that as it may, neither girls wanted to be separated from the other yet, so they ignored that rule.
After they went through their usual nightly routine, the witch snuggled herself deeper into her veela’s embrace as they welcomed sleep together.
Morning came quickly and Hermione was once again seated at the Gryffindor table, eating her breakfast. Brown eyes met blue eyes from across the hall and even though the blonde only met her during a time when she wasn’t exactly herself, the times they had spent together was real and they truly loved each other. Hermione would even say that she was grateful for those idiots who fought with magic close to her that fateful day, for it was the day everything changed for her. Thankful to the scrambled eggs and scrambled head.
FIN
