A/N: Hello! Its the final chapter! Hope you enjoy x

Gabrielle, for all her careful avoidance of feelings, felt like her heart was breaking as she said goodbye to Fleur. Tears were streaming down her face as she barely managed to stammer out a weak goodbye. She didn't know why she even tried, no words could possibly do justice to how she felt for her sister.

She remembered her first day at school. On her very first step into the school yards, she had stumbled and skinned her knee. Quite badly, in fact she still had a scar from it. While her mother had huffed at her wails and tears in public, Fleur had been at her side in a second. Fleur had kissed her knee and wiped her tears. She had always been there when Gabrielle had stumbled.

Fleur's eyes fluttered open. She seemed very weak now and her breath was uneven. Gabrielle's tears were flowing freely still as she held Fleur's hand tightly.

"Gabrielle…" Fleur murmured weakly, "Maman…" Apolline leaned forward and stroked her eldest daughter's hair. She used to stroke Fleur's hair like this as a child when Fleur had awoken from a nightmare and was afraid to fall back asleep.

"I never meant to be hard on you Fleur," Apolline said, her voice uncharacteristically shaky. She stopped and took a deep shuddering breath as tears sprung forth. "I only ever wanted to keep you and Gabrielle safe and happy."

"I have been happy, maman, so happy…" Fleur murmured.

Gabrielle's body was shaking with the sobs wracking through it. This couldn't be happening. She watched through blurred tears as her mother stroked Fleur's hair.

A loud deafening slam wrenched Gabrielle from her grief and she turned to the doorway. The door had been flung open and a rather wild looking Hermione was standing in the room, chest heaving as she was out of breath. Her hair was even more untamed than usual and she looked as if she hadn't slept in days.

"Hermione… We're saying goodbyes…" Gabrielle explained as her sobs resumed.

Hermione didn't reply, her eyes fixed on Fleur, walking across the room as if in a trance. Apolline looked up, surprised, drawing away from Fleur as Hermione approached the bedside.

"Hermione..?" Fleur murmured weakly, looking up at the girl as she approached.

"Fleur… I should have told you this a long time ago," Hermione said, her voice firm, "I love you."

Apolline let out a gasp of shock as Hermione then dipped her head down and kissed Fleur softly on the lips.

"'Ermione!" Apolline shrieked, wrenching Hermione off her daughter. Gabrielle watched silently, completely thrown by what had happened, but not entirely surprised.

"Zis is entirely inappropriate!" Apolline was shouting at a rather sheepish looking Hermione.

"Maman…"

"I mean 'ow dare you come in 'ere and zrow yourself at my daughter while she is on 'er deazbed?!"

"Maman!"

Apolline halted in her censuring of Hermione to look at Gabrielle. Gabrielle's breath was caught in her throat as she pointed wordlessly at Fleur, who had sat up in bed.

"Fleur?" Apolline asked, her eyes widening.

"The pain… its gone…" Fleur said, and Hermione took the opportunity to slip away from Apolline and back to Fleur's side, taking her hand.

"Really?" Gabrielle asked, her jaw dropping.

"Hermione… you did this?" Fleur asked, turning to the bushy haired witch at her side. Hermione nodded. Fleur reached a hand behind Hermione's neck and pulled her into a kiss.

Apolline gasped and Gabrielle took her arm, holding her still. She didn't think her mother was about to snap at Hermione again… But you could still never be sure with Apolline Delacour.

"What is going on?" Apolline cut in. Fleur and Hermione pulled apart.

"The Veela… They said that it could be cured…" at this, Hermione blushed a little, "…By connecting with another true mate…"

Fleur grinned at this and Gabrielle clapped her hands together.

"These feelings, I feel for you…" Fleur started.

"Healed you!" Gabrielle exclaimed. She wiped the tears from her face and turned away from the others. While she was so relieved that Fleur was not going to die, it was a strange turn for her. Fleur being afflicted by this had served as a justification for all the years she had spent keeping everyone at arm's distance. All these wasted years, wasted opportunities… she would never know what could have been. All because she could never be as brave as Fleur. Another tear silently fell.

As soon as she got back to Scandinavia she would be tracking down Anton.

Apolline waited haughtily in the reception of St Mungo's as Gabrielle and Hermione fussed over Fleur's discharge. All the tests had been cleared, it really appeared as if Fleur's affliction had completely gone.

Apolline paced as she turned her mind to the moments when she had been saying her goodbyes to Fleur. Fleur had said she had lived a happy life. The tone in Fleur's voice sounded like she if she were to die she would die with no regrets. Could Apolline say the same about herself?

Her daughters finished up at the reception, coming back over to her, trailed by Hermione. She could see the same familiar reservation back in both Gabrielle and Fleur's eyes. They always had this look in their eyes when they saw her, ever since childhood. She sighed.

Tears sprung into her eyes again as she threw her arms around her daughters, pulling them tight.

"I love you two so much," she sobbed, "I know I've never shown it as much as I could have. But from now on that is going to change."

Hermione could not believe the whirlwind of events that had just happened as she walked home, hand in hand with Fleur Delacour herself. She hadn't stopped grinning since Fleur had sat up in bed, and although her face was starting to hurt from it, she couldn't care less.

"I never thought that this would happen…" she murmured, glancing at Fleur and the way the street lights were making her silver-blonde hair shimmer.

"I never thought I would see the day when Gabrielle and maman would stop guarding their hearts," Fleur said softly, looking out into the darkness.

"What about your heart?" Hermione asked, squeezing Fleur's hand a little with her nervousness. She had gone out on quite the limb announcing to Fleur that she loved her. And although Fleur had kissed her back, and was now holding her hand, she was still unsure that Fleur's feelings were as sure as hers.

"I…" Fleur began before trailing off. Hermione's breath caught in her throat with anxiety. But then she noticed a faint pink blush creeping across Fleur's face.

"I think I have had feelings for you since Shell Cottage, but I was with Bill, and I buried them," Fleur said, stopping and turning to Hermione with those intense cerulean eyes, "Then when he died… I just didn't want to feel anything. I wanted to fight anything that felt disloyal to him."

"And now?" Hermione asked, taking Fleur by both hands as they stood in the dark and deserted street.

"Now I am done fighting," Fleur said with a smile, pulling Hermione in and kissing her.