Chapter 27

Hermione apparates Papa to the blonde's apartment and Fleur follows soon, after assuring them that she is well enough for doing so herself. The room is filled with a delicious smell of something cooking and the blonde's stomach growls of its own accord.

Hermione chuckles. "You sound kind of hungry." She jokes.

Maman and Molly turn around at their entrance and she smiles at the read head about to say hi when her Maman speaks. "Honey, they did take long releasing you. Was everything all right?" Molly stops, waiting for an answer too.

"Yes, Maman. I just hang around to visit my partner Garbault and make sure he was recovering well." The room is silent, waiting for the blonde to go on, so Fleur does. "He is fine and will be released today too. I also had the opportunity to talk to my superior and everything's squared for me to return to work on Monday."

Now she can properly welcome Molly into her apartment. "Fleur, dear, we heard from Ron what happened. The twins offered to apparate me here from the store and I found Hermione and your mother." She walks towards her, but stops short, eyeing the blonde for injuries and not knowing what to do. "How are you feeling?" She finally settles to brush her hand to her obviously uninjured cheek.

"I'm doing fine, Molly." Fleur shrugs. "Nothing a couple of potions couldn't fix."

She sighs, nodding her head. "That job is quite dangerous, I worry sometimes, dear." She drags on. "I'm sorry I didn't check on you earlier, but Ron did say you were in good company, so I would just be in the way and you needed quiet to recover." She says smiling to Hermione, who is still standing nearby. "I am glad you two have become such good friends and that she was there for you."

Fleur looks to her side and finds Hermione's eyes. There is an imperceptible nod. Papa follows the hooting for attention coming from the other room and wonders through the apartment by himself. Maman busies herself adding ingredients and stirring the pot.

They can't keep this thing between them from Molly any longer. As more and more people know, she is bound to find out from someone and she deserves to hear it directly from them. Fleur is a little scared of hurting her feelings and she tries to figure out the right words.

"You are right. She's become my best friend, actually." Fleur spies Hermione smiling shyly, biting her lip. "And she is so much more." The blonde turns again to the short red head. "Molly, do you remember that talk we had about the future?" She starts. She seems oblivious, but nods. "About falling in love again and finding my mate?" She smiles a little and keeps nodding.

Fleur sighs and puts her hand in the middle. Hermione takes it and intertwines their fingers. Molly's eyes fall into their joined hands and widen in shock when it finally dawns on her. After a few tense seconds, she looks up first at Fleur and then at Hermione. By the blonde's side, Hermione is biting her lip nervously. "You two...?" She starts.

"I am her mate, Mrs. Weasley." She says quietly.

Molly falls into the armchair, a little deflated, while they take the couch. She gathers herself and looks back at Fleur. "She is?" She asks quietly. The blonde nods and she thinks about it a couple of minutes before going on, a little fired up. "But how...? You met her long before you met Bill. You must have known then! How could you be with him knowing that she was your mate?" She finishes with resentment.

"Because I fell in love with him." Fleur raises her voice a little to interrupt her rant. She can't even begin to imagine all the questions that must be going through her mind right now, but she thinks it is better to just explain everything and then answer if there's some question left. "Molly, have you ever thought about what would have happened if I had found my mate while I was married to William?" Fleur asks. Her eyes widen and she slowly shakes her head. That wasn't one of the questions. "Nothing." She simply responds. "It didn't matter if I knew who my mate was back then or even if I discovered it later on. I loved him completely, my veela essence recognized it and stayed dormant."

Molly looks right into her blue eyes, into her soul, and seems relieved to find truth there. She swallows and continues. "It's not dormant anymore?" She states, turning it into a question at the end.

"No." Fleur shakes her head for effect. "You might have noticed the return of my thrall?" She nods her head in affirmation.

Her eyes wonder to Hermione for a few seconds and back at Fleur. "So that's why you are attracted to her... again?" She asks sceptic. "Do you even like her?"

Fleur feels the shift in the conversation. Molly seemed to be a little hurt when she learned that the blonde harboured romantic feelings for Hermione while been with William, but after understanding that they weren't even a factor into what the both of them had, everything has changed. Now her concerns point in another direction... is she asking about Fleur's intentions towards Hermione?

The blonde nods and looks to the woman by her side. Hermione is biting her lips, hiding her amused smile at the turn the situation has taken. "I do like her. I finally got to know her and I actually was becoming pretty fond of her on my own, when my veela essence decided it was time to wake up."

Molly loses herself in thought and after a couple of minutes, she turns to Hermione now. "And you are okay with that? I seem to remember you..." She presses her lips together and furrows her brow trying to figure out how to continue. "...disliked her until recently." Yet another shift in the woman. Now she wonders about Hermione's feelings towards the blonde? She is unbelievable.

Hermione's pale cheeks become full of colour and she can see Maman is doing a poor job keeping herself distracted and is openly staring from the little kitchen area.

"I know I seemed to openly dislike her in the past..." She begins, looking at the floor. "But actually, thinking back at it, I believe I just had an incredibly huge crush, but seeing how everybody acted like lovesick morons around her..." She continues decisively. She must have really thought about this. "I resented it and first convinced myself that everything she did annoyed me and later, completely ignored it. It was just admiration."

Fleur looks at her, surprised. Their relationship is still rather young and so far, they haven't had much time to discuss their feelings to their whole extent, just the bond related stuff.

"When we started hanging out together and became friends, it all came back in full force." Hermione takes her eyes off the space and looks at Fleur. "It also didn't help that she is intelligent, caring and thoughtful on top of unbelievably beautiful." The blonde blushes, hard. She smirks a little and looks back to Molly. "When I discovered I was her destined mate, I was long gone."

"You discovered...?" Molly hangs onto that part. "She didn't tell you?" She points an accusing finger towards Fleur.

The blonde is about to answer and defend herself, but Hermione cuts in. "She didn't want to trump our growing friendship by telling me about the bond and the implications it may have, when she wasn't planning on acting on it. She needed that friendship." Molly looks Fleur's way. She closes her hanging jaw and nods in agreement with her assessment... She is very perceptive. Hermione smiles winningly. "Things quickly developed between us, though. We simply connected. And by the time we came back from her parents' house, I already had my strong suspicions. She just confirmed them later."

"So you have been together since you got back from France?" Molly asks next.

Fleur shakes her head. "We kissed on New Year's Eve, but didn't discuss anything until the next day."

"The day before yesterday..." She muses. "So it's pretty recent." She says.

Hermione composes herself and nods. "Yes. We are taking things slow, though, despite the particularities of a veela relationship. If we do this, we want to do it right." Fleur can't help the foolish smile on her face, but she tries to hide biting on her lip. "And we thought you should hear it directly from us early on."

The redhead nods her head slowly, taking all the information she just received in. "So this is real, huh?" She sighs.

Fleur sees Hermione frowning a little. "Yes." The blonde simply responds.

She nods again. "Okay..." She finally says, still processing. "This may take me a little while... but, okay." She turns her attention back to Hermione. "Do the boys know?"

She nods her head. "They do. I still have to explain the rest to them, but they know."

"All right..."

Hermione turns to look at Fleur and she gives her a smile. "All right..."