Our mate is near. Fleur's inner veela was awake and clawing at her insides, trying to locate it's mate among the crowd staring at her and her fellow Beaubatons emerging from their carriage, Where? Where? Her cerulean blue eyes scanned the faces around her, while her veela was attempting to pull her forward, in the general direction it sensed it's other half. She had been getting more and more restless as they approached Hogwarts and now, feet firmly on the ground, breathing in the crisp, cold english air, she knew why. Must. Find. Our. Mate. Unable to spot her mate among the crowd, she continued walking towards the large front doors of the castle with the rest of her friends, eyes ever searching. You can't hide from me.

Hermione felt the strangest urge to run… somewhere. The feeling had begun earlier that day and had slowly intensified, as she sat in the great hall she couldn't help but scan the hall for any indication as to the source of her discomfort. What was wrong with her? What was this strange feeling of anticipation and unease in her belly? She only half paid attention to what Dumbledore was saying until he started talking about the triwizard tournament. Oh great, don't we have enough to deal with? Now this stupid game where students gamble with their lives, what could possibly go wrong? She frowned at the Weasley twins and Ron's obvious enthusiasm for the chance of eternal glory, never once thinking about the danger of the tasks, of course. Boys could be so predictable, and stupid. Though she was glad at least that Harry didn't seem as excited as the rest of the student body, he seemed to be the only one here with an ounce of common sense right now. It was then that Dumbledore introduced the first school that would be participating in the tournament.

"Please welcome the lovely ladies from Beaubatons Academy of Magic!" The great hall doors burst open and some of the most beautiful women Hermione and the rest of Hogwarts had ever seen gracefully marched into the hall, a couple of dancers at the front of the group really putting on a show. Hermione realised quickly that she was staring and tore her eyes away from the group, as her stomach flipped, the nervousness and anticipation and pure longing building within her confused her and embarrassed her to no end. What the bloody hell was going on with her? She decided not to look up again until she stopped feeling so damn weird, she wouldn't allow herself to stare at the french women like the ignorant, disrespectful males from her school were shamelessly doing at that moment. She was Hermione Granger! She would not be one of those drooling idiots no matter how beautiful the women were, not that she had even considered herself gay before, she wasn't was she? This was all so confusing. She barely looked up at the entrance of the Durmstrang students, though she managed to catch Ron's cry of ; "It's Victor Krum!" Oh well great, two things for Ronald to obsess over and blather on about, the french girls and Krum, this year was going to be… taxing, she could feel it already. As the feast began, Hermione felt a strange pressure on her body, it seemed to be subtly pulling her towards something, urging her to look up, she could almost feel eyes burning into her. She dreaded obeying the subtle command, what would she find? She was losing the battle though, curiosity won out as slowly she raised her head, not immediately meeting anyone's gaze, exhaling a shaky breath, she flicked her gaze over the Durmstrang students at the slytherin table first and then the Beaubatons sitting at the ravenclaw table. Then her gaze met a piercing blue, and she couldn't for the life of her look away as the noise around her seemed to dull, Ron's gushing about Krum and quidditch fading away into the background, she could swear that those swirling blue pools of unequivocal beauty flashed gold as they held her in a trance, for how long, she couldn't tell. Everything melted away, the only thing that mattered was those eyes, she felt the need to be closer all of a sudden, to run to that person, to never leave them. And then, the spell was broken as fiery red hair blocked her vision.

"Hermione? You okay?" Ginny's concerned face swam into view as her head completely blocked whoever Hermione had been staring unashamedly at. Hermione blushed realising she had been caught.

"I'm fine Gin, just spaced out a bit is all." Hermione resolved not to look in that direction again in order to prevent further embarrassment.

"If you say so." Hermione sighed, at least Ginny had dropped it and hadn't pressed for more information. As much as she loved the girl, there was only so much Hermione was willing to share, with anybody, she didn't like talking about her feelings much, and tended to listen to Ginny more often. She squirmed in her seat a little, the strange pressure had changed to a kind of intense heat, surging through her abdomen, seeping into her chest, licking up her spine, pulling her in the direction of those eyes. But still she refused to look up again.

She was glad when the feast was finally over, her resolve to not stare at the beautiful blue eyes across the room was harder to keep up than she thought. Maybe she just needed a good night's sleep and tomorrow she could pretend it all never happened. Her feeble attempts to distract herself from the weirdness surrounding this evening almost made her scoff at her thoughts. Just get up and leave, without looking over at the damn ravenclaws and you'll be fine. She ditched Harry and Ron, as they were annoyingly slow and Ron was obviously taking his time hoping to talk to either some french girls or Krum or something, making her way out of the hall, she attempted to make her way back to Gryffindor tower via an alternate route which took her away from the masses of students and past some empty classrooms. The heat was pulsing through her, urging her to turn around but she wouldn't, she couldn't explain the need she felt to get away from everyone else, to be completely alone, that she wasn't even aware she was being followed until she turned a corner into an empty corridor and strong, warm arms wrapped around her middle, causing her squeal of alarm. A smooth purring resonated in her ear and a throaty moan, "Mon amour."

Fleur had just seated herself with her friends at the table with the Hogwarts students wearing blue ties, but she was a woman on a mission, her eyes were scanning the faces of every student she could see, until her veela jumped in excitement when her eyes caught a flash of curly brown hair at the table of students wearing red ties. She strained to see the face of the girl her inner beast was frantically trying to push her towards. After a few minutes of blatant staring on her part, she managed to glimpse the girl's face, and her breath caught in her chest. The brunette was beautiful, and pretty and cute and adorable as her face scrunched up in irritation at the red headed boy next to her, who was talking and waving his arms around like an imbecile. But still, Fleur needed her eyes to look over here at her, she needed this girl's attention, she briefly entertained the idea of going over to the table and asking the girl for more bouillabaisse, but was saved from such drastic measures when the most beautiful caramel-chocolate brown eyes locked with hers. They were both unable to break the contact, Fleur's veela was purring it's happiness, mate! Our mate! We have found her! She is ours! Claim her! Mark her! Make sure everyone knows she is OURS! She felt her veela magic pulsing through her, calling out to her mate, calling her to her. She was vaguely aware that now was probably not the time or place to lure her mate to her and tried to reign her beast in a little, but was unwilling to break the trance between her and her beautiful young mate. Unfortunately it had to end when an obnoxious head of red hair obstructed her view. She growled quietly, resisting the urge to stomp over to the table and remove the red head herself. Blocking my mate. Can't. See. My mate. She breathed heavily, trying to keep calm, it's not like the ginger girl knew what she was doing, it wasn't her fault, she reasoned, even though her veela didn't really care and just wanted everyone away from it's mate at that moment, she'd have to be patient.

The urge to claim what was her's was getting stronger and almost unbearable. Her mate didn't make eye contact again. She must've been afraid of the feelings Fleur has no doubt stirred in her. A veela's mate will always feel a pull to their veela, it makes it easier for them to accept the mate bond, and prevents them from ever wanting anyone else other than the veela, they are soulmates after all, who could be better than the one they are destined for? Finally, when dinner was over, Fleur noticed her mate attempting to leave quickly. Oh, my love, you can't run from a veela. Fleur quickly checked to make sure her little sister was okay going back to the carriages without her, and then followed her hastily retreating mate out of the hall. She spotted her going down a different corridor and followed, using some of her veela speed to catch up when she was away from the throng of students going in the other direction. Her little mate hadn't even noticed her following, how cute. Fleur smirked before catching her mate, wrapping her arms around her and breathing her delicious scent in, purring now the girl was in her arms. The squeal she let out turned Fleur on tremendously and she moaned in the brunette's ear, she knew she couldn't wait any longer to claim her mate. She needed to have her, now!