Author's note: Enjoy!

Hogwarts: Assignment #1, Celtic Studies Task #1, Write about someone speaking a language in a place that's unexpected (speaking one language in another country that doesn't speak it for example)

Warnings: NA

Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

Something Borrowed, Something New

"You were so very secretive, Miss Delacour," Bill teased her as they danced.

"Mrs. Delacour Weasley," she corrected him pointedly. Saying it out loud made her smile and her smile got even sillier when she saw him smile at the sound of it too.

"Let me see if I can piece together what all your somethings were now that it's the day," Bill said. "Let me see… something borrowed is easy, that's Aunt Muriel's veil."

"Yes," she nodded. "That is one of four."

"I saw that you were wearing a ring with a sapphire on it, that's something blue."

"It was also something my borrowed," Fleur said. "It is the first gift that my father gave my mother."

"That's beautiful," Bill said. He spun her around and Fleur's wedding dress spun out around her, the tulle tickling her legs.

"And what about something new?" Bill asked when she was back in his arms.

"I have you, do I not?"

"That feels like cheating."

"Do I not?" she repeated, deadpanned.

Bill laughed and leaned down to kiss her.

"That only seems fair if I can also use the veil as something borrowed, since we're double-dipping," he said.

"I thought this tradition of somethings was only for the bride," Fleur said.

"But I've got something new to show you," Bill said. He winked. "You'll see."

And Fleur did in fact see, when there was a break from the first round of dancing to allow for a meal to be served—delicious touraine lamb, onion puff pastries, garlic spinach, brussel sprouts and hazelnuts, mushroom risottos… She ate like a queen and enjoyed watching Bill do his best not to spill wine on his dress robes, though he nearly made her snort her own cup out her nose, with a particularly close call that was dramatically saved. She tuned in to Gabrielle and Ginny's conversations every now and then, happy to hear the two of them get along. Otherwise, the entire tent hummed with energy.

Then it was time for the toasts, which Bill and Fleur had both discussed omitting on account of her maid of honour's fragile English and Charlie's unbelievable shyness. Still, Tonks made a rather good and hilarious speech about working with Bill in the past, her friends from Beauxbatons did not disappoint with an inventive sketch they'd created, and Mr Weasley said some beautiful things. Even Charlie went up and made a quick toast, which Fleur was quite thrilled about even if he said all of twenty words. Then, it was Bill's turn. She couldn't help but notice her new husband looking nervous as he made his way to the podium with the enchanted microphone. Even more bizarre was how Ginny and Gabrielle followed him to the front, standing behind the groom who made fearful eye contact with her before taking a deep breath and speaking.

"La première fois que j'ai rencontré Fleur, je n'aurais jamais imaginé que cette journée nous attendait," he said in the most eloquent French she had ever heard him speak.

Her jaw dropped and she covered her mouth with a manicured hand. Bill turned to Gabrielle who nodded on encouragingly as Ginny read an English version of Bill's speech for the anglophone crowd's benefit. Those scheming sisters of theirs…

"The first time I met Fleur I never would have imagined that this day was waiting for us," Ginny said.

Bill nodded to himself and went on.

"C'était une journée tragique, chaotique et violente," Bill said. It was a tragic, chaotic, and violent day. "Et je me rappelle que la très belle fille que j'avais vu plus tôt, la plus belle fille que j'avais jamais vu en fait, faisait les cent pas parce que elle ne pouvait pas tenir sur place. Elle avait besoin de faire quelque chose, elle voulait aider, elle cherchait à rassurer ceux qui s'inquiétait peut-être pour elle, elle se souciait de ses amis, elle voulait savoir ce qui se passait… Quand j'ai offert de l'escorter pour une marche autour du château je ne m'attendais à rien, mais très vite je me suis rendu compte que le restant de ma vie venait de m'être livré."

"I remember that the pretty girl I had seen earlier, the most beautiful girl that I had ever seen, was pacing the room because she couldn't sit still. She had to do something, find a way to help, reach out and take care of her friends, she needed to know what was happening. When I offered to take her for a walk around the castle I expected nothing, but soon realized that I had found everything I needed," Ginny said.

Bill took a deep breath and turned to Gabrielle. She mouthed his next word to prompt him and then Bill went on.

"Fleur, notre histoire en sera toujours une qui a commencé pendant une journée tragique et qui a grandi dans la pénombre, sous un ciel incertain. Mais je pense que c'est aussi une histoire qui montre à quel point le monde est toujours au moins un petit peu beau et que la vie peut toujours être belle si on s'ouvre à elle."

"Fleur, our love story will always have begun on a tragic day and grown in a time of darkness, under an uncertain sky. But I think that our story also shows how the world is always a little bit beautiful and that life can be too if we remain open to it," Ginny translated.

"Je me compte chanceux que j'ai eu très peu à faire une fois que tu avais décidé que je t'appartenais, et que j'ai donc eu très peu de chances de gâcher de quoi."

Fleur laughed along with the other French-speakers in attendance, which was when she realized that there were tears in her eyes.

Bill could understand some French; he was always very polite when they visited her parents and he did his best to pick up little words when they ran errands, pointing to things in the market and asking for their names, exchanging pleasantries with her mother in broken French, staring intently at the radio when she listened to music in hopes of deciphering lyrics that were too fast or too poetic… But this was more words in her mother tongue than she'd ever heard him string together, and even if the conjugations and the emphasis and the cadence weren't perfect, it was perfect; because she could hear him in that voice and with those words and with that English accent of his talking to their future children, sitting comfortably at her family's table during Réveillons, maybe even doing the crosswords in Sorciers Parisiens just like they regularly spent mornings lazing around The Daily Prophet's puzzles…

"I count myself lucky that I had very little to do once you decided I was yours and had little to no opportunity to mess things up," Ginny translated.

"Tu as trouvé ta place et comblé un vide dans chaque facette de ma vie avec candeur, audace, grâce et facilité. À partir de maintenant, je suis incroyablement choyé de pouvoir construire le reste de ma vie avec toi déjà à mes côtés," Bill said.

"You found your place and filled gaps in all facets of my life with candor, grace, ease, and daring. From this moment forward, I am incredibly blessed to build the rest of my life with you already at my side," Ginny said.

"Merci de m'avoir fait l'honneur d'être ton mari," Bill said.

"Thank you for doing me the honour of being your husband," Ginny echoed.

"À partir d'aujourd'hui, je passerais mes jours en travaillant pour mériter cet honneur et t'honoré en retour."

"From this day forward, I will spend my life working to deserve that honour and honouring you in return," Ginny translated.

Bill raised his glass and looked at Fleur as if she was the only person in the world.

"Santé," he said.

Fleur raised her glass of white wine back and joined the room in a toast, though she couldn't help but rise up to embrace Bill when he came back to his seat. She burrowed against him.

"That was your something new?" she said, emotion still cracking her voice. "A new language?"

"A new life," Bill said. "Forever with you. Didn't you hear?"

She couldn't help but laugh and she pulled away from him smiling, knowing that he would be making her laugh for the rest of her life.

And, who knew. Maybe one day he would be fluent enough to be funny in French, too.

Stacked with: MC4A; Hogwarts; Shipping War

Individual Challenge(s): Hola, Bonjour, Jambo; Gryffindor MC; Beauxbatons MC; Brush; Summer Vacation; Seeds; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Trope it Up C (Language Barriers); Themes & Things A (Love); Themes & Things B (Joy); Themes & Things E (Dress/Skirt); Themes & Things F (Warmth); Rian-Russo Inversion; On the Nose; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon MC

Word Count: 1419

Shipping Wars

Ship (Team): Fleur Delacour/Bill Weasley (Winged Wolf)

List (Prompt): Spring Big List (Public Declaration)