Changing Destiny

Sixty-Three: Bad History

Fleur

The abraxan horses touched down in the fields just two miles shy of the cottage where the Delacour residence stood. Fleur and Gabrielle were the last two students to be dropped off at home after departing from Hogwarts. Unlike Hogwarts, Beauxbatons did not rely upon a steam train to take them from Kings Cross Station in London to the Hogsmeade train station. The wheelhouse was both elegant, and deceptively small to the outside onlooker, but once inside, it was as spacious as any large home due to the Undetectable Extension Charm.

Gabrielle was excited to be going back home, but Fleur's excitement was dampened by her thoughts about her unborn baby, Lucius Malfoy, and everything surrounding Cedric Diggory's death. Her Grandmother Maria was her mother's mother, and was perhaps the only one she could perhaps talk to about all of this veela stuff with any real confidence. Dad was a wizard, and so wouldn't know how to answer her questions, but since mom was a bit on the judgmental side, she would not like being asked about such 'crass matters.' Her mom had her dreams about her mate, her father, and they had a good marriage overall, but they were not a handsy couple in front of their children, because they didn't believe that public marital affection was a proper thing to show your offspring.

A few times, she had to stop walking and relax, due to her baby wanting to make her feel slightly sick in the pit of her stomach. When they finally reached the cottage, Gabrielle paused at the picket fence that led into the front yard where the garden was.

"Are you okay, sissy?" She asked.

Fleur hugged her sister. "I'm just tired, Gabs. You go on ahead, don't let me slow you down."

Gabrielle skipped ahead, and Fleur fleetingly wished she was a first year again. When she was her sister's age, she didn't have to worry about what to do after Beauxbatons, or how she was going to hand over her child to Harry and Daphne emotionally. She knew that it was the right decision, and she would be having other children with her mate, but this was still her baby first.

Then, there was the subject of Lucius Malfoy himself. Why a married wizard? Certainly, he was of a privileged pureblood family with ties to France, but she was still mystified as to why she only caught the briefest of flashes of her mate in her dreams, but never a clear picture, until she met him in person years later. She reached the gate, and latched the lock in place when she entered the garden...

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Granmere Maria was tending to the rose vines on the pergola that a wooden swing was latched to. She wore a big floppy hat, and dressed in one of her usual high necked dresses. Even in winter, it was always a given that her Grandmother would be covered from throat to heels in her rather dreary widows weeds. Her wings looked like a ghostly shroud that trailed behind her like a cloak, but which she only exposed freely in the privacy of her home. In old photographs, Granmere Maria had beautiful strong wings, and her mother's own wings were silvery and strong. But Fleur only seemed to inherit the instincts and mate bond, not the wings themselves.

Maria looked up from her work, and she eyed Fleur critically before sighing in resignation, "Well, I am not pleased with this outcome, child, but I suppose nothing can be done to change it."

Fleur winced. "I'm sorry, Gran. I know mama won't like it when she finds out."

Snip...snip...snip...went the hedge clippers as her Grandmother worked. She dropped the hedges into her basket, and took off her gardening gloves. Maria rolled her eyes. "Never you mind about your mama, girl. She has a permanent stick up her fanny that no amount of coaxing can bring it out. Besides, I never held with the blood magic cast on you at your birth."