fleur delacour falling in love with bill weasley because he sees her. his youngest brother looked and went hair-eyes-teeth-legs, thought body, thought sex. her whole life, men have been looking and seeing a thing, not a girl. since she turned thirteen and bud-breasts pressed up against her shirts and boys at school wanted to sit close, men back home lingered too long in hugs.
until she was fifteen she dressed herself in shame before she put any clothes on at all. wore everything a few sizes too big, a few inches too long. draped herself in thick fabrics to hide the body beneath them. never learned that hot eyes on her were the fault of their owners, not her. took the uncomfortable stares and the endless flirtation as a fact of life. was fourteen the first time she dared to say āstop looking!ā and met only laughter.
itās not until sheās nearly sixteen and her sister is turning ten that she sees eyes begin to slide over her and to gabrielle. a friend of their fatherās, not even that deep into a bottle of wine, caresses a child-round cheek and murmurs a line from lolita, eyes too bright and lips too dry. gabrielle flickers a panicked glance around the room. that look is so familiar.Ā the same hour fleur switches her baggy sweatshirt for a crop top and rolls her skirt over two inches.Ā
they will look at her. never at her sister.
at school, the same. at home, the same. slowly, she learns to be less ashamed of the looking. to play to the object they expect her to be. she comes to scotland and sheās the centre of attention. they hear her name pulled out of Ā the goblet of fire and all anyone wants to talk about is her legs in that skirt. she defeats a dragon and boys whisper all the dirty things they want to do to her just moments after they finish comparing cedricās charmwork to krumās reflexes to harryās flying. they watch her pass in the hallways and their eyes glaze over like sheās a thing put there for their pleasure.Ā
fleur lifts her head high and lets the stares keep coming.
then she meets bill weasley, and not long after he asks her how sheās doing. asks it like he really means it, like it matters to him that she still gets nervous going around blind corners, that vines make her skin crawl and that the green flash of a hex makes her mind go too blank with fear to defend herself. he brings her a bottle of his favourite whiskey and sinks deep into it, tells her about his life and his job and asks about that night in the maze she doesnāt think about. he doesnāt look at her legs even once.
the next time she brings him her favourite wine and they share it. sheās giggling and silly by the end of the evening and he laughs with her, laughs at her like an equal and not like a thing he wants to fuck. he takes her to her door and leaves her in the care of her friends and he doesnāt do it because he thinks itāll make scoring easier next time. doesnāt decide his actions based on which will result in sex the fastest.
he doesnāt ask her out until heās laid himself bare for her, doesnāt even touch her until she reaches down and presses her fingers into his. the first night she feels brave enough to go home with him he keeps her up at the kitchen table until three am telling her all the things he likes about her. her physical appearance doesnāt even make the top one hundred. he says, how much you love your sister. how fierce you look when i take the last croissant. that funny french way you roll yourĀ ārās. how you try to tell me jokes but laugh too much to finish them. how you know exactly how many children you want, and the precise shade of blue youāll use to decorate your nursery. the bravery of you. the way your mind moves so fast sometimes i canāt keep up with it. the fact that i think you could do my job ten times as effectively as i can. they fall asleep on top of his covers, fully clothed, and the next morning fleur has to say yes i want this i am sure that i want this ten times before he starts to undress her.
his family call her all the things sheās heard a million times before. fleur lifts her head high and lets the insults keep coming. his brothers still sometimes look at her like theyāve forgotten to see a person, his mother mutters under her breath about fleurās lack of suitability, his sister takes every opportunity to express her dislike. they see her beauty and they think they know her. they watch her move and they think sheās nothing more than her body and face.Ā
but bill weasley sees her. and fleur will not let anythingānot a war, not lycanthropy, not a disapproving familyātake him away from her.














