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"Indulge me, please," responded Fleur with a smile. "I'd like to know how much you know about wizarding marriage laws in this country. In fact, customs in the wizarding world are so old-fashioned, that I think you'll find little in the way of difference between the laws of any of the western European countries."
Cautiously, Hermione stared back at her friend. Fleur could not be speaking of the potential for Harry to have multiple wives, could she?
"Hermione," Fleur said with a great deal affection, "are you aware that Harry is not confined to only me as his wife? He has the ability to take another wife, as long as I approve."
Shocked that she had guessed Fleur's intent, Hermione gaped at her friend. "Fleur!" she stammered. "Are you suggesting…? You would actually consider sharing Harry with someone else?"
She conveniently ignored the fact that Fleur had not only suggested exactly that, but that she had suggested that she would share Harry with her.
"Ah, so you are aware."
"I have heard that, yes," Hermione snapped. "You didn't answer my question."
"Let me guess—it was Ginevra Weasley who told you. Am I right?"
"What does that have to do with it?" demanded Hermione.
"Nothing," Fleur admitted. "But she may as well forget it—if I were to approve of a second wife, it certainly would not be her."
The conversation was going off track, and Hermione was becoming frustrated with her friend. However, drawing upon her admittedly small well of patience, Hermione fixed her eye upon Fleur and defended her other friend.
"Ginny isn't a bad person, Fleur."
"No, but she is a bit of a fan-girl. You, of all people, should know how much Harry hates his fame."
"I do, but Ginny is changing. When we spoke, I told her that she'd best try to be his friend, rather than attempting to be his second wife."
Fleur snorted. "Good advice."
"You still didn't answer my question, Fleur."
"And I still won't," the French witch responded with what Hermione considered to be an absolutely infuriating smirk. "First, though I admit I'm already getting an idea of your opinion on the subject, can you tell me if you would consider sharing Harry with me?"
With narrowed eyes, Hermione glared at Fleur, before deciding that she would have her questions answered a lot more quickly if she gave in.
"To be completely honest, Fleur, I don't know," Hermione admitted. "I mean, if I was enough in love with someone, I suppose it may be possible to share him with someone else, but I can't really say until I was in that position. I was raised to believe that such relationships are wrong, after all.
"Now, will you answer my question?"
The accompanying glare which Hermione directed at Fleur had apparently struck the French witch as amusing, as she started laughing immediately. Still somewhat put out with Fleur, Hermione snapped, "Fleur, can you please be serious?"
"I'm sorry, Hermione," Fleur said as her giggles faded away, to be replaced with a sober expression which was completely incongruous with her previously jocular attitude. "You must understand that this is difficult for me as well, and I suppose my mirth is my way of dealing with the stress."
Realizing at once that the older witch was not making fun of her, Hermione reached out and patted her hand. "I'm not sure why we're having this conversation in the first place, Fleur. You have just become betrothed to Harry, and you're already trying to find a second wife for him? Perhaps you should try becoming comfortable with him first."
"Perhaps," said Fleur with a sigh. "But everything I sense tells me a different story, Hermione. I believe you have some very deep feelings for Harry, and if I'm right, then separating you—even though the fault belongs to neither of us—would be a mistake."
"But I'm still only fifteen years old, Fleur!" Hermione said with exasperation. "I'm a little young to have found the only man I'll ever love."
Hermione words were filled with sarcasm, and she fully intended to communicate to her friend the fact that she was still young and had plenty of time to find someone else. Unfortunately, the French witch's next words showed that she had not taken them in the way Hermione had intended.
"Perhaps not, Hermione. But there is nothing to say that you haven't found a life long love either. Yes, people develop emotionally and physically as we age, but there is nothing to say that the feelings of love one feels when young aren't as valid as though you had felt those emotions as an adult. Harry has an amazing capacity for love, Hermione, and everything I can sense from you both suggests that you are completely compatible, and already share a great depth of emotion.
"And I should inform you that I'm not the only one who has noted your closeness and compatibility. My mother has noticed as well, and confirms my observations—you and Harry are almost perfectly suited for one another. You would both be fools to throw the possibility of a relationship away."
On one level, Hermione could not believe what her friend was suggesting. Fleur already had Harry sewn up, as it were—they were both bound by the contract her father and Sirius had enacted. Perhaps if she was trying to snare him and knew the only way to gain his interest was as part of a package deal, as it were, this discussion might make a little more sense. But then in that case, Hermione would by default hold the upper hand and would have little incentive to share him with Fleur. Surely there was more to this than Fleur simply believing that Harry and Hermione had feelings for each other.
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