Bitter-Sweet Irony

Acknowledgements: Thank you to Sara (xAnimex07) who I've been talking to for a while now as she's been helping me with the story, and my girlfriend who read my story also, and finally to 'MyViolentDelights.' Who gave me permission to use the Veela's broken heart, I have changed it so it is not a straight copy, but it will still be called the same.

A/N: I don't own anything Harry Potter related just the story; it all belongs to J.K Rowling. This story is Femslash. So if you don't like it then don't read it. Also this is going to be an angst story with homophobia, so if that offends you or makes you uncomfortable please don't read it if you're just going to insult me afterwards you have been warned:

Chapter one:

The sun shone brightly in the clear blue sky. Highlighting everything within its gaze; this included a young girl. Her bushy auburn hair glimmered in under the light. Amber eyes scanned the tables before her, finally resting on a family of four.

A short and plump man with a pointed black beard was surrounded by two women and a small girl. The older woman was tall, beautiful, and blonde wearing a flowery summer dress, and the younger woman, clearly her first daughter, was tall willowy, with waist length silvery blonde hair with a blue summer dress and she seemed to emanate a faint, silvery glow which the young brunette believed was just her mind playing tricks on her with this breathtakingly beautiful woman. The small girl to the young woman's right also had waist length blonde hair, but it wasn't as bright as her older sister's, she was wearing a knee length skirt and a plain yellow t-shirt.

She stared at them for a couple of seconds long enough to notice that she wasn't the only one staring at them, it seemed that many other occupants of the small outside section of the cafe were also entranced by them, she also noted that it was mainly the males who seemed to be doing the staring much to the annoyance of their female companions. Hermione sighed and slowly made her way over to their table, pulling out her note pad and pen on the way.

Upon reaching the table, her ears were greeted with rapid French coming from the family. Hermione stood by and waited for them to finish their conversation before announcing herself.

"Hello, welcome to The Tea Shop, may I take your order?"

"Ah, oui oui," replied the young woman, "could we 'ave two cappuccinos, one tea, and one orange juice please."

"Yeah, certainly coming right up" Hermione wrote the order on her note pad before looking at the young woman. Her breath caught in her throat as she stared into deep cerulean eyes. Hermione realised that the woman before her was far younger than she first thought her to be, far too developed to be a girl but not yet old enough to be classed as a woman. She quickly snapped out of her daze, and made her leave, mentally slapping herself for looking like a stupid brain dead fool in front of complete strangers.

A few minutes later she emerged from the inside of the restaurant with their drinks on a tray. After placing them on the table she smiled at the blonde "If there's anything else you'd like just ask, I'll be inside."

"Merci beaucoup" thanked the young woman.

Hermione merely smiled again returning to the cool shade of the restaurant. She sat at an unmade table and relaxed sighing to herself 'it's only a couple more days Hermione, then you can relax all day and read your new, Hogwarts books. Maybe even your new edition of 'Hogwarts, A History'. Though I still can't believe my parents made me get a blasted job! It's not like I need the money! I don't even use muggle money!' Hermione was pulled from her reverie, when a hand was waved in front of her face.

"Wha- oh!" she jumped as Hermione once again stared into cerulean eyes. "Err, yes, can I help you?"

"Oui, you forgot to bring some milk and sugar with our drinks" replied the blonde.

"Oh! I'm so sorry I completely forgot. I was miles away. I'll just go get them." She rushed over to the counter and proceeded to pour some milk into a jug, and added some sugar packets to a small bowl, before returning to the French blonde. "I'm so sorry, here you go."

"Ahh, it is okay, well I'll see you around Zen" with that she flicked her silvery blonde hair in Hermione's direction and went back to her family, she seemed to walk with an air of grace that made her seem like she was gliding.

Hermione went back to daydreaming, while absent mindedly staring at the family. After ten minutes she watched as the youngest girl got up along with her parents and said good bye to the young woman, leaving her alone with the bill. The brunette decided it was time to collect the bill so she made her way over to the blonde. She started to clean up the dirty cups when the blonde spoke;

"Do you live around 'ere?"

"Err yeah, I do. Why do you ask?" Hermione replied taken aback by the question.

"I was wondering, eef eet's not too much trouble, obviously when you finished work, eef you would be so kind as to show me where ze library eez."

"You like to read?" Hermione asked an incredulous expression etched on to her face. Quickly realising her rudeness, her mind raced to come up with an excuse. "w-what I meant was, you just don't seem the type to be into books that's all. I didn't meant to insult you, sorry."

"Well, I can 'onestly say you are not ze first person to presume zings about me, and I doubt you will be ze last. But to answer your question; oui I read." The blonde smiled as she explained.

"Oh I'm really sorry, I... well you're too beautiful to be bookish I would've thought you'd be more interested in fashion or some other girly thing."

"Some other girly zing? You say zat like you're not a girl!" replied the blonde with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, I am a girl thank you very much!" Hermione snapped turning bright red. "I just think there are more important things in the world than what some models wearing on the catwalk, or what hair style is in this 'season'" she added the last part with air quotes making the blonde laugh, which she thought to sound like the tinkling of bells.

"Well, I 'ave to admit zat yes I do like fashion but I agree zat zere are many more important zings. And as much as I'd like to discuss zose zings with you I would really like to go to ze library."

"Oh yes! I'm sorry I've just been wasting your time. I'm due for my lunch anyways; I'll take you if you'll just wait here." Hermione quickly rushed into the restaurant, and into the back room dumping the dirty cups into the sink as she made her way to her boss's office.

Knocking on the door she took a deep breath as a gruff voice told her to enter. The room was small with an old filling cabinet, and a big leafed plant on one side and a couple of pictures of boats on the other. At the back wall hung a big portrait of a middle aged balding man with glasses and a big nose. Below sat the portraits inspiration, his greying hair seemed almost its original colour of black in the smoky office. He rested his feet on the oak desk in front of him, as his grey eyes peeked over the muggle newspaper he was reading, before grunting in acknowledgement at Hermione's presence.

"Sir I'm just letting you know that I'm going on my lunch break, so I'll be back in an hour."

She patiently waited his answer as his eyes finished scanning the page in front of him. He rewarded her with another grunt as he went back to reading the paper, clearly he thought that more interesting than Hermione. Hermione quickly left the dark office passing other servers on the way. She merely nodded at them as they passed not actually knowing their names as she had kept to herself the two weeks she'd been at the summer job so far. The other servers had made no attempt to befriend her and she didn't mind, preferring to be on her own, or with her books.

As she returned to the blonde her face lit up when she saw the dazzling smile on her face showing a row of perfectly even white teeth. 'Wow! My parents would certainly be proud of them! They're so white and even.' She mused to herself.

"Are we ready to go?" asked the French blonde.

"Yes we are. I just had to tell my boss I was going on my lunch break. So can you remind me in an hour that I'll have to come back?" Hermione asked.

"Oui I shall remind you. Zat will be one zirty? The young woman asked.

"Yeah, thanks. I've just thought I don't even know your name, or your age?"

"Ah oui eet's Fleur, Fleur Delacour, I'm sixteen" replied Fleur extending her hand. "And you?"

"Hermione Granger and I'm fourteen nearly fifteen" Hermione said taking Fleur's hand and shaking it. 'Fleur such a beautiful, I wonder what it means in French? Hmm.'

Hermione lead Fleur along the busy street, crossing over the road and down a side street before emerging at the front entrance of the local library. As they entered through the double doors into a vast hall they were greeted with bookcases full of books. In between the bookcases at every odd one sat chairs and a couple of tables for readers to sit. At the front of the hall stood a desk with a couple of elderly women behind them, the library assistants barely acknowledged Hermione and Fleur as they made their way deeper into the vast hall.

Hermione decided she would find out the meaning of Fleur's name so started looking at what part of the library she would need, after finding the right category she stalked off in pursuit of more knowledge, forgetting about Fleur, who was the source of her new quest. It took Hermione a couple of minutes of searching but she eventually found a suitable book for her information. As she made her way to one of the nearby tables she heard footsteps behind her, turning suddenly Fleur walked straight into her. Hermione instinctively dropped her book and put her hands up to shield herself which resulted in her grabbing Fleur's breasts.

"Oh Fleur! S-sorry I... I didn't know you were behind me." Hermione stammered.

Fleur chuckled "Ah eet eez okay 'Ermione I was following you zis whole time. I am just curious as to why you 'ave zat book on French names?"

"Ah... Well... I thought I'd find out what your name means."

Fleur smiled "You could 'ave just asked Mon ami. Zough before I tell you could I ask one zing?"

"I never thought to actually ask, sorry" Hermione mumbled "and yeah of course what do you want?"

"Well I don't really know 'ow to put zis without being blunt but can I 'ave my breasts back?"

Hermione immediately dropped her hands, turning a bright red that could rival her best friend Ron Weasley. "Oh I'm so sorry, really I am, I didn't realise, sorry!" to avoid looking at Fleur Hermione dropped to the ground and picked up her book. 'What the bloody hell was I doing? Now she probably thinks I'm some sort of pervert!' As Hermione slowly got back up to her feet, taking her time, Fleur began to laugh hysterically. The sound echoed along the near silent hall ensuing 'shhh's' to fly around the room. As the blonde began to calm down long enough to reply;

"Non I do not mind at all zough your face eez like a tomate! And since you were wondering eet means Flower and Delacour means 'of ze court' well zat eez eets rough translation"

Gaining some of her dignity back Hermione smiled "you think I'm red, you should see one of my friends he goes so red it's unbelievable! Your name it's so beautiful, thank you for telling me Fleur."

"You know you are ze first person to tell me zat aside from my Mama and Papa" Fleur replied staring at a bookcase behind Hermione's left shoulder.

"What none of your friends at school has ever said you have a beautiful name?" Hermione responded "that fits such a beautiful girl?" 'Holy crap! You weren't supposed to say that out loud Hermione! Now she thinks your flirting with her!' "I didn't mean to say that! Not that I don't think it's true or anything it's just I've only just met you and you probably think I am flirting with you! I'm not flirting with you. Not that I wouldn't want to flirt with you, as you're clearly beautiful, it's just-"

Fleur cut her off by pressing her finger to Hermione's mouth silencing her rambling. Laughing she answered "You make me laugh 'Ermione, but no, no one 'as ever told me I 'ave a beautiful name. Not any of my friends because I don't really 'ave any friends eef I'm being 'onest." She added the last part with a sigh.

"Well, I'm sorry Fleur" started Hermione unsure of what to say "I'd say that I'll be your friend but I reckon even you'll have better standards than that, and I don't really think we'll see each other again after today. How come you don't he have any friends then? You just seem the type to have many friends."

"I would love to be your friend 'Ermione but I fear you're right. What do you mean I 'ave better standards? You've been nicer to me een ze twenty five minutes zat we've been with each other zan some of ze girls een my school have been for ze past five years. Zat's one of the reasons why I don't have many friends, they're all just interested in fashion, boys and stuff like zat." Fleur noticed the twinkle in Hermione's amber eyes. "Oui I did say zat I was also interested een Fashion," (Hermione noted that she'd left out boys on her list) "but zat is only because when I was leetle I wanted to be just like ze cool girls so I would copy zem, but as I got older I realised eet was stupid but I still like fashion."

"Oh" Hermione was speechless, "well I'll definitely be your friend, if that's okay Fleur? Do you still go to school or are you in college now or something?"

"Oui I would like zat 'Ermione, zank you." Fleur smiled. "I go to a boarding school, in France. I really like eet, but I will be spending my final year at a boarding school een England for some competition of sorts. What about you?"

"I go to a boarding school in England!" Hermione squeaked, causing people to look up from their books at them.

"Really? Well eef I'm lucky eet will be at your boarding school!" Fleur grinned, 'I seriously doubt that' thought Hermione. "Zen I will 'ave a friend to talk to" she was still grinning as they sat down at the table, as she checked her watch. "Mon dieu!'Ermione don't get too comfortable eet eez almost twenty past one!"

"What, Already? Damn it I have to go." She quickly stood up and walked down one of the rows of books leaving Fleur alone. Before Fleur could do anything Hermione rushed back towards her panting "I- almost forgot; can I have your address so I can ow- I mean write to you?"

"Ah oui oui, do you 'ave a pen?" After taking down the address and saying good bye (Hermione went for the handshake but ended up being crushed by Fleur in a hug) the brunette found herself running down the road that took her to The Tea Shop.

After finishing work for the day Hermione slumped home, her mind on one thing; Fleur. Everything about her seemed to stick in her thoughts. The way she smelled of vanilla and fresh flowers, how her hair glowed even in the shady library, her air of grace when she glided around, the silvery hue that emitted from her. Hermione's brain was going haywire thinking about her. A logical part of her brain was even suggesting the way she was thinking about her meant that she was in love! It was true that in the short space of 4 hours Hermione had shown most of the symptoms of a love sick puppy: staring into space frequently, thinking constantly about Fleur and liking everything she knew about the blonde. And the worst part was that Hermione would probably never see the Blonde goddess that was Fleur Delacour again.