“I will always look back on our time together with a fond smile Fleur, don’t you ever think otherwise,” Harry said, taking her hands in his, a small, wistful smile just touching his features. “If only I had…”
“Non ‘Arry, it is better to not dwell on the what-ifs,” Fleur interrupted quietly, a curtain of silvery blonde, so similar to her, and yet very different in a myriad of ways, preventing Harry from seeing her facial features. “It is better this way, better now, than after we do something you will regret.”
“Fleur…”
“Non ‘Arry,” she repeated, a bit more forcefully, as if telling him no would somehow banish the storm of emotions residing within her heart. “There is nothing more that we can say to each other to make this situation any better. I am glad that you came into my life, and I hope that you will still be able to call me one of your dearest friends, but what I want, you cannot give, mon Coeur.”
She pulled him into a tight hug, relishing in his closeness, his warmth, and slowly pulled away. Planting a featherlight kiss upon his cheek, right on the corner of his mouth, she pulled away completely, creating some distance between the two.
“Now, ‘Arry,” Fleur began to say, forcing a plastic smile into being. “I believe there is someone waiting for you out in the main lobby of my boutique, oui?”
Harry picked up the box of handspun silver and smiled at her one last time, one filled with compassion, care, and a subtle hint of longing. After extracting a promise to meet up at the usual time for lunch and tea, he said his goodbyes and walked back out into the main floor of her quaint little boutique.
o0o
pulling her head out of the Pensieve was always a disorienting experience for Fleur, but one she had long gotten used to. Staring at the swirling memory, lost in thought, she failed to notice a single tear fall on an invitation, one she had recently received from Hedwig, the owl still working away at a couple of slices of bacon set aside for her.
You are cordially invited to the upcoming nuptials of one:
Harry James Potter
To one:
Gabrielle Delacour