* * * * *

Fleur Delacour tossed her long silky hair and smiled alluringly at the man beside her. “Eez there something you wanted to say, Bill?�

Bill Weasley swallowed hard. When he met Fleur, her veela-charm had nearly overwhelmed him. It had been almost a year since they had started dating, and he had slowly become accustomed to her. But then he had fallen in love with her, which made her allure more difficult to resist, and she knew it. Even that in itself was a strange attraction for Bill. Each smile, each flip of her hair, so calculated in other girls and so effortless for Fleur, made Bill’s heart stop for the space of a beat. She loved the power she had over him, and Bill didn’t mind.

Rather, he might have, except that she never used her looks to get out of arguments or other unpleasant situations. Like any other person, she relied on her mind and her own willpower instead. Bill had fallen in love with her twice – once with her beauty; the second time with her strength and assurance. Few people could see past the first part, but Bill knew that she could not have been his Fleur without the second.

They were seated on a blanket in a deserted park. As a park, it wasn’t much; there was only one dirty slide and two swings, with rusty chains. But it was on the top of a hill, perfect for Bill’s purposes. He had brought Fleur out to watch the sunset. She oohed and aahed over the brilliant colours while he grew more and more nervous. In his pocket resided a box with a diamond ring. It wasn’t large (Bill was well-paid, but not that well-paid), but it was exquisite. He kept pressing his arm against his leg as surreptitiously as possible to make sure it was still there.

Now the sun had set completely, and he hadn’t moved. Fleur looked expectantly at him. He cleared his throat. “Er – yes, actually. Fleur –� This was it. Bill turned awkwardly from his spot by her side and knelt, his prearranged speech fleeing from his mind as he fumbled the box into his hand. “I…I love you and you…you are…so much to me and…I’ve forgotten the rest. Will you marry me?�

Fleur’s wonderful eyes went wide with delight as she saw the sparkling ring and she opened her mouth as though about to squeal in delight. To Bill’s shock, she checked herself, closing her mouth with an effort. She looked up from the box to Bill’s face. “Why do you ask zees of me?�

Bill thought a bucket of ice-water had been dumped over him. “I – I love you, Fleur. You said you loved me. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.�

“But there is some ’esitation.� Bill stared at her, horrified by the coldness in her voice. “I know where it is.�

“Where what is?�

“Your family does not approve.� Was she telling him, after all this time, that she couldn’t marry him because his family didn’t approve? Had she just been leading him on? Surely not…he had thought she felt the same way…. Then he caught the glimmer of tears in her blue eyes. The coldness was only a cover -- she was actually afraid of his beloved family.

“Fleur, love –� She was crying silently now, still beautiful through the tears. “Fleur – it’s not like that. They – they just don’t know you very well. Tell you what, you should come stay with us for a few days! Get to know Mum and Dad and Ginny and the boys…�

Fleur shook her silvery head. “I do love you, Bill, but they do not love me. I do not weesh to be the woman who steals zeir oldest boy away. They will resent me all our lives. Our children will be loved because they are yours; I will only be their mother. I ’ave seen ’ow your family loves each other. I do not wish to always be an outsider.�

Bill back down next to her, putting a comforting arm around her, feeling her head rest on his shoulder. He had always known that his family was unusually close, but he had not expected that it would result in this kind of complication. “Fleur, I know they don’t really much care for you, now. But Dad and Mum know I’d never ask a girl to marry me unless I loved her enough to be with her and watch over her all my life. To trust and want her to raise our children. They trust my judgment, and they’ll come to realise why I love you as I do. They will come to love you too.�

Fleur lifted her head, her big blue eyes filled with hope. “You theenk so?�

Bill answered firmly, “I know so.�

Fleur drew a deep breath. “Then – yes, I will marry you, Bill Weesley.� She looked away for a moment at the sky, now the dark velvet of night, set with glimmering stars scattered with a liberal hand. “It ees even more beautiful than the sunset, no?� Bill was about to agree – he’d agree with anything, even if she declared that the sky ought to planted with trees – when Fleur leaned in and planted a soft kiss on his lips. For a split second, Bill thought he’d died and gone to heaven. It tingled on his lips as she pulled away.

Bill looked at her in wonder. It was the first time she had ever let him kiss her. She smiled back. “Veela are enchanting, but zey do not marry often – only for true love. Veela-daughters almost always follow veela tradition – zee first kiss is zee kiss of engagement, of love.�

Heart full, Bill pulled his fiancé closer. “Are there restrictions on second or third or forty-fifth kisses?�

Fleur laughed her wonderful throaty laugh. “None at all.�

Against a backdrop of twinkling stars sat a silhouette of two people with their arms around each other. Two people in love.