1. Six Women
Mixing the Delacour family with the Weasley family was like mixing chocolate with vinegar. Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour were finally going to get married. The wedding was going to take place at la Maison de la famille Delacour in the French countryside. Both families and a couple of special guests, Harry and Hermione, had gathered at the Delacours’ place one week before the ceremony to plan the details.
The reunion couldn’t have been more awkward.
The Weasley men found it hard to socialize with Fleur’s father, Jacques. When the Weasley men wanted to play some Quidditch, Jacques preferred to talk about the French Ministry and his accent was even stronger than Fleur’s, but they eventually warmed up to each other. After all, they were men, and men were simple.
The women were the problem.
They never seemed to agree on anything, not even on the simplest things, like the time at which the ceremony should start. Fleur’s mother, Louise Delacour and Molly Weasley were truly opposites in all ways imaginable. Molly wanted to decorate with white tulips, but Louise wanted to use red roses. Molly wanted a daytime wedding when Louise wanted a wedding in the evening. Molly had only invited the closest friends, but Louise wanted to invite much more people. In conclusion even fire and water made a better match.
Ginny’s fights with Gabrielle, Fleur’s sister, didn’t make the situation any easier. Gabrielle kept making jokes about Ginny’s freckles and boyish clothes, and even though she was fourteen, she tried to flirt with Fred and George, which made Ginny furious. In exchange, Ginny hexed one of Gabrielle’s purses. Every time she tried to open it, the purse grew teeth and tried to bite her.
As the week passed, the relations between them didn’t seem to improve. After all, they were women, and women were complicated.
The day before the wedding, Fred and George came up with a plan to make the women stop arguing amongst each other. That was, of course, if they didn’t kill each other first.
Fleur planned a small reunion for the ladies at the guesthouse to help her with the final fitting of her wedding dress.
“Oh mon dieu!” exclaimed Louise Delacour, refreshing herself with a fan as she entered through the door of the small house. “With all zis heat, it feels like we’re in Africa.”
Louise Delacour had a lot of charm and class. She had voluminous short blonde hair and a face that showed the traces of a once very beautiful woman. The effect of time had given her wrinkles and large thighs, but her glamour and sex appeal remained intact.
“Would you please explain to me once again why you decided to set your wedding in the middle of the summer?” Louise asked Fleur, who was entering the living room.
“So ze kids could be present,” said Fleur. She was struggling with a large black box between her arms. “If we did it at any other time, zey would be at school.”
“You could’ve gotten married in ze winter!” replied Louise, sitting on a pink sofa.
“She wanted to get married before Bill regretted he ever proposed,” whispered Ginny to Hermione, as they stood by the doorframe, staring into the living room of the guesthouse.
Fleur heard what Ginny said, but decided to ignore it. She thought it wouldn’t help if she argued with Bill’s little sister. Things had been sour enough so far.
Hermione and Ginny were still looking at the living room with widened eyes, but their behavior was understandable. Every inch of the room was decorated in a peculiar way. The colors of the walls and cushions were mostly pastels. The other color standing out was a dark brown from the wooden furniture. Walking into the Delacours’ guesthouse was like using a Time Turner to travel to nineteenth century France.
“Oh my!” exclaimed Molly, as she walked over to Louise and checked out the living room. “Did you also help to decorate this room?” she asked, in a beaten tone. She already knew the answer. Louise had decorated the entire Maison; she didn’t waste any time telling Molly about it. It made only sense that she had done the guesthouse too.
“Of course I did! I wouldn’t have anyone else do it,” replied Louise, lighting a cigarette. “We spent so much money on it.”
It had become a custom for Louise to speak of how much money the Delacour family had, and how much they had spent doing this, traveling there, and building that. Molly had to control herself every time the woman opened her mouth. It disgusted her to see such materialism.
Ginny and Hermione finally walked inside the house, and they seated on one of the couches.
“Please make yourselves comfortable,” invited Fleur, not realizing that they had indeed already made themselves comfortable.
“I’m melting!” yelled Gabrielle, Fleur’s younger sister, as she entered the house.
“Ma petite fille,” said Louise with a warm smile. “Come here and sit with your mother.”
Gabrielle closed the door behind her, dragged her body through the living room, and sat next to her mother. Gabrielle’s face resembled the one of an angel in a Botticelli painting. Her golden hair rested on her shoulders and she had the same blue eyes as her mother and sister, but this girl was far from an angel.
In order to get revenge on Ginny for cursing her purse, Gabrielle kidnapped Ginny’s Pygmy Puff, Arnold, with every intention of feeding it to the family cat. Luckily, Harry was nearby and had stopped her. Ginny had only known her for a week, but had already reached the conclusion that Fleur was a gift from God compared to Gabrielle.
Molly and Fleur stood in the middle of the room, looking at the other four women. There was an awkward silence, but Louise suddenly spoke up.
“Fleur, what are you waiting for?” she asked, her eldest daughter. “Put on the dress, vite!”
“Right,” said Fleur. She started to untie the white ribbon that held the large black box shut.
Inside was one of the most beautiful wedding dresses that any of the six women had ever seen. It was a strapless dress with a heart shaped cleavage. It was made out of many layers of soft white chiffon and on the bottom were embroidered pale blue roses. The dress had also been enchanted to make it look like it had been showered with glitter. It was custom made for Fleur by one of the most prestigious tailors in Paris.
She held the dress in front of her and looked at it. She was getting married, she really was, and to a man she truly loved. It was finally going to happen; she didn’t remember the last time she was so happy.
Suddenly, Fleur started to feel a little dizzy.
“I don’t feel so good,” she said, before passing out and landing on the floor with a loud thud. The floor floated off her hands and landed next to her.
“Oh dear!” exclaimed Molly, as she kneeled next to Fleur and held her head.
“She must’ve fainted,” said Hermione. She stood from her seat on the couch and went, to aid Molly.
“Reallee?” asked Louise with an ironic tone. She rolled her eyes while putting out her cigarette, and walked towards her unconscious daughter.
Ginny and Gabrielle hadn’t found the situation alarming. They both stayed sitting on the couch as if nothing had happened.
“Do you have some perfume or something we could use to wake her up?” Molly asked Louise, unbuttoning Fleur’s jacket so she could breathe better.
“Isn’t she already wearing enough?” asked Hermione.
Louise gave her a stare. “Let’s take her to ze room upstairs,” she said, heading towards the stairs.
Molly and Hermione stared at Louise without moving.
“What?” asked Louise. She was beginning to loose her patience.
“How are we supposed to take her upstairs?” asked Molly.
“I’m not going to carree her,” said Louise.
“Wingardium Leviosa!” sang Hermione, waving her wand. Fleur’s body started to float in the air. “You lead the way,” she said to Louise.
“Follow me,” replied Fleur’s mother.
Molly, Hermione, and Fleur’s unconscious floating body followed Louise up the stairs.
Ginny and Gabrielle were left alone in the living room. They gave each other evil stares for a couple of minutes, and then Gabrielle finally stood up from the couch. She walked towards the wedding dress that lay on the floor. Gabrielle picked the dress up and placed it carefully back into the black box.
“I’m going to put zis away,” she said. Without giving Ginny another look, she turned around on her four-inch heels and went upstairs.
Ginny started to wonder why was she there. She certainly didn’t want to sit around and watch Fleur parade in her dress while Louise told her how beautiful she looked. It was a waste of time. They didn’t need Ginny’s help; she didn’t even know a lot about dresses. She would be better off playing Quidditch with her brothers and Harry…
This is stupid, said Ginny to herself. I’m leaving!
Ginny went to the door and grabbed the doorknob. She tried to turn it, but it didn’t move. She tried again with more strength, but it was useless. The door clearly wasn’t opening.
“Strange,” she muttered to herself. Ginny took out her wand from her back pocket and said, “Alohomora!” She pointed the wand at the doorknob, but nothing happened. She tried again and still nothing.
Ginny was starting to get desperate. There was nothing worse she could think than being stuck with the Delacour women. It wouldn’t be so terrible because Hermione and Molly were also there, but it was still bad. She tried anything she could come up with to open the door, even talking to it, but it had all gone in vain. It felt like she was fighting against a stone wall.
Defeated, Ginny sat on the floor and banged her head against the door. That was when she noticed a folded piece of parchment lying in the door crack. Her curiosity got the best of her, and she decided to read it.
Hello, whoever this is:
We have written this letter to let you know that we (the Weasley men and Jacques) are very tired of your arguing and bickering. Therefore, we have decided to lock you all up in the guesthouse. You’ll find a way to get out if you work together.
Happy hunting!
Fred & George
Ginny looked at the letter in anger. She was absolutely furious. How could they do this to her? If she ever got out, George and Fred were in for a world of pain. Her face had never been redder. She squished the piece of parchment in a tight fist and let out a high-pitched scream that was heard all through the house.