'Gabby's out there,' Fleur raised there joined hands in the direction of the door at the far end from the top of the stairs. 'The door leads out over the buttress to a small balcony, nobody else ever goes there.'
The door creaked loudly when Fleur pushed it, and her sister's silver hair swirled when she snapped her head round. Gabrielle closed her eyes for a moment, then she broke out into a wide smile.
'Fleur, and you brought Harry too.' She looked around carefully, then frowned. 'I can only see where Fleur is.' Gabrielle stepped forwards and hugged her, and Harry let go of her hand, dispelling his disillusionment.
'Gabrielle,' he smiled. Her baby sister gave him a similarly warm greeting, but remembered this time that directing her allure at him would get her clothes scorched.
'You were right next to Fleur,' she pouted. 'How could I not see you?'
'My Disillusionment Charm is better than hers,' he grinned, throwing her a challenging look over her little sister's shoulder.
'Why are you here?' Gabby chirped. 'Am I being kidnapped again?'
'This is a regular thing?' Harry asked, amused.
'Beauxbatons is boring,' Gabby grinned. 'I always get Fleur to come and rescue me and take me somewhere more fun. Normally we go to Carcassonne or Paris.'
'Paris,' Fleur cut in, 'we're going to your favourite place in all of France.' Gabrielle's eyes lit up and she all but dragged Harry across to Fleur, clutching his arm and grabbing Fleur's hand.
'Let's go,' Gabby enthused. 'I've been craving meringues all day.'
Fleur retrieved Harry from her sister's grip, linking arms with him, and adjusting her grip on Gabrielle. 'Do you remember your promise?' Fleur murmured to her sister.
'Of course I do,' Gabby sulked. 'No trying to charm Fleur's boyfriend, she gets overly tetchy about it.' Gabrielle grinned at her mischievously. 'You never made me promise not to tell him about you.'
'I made you promise to be good,' Fleur reminded her. 'If one word of the things I said to you about Harry comes out of you I'm going to burn every pair of shoes you own.' To her surprise her sister only looked mildly horrified and slightly calculating, as if she was trying to judge whether it would be worth it. 'Don't even consider it,' she warned.
'Are we going?' Harry was trying not to laugh, he clearly had better hearing than she realised.
'We're going,' Fleur nodded, and side -long apparated them all onto the cobbles of Paris opposite a quaint little restaurant.
'Welcome to Madam Antoinette's,' Gabby grinned. 'It has the best desserts in all of Paris and most of France, we've checked.'
The tiny restaurant was as quiet as normal, not many wizards or witches bothered to apparate all the way out to the edge of Paris' magical district just for a dessert. Gabrielle had slipped out of Fleur's grasp and made her way to their normal table, tucked away into the back of the restaurant where they couldn't be seen so easily and their allure less noticeable.
The owner, a small, stout man wearing the same chocolate-stained chef's coat as always, looked up, slightly dazed, when they entered after Gabby.
'I thought this was Madam Antoinette's?' Harry asked, curiously as they joined her little sister, who was already proffering menus in their direction in an attempt to hurry them into ordering.
'It's a very bad joke,' Fleur explained. 'The owner is muggle-born and doesn't realise that most wizards won't understand, of course he does make wonderful food, so we have forgiven him.'
'They're out of meringues,' Gabby announced very unhappily. 'I shall have to have Clafoutis instead.' 'What an unbearable situation for you, Gabby,' Fleur smirked.
'I wanted meringues,' she sulked, 'they're sweeter.' Harry raised an eyebrow and Fleur smiled, answering the question he hadn't quite asked.
'It's not a veela thing, just a Delacour one.' She turned a pointed look on her baby sister. 'Gabby is the worst of all of us.'
'I am not,' she denied. 'Everyone knows Fleur is the worst,' she told Harry, particularly cheerfully. 'She once ate a whole box of icing sugar in the middle of the night.'
'I remember having a significant amount of help eating that,' Fleur reminded her sister, who had the grace to blush.
'And there's fact you have honey for breakfast,' Gabby finished triumphantly.
'Lot's of people eat honey for breakfast,' Fleur remarked, smiling. They'd had this argument before.
'I have honey for breakfast when it's available,' Harry agreed.
'Fleur eats it out of the jar,' Gabby crowed, 'with a tablespoon.'
'That is unusual,' Harry grinned. 'I think Gabrielle might be right.'
Fleur shrugged, unrepentant. She'd never been able to resist sweet things, they just tasted too good. 'You should be grateful for my love of sweet things, Harry,' she reminded him. 'If I did not love dessert wine so much our evening at the Yule Ball might have ended very differently.' Harry flushed and Gabby squeaked with embarrassment, her face flaming violently from behind her menu.
'Fleur,' she gasped. 'You didn't?!'
'Didn't what?'
Gabby shifted, glancing at Harry. 'You know,' her eyes flashed with mischief, and the flush rose further up her face as she giggled suggestively.
'No!' It was Harry who realised what she meant first and answered, looking anywhere but at Fleur. 'She kissed me under the mistletoe,' the teasing light surfaced, 'then she ran away.'
'I did not run away,' Fleur denied proudly, a blush of her own beginning to rise. Gabby was giggling madly on the other side of the table from her and she was sorely tempted to stamp on her feet again. Her sister was the one who had started this conversation.
Their conversation was fortunately interrupted by the owner, who came across to ask what they might fancy.
Harry had chosen the Clafoutis, and Fleur got what she always did when they came here, the religieuse, but Gabby stubbornly asked for meringues, even going so far as to direct her allure at the owner to get what she wanted. Fleur did stamp on her toes for that, she should know better than to use her allure in such a manner.
Gabrielle sulked for a few minutes when Fleur ordered the Clafoutis for her as well, but cheered up immediately when it arrived. Cherries were her favourite fruit.
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