Part I – Arriver
Sun streamed through the carriage windows. It was getting quite warm out for an autumn day.
Célestin was startled from his sleep when the carriage gave a sudden jolt. The vehicle shook a bit, during which Célestin bashed his head against the narrow wooden door frame of the carriage.
"Ow!" He started, then he pushed himself off the wall, and looked across the carriage. Christelle was gripping the window sill of the window, for fear of another rut in the road. "Oh, you're still awake." He looked to his right, where his best friend Jean-Jacques still slept. He was all slumped over, like a squishy vegetable. "Well he's still asleep." He motioned to the lump of Jean, his black hair giving off a glint in the golden midday sun.
"Yeah. You two have been sleeping for hours. And you left me up, with nobody to talk to. I've been staring out the window for hours." She said coolly. Christelle Jobidon was the other best friend of Célestin. She had brilliant blond hair, and crystal blue eyes, maybe that's why her name was Christelle. They had first met, along with Jean, in their first year of school at Beauxbâtons Academy of Magic.
"Well, if we didn't have such a long trip. If we didn't live so far away from school." Célestin complained. "How long is he going to sleep anyway?"
"Who knows? He can sleep through anything, lucky thing. We only have a little while longer anyway. We should be arriving soon, we just passed Arles."
"Good, then I can wake up now." A voice from the corner of the carriage said. It was Jean.
Christelle shot Jean a dangerous glare. "And how long have you been awake?"
"Oh, long enough." He replied, then he followed his statement up with a big yawn. "I know, were almost there."
The three went on talking of their summer and what they all were hoping to do at school this year. Célestin went on holiday to Germany, Christelle stayed home all summer, and Jean went to visit family in Italy. Jean actually said it was quite boring, and it's very hard for him to be bored, but he also tends to exaggerate a bit.
After about an hour of riding further, the palisades of Beauxbâtons came into view. "Look!" Jean exclaimed, "There it is! We here! Finally…" He trailed off in complaint.
Beauxbâtons was growing closer and closer, but it seemed like hours until they arrived. Like the Earth kept stretching under their horse drawn carriage, trying to keep as much distance as possible between them and their destination. It took more than another hour until the carriage passed through the large stone gate leading into the rather large school grounds.
The powder blue carriage bobbed up and down as it moved along the cobble stone path that leads to the Palace's main gates. Gardens slowly rolled past them, perfectly tended to. The beautiful palace flowers were still in bloom from the summer. The autumn plants had not yet started to flourish because it was still August in the Mediterranean area. Halting at the horse block in front of the main gates, they had finally arrived. Numerous powder blue carriages had already pulled up, unloading their students and cargo.
Jean stood up and ducked out of the carriage and stepped onto the block. He stretched his arms up above his head, ruffling his light blue topcoat, the long white sleeves of his shirt stretched out when his cuffs slid down on his arms. Christelle followed suit and stepped out being Jean.
"Well, it's good to be back." She declared with a smile. She sighed and pulled her wand out, "Arrivés!" she cried as she pointed her wand at the Beauxbâtons crest above the main gate. This signaled the arrival of their carriage, and instantly their baggage was sent to their dormitories. She straightened her powder blue skirt, "Shall we?" Christelle suggested to Célestin, who was now out of the carriage. She pushed her long blonde hair behind her ears with one smooth motion.
"Ouais, lets go." Jean replied hurriedly. He started forward towards the main gates. The high arch was at least 3 stories high, and the large double cedar doors we gilded in silver. Other students had already begun to enter the school, many of them older students, most of the Septièmes. As for the other Troisièmes, there were not many yet.
The trio passed under the arches to the school, and were now inside the main palace. The floors were made of an ocean blue stone, but nobody really knew what it was. The bottom half of the walls were made of the same stone for about the first five feet. From there up to the thirteen foot high white ceiling, it was glimmering white plaster. The plaster was shiny but it also had a dull translucent property to it. It really was a beautiful palace, every bit perfectly manicured to perfection by the school's maid, Mademoiselle Guillard, all of the students loved her.
Mlle Guillard was a dainty twenty-year-old witch that really didn't have any other passion but cleaning. She really just liked to please people with keeping the castle spotless. Continuously wearing a classical black maid's wardrobe, consisting of a black one piece skirt and top, with a frilly white apron, she always had a smile on. It takes a lot to make Mlle Guillard upset. Even when a student would accidentally knock over a potted plant in the Inner Court or mess up a corridor with muddy shoes, she always cleaned it up with a smile.
Célestin, Jean and Christelle preceded straight ahead through the entrance hall, past the Outer Court, to the Grande Pièce, the main dining hall. Many students had already arrived to pick up their schedules. Lines of students at tables across the Hall stretched from one end of the gigantic hall to the other. It was really about the size of a football field, with ceilings that stretched up through all 6 stories of the castle. The three went to the far side of the hall and joined in at the back of the line that had a cloud of colored glowing pixies spell out "3èmes" above it.
"Well this is going to take a while," Jean observed, they were standing at the very back of the line, with about 100 students ahead of them. "Hey, Cel, why're you so quiet? You haven't said a word since we got here." He called Célestin by his nickname.
Célestin jumped at the sound of his name, he was too busy staring up at the ceiling of the hall which also happened to have thousands of colored glowing pixies. "Huh? Oh, ummm, I was just thinking. Thinking about this year." He lied. He really didn't know what he was thinking about. Just a mass of thoughts ran through his head.
"Hé! Cel! Telle! Jean!" Someone called from the line to the left of theirs.
"Oh it's Rémy!" Christelle told the other two, she must have spotted the two hands waving from behind Frédéric Dupont, a very large Quatrième. "Salut Rémy!" She called back.
Rémy stepped out from behind to greet Christelle, "Salut Telle!" He kissed Christelle very quickly once on each cheek, and she back. "How are you? It's been a while!"
"Very good! And yourself?" Christelle answered enthusiastically.
"Oh not bad. I'm just glad to be back here. Hey, Jean, Cel! How have the two have you been?" Jean stepped right up and shook Rémy's hand.
"Really great Rémy!" Jean said happily.
Célestin stood next to Jean and said, "Hey Rémy! I've been the same as him." He motioned to Jean.
Rémy was still standing next to Christelle, he was tall, almost as tall as Célestin and Jean. He had short dark brown hair, almost black, and strangely piercing brown eyes. He often hung out with Célestin and Jean, because he really didn't care for the other 4èmes in their house. Fréderic Dupont being one of the ones he didn't care for.
Being a 4ème, he didn't really have many classes with Jean and Célestin, but they were in the same Maison. All three of them, Célestin, Jean and Rémy were all in the Maison de Soleil, or the House of the Sun, which was located in the south tower. Christelle was in a separate house, since she was a girl. Girls and boys houses were separate. There were three houses for girls and three for the boys. Nuage, Lumière and Lune were the girls' dorms, and Soleil, Terre, and Étoile were the boys'. Christelle happened to be in the Maison du Nuage, the House of the Clouds.
"Looks guys, I got a new wand, since the last one I had was broken by that stupid little goblin last year." He pulled out a brand new wand of dark Rosemary. It even still had that new polished look. It had a carving of a phoenix on the handle.
"Oh, man, that's a cool wand!" Jean complimented, he pulled out his own wand from the folds of the light blue top jacket. It was an ash wand that had a white beaded tassel that protruded form wand's handle.
"It's very nice Rémy" Christelle said Christelle over her shoulder, because she had turned to see Pauline Leroux, another 5ème girl in Nuage. The two of them had become good friends in their past school years at the Academy.
"Hello Pauline!" The three boys said all at the same time.
"Hi boys! I'm doing well, just so you don't have to ask. I'm sort of sick of people asking me that." She responded.
"Oh…" Christelle blushed a bit and looked down, she must have just asked Pauline how she was doing.
"Oh, no not you Telle. You're fine, it's just everyone else." Pauline quickly fixed the situation. "So anyway, what extra classes are you taking this year? I'm taking Farian IV and Latin III."
"Oh I'm taking Farian IV, Pauline!" Jean said.
"And I'm taking Latin III." Célestin jutted in.
"Me too" Rémy interjected.
"Well then Pauline, I'm taking Farian V and German I." Christelle announced. "But anyway Lina, we'll have our core classes together right?"
The line moved again, it had been moving fairly fast. All of them were now close to the front of the lines.
"Rémy Lavoir" M. Riche, the Runes teacher, called from the front table.
"Here." Rémy said stepping forward so the professor could see him. "Bonjour M. Riche. Did you ha--"
"Célestin Clemenceau" Mlle Basque suddenly read his name at the front of the 5ème line.
"Oui Mademoiselle. I'm over here" Célestin strode up to the front table.
"Bonjour Célestin, I hope you had a good summer." She said. Mlle Basque was the Farian and Latin teacher. She was very pretty, and young too. She wore thin wire glasses, and had long blond hair that was always pulled back into a bun or another hair fashion. Everyone in school thought she was extremely beautiful.
"Merci, and I'm sure you had a good summer as well?" Célestin replied politely.
"Yes, I did, thank you very much. Now, here is your schedule, your new dorm rune and a letter from Mme Maxime." She handed him a single paper envelope. "Now I believe I'll be seeing you in Farian VI, am I correct?"
"Yes, that's right Mademoiselle."
"Alright then, off you go." Winking at him. She read the next name off the list, "Christelle Jobidon." And Christelle proceeded to get her envelope.
Célestin waited off to the side of the line for Christelle and Jean. Christelle soon joined him.
"Jean-Jacques Rousseau." Mlle Basque read his name. He got his envelope and went to join Célestin and Christelle a few steps away.
"Well, we should get headed to our dorm. I guess we'll see you at the Ball then Telle." Célestin spoke up.
Christelle responded, "Ok, sounds good to me. Meet me and Pauline in the Inner Court at 6 o'clock. Ok?"
"Ok, Telle, see you at 7." Jean said.
"Bye Telle" the two of them said to her.
"Bye you two, 7, don't forget." She reminded them.
Jean turned to go and threw over his shoulder "We won't." Célestin followed him. They went back down out of the Hall to the south, the way they had come in. More students were arriving, it had been about only a half an hour since their own arrival to the palace. They stopped in the entrance hall. There was a statue of a dragon to the right side of the hall when you came into the palace. It has made from grey marble, but it had painted golden eyes.
"You have the entrance rune Cel?" Jean asked Célestin.
Célestin pulled out a piece of parchment from the envelope with a rune on it. It was the rune Dagaz, the rune for dawn. The rune was shaped like an X with a line connecting the corners vertically on each side. "Ouais, its right here." Célestin took his dark brown Rosemary wand out from his jacket. He drew the rune with the tip of his wand in the dragon's right eye. The two disappeared completely from the hall way with a gust of wind.
Célestin felt his stomach lurch as his feet couldn't touch a surface. Suddenly, the two apparated in the meeting room of the Soleil dorm. Inside the room, there was a royal blue rug that was really fluffy, so fluffy it felt like foam. The large fire place on side of the dorm facing inwards towards the palace was lit and had scented sandalwood wood burning on it. The opposite wall had a large bay window, with large cushions on the window sill for sitting or laying. More windows were on the east and west walls of the dorm, but they were taller and a bit thinner than the large bay window at the back.
On the ceiling there was a large fresco of a shining sun with blazing rays, that actually lit the room at night time, that is if you pointed at it and said "Lumos". In the center of the room, there were large chairs. And off to the sides under the windows there were tables and chairs for working on school work. The stair leading up to the rooms were on the sides on the circular room, they were spiral stairs that disappeared into the ceiling to both the left and right.
Many other students were already in the dorm, including Rémy. Henry Evard, the house leader for this year was standing a few feet away from the fire discussing something with Benjamin Jouve, a deuxième.
"Hey Cel, lets go get a room. Before they are all taken" Jean suggested.
"Alright, let's go then."
Célestin turned and went up the stairs that was on the right, right next to where they has apparated to. They climbed up the stair for 3 stories before they found a room that was empty. There were 5 beds to a room. There was no specific grouping in the dorm, so it didn't matter what year your roommates were. The beds were four poster beds with navy blue blankets and curtains trimmed in gold thread.
"I got this one!" Célestin ran across the room and flung himself on the bed second from the left. It was really poofy and over stuffed. There were at least 5 comforters on the bed, and it had maybe 10 or so pillows. In fact the bed was so overloaded and luxurious, it was almost hard to climb onto at almost 3 feet from the floor.
"Then I want this one." Jean repeated what Célestin had just done and threw himself on the bed on the end, next to Célestin. He pulled out his wand and moved to the end of his bed, he leaned over and clearly said, "Je suis arrive!" And his baggage immediately appeared at the foot of his bed.
Célestin did the same. His baggage appeared just as Jean's had done. "Now to put it all away." Célestin said to himself. So the two started to unpack their belongings and put them in the large boudoirs next to their beds. Célestin hung all of his robes and extra jackets on the bar, along with his cloaks and other clothing items. He put his shoes in the bottom and all his personals up in the top, on the shelf to the left. On the right of the boudoir, there were more shelves for books and scrolls of parchment and all his other school supplies. Célestin unpacked and put all his books and supplies on the shelves all in a neat ordered fashion.
Just as he was putting the last book on the shelf, there was a knock on the door to their room, it opened a crack and then a bit more. Rémy's head popped in the door, "Hey, can I room in here with you guys too?"
"Sure, dint see why not, you Jean?" Célestin looked at Jean.
"Nah, you can room with us Rémy. Take your pick on beds."
"Thanks a lot guys!" Rémy strode over to the bed on the far right. He said the spell for his luggage to appear, and then he started to unpack it too.
There soon came another knock at the door. "C'mon in, Jean yelled at the door from his bed, he was still unpacking. The door swung open. It was Henry Evard. "Hi Cel, Jean," he greeted them, "Oh you too Rémy. Sorry didn't see you over there." He fidgeted for a second. "Do you mind if I stay here with you guys? Benjamin already is in a full room, he just told me I can't stay in the same room as him."
Jean piped up and said over his shoulder, "Well you're the House leader, don't you have the final say in who stays where?"
"Well, yes I do, but, well… I don't really think its right to use my power to get what I want. So I'm not forcing anybody out, nor will I make anyone mad."
"Fine, sure you can room I guess." Célestin said calmly from his bed. He was just lounging there now, waiting.
The four boys stayed in their dorm talking the afternoon away, and prepping for their classes in the morning. Soon, around 5 o'clock they had to start to get ready for the Welcoming Ball. They decided that they should all go take showers, since it was quite hot that day, so they went and took their baths in the dorm bathrooms, located at the very top of the dorm, all the way on the ninth floor of the tower.
They returned to the room and started to get into their dress robes. The dress robes consisted of a light blue pair of dress pants, a white necked shirt with a ruffled collar and long white sleeves with ruffles at the end of those too. There was a light blue overcoat that went as the finishing touch of the ensemble, which had short Capri sleeves.
Jean parted his hair in the mirror, and smoothed it down with at least half a bottle of moose. Célestin did the same, but he didn't moose it. His hair looked too funny with moose in it.
As Henry was fixing his hair in the mirror, there was yet another knock at the door. "Come in" Henry called from the mirror.
The door opened slowly, and a small head peeped in though the crack. "H-Hello? Oh…. I though maybe this room would be empty." The head belonged to Antoine Marquet, a shy blond haired cinquième. "This is the last room. But I see you're all in here."
"Oh, no, that ok Antoine, you can stay with us." Henry turned from the mirror and said the last bit with a concerned smile in an "its ok" sort of way.
"I'm sorry that I have to bother you. Thank you very much for letting me stay though." Antoine said apologetically.
Henry finished doing his hair and turned around from the mirror, "That's alright, no problem. Now better hurry up, you don't have much time before dinner."
Notes & Vocabulary
Arrivés! – Literally "We have arrived!"
Ouais – Yeah
Fête de Bienvenu – The welcoming feast
7ème (Septièmes) is the "First Years" and 1er (Premiers) is the "Seventh Years" in Beauxbâtons, French grade levels go backwards.
1er; 2ème; 3ème; 4ème; 5ème; 6ème; 7ème – Abbreviations for the grades.
Septième(1st); Sixième(2nd); Cinquième(3rd); Quatrième(4th) ; Troisième(5th) ; Deuxième(6th) ; Premier(7th)
M. -- Monsieur
Mme. -- Madame
Mlle -- Mademoiselle
Football – European Football, that's soccer, NOT American football!
Salut! – Hi!
Its French custom to kiss a friend when you see them.
Cel, Telle, Jean – the nicknames for Célestin, Christelle and Jean-Jacques.
Pronunciation Help
BeauxbâtonsBo-baht-ons
Célestin ClemenceauSel-est-en
Jean-Jacques RousseauZhawn-Jacques
Christelle JobidonChris-tell
Mlle Guillard Mademoiselle Gie-yar
Mlle BasqueMademoiselle Bah-sk
Henry EvardEn-ri Eh-var
Benjamin JouveBen-zha-men Zhoo-ve
Antoine MarquetAn-twan Mar-kay
SoleilSol-ehi
NuageNew-azh
LumièreLumi-air
TerreTay-re
LuneLune
EtoileEh-twal