Gwendolyn Bishop remembered clearly the day her father had walked out. The day her mother had died, and the day she had been sent from her home in England to live with her Aunt Lucie in France. The day she had found out that her aunt was a Witch, and the day she had found out that she herself was one as well. She also remembered the day she had received her letter, informing her that she had received a place in Beauxbatons Academy of Magic.
Beauxbatons had three houses: Sanchez House, Garcia House, and Gwen's own house, Rousseau.
Gwen had begun to make friends with a group of fellow students on the beautiful Beauxbatons ship, on her way to her first year at the school, and Dianne Lafond, Émilie Bonnaud, Garland Lecoeur and Marion Delhaye still tormented her, two years later. They had all been sorted to Garcia House.
Dispite being three years older, Gwendolyn's only friend in her House was Fleur Delacour. Fleur was also the only person who didn't make fun of her English accent or her pidgin French. Gwen had never really grasped the language, and detested how she always sounded so different from everyone else, even on the rare occasions when she managed to babble out a sentence in perfect French.
Now, here Gwen was, sitting alone on the ship, on her way to be a Third Year at Beauxbatons. Everyone else seemed to be looking forward to it, as Third Year was the last year you had to spend in the Junior School. Next year, Gwen and her classmates would move to the Senior School, which meant they would move into the Senior Dormitories, would have access to the Special Library, and the fact that in the Senior School at Beauxbatons, Boys and Girls classes were mixed, rather than separate, as was the practice for the Juniors.
As Gwen sat there, she heard someone walking down the corridor outside the small compartment of the ship she had claimed. She knew it wouldn't be any of the horrid girls from Garcia House, as each House had its own part of the ship, split up into compartments for four or five students each. There was nothing to stop boys and girls sitting together on the ship, but rarely did any boys sit in compartments already occupied by girls, and the girls would never dare walk into a compartment with boys inside. Gwen didn't care much for boys. She had once made friends with Luther, a boy in her year at Beauxbatons, but she hadn't spoken to him for a year or more.
The footsteps got nearer, and Gwen looked up as she heard the compartment door open. She was greeted by the sight of Fleur Delacour, though she was accompanied by a small, blonde, very pretty girl who didn't look very old at all.
"Bonjour, Gwen." said Fleur.
"Bonjour." replied Gwendolyn, looking again at the small girl.
"Oh!" said Fleur. "This eez my leetle sister, Gabrielle. You did not see her on thee ship last year, as she was in First Year, and had to sit with the other new students."
"Hello." said Gwen to Fleur's sister.
"Bonjour." replied the girl shyly.
"May we seet with you?" asked Fleur.
"Yeah, sure." said Gwen, as Fleur sat down opposite her, and Gabrielle took the seat next to her sister.
"So, you're in Second year then?" asked Gwen. Gabrielle nodded. "What House are you in?"
"She's in our House." said Fleur.
"Good." said Gwen. "How long do you think it'll be until we get there?"
"Peerhaps about twenty meenits." said Fleur.
"Ugh." replied Gwen. "It feels like we've been travelling forever."
"We've only been on thee ship for an hour." said Fleur, rolling her eyes.
"It feels like forever." said Gwen, gazing out of the window. The Rousseau deck, which was in the middle of the three House decks, was currently about six feet above the water's surface, as the ship was no longer underwater. The students above, the students from Sanchez, were quite a bit above the surface, and would probably have quite a nice view. The Garcia students below would still have an amazing view of underneath the sea.
No matter what way she looked at it, Gwendolyn Bishop was not looking forward to another year at Beauxbatons.