Chapter 4 – Beauxbatons

All aboard! Tous à bord! "

"Now Ginny, write to us twice in a week, take care of Ariel and yourself…" said Molly. "Don't forget about us!"cut in was the day Ginny was finally off to the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and the Weasleys had travelled to Paris two days before, having a nauseous trip by the Knight Bus, buying Ginny her books, robes and a new wand. Dumbledore had convinced Madam Olympe Maxine to provide Ginny a half- scholarship for the first year of her schooling in France. The Weasleys were at the Gare Du Nord (train station) dropping Ginny on the Le carrosse de Beauxbâtons (the Beauxbatons carriages), which would then take her to the Palace of Beauxbatons, her new school where she would begin her third year(Beauxbatons teaches at a slower pace than Hogwarts).

She was clad in her pale blue silk uniform, consisting of robes, with a new messenger bag. The clock struck 11 o'clock, dragging Mrs. Weasley back to the harsh reality, where her daughter was leaving her and going to a new school, in a foreign country, starting all over again. Ginny was waving to them from the window of her carriage, which she was sharing with 4 more girls of her year. "BYE MUM, DAD, FRED, GEORGE, RON, BILL! I'll miss you guys a lot" She added the last sentence in a whisper, letting the tears flow freely down her cheeks.

The girl sitting next to her in the carriage held Ginny's hand and said," It's always hard the first time. Even I'm from England, my name's Emma. What's yours?" "My name is Ginny Weasley, I'm from Devon." This started the conversation between the two girls, which continued till they had first sighted the Beauxbatons Palace. This sighting led to the talk about their school and its weird French customs, which confused the two English girls to no end into peals of laughter.

Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley.

Harry lay wondering on his bed at the Leaky Cauldron, lost deep in thoughts about the vulnerable, redhead witch he had saved from the Chamber of Secrets two months ago. Ron told him that Dumbledore had erased her memory of her first year at Hogwarts partially, especially the incidents leading to the Chamber and the Chamber of Secrets itself. Harry knew that Ginny wasn't one to give into the Dark Arts so easily, even if the Weasleys thought she was incapable of moving on after the events of her first year. He was sure that if she would've gotten enough love, care and support she would've moved on with the hep of her friends and family. He understood the guilt she was facing too well. He had also asked if Dumbledore could arrange a private meeting between both of them so that Harry could help comfort Ginny after the ordeal. But the Headmaster kept insisting on cancelling the meeting. It seemed as if he thought that Harry would make her go back to not talking at all and that her even looking at him would make her break. Today he finally found out the reason why. Ginny was off to Beauxbatons. The thought of Ginny going to be so far away from him made him want to go and bring her back to him where she belonged. Huh. Nowadays Harry was having weird thoughts about Ginny which were slightly overprotective (he wanted to kill everyone who wanted Ginny to be far away from him), murderous and sometimes, caring. It was if a part of his mind wanted nothing but Ginny to be with him all the time. To comfort her, hold her, laugh with her and live with her.

He couldn't for the life of him understand why suddenly he was having these thoughts and maybe this was the reason he was getting too many headaches recently.


Ron and Hermione sat opposite Harry in a booth at the Leaky Cauldron, both knowing that he had spaced out. Again. Harry had been doing this ever since Ron and Hermione had come to the Leaky Cauldron two days ago. "Ron, he's doing it again!"

"Well, I suppose we can't do anything about it", shrugged Ron.

"But Ron! He's our best friend! We ought to talk to him about this!"

"You do it. Remember the last time we made him come out of his universe…" Ron shivered at the memory of Harry looking at him with a murderous glint in his eyes, swearing obscenely under his breath. Harry was angry at someone and Hermione was about to ask him where he goes when he spaces out, the empty ice cream bowl near him exploded. Just as Hermione was about to reprimand Ron for thinking of not helping their best friend and let him suffer; Harry spoke up, "I need to go to Gringotts."

"Okay mate, but why?"

"I need to get money for the school year, Ron."

"Okay Harry, do you want us to come along?"

"Sorry Hermione, but this time I want to go alone. I have some business to attend to."

/AN: Okay! So Ginny's off to Beauxbatons and Harry is suffering from headaches and retreating into his mind... Sorry I haven't posted for a long while! It's just that we had a week long festival and in d holidays I'm incredibly lazy. Next Chapter, is like the intro to the new school year at Hogwarts. I will be having a time leap directly to the Triwizard Tournament in the sixth or seventh Chapter, not sure. I also want to clear something - Dumbledore thinks he is doing everything for the greater good and for Harry's well being(according to him anyway). He doesn't know about the prophecy given in the earlier chapters. Thanks for reading and pls review!