~ Harry

It was freezing. They were all standing outside on the steps leading up to the main entrance of Hogwarts waiting for the two other competing schools to arrive and it was only 2 degrees. Luckily he'd thought to put a warming charm on all his clothes and even his shoes or else he'd be even colder than he was already.

Blaise shivered beside him. Even though the Italian had been at the school for nearly seven years he still hadn't gotten used to the bitter cold winters. Harry, who had lived most of his life in the Scottish highlands had gotten used to it some years ago and was only complaining because he was bored. They had already been standing there for half an hour and he had better things to do than stand around in the cold waiting for the foreign students to arrive.

Earlier he and Blaise had been planning to skip the welcoming ceremony and feast and use the opportunity to use the deserted classroom they'd found in their third year to practise some of the darker defence spells Harry had found over the summer without interference from Dumbledore. Sadly that was not to be and they'd been escorted by his grandmother to the front steps.

When he'd told her that they could handle themselves and that they knew their way there on their own she had replied.

"Oh I know, but it's whether you'll actually go that's the crux of the matter isn't it? I don't want to have to go searching for you or spend any more of my time undoing any damages that you two hooligans have caused while you've had the chance to cause some mayhem."

He blamed it on mothers intuition. The ability to know when ones child is up to mischief or planning mischief. Although it could have just been experience.

"What about the Weasley twins, shouldn't you be more worried about them than your innocent little grandson and his best friend?"

She snorted and raised her eyebrow, her Scottish accent coming out more showing her amusement. "you've never been innocent laddie, you forget I taught y' father, and y' stopped being a wee boy in third year when ya shot up like a pesky weed. Severus is dealing with the Weasley twins, at the moment ya my priority."

So here he was in the cold with ominous black clouds lingering overhead wishing he was somewhere else. He saw no point in the tournament. To improve international relations was a load of hippogriff dung. Dumbledore was fooling nobody. The only reason it was going ahead was Dumbledore and the goons at the ministry pushing the idea, thinking it would be good publicity for Hogwarts.

The only good thing that would come from it was him brushing up on his French with pretty young girls. He'd learnt French in primary school and France had been one of the first places his gran had taken him to on a holiday that wasn't an adventure one.

They had gone to the south of France during the summer the year that he turned 9. They had spent most of the time relaxing on the beach and playing in the sea but Minerva had taken him to Paris one afternoon and they had travelled up the Eiffel Tower twice. They had been in the day to see the view from the top but he had heard someone say that Paris at night was spectacular, so he'd dragged his grandmother up again when the sky had gone dark.

It had been one of the prettiest sights he'd seen and they had just stayed and sat up there looking over the city, taking pictures until they had been told that it was time to leave. There had been twinkling lights wherever you looked, both at the sky and the ground.

His grandmother had wanted to go visit an art gallery called the louvre while they were there, but decided that it wasn't exactly an ideal place to take and eight year old, or more precisely she'd been scared that I'd be bored and then she'd have to deal with a bored eight year old potter. It wasn't his fault, he wasn't particularly naughty as such but it seemed that trouble and potters went hand in hand and that's the way it had always been. Just like the sky was blue you didn't get a potter who didn't constantly get themselves in to trouble. It was just the way the world was.

As well as the Eiffel Tower they had also eaten genuine French bread, not the stuff that's passed off as French bread in other parts of the world just because it's made out of French flour or baked using a French recipe. It had been the real stuff and it had been delicious. They had walked up to the local bakery every morning to get it while it was still hot and then travelled down to the beach.

On the beach he'd made sand castles and swam in the sea and also gone on what the muggles called a banana boat. It had been a giant banana like float that people sat on and then the float got dragged by a speed boat. He begged Minerva until she'd said yes but he noticed that she sent a discreet sticking charm his way so that he wouldn't fall off.

If there was some things that muggles got right it wad definitely their idea of entertainment.

He stood there for another few minutes grumbling about over protective mother hens before the Beauxbatons contingent finally decided to show up.

"Finally!" Blaise exclaimed as a huge carriage being pulled by six huge winged horses appeared out of nowhere.

The carriage crashed on to grass leading up to the castle and finally skidded to a stop in front of the steps. Out of the carriage stepped the most gigantic woman he'd ever seen and if he'd had to guess was most likely part giant. As she headed over to talk to the headmaster the rest of the students stepped out of the carriage. They were all wearing thin silk robes and obviously didn't dress for the weather as they were all shivering violently.

As the last girl claimed from the carriage the whispers increased as she was definitely the most beautiful girl of the lot with her silvery blonde hair and pale skin. Unfortunately she also seemed the most haughty as when she looked around she sniffed in disdain and held her nose up in the air, obviously not impressed with the legendary castle. He was definitely going to have fun knocking her down a peg or two.