Chapter Thirty-Six - Beauxbatons
The old woman had a ring of keys in one hand and her wand in the other, pointed at Harry's face. She seemed to be debating whether we had brought Fleur to Beauxbatons' by force. She seemed to decide that we were alright and then she and Fleur had an animated discussion in French, which none of us could understand. After a few minutes of back and forth, the old woman turned around and left.
"I told her we were a delegation from Hogwarts and Britain's Ministry of Magic, but she said we were not expected, and she was not going to admit us without the headmistress's permission. I said we had both the headmistress's friend Hagrid and the wife of the Deputy Minister of Magic with us, as well as Harry Potter. She said to wait but agreed to check with the headmistress. I know nobody could have followed us, or known where we were going, but I feel unsafe standing in the open. Let's at least move from the gate, so we're not standing at the tee of the lanes."
"I do feel exposed here," I remarked, as our wait lengthened to about half an hour. "And there were people who knew where we were going."
"It's okay," Harry assured me. "Just stay alert. We brought a small army. If Death Eaters appear, we should all apparate forty feet left and ten feet up, fire a single curse and apparate to the Burrow. Thanks for the heads up - it does feel like they left us here to arrange a nasty reception. Being pinned in front of a wall is disconcerting. If we focus on our plan of action, we'll be fine. The danger is being unaware and freezing."
I rehearsed in my head the exact steps I would take if we were attacked and redoubled my vigilance. About fifteen minutes later, we heard the clanking of keys and the woman reappeared. She said a few words to Fleur and unlocked the gate.
"She apologises for the delay. The headmistress was in a meeting and had left instructions not to be disturbed."
"Tell her that we understand," replied Harry, "but just the same, let's remain alert, in case they've planned an ambush. I'm surprised. I was worried how we'd be received at Durmstrang but expected a warmer reception here."
"It's going to be fine, Harry," Fleur advised. "Remember, they've just been attacked, as Hogwarts was, and they are not as far along in rebuilding their defences and returning to normalcy. Hogwarts is not as trusting as it used to be."
"Hogwarts is way too trusting," Ron declared. "We've got Death Eater guests. One tried to kill me. We're supposed to help them, but what have either of them ever done to help any of us?"
Despite accepting Draco's apology, Ron clearly had not fully forgiven Draco and was unhappy with his presence at Hogwarts. Why was I so accepting, not only of Draco and Pansy being back at Hogwarts, but with being one of their official protectors? The Death Eaters had just killed Fred. Draco had been a Death Eater. I had seen the mark on his arm. Was I a terrible sister? Could I really let go of Fred that quickly? I felt ashamed as I felt tears rolling down my face. Mum claimed I was disrespectful of my headmaster by calling her 'McGonagall', even though all the students had always said just 'Dumbledore' in talking among ourselves. I had allowed McGonagall to recruit me as one of Draco's defenders. I had spoken to him calmly as if he was a normal person and didn't have the mark on his arm. I had thought my brother had over-reacted when he was threatened by a deadly snake, wielded by the Death Eater he had been persuaded to defend. Ron was correct, this wasn't at all right.
Fleur clearly didn't know how to respond and turned to walk along the path.
We followed the path for about two hundred yards, still not seeing the school, but noticing the shrubs had stopped on our right to reveal a paddock a couple hundred yards on a side, with at least two horses tethered not far from the path, and the fencing that had traced the path crushed along most of its length. The general destruction and churned up turf extended farther than we could see, and we didn't see any other horses. As we stared in passing, the old woman stopped and began a long discussion with Fleur. Finally, Fleur turned to us to explain.
"Madame Roche explains that the girls are taught to ride the horses here, but that during the attack, the Giants trampled the fence and killed all but two of the horses. There were over a dozen giants involved in the attack and they destroyed much of the school, killed thirty of the students, and injured dozens more. There are still twenty students in residence, and they are very frightened of Giants.
"That's what the problem was earlier. The faculty doesn't want Grawp coming within sight of the students. The headmistress realizes this is awkward, and considered just sending us away, but requests that we consider asking Grawp to remain in the paddock. The headmistress said that she would be happy to spend the night in the paddock with Grawp and Hagrid, after she meets with us at the chateau. The school has a fair-sized tent that the faculty can set up quickly in the paddock, so the three of them should be quite comfortable. The headmistress will be here in a few minutes to greet us, personally."
"Grawp is used to sleeping outdoors," Hagrid replied. "We can sleep here, to avoid frightening the little girls."
We walked along the path to get a look at the chateau. About fifty yards ahead, the hedge on our right ended, revealing the chateau half a mile away. It looked very different from Hogwarts and was every bit as damaged as Madam Roche said. It was hard to get a good impression of detail or scale, but I observed a two-story long rectangular block form in light stone, with large, regularly spaced, windows. It lacked the whimsical elegance of Hogwarts, looking more like Muggle buildings I had seen. I stood there staring at the school until I saw a carriage proceeding around the side of the building and down the lane toward us.
As it drew up, it was revealed to be the truly huge carriage drawn by the same giant horse-like creatures that had carried the Beauxbatons delegation to the Triwizard Tournament. The carriage drew to a halt beside us. The not-all-that-far-from-Giant figure of Madame Maxine stepped down from the carriage and she extended a personal greeting to Fleur and a hug and peck on the cheek to Hagrid, before welcoming the rest of us. My attention had been so focused on Madame Maxine that I didn't realize that Fleur's sister Gabrielle had also alighted, until I heard her say hello, right at my elbow. The carriage lights were bright enough that Gabrielle could tell I was crying.
"I'm alright, really," I told her. "Looking at the destruction to your school and hearing about all of the students you lost made me sad, which reminded me of my brother Fred, who was killed at Hogwarts."
Gabrielle gave me an extra hug, before I passed her to Harry.
"Please, get into the coach and we'll go up to the chateau for our meeting," offered Madame Maxine. "Since I last saw you at the Triwizard Tournament, we have experienced another larger measure of tragedy, and from the same source. We lost thirty students killed and more injured, and we are a smaller school than Hogwarts".
"We're very sorry," Harry replied. "We'd like to learn more about what happened and provide whatever help we can."
In the brighter light, Harry also could tell that I was crying. He put his arm around my shoulders. I could read his concern and the silent whisper {What's wrong Ginny? Can I help.}
"I'm thinking of Fred. I think this is my time to cry."
The horses moved the carriage to the front of the chateau in only a few minutes. Seen up close, there was massive damage to the entrance. The front doors could not be closed and there was a gaping hole in the wall of the wing toward our right. As I dismounted the carriage, I saw that the end of that wing had collapsed into a pile of rubble. As we walked toward the entrance, I observed that the stone of the chateau was thick blocks of gleaming white marble. I quickly dried my face. I couldn't make my grief the centre of attention among those who had lost as much as the residents of Beauxbatons had just lost.
I passed through the door into what must have been a very elegant entry hall, with a high ceiling, plaster walls of dark blue, and a glass dome above a balcony that led to the east and west dormitory rooms on the second floor. A wide marble staircase ascended in graceful spirals to the balcony, making two full circles, or at least it used to. The glass dome was gone, the railing of the balcony was half gone, and the right bannister was missing. There was a gap in the centre of the stairs. A rather large hole had been bashed or blown into the right wall of the stairway, with two marble panels missing and two others severely cracked. Halfway up the stairs, there was a gap. I could see a large oak door barring my view of rooms in the west wing of the first floor, while the door to the east wing, on my right, was gone. A look down the hallway showed that the piles of rubble had not been cleared. No students were in sight in any direction. We were ushered to the left, through the good door and into what appeared to be a classroom wing.
Mum was at my side. "I'm okay - Fred."
Mum squeezed my shoulder and moved away to join Madame Maxine.
"We're able to remain operational, because this wing was spared," observed the headmistress. "Many students and the whole faculty fled to the west wing, and the Death Eaters and their Giants focused their attacks on the east wing. We held them off in this wing, killing a Giant and two of the Death Eaters, until reinforcement from the Ministry arrived from Paris. Attacking from the rear, they killed two more Giants and another Death Eater. When the remaining Death Eaters fled, the Giants quietened down and left. Our attack came the day after yours. We can meet in this classroom here on the right. I'd invite you into my office, but it was in the East Wing."
She motioned us into chairs, which we pulled into a circle. Gabrielle and Fleur were chatting rapidly and animatedly in French.
"You took a lot of damage here, Madame Maxine," observed Bill, pulling us back on topic. "What can you tell us about the tactics that were used in the attack?"
"We were attacked a day after the battles at Hogwarts and Durmstrang. Although we had reports of extensive damage from each of those attacks, we also heard that Voldemort was killed, a lot of Death Eaters were killed or captured, the Giants had dispersed, and that, both attacks had been failures. We heightened our alert, but perhaps not sufficiently. I thought the Death Eater challenge had likely passed.
"We were attacked at night, when only a few of us were vigilant. The outer defences were breached by the time we were alerted and ready to defend the chateau. We had our forces - a dozen faculty and staff, and the nearly a hundred students - in the four upper levels. The chateau's defences were resilient, but we mistakenly tried to defend the entire building. The attackers initially hit us on all sides, but then focused on the entry hall. The Giants broke into the Entry Hall after the Death Eaters created a chink in the defences. After that, all the Death Eaters and many of the Giants focused their attack on the East Wing. Since those defending the entry hall had retreated to the West Wing, where the lower level girls were hiding, a third of our fighters were isolated in the East Wing and were overwhelmed. We were barely able to keep the invaders from entering the West Wing. The reinforcements from the Paris Ministry were slow, but they got here just in time. Fortunately, a couple of upper level students had Apparated to the Ministry and summoned help."
"With that many Giants in the attack, you're lucky to have been able to drive off your attackers at all," Bill reassured her. "Hogwarts is larger and faced fewer Giants, yet they almost overran us. Of course, we were hurt by some of our Slytherin students joining in the attack against Hogwarts. Did any of your Houses help the attackers?"
"We don't divide the school up into Houses. I don't think it's healthy to sow divisions within the student body. Perhaps it's because we're not much more than half your size, but I think it's mainly that we don't share your British belief that competitive sports among the students is good for discipline and character. We want all the students to pull together. The attackers didn't seem to be French: at least we heard only English and German. All our students were loyal to the school and to their classmates. I think the attackers achieved their purpose. They sacked my office and our little collection of magical artefacts, some of which have great powers."
"I hadn't heard of your artefacts," Harry exclaimed. "Were they powerful enough to justify attacking a well-defended school?"
"We had the sword, armour, and ring of Joan of Arc, which render the wearer almost immune to curses. They're gone. We still have the Rod of Asclepius, passed down from Rassalon. Some say it goes all the way back to the ancient Muggle Moses, and that it can instantly cure snakebite. Madame Pinchot is convinced that Moses was one of us, and not a Muggle. Madame Ferme, our Madam Pomphrey, was able to cure difficult cases with this rod. I suspect she could have saved Professor Dumbledore, had he come to her.
"We also lost what you might call our Hellenic Halo. It was a narrow crown, joined crowns of gold and silver. It imbued the wearer with a sense of dedication and purpose. Each of our graduates wore the Halo as they received their diplomas. Those were our traditional treasures. However, a few years back, we received a collection of papers and artefacts left to us by Nicholas Flamel. We were still evaluating this treasure, when the Death Eaters attacked. The only consolation is that half the papers and artefacts were in labs and faculty offices in this wing. "
"We're looking at that angle, also," replied Bill. "We are in the process of inventorying the artefacts and magical mysteries that were stored at the Ministry at the time that Voldemort's forces took over. Fortunately, the Death Eaters did not expect to lose the Battle of Hogwarts and felt that their control of the Ministry was secure, so most of those things weren't removed. The inventory hasn't gotten very far yet, but we know some items are missing."
Harry perked up, as if he had just connected some dots, and commented, "this ties in with what appears to be an effort by the opposition to gain control of wands, such as the Elder Wand, Voldemort's wand, and the wand that disarmed Dumbledore and killed Voldemort. It seemed strange that they would make such an effort, since these wands, except the Elder Wand, are normal commercially purchased wands, whose added value seemed purely historical. But, if the opposition is collecting artefacts both in Britain and France, there must be a common purpose."
"With Voldemort gone," analysed Madame Maxime, "his remaining supporters need something to rally and organise around. Their past structure began and ended with Voldemort, and now they need something to point to as a reason for their supporters to stay in the cult. They need some magical symbols or powerful relics that they can rally around and point to as possibly making them powerful enough to have a chance of beating us. I'm not convinced that these relics have as much actual power for them as organisational power."
"I dunno," said Ron. "I think putting a little girl in a suit of armour and having her be as difficult to stop as the biggest Giant, but also able to fight with a sword and fire curses at her enemies, would be a fairly big advantage in a battle. That probably would have tipped the scales in the Battle of Hogwarts. No offence, Harry."
"None taken. But I think Ron's right. We've been attacked by a Basilisk and by giant spiders. If the Death Eaters unleashed a horde of snakes and Basilisks, that the Rod of Asclepius would come in handy to protect their own fighters. Have you found anything in what Flamel left that would be of use in an attack? I know when I first encountered Voldemort, he wanted to steal Flamel's Philosopher's Stone,
in order to regenerate his body. He was just limping along as a parasite on one of our Professors and using Unicorn blood to survive. What I'm saying is he knew about and was interested in one of Flamel's possessions, so perhaps there was something else in the collection that was of value to him. The Death Eaters and Voldemort were willing to risk invading the Ministry of Magic just to get the prophecy about Voldemort and me. They thought that had strategic value. It's hard to tell what they regard as important. The Death Eaters may share Voldemort's passion for cheating death. Perhaps some are now pursuing that quest."
Madame Maxime was very interested in Harry's recounting of Voldemort's activities in Britain and insisted upon a detailed description of the tactics used in the attack on Hogwarts. We took turns supplying her with all the details we could think of. She was especially interested in our recounting of the identification and destruction of the horcruxes.
"It would appear," Madame Maxime remarked, "that the relics stolen from Beauxbatons are exactly the sort of historical magical objects that Voldemort chose to convert into horcruxes. Is it possible that another Death Eater wants to create his own horcruxes, or even that one of our relics was a Voldemort horcrux of which you were unaware? In listening to your tale, it struck me that you had very little evidence upon which to decide how many horcruxes Voldemort created. You just assumed they all had to be destroyed for Voldemort to die, but you have no proof of that. In fact, we know that Voldemort was reduced to a disembodied state near death when he attacked the infant Harry Potter. He had all of his horcruxes intact at that time."
Hermione looked worried. "If they only were able to steal half of your Flamel inheritance, it's possible that they didn't get what they were most interested in. I hate to say this, but you could be at risk of another attack. How successful have you been in getting your magical defences restored?"
"The outer perimeter is not as strong as it had been," replied Madame Maxime, "but it is reasonably strong, and it now is patrolled constantly. We didn't even attempt to restore the magical protections to the damaged wing of the chateau, but this wing is restored to full strength, perhaps stronger, since all the magic that was anchored in this pile of rock is now concentrated in this wing. All the faculty are in residence and we still have half a dozen defenders from the Paris Ministry. They've been helping with the restoration of the magical defences. The Paris Ministry was never taken over by the Voldemort forces, so it is in better shape than your Ministry, not that the current Minister is entirely to be trusted. The Ministry has already captured several of the attackers who escaped their counterattack at the school. I think we'll be all right. You're welcome to sleep here tonight, if you wish. You should be safe."
"Thank you," replied Mum. "It's been a long day. If you could just point us to our rooms."
"Gabrielle will show you to your rooms," answered Madame Maxime.
Gabrielle led us back to the entry hall, then up the healthy half of the stairway, warning us of the gap, and then into the west residential wing.
"Most of the students have returned to their homes, so we have several empty sleeping rooms," Gabrielle explained.
I motioned that Harry and I would take the first bedroom, with a gesture that was meant as a question whether Beauxbatons would object to my preferred sleeping arrangements.
"We're French; it doesn't matter to us, although we've got nothing but stacked bunk beds in the rooms. If Molly doesn't object, why should I?"
I pushed Harry into the room. Mum either didn't notice or was too tired to object. We dropped our bags and brooms in the far corner and Harry placed his owl on a student desk. "I'm going to report to McGonagall on what we've discovered so far. She should know about the artefacts. The more minds thinking about the theft, the more likely we are to figure it out."
I was watching Harry write a rather long message and attach it to the owl's leg, when the door of our room opened, and Mum announced that Ron and Hermione would bunk with us. "If there's any danger at all, I'd prefer having four wands in each room and our rooms as close together as possible. Remember, you've got your brooms, and these windows are large enough to fly from, if need be."
As Ron and Hermione entered the room Harry petted the bird a few times and then opened the window and threw the bird into the night. We watched the owl soar up and then fly around toward the back of the chateau. As we continue watching, we saw the bird complete its circuit of the chateau and change direction toward Britain.
"What do you think?" Hermione tossed out as an open-ended query.
"I don't think we're going to learn much more here," Harry replied. "I think we should check out Durmstrang in the morning. We can see what happened there and decide which site is a better use of our time. We can come back and tell Madame Maxine how Durmstrang successfully defended itself. She either didn't know or isn't telling.
"There may well be something of value in what remains of the Flamel collection. They might have some further information on Flamel's' experiments. The papers are in French and I don't think we could interpret them, although Fleur or Gabrielle could scan through them for us. It might not hurt to have a look at the artefacts, although I don't know how we'd detect whether they were enchanted or had any magical powers."
"You seem overly anxious to leave Beauxbatons," Hermione chided Harry. "It's more than a little rude, plus we have a lot more to learn, and not just about Flamel. I'd like to know more about the other artefacts. Professor McGonagall also made a point of wanting us to learn how the operation of these schools differs from Hogwarts. That will take some time. We haven't even met any of the teachers or students. Besides, if you rush us out of here, word is going to get back to Hogwarts that I was overly anxious to see Viktor, and the headmaster will have a laugh at my expense."
"That isn't even close to being funny," my brother responded, with a hint of real irritation.
"No, it isn't, but it is true. You know as well as I do that McGonagall's comments the other day will fill the Hogwarts rumour mill. If she said that to us, you can bet she mentioned it to several of her professors, before or after," Hermione held her ground. "We can see how much we learn tomorrow. Harry is right in the sense that Professor McGonagall wants the basic news from Durmstrang as quickly as possible. I can assure you that we won't be lingering there."
"I think it's time for sleep," Ron proclaimed. "We'll take the bunks on the left, you can have the ones on the right. This has been a long and eventful day."
"I'll take top bunk," Harry said. "I think we'll be safe, but let's keep our wands handy. "
Harry reached down from the top bunk, and I raised my arm, so our fingers touched.
{Good night, Ginny. I love you.}
Just what I needed to put me in a good mood, and I happily dropped off to sleep with nary another thought.