A/N: I plan to put out about one chapter a week during this quarantine. Maybe more maybe less but the goal is once a week! Enjoy!
August 31st.
The rest of the summer flew by and soon her parents were loading her onto a plane to France to begin her studies with L'académie Des Arts Oubliés. Hermione was bouncing with excitement, she was going to be studying magic and all that it entailed just as Grandfather had promised. Upon touching down in France she collected her luggage and walked to the passenger loading station where she saw a lovely woman wearily a light gosemiere robe over a periwinkle sundress holding a sign with her name on it. Hermione walked directly to her and introduced herself in french, " Hello my name is Hermione are you my ride to the academy?" The blonde smiled and shook her hand nodding in the affirmative, "My name is Madeline Delacour and I vill be your French, etiquette, and Charms instructor, pleaze follow me to the car and I vill explain from zhere." Madeline grabbed Hermione's trunk and they exited the station to a waiting car. Inside the leather seats shined and Hermione turned to Madeline, "Where is the school going to be located madame?" Madeline turned to her and smiled, "Vell this is just our stop for zhe evening, we are going to one of your townhomes here in Paris; however a majority of our time will be spent in your villa in Nice."
Hermione was surprised about that, she had thought they would stay the largest amount of time in Paris as it was the capital. "Why are we spending the most time in Nice?," Madeline smiled, "while Paris is the capital for both muggle and wizard France, zhere are still many families zhat would question who you are if you were seen with your great-grandfather, it would spark questions; questions that Mr. Black would prefer not to be asked. If you are only seen with me on our visits in Paris, people vill simply assume I am acting as a governess until I get married and start a family of my own. It is respectable and something zhat zhey would expect from a pureblood girl like myself. No large questions vould be raised and the families that are located in Nice vould not be caught sticking their noses into the business of La villa Noire de Nice," Hermione nodded at the logic and sat back as the car drove through the streets of Paris. They passed under the Arc de Triomphe, before turning onto a side street just off the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. "Welcome to 112 Rue de Vernet, 'ermione," She noticed she did not see a 112 on the street and turned to ask when a slip of parchment was passed into her line of vision, "Read the address and I will burn it for you," as soon as she read it she passed the parchment back to Madeline and there was a rumble as #112 appeared between 111 and 113. "Where did that come from? She gasped. "Zis property along with all of zhe other Black properties are protected with the Fidelius Charm, I will tell you more once we are inside. I believe Mr. Black is expecting us." With that she strode in off the street her heels clicking and Hermione hurried to keep pace.
The front foyer opened up with marble spread throughout, Madeline strode forward and led past the winding staircase before knocking on a set of double doors, they slid open to reveal a small study, set against a set of windows was Arcturus looking over paperwork on a desk. He smiled upon seeing the ladies enter. "Hermione come greet me properly!" Hermione walked over and curtseyed to him whilst eyeing Madeline standing near the doors, he began to chuckle before he turned to Madeline, "Was there any trouble picking her up?"
"None at all, her flight arrived on schedule, there vere no vizards zhere as we expected and she came right to me upon seeing zhe sign." Arcturus nodded, "Thank you Miss Delacour you are dismissed for the evening we will flow to Nice at 9 am sharp tomorrow morning," She acknowledged them both and quietly shut the door on her way out.
Arcturus turned to his granddaughter, "Let us sit child, I want to go over the schedule I have set out for you and the people that I have recruited to assist with your training." They both moved to the chairs where tea was already served. Now you have already met Miss Delacour she will be your primary instructor and will be your chaperone for any excursions here in France as she is from a cadet branch of the Delacour family she will not rouse the suspicion that some of your other instructors will in this country.I will be overseeing your anything specific to our family as well as your occulumacy training." Hermione leaned forward and asked, " Occulumacy?" "It is the art of protecting your mind and controlling your emotions, there are many in the wizarding world who would discover who you are with one brush of your mind. This cannot happen. I will teach you initially how to protect your mind and eventually how to project false memories or to force someone out who attempted to invade," Hermione smiled, " So it's like a shield for my mind?" "A shield and a wand when used by a master. Now moving on," he summoned a set of files from the top of the desk and smoothed them out on the table between them, " This is Michel Russo, he is an italian wizard and will be teaching you herbology, magical creatures and Italian. Miss Helga Ellerby she is from Germany originally, the Black Forest region to be specific, she will be working with you on transfiguration, arithmancy, and German. Mr. Nour Mostafa of Cario, Egypt he taught at the Uagadou School of Magic and I was lucky that he decided to move into research and was willing to take this position, he will be teaching you ancient runes, alchemy, potions and Arabic. Mr. Dimitri Valkov of Russia will be instructing you in defence against the dark arts, the dark arts, martial arts, and Russian. I will be overseeing as many of your lessons as possible and I have enrolled you in one of those self study courses for muggles so you can keep up with that as well." Hermione sat stunned for a moment processing the information.
"So are they going to teach me so that I do not have anything to learn when I finally go to Hogwarts?" Arcturus leaned back in his chair while he thought of an answer. "No, every country has a different curriculum and a different way they see best to teach classes. I want you to have such a well rounded background of knowledge that you can focus on advancing even further and protecting what you have learned. I am under no illusions that on your own without formal training you would outshine any of your peers. I want you to be so good that you can pull back from showing your full abilities and have the control to just barely be ahead of them. There are sections of each magic that you cannot comprehend simply because you have not achieved the magic necessary before moving into the advanced magics of each subject. Hermione I know you already have the ability to harness wandless magic and you are turning seven in a few months. You did not know of the wizarding world and yet you have more control of magic without a wand than some adult wizards. I have selected each of these wizards and witches, because they perform magic in the areas I have explained in ways I have not seen before. They are all extremely well educated and I believe they will push you to think outside the confines of any book you will read."
Hermione nodded and looked around the room as she noticed another family tree, turning back to her grandfather, "Have you made any progress on learning my name and who my mother was?" She watched as he shook his head slowly his mouth tightening to a grim line, "I have not yet, but give it time, I have been searching for safe blood rituals to perform, that will write out your family tree and we might have you name spelled out for us, but everyone I have come across is far too drastic. Do not fear I want to know who your mother is as well, it may have additional implications on your future. Now it is getting late and I know you have been travelling all day, have you eaten dinner," Hermione nodded and smothered a yawn, "Well then I believe it is time for bed, Libby will show you to your room and make sure you have everything you need. Sleep well la princesse, things are changing and I think you are in for a very exciting school year." Hermione stood and wrapped her grandfather in a hug and walked to the door where Libby appeared. They walked up the staircase to a grand bedroom that overlooked the drive, after a quick shower she brushed her teeth and combed out her curls, before drifting to sleep thinking about all the wonderful things she was set to learn.
A/N: From here the story will speed up. I wanted to be sure and hit on some key details first, but I know I have spent quite a bit of time on her early years. It will speed up and probably be only 1-2 chapters to reach Hogwarts. Please feel free to pm with questions and constructive criticism!