"Come on, we've only got 3 minutes before the class starts," said Hermione, with her hair billowing behind her like her robes, a satiny sheen of dark and golden brown gleaming against the sun light as she ran. She had her books clutched in her right hand and the other was flinging, almost hit Harry in the face, who was running alongside her with Ron, who was also trying to keep up.
"Hermione please, - not so – fas'. 'M sure – Fleur – woul'n mind if – we wer' a littl' 'ate," said Ron, trying to breathe as he ran.
"Made it. Lucky class hasn't started yet," said Hermione, panting and smiling.
Ron swallowed to clear the thirst that was burning in his throat and began, "Hermione, the next time before we run to any classes with you, do remind me to bring some water along."
Hermione chose to not to reply but just rolled her eyes at him. Harry didn't say anything either. He was bending down, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Not even a minute afterwards, someone had patted on his back and he quickly turned around.
"Fleur!" the three of them called out in unison, clearly excited to see her.
Fleur Delacour was a French girl in her late teens, who had long silvery blond hair to her waist. She also happened to be whom Ron had a crush on. Her large, deep blue eyes along with a charming smile were enough to stun Ron unconscious. Ron, who went purple, was gaping at her as she approached and smiled at them. Fleur chuckled when Hermione had to push Ron's jaw up to close his mouth. Ron then went slightly pink.
"Hello, it's nice to zee you again. How have all of you been?" asked Fleur.
"Fine thanks," said Harry and Hermione. Ron, who went so scarlet, just nodded and did not say anything as if he had lost his voice.
"I have to say, I'm very lucky to get this job here at Hogwarts. All thanks down to Professor Dumbledore, hiz such a great man. I've always wanted to do zis."
The three of them nodded, feeling excited and anxious as well.
"How's my English now? I've been practising," said Fleur.
"Much better," Harry said with a grin. Ron nodded frantically at her, which Fleur returned with a smile.
"Thanks" she said, walking towards the entrance of the classroom and opened the door, "Now, go on, get it there, it'z almost time for zee lesson. Gryffindors and Slytherins, right?"
They nodded and entered the classroom. Harry, Ron and Hermione decided to take the seats on the first row. Slowly, the other students filled the room. They were too, had been looking forward to meet their new teacher. They too, were looking forward to meet their new teacher.
"Hello class, I'm Fleur Delacour, your new Defenze Against The Dark Arts teacher. As some of you probably remember, I wuz one of the champions in the Tri-Wizard Tournament last year along with Harry here, our dearly missed Cedric Diggory and Viktor Krum," said Fleur, looking at the sea of student in front of her. Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil and some of other students' faces went slightly blue when they heard Cedric's name.
Cedric Diggory was a seventh-year, clever and friendly Hufflepuff boy. He was also popular in Harry's school and highly admired by almost all the girls in the entire school. But sadly, he was murdered by Peter Pettigrew or also known as Wormtail, one of Lord Voldermort's servants.
"Okay, enough of introduction. Take out your Myth and Legends of The Dark Arts and turn to page five and six. Let's start discussing about Medusa and then move on to some practical work later. Shall we?" said Fleur, trying to cheer up all the long faces.
Just then, Frances came bursting in the room.
"Ah, no worries. Just in time, dear. Come in," said Fleur, smiling.
Frances looked at Fleur, gave a nod, and decided to go to the last row of seats at the end of the class. Her stomach lurched and felt her face went pink. She wished she hadn't burst into the class like that. All eyes were locking on her as she walked as quickly as she could to the back of the class.
Fleur cleared her throat to retrieve the students' attention. And the class began.
Fleur walked back and forth the class with a leather book opened on her palm. She was talking about the ancient Greek belief in medusa and their properties. Everyone seemed to enjoy listening to Fleur, well the Gryffindors at least. The Slytherins, on the other hand were hissing and mocking her under their breath, except Frances, who had something more important to worry about. Fleur had finally noticed what Frances was doing when she walked to the back again for the tenth time now. She was poking and scratching the surface of the desk with some kind of blade, feeling distressed. Fleur looked up from her book and peered down at Frances, who did not notice her presence.
"You know, we're
still going to use that desk until the end of the year," she said.
Frances
was jumped in her seat and looked up at once. She blinked a few times at Fleur,
who then broke into a grin.
"What's your name dear?" Fleur asked.
"Uhmm..."- she said, trying to remember -"oh, Frances, Ma'am...Frances Adams." She answered shortly and then remained silent. She wondered what Fleur was thinking as she glanced back at her desk that she had been vandalizing earlier, writing "Snape sucks" on it with permanent ink that glowed red when one tried to erase it.
"Oh Frances, …right, you muzt be the girl from the US. Well you don't look so good dear, are you feeling all right? D'you want to lie down?" asked Frances kindly.
Frances shook her head.
"No thank you, it's just that Professor Sn-" She seized her sentence at once. Suddenly she realized that talking about the problem she was facing in front of everybody else wasn't exactly a good idea at all. Instead, she just tried to smile, but it had been so long since she was last happy, all she could do was give a lopsided grin, that didn't look sincere at all.
"Hmm...well if you need to lie down, you could. But, don't be zo hard on yourself, all right?" Fleur spoke to her thoughtfully like a sister.
Frances gave her another half-grin, and put her head on her desk, wondering why Fleur was being so nice. She glanced over at Draco and then made a mental note to avoid him, since it was the first day, and she was already in major trouble because of him.
Fleur walked back to the front again, cleared her throat to shift their attention back to her. All of them turned their heads back to her again, except Harry, Ron & Hermione who were still looking at Frances, feeling sorry for what they'd seen. Thinking that there wasn't anything they could do at the moment, they decided to pay attention to the lesson again. The class was a lot of fun. They did some practical work on defending themselves against the curse of a medusa.
"All right class, I guess we'll leave the lesson until here for today. Homework, kindly summarize for me the Greek legend of Medusa on page 6 and 7. You may go now," Fleur spoke to the excited sea of students.
They talked about how interesting and exciting the first lesson was as they filed out the class. When Frances had packed her books and was about to go, Fleur called out to her.
"May I have a word with you, Ms. Adams? Just for 5 minutes?" Fleur asked, sitting on a chair behind her desk.
Frances turned and nodded glumly. She stood up and paced down to Fleur's table.
"Yes, Professor Delacour..?" She plopped herself down on an empty chair in front of her teacher, sighing. She looked up at Fleur, who was smiling softly.
"It seems that something is bothering you, dear. Mind sharing it wiz me?" Frances sighed a bit and told Fleur everything; from her snide comments to Harry and his friends, to the weeks of detention she recieved from Snape. Fleur listened thoughtfully to every word she said.
"Hmm… I see, well I think I will be able to arrange the detention for you," said Fleur finally, winking at her.
"Huh? Wh-," Her words sank. Fleur had interrupted her and continued to speak.
"So this detention, it iz tonight?" asked Fleur.
Frances looked up glumly. "Yeah, tonight with the keeper of grounds…um...H-, something. I don't quite remember."
"Yes, Hagrid," correcting her.
"Well I guess you may go now, have fun," Fleur added, grinning.
"Err…" Frances was obviously baffled by Fleur's statement. She didn't get why she should have fun when she'd got detention to attend. Nevertheless, she gave her a smile, gave her a nod and walked out of the classroom.
Later that evening,
Frances went to the grounds, down to Hagrid's hut. She continued walking, feeling as if her feet were cemented into the ground
"I don't believe it - first day of school - a week of detention" she thought to herself.
She got to Hagrid's hut and knocked on the huge oak door until her knuckles had splinters in them. Within a few seconds, Hagrid appeared at the door. Frances, who had never seen anyone so enormous, widened her eyes and gaped at the sight of him. She moved her eyes from his big black boots to his massive head. She frowned at him when she saw his messy and hairy face.
"Oh it's ya, well c'mon in, just made some tea," said Hagrid, holding a big mug in his hand.
She nodded and walked inside. She plopped herself onto a chair, wondering just how her day could possibly get any worse. She looked at her cup, which Hagrid had just filled with tea. Frances took a sip and pulled a face.
"Eugh..." She pushed her cup away and leaned back onto her chair.
"So... um, Haggard, what are we going to do for my detention?" she asked.
"Err... oh don' worry we'll be doin som'at interestin'," Hagrid said, putting his mug down. Frances wondered what in the world they would be doing that was interesting. Or, rather dangerous. Malfoy told her about Hagrid having an unfortunate liking on big, exotic and dangerous magical creatures. He thought that the more dangerous they were the better.
There was a sudden knock on the door that made Frances jumped slightly.
"Oh tha' might be 'em," Hagrid, standing up to get the door.
"Them who?" asked Frances.
"Well, they've volunteered t'help me wif what we're goin t'do" said Hagrid, turning the door knob and opened it.
Hagrid opened the door.
Of all the people whom Frances expected but Harry, Ron and Hermione had appeared at the door. Frances' face was contorted in a look of complete disgust as they walked in the hut. At an instant, she stood up and pounded her fist on the table.
"You!" She screeched, pointing at them. "What are you doing here?!"
"Why the, Hagrid, why hadn't you told us that this was here too?" scoffed Ron, pointing his finger back at her.
Frances flushed red. "What do you mean this?? You know perfectly well about what happened!" She kicked her chair under the table. Fuming with anger, she gave a hard punch on the table that made her fist swollen. She clenched her teeth, picked up her chair and sat back down on it, her eyes so filled with anger you could almost see flames in them.
"Whatever," she mumbled and rubbed her fist, which had a splinter in it.
Harry seemed to sense her state of anger and sadness, all wrapped up together on the current look on her face.
"Shouldn't have said that, Ron" Harry whispered.
Ron turned to Harry and opened his mouth to say something but Hagrid had begun.
"Alrigh' all of ya' we're goin' to the fores'," said Hagrid reaching for the door knob again.
"No way, I'm not going in there with her," said Ron, frowning.
Frances looked over to Ron with a look that was half hot-white anger and sadness. "I don't care if you go or stay, but I have to. I don't want to be here. I'd rather be sitting up at my common room doing something else." Her eyes darted at each of their faces.
"Hagrid, let's go" said Hermione, trying to break the anger in the atmosphere in Hagrid's hut.
"Hermione's righ' now break it off yo' two," said Hagrid, who was at the door.
They emerged out of Hagrid's hut and walked silently into the grounds. Frances was walking behind them, looking at the grass that was shimmering feebly in the moonlight. She was still burning with anger and hatred. Ron was angry too, of course. Every now and then, he kept shooting evil glances at Frances, and scorning under his breath as he did so. Harry and Hermione were talking to Hagrid about whatever they were going to do.
Frances hopped a few paces and caught up with Hagrid.
"So Haggard, what are we going to do, anyway?" She glanced over to Ron and then scowled to herself, looking up at Hagrid.
"I was asking you before I was so rudely interrupted," She purposely nudged into Ron a bit and gave Hagrid a quizzical look.
"You watch where you're going, and honestly how hard is saying Hagrid's name? Hagrid! Hagrid! Hagrid! Don't you get it?," said Ron, annoyed.
"Ron, don' ya start it over again," said Hagrid.
"We'll be feedin' baby hippogriffs, isn't it great? We'll be feedin them with some berries," Hagrid added excitedly.
Frances shot a malicious glimpse at Ron then turned to Hagrid. "Baby Hipp- what??"
Her question was answered just then. Not, by Hagrid though.
"We're not feeding those, are we?" Frances gulped as she pointed over to a cage with three hippogriffs behind the bars, which, although still babies, were about 6 feet tall, and, in Frances' opinion, were the ugliest things she'd ever laid eyes on.
"Yea, we are feedin' thos'," said Hagrid, reaching for his pocket and took out a bunch of bronze keys. Then, he went to unlock a particularly small area of the cage which seemed to be the feeding opening.
"You must be joking! They'd kill us off first before we could even feed them," said Frances disbelievingly. She stood there frozen, absolutely refusing to go anywhere near the Hippogriffs.
"They're vegetarians, hippogriffs. They won' harm ya if ya don' upset 'em," said Hagrid.
The other three went closer to the cage cautiously.
"No need to bow when ya want to feed 'em. Just make sure annoy 'em," explained Hagrid proudly.
"Come'ere Harry take this berry n' feed to this one 'ere," said Hagrid as he offered Harry a large red berry in his hand. He took it and went slowly to a silver feathered hippogriff. His hand that held the red berry was shaking frantically as he went closer to it. He shut his eyes, not daring to see what was going to happen to himself next. When he moved closed enough, the hippogriff snatched half of the berry with its beak and ate it as though it was in great hunger. Harry opened his eyes to look as the hippogriff took another bite, this time more gently. Harry grinned, reached his other hand to its head and patted it tenderly. It hesitated at first but eventually seemed to think that it was rather enjoyable as it ate.
"Tha's Silverwing, a male," said Hagrid.
"He's beautiful," Hermione complimented as she and Ron went closer to Harry.
"Com' ova'ere, you'll love them," said Hagrid, beckoning at her with some berries in his hands.
"Oh Hagrid, let her find her own ways of detention, no matter what you do, she won't show even a tiny bit of appreciation to what Fleur's done for her," sneered Ron.
In a split of second, Frances rushed over to Ron and grabbed him by the collar.
"What did you say?" asked Frances, fuming with anger.
Ron pushed her off and freed himself from her tight grab.
Hermione went over to Ron quickly.
"Are you alright?" Hermione squealed.
Ron let out a few chokes, looked up at Frances, who was too, staring down at him, and began, "For your information, Fleur arranged this detention for you, if it weren't for her, you'd probably end up in detention with Filch now or worse, Snape himself."
Ron had said the magic word, which he shouldn't have.
Frances clenched her fist tightly then swung it towards Ron's face, feeling it connect. Ron fell backwards as Hermione squealed and rushed over to help him. Harry's jaw dropped, almost to the ground.
"So what, it's none of your business, is it?!"
She started to turn around when Ron jumped to his feet and pulled out his wand, pointing it to her and shouting,
"Rictusempra!"
Frances was flung almost 6 feet away from where she was standing and hit a tree. She stood up, bright red, and charged Ron, tackling him to the ground and delivering three, four, five powerful punches before being dragged off of him by Harry and Hermione.
Ron touched his lips with his fingers. It was bleeding.
"Hey! hey! hey! Whassa' matter with yo' two? I've to report this yo' know," said Hagrid, standing up.
"Ask her!" yelled Ron, who was about to launch at her again but held back by Harry & Hermione.
Frances fumed angrily and kicked over a rather large branch. She felt her lip, which was also bleeding.
"What's the matter with me!! Didn't your mother ever teach you not to hit a girl! Or was she too busy rummaging through garbage trying to find your school books?"
She suddenly froze and thought about what she had said, and found it completely uncalled for. Frances suddenly felt bad and was about to apologize when Ron ran up slapped her hard in the face, while Hermione and Harry stood rooted to the ground.
Ron then went past Harry & Hermione to Hagrid, seized a bucket of berries from his huge grab and returned to feed Silverwing. He was mumbling words under his breath as he thrust a large berry hastily at the hippogriff's beak. Silverwing didn't look too content with him. Hermione, who had been really still, turned to Frances and said as she shook her head "How could you say that," Then, with a disgusted look on her face, she turned and went to join Ron.
Harry, however, was still looking at Frances, who looked back, and finally managed to open his mouth and said, "You know Frances, you might want to chill out and watch yourself a little or else you'll be no worse than Draco one of these days," He too, then went to back to the hippogriffs again.
Frances blinked a few times and sighed deeply, and a few tears rolled down her face as she hastily wiped them away. Then her memory flashed back to her head, telling her what she had to do here at the first place. So took a bucket of berries from Hagrid.
"Thanks," she muttered and she headed towards the cage and fed a particularly nice looking Hippogriff that had yellowish golden feathers, away from Harry, Ron and Hermione.
For some reason feeding the Hippogriffs made her feel happy and she ended up smiling completely for the first time in what might have been 15 years. She had completely forgotten the problems she was facing. She actually enjoyed feeding those magical creatures until -
Hagrid moved over to her with another bucket clasped between his wrist and hip. Frances looked up at him, and he smiled. He crouched down and said "Havin' fun eh? Told ya so," Frances let down her bucket and tilted her head up to look at Hagrid again. She breathed in hard and said, "I'm sorry, Hagrid."
"Ah, I see yo' have found out at las' how'ta say me name righ'. Oh, it's ok," He smiled broadly as he spoke, "Harry told me yo've had a bad day, told me notta go hard on ya"
Frances started to boil again when she heard this.
"Now, now, relax, actually Frances, they actually care about ya. Yo' should be more easy on 'em if ya ask me,"
Frances felt tears were starting to fill her eyes again. She tried desperately to hold them back.
"But, they probably don't want to talk to me now, especially after they saw what S-," Frances stopped in her mid-sentence and looked back down at the hippogriff she was feeding, which was now sticking its head in the bucket, searching for more berries.
"Why don't you go and try?" said Hagrid, smiling.
Hesitantly, Frances jerked her head over Hagrid's enormous back to see Harry, Ron and Hermione. They seemed to be enjoying themselves with the hippogriffs. Hermione was patting a particularly beautiful, female one as she fed her. Ron's anger also seemed to have decreased. He was now laughing happily at Harry who was trying to teach Silverwing some tricks with his wand.
"Go on, talk to them. You might not have another chance," said Hagrid
Frances, looked down and nodded.
"I guess you're right, Hagrid," said Frances.
She got up to her feet and went over to Harry, Ron and Hermione. They turned to look at her and wondered why she came over to them.
"Guys, I want – I want to apologize…" breathed Frances.
Ron gave a hollow laugh as he stood up. The disgusted look he had a while ago had fixed on his face again.
"Is this another one of your sick jokes? Why don't you go back there and resume whatever you are here for?" said Ron disbelievingly.
"N-No, this is not a joke, I swear! I'm really sorry. But, I thought so. You won't forgive me," she said this and walked, faced down, gloomily to a nearby huge oak tree. Then she sat down, clamped her arms around her knees as she pulled them together up her chest. She blinked and a few tear drops went streaming down to her chin.
Ron looked at Harry and Hermione who looked back as though he was a suspect on trial.
"Don't look like that at me!" Ron said defensively. But, he was starting to feel rather guilty about what he had said to Frances.
Harry and Hermione seemed to have read each other's mind. They nodded and Harry pulled Ron by his hand towards Frances while Hermione went up to her, knelt down and put a comforting arm around her. Frances now felt even more regretful than ever. Her eyes watered as she looked at Hermione, who smiled. Hermione reached down her pocket, took out a piece of tissue and handed it to her. Frances hardly managed a smile and took it. Ron, who had been driven by Harry, had had to make quite an effort to pull his wrist out of Harry's grasp.
"Oh all right, do you really…mean it?" asked Ron, massaging his wrist.
Frances looked up at Ron with her eyes glistening with tears.
"Yes," Frances answered honestly.
"Sincerely?" asked Harry.
Frances turned to Harry.
"Cross my heart," said Frances.
"I'm really sorry for what I've done," she added, turning back to Hermione.
"Oh it's ok, everybody makes mistakes, as long as you realise them, we forgive you," said Hermione beaming at her.
"Yeah, it's all right, it's just that I hate being poor," said Ron.
"Oh Ron, I'm really sorry I said that," Frances blinked and tears trickled down her face again.
"It's ok, I'm used to be called that," Ron quickly added as Hermione glared at him.
"I'm glad everything's over now," – said Harry grinning – "so let's try again, friends?" he added as he stuck out his hand for a shake.
Frances looked at his hand for a moment. She quickly wiped her eyes with the tissue and shook Harry's hand.
"Friends," said Frances beaming.
Harry then pulled her up. Hagrid from afar was wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. They then went back to the cage and continued to feed the hippogriffs. They were having the time of their lives.
"O, I think the' four o'ya better go back up the castle now," said Hagrid, after about an hour.
"Yea, I think we should. Don't want Snape to catch us this late," said Ron.
"Well, I guess I'll see you guys here again tomorrow, huh?" said Frances as she fed her last berry to a male hippogriff.
"That won' be necessary, Frances. See, Fleur told me ter keep ya in detention 'till you are tolerant," – looking at Harry, Ron and Hermione – "…with them. Well, look yo' are friends now, so ya no longer be needin' anymore detentions, eh?" said Hagrid, grinning broadly.
The four of them smiled at each other. Afterwards, they said 'good-bye' to Hagrid and went back up the castle, to the hospital wing. After they Ron and Frances got their medicine for their wounds, they bided each other 'good-night' and set off to their dormitories.
Frances walked to her common room and muttered the password, then walked inside, a big smile spread across her face. She had not been this happy before, it was a whole new feeling to her. Frances plopped herself onto a couch and picked up the Witch Weekly's to read when she heard a familiar drawling voice greet her.
"Hello Frances," said Malfoy, appearing on the top of the steps that lead to the boy's dormitories.
Crabbe and Goyle, like always, were behind him. Their fat arms folded upon their chests.
"Oh, hello Draco," Frances greeted.
"Back from detention?" he said as he walked down the stairs.
Crabbe and Goyle were trailing behind him.
"How did you know I was in detention?" asked Frances in surprise as she stood up.
"The whole school knows about it," said Malfoy.
"Oh," she replied shortly and sighed.
The sadness that had left Frances began to arouse in her again. Now that the whole school knew what happened between her and Snape, where was she going to hide her face?
"But, what happened 'till Professor Snape blasted you out of his class, Frances?" he asked as he sat down on the leather couch, cross-legged.
"Uh, I've to tell you that in private," said Frances, looking at Crabbe and Goyle.
Crabbe and Goyle looked at each other in puzzlement.
"Well?? You heard her... move!" said Malfoy in a higher tone.
Crabbe and Goyle still stood there stupidly.
"We need some privacy?? Frances and I? Excuse us, please?" Malfoy added.
"Oh," Goyle said.
"Now?" asked Crabbe.
"Yes, Now!" said Malfoy, sounding annoyed.
They kept throwing glances back at Malfoy and Frances as they walked up silently up their dormitories.
She made sure they were completely out of ear shot before she smiled and moved closer to him. She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek, letting her lips linger there a little longer than necessary.
"So, what got you into detention?" asked Malfoy, pulling himself away a little, clearly confused at her sudden act of affection.
"Well," - she said – "Draco, the reason I got in trouble in Snape's class is partly well - your fault,"
Malfoy frowned.
"What the hell are you talking about?" He asked, suddenly sounding so rude. Frances ignored this, took a deep breath and said, "Well Draco, Snape says that I'm a distraction to you in class... and well... if your grades don't go up, I'll be in big trouble..."
"What? He did not," said Malfoy disbelievingly, pulling himself further away from Frances.
"Well, he did all right," said Frances, looking at him.
"Would you put more effort into your work? Please? Snape's going to cook me if he's still not satisfied with your potions test next month," she added.
"Nobody's forced me to do anything, it's my life and nobody is going to ruin it. Not even you," he said.
Frances sighed.
"Please Draco... just try?" she pleaded.
He looked away, "I don't care what that old man says. Besides, I've tried hard enough to keep grades up!" Frances went closer, trying not to anger him any more than he already was, and ran her fingers through his hair.
"Please, Draco... just promise me you'll just consider it"
He looked at her, who made a puppy look on her face.
He went silent for a moment. At long last, Frances let out her breath in content when he said - "I guess I can consider it," Frances smiled and jumped, kissing him on the cheek again.
"Oh, thank you, Draco! Thank you!"
"But after I've done all the hard work, it won't my fault if I still don't get good grades," said Malfoy.
Frances nodded, still clearly happy, and hugged him tightly. "I understand..." she kissed him on the cheek again and sighed, calming down a bit. Malfoy hesitated as she did that.
"OK, I'm tired now, I'm off to bed," said Malfoy, yawning.
Frances nodded and bid him goodnight, giving him one last kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you in the morning, Draco. Goodnight."
Draco turned his back and headed up the stairs. He didn't say goodnight however, instead he just raised his right hand and waved lazily as he went up the spiral staircase.