BlackWingedBird: Yes, Harry/Lucian's personality will take shape through his different life and experiences. A single experience is enough to change some people's personalities; a whole different life will bring a definite change. One of the most important being self-confidence.
Silvrei: I've always held the same opinion about the whole Veela mating thing as well, which is why I'm trying very much to make this not too clichéd.
Nemati: They don't have Halloween in France? I didn't know that (although I must say that I've only been there during the summer). Thanks for telling me however, the Halloween isn't a celebration so much as a reference date.
All other questions, comments, or just conversational things are welcome!
Thanks for all the encouraging reviews y'all!
"All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle."
Francis of Assisi
Halloween 1994—Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry:
Lily Potter shuddered slightly as she walked briskly towards the Great Hall. She always hated Halloweens. Hate was not a strong enough word for the feelings she felt towards Halloween. She abhorred, detested, and despised Halloween. But being that she was a part-time professor and married to an actual professor at Hogwarts, she was expected to make an appearance at the Great Hall for the feast at the very least. And being that this year was also the year of the Triwizard Tournament with the delegates having just arrived from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, it would seem rude to not be there.
Lily was known to the students as Professor Potter although she did not have a set teaching subject. She taught all the beginner charms classes and helped out with any other classes that she could whenever the teachers asked for her assistance. James had been the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher since 1983; two years after her son had…disappeared. He had been an Auror but that year he had been hit by a rather powerful (although not nearly close to the Cruciatus) pain curse. After what had happened that day, Lily forbade him from taking such a dangerous job again.
Sirius Black worked at the Zonko's Joke Shop in Hogsmeade and lived in a house there along with Remus Lupin, who worked at a bookstore in Hogsmeade as well. Although they both had jobs, Sirius and Remus were two of the main leaders behind the search for Peter Pettigrew and the missing Harry Potter. This was the reason why Sirius had given up his demanding job as an Auror. He wanted to track down the one that he had trusted and who had betrayed him and his friends. He wanted revenge. They came to visit Hogwarts often.
Only a few gazes turned towards the auburn-haired professor as she walked silently to the head table and sat down in her seat between her husband and Minerva McGonagall. James gripped her hand warmly as a reassurance as he saw his wife turn automatically towards the four house tables and more importantly, the fourth years. The year their son would have been in had he not gone missing.
"Which one of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang lot do you think will be made champion?" James asked her as Minerva turned towards them as well.
Lily smiled weakly at James' attempt to get her mind off the anniversary of the date of the day that her son went missing. "I have a better question," she said, the least she could try to do was actually hold the conversation. "Do you think the student populace of Hogwarts will clap for Viktor Krum should he be named the Durmstrang champion?"
"I know Ronald Weasley will be." James stated softly looking at the Gryffindor fourth year. "He hasn't shut up about him at all in my classes and this happens to have been before Krum arrived at Hogwarts. I believe that I have the Quidditch World Cup to blame for that. Mr. Weasley is, after all, a big quidditch fan."
Minerva and Lily both looked towards the table that they had all once sat too. "It's very disheartening though," the elder woman said as she gazed towards Hermione Granger. "Mr. Weasley, I hate to say this about one of my own Gryffindor students, is not one of the kinder, thoughtful students, especially around Miss Granger. He's a bit like you, James, when you were a student; doesn't seem to have a care in the world."
"Ah, yes," Lily said. "I do believe that Mr. Weasley has turned quite green-eyed, no pun intended, with envy. He can't stand the fact that there is a girl, or rather, a someone who outsmarts him and notices the discrepancies in all his arguments—or, at the very least; she is the only one who is not afraid to tell it to his face. He still is a sweet boy most of the time. He and Miss Granger would make quite an amusing couple if they would ever stop fighting over everything. But the circumstances being the way they are, without a stronger common friend, I don't think that will be happening. However, Mr. Weasley may do well with Mandy Brocklehurst from Ravenclaw"
"Yes, yes, I could see them together. I do believe that Hermione Granger would be excellent with Blaise Zabini. They do seem to be quite compatible when they are in my class." James said. "But who do you think will be the Beauxbatons champion now that we've discussed Krum for Durmstrang?"
"I don't quite know. They all seem so determined for it to be them." They then watched as a Beauxbatons girl got up from the Ravenclaw table to walk towards the Gryffindor table to ask for an item of food and the male students gape at her. "She's a half-Veela* if I've ever seen one."
"Definitely."
They ate in silence after that, waiting for the feast to be over and the champions to be announced.
Fleur looked at the room around her with only mild interest. Hogwarts was not an extravagant place in her opinion. But then again she did grow at the Delacour Manor and then spent her last seven school years at Beauxbatons Palace.
Beauxbatons was unlike Hogwarts in many things yet still amazingly similar. The Beauxbatons Palace did have staircases that moved, ghosts, hidden hallways, and moving paintings. However, there were no poltergeists that threw water balloons at unsuspecting students, angry Squib caretakers, or vanishing doors, chairs, and steps.
She smiled at the thought of her younger brother in this place. Good Lord! He would have had himself occupied for years at the thought of all the mysteries he could explore here. She quickly lost her smile however. This was her brother's birthday—and here she was missing it while he was still at Beauxbatons. It would be the first birthday of his she would miss celebrating since he had started schooling at Beauxbatons along with her. But she imagined that Gabrielle was keeping him occupied this day.
She started when she heard a voice speak to her from next to her. "Is Hogwarts much different from your school?" She turned quickly to see Viktor Krum standing by the fire and a Hogwarts boy—the champion, obviously—at her side. He was smiling gently at her in a way that seemed to be reassuring.
Fleur noticed Madame Maxime, Headmaster Karkaroff, Headmaster Dumbledore, the deputy-headmistress, Mr. Bagman, Mr. Crouch, and three other professors enter the room—these being Severus Snape and James and Lily Potter. The boy next to her cleared his throat in a way to catch her attention.
"Yes? Ah, pardon me. Oui, this 'Ogwarts is vairy different zan Beauxbatons. I do zike it 'ere mais (but) I do not vish to be 'ere today of all ze days."
"And why is that?" Cedric Diggory asked, looking up at all the professors watching them.
"Why? Zis is my frère's birthday. I miss 'im and ze celebrations zat my souer zand I give 'im!"
"It's your little brother's birthday? Well, tell him happy birthday from me when you write." The boy smiled again, gray eyes twinkling slightly. "I'm Cedric Diggory, by the way.
"Fleur Delacour," Fleur smiled and nodded before turning to the adults to here about the upcoming task.
It was the beginning of the second week of November at Beauxbatons when Narya*, Fleur's owl, flew into the equivalent of Hogwarts' Great Hall* and landed before Lucian and Gabrielle who were stroking their own owls, Nenya and Vilya respectively.
Gabrielle took the letter from the owl before reading it and passing it to her elder brother. It seems that Fleur needs your help.
Lucian was still going on about the letter an hour later. There is absolutely no bloody (I know that the French probably don't use bloody in this context, so just imagine the French equivalent of the word in here) way I'm letting my broom get within a hundred yards to a dragon while Fleur is flying it! Besides, she's not even supposed to be getting help at all from anyone!
Oh, please. Dear brother, do not tell me that you actually think that the other champions aren't going to cheat! It's either you let Fleur ride your Firebolt or she'll have to try to charm the dragon to sleep! Magic doesn't work that well on dragons, even Veela magic. You know that!
She could always hit it with Conjunctivitis Curse in the eye! That's a dragon's weakest point!
But that'll hurt the dragon! You do want Fleur to win, don't you?
She said that she told the Hogwarts champion what the task was! If she was trying to truly win, then she wouldn't have done that! Gabrielle glared at him and Lucian just sighed. He had known that this had been a losing battle from the start. Fine, but might I remind you how much my broom cost?
Fleur wouldn't let anything happen to it and you know it. She's just as graceful in the air as on the ground, which is something, I must say, that is still a debatable argument about you.
Lucian glared at Gabrielle at that comment. Must I remind you again that I was knocked down the stairs by a couple of the seventh years?
Gabrielle just smirked and laughed at him.
The day of the first task of the Tournament had arrived.
The whole of Hogwarts seemed to be vibrating with anticipation for the task to take place—even the professors. You could say, especially the professors. James Potter was practically bouncing in his seat at breakfast. "So what do you think each of the champions will do?" he asked as Sirius Black, who was visiting Hogwarts to watch the task along with Remus Lupin.
"They aren't supposed to know what to do yet, idiot." Lily said jokingly as she took a bite of her eggs.
"Oh, come on." Sirius stated as he munched on a muffin, spraying bits of food out of his mouth. Lily frowned at him and he swallowed his food before continuing to speak. "By now, the champions of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will know what the first task is because their headmistresses."
"You mean headmaster and headmistress, Padfoot." Lily stated. "Karkaroff is the headmaster of Durmstrang, remember."
"You point is?" Sirius questioned jokingly. "As I was saying, the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions will know what the first task is because of their headmistresses. Which means only the Hogwarts champion won't know what's coming in the task because Dumbledore wouldn't cheat."
"I believe that Cedric Diggory does know what is going to happen in the upcoming task today." Remus Lupin stated in his mild manner.
The three others by him turned to stare at him. "How would he know? Did any of the professors tell him? Did the students find out?"
"Oh, no. I was here awhile ago to talk to Irma (Pince, the librarian) about a book that Hogwarts holds. I happened to pass by Miss Fleur Delacour telling Mr. Diggory what the task involved."
"The Beauxbatons champion helped the Hogwarts champion?" Lily asked, shocked. "But why would she do that?"
"She said that it was only fair that he was in the same boat as the rest of the champions. She said that he had her little brother to thank for this. He, according to her, was always a big person on fair play. She stated that her brother, Lucian, and sister, Gabrielle, have played a big influence on her life."
It was the talk of Hogwarts and Beauxbatons for days afterwards. The students at the French school were all proud that their champion was leading in the Triwizard Tournament. And all the students at Hogwarts were talking about how the Beauxbatons champion flew almost as good as or as good as Viktor Krum.
Fleur would always laugh at these comments, smiling brightly and shaking her head. "Ah, non! Mon frère, Lucian, is a much better flyer zan moi!"
Isabelle, one of Fleur's closest friends, giggled as she watched some of the Hogwarts upperclassmen walk towards their Care of Magical Creatures class. Oh, he's attractive, isn't he? she asked, pointing towards a Ravenclaw sixth year. Fleur just shrugged. Isabelle sighed. Fleur, what are you so worried about?
I haven't been able to understand that new clue yet! Madame Maxime told me that she wouldn't be helping me with it until she felt that she had too.
You'll do fine, Fleur. Isabelle said, cheerfully, before giggling quietly as she saw someone approaching from the castle. I'll be back. She left.
"Hello, Fleur."
The half-Veela whirled around at the British voice from behind her. "Oh, 'ello, Cedric. Comment vas-tu?" She noticed Cedric's confused look at the question. "Oh, pardon! 'Ow are you, Cedric?"
"I'm doing great! And you?"
"Super!" She handed him a piece of parchment from inside one of the pockets of her light blue robe. "I 'ave just received a letter from my, eh, what is ze word? I 'ave received a letter from my siblings!" she exclaimed.
Cedric opened the letter expecting it to be in French but noticed that it was fully written in English, albeit amateur English.
"We 'ave been practicing our Eenglish by vriting to each uzzer with it! It is good, non?"
Cedric smiled. "Perfect."
End Chapter One
Bad ending spot, I know. But that's all there is to it for now.
NOTES:
* "She's a half-Veela…"
I put that Fleur is half-Veela (as is Gabrielle) although both their parents were only half-Veela as well. Most people (well, at least, my initial thought) would put them both as just part-Veela or ¼ Veela. However, I've just recently finished the genetics unit of study in my biology class.
By using the Punnett squares and labeling the genotypes of the parent Veelas Vv and Vv with the V being the dominant Veelian trait and the v being the recessive normal human trait their was a 25% chance of the children being a full-blooded Veela, a 25% chance of the children being completely human, and a 50% chance that the children would turn out like their parents and be just half-Veelas.
I know that this might have just gone over the heads of some of you… I don't really know how to explain this very well so you can go to a search engine like Google or go to an online dictionary to figure out what it is if you don't know… However, it's not really necessary. Basically, what I said was that it is genetically possible for Fleur to be a half-Veela although neither of her parents were full-blooded Veelas.
* "Equivalent of Hogwarts' Great Hall"
I'm too lazy to come up with my own name for it. I don't know what to call it. So if any of you have a good idea of different names for the Great Hall of Beauxbatons, it would be greatly appreciated.
* "Narya" "Nenya" "Vilya"
Someone has got to recognize those names.
I have Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang with the same year classes. You know, the seven years at school. I put this because seventeen seems to be the wizarding coming-of-age; not just because of the allowance of magic outside of school in Britain but also with the fact that Triwizard competitors had to be seventeen to enter.
I wasn't originally planning on having any type of focused romance in this story besides Harry and Draco. However, as I was typing this chapter, ideas just formed of what could happen between Fleur and someone else.
As you can see from the chapter, there is going to be a bit of interaction between Cedric and Fleur. However, I'm not sure as to whether or not to make them a couple or not. This would take away from the whole Cedric/Cho aspect…but I never really liked her anyway. However, Cho could still be a close friend of Cedric's.
OPINIONS NEEDED!
In preparation of the writing of the second task, I would like to ask who or what do you think will be the most missed thing to Cedric and Viktor Krum. I've established Fleur's already.