Harry didn't know it possible that ten minutes could go more slowly than in History of Magic. Highly anticipating his arrival at Beuxbatons, he constantly kept checking Hermione's gold watch, which she had gotten for her birthday from Harry in September. After what seemed an eternity, Harry found himself getting annoyed. There was not only no trace of the school anywhere nearby, but no land in sight altogether. Hermione seemed perplexed by this at first, but then, seemingly thinking hard, gave herself an understanding nod, accomapnied with an long, "oooh."
"You're probably wondering why you can't see anything yet, right?" started Hermione sagely, speaking to Harry, but not Ron, who seemed to think everything made sense. "It is customary for Schools seperated by water masses to arrive by ship, into the school lakes, like Durmstang did in our fourth year. I read it in Hogwarts, A History." Ron looked perplexed, and asked, "How else would we get there?" unknowing to the normal Muggle way of docking a ship, instead of teleporting.
Before Harry could respond, a large hand was tugging at him, and pulling him towards the door that led to the rooms below. Harry turned to see that it was Percy. He had ushered Ron and Hermione down as well. "Don't want to be on top of the deck while we teleport underwater, do you?" he asked nasily, quickly releasing Harry when they had reached the bottom of the staircase. "We're going to be there in about fifteen seconds anyway."
Just as Harry had heard Percy say that, Albus Dumbledore came striding towards them, accompanied by the rest of the people on the ship, mostly consisting of sixth years. Ginny was in the lead of the group, only a few steps behind Dumbledore, who now walked with a cane. The cane itself was peculiar, it had a long snake entwined around it, with a lion clawing his way up the wooden sides, a raven perched on the upmost parts of it, and a badger poking his head out from the bottom center gap that must of been a burrow. The fascinating thing though, was that all the animals were moving. They interacted with each other very friendily, except the snake always kept its distance from the lion.
When Dumbledore came to Harry, Hermione, Ron and Percy at the bottom of the steps, he smiled at them all, even Percy, and gestured them towards the line that was behind him.
"We have arrived at Beuxbatons," said Professor Dumbledore, as the boat hit what was evidently land, with a loud thud and a rumbling sensation that resounded throughout the boat. "I ask that your behavior during our stay at Beuxbatons does not waver, and that you interact politely and graciously, since we are their guests. That is all."
He then began moving towards the top of the stairs, and pushing the door in front of him gently as he walked into the starry night. As he walked towards a gap on the side of the boat, a magical pair of clanky old planks all formed right in front of him as stairs formed. The rest of the group followed suite as they walked towards a damp grass mingeled with sand. Standing right at the end of the stairs was Madame Maxime, as enormous and well statured as ever. She looked at Dumbledore through her dark lidded eyes, as well as surveying the students who followed him. At the sight of Harry, she gave a pleasant smile, but nothing more. Behind her stood what must have been the entire school, from first years to seventh. It was slightly less populated than the Hogwarts residence, but they all looked nice, which was all Harry cared about. The sterotype about them being snobbish and rude was absurd, they all looked modest and caring. Like in all schools, Fleur was just one of those "other" students.
Madame Maxime began to converse with Dumbledore as he greeted her with an enthusiastic bow, which she returned. This must have signaled something, since all of her students began to move towards the Hogwarts students and converse with them. Some people even recognized each other from the Triwizard Tournament. A girl with curly brown hair and a gold necklace, ran over to Harry and gave him a huge hug. At first, he didn't recognize who it was, but the when he saw her face, it became clear. It was Gabrielle, Fleur's sister. She then moved toward Ron, and gave him a hug and a kiss on both cheeks. He went very red throughout the region of his neck, and blushed furiously. Finally, recognizing Hermione from being with Krum, she went towards her and gave her a kiss, again on both cheeks.
"Hello 'Arry," he said, smiling at all three of them. "I hav' missed you so much. Fleur is in England working at...eh...Gringgoutss, so I havn't heard anything from her for a while, I miss her so."
Harry just smiled, as Gabrielle turned to Ron and Hermione. After three minutes, Ron and Gabrielle were walking the grounds together. Hermione just smiled and laughed, as she and Harry walked up towards the school. A ghost wooshed out of the school the second Harry and Hermione approached it. It was a women, wearing 'haute-class' clothing and looking at them warmly. "Je vous demande pardon, mais vous peu pas entrer l'ecole maitenant. Les maison pour vous est tout a fond du lac." Hermione nodded, and pulled Harry away brsikly.
"How did you understand her?" asked Harry baffeled. Hermione told him something about picking up a bit of French on her trip here in third year. Hermione led Harry past the lake. They walked through a path for about three or four minutes, until they came to several large houses.
"The ghost told me that we would be staying here. Now...there must be some sort of assignment to these houses..." Sure enough, at the front of the doors stood a large gold embossed plaque with 'GRYFFINDOR' written on it. Hermione pushed the door open. Harry couldn't believe it. It was a beutifuly furnished and decorated room, with a large fireplace, a large library and many oak desks to read and work on. Something that Harry saw made him raise his eyebrows though. There was only one pair of staircases, did that mean the dormitory's were coed? But his question was answered as he walked up the stairs, and found a couple of doors, all clearly marked like on the front door. The first door had written on it, "FIRST NAME LETTERS A-G", the next "H-N, after that, "O-U" and then lastly, "V-Z". Harry pushed the door open and found the room was just as nice as the Common room beneath them. He also found that there where only two beds in the room. He racked his head and realized that the rooms were coed, because Hermione and himself were the only ones in Gryffindor with the first names from H-N. He dumped his bags onto the top of the bed, and sat ontop of it, eventually laying back. Hermione came to the door of the room, reading the sign like Harry had. She then squealed with excitement, and ran into the room, smiling at the now standing Harry.
"This'll be great, we're bunk mates!" she said smiling from ear to ear. "We can read Beuxbaton, A History tonight. It'll be great! I bet there's so much to learn, it took me ages to memorize Hogwarts, A History!"
Harry laughed and gave her a look of doubt. He began to start unpacking his stuff when she stopped him. "You've got the window view, can I have it?" she said with puppy eyes, frowing at Harry.
"No way Hermione, first come first serve," he said laughing as she grabbed her pillow and threw it at him. He got his and retaliated, throwing all of the miniature pillows he had and even one of his blankets. He weaved in and out of the cover of his bed, taking an occasional pillow to the face when he wasn't careful. "I think we're missing the feast!" started Hermione, but then she just laughed and proceeded to throw another pillow at Harry. "You can defeat the "Great Lord Voldemort, but not me!" she laughed as she hit Harry particuarly hard in the head.
He slumped to the ground, eyes shut and limbs motionless. He wasn't even breathing. Hermione gasped in shock and knelt down by him, a stricken look on her face, white as a piece of unused piece of chalk.
"Harry...HARRY!" she shrieked, pushing his shoudlers back in forth to wake him up. Just as fast as he fell, he grabbed Hermione and lifted her off of the ground with ease and set her on the bed that Harry had initially taken, moving his stuff off it in the processs. Hermione was laughing uncontrollably, as she hit the soft cushion of the bed. Harry was smiling as well, as he began to moved his stuff towards the other bed.
CRASH! Harry turned quickly, cricking his neck to see Hermione, once again panic stricken and pale, shaking uncontrollably. A long silver arrow with a green tip had burst through the window, missing Hermione by mere centimeters.
"Are you okay?" said Harry as he ran over to her side to see if she was injured. Hermione just gave a small nodd and squeak, but said nothing else. "That arrow wasn't meant for you, it was for me." Although this had nothing to do with the Death Eater event on the ship, Harry thought that if he was in more danger than usual, since he was not in the protective walls of Hogwarts, Hermione should know. So he told her the whole story about what had happened.
At the end of it, she just broke down crying on his shoulder. Her stroked her hair and rested his chin on her head.
"If you don't want to bunk with me, I'll more than understand," he said, not meaning it at all.
She looked up at him, tears still in her eyes and said, "I'll stay Harry...I'll always stay." And with that, she layed down and fell asleep, still in Harry's arms.