Chapter 4- Good Boy: Beauxbatons
Dennis was third in line after Dumbledore. He watched Stella's heels move forward and finally down the steps and into the grass of the Beauxbatons field.
The field shone even though the sun had set. Slowly, Dennis looked up at the Beauxbatons school. Up to that moment, Dennis had believed the only building that could make his eyes light up with excitement and curiosity was the Hogwarts castle, but as he surveyed Beauxbatons, he could hardly breathe.
Beauxbatons Palace was made of white marble bricks at least one hundred stories high. Supporting the roof every ten feet were golden pillars reflecting the moonlight for miles around. The students, who all bore resemblance to super models and movie stars, were lined up along the rails of the hundreds of balconies; each student was wearing brilliant silver and gold silk robes.
A garden containing the most beautiful collection of flowers caught the eyes of all the girls surrounding Dennis. These flowers spread the length of the whole front of the palace and ended with giant rose bushes. The red roses in the bushes had been enchanted to spell out "Welcome Hogwarts Students" to the left of the palace and "Welcome Durmstrang Students" to the right.
Once all the Hogwarts students had left the train, all the Beauxbatons students waved and called out in unison, "Bonjour 'Ogwarts and Dumblydore."
The front doors, made of granite and engraved with gold saying "Beauxbatons" slowly opened to reveal the largest woman Dennis had ever seen. Even after five years and growing over a foot and a half, Madam Maxime still seemed like a giant to Dennis, though he knew she was only half-giant.
"Ah, Madame Maxime," Dumbledore said as he reached his old friend. He kissed her hand and bowed to her as she curtseyed back. "An honor to see you again."
"It 'az been too long," Madam Maxime smiled. She looked at the cane. "Can it not be cured?"
"The curse Voldemort placed upon me grows worse as the last of his followers are being captured," Dumbledore replied. "It is a truth I must face; I will never see the true end to Voldemort."
Madam Maxime looked somber for a moment, but quickly looked delighted upon seeing the Hogwarts students. "Pleaze, come inzide and warm yourzelvez up."
Dennis fell to the end of the pack as they followed one of the perfect second year students through the grand doors and into the dining room. The walls of the dining room was on giant painting, moving of course as all magical paintings and photographs do, of a field and a herd of feeding unicorn. There was one giant circular table that had a small opening directly across from the doors so students and teachers could freely choose to sit on the inside or outside of the circle. Many of the throne-like chairs already had robes laying on them to reserve seats.
Dennis followed Dawn around to an area where there were five open chairs all in a row, and two across from the five. While Baddock sat on the opposite side of Dawn, Dennis didn't care. He sat next to her and she smiled sweetly at him. Kevin sat across from them and Lena next to Kevin. 'Great,' Dennis thought, 'this is just what I need. Kevin to spill my every secret and Lena to undress me again. And all in front of Dawn.'
"Feeling better yet?" Kevin asked Dennis.
"No," Dennis said without letting himself think of any emotions that had gone through his head earlier in his sleeping compartment. 'At least Kevin hadn't seen that, otherwise I'm sure Theresa would know by now.'
As much as he fought with his head, his mind landed on what had occurred that afternoon in his compartment.
He had escaped from Lena's constant ruffling of his hair, and the whole train watching on. He decided to change into his Hogwarts robes then so he wouldn't have to later. After he pulled everything out of his trunk, the door flung open and Lena stood in the doorway. Her hair was down and blew slightly from the breeze that came through Dennis's open window. She had changed into a short green sundress. Dennis had immediately thought she was a goddess and his heart jumped back to fourth year when he would have done anything for her, but he quickly gained his senses.
"What are you up to?" Lena asked and she closed the door behind her. She ruffled his hair again and looked at the Hogwarts robes on his trunk cover. "Changing are you? Let me help you."
Before Dennis could comprehend everything that was going on, Lena had gotten on her tiptoes and pulled him into a long, hard, powerful kiss. When she pulled away, Dennis remained still with a confused, yet happy look on his face. She giggled a little at his reaction. He sat on the bed, and she had taken that as an invitation to kiss him again. This time, Dennis caught her before she could kiss him. He looked her in the eye and asked, "Why do you keep doing this to me, Lena?"
Lena smiled and lowered her voice to sound very sexy, "I'm sure you could figure it out if you put your mind to it."
"We, or should I say I, tried this fourth year, remember?" Dennis said looking away from her because it was hard to tell her that when she was so beautiful.
She turned his face to her again and made a puppy face. "I know, but…" She leaned in again and he kissed her. Before Dennis could think again, he felt her hands sliding up his stomach under his shirt. She pulled it off him and threw it in a bundle on the floor. Now she climbed on top of him, pushing his back to the mattress. Before she could do anything else, Dennis held out his hand and said, "No, Lena. We can't do this."
Dennis pulled himself away from this memory at the sound of Madam Maxime's voice. "I am glad to welcome to our school ze studentz of Hogwartz and Durmstrang. Onze again, we will be oozing ze Goblet of Fire to chooze ze school championz. Ziz year, Profezor Dumblydore, Profezor Baron, and myzelf will be making sure zere are no curzez on it firzt. Ze namez will be chozen tomorrow evening after ze feazt. But for now, pleaze eat."
Like at Hogwarts, the food magically appeared on the tables, however, brightly colored lights that reminded Dennis of fireworks shot out first, and left the food warm on the table. A few of the foods were from England, but the majority of the food was French. Dennis had never had any experience with French cuisine, and had no idea what he would and wouldn't like.
Dennis looked around the table and saw all the seats filled, mostly with beautiful Beauxbatons students or teachers, but a few had some dark looking characters. These dark characters all had dark fur coats on the backs of their chairs and almost all had broad shoulders that looked even broader because they all sat hunched over. Dennis assumed these were the Durmstrang students, and already they scared him.
One of the broad-shouldered boys looked in Dennis' direction, sneered his upper lip, and cracked his knuckles. Dennis lost his appetite after that. The mere thought that he might have to compete against someone so large made Dennis shiver.
"Are you okay, Dennis?" Lena asked looking up from her completely French cuisine. "You don't look too good."
"I'm fine," Dennis stated without looking at Lena.
"Might I lead you to ze infirmary?" a Beauxbatons girl in the seat next to Dennis asked.
Dennis looked at the girl. Her curly brown hair was streaked black and red. Her complexion was a pale a person had to work for by not acknowledging the existence of the outdoors or the sun. She was wearing black lipstick, thick black eyeliner, and black buckle boots under her silk robes, which were frayed.
Dennis glanced back at the broad shouldered boy, who ripped a leg off the turkey and threw the whole thing, including the bone, into his mouth and began to chew. Dennis felt the blood drain from his face.
"That would be nice," Dennis said and he scooted his chair away from the table. He followed her into the hall before she began to talk again.
"I'm Gage," the girl said and she threw her head back and let out a bark-like laugh. "What a joke zat name iz. My parentz 'ad juzt moved to Franz and wanted me to 'ave a French name. Zey named me after ze firzt nurze at ze hospital. Mugglez, what a wazte of time."
"I'm Muggle-born," Dennis said.
"Don't get me wrong," Gage said, "I 'ave nozing againzt Muggle-born witchez and wizardz, or againzt Mugglez eizer. I am Muggle-born for crying-out-loud. I'm juzt aggravated weeth my ridiculouz Muggle parentz. Zey dezided to move back to America after I got azepted to ze boarding school for perfect little angelz and zey won't let me tranzfer. I 'ate it. Zo, 'oo are you?"
"My name is Dennis…"
"Nize to meet you Denniz," Gage interrupted. Dennis began to realize immediately, this girl liked the sound of her own voice. "Now, zat iz a name worth 'aving. And I bet all your ziblingz 'ave nize, normal namez too. Your name doezn't look ztupid on ze 'eadlinez of ze newzpaperz. Well, zen again, ze namez of witchez and wizardz in England are uzually quite a beet deefferent from what I would call normal. Zo, tell be about theze ziblingz of yourz."
"My only brother died this summer," Dennis said hoping it would make her shut up, but in vain.
"Really?" Gage asked. "What a pity zat iz. Why in ze world would you ztart to talk about your brozer with a normal name if 'e 'ad juzt died? At leazt 'iz name doez not look ztupid on ze headztone, zough. Can you imagine what people will zink when zey look at my headztone when I die and zee ze name 'Gage La Monnoye?' zey will zink it was a joke."
'They'll probably be thanking God too much for shutting her up to think of her name at all,' Dennis thought as he began to block out Gage's voice. Until he heard her say, "You never did get around to telling me your lazt name."
"Creevey," Dennis said simply. He figured he wouldn't get any further than that to even bother to try.
"Iz zat Engleesh?" Gage asked, "Or it does zound a little Ireesh. 'Owever, Creevey iz ztill better zan La Monnoye, which iz my lazt name. If I 'ad a lazt name like Creevey… iz zat Creevey az in Colin Creevey?"
"It is," Dennis said. "That was my brother."
"I am zo zorry," Gage said and pointed up. They had arrived to the infirmary, after what seemed like an hour to Dennis. Now that she wasn't talking, and no broad-shouldered Durmstrang students were sneering at him, he found his appetite had returned and he regretted not having anything.
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