A/N: It's been a while. A bit too long actually especially considering that I had majority of this chapter already existing as chapter 10 of Burning the Bridges. Oh well... Here you have anyways.

Burning Ice
Chapter 6

Je ne veux pas travailler.

Je ne veux pas déjeuner.

Je veux seulement l'oublier.

Et puis je fume!

Émilié sat at a table with other first year students. They were all gathered in the Beauxbatons' equivalent of Great Hall. It was simply called dining hall without any capitals. There was separately a large ball room meant for bigger events, such as Yule Gala and Graduation Ceremony. But this was 'merely' the start of the year, no need for grand gestures yet. Not to mention that as it was the daily dining hall, it was good for the new students to get to know it immediately so they'd know where to come the next day. And naturally, as fitting of the French Premiere school of magic, it was grand and luxurious and everyone fit in easily with room to spare. But what Émilié had heard from her parents and granmère Aurelia, Beauxbatons had many, many other rooms of that size. The entire school was practically a palace! Well, granted, it was an actual palace, located in the Pyrenees.

It was interesting to look around in the room and mentally compare it to what Émilié knew about Hogwarts. The ceiling for example was lower in the dining hall and one could actually see it. There were floating chandeliers to provide light instead of mere candles. And that already proved that the French were at least five centuries ahead of the English when it came to interior designing. And a couple of decades ahead in fashion.

For now, everyone was seated approximately by year. There were around twenty tables all together plus the teachers' table. In the future the students could sit where they wanted as long as it didn't cause disturbances. As Beauxbatons didn't have houses, it diminished the discrimination. There was still bullying based on blood status, religion, race and looks in general but with the lack of houses at least one issue was already removed. People were free to distinguish themselves as individuals rather than bow to expectations and stereotypes.

"I can't wait for the lessons to begin." Émilié told Blanchard who was sitting next to her. The boy smirked back lazily.

"Well, they're supposed to be interesting." Blanchard replied. "I was getting bored at home. My brother is a seventh year now and being at home while he's been here has been… tedious."

"I can believe that." The girl huffed. "I hope you won't cause disturbances on the lessons if you decide they are not interesting enough."

"Don't worry, I won't cause any disturbances without inviting you in." The boy replied flippantly despite the fact that he was a first year himself and thus a beginner with magic. While pureblooded families did have tutors and other family members teach their scions, nowadays they left the bulk of every-man's-knowledge up to the schools and thus could focus on family specific values.

"That wasn't what I asked!" Émilié hissed back.

"Have you known each other for long?" Another girl asked. Émilié looked up and… damn, that girl was pretty even just as an eleven-year-old. Long silvery blond hair, bright blue eyes, flawless skin… Émilié had a good idea who the girl was.

"Nah…" Blanchard shrugged.

"Not really." Émilié smiled. "We met when shopping for school robes and then… just stuck together." She reached her hand across the table then. "My name is Émilié Lalonde, heiress Lalonde, from the Most Ancient and Noble House of Lalonde." Exhausting speech but one that Aurelia had drilled into Émilié's head since they moved to France permanently. Even if people knew of your family, it was still important to inform them about your own position in it as well as remind them of your family's status among others.

"Fleur Delacour of the Ancient and Noble House of Delacour. Nice to meet you, heiress Lalonde." The blonde girl – Fleur – replied, taking Émilié's hand. Formal situation would've required curtseying but as they were both seated and getting up would've caused mess and attention, exceptions could be made.

"Likewise." Delacours were an old family and something of note but not as old as Lalondes were. Additionally…

"And I'm Blanchard Cleptes, spare of the House of Cleptes. May I add that you are a truly enchanting sight tonight, mademoiselle?" Blanchard smiled flirtingly. Considering that Fleur's veela allure hadn't kicked in yet (according to a book, it shouldn't happen earlier than around fourteen years of age for girls, boys approximately a year or two later – in the other words, around puberty) and the girl was very much inexperienced in romantic matters (there is just something in being flirted at and not just watching your parents being 'gross'), she blushed. Quite adorably too. Émilié was almost willing to bet that aside from possible true-veela form, Fleur was incapable of looking ugly regardless of her expressions. And even then, the veela-form might have some dangerous allure in it that'd also draw men in.

"Thank you." Fleur smiled back brightly. Émilié could swear she saw some sparkles around the girl. Would they turn into rose petals once allure appeared? Nevermind… She needed to do some crowd control.

"Blanchard." The brunette sighed.

"Yes?" The boy smiled back innocently. Émilié simply levelled a long-suffering stare on him.

"We are just kids. Tone down the flirting. Please."

"Now, don't be a spoilsport, Émilié."

"I'm not."

"I think it is perfectly alright to compliment others when it's due." And Blanchard winked at Fleur who blushed some more. Émilié just sighed.

"Fine. I'm not your keeper." Like she was about say in conjunction to introductions – before Blanchard disrupted her train of thought – the Cleptes family lost their Ancient and Noble status during the Revolution and due their less than honorable ways from there on and the change of name, it was doubtful they'd ever regain the titles back even if their influence was as great as ever politically, socially and economically.

"This reminds me… I gotta introduce you to my cousin. Arsené should be somewhere here…" And had their vassal family Galet.

"I look forward to that." Emily smiled as the Headmistress Madame Olympe Maxime tapped her spoon against the glass once, with a clear ting that echoed in the room until chatter quieted down, and then stood up from her seat to give a speech.

"On the behalf of the entire faculty, I wish to welcome both returning students as well as new ones who are starting their educational journey in our fine institute." She began. "I shall not keep you from the feast and making acquaintances for much longer. Just some announcements so everything goes smoothly afterwards. Like every year, new first years will be led to their dormitories by newly appointed Prefects. They will leave the hall last so please be seated while other students leave. Tomorrow breakfast will be held here like all other everyday meals and then you will all receive your timetables so please be in time. Anything else will be relayed through Prefects."

Madame Maxine sat down accompanied by polite applause and food appeared on the serving dishes. Delicious, delicious… Émilié really loved French food and could see why Fleur would in the fourth book complain about heaviness of English food.

Ooh, they had also pastel de nata for dessert even though it was Portuguese dish!

Once they had all eaten, the first years stayed on their seat and waited for the upper years to get out of their way. The older student would want to get into their dormitories before the firsties trundled in and would be underfoot.

The Beauxbatons dormitories were split between girls and boys at different sides of the school but had corridors to common study rooms and lounges and were probably equivalent to Hogwarts's common rooms. Within the girls' dormitories they were separated further into two wings with the even numbers at the left and uneven numbers at right. And due Beauxbatons having their big exams on the students' sixth year, the possibly remaining seventh years had a third set of rooms for themselves.

The structure of the dormitory was such: first there was an entrance room, to which you arrived from the hidden door. Then you had a large lounge room with study corners and couch groups as well as a fireplace. From there you had two doorways to the two wings for even and uneven years and a third door for the seventh years. Émilié followed the Prefect to the wing housing first, third and fifth years. It was called Lavender while the other wing was called Rosa. The wing had three floors with six rooms each. One could think that it was one floor per year but actually it was two rooms for each year in every floor.

"You can decide between yourselves how to divide the rooms but please do so within the next hour. If some troubles appear, changes can be made but there should be a very good reason for that." The Prefect, Edith Meriam explained.

Émilié grabbed Fleur and together they snapped two other girls who were sticking together and seemed to know each other already: Margherita Anatole and Tilia Fontaine. The other groups of four seemed to be formed similarly.

Four girls for each room. Six rooms all together. That meant twenty-four girls on their year. Surprisingly lot considering that Voldemort's reign had hit France hard as well. Émilié would need to ask Blanchard what the situation with the boys was.

The rooms had four canopy beds with powder blue silken drapes and pearl grey covers with the Beauxbatons coat of arms embroidered on the top. Each girl had a closet for clothes and drawer for possessions. Their trunks were places at the foot of their bed but there was room for move it elsewhere as well. School supplies were mainly meant to be kept at the trunk. But there was some open shelf space at the closet that Émilié decided to use for storing her books rather than displaying some trinkets.

She acknowledged that Beauxbatons was subtly encouraging interactions between students. First with having the floors shared between years and then giving open space for possessions and thus encouraging conversation about them. Little tingle along the edges of the shelf told Émilié that there was probably some anti-theft enchantment or ward in place but she still rather used the shelves for her books. She didn't even have any decorative pieces with her to be put on display.

The four girls changed into their night clothes and bid each other politely good night before drawing curtains on their beds shut.

The lessons began. The first-year students (like all other years) were split into four groups alphabetically and those groups were then paired for different lessons. Which meant that unfortunately Émilié didn't get to be on the same lessons all the time with Blanchard and Fleur. Instead she had the opportunity to know Blanchard's cousin Arsené. The boy had been introduced to Émilié by Blanchard immediately the next morning and had remained politely distant from her since. Émilié had a feeling he didn't like her much because she was half-British. She'd probably need to enquire about the matter from Blanchard later if it became a problem. But well, she also got to know some other girls and boys on their classes even if Blanchard and Fleur were her closest friends.

Despite Blanchard's grumblings and skepticism, the classes themselves were interesting. While they might've started from the basics, the teachers taught their subject with engaging way that also made sense and thus prevented disasters.

For example, they actually they spent the first two weeks only in getting to know the most basic potion ingredients, their properties and how they reacted with certain situations, the different ways of processing them and naturally also practicing how to cut, dice, slice, peel, grind etc. them properly as well as getting used to the hardness of some ingredients that required careful application of force and softness in others and how to handle them without damaging them. It was only on the third week that they brew a potion for the first time. And even before starting to brew, they recapped the ingredients needed, went through the recipe together so there was no misunderstandings and only then started to brew. For the next lesson of the week the results had been examined and judged and they went through together as a class what should have happened during each step of the brewing and why and what might've gone wrong. Emily definitely approved this method of teaching. Potions was one of the most dangerous subjects after all.

Other lessons were also good. Transfiguration and charms probably didn't differ much from Hogwarts as they did a lot of theory work in between an impressive demonstration and casting spells themselves. Of course, there were kids who already knew some spells but thankfully kept those spells out of the classroom… and in the corridors where they tried to hex their classmates instead. Emily admitted that she in the sly threw a couple of trip-jinxes too.

Herbology was… so and so. Some students were truly reluctant to even touch the plant while others seemed to be tempted to start a dirt war. Blanchard was somewhere in between of those two groups. Emily did alright. Simpler plants were interesting and she wasn't afraid of some dirt but some were quite icky and strange that she tried to avoid them. Thankfully they wouldn't need to be in contact with them quite yet. Fleur was much the same though more to the extreme. She was interested in the theory but rather not dirtied herself, even in the outer robes that were given to them to protect their own clothes.

History had the aspect of getting to know events from wizarding perspective. Emily had checked and found that mundane history was the same than in her own world. So with that basis, she learnt some interesting tidbits of what happened to witches and wizards during those times. For example, how a member of wizarding nobility had charmed his own head invisible and pretended to be already beheaded and dead during the French Revolution. (Blanchard told that had been his grandfather's uncle who then had used the opportunity to perform the first Heist as 'Cleptes'.) Or the origins of witch hunts and how most of them failed. Or the origins of the first recorded spells from the Roman Empire and even the Ancient Greek and Egypt. Not into great depth though since that topic would be broached at the Ancient Runes class in two years as well.

The Defense against the Dark Arts was not on the same name than at Hogwarts. It was simply Defense and while it encompassed exactly the same topics than its British alternative, it didn't emphasize being against Dark. It was interesting to note that Hogwarts touted itself to be Light school while the Durmstrang had the reputation of being Dark and thus left Beauxbatons to be the middle ground. Considering how the French had done in their wars during the past centuries both at mundane and magical side (fail, fail, fail) it made sense that they had looked for the middle ground and resolved to be the peacekeeper between the other two great schools.

Astronomy, while in the middle of night, was something that Émilié had looked forward to. Night sky had always fascinated her and she'd enjoyed reading the mythology behind each constellation and the statistics of the planets. While not as… accurate on the mundane side as desired, the teacher definitely knew what he was doing and Émilié liked the lessons.

"Well? What do you think? We've had lessons almost for a month and you haven't disturbed the class yet. Being interesting and challenging enough for you?" Émilié smirked at Blanchard when they'd sat down for dinner (Fleur was this time sitting with Antoinette and Jeanne, two girls from upper years who lived in the other tower). The boy huffed but smirked back lazily.

"Maybe… But no promises when I'll be ahead of all this stuff." He boasted.

"As if." Émilié grinned.

"True. The lessons hopefully will start getting more difficult soon I hope but considering how much of the very basics we know from our tutors before starting here…"

"I've avoided that pitfall thankfully."

"Oh?" The auburn-haired boy arched a brow.

"In the past years, while I've been educated in magicial matters and subjects as well, I've been mainly studying in a mundane primary school and thus gotten a solid base in other subjects. It means that I'm not as bored as some of our pureblooded fellows on the lessons." Émilié explained with a low voice, brushing her locks behind her ear. She trusted Blanchard with this information but it would do no good for it to reach the wrong ears. In a sense, having the heiress of the Most Ancient and Noble family schooled among muggles was very and truly scandalous.

Blanchard was quiet for a moment, mulling over this new information and comparing it to what he already knew about her and how it fit into their previous interactions before shrugging.

"So… Do you have some plans set up for this side of the world?" the boy asked. Émilié blinked.

"Pardon?"

"The way you look at everything here and compare it what you know about the mundane world and about the British system… I'm curious about your conclusions."

"Who says I have any plans yet?" Émilié asked dryly.

"Maybe not yet but there might." Blanchard smirked. And then proceeded to dump the roll he'd been ripping to pieces during their conversation into the bowl of onion soup he had in front of him. "So? Any plans?"

"For now, just living my live, learning things, spending time with my family… Nothing else." Apart from gathering courage to face Dorea again and hopefully this time without subterfuge. "What about you? Any plans?"

"Living my life and… I think I just might tag along with you for this journey."

"Journey?" Émilié smiled, amused at the word choice.

"Sorry if I'm not feeling incredibly eloquent."

"So… Would you be willing to come with me to Hogwarts then too? For our third year and attend there until the fifth, thus getting OWL qualifications and being back in time to study and possibly catch up in order to take sixth year finals here?"

"Why not? Got to write father about it but I doubt he'd protest." Blanchard shrugged and the matter was basically closed and decided then. The minds of eleven-year-olds were quite determined.

So the students settled into a routine. They had lessons, they exchanged letters to home, they slept at the dorms, they spent time at lounge rooms and libraries chatting with friends, doing homework and whatever else they wanted to do. Sometimes something odd might happen but usually things were relatively calm at Beauxbatons. Nothing like trolls in dungeons or obstacle courses guarded by a Cerberus. Personally, Émilié was glad to have peaceful time in studying and socializing. Even if she needed to sometimes do damage control whenever Blanchard got bored.

"You seriously named your owl Dragonfly?" Émilié asked one morning when the owls had arrived, bearing mail from their families. Émilié herself got bunch of drawings from the twins, Sandra and Claire. Apparently all four of them missed her even if she'd seen Sandra and Claire rarely.

"Sure, why not?" The boy smirked in a way that told there was a inside joke somewhere in there. And he hadn't even named the owl 'odonata' or 'libellule' but 'Dragonne-mouche'. Literally, dragon-fly.

"Nothing." She replied in bemusement. "You just have your quirks."

Blanchard just grinned back.

When the end of the month arrived, Émilié caught Blanchard with a bottle of brandy. She herself was heading towards the Beauxbatons crypt with chrysanthemums in her arms.

"Where the hell did you get alcohol from? We are eleven!"

"Bribed house-elves." Blanchard shrugged.

"Bri-… You know what? I don't want to know." Émilié shook her head and surreptitiously checked that the bottle was still sealed. It was.

"Do you want to help me to spike the Samhain punch?" Beauxbatons was a salad mix of traditions and thus in the junction of October and November there were people celebrating Samhain and Toussaint but rarely both. Émilié herself celebrated Toussaint, hence the chrysanthemums that she intended to leave in the crypt for the departed family members. Then there was the Samhain traditions of remembering spirits to which about a quarter of the school participated in. And then there was about half of the school which took part in old Roman celebration Feralia that was in February. Blanchard's family was among those as were Lalondes in general.

American Halloween was unheard of and Émilié was personally glad for it.

"The one used for apple picking? Sure. It's been getting boring here." Pranking the Celtics? Why not. It was just apple bobbing after all.

"William sent me a letter… Apparently Charlus is being more irritating than usual and this whole letter is just a rant about the fact." Émilié sighed. She and Blanchard were sitting on a couch in one of the lounges.

"Who's the guy writing on the other page?" Blanchard tilted his head in order to get a look at the back of the letter.

"What?" Émilié turned the letter around. "Oh… That's Rob, Liam's friend. We get along."

"Should I be jealous?" Blanchard joked.

"No need. They are joined at the hip."

Blanchard's brother Francois was on the fourth year. So was his fiancée, Jeanne Delacroix. They were to be wed once they completed their sixth-year finals. It was still unclear if either of them would be returning to school afterwards. They were both very nice people but interacting with them really hammered home how different Wizarding culture was from what Émilié had known. Francois and Jeanne were only fourteen (well, Jeanne's birthday was soon and Francois's a month later). They were to be married when seventeen. Teen marriages were basically unheard of in mundane culture. Teen pregnancies not so much…

It wasn't even that the age of majority was a year less than in most mundane cultures but that there was an expectation to get married soon and have an heir to inherit the estate.

Émilié dearly hoped that she wouldn't be betrothed too soon and that she'd have some choice in the matter. Considering that she was next in line to inherit after her mother, it was likely that she'd have some choice, especially considering the precedence Aurelia and Christine had both set but…

She worried anyways.

Émilié was tuning her violin. This was her last year of playing it before she upgraded to viola. It would completely mess her skills since even though the shape of the instruments was same, they were still wholly different. Thus better make the swap now rather than way into the years.

There were many students who practiced some instrument. Beauxbatons was very focused on arts and diplomacy. There were painters, musicians, singers, dancers, actors… Some described to several disciplines. Fleur was a dancer and a singer while Blanchard was an actor. Actor was just another name was diplomat.

There were also physical extra-curriculars as well. Fencing, gymnastics, formal dueling, horseback-riding… All more or less elegant. Émilié was glad for the opportunity to continue gymnastics she'd started in primary school.

All in all, life was good.

And so the time flew. Sooner than expected it was Christmas holidays, New Years, school, Feralia, Blanchard's birthday, Easter Break, Ramadan for muslims, more school, Émilié's birthday, school and finally the end of year exams. Basically, as there was a lot to study and no interruptions or adventures distracting them, the year was wrapped up quite quickly.

"How do you think you did?" Emily asked Blanchard as they walked the grounds with Fleur.

"Not bad. Just enough to get through." The boy shrugged. Fleur snorted derisively at his attitude.

"Well, I tried my best and hope to score at the top of our year." The quarter-veela announced, flipping her hair over her shoulder and playing up her prissy image that she'd started to cultivate. There had been some mishaps around Valentine's Day and since then Fleur had began to project high-and-mighty air and only some chosen few got to be within the 'inner circle'. Émilié and Blanchard were some of them. The rest were mainly of the Lavender Wing occupants as well.

Each student of Beauxbatons, once having settled into their dorms, had their neck ribbon change color according to the tower they resided in. It was Rosa and Lavender for girls and Jade and Amber for boys. Those colors would persist throughout their schooling. There wasn't official code for how you were wearing the ribbons as long as they were seen and with you all the time as they served as passes into the wings, but many tied them around their necks, like Hogwarts students had their ties. Émilié wore hers tied to her hairband while Fleur had made a brooch out of her own ribbon. Blanchard in the other hand was for once the one out of the three of them to wear his amber ribbon normally.

"I tried my best too. If I'm in top ten, I'll be happy." Émilié smiled. Considering that there was forty-eight students in their year it would be very satisfying result. "What are your plans for the summer?"

"We are going to visit relatives at Marseille and maybe travel to Italy too." Fleur explained. "Gabrielle's birthday is soon too. She is the cutest."

Gabrielle Delacour… Currently only two years old, going to be three according to Fleur's previous tales. Yeah, kids in that age were very cute. Sometimes annoying but still cute. Émilié could speak from her own experience with her brothers and cousins. And though she'd seen them during Easter break, she really couldn't wait to see her family again.

"I'm going to see if Émilié will invite me to spend part of the summer with her but otherwise nothing else." Blanchard smirked at the brunette. Émilié glared half-heartedly and rolled her eyes then, used to the boy's straightforwardness and joking manner that anyone not knowing him would consider rude. But that was part of his mask as well.

"You already know that you have standing invitation as long as you inform me beforehand… But anyways, aside from Blanchard's visit I don't have much plans. Spending time with my family and catching up with people." Émilié explained. "It would be nice to see you too during the break."

"I'll consider it." Fleur sniffed, amused glint in her eyes.

The haughty one, the flirty one and the peacekeeper. What a picture they made.

A pair of reddish-brown eyes blinked at Émilié. The girl blinked back and then tilted her head to look past the white fur to look at her little brothers.

"A rabbit?"

"Half-magical one. They live longer but have no special abilities other than being a bit smarter too." Andrew explained from behind Albert who was holding the little bunny. It wasn't quite an albino but very close. Depending on the light the fur could be cream colored or almost icy white. Eyes were the said reddish-brown. Most likely they weren't as sensitive to sunlight due that. Genetics. Magic. Whatever.

"What's… his name? …her name?" Émilié asked then. Unexpectedly, Albert blushed and muttered something. Andrew snickered. Émilié merely tilted her head. "Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

"She is called Mandy… After Newt Scamander." Andrew grinned. Okay, that was quite funny.

"It's a good name!" Albert defended.

"It's a fine name, Bertie." Émilié smiled down at the boy. "When did you get her?"

"Umm… A bit after Easter. We wanted to keep it as a surprise though…"

"Papa said that it's Bert and I's rabbit but you can help with her too." Andrew explained. Sensible. Émilié had had Hedge-Sammy after all.

"Of course. How have you been in general then? I got letters but…"

"Just fine. Papa is busy with work. Maman took us shopping a couple of times. Rue de Magique is as lively as ever." Andrew told her as he began pulling her towards her room. "It's a pity we missed your birthday but you got our presents, right?"

"I did indeed. And your drawings were great as well."

"Merci…" Albert hid his face into Mandy's fur as he followed his siblings.

"And granpere started with our violin lessons!" Andrew continued the chatter.

"Really? That's great to hear." Émilié smiled.

"Mentioned in your last letter that your friend is coming to visit you at some point, Melia." Albert half-asked then.

"Yes. In two weeks, I think. Around the time we should be getting our exam results."

"Okay. I wish to meet him as well."

"Me too!"

"I'm glad to hear that."

A/N: I don't know when I'll update the next chapter... But I hope you liked this one despite me putting the entire first year into one chapter. (I swear I'm not rushing)

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