La vie de Lucien de Bressolles

Disclaimer: I own nothing…..nope nothing at all

Chapter 2

I arrived at Beauxbatons with all pomp and glory, as befitted my station, in a carriage of pitch black, embossed with my coat of arms upon its door, drawn by two brilliantly white pegasi.

I was dressed in the finest silk robes, of my house colours, which generally made my appearance rather ominous, pitch black flowing robes, lined in white. My hair tied at the nape of my neck with a black ribbon. Black cloak draped elegantly over my shoulders clasped with a silver pin. Although generally the thing that made my appearance slightly unnerving, beyond the black was Apophis, curled around my waist.

Snakes have been feared for centuries, they weren't in ancient times but at some point in the middle ages, the muggle religions influenced beliefs, and began to insight fear.

I was greeted by a house elf, which promptly released my pegasi in a field, and proceeded to shrink my carriage, and store it, after removing my luggage and sending it to my chambers or so I was informed.

As I was preparing to attempt to find my assigned quarters, another carriage arrived at the gate, bearing the arms of the second born, of a noble family, one which I did not recognise, although at that point in time I wasn't well aware of all families.

A girl of about my age, stepped out, wearing fashionable expensive designer family robes. The robes were blood red, had full bell sleeves, and ermine fur cuffs. A full cloak, of a slightly darker colour covered the robes. The true mark of her nobility though was the lining of the cloak; it was fully lined in black ermine, from the deep hood to tips which touched the ground. Her black glossy ringlets fell just below her shoulders, in perfect order, and her eyes were perhaps the darkest I have ever seen, deep black, almost like molasses. She was simply beautiful.

She was in essence the epitome of a pure blooded daughter, that fact alone turned me away from her, as I was still very prejudice, even if I did not realise it. My ideas stemmed from all knowledge I had of true 'noble' purebloods, those such as the Malfoy family. I had developed over time ideals, about magic and so called purebloods, I can't even guess the trouble I must have put the unspeakables through, with my ridiculous ideals that dark was the same as evil, and any who would consider using a so-called 'dark' spell must have been simply evil. I was undoubtedly influenced by those who wanted me to think this way, but that is another issue.

For you, the poor plebeian, who has undeniably found my memoir, I will attempt to rid you of one of these ideals, if you actually possess it. Darkness can be threatening, it can be addictive and it can be dangerous and sinister, mysterious and secretive, perhaps even dishonourable. But evil is another thing entirely. Evil is something which is morally wrong in principle as well as practice, it is malevolent and malignant. Darkness can cause harm yes, and hurt and punish people. But evil causes harm for the purposes of causing harm, for the pure sadistic pleasure gained through suffering. Darkness can be used as an agent in evil, but theoretically so can everything else.

A may not have liked the girl on first sight, due to my own idiotic prejudices at the time, but I still remembered my training. It was polite to introduce oneself properly after all. I went to her, and introduced myself. She told me her name was Amélia La Croix, and as a dutiful pure blooded lord I raised her knuckles to my lips and offered to escort her to her chambers.

House elves I will admit are useful, if annoying creatures. After showing Mademoiselle La Croix to her door, I finally actually paid attention to the crest emblazoned on her door. It proved to me she really was of old, old blood.

As my dear reader the creation of crests was blocked in the year 1418, so any who bear a proper coat of arms is a true pure blooded family, well I suppose there is the exception of squibs if their blood is old enough their children could bear a crest. Of course crests were created after 1418, they just aren't like ours, usually merely initials or family names or rings converted into the shape of a lozenge with a slight amount of decoration, showing nobility.

True crests are different. Colours and animals dictate traits which are honoured by the family. Marks of cadence show family positions. Dear Amélia possessed a crest with a sanguine, or marron base, on it were two animals a sable panther, which showed her family was fierce, yet tender and loving toward children, and would defend her own with her very life. There was also a sable fox, illustrating that her family would use all their wit and wisdom to defend themselves. Fitting I suppose, Amélia was always a sly cunning girl though. Above these two animals was a crescent, a mark of cadence designated to the second born, although Amélia was the first born her brother was heir and thus bore the mark of the first. The marron represented patience in battle, yet nearly always victorious, the sable symbolised constancy.

I myself bore a coat of arms. The base colour was sable, embodying the ideals of constancy. Down the centre, point down is an argent dagger with a golden hilt, symbolising military victory and honour. To the left of the dagger is an argent tiger, representing fierceness and valour, resentment, a danger if aroused. To the right was an argent serpent, representing wisdom. The argent of my crest signifies sincerity. I suppose our crests were rather alike in their representations of the ideal traits of our families but that is beside the point. I bore no mark of cadence; even then I was lord of my family and a Count in my own right, well thanks to the unspeakables at any rate. You will have to forgive me, whoever you are reading this, for I have long since given up referring to myself as anything other than Comte Lucien de Bressolles.

For those of you who have no understanding when I talk of things like coats of arms and marks of cadence, I shall endeavour to enlighten you, as for all I know the individual reading this is an imbecile, well at least to me, but I have been called arrogant in the past.

A coat of arms is the mark of a true old pure blooded family. All who bear one are nobility and are generally rich, or at least act like they are. We own manors and castles and are never in want for anything, as the mere look at a crest will grant you instant respect, in France and Europe at any rate. These crests are not born by many in England as when marriages and alliances are made, crests will merge together somewhat and new families form. England is just a little inbreed, shall we say and thus has lost many of its crests to mere numbers. You simply cannot have too many people bearing the same crest so it is easier to do away with them.

A mark of cadence is used to represent the position in the family, this dictates how much respect must be shown, how much land is likely to be inherited by the individual and thus essentially how much they are worth, as barbaric as it sounds. There are nine different marks, simple bar across the top with three small bars draping vertically down from it denotes an heir or the first born, a crescent the second born, a five or six pointed star (mullet) the third born, The forth born bears a martlet, a footless swallow, the fifth bears an annulet, a ring, the sixth born a fleur-de-lis, the seventh a rose, the eighth a cross Moline and finally the ninth born bears a double quatrefoil.

Animals and symbols of all sorts appear on crests each representing a different attributes or ideal. Argent or white is peace and sincerity, sable, or black is constancy and so on and so forth. In reality it matters little, and I suggest dear reader that if you do not understand to go and read a book, for I see no reason to spend my memoir writing explanations any more than need be.

My own chambers were on the same floor as Amélia's, it was the neutral area of the castle, those of us whose allegiance was hard to gain and harder to keep as we preferred to stay on the sidelines of feuds and battles and pick up the pieces in the end along with aiding those we felt could prove useful in times to come. The upper areas of the neutral floor, with the better views and more luxurious chambers, were reserved for the higher age groups, or those of us, who were lords not heirs, or the richest and more powerful among us. I myself was included in this area as both a lord and possessing a highly influential and powerful name.

Embossed on an ornate ebony door was my family crest, with my family motto emblazoned underneath "Per omnia saecula saeculorum" Essentially it means, through all eternity or the ages of the ages. The entrance was guarded by a from of security which examined and checked magical signatures, only allowing those granted entrance to escape unscathed, unless they had good reason of course. My chamber consisted of three rooms, a bedroom, equipped with a king size four-poster bed, with black hangings, and an elaborate chest. It was in essence rather plain when I moved in and remained much the say way for the three years I spent at school.

My bathroom was simple enough, just a bathroom with the amenities needed to please one such as me.

The final room serves as a lounge, library, study and occasional dining room. It had a large open fireplace, bordered on each side by floor to ceiling book cases, into which I placed my books given to me by the unspeakables, who did in fact later set me up a library in one of my manors by simply copying books ignoring and overriding copyright charms, these book cases were of course protected by charms and enchantments so the fire would never touch them.

There were two leather couches, which sat around a mahogany coffee table, also a desk, if I was so inclined to use it. An owl perch stood near the bay windows, which opened to look upon the mountains surrounding the school (A/N I don't care if it is in reality or not but my Beauxbatons is in the Alps), perhaps the final thing worth mentioning was the bell rope which hung in the corner, one tug and my personal house elf, whom we got assigned to us on our arrival, would come to our aid.

In mu fifth year I believe my elf was called something ridiculous like Bonbon, an odd elf, one whose company I preferred to live without. I think he was the first living thing I used one of my new wands on, as my old one was snapped when I was banished from the world as was custom in England.

My new wands, purchased by me during the summer, one for duelling the other for everyday. Both were custom made by a wand maker known only as Le Créateur, the creator, an odd man if I've ever met one, he used an interesting array of sources for his wands and always, at the end of the handle would be a gem of some kind, picked by the customer. He said they enhanced power, at the time I merely thought it was his trademark. As to whether the gems enhance power or not, well that depends on the type of magic and the gem I suppose.

My everyday wand is 10 ¾ inches long, made of a mixture of fir and hazel wood, its core, the tail feather of a Roc, suspended in a concoction of my own blood and Apophis' venom, the gem on the end to 'enhance' certain spells is a arrowhead of pure black obsidian. All in all it is a beautiful wand, rather rigid, excellent for almost all uses, though exquisite when used in the arts of rituals, or the darker shades of magic.

Duelling doesn't actually require a different wand, but duelling wands are what most purebloods used to have, they are built to allow more power to flow through them and at a faster rate, making duelling easier. My duelling wand is 14 inches long made purely of ebony, its core, the hair of a nymph, mixed with the blood of an elder vampire, and on the point a prism shaped garnet.

Wand making would have been an interesting thing to study; mind you I have never run out of interesting things to study.

It is a tradition at Beauxbatons at the start of each year to test each of the students, for everything really, talents, blood types, diseases, generally we assumed they just wanted some of our blood for one purpose or another, but they did actually test some of it, and at the beginning of my fifth year revealed to me a talent I never knew I had

A/N: You know what would be nice? For those of you who are actually reading this to push the little grey button in the corner and say something, anything at all, just say something plz….