New Places, New People

It was dark. The sun had set and the lake appeared perfectly calm with the quilt of moonlight covering it. Sirius and Lily were standing silently near the lake. They were about to leave for France. After bidding their quick farewells to their friends, they appeared sad.

"I wish to be back soon," Sirius muttered to Lily, absent-mindedly.

Lily turned towards the castle and looked at it with watery eyes. It had been her home away from home. Her most memories had been those of Hogwarts. She was getting nostalgic.

"Me too," she said.

Professor Horace Slughorn appeared near the outline of the castle-bridge. He was waving to them, asking them to come to him. They started immediately.

"Good evening, sir," they said on reaching their Potions master.

"Good evening. We have to travel to France via Portkey system. I hope you two are well acquainted with it," He growled in a hurry expecting a positive answer.

"Yes, sir," they replied equally crisply.

"Good. The dead snitch, which is kept on the ground, is the portkey. I would be using it first and after I go, you two shall come. Together,"

He touched the silent snitch and was vanished in a second.

"Let's go," Lily urged Sirius to move but Sirius stopped her.

"Wait a minute. I want to show you something,"

"What now, Sirius?"

"See, the snitch. Usually snitches don't die and are never sleepy and quiet. But this one is. You know why?"

"Did you……"

Lily was cut in by Sirius.

"No, it was James. It was back in the third year, when he had joined the team as the seeker and I had joined as a beater. We had won the Quidditch School Cup. After the match, James nicked the snitch from Hooch and engraved our initials on it. Since then, it has been like this,"

Lily gaped at him in distrust.

"Seriously, I'm not kidding,"

"And he didn't suffer?"

"Of course we did. He was given detentions for the whole of next three months with Mary Hopkins. She made him write 'I will not kill snitch again' a thousand times every day throughout his detentions. He had even started saying that in his dreams,"

Instead of giving him a lecture on how she would have treated him, Lily just smiled.

"The marks must be somewhere there," He took her hand and leaned in to look at the snitch closely.

"See there," Sirius pointed out.

The letters 'J' and 'S' were deeply engraved on it exactly in the center where its wings met. The inscription was beautifully done.

Lily looked at it, amazed as she was.

Sirius dived in to touch the mark and suddenly both of them felt a deep pressure at their navels. They soon found themselves twisting and turning and falling off the sky. Next moment they were standing in the ground of Beauxbaton.

Both of them looked at the school building in stark amazement. It was a huge castle made of white marbles and stones. It had a central building with a colossal dome on top. It was surrounded by five minarets close by forming a pentagon. The crescent moon was shining right above the central dome, illuminating it brightly. The garden, which they were standing in, sprawled across and around the castle covering a huge area. The castle was surrounded by snow-capped mountains and a placid river flowed near the northern edge of the garden. It was simply beautiful.

"Good evening, Ms. Lily Evans and Mr. Sirius Black," A middle aged woman in oink robes, welcomed them. Her name was Jane Lwoff and she introduced herself as the potions teacher at Beauxbaton. She was backed by Edmund McClintock, middle-aged man wearing square spectacles and holding a list in his hands. He was the sports teacher at Beauxbaton

"Good evening, madam,"

"Good evening, sir,"

Sirius and Lily had gotten accustomed to saying their greetings in unison.

"It is always a pleasure to meet young blood, isn't it Jane?" Sir McClintock commented with a huge grin on his face.

"Always," she agreed, " Now, you two. Your shelter has been arranged in Pink Palace, a room for young guests in the school. Let us show you the room before our guests from Durmstrang arrive," insisted professor Lwoff.

"Sure, madam," Lily replied politely.

They started moving towards the castle when Sirius asked Sir McClintock, " I was wondering where professor Slughorn was,"

"He is with Madam Maxime, our headmistress," he answered shortly.

The castle was as beautiful inside as outside. A huge wooden door opened to unveil a vast circular room, finely decorated with chandeliers and showing off a huge round table possessing more than thousand chairs.

"This room is the common sitting and dining area for all the students," professor Lwoff spoke.

There were five staircases on five different points leading to the respective minarets. Lily and Sirius were led towards the one on the opposite end of the room. They climbed six floors before reaching a long passage, same like on each floor. On the right side of the passage was the Pink Palace.

"You will find different bunkers in the room. You are free to choose whichever you like," Sir McClintock informed them sweetly and the both of them left Lily and Sirius and went to welcome their guests from Durmstrang.

Sirius and Lily entered the room and found themselves in amidst a beautifully done up room. The room had a central sitting area complete with a fireplace and a bookshelf with the latest books on magic. There were six canopies arranged in a semi-circle on the left edge of the room. The canopies were of pink colour and nothing inside was visible. Lily chose the right-most canopy and Sirius chose the one next to hers.

"Any particular reason for clasping to my side or you just want to irritate me here also," Lily asked exasperatedly.

"It is better to keep close amidst strangers," Sirius replied with a tone of concern.

Lily gave a one sided smile and entered her canopy. It was a room in itself. There was a bed, a cupboard and even a writing table inside. Impressed, Lily came out of her canopy to inspect the common sitting area when she realized that she wasn't alone.

A boy was sitting near the fireplace, busy reading a book. He had a muscular body frame. His face was chiseled and his ebony black hair was carelessly kept.

Lily went up to him and introduced herself, " Hi, I'm Lily Evans from Hogwarts," she put her hand out.

The boy looked up and she found his hazel eyes gazing at her, reminding her of a certain messy haired boy she wanted to forget about; at least for then.

He got up, still staring at her, making Lily a little uncomfortable.

"Hi, I'm Aulay Mackenzie from Durmstrang," he took her hand and kissed it lightly.

She was impressed by his manners and was about to say something when she heard Sirius' voice.

"I don't believe this. Is this you Mackenzie?" He was surprised.

"Sirius Black, of course. How come you are here?" Aulay left Lily's hand and paced towards Sirius who was standing behind Lily.

"This is a place for captains and not wannabes," Sirius taunted him for something Lily couldn't understand. But it hit Aulay. It was visible on his face.

"And you are captain of Hogwarts," Aulay mimed.

"Even the most imbecile trolls would guess that in this situation," Sirius was becoming ruder.

"Sirius," Lily said in a warning tone.

"Let it be, Lily. He has always been like that – rude and conceited," Aulay said to Lily calmly. Then he turned to Sirius and taunted him innocently, " When do you wish to change that, Black?"

"When you stop hiding under the shadows of innocent girls, wannabe,"

Aulay flinched on being called a wannabe again and Sirius looked pleased at that.

Just then a short and plump girl with curly brown hair and light blue eyes came out of a canopy.

"Picked up fight again?" She asked the Durmstrang captain. On listening to her, Aulay backed off. Lily took advantage of the situation and introduced herself to the girl, " Hi, I'm Lily Evans from Hogwarts and he is Sirius Black," Sirius saluted her in a casual way.

"Hi, I am Pamela Devlin from Durmstrang," She replied softly.

The door of the room opened and two more students came in.

"Hello, Myself Mary Sears. Welcome to Beauxbaton," said a tall girl. She had a lean figure and purplish blue eyes. Her ankle length hair, which had been tied in a plait, delighted Lily. She liked long hair.

A thin and tall boy emerged from behind Mary and introduced himself as Ted Odum.

All six of them adjusted themselves on the couches in the sitting area and started chatting. The girls were cordial with each other. Lily found Pamela particularly endearing. Amongst the boys, Ted was calm and composed, reminding Lily of Remus. Except for Sirius and Aulay, everybody was friendly with each other. Lily wished to know the cause of their disapproval of each other, but who to ask. She couldn't ask Aulay, she hardly knew him. And Sirius wouldn't tell her. She left the matter for then and engrossed herself in the chat with others.