The golden wings of the Abraxan horses flittered in and out of Arielle's view as she hung out the carriage window. "Arielle!" one of the other girls snapped, "get back in here! None of us will catch you when you fall!"
Arielle just scoffed at her travelling companion, her bitter was showing. She wasn't even sure what was Adelaide was doing on such an important mission; she had just been moved from upperclassman to elite class. You'd think they would take more care in who they chose for a mission upon which the entire fate of the wizarding world rested upon.
Arielle pulled her torso back into the large blue carriage, "Stop being so crabby Adelaide!" she told the other girl off, her delicate face with the expressive dusty red lips managing to look surprisingly threatening.
The group of women was travelling in style – they had gotten all the necessary permissions from the ministry to go into London even though the entire country had been cordoned off. They had been cleared for 'independent studies abroad' to be 'chaperoned' by an alumni of the school.
The alumni, Fleur, wasn't actually much older than Arielle, she had just opted out of the extra years of schooling after she had graduated at seventeen. She had instead gone to work in Britain at Gringotts after effortlessly tracking down the young man who had caught her eye during the Triwizard tournament. She had recently married him and then travelled back to France to drop off her family and escort the younger students to Britain.
Madame Baudin scowled at the lot of them – even Fleur who had been sitting across the carriage observing. They were on their way to the apartment they would be pretending to stay at. From there they would be apparating to a secondary location where they would meet their associates.
"You girls will need to pretend to get along better. You're representing Beauxbatons in a foreign country on a covert op, and with students from another wizarding school to boot."
Arielle tried to assume the look of a person properly scolded, waiting the minimum amount of time before sticking her head back out the window. Her hair, dark brown with the slightest hint of red, had been tied back in a braid to prevent it flapping wildly around her head.
Finally they landed at a site cleared by the ministry. They were in a clearing in the middle of some dreary English forest. Ministry officials had placed charms around the area for their convenience to ward people off and two official looking men in black pressed robes walked up to intercept them their carriage.
Arielle pulled herself back in and they all shared a solemn look before Adelaide – as the most junior member of the team – unlatched the door, hopping out and down to the ground to pull out the wooden step for the rest of them.
Madame Baudin stepped out followed by Fleur, their 'chaperone', and then Arielle. Baudin strode towards the men who were looking at the group of women disdainfully. Baudin usually cut a pretty intimidating figure. She had dark purple tailored robes and her hair was cut perfectly straight, emphasizing her cheekbones, and pulled back into an elegant bun. She scowled viciously at the men, turning her nose up at them.
"Ladies," one of the men greeted, just barely concealing a laugh. Fleur walked a half a step behind Madame Baudin, Arielle and Adelaide another two steps behind them. The man who had talked turned to the side and held an arm up, gesturing for them to go forward. The other man headed up the group while he slunk to the back, effectively blocking them in.
Adelaide tried not to be uncomfortable with it – the men were putting up a pretense of protecting the Beauxbatons group and the girls could not afford to be outwardly hostile against the ministry. They were guided to a black car that had been magically expanded. The ministry men sat in the front, divided from the girls by a partition. This front fooled no one; they avoided talking about anything, certain the car had some sort of listening or recording device hidden inside.
After some time they arrived at an impressive looking apartment building. It was only four floors high but the apartments were large and the outside was covered by pale tan bricks with flags hanging out over the street. The apartment had been secured for them by Beauxbatons, which kept an allowance for any students studying abroad. Though they weren't actually studying in the strictest sense of the word they still needed to keep up appearances, and they were on assignment from the school.
The men escorted them up the narrow staircase to their apartment. The girls hauled their suitcases up the stairs; they had been left to carry them themselves and had done so after some huff. Madame Baudin fished the apartment key out of her pocket and they walked into the large windowed apartment. It was furnished with dark blue furniture and had two bedrooms, one for Fleur and the other for Arielle and Adelaide to share.
They dumped down their bags but the men had yet to leave. They stood in the apartment staring at the group of women; one of them sat himself down on their couch in what Arielle considered to be a rather entitled way. His arms spread out along the back of the couch and his legs stuck out.
The girls restrained themselves from looking around the apartment in the presence of the two men. Adelaide clenched her teeth rather obviously while leaning against a doorframe, trying to look aloof but her shoulders were too tense to pull it off adequately. Arielle was doing much better, but mostly she just blended into the background, well within sight but looking unimportant.
Fleur and Madame Baudin on the other hand were complete pros. Fleur gave them a warm smile and set herself down on the couch opposite, hands folded neatly into her lap and sitting up perfectly straight, she stared at the two of them attentively. Madame Baudin walked towards them, no more welcoming than earlier but they wouldn't have expected it of her anyway.
"Gentlemen, can we 'elp you weeth anything?" she asked in the usual French stereotype accent.
"Nothing, ma'am," he chuckled once again, "we just need to go over some procedures with you."
He went on to drone about the areas of the country they 'might want to stick to' and how to reach Hogwarts if they had any concerns. The floo of course – common sense, but they didn't seem to think much of the Beauxbatons group's collective intelligence. Hogwarts, of course, would be overrun with death eaters as Dumbledore had just died and Snape had been instated as the new headmaster. They did however have a contact inside the school which the ministry was unaware of, Minerva McGonagall.
Adelaide tuned them out. She only focused again once they started moving toward the door. Even as they walked out they gave the girls an unpleasant, cold look. They lingered far longer than necessary.
As the door finally clicked shut behind them there was a communal sigh of relief. "Thank g-" Adelaide started, but was cut off by a harsh look from the Madame. Of course, the house could be under surveillance. Adelaide's face reddened in an ugly splotchy way.
"Girls," Madame started curtly, "leave your bags; I will be attending you to your first location before I leave tonight."
The girls wheeled their bags into their rooms, committing the content configuration and bag placement to memory lest someone should go through them. When they got back they would scan the apartment for listening charms – it was unlikely that anyone would have thought to use the muggle 'bugging' devices that Beauxbatons taught their students to use. No one ever looked for muggle technology.
They'd have to do this without Madame's help, it was far more important she accompanied them to the preliminary meeting. They headed out into the street and walked until they were well out of sight of their building and sure they weren't being tailed. At that point they cut into an alley and apparated to the meeting place secured by Minerva.
The hut they appeared outside of was decrepit. It had been linked to their current target but Minerva was certain no one would make the association. It was a dark wooden house on a small island surrounded by the sea. It seemed to sway with the howling of the wind, containing only a common area and one bedroom on a second level. Minerva had come ahead of time to reinforce the walls with magic and ensure that no surveillance could take root on the small island.
They had arrived before their associates so Madame sat them down on the threadbare couch and gave them all a stern look. "Adelaide, your usually sloppiness will not be tolerated on this mission, nor will your lack of focus, Arielle. Fleur, it is your job to keep the three of you together and organized. You will give the other representatives as little accurate information about yourselves and our school as is possible.
"Remember you are all here for a reason. You will stick together, you will remember that you all belong here, you will not fight, and you will finish this mission."
They all nodded and Madame nodded back at them with an ever so slight air of approval, evidently she was pleased with her choice in agents. Shortly after that they heard the hollow clunk of a boat pulling up on the island. Adelaide shook her head, those people and their boats.
The door opened and in strode a burly looking man in a heavy looking fur coat and a matching hat. Following him were two young men, a short wiry man with a scowl and the ridiculously unattractive looking beginnings of a beard, and with him was a perpetually duck-footed, round-shouldered man of exactly twenty-one who had dark hair and eyes and a small newly grown beard.
"Viktor!" Fleur trilled; she and the other girls had been unaware of who exactly had been arranged to come from Durmstrang. Her old triwizard opponent smiled at her.
Hopefully Fleur wouldn't get too comfortable – the games had just begun.
A/N - The next chapters probably require more putting-together so they might be a while.