A/N Once again a big thanks to my Beta: Peeves' Best Friend. I don't know how I would ever crawl out of all of my errors without you.
FLEUR DE LA MER
CHAPTER TWO: Hogwarts Awaits
FLEUR (Beauxbatons Castle, October 29th)
It had been a horrible day for Fleur. A truly horrible day.
First, she had spent the entire morning in the company of the Venomous Tentacula, which had been desperately trying to strangle her from behind with every chance it got. Obviously, the plants didn't succeed, but they did manage to rip her robes while aiming for Amélie, who was stupid enough to try and hide behind Fleur. What kind of reaction was that for a witch? Why not just curse the plant to hell and back? No, instead the annoying girl jumped behind Fleur.
This meant that she would have to spend her evening trying to figure out how to sew that rip back together. Fleur Delacour did not sew things back together. She should have recognized that as an omen for the rest of the day.
Secondly, lunch had been awful. The house elves had managed to put food on the table that was clearly not meant for eating. Fleur didn't know exactly what had happened in the kitchen, but it certainly couldn't have been good.
And as if all of that wasn't enough yet, her normally very interesting Transfiguration class had been completely and utterly boring. So boring in fact, that she had trouble keeping her eyes open. For all she knew, a bomb could have gone off and she wouldn't have noticed a thing.
To sum it up: ripped clothes, horrible food, boring afternoon. This was definitely not Fleur's day.
So there she was, sitting in the dining hall, waiting for Madame Maxime to show up so that they all could finally start with dinner. Fleur was starving, and her mood had dropped to new depths.
It was safe to say that the look in Fleur's eyes at the moment could kill, yet it was not the eyes people were worried about, but her thrall. The quarter-Veela knew she was giving off some serious vibes, and guessing from the look in poor Matthieu's eyes two seats further, he was close to passing out. The poor boy always had been easily affected. Fleur's eyes flew across the table, resting on Amélie. She was secretly pleased to see that the girl had sat down as far away from her as possible.
"Thank God! I'm still on time. Maxime would've never let me leave detention if I'd been late for dinner again!"
Inès dropped in the seat next to Fleur's, sighing deeply and looking slightly disheveled.
"What happened to you?" Fleur asked, looking at her friend.
"Fournier made me stay after class, he was not too happy with me setting my desk on fire, remember." Inès sighed despondently.
"Quoi?! How did you do that? And where was I?" Fleur frowned, trying to remember.
"Asleep, probably." Inès grinned. "He was not too happy with you either, he wants to see you in his chambers tonight. And do you know you are flashing thrall in like, every direction? And it's not even your nice, usual thrall, the one that simply makes people drool.. No.. It feels very angry."
Suddenly people stood up all around them, and Fleur and Inès hurried to rise as Madame Maxime staggered at a frighteningly fast speed through the great hall towards the staff table. She was scowling intensely and as she marched on, she tried elegantly balling her fists. Or as Fleur saw it, failed at looking elegant at all.
"She looks about as happy as you." Inès whispered amusedly.
"Mademoiselle Martin, please keep your comments to yourself." Madame Maxime snapped as she passed the girls. "And mademoiselle Delacour, I know you aren't that good at controlling your thrall, but do try reeling it in a bit. You're affecting your classmates."
Inès sniggered beside Fleur, not caring about the reprimand and instead laughed at the gasps around her. Madame Maxime didn't reprimand Fleur in public very often. When the headmistress sat down, so did her students, and she clapped in her hands. Suddenly, the tables were filled with food.
Fleur ate slowly and elegantly, obviously distrusting the food after the whole disastrous lunch incident. Luckily, as if to make up for what they'd done earlier that day, the house elves had put an extremely delicious dinner on the table. Her hunger slowly disappeared, along with her horrid mood, and the atmosphere got a little less tense at Fleur's table. The people around her started laughing and talking and even poor Amélie dared to look at the quarter-Veela again. But not for long, and it made Fleur smirk as the girl still didn't dare meet her eyes.
Changing her attention to the girl sitting across the table, Fleur asked: "Julie, have you made a decision yet?"
The blonde smiled at Fleur, swallowing her food before answering. "Oui. I have." She said softly, looking at Fleur.
"You're staying.." Fleur said, instantly hiding the disappointment she was feeling.
"What?! Why? Oh come on Julie, you'll be missing out on so much fun!" Inès interrupted before Fleur could say anything else. Which, as Fleur thought about it, was a good thing as she was quite perplexed with Julie's decision.
"I'd rather spend my year here, studying, than over the Channel trying to get killed in that Tournament." Julie smiled apologetically at her friends. "I told Madame Maxime earlier today. I think that's why she's in such a foul mood. She needs to find my replacement before you all leave for Hogwarts."
"And that's in a day."
"Yeah" Julie nodded. "You better start packing."
"Ha." snorted Inès. "Fleur probably never even bothered to unpack!"
The people around the three girls sniggered at that remark. All of Beauxbatons knew of her hopes to become its champion by now. The rumours in the hallways were currently taking a rather favorable pro-'Fleur as champion' turn. The negative whispers were far outnumbered by the massive amount of positive support. While a total of forty students would go to Hogwarts, no one else had so openly proclaimed their desire to take part in the tournament, and no one else was known as well as Fleur around the chateau.
Fleur sighed at the peoples amusement at Inès' comment. Of course they had been listening in. The times she had had a private conversation in this place, she could count on one hand. And it was exhausting to have so many people hanging around her. It was exhausting that they would never leave her alone.
Matthieu, still sitting two seats further, was finally shaking off the effects of Fleur's thrall and looked at her admiringly. Fleur knew what he saw. Sparkling, deep sapphire blue eyes, silvery blond hair, stunningly sharp looks, She could have him any time she wanted. A mocking smile played around her lips when she winked at him. He started blushing ferociously, and a teeny tiny part of her felt bad, before her attention got drawn back to Inès arguing loudly with Julie and Isabella about the effects of a good fire.
".. Well I didn't even know it was burning until it was too late." Inès said only slightly remorseful.
"You should have tried to put it out at least, instead of grinning at the flames. You looked like a maniac." Isabella Velasquez frowned, her Spanish accent barely noticeable. Not always agreeing with everything Fleur said, she was one her more likeable classmates and they got along nicely, though their friendship was not going that deep.
"Oh don't be such a spoilsport. That class was boring anyway, Fleur even fell asleep." Inès sighed deeply at the lack of support from her classmates.
"You do look like a maniac sometimes Inès." Fleur agreed with Isabella, still feeling Matthieu's prying eyes on her back. Maybe she shouldn't have winked.
"I do not!" Inès said indignantly. "if there is anyone occasionally looking like a maniac, it is you, Delacour, whenever you are staring menacingly into nothing at the windy top of Les Escaliers de l'Ange!"
Fleur snorted. Whenever she was going crazy, she took the long stairs all the way to the top of the highest tower of Beauxbatons Castle, affectionately called Angel's Stairs by its inhabitants. Built into the Pyrenean mountains, the tower gave you a clear sight into both France and Spain. It was the perfect spot to unwind, according to Fleur, who liked to read atop of the tower, to escape the crowds below every once in a while.
There were some advantages to being Fleur Delacour, one of them being that it had become some sort of unwritten rule to leave her alone atop les Escaliers. Unfortunately, every year, again and again, it was a struggle to keep the first years off of the tower. Maybe that had inspired her to adopt a permanent scary look whenever she was there. Which was not nearly as often as she wanted to.
She wondered if she could find a place like that at Hogwarts. She doubted it though, with students from all three great wizarding schools there, it had to be pretty crowded. For their sake, she hoped she wasn't forced to read in their library. Libraries, while filled with infinite knowledge, were also very dusty.
Dinner was soon over, with Madame Maxime staggering off into some small hallway behind the staff table, and Fleur quickly got up. No matter what her friends had to say, she still had to pack some things.
"Remember! Fournier expects you in his office at eight!" Inès called after her friend, but Fleur pretended not to hear. She had better things to do. A quick glance at her silver watch proved her wrong. No one could afford to simply ignore a professor's summons. Not even Fleur Delacour. That meant having to charm her clothes to fold into her trunk tonight. And somehow fixing that bloody cut in her robes. Disapprovingly, she stuck her fingers through the fabric again while walking the path towards the professor's office.
She softly knocked on professor Fournier's thick wooden door. When she heard an affirmative 'yes', she turned the brass doorknob and entered the professor's chambers. Fournier was sitting behind his desk, close to a gently burning fire in the right corner of his office. He was reading some kind of letter and he waved Fleur to come closer.
"Close the door and sit down, mademoiselle Delacour." He said, without looking up.
Pulling the door back in its lock, Fleur walked over to the desk and sat down in the wooden chair across from Fournier. When the professor finished reading, he took off his glasses and looked at the quarter-Veela in front of him.
"I'm sure you know why you are here?" He asked softly but sternly.
"Non." She answered curtly, not bothering to be polite. Her fingers were still touching the annoying hole in her robes. She hated imperfection.
"Miss Delacour, you fell asleep in my class. You may be one of my better students, but that does not excuse you to simply take a nap whenever you feel like it." Fournier sighed in dismay.
Fleur flashed a smile and stood up.
"We are not done here, Delacour." Fournier said curtly.
"Je suis désolée monsieur. It really wasn't my intention to fall asleep in your class. I just felt so.. tired." said Fleur charmingly.
Fleur looked to her transfiguration professor and smiled when she saw his eyes turn glassy. He slowly leaned back in his chair, still looking at the quarter-Veela with slightly empty eyes.
"I'm so sorry monsieur, it will not happen again." She flashed her teeth again, he probably wondered how they could be so white.
"Oui.. Oui. Just this once then." Fournier said slowly, words hard to find.
"Can I go then?" Fleur asked politely. When no answer came, she snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. "Monsieur?"
"Oui.." He nodded vaguely, thoughts all over the place.
Fleur grabbed her bag and turned around, her silvery blond hair dancing behind her. It was the last Fournier saw of her before she closed the door.
She whistled while walking through the hallways of Beauxbatons castle. Controlling her thrall in a specific way was new, she liked it. Maybe today wasn't too awful after all.
"What did Fournier say?" Inès asked when Fleur dropped onto her friend's bed an hour later. She snuggled beside her friend and smiled at the ceiling.
"Oh, you know, nothing special." She grinned. "Something about not sleeping in his class."
"Oui," Inès sighed. "You ready for tomorrow?"
"All packed, can't wait. A shame Julie can't come though." Fleur said dreamily. "I wonder who is going to replace her."
"I heard Jacques Gaillard got the spot, which is weird because I thought he rejected the offer before summer. Something about not wanting to risk his life."
"Gaillard? Vraiment?" Fleur frowned instantly "Last time I saw him he was still practicing a simple summoning charm."
"That's just because you don't pay attention to anyone. He's gotten quite good actually. Well, he's a pureblood after all, has to live up to the family name." Inès grinned.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Fleur asked darkly. "He has to be good since he is a pureblood?"
"Oh come on Fleur, don't be like that, you know what I mean. He probably has to live up to daddy's standards." hushed Inès.
"Yeah sure" Fleur said, and got up.
"Where are you going?" Her friend asked. "Curfew starts in half an hour. You better be in bed by then. Tough day tomorrow, Maxime wants to go by carriage. Remember that crash last year?"
"Merde. Instead of simply apparating." Fleur growled, ignoring the fact that that was not an option "Always trying to impress with flying horses, that headmistress of ours. Anyways, don't worry. I'll be back on time."
The quarter-Veela smiled on the inside, knowing that Inès knew she lied and yet said nothing. Her normally very loud roommate and best friend knew when to keep quiet. Fleur needed her moments.
She started to wander around the castle, taking in the sights, avoiding the most obvious routes to the second year dormitories. The chateau was so quiet at night, so serene. She was going to miss it, but adventure and glory were awaiting her over the horizon.
Quietly, she sneaked into her sister's dorm room, slipping her hand over Gabrielle's mouth to make sure she wouldn't wake anyone. When her little sister started to squirm, she let go.
"Fleur!" the little girl hissed, "What are you doing here?!"
"You didn't think I would leave without saying goodbye, would you?" Fleur whispered smilingly. "Come on, let's go." She stood up swiftly and silently made her way towards the exit.
Fleur was surprised when Gabrielle didn't move.
"What is it? Too cold outside of your bed?"
"Fleur.. it's not that I don't want to, but I have been in detention thrice this month alone.. Maman is furious with me already. I can't risk getting caught again." Gabrielle whispered, the disappointment clear in her voice.
"Oh ma petite. I'm sorry, I should have thought about that.." Fleur spoke sadly. "I wanted to spend some time before I left for England, show you some places.." She sat down beside her little sister, putting an arm around her shoulders.
"I'll miss you." Fleur whispered, and kissed her sister's forehead. "Don't do anything too stupid and write me whenever you can, okay?"
Gabrielle nodded and the two Delacour sisters hugged one last time, before Fleur slipped back into the night. Tomorrow there would be no time for a true personal goodbye.
Hours later, the sunlight on her face forced her to wake up earlier than she had planned. Way earlier.
This was a problem. As Fleur knew far too well by now. Once awake, the French witch could never fall asleep again. She groaned loudly in frustration, and stared at the ceiling above her bed. Today was the day. Today was finally the day. She got up and silently moved towards the door of the adjoining bathroom, careful not to wake up Inès, who was lucky enough to still be sleeping like a baby.
Half an hour later, and freshly showered, she opened the doors to the empty dining hall. Not even bothering to be elegant when no one was around, she dropped into a chair, grabbing a croissant and reaching for a can of coffee the house elves had left there only moments earlier. Slowly, she started eating her breakfast, and after a while other students bound to leave for Hogwarts, started to enter the hall. It was nearly six-thirty now, and judging by their faces, that was too early.
The doors of the hall opened once again, and a panicked looking Inès appeared through them, wearing a strange ensemble of both muggle clothing and their Beauxbatons uniform.
"What on earth are you wearing?" Fleur raised an eyebrow and looked at her friend. "You better not let Maxime see you like this."
"Those idiotic house elves have already taken away our luggage to the carriage, and yesterday evening I was stupid enough to put my dress uniform in it." Inès cursed, relaxing a bit after seeing that there were no teachers around. "Now I had to make do with what was left in the room. Which, as you can see, wasn't much."
"If I were you I'd go looking for it. Now." Fleur sipped indifferently of her coffee "We're leaving in less than an hour."
"Aren't you going to help me?"
"I'm having breakfast..."
"Fleur!"
"Fine, fine, let's go." Fleur sighed, she guessed there was no way around it.
They showed up just in time for departure, Inès looking grateful in Julie's slightly too tight, borrowed robes, Fleur looking annoyed for cutting it so close.
There, in the courtyard, stood a carriage the size of a large house, drawn by Beauxbatons' gigantic flying horses. Because it was so early, few people came to say their goodbyes, and the courtyard was nearly empty except for a few professors.
It was hard for Fleur not to smile when she passed professor Fournier. He refused to look at her and instead stared at the sky.
They quickly climbed aboard the carriage, ignoring their headmistress' disapproving stare. It was not the first time Fleur entered, but like all other times, she was slightly stunned by the sheer size of the inside of the carriage. They were standing in a large, slightly curved, open central room, it's height reaching all the way to the top of the carriage. Left and right you could see the several floors ending in hallways all centered around the room. In the middle of the central hall, there was an open fireplace, and around it were a dozen comfortable couches. Further in the back there were several tables and light fell in through the glass ceiling of the hall and the several windows in the back and front.
Fleur quickly took the stairs on the right to the third floor and started walking towards her room. She left Inès behind, secretly a little glad that she would finally have a room to herself again. She had been slightly pissed off at the beginning of the year, when she wasn't given the best student chambers of the castle, as was her right as the top 7th year student. But after Maxime had patiently promised that she would have the top students rooms in the carriage, she had quickly calmed down. It was true, after all, that she was spending her year at Hogwarts, and not Beauxbatons, so she had no need for the chambers in France. She had swallowed her pride, and shared a room with Inès for the first two months of the year.
Fleur entered her room, and was glad to see there was already a fire burning. Yes, these chambers would do nicely. Swiftly leaving the small, but comfortable living room behind her, she entered her bedroom, and noticed her trunk at the bed end. She smiled, and laid down on her bed. The smell of fresh sheets excited her, but not as much as the small thud indicating the carriage had started moving. If everything went by plan, they would arrive at Hogwarts at 6 o'clock, right on time for dinner.
A couple of hours and a nap later, Fleur was enjoying a book by the fire when she was disturbed by a knock on the door. The person opened the door without waiting for permission, but Fleur swallowed her protests when she realized it was the headmistress.
"Mademoiselle Delacour, can I come in?" Madame Maxime asked politely.
Fleur nodded and the headmistress had to bend her neck a little to fit through the doorway, the carriage had obviously not been made with her in mind. Maxime closed the door behind her and sat down in an armchair across from Fleur. They both stared at each other in silence.
"Did you think I wouldn't find out?" Maxime asked curtly.
Fleur hesitated at the tone of the headmistress's voice.
"Find out what?" She asked confused.
"You used your thrall on a teacher. A teacher! What on earth where you thinking?" said Madame Maxime angrily. "This is unacceptable behavior Fleur, even for you. You are lucky that you are such a good student, or professor Fournier would have asked for your expulsion, and I would have gladly agreed to it. Did you even think about the consequences?"
Fleur Delacour's mouth was dry and she couldn't do anything but stare at her headmistress. Merde, she thought, merde.
"Your heritage has been difficult enough to tolerate for some members of the school board already. If you start using your thrall like this it won't be long or they'll be screaming until we never allow Veela in again! How could you do this? Well, it doesn't matter. This is the last time that happened or you will be expelled."
Fleur scowled, but, given the situation, decided against speaking up.
"Your privileges are withdrawn for a month. You will abide by curfew and I expect you in my office every Friday, for detention. You can consider this a formal warning."
Madame Maxime stood up and started walking in the direction of the door, with her hand on the doorknob, she spoke up one last time.
"Don't ever do something stupid like that again. We have an image to uphold, you and I. For someone who has always claimed that you are more than just that part Veela, I am surprised you want people to think you would so easily abuse your powers."
Madame Maxime left with an elegant swirl of her robes, closing the door behind her and leaving Fleur sitting on her own.
Okay so maybe using my thrall wasn't such a good idea, Fleur thought, but I didn't really think it would work. I mean, it never has before.. Well great. Now Maxime's pissed, I don't get to order food in my room for a month, and I have bloody detention. Brilliant way to start Fleur, really brilliant.
She scowled, stood up, kicked the chair in front of her in anger and closed the book she was still holding. Realizing the possible food problem, and because it was way past lunch time, Fleur swiftly left her room in order to look for the kitchen. Obviously smaller than the one they had at Beauxbatons, the kitchen in the carriage was only meant for light meals and snacks. It had been made clear that they were going to eat together with the Hogwarts students. Of course, some had complained when they realized that, claiming the English couldn't possibly allowed to be in charge of cooking, but Fleur wasn't about to complain now, if it was going to jeopardize her already rather unstable footing she was on with Maxime.
The problem with the kitchen on board, was that it was literally on the complete opposite site of the carriage from Fleur's room. Now, normally, this was no issue, but with Maxime withdrawing privileges left and right, she couldn't just summon a house elf and asked them to bring her food, no, she now had to walk the distance. Naturally, this didn't help one bit with the already dark mood that she was in. Having all of that going on, the dark haired male student blocking her path never stood a chance.
"Hey Delacour, how are you?"
"What is it Gaillard? I'm in a hurry." Fleur bit out shortly.
The angry tone in her voice made Jacques Gaillard hesitate, but the pureblood was not generally one to back down, so he bravely continued on.
"I was wondering, considering the Tournament and all, if you wanted to practice together with me sometime. I need a new sparring partner and you're good. Maybe we could even grab a drink after. I heard there is a little village near Hogwarts, I could take you there." Gaillard asked slyly, smoothing a wrinkle out of his otherwise perfect dark blue uniform.
Fleur looked at him, and smiled politely. "I'm sorry, I already have Inès as my sparring partner. She'd probably kill me if I left her to spar with herself. Coincidentally, I'd kill myself if I don't get to eat something soon and the kitchen is that way."
She tried to walk beside past him, but he blocked her path.
"I'm sure mademoiselle Martin could find someone else." He smiled insistently. "Even so, I could still take you out for that drink."
"Look Gaillard, I'm hungry and really not into the whole 'let me buy you a drink with daddy's money' I have my own gold for that. Let's talk later, yeah?"
Fleur pushed him aside and considered the conversation over when he stopped her by grabbing her wrist.
"What is your problem, Delacour? I'm just asking, you don't have to go all Veela on me." He bit.
"And I'm just telling you no." Fleur scowled, freeing her wrist from his hand.
"Come on, just one drink. That's all I'm asking for." He pleaded one last time.
"I'm not interested Gaillard, not now, not ever. Find someone else to bother because you are starting to annoy the crap out of me. Leave me alone or you'll regret it." Fleur said with a dangerous look in her eyes.
"What are you going to do? Use your thrall on me like you did on Fournier? Maybe my father was right when he said I shouldn't bother with a filthy halfbreed."
Fleur paled at his biting reply, resisted the urge to slap his smiling, triumphant face and instead stormed past him to find the kitchen. Realizing only when she arrived that this day had made her lose all appetite. And here she thought that going to Hogwarts was going to change everything. She really didn't seem to be able to catch a break. It felt as if this trip was doomed already, But when she looked through the window, and saw a large castle appear on the horizon, she felt like tomorrow might be better after all.