Harry Potter Junior Level: Year Two

Ch. 26

Welcome to France

The morning after the families arrive at the ski resort, Harry and Draco are meeting their ski instructors.

"Welcome to Avoriaz and France. We are pleased to meet you boys." One of the young men tells the boys after being introduced to them by Severus and Sirius.

"I am Jacques and Draco, I will be your instructor. This is my friend Henri."

"Hello Harry, I will be working with you. Draco, I understand you have some ski knowledge already." The other young man says smiling at the boy.

"I learned to ski at the age of six and I don't need to be given lessons in skiing but my Dad disagrees." Draco replies scornfully with a brief glare at Sev.

"Draconis." Severus replies.

Knowing the tone and the use of his full name is his only warning, Draco huffs silently but doesn't complain again.

"My son has not been on skis in at least three years, Jacques. I want him to have a safety lesson and work with an experienced instructor to broaden his knowledge. I have spoken to him about obedience and respect. He is to have both with you. Feel free to inform me of any problems of any kind and they will be dealt with." Severus tells the twenty something ski instructor.

"I'm sure we'll become pals, sir."

"Harry is to also behave and obey you, Henri. I want to know if he causes any problems of any kind. As Severus said, they will be dealt with. Harry has no training in skiing at all so he may have a difficult time at first."

"Now Sirs, you are not to worry over the boys. We have been working with children here at Avoriaz for four years and haven't lost a one yet. All will be fine. If you will excuse us, we will begin with the boys." Jacques replies, dismissing Sirius and Severus.

"Alright boys, let's get started. We will begin with the balancing exercises as balance is the key to successful skiing." Jacques tells the boys as he demonstrates how to stand in the skis. "Now you two try. Let's see you stand with the skis slightly separated and move one foot forward."

"Very good, Boys. You two have excellent balance already. Most beginners can't manage to move the ski and stand at the same time. Well then, let's take a practice ski. Draco, you go first and let's see how well you remember the technique. Just to the first tree and back. Go ahead." Jacques instructs him.

"Well done, Draco. I'm impressed! You remembered to lean forward slightly and how to turn. Harry? Let's see you try. Just push off with the poles and let the skis slide. I'll be right beside you so don't worry." Henri tells the frowning boy.

"Couldn't I try on my own like Draco did? I think I can do it."

"Not yet. I want to be beside you at first. Let's ski."

Sliding down the slope, Harry feels the skis under him and realizes it isn't as difficult as he thought. It's actually similar to being on a broom, with the balancing coming naturally. Reaching the tree, he swoops around it and pushes off with the poles to go back up the slope.

"Are you positive you have never skied before, Harry?" Henri asks as the two reach the top.

"Yes, Harry. That was excellent! You have been fooling us, haven't you. You really do know how to ski, aren't I correct?" Jacques asks.

"No, I never have done this before. It's not so hard. Let Draco and I go by ourselves now. We'll just go to the tree and back. Okay?"

"We'll follow you down." Jacques replies causing both boys to frown.

"Let's go Harry." Draco says pushing off on his skis.

Following, Harry catches up and is able to talk while beside him. "Draco, I'm going to dust them with snow at the tree. Don't react and don't tell my Dad, alright? I'm going to be in trouble if he finds out I used the M thing."

"Good idea. Drop a bunch on them so they'll leave us alone."

Just as the two boys reach the tree, the instructors catch up. "My, boys,what's the rush? You two took off and left us." Henri complains jokingly just before they are suddenly knocked to the ground by a small avalanche of snow.

Smirking, the two boys head back up to the top to wait for the two young men.

"Well, I think we need to call it a day here. You have done very well for your first day. We'll meet here tomorrow morning and go over more techniques and then practice the whole slope. I'll be letting your Dads know how well you did. You may keep the skis until you leave the resort. We'll see you tomorrow boys. Go find your Dads now." Jacques instructs as he and Henri brush the snow off of each other.

"Bye guys." Draco calls back as he and Harry go back towards the cabin.

Waiting until they are out of sight of the two instructors, Draco stops Harry. "Harry, the Dads don't know what time our lesson ends. Let's go over to the other slope and do some real skiing. You can charm your skis to perform. What'dya say?"

"Can we go to the main lodge and warm up first? I need some hot cocoa or something. I can't feel my feet."

"Yes, let's do that. I'm hungry too. Do you have money?"

"No." Harry sighs.

"Let's see if we can just charge it to our Dads. I bet they'll let us. Come on." Draco tells him.

Walking into the main lodge, carrying their skis, the boys are stopped by a young woman at the front desk.

"Hold on, boys. You must leave the skis outside the door. You can't bring them in here."

"But someone might take them!" Draco protests.

"No one will bother them. Now do as I say."

"Harry, place a sticking charm on them." Draco whispers as they lean the skis up next to the wall.

"I wish you could do wandless magic too. That way I wouldn't be the one doing everything. I'm not to do magic unsupervised or at all here and I'll get in trouble!"

"I know but come on do it for me. I can't do it without the wand but I do have my wand with me. It's in my suitcase and Dad doesn't know. I'll slip it up my sleeve tomorrow when we come out. Then you won't be in trouble or at least won't be in trouble alone! Let's get that hot drink."

"Miss! Come! We are ready to order here!" Draco calls loudly, waving over a waitress after the boys sit down in the restaurant.

"Yes young man, what may I get you?" The woman asks trying not to frown at the rude child.

"Bring us two hot cocoas and two slices of chocolate cake with that. Here's our cabin number just charge it." Draco orders in his Lord of the Manor voice.

"I'm sorry young man. In order to charge anything to your cabin, you must be at least eighteen. Unless I'm completely pants at figuring ages, I'd say neither of you is eighteen. If you bring a signed paper from your parents, I would happily charge for you. Until then all I can serve you is water unless you can pay differently. Would you like a nice refreshing glass of water?" The young woman asks.

"NO. We want the order we placed. I have my own card. Do your job and charge our order to this card. If you can't handle that, I'll speak to the manager and have you dismissed!" Draco tells her handing over a card.

"I'll be right back." The waitress tells them taking the card with her.

"Drake? Why are you being so hateful to her? What was that card and where did you get it?"

"I wasn't hateful, just firm. You have to be in charge to get what you want. Besides, she's just a servant. Being all sweet gets you nothing."

"Being hateful gets you a sore bum! You better watch that Lord Malfoy behavior around Uncle Sev or you'll eat supper standing up!"

"No worries Harry, he's not here. It's a muggle credit card. I confiscated it from Dad's muggle wallet this morning. I figured we might need it." What is taking her so long? It doesn't take that long to pour a couple mugs of cocoa and prepare two slices of cake.

"Wait! You STOLE it? DRACO!"

"SHHHHHH! I didn't steal it. I just borrowed it for the day! I plan to be putting it back later today. What's wrong with you?" Draco asks as Harry suddenly goes pale.

"Your Dad just walked in the front door and is coming this way." Harry answers quietly.

Watching his Dad speaking to the waitress and a man, Draco guesses to be the manager, his hands begin to sweat. Trying not to show how nervous he is, he wipes his hands on the legs of his snowpants. Harry is watching his Uncle also and sees him nod several times before heading towards the table where the boys are sitting.

"Gather your jackets boys and come with me. I assume the skis outside belong to the two of you?"

"Yes sir." Harry answers as Draco nods in agreement.

"You two go get the skis and wait there. I'll be right out."

"Are we in trouble?" Harry whispers to Draco as they pick up their skis.

"I'm not sure. I can't read him right now. He doesn't seem mad but then again he doesn't seem uh well normal either." Draco whispers back wondering why the two of them are whispering while he's doing it. It's not like his Dad can hear through walls.

After the boys leave the building, Severus speaks to the waitress.

"Thank you Madame for calling the room the way you did. I had no idea he had the card. I will be speaking to him about his attitude also. I'm sorry he was abrupt. What exactly did he say, if you don't mind repeating it."

"This was the blonde boy, correct? What about the other boy, was he also rude and demanding?"

"No Sir, he wasn't involved at all. The other one demanded everything be charged to your room and then got snippy when I said he had to be eighteen. He flashed that credit card of yours at me and threatened me with dismissal if I couldn't handle charging his card. We don't allow minors to charge anything unless we have written permission from the parents. I'm sorry to have had the manager call you but we felt you needed to know about the missing card."

"No apology needed, you did the correct thing. I'm grateful to know my card isn't in the hands of a stranger. If you'll hand me a piece of paper I'll write out permission for the boys to charge here."

Taking the paper and pen, Severus writes: I, Severus Snape, grant permission for my son Draco Snape and nephew Harry Black to charge no more than 100.50 francs {around $20.00} a day for the next two days, to cabin number 61, dating it and signing his name at the end.

"Thank you Monsieur Snape for the written permission. We will keep this on file and it will be for all areas of the resort. There is another cafe by the ski lift. I will send them a copy so the boys will be covered there also." The manager replies taking the paper.

Going to the door of the building, Severus says "Harry, wait right here a few moments. Draconis, come here. You have some apologizing to do young man. I want to hear a sincere apology for your rude behavior to the waitress. Come with me."

After making his apology as sincere as he can, Draco is told to follow his Dad back outside. "Let's go boys. Carry your skis." Severus orders leading them to the cabin. Once there, Severus takes Draco back into the bedroom he is using.

"What's going on, Harry? Did you and Draco cause trouble?" Sirius asks sternly, seeing the angry look on Severus' face and knowing the boys had to be picked up at the restaurant.

"Not me, Dad. Honest, I didn't. You can ask Uncle Sev. Draco took Uncle Sev's credit card and was really snotty to the waitress at the restaurant."

"Harry! You should not use that term." Sirius scolds, choking back a laugh.

"Waitress?" Harry asks pretending innocence.

"Snotty. That's not a nice word to describe your cousin."

"Okay, how about snobbish then? Draco put on the Lord Malfoy act and ordered her around. He even threatened to get her dismissed! I didn't say a word to her, Dad so please don't be upset with me. I didn't know he had the card either until he pulled it out in the restaurant."

"I believe you, Pup. Come to your room and let's get you out of the snowsuit. After that, how about you and I take a walk? I think Sev needs some privacy."

"I'd like that. Dad, I was really ready for some hot chocolate at the restaurant. Could we go get some? My insides are cold."

"That's a good idea. We'll get two take out cups for Sev and Draco also. We have coffee here in the cabin but no chocolate. I wonder if we could get some to make here? I'll ask at the front desk when we go in."

Returning to the restaurant, Harry waves to the waitress Draco was rude to as they walk by.

"Well, hello there young man. Back again, I see. Who did you bring with you this time?" she asks Harry as she comes to the table.

"This is my Dad. My cousin is back with his Dad probably getting his bum whacked." Harry answers somewhat gleefully, causing Sirius to scold "Harry James!"

Laughing, the young woman tells him "Don't be upset with him, Monsieur. Boys are not very discreet. I should know. I have one. What may I get you?"

"I'd like that hot chocolate and chocolate cake too, that we ordered before." Harry replies smiling at her.

"Make that two hot chocolates but no cake. We haven't eaten the evening meal yet, son. You can have a dessert after we eat dinner."

Wondering why his Dad is looking at the lady the way he is and why he used the term dinner instead of supper, he nods agreement saying "Yes sir."

"Well Pup, how was your first ski lesson? Did you enjoy it?" Sirius asks as they drink the hot chocolate.

"It was fun, Dad! I did well, Henri and Jacques said. It wasn't nearly as hard to do as I thought it would be. I didn't fall even once and I could balance just fine. I even skied by myself with Draco a little. The guys said we could do more by ourselves tomorrow."

"That's wonderful, son. Don't do too much at one time. I don't want you to hurt yourself. The boys are staying near you aren't they?"

"Yes Dad." Harry sighs in exasperation. "They're right next to us all the time. It was just one little way that Drake and I got to do by ourselves 'cause we went faster than the guys for a minute. Then they caught up."

"Harry, the boys are there to teach you and help you learn technique. I don't want you to be going off without them, you stay with the instructors."

"We did stay with them. We just went down a slope and were faster than they expected us to be." Harry explains.

Just as Sirius is about to caution him more, the waitress appears again, causing him to forget what he planned to say.

"Thank you Madame for the fine cocoa. We enjoyed it so, we'll take four cups home with us. Also, could you have the chef, prepare four plates of the special to go? We'll take that along. You mentioned a son, how old is he?" Sirius asks.

"Pierre is thirteen and my daughter Erica is twelve. Both are away at boarding school right now. They were home for the week before and during Christmas but wanted to return."

"Harry, here attends a boarding school in Scotland but we are on a winter break for the three week holidays."

"Dad and Uncle Sev are professors there." Harry speaks up to get one of them to look at him instead of each other.

"Professors is it? Well you must have unlimited patience to work with teenagers. Harry, you don't look quite old enough to..., oh, forgive me. I shouldn't have said that."

"Harry is enrolled in the Junior Level for advanced students. He's ten." Sirius replies with an understanding smile.

"Umm, Dad? I'm getting hungry. Could we get our dinner and go now?" Harry asks a few minutes later as the two adults seem to be in a stationary spell as neither is moving or talking. They just seem to be looking at each other and it's annoying to him.

While Sirius and Harry are enjoying the time together, Draco is having to endure a long lecture.

Having followed Draco into the bedroom, Severus tells him to sit down and listen closely.

"We need to have a talk, young man. I'm going to ask you some questions and I want honest and straight answers to those questions. Understand me?" Severus asks the slightly nervous boy sitting on the tall bed.

Having had to climb two steps to get to the bed and now having his legs not even halfway to the floor makes Draco feel very small. Seeing his Dad's angry face and posture makes Severus seem much bigger.

"Yes Sir." he answers quickly.

"Why did you steal this credit card from my wallet?"

"I didn't STEAL Dad. I just borrowed it for the day. You told me this morning you were going to give me some money for the day but you didn't remember. The instructors came and I knew we might need some money so I took the card. I don't know what money is for France so I couldn't get cash. I would have asked but you were talking to the ski instructors and then you got all mad when I said I didn't need lessons. I didn't want to make you any more mad at me by interrupting."

"Alright, I do remember saying I would give you some money. That doesn't mean you have the right to go through my belongings and just take something. That is the same as stealing Draco. Taking something without permission that does not belong to you is stealing."

"Yes sir. I am sorry, Dad. Are you going to smack me?"

"We'll talk of punishment later. Let's discuss your attitude in the restaurant. What makes you believe you have to order people to do what you want? Why demand things instead of just ask for them? You don't demand your way at school or with me."

"It was just a waitress. She's like a house elf. They are to serve us." Draco answers loftily.

"Who told you that you were better than someone who is serving you? What nonsense is this?" Severus asks, trying very hard not to raise his voice but unable to keep the anger from showing in his eyes.

Lips trembling and fighting tears, Draco says "Lucius. I was told being a pureblood meant I was better than everyone who was beneath me. Anyone who serves is beneath us. I got whipped if I was polite to servants or house elves."

"Well Draconis, starting right here and now, you will not be using that teaching ever again. Lucius was wrong to teach you that. You are not a master who has servants and you never will be. This little Lord Fauntleroy behavior had better end today. You are to be respectful to all people and creatures. As far as you are concerned there is no pureblood any longer. If I ever hear of you ordering anyone or anything around again, I will take the hairbrush to your bare bum. That goes for stealing also! You do remember the outcome of your stealing the toy at Disney World do you not?"

"Yes sir, I remember." Draco whispers, cringing at the memory of the flat backed wooden hairbrush paddling he received on his bare bum. Blinking away the tears forming in his eyes he looks hesitantly at his Dad. Realizing the lecture was over and fearing that punishment was about to be delivered.

"Turn over on your stomach." Severus tells him.

Obeying, Draco rolls over and almost immediately feels a firm hand spanking his bum. Counting four swats, he waits for more only to hear Severus say "You may sit up now."

Rolling over and sitting up, Draco wipes his wet face and eyes his Dad curiously. That was the shortest spanking he's ever received from Severus.

"I can see you are questioning. I think in this case a few swats will help you remember my words. I don't believe a full spanking is needed right now. If this occurs again, I will not hesitate to apply one. As to the rest of your punishment, you are to spend the rest of the evening in your bedroom alone. Harry will not be with you until bedtime. You will be brought something to eat when it is time. During your time alone, think of what we discussed. If you wish to talk more about this, we can do so tomorrow. I love you son and only want you to show your best to everyone. Off to bed with you."

"Yes sir. I love you too, Dad and I am sorry for how I was a disappointment to you today."

"No Dragon. You were not a disappointment to me and never have been. The way you behaved was disappointing but not you."

"Okay, Dad." Draco answers, puzzled but decides to think about it later.

After Harry and Sirius return, Severus instructs Harry "I need you to go in to your room and gather what you wish to use to entertain yourself until bedtime. Draco is confined to the room for the night. Make it quick and don't visit. He is being punished!"

"Yes sir." Harry replies going down the short hall to the bedroom he and Draco are sharing.

Walking in, he sees Draco on his bed. Assuming his cousin is asleep, Harry begins to pick out things to take to the main room. He has his drawing paper and colored pencil set and a book to read. Hesitating over whether or not to take a board game also, he sees Draco roll over.

"Hi, Harry. I'm grounded here for the night."

"I know. Your Dad told me. Did you get walloped too?" Harry whispers.

"Not really, just grounded all evening. This sucks too!"

"Draco! Shhhhhh! You don't want the dads to hear. That's a naughty thing to say."

"Naughty." Draco giggles. "Sometimes you talk like an old person."

"Harry! Time to come out front. Supper is ready." Sirius calls.

"Coming." Harry calls back. "See you later." He whispers to Draco.

After drawing a picture and reading two chapters in his book, Harry becomes tired of entertaining himself.

Looking over at the Dads reading, he asks "Uncle Sev, Dad, will you play a game with me? I have one of the new games I got for Christmas and I want to have someone play it with me."

"I'll play, Pup. What's the name of this game?" Sirius asks.

"It's called Trouble." Harry answers grinning at Sirius.

"That's the perfect game for you boys." Severus tells him. "I'll play if you tell me what to do."

"We each pick a color of pieces to move and put them in the correct starting spot. Now you take a turn by popping this bubble and moving one piece the number of spaces the die says to. Oh, but you can't come out to start unless it's on a six, then you can move. If one of the other colors lands on top of your piece you have to put that piece back in the starting spot. The first one to get all of the pieces in home is the winner."

By the time they each have three "men" out, Sirius lands on top of one of Sev's "men". "Oh Ho! You have to go back to your start, Sev! Harry and I still have three men out."

"Thank you Dog. I'll remember this when you need a potion the next time. You've sent me back to start three times now. Why don't you pick on Harry some for a change?"

"I just don't seem to be catching him as I do you. It's all a matter of moves, Sev." Sirius beams innocently, causing Harry to chuckle.

"Dad plays to win, Uncle Sev. He cheats too, so watch him!" Harry informs Severus.

"Pup! How could you? I'm shocked and hurt to be accused of such a thing!" Sirius says melodramatically.

"I know he cheats, Harry. I've been watching him all night. All that innocent act didn't work with me. Thank you for the warning however."

Listening to the men and Harry enjoying the game, Draco kicks the bedpost. "It's not fair! I wanted to play the games and have hot cocoa too! Dad is so unfair! I only acted the way a pureblood wizard is supposed to act! He's not right in his thinking! Harry is going to regret taking my Dad! He's not the innocent that he pretends to be! I'll get him for this." He thinks as he sulks in his room.