July 31st, 1991
6:13 a.m.
Warm. That's the sensation Harry was feeling at the moment. Normally that wouldn't be a problem but the warm fuzzy sensation was especially prevalent on his face. It was actually beginning to smother him. Harry was starting to panic at the presence as it began to shift rolling across his face filling his mouth and nose with small tufts of a warm mass. Breaking through the paralysis that came with waking up to fast when your body had to catch up with your brain Harry shot awake gasping for air and flinging whatever that suffocating piece of debris across his face had been.
Not even a second later he felt a small paw slap him on the forehead after the creature that had been thrown away crawled back up his torso and began glaring at him. Of course the thing that had nearly killed Harry was Cobalt, the little demon had at some point crawled onto his face and attempted to sleep there, and now the kitten had the gall to look at Harry as if he was not well within his right to react in the way he had.
"Don't hit me you little menace, you nearly killed me," Harry said a little to breathless.
Harry was sure Cobalt rolled his eyes at him as if he was overreacting, he could swear more often than not that if it weren't for the kittens small stature and its inability to speak he would no doubt do far more than swat Harry's forehead. He wouldn't trade the cheeky cat for anything in the world however as it had, so far, in the past three days stayed by Harry's side the entire time. In fact the kitten didn't really like being around other people and it often sat on Harry's shoulder most of the time partly underneath Harry's shirt. Harry had been out of his room the second day to take a look around Diagon Alley and he had actually gotten directions to a store that sold regular muggle clothes and Harry, for once in his life, had been able to buy clothes that fit him. He didn't get to many, just a few simple t-shirts, three pairs of pants, and his now favorite garment a simple blue hoodie that he usually kept the hood up to. It proved to also be Cobalts favorite piece of clothing as it let him hide from view easier from other humans.
Harry had made surprising headway with the simple spell book that Ms. Septima had gifted to him. He wasn't sure that he would be any good at spell craft but he had actually taken to charms quiet well. The first day he had begun to try the charm chorus flamma and in the book it said that it produced a dancing flame, Harry didn't know how the spell could possibly be offensive if it just made a flame that danced. Never the less he carefully read and re read the necessary wand movement needed to cast the charm, which consisted of a back and forth "U" like hand gesture while focusing the hottest part of you magical core outward into the tip of your wand while enunciating the words as "core-us fla-ma". This of course made Harry feel foolish, until the tip of his wand burst out two balls of flame that exited his wand at the apex of each wand ark slamming against the wall, he hadn't thought out what to do if the spell worked.
It just happened to be very fortunate that the inn had substantial fire retardant wards cast on the entirety of the building. It didn't stop Cobalt from slapping Harry's shins very violently every now and then letting his claws graze Harry's exposed flesh. It didn't draw blood but it most certainly hurt. Harry wouldn't be casting spells like that around the irritable kitten anytime soon.
Harry rolled over to look at his clock before realizing yet again he was not, in fact, in his cupboard under the stairs. Groaning he cast one of the first year spells he had also taken the time to learn as it was a quite easy one that allowed the user to gauge the time in conjunction with their own understanding of how they viewed time linearly.
"Tempus," Harry said croaking out through his parched and sleepily husky voice causing small numbers in white writing to exit his wand tip.
6:15 a.m.
Harry groaned flopping over startling the glaring kitten into jumping out of the way of the boys body where it had been sitting.
8: 30 a.m.
Fleur Delacour did not like this at all. She did not like the idea of leaving France for the cold, muggy, and dreary atmosphere of England. She didn't like having to leave Beauxbatons Academy of Magic to begin attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Not only would she have to go to a completely new school and meet new people but she would also have to be sorted with the first years into a new house. She knew she wouldn't particularly miss many people from Beauxbatons other than the scarily tall yet kind and encouraging Headmistress Madame Maxime, and a few people that treated her like any other person. She honestly could not care less about the large majority of the student body in the school, as the male part was only interested in her for one thing and the greater part of the female population hated that fact.
She wouldn't be holding her breath for the new school she would be attending to be much different from her old one, but she always held that small spark in her heart that she would make true friends that would not always be on the edge around her because of her Veela heritage. No, Fleur was not ashamed of her inherent abilities, they actually came in handy more often than not but it certainly got annoying having women glare at her and boys drooling and tripping over themselves to get her attention.
"Fleur can you come 'elp me wiz ze's boxes," Fleur's mother Apolline Delacour yelled in English from the entrance to the new house they had bought at the start of the month and promptly had begun to move into. They had started making it a habit to converse as much as possible in English to improve both Fleur's grasp of English as well as Gabrielle's, the youngest Delacour daughter.
"Oui maman," Fleur said loud enough for her mother to hear."
As she made her way from one of the side rooms into the main entrance to the large mansion that was now acting as the new residence for her family in place of the Chateau De La Delacour back in France, she could not help but note the stark differences between the two homes. She did not care much for the design of English architecture which gave a far more simplistic and cold demeanor to the mansions and other large structures built in the past one hundred years. Whereas the French Provincial Architecture that had made up Fleur's old traditional family home was elegant inviting, and was primarily used in the early 1600's slowly losing prevalence in the late 1700's, and that spoke volumes for the historical value of their old home let alone the emotional value that hundreds of years of her family living in it gave to the abode that she so sorely missed now.
However, Fleur could do nothing at this point in time to go back to the rolling and beautiful fields of France, at least not yet. Starting at the beginning of this school year Fleur would be in her fourth year of Beauxbatons and by extension, she assumed, Hogwarts as well and so she had only three more years of school and she would fully be able to move back to France. If she could, she had every intention to take Gabby with her when she left, if that was what her sister wished anyway.
"You certainly took your time," Fleur's mother said jokingly hovering boxes in the air who's contents began to float out in quick succession placing themselves in places that seemed appropriate enough to begin furnishing the room they stood in.
"Sorry maman. I was deep in thought, are zere any more boxes zat need to be unpacked," Fleur asked a little embarrassed that she had not realized she took so long.
"Just zis one, but we can go and shop for your school supplies in London's most popular magical market, Diagon Alley. I know 'ow much you and Gabrielle love to shop," Apolline smiled gazing at her daughter hoping to improve her obviously sombre mood with on of her daughters guilty pleasures. It got the desired effect as Fleur perked up immediately at the thought of a new and interesting place to visit.
Maybe zis won't be so bad after all Fleur thought to herself as she quietly retrieved Gabrielle, waiting for their mother to finish with the final box and take them to Diagon Alley.
9:00 a.m.
After having gotten a now decent amount of sleep after almost being killed by a certain black and blue fluffy monster that morning, Harry made his way downstairs to eat breakfast. It had been extremely strange not having to wake up and make breakfast for the Dursley's, in fact it had been so strange that he had made his way into the kitchen of the inn downstairs to make himself some food. That had earned him a few choice words from the innkeeper Tom, before Tom had seen the meal Harry was able to make with just the few scarce ingredients Tom had in stock at the time causing Tom to offer Harry a small job helping make the food in the mornings for people that stayed at the inn while Tom made the breakfast for the people who just walked in. Harry had always enjoyed cooking, it took away all the stresses of having to speak to the Dursley's as they rarely spoke with full mouths, except for Dudley that was.
So it was now like a small ritual for Harry to cook for about thirty minutes before either heading out of the inn, or return to his room to read over some of his school textbooks. Today after having finished with breakfast Harry decided to explore Diagon Alley a little more today so that he could have a look at some of the shops he wasn't able to the first two days he had been there.
His first stop would be Gringott's as he had made it a slight habit to speak with the strange yet surprisingly nice goblin Griphook on all manner of things like a few phrases in Gobbledegook, financial advices because honestly he had no idea what were reasonable prices for most things, and about Goblin/Human relations that Harry had wondered about since Ms. Septima said people don't treat Goblins all that fairly.
Thinking these thoughts Harry made his way into the Goblin run bank walking past two girls that were standing in the entrance of the bank. They were clearly sisters as they both had the same silver hair and features, the younger sister obviously looked a little different still retaining some of her baby fat, while the older sister had no such problem she was for all intents and purposes almost a woman. She had beautiful porcelain white skin with no blemish to speak of, her eyes were a clear crystal blue as if the pools of a reflecting stream, and the shape of her face was angular but also soft in a strange way. For just a second the older sister and Harry made eye contact and in that split second Harry thought she looked almost afraid to see what reaction he may have, but whatever she had been expecting, it didn't happen as Harry averted his gaze and kept walking not even sparing another glance as if it had never happened.
Harry couldn't see it, but the girl was utterly astonished and slightly angry that the boy had just looked directly at her with an intense emerald gaze and had no reaction at all as if he had not even seen her, only the wall behind her.
"Hello Griphook," Harry said in awful but passable Gobbledegook.
"Hello to you Mr. Potter," Griphook responded slightly nodding in Harrys direction.
Harry noticed that next to Griphook was a rather tall beautiful and elegant woman with angular yet beautiful features, long silvery hair that cascaded in waves down her shoulders, and striking vibrant blue eyes that spoke of her sophistication," oh, I'm terribly sorry I interrupted you both."
The woman smiled at Harry," ah, ze first young man I 'ave the pleasure to talk to in England around my daughters' ages and 'e is so polite. I am quiet 'appy to see not everyone in zis country is rude."
This caused Harry to blush and quickly avert his gaze clearly uncomfortable with the compliment," It's just common courtesy ma'am I may not be much but I'm at least polite."
This caused the woman to smile further before she turned back to Griphook," I will return later to complete ze required paperwork to create our account for Gringott's. Thank you for your 'ospitality," Griphook nodded in understanding before looking back at Harry.
"You said you needed a guide around Diagon Alley for you and your daughters today did you not Mrs. Delacour," Griphook asked causing a stone to fall in Harry's gut, now that he looked at the woman she looked an awful lot like the girls he had passed when coming in.
The girls he had blatantly and rudely acknowledged but not bothered to talk to, even though he had been staring at them.
"I did yes. Why? Did you 'ave someone in mind?"
Griphook looked over at Harry, eyes filled with a playful yet evil glee.
He wouldn't. Harry said in his head.
"Mr. Potter here is new himself but he's made his way around Diagon Alley a few times in just the small amount of time he's been here. That and he most likely won't ask for money to show you around like most others would," Griphook said smiling with, what looked like to Apolline, a kind grin. But to Harry he knew his new Goblin friend was killing two birds with one stone by getting Harry out of his hair so he could work and finishing a request from a client for a tour guide, he also knew Harry was to polite to decline.
Or maybe he would.
