Letters

Albus Dumbledore finally had the confirmed list of potential students for the year when Harry Potter should attend Hogwarts. He had checked every student name and only one, a Harold Evans, was an unknown, he was not a pureblood and there was no note attached indicating he was Mundane-born. The student Ledger, a heavily enchanted book that would produce a list of all eligible students each year, had now gone dormant until that time next year, he slipped it back into the secured draw in which it was stored. He then took a gilded quill from it's velvet inlayed lockbox and placed it next to a stack of prepared blank envelopes, this would provide a point of contact for the boy so Dumbledore could begin his 'training' and he watched intently as each one was addressed and an owl would fly down and land allowing the letter to tie itself to the bird's leg and the bird would then take off for it's destination. Albus was on his second lemon drop when the name he had been waiting for appeared and he smiled:

Harold Evans

C/O Gringotts Bank

Diagon Alley

Danmit!

Harry sipped his orange juice while Ragnok sipped his Firewhiskey, on the desk between them were two letters, one from Hogwarts, and one from Beauxbatons. Ragnok read the letter for Beauxbatons and approved, it was well worded and to the point, as for Harry's reply to Hogwarts he handed it to Ragnok who chuckled, "to the point and not too wordy," the reply to Hogwarts had Harry's signature on Gringotts letterhead and the letter was two words 'BUGGER OFF!'.

Dumbledore crumpled the letter up, how could this be? The boy must come here but he had no idea of the lad's location. He couldn't pressure the goblins, he was on thin ice with them as it was, he didn't want to involve the order as it had been difficult to regain their trust after the revelations about Harry, he was at a loss.

Harry waited with excitement, around him were many children his age all waiting just like him, their families giving hugs and kisses fussing over them, making sure they hadn't forgot anything. The large square in the middle of the Paris magic district was where their ride would arrive and everyone was excited.

Soon they all quieted down as the sound of hooves on pavement could be heard even over the din of the crowd, Harry realized that they couldn't be regular horses.

To say they were beautiful would be an understatement, 2 massive palomino horses with large white feathery wings, pulled sky blue coaches that could house several students, as they pulled to a halt the coach doors opened and a few steps descended, the older students helped the younger ones to board. Inside the coach it was different than he expected, the interior was enchanted so that every seat was a window seat, and the seats were large puffy leather ones and quite soft he noted as he sat.

Each window had a pair of sky blue curtains and an excellent view, Harry watched as several other children climbed aboard one caught his attention, he was smaller than the rest and seemed afraid of everything, the boy quickly sat down and tried to look small, Harry knew that behavior, the boy was trying to hide from someone, but it wasn't that that drew his attention, his med-e-specs showed a word he wasn't familiar with.

Plopping down next to the startled boy, "So, what's Osteoporosis?"

"U-Um? what? who are you?"

"Harold Evans, so what is Osteoporosis?" Harry persisted,

"Um it means my bones are weak and easily fracture and break,"

Harry pulled out a notebook and quickly flipped through it, "AH! here it is, uncommon ailment, simple treatment, ah ok here we are," he pulled a small pot of silvery liquid out of a pouch, "DRINK" and shoved it into the boys hand who was just sat there blinking, "look when we get to school they'll take you to the hospital dorm and give you the same potion and you'll miss most of the first day or you can take it now and by the time we get there it'll have done it's job, but you don't know me and I don't know you so it's up to you," and with that Harry got up and returned to his seat to resume staring out the window.

He listened to the other kids milling about some exclamations of "ew gross!" or "yuck!" caught his attention and he spotted some packets of Every flavor beans being handed around, he tried one that seemed to be a nice strawberry flavor, joined in a few chats about what to expect ect.

A few hours later everyone began to get really excited as the Palace Of Beauxbatons cam into view, sat on top of a flattened out mountain were the large gardens of flowers all arranged before the palace itself an impressive structure of white marble walls with three towers, two at either end and one in the back, the roofs were all a dark blue with white trim and seemed impossibly clean, to the sides of the palace were large forests which Harry was reliably informed had several species of magical animals.

After the numerous coaches had landed the students disembarked, Harry spotted the kid from before wide eyes and full of energy and also walking normally, looks like he had taken the Skelly-grow, Harry hung back though as the students were led inside as he felt something draw his attention.

To the sides of the large White wood doors that the students were pouring through were two large gargoyles, as the last student filed in Harry walked up to the gargoyle on the left and looked at it closely, it had ridges going from it's nose over it's head and down it's back right to the tip of it's tail, two large tusks, large blank eyes, a pair of folded wings and a muscular body, and on one tusk very small was a familiar crest, his family crest, he took a step back and announced "I am Harold Evans".

Madam Maxine watched as the young little minds entered her school, their excitement palpable in the air, she towered over them but went unnoticed by many as their heads swiveled around taking in everything, she gave a cough and called "Brice Fleck?", a small boy nervously approached her, it seemed odd though, the report said he was ill and needed treatment but he looked fine, she sent him up to the medical dorm anyway to make sure, and she continued the head count.

The last group of excited students filed in and followed their peers into the dining hall while Madam Maxine checked the list, and come up one student short, she glanced at the open door and decided to glance outside in case he was looking at the grounds, what she saw shocked her.

The protection gargoyles outside had moved they were knelt before the young man with their heads bowed, it was clear they were subserviently to the boy but how? This young man would defiantly be worth keeping an eye on, she silently moved back as the gargoyles returned to their positions and the boy began to move.

Harry climbed the steps and entered the door pulling it closed behind him, just inside the door was a woman he recognized, his new headmistress madam Maxine, he stopped and bowed deeply to her,

"Thankyou for accepting my application Headmistress, it was very kind of you,"

Impressed she responded in a rich accent heavy tone, "you are quite welcome Mr Evans, I am pleased you chose Beauxbatons over Hogwarts, may I ask why?"

"well the main reason is highly personal I am sorry, but the other reason is simple, I looked at the Hogwarts admission rules and any student who has non-human ancestry is not allowed, and quite frankly I found it disgusting and idiotic they would discriminate like that but then the British seem to enjoy finding reasons to discriminate, however here anyone who can use magic is welcome so it was a very simple choice."

"They you do not have a problem with so called half breeds?"

"Madam I judge a person on their actions, not on the contents of their veins,"

"A very mature attitude Mr Evans, well you'd best run along the sorting will begin shortly,"

Harry rushed inside and headed towards the din of his fellow classmates, he had been expecting a typical castle, stone walls, floor, celling, suits of armor ect. what he found instead was smooth walls painted with a large grasslands picture with trees and a lake, this was on both walls and extended the length of the corridor and round the corners, people were moving on the painted wall like wizard portraits do, it took him a few moments to realize that this was the next logical step beyond portraits, a wizarding mural, it seemed this was simply the entrance hall that connected on either side to the larger building in a 'u' shape.

Entering the dining hall he found a large room with many wide windows, he assumed the windows were enchanted as they seemed to keep out too much light, leaving the hall well illuminated without being too bright, the first year students ahead of him had began to line up and one older student showed him his place in line and Madam Maxine walked in on the far side and took her place at a podium,

"Welcome my new first years," she began in her heave accent, "it is gratifying to see a greater numbers of students each year, now this year we do have some transfer students and a new teacher, I would like to introduce Fred and George Weasley, and the new teacher, their sponsor, Professor Filius Flitwick," the two identical redheaded boys waved, and Flitwick gave a short bow, then they boys headed down to join the first years, Harry noticed some odd things about the new professor but needed to get closer to confirm his theory, it was then the Headmistress announced the sorting to begin, and the first student in line was handed a bow and arrow.

Harry watched as each student let loose an arrow and said arrow changed direction to impact a certain target some ended up in Omb, some in Pep and others in Belle he couldn't be bothered with their full names, when it came to his turn he shot the arrow without looking and head it hit with a 'thump' apparently he was a Belle who knew?

Apparently the kid he helped was a belle too, Brice was fairly shy and Harry was quite bad at social interactions having dealt with goblins for the longest time he had no real point of reference, luckily Brice seemed fairly observant and realized Harry was simply awkward and straight to the point not arrogant, Brice had spent years being either treated like he was made of glass or taunted for being weak and found Harry's blunt honesty quite likable, it also helped that Harry had shoved the cure for his illness into his hand.

"Why did you decide to take it after?" Harry asked,

"well, I asked many of the older kids, and prefects if they knew what it was, they all said the same and made an 'ew' face," Harry laughed, "so I knew it wasn't harmful and there was no reason not to, but wow I have never tasted anything so bad and I ate a 'Toejam' EF bean" Brice grimaced remembering the taste,

"well you'll need to take it every day for-"

"the next week, yes the mediwitch told me," he smiled,

As the meal went on people began to mingle and talk, some even went up to the staff table to ask questions, Harry left Brice chatting and headed over to Flitwick and as soon as he got close he could smell it, the strong smell of Bananas, so that's why Flitwick was teaching while looking like an extremely ancient man white scraggily hair, wrinkled skin, ect. after a short conversation Harry discovered that Flitwick and another teacher used to be at Hogwarts but quit although he wouldn't say why, apparently he and the transfiguration teacher had asked the headmistress if she had a place for them and fortunately for them she had an opening for transfiguration immediately, and the charms teacher had gotten pregnant and decided to become a full time mother which Harry commented was an excellent reason to leave a job.

Harry moved on from Flitwick to other teachers getting their names ect. until he came to the transfiguration teacher Professor Mcgonagall, she seemed a serious type and didn't reveal much except that one of the people who left Hogwarts besides her and Flitwick also worked here, she commented that the weather was much nicer here than in Scotland, Harry mentioned that Professor Flitwick seemed a bit old to be teaching which caused her to chuckle slightly.

Harry sat back down next to Brice who was ravenously devouring a pizza and loving every bite, he began to eat his fill and wondered was this food just as it appeared of was it like... he used to have and transfigured, he held onto a donut when they were all dismissed.

Harry and Brice spent the rest of the afternoon exploring, the dining hall led out into a grass covered courtyard with a small fountain in the middle, their tower was the one at the back and the layout of the rest of the school was easy to navigate as certain classrooms were grouped together while the ones like potions which could conceivably cause explosions were quite large and reinforced, what kind of crackpot would hold a potions class in a small room?

Like the rest of the place the classrooms had smooth walls which looked like an extension of the room itself so that the people in the paintings could move around, apparently only a few would enter during classes to be there to offer advice to the students or in the case of potions, warnings to evacuate.

There wasn't time on the first day to explore the ground outside the main academy, as by the time they had looked around it was getting late and they were all tired, as they headed up to the dorms they each had a private room with a bed shower toilet ect. and also a large window which much to Harry's delight opened and was big enough for him to get out of, but that would have to wait he was far too exhausted for that now, with a wave of his hand his clothes changed from his uniform to a pair of pajama trousers, a thin bracelet on each wrist, a ring on each middle finger, a pair of thin socks, and his specs he just took off and put on his bedside table, his potion pouch still firmly attached at the waist, he climbed into the comfortable bed and went to sleep.