"That was bloody brilliant," Fred said, and the rest of the team murmured their agreement.
Harry was too stunned to say anything, quietly marveling at how brilliant his girlfriend is. Finally he said, "we'd better hurry, Hermione said we won't have much time."
They rushed up the staircase, and quickly mounted their brooms. This was it, Harry thought. Something Harry had heard once came to him, as they were walking up the staircase. It was that success isn't for the meek or the frightened, and that it is better to try, and fail spectacularly, than to play it safe, and never knowing what you are capable of.
He thought to himself as the reached the roof, that they were either going to do something that they will be talking about forever, or they were going to fail spectacularly. As Harry thought about this, he felt that was the story of his life so far, but he quickly shook that off.
Harry checked that the entire team had mounted their brooms, and motioned forward, to start their show. They took off, and headed down to the wide expanses of the field below. He saw the Hogwarts students next to the student body and faculty of Beauxbatons.
As they descended toward the field, Harry saw several students point up at them. He saw Professor McGonagall with a severe look on her face, while Dumbledore was beaming up toward them. Harry gave the next signal and they lined up one behind the other.
They started flying in a circular formation, and took out their wands. As one, they pointed at the center of the formation and shot beams of light creating a flying cartwheel. Even from their present altitude, Harry could hear the applause from the crowd below.
They quickly morphed from that formation into a diamond pattern, a double helix, a shooting star, and then an arrowhead formation. With each new formation, the applause grew louder, and after flying for twenty minutes or so, he realized it was time for the finale that Hermione had provided for him.
He gave the signal and the team took their positions, awaiting the mark to begin. Harry knew this was for all the marbles. He was nervous but confident at the same time. For better or worse, this was it, the culmination of their efforts.
As he was preparing for what was coming, the sound of the crowd's cheering was drowned out by the sound of his frantically beating heart. He took a deep breath, and motioned for the team to start the big ending. The reserves took the lead and Harry stayed as far back as he could, while still watching all of the action. The starters all took out their wands, and cast the spell to start the grand finale.
They created four large animals, representing the four Hogwarts Houses. The twins created a large Slytherin serpent, to which they added a mask of Professor Snape. Harry wanted to ask why they had one of these handy, but he was too busy with the task at hand to do so, although he did make a mental note to ask them afterward.
The chasers created a large form of a Gryffindor lion, Ron created a large Hufflepuff badger, and finally Harry created a large Ravenclaw eagle. They positioned themselves as to appear to be saddling their respective animals.
They arranged their animals in diametrically opposing positions, and after a moment, Harry pointed his wand to the center creating a large bright sphere. After it appeared, the four animals proceeded toward the center target.
As they all reached their target, there was a large explosion, and the seven players radiated out from within it. Harry shot straight out from the top, and when he reached the apex of his climb, he look down, and saw a giant gleaming Hogwarts crest.
As the roar of the crowd grew to it crescendo, Harry looked around at what they had managed to do in one day. He scanned down at the crowd, and saw Hagrid, whom he could spot clearly at this extreme height because he so overshadowed the crowd surrounding him.
Harry spotted standing right next to Hagrid, the sweet, smiling face of Hermione, and he glided down toward her. His classmates swarmed him when he finally managed to touchdown. The rest of the team was quickly engulfed by the mass of students who were waiting to greet them.
Harry battled though the crowd, and found his way over to Hermione. Her proximity to Hagrid made it easy, since he was a hard target to miss. As he got there, the crowd started to part, and the rest of the team, a little ruffled, but otherwise unharmed, appeared.
When the students resumed their prior positions, Harry saw the staff members lined up in front of them. Harry took a deep breath, and braced himself for the worst. He wasn't quite sure of what was going to happen next, but he was sure that whatever it was a small price for the opportunity to do what they had done.
Snape looked surprisingly serene, which concerned Harry absolutely no end. This couldn't mean anything good, he thought. He saw McGonagall, who had a severe look on her face but Harry could have sworn there was a slight smile in her thin lips, unless he had been very much mistaken.
Hagrid walked over, and patted Harry on the back, almost knocking him into the ground. As he recovered, and looked around, he saw Professor Dumbledore looking down at him with a rather pleased look on his face.
The silence seemed to be more deafening than the crowd had been. Harry was hoping that someone would say something, anything in fact. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Professor Dumbledore started to clap, slowly followed by a steadily increasing number of students, until just about everyone was clapping.
The noise was deafening, and Harry wasn't sure whether it was appropriate to bow, or make any other sort of acknowledgement, since he still wasn't sure if they were in any sort of trouble. As he looked around at the team, they seemed to be struggling with the same quandary, but ultimately they decided it was best to play it low key, and wait to find out what the consequences of their little unauthorized performance would be.
After a couple of minutes, the applause died away, and the silence returned. Dumbledore said, "I have to admit, that as impressive as the entry I had planned was, it seems that my own students have found a way to overshadow me. Very well done, indeed."
Madam Maxime was clearly taken aback by this, as she said, "yoo meen zat thees waz not yoor dooing?"
Dumbledore chuckled, and said. "no, I am afraid to say that I had absolutely nothing to do with this."
Madam Maxime didn't seem convinced however, "shoorlee yoor teachers 'ad a hand in zis."
"Not that I am aware of, although it wouldn't be the first time that something happed in the school without my knowledge." Dumbledore looked around at the other professors around him, and asked, "have any of you assisted in this most excellent performance?"
As Dumbledore surveyed all of the professors, one by one, they all shook their head slowly, and stared at each other eager to find out who had been responsible. After he had scanned all of them he said, "it appears that this was completely of their own doing."
Madam Maxime huffed, and asked, "I am zupposed to beeleef zat zees studants of yoors were abble to do sumsing thees compleecated wissout any asseestance, watsoever?"
Dumbledore grinned, and said, "I must admit a certain amount of responsibility I suppose."
Madam Maxime had a triumphant sort of air in her voice, as she said, "I sought so."
"It is, however, not what you think it is. While I was a mere student at Hogwarts, all those many years ago, I and several of my classmates had surprised our fellow students with a similar performance, although I have to admit it palled in comparison to the show that we had just witnessed."
There was a pause, and as Harry let Professor Dumbledore last few words wash over him, he was stunned. He had learnt never to underestimate his headmaster, but he never really gave much thought to his time at Hogwarts as a student.
After a few moments, he was able to regain enough composure to stammer, "s-s-sir. I never realized." Harry had so many questions he wanted to ask, but before he could stop himself, he got out, "when? Where? Why?"
Dumbledore had a kind smile on his face, as he said, "yes, Harry, I did this a long time ago, although I have to admit I couldn't have picked a better occasion than you have. It was on my last year, and several of my classmates decided that we should leave on a bang, so on our graduation, we came up with something special."
Harry asked, "how did you come up with this?"
Dumbledore said, "we found several components of our performance in different texts, and we added a few of our own. I need not ask for your source of information though."
With this, everyone turned to look at Hermione, who tried her best to hide the mischievous smile she had been wearing. As Harry stared at her, he was wondering if it really had been a coincidence that she had this particular parchment with her, or if she had intended for something like this from the start.
Madam Maxime, who seemed to have regained her composure, said, "now that ower guests 'ave, uh, arrived, may we all proceed to the Great 'all, whair we shall 'ave a feast to welcome zem to ower hallowed 'alls."
It was considerably smaller than Hogwarts, and it didn't have any turrets. The students followed as Maxime led the way into the castle. As they walked toward the Castle, Harry noticed that Snape was leering in his direction. He looked as if he had just found out that Christmas had been cancelled.
As Harry passed him by on the way to the hall, he had to fight the urge to laugh at his reaction. As he walked into the room, Harry saw that it was filled with several circular tables that each sat approximately 15 people. These tables were arranged all around a larger oval table that was on a raised platform up front, near a large set of drapes bearing the Beauxbatons crest.
Harry and the team took one of the tables close to the platform, where Hermione joined them. One by one, the team stopped by Hermione on the way to their seats. Fred and George said something, to which Hermione gave a little laugh.
Angelina gave her a small hug, whispering something into her ear as she walked over to her seat. Katie and Alicia also gave Hermione a hug, as they passed her by. Ron gave Hermione a small peck on the cheek after he had said something to her. While Harry wasn't too crazy about this, Cho looked absolutely livid.
The reserves walked past Hermione, saying something quickly on the way to their seats. Cho simply glared at her for a second, before taking a seat between Ron and a fellow Ravenclaw reserve. As the rest of the people where taking their seats, Harry was thinking about what Dumbledore had said, and was starting to paint a mental image of a much younger version of his headmaster.
When everyone had taken his or her seats, Hermione wound up sitting to Harry's right side, while Angelina had taken the seat to his left. There was a buzzing sound around the room as people were still excitedly talking about what they had just witnessed. This quickly died away as Madam Maxime stood up from the center of the front table.
"I wood like to welcom our gessts from 'ogwarts, and I hope sat zey enjoy zeir stay wis us, az we eenjooyed our stay over zere. I 'ave to admeet zat when I zaw the sedule, I waz pleazed to zee whom we would be fasing.
"zees should be ze very challangeeng match for both zides, I am sure. Our gessts haz proveen to be, uh, ratheer rezoursefull. zey zhould prove to be ze inteersting oponants, and I am zure zat we can count on a very inteersting match in ze coople of zays.
"In ze meentime, I would eencourage you all to take advontage of your time 'ere and get to know us a leetle better. Seence last time we were leemeted to a small conteengent, you should be able to have ze beetter idea of what we are like.
"Unless my counteerpart haz anetheng to add," Maxime said this and paused as she glanced over toward Dumbledore. He smiled, and briefly shook his head.
Maxime turned back to the sea of students, and said, "in zat case, let ze feest beegin."
As she said this, several bowls began to fill with different kinds of food. Harry was a little tentative as he saw several things that he had never tried before. He poked the ladle into several of them, noting one bowl of something that looked particularly disturbing. He looked at a tureen of something else that didn't look much better. No, overall, things didn't look to appetizing.
Hermione saw his reaction, and said, "I know last time you didn't try anything, but the food is really quite good."
Harry wasn't convinced, but with the alternative being hunger, he took small portions of the least threatening looking thing he could find. He took a deep breath, and sampled them. Hermione was right. Some of the food wasn't too bad. It was better than going hungry anyway.
Harry looked across the table and saw that Ron was having as difficult a time dealing with the menu as he was, maybe even more so, if that is possible.
Hermione looked at him after he had tried a few different things, and asked, "well?"
"Well, what?"
"How do you like it?"
"It's, uh, edible."
She shook her head, and mumbled something that sounded oddly like boys. As the feast went along, Harry found a few things that he liked. He tried to remember them, since he had a bad feeling that he was going to be living off this stuff for the duration of their stay here.
Dessert was thankfully better than dinner, but it still left much to be desired. Harry spent most of the night lost in Hermione's eyes, so he wouldn't have to look at what he was consuming. He could see that Hermione thought this was romantic, and he figured that its better that she didn't really know why he kept his gaze locked on her.
Madam Maxime stood up, the hall went quiet, and the plates magically returned to their pristine condition. Afterward they set out of the chateau, to the where the mirror that Maxime had created for them had been placed.
It was slightly different from the one that Dumbledore had created up in their flying tower. The only thing that it appeared to have in common with their portal was the unusual writing that was etched on the top of it.
Harry and Hermione were two of the first people to take the trip back up to the tower, and when they arrived back in the entrance hall, they started up the stairs. As they were walking up toward their respective dormitories, they paused at the landing that separates the boys from the girls.
Harry asked Hermione, "when will your parents be arriving exactly?"
"Sometime tomorrow."
"That's good."
"Yes. I'm pretty tired now. See you in the morning, ok?"
Harry said, "ok," and leaned forward and kissed her goodnight.
The day went far better than Harry could have possibly hoped for. He strolled up to his room, and quickly changed and climbed onto four-poster. Ron was still out when Harry closed his drapes. Harry very much suspected that he probably was out with Cho somewhere.
Harry closed his eyes, and started to visualize the performance his team gave. He started to think that he wanted to do something like this for graduation. Although, he thought, he would need to prepare something even more spectacular than this.
As he started thinking about what he would need to improve upon their performance, he started to drift off to sleep. Just before he fell asleep, he saw Ron sneak into their room, although he really couldn't see much without his glasses on.
Since they were elevated above the clouds, the sunlight from the early morning light shined brightly in Harry's face, causing him to wake up a little early. He got up, and he dressed quietly, seeing Ron still fast asleep with his curtains drawn.
As he walked down the stairs, he found Hermione waiting for him in their common area, sitting reading a book. As he sat down next to her, he saw she that the book she was reading was about the history of house elves in France.
As he sat down next to her, something from the night before came to his mind. He leaned forward, and Hermione took her eyes off what she was reading. She leaned forward and kissed him good morning.
"About yesterday," Harry started.
Hermione still had a mischievous smile on her face, as she said, "yes?"
Harry paused a moment to think about how to phrase it, before he said, "uh, meione, about that sheet you gave us yesterday."
"Yes. What about it?"
"The fact that you had it with you wasn't a coincidence, was it?"
Hermione's mischievous grin grew a little wider, "no, I suppose not."
"You set that whole thing up didn't you."
"Well, not exactly. I knew that you were going to try something, so when I found this I thought that this would be perfect. And when I saw who the last to do it was, I was sure it would be perfect."
Harry leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek, and he said, "I don't know what I have done to deserve you."
She leaned in and grinned as she said, "who said that you do?"
Before he had a chance to respond, they noticed that several people were starting to come downstairs. They decided to go down to the dining hall to get some breakfast. As they sat down at one of the tables, Harry, thankful to see some familiar food, loaded up his plate.
As they were enjoying their meal, the hall was quickly filling up. After a few minutes, something took most of the people in the hall a little off guard. There was a flurry of activity overhead, and Harry looked up to see the familiar sight of the owls searching for their owners, to make their deliveries.
As he continued to eat, Harry saw the snowy white form of his owl Hedwig glide down in front of him. As he petted her head, he saw that she had a letter attached to her leg. He untied it, and gave her piece of toast before he opened it.
On opening the letter, he saw that it was from Remus. When Hermione asked who he had received the letter from, he started to read it to her in a hushed voice so that only she would be able to hear him.
Dear Harry,
I heard about your little performance last night. I am truly sorry that I couldn't make it out there, but Sirius filled me in on it, and I want to tell you how impressed I am that you were able to pull it off. It is quite a feather in your hat.
I also understand that you somehow managed to keep this a secret from the rest of the school. That is almost as impressive a feat as the performance itself. I should know, because when we trued to plan something along those lines, it was all over the school before we could even really get started.
I also must tip my cap to you, because we never were quite able to get that trick down, so we never were able to do what we were planning. The funny thing is that it was Lilly who found the book for us, that got us going in the first place.
I would have asked you how you had found it, because I am sure that that they removed from it from the library after our little stunt, however, Sirius and I can see Hermione's fingerprints all over this. Since I am assuming that you are probably reading this to her, I would like to tell her, very well done indeed.
I am almost certain that I will be able to be there for the match, but if something unexpected comes along, I would like to wish you, and the rest of the team, luck for the match. I have faith that you should do well.
Best of luck,
Remus Lupin
After he finished reading, he looked at Hermione, who was looking a little apprehensive. It was almost as if she could sense his next question, so he decided to hold off on that for a moment. He decided to bring up something a little less awkward first.
"Remus should be here for the match. I am happy to hear that."
Hermione, who clearly was expecting him to have said something else, had a look of relief on her face, as she said, "me too."
After a couple of minutes, he decided that he really wanted to know, so he tentatively asked, "are you going to tell me, then?"
Hermione took a deep breath, and said in little more than a whisper, "I had this parchment sent to me. I am not sure whom it was from exactly, but I believe that it was from Sirius. I thought that he suspected that you might do something like this, or maybe he might just have been hoping. I couldn't tell exactly, but when I got the parchment, I decided it might be wise to hold on to it.
"I also decided to do some research into it, trying to find out who had tried it last, and their results. What I found out reinforced my suspicions. I added a few notes, hoping to complete the parts that might have been their undoing.
"After I found out what you were planning to do, I knew what I had to do. I went to Sirius, who reluctantly told me everything that happened. I looked it over again, making a few additional changes before I gave it to you. I started planning a way for you to keep this as quiet as was possible, including getting you some time to make your appearance."
Harry waited for a few seconds to take all this in, and then he asked, "why didn't you tell me?"
"Sirius asked me not to say anything, so I respected his wishes. In addition, I started to wonder whether he was the one that had sent me the document after all. Since I wasn't sure, I decided that I shouldn't say anything."
Harry understood, and now he was wondering what obviously had been tugging at Hermione's mind. Which was, who was it that had sent them this particular document?
After they finished eating breakfast, they decided to go on a stroll of the Beauxbatons grounds. It was a bit cold, but still considerably warmer than it was over at Hogwarts. They spent most of the morning walking around, when suddenly Hermione looked saw the time on Harry's watch.
She said, "I have to go."
Harry looked at her, "what? Why?"
"My parents are going to be here in a few hours, and I've got to get ready."
"What do you mean you've got to get ready?"
"I look like a mess. I need to be perfect for when they arrive."
"You look beautiful."
Hermione kissed him on the cheek and said, "thank you, but I really have to go. I will see you later, ok?"
Before he could say anything, she had walked off into the mirror and Harry was all alone now. He continued to walk around, before deciding he ought to return to the castle for some lunch. As he was on his way back to the mirror, he ran into Fleur.
"Harry, vere are you in such a rush to?"
"I was heading back up to our castle?"
"Vaht on 'eavens for?"
"I'm going for lunch. I am getting pretty hungry."
"Don' be zilly. I will take u to lunch here."
Harry didn't really want to, but really couldn't say no, so he nodded and followed her as she took him to the great hall again. He saw that they had several large tables set up in place of the smaller tables of the night before.
As he sat down next to Fleur, he saw several things that were different. He looked up from the table to Fleur's smiling face and waited to see what she was going to eat first.
Fleur saw this, and said, "'arry, cloze your eyes."
Harry was surprised and he stammered, "what?"
"Cloze you eyes pleaze."
Harry reluctantly complied, and he heard her say, "now open your 'outh."
Harry opened his eyes again, but she said, "now, now. If you do wat I zay you will get ze big zurprize."
He was really nervous about it, bit did as he was told. After he closed his eyes, he opened his mouth, and she placed something sweet that tasted similar to chicken. It was pretty good, and he opened his eyes, and asked, "what was that?"
"Poulet," she answered.
Harry asked, "poo what?"
"Poulet, uh, cheeken."
They spent lunch together and Harry found out that French food wasn't as bad as he originally thought, although he still avoided the snails. After all, he wasn't that adventurous. He also decided that he wasn't going to tell Hermione about this.
After lunch, Fleur took Harry on a tour of the campus. He was having a good time, and after a while, she said that she would show him the Quidditch stadium now that is had been retuned to its original playing condition.
As they walked into the arena, Fleur put her hand on Harry's shoulder. He really was starting to get a bad feeling now. He was wondering what she was doing. She gave a gentle giggle as she cornered him near her locker. He was starting to feel trapped, but he wasn't sure what exactly to do.
"Harry, I 'ave zometheng that I 'ave to amit to 'oo."
Harry paused a moment, and said, "uh, what?"
"I like 'oo."
Harry was a little surprised by the turn of events. He thought that if Ron knew about this he would hate him more than he already does. He thought for a moment, then he uttered out, "I like you too, Fleur."
"No, I reelly like 'oo," she said. As she was saying this, she was leaning closer. Too close Harry thought.
Harry backed up as far as he could, but the wall was preventing him from going any further. Finally, she leaned in and placed a small kiss on his lips.
Yes, he was attracted to Fleur, but this was wrong. He pulled away, although not as quickly as he probably should have. When he did, he saw Hermione in the doorway to the locker room. She had a tear in her eye.
Harry pushed past Fleur, but by that point Hermione was already gone. He looked back at Fleur, and he wanted to be upset that she would do this to him, but he wouldn't. He realized that this was his fault for letting himself be put in that position.
Harry said, "I'm sorry Fleur, but I've got to go."
Before she had an opportunity to respond, Harry ran out of the changing room, determined to find Hermione, and try and set things right again. This wasn't going to be easy, but he told himself anything worth doing seldom is. His mind was racing. He wondered where to look first.
He ran to the portal back to the castle. As he reached the entrance hall, he scampered up the staircase up to the common room. When he got there, he found Mr. Granger pacing around. He saw that he didn't look very happy.
He asked, "have you seen Hermione?"
He walked over to Harry, and said, "yes, Harry, I did. She came storming past us toward her dormitory. She was crying, so her mother went up to find out what was wrong. You wouldn't happen to know what happened by any chance, would you."
Harry wasn't sure exactly what to say, as he choked out, "well, you see."
He couldn't finish his thought, when Mr. Granger interrupted him, "I don't know what happened, and I really don't need to, but my daughter appears to be hurt, and that's all that I need to know."
"I need to talk to her."
Mr. Granger considered him for a minute before he said, "yes, maybe you do, but not now."
"Mr. Granger, I love your daughter. I need to explain to her what happened, so she can understand. I would never do anything to hurt her."
Mr. Granger's face softened a bit, and after he cleared his throat, he slowly said, "yes, I expect that you do have a lot to explain, but this isn't the right time. She seems to be hurt, and I believe that she needs an opportunity to recover before she will give you another chance. If you really love my daughter, you need to give her as much time as she needs to get over this."
Harry wandered around the tower, and without realizing where he was going, his feet took him up to the roof. He found himself at the bench where he sat with Hermione on their first night after they left Hogwarts for Beauxbatons.
Now that Hermione was upset with him, he was all alone now. He hadn't felt this alone since his twelfth birthday, when he hadn't heard from any of his friends from school, and he thought that they had forgotten about him. Things were so bad that summer that he actually imagined that his entire first year at Hogwarts was just a dream.