Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Unfamiliar Places

I was now walking rather slowly through the Hogwarts corridor. I was following one of the professors, my house’s head, Professor Flitwick. Due to his… short stature, it’s quite hard to ‘adjust’ my speed so that I won’t go past him.

“Can I please just have this one outing sir?” I pleaded to Flitwick. “And for the record, this rule of ‘a guardian must sign the permission form’ is always bollocks, I do not have any parents!”

“I appreciate if you don’t curse in front of me Mr. Whitlock.” Flitwick spoke, walking towards his office just right around the corner.

“Just… Can you sign my form or something? Please sir, at least just this one.”

Both of us stopped in front of Flitwick’s office. The professor stared at me a little while, before pushing the door in front of him. “I have told you many times, Whitlock, I cannot sign your form.”

Flitwick entered the room, and so did I. He quickly put the books that he was bringing to his desk and sat on his chair.

“Then how come Potter be able to go to Hogsmeade?! He doesn’t have any parents either, doesn’t he?!” I complained, I know the reason is, but I feel like Whitlock from before wanted to say that for a long time now.

Flitwick sighed at my complaint. “He has… a special situation…”

“Then you must be able to do something professor… please…” I begged the little professor.

Flitwick just shook his head in amusement. “Seems like you are really excited for this outing Mr. Whitlock, it is not typical of you…”

I slumped down, sitting on the chair in front of Flitwick. “Well… I have… things to do there…” I murmured, a bit embarrassed.

“Anything to do with Miss Delacour perhaps?” Flitwick stated as he grabbed a parchment from his desk, putting it in front of me. What? Damn rumors… even professors started to listen to these shitty gossips….

“What’s this?” I asked the professor.

“Open it.”

I took the parchment, and unrolled it. It was a… Permission form? Sign by… Sebastian Delacour?!

“Fleur’s father signed this?” I asked, flabbergasted. “He can do that?!”

“Of course he can Mr. Whitlock.” Flitwick squealed. “Apparently, since the moment you knew about the arrangement, he is your legal guardian.”

What the fuck? “Wha– how do you know that professor?”

Flitwick chuckled as he jumped from his chair. “The headmaster is quite a gossiper Mr. Whitlock. Now… get out of my office, I have things to do.”

“W- okay… thank you professor… I guess…” I murmured as I exited the office…. Damn old man, are you an old witch or what? Bloody gossips!

Well, at least I can go to Hogsmeade now…

B===========D~~~~~

I am now looking at myself in the mirror, trying to find something suitable to wear. Whitlock… you have no game in terms of fashion mate… seriously? All black? That is plain… you’re making my life harder here…

“Mate, what are you doing?” Terry Boot, my roommate, suddenly spoke up.

“What do you think?” I grumbled. “I’m going to Hogsmeade.”

“But you don’t have a permission form?” Terry pointed out.

“I just got one.” I shrugged.

“What? Your parents came back to life?” Terry snorted.

I scoffed. “‘Course not. Apparently I have a legal guardian now, so I can go.”

“Who is it?” Michael Corner suddenly entered the room.

“Well, his name is, ‘none of your business’.” I smiled, making Michael snort. “But seriously though I can’t tell you, otherwise you loudmouths will blab to the whole school.”

“Is it that important?” Terry raised his brow.

“You can say that…” I murmured, smelling my armpit, eh, doesn’t smell so bad. After that, I walked towards my trunk to pick up some money. I opened the big trunk, only to despair as I just remembered that the wizarding world doesn’t have paper money, and instead bloody coins. I have this big sack of Galleons in my trunk, taking up half of the space. How am I supposed to bring this now… 

I then saw that I had a smaller pouch and took it. I looked around, seeing that my roommates weren't looking at me, I quickly took my wand using my left hand and pointed it at the pouch.

After that, I whispered. “Capacious Extremis.”

I could then see the capacity of my pouch expanding, and I just quickly moved all of my galleons to the pouch. It's highly illegal, eh, I don’t care… It's just Hogsmeade.

After that, I quickly exited the room, towards the first floor.

B===========D~~~~~

I arrived at the carriage spot as I saw Fleur waiting beside one with her sister Gabrielle. I approached her, waving my hand to make her notice me.

“Sorry, I was moving my Galleons, it was a lot…” I murmured, a bit out of breath still.

Fleur raised her brow. “Money is not going to impress me Archibald.”

What? “Wha– I didn’t mean it like that, it’s the truth.”

Fleur shot me a teasing look as she shook her head. I just shrugged at her and looked at Gabrielle.  “Hello Gabrielle, ready to go?” I asked her.

Fleur translated it for me, and the little girl nodded at me with a wide smile.

“Alright, then let’s go inside.” I said, opening the carriage door for the two ladies to enter. “After you, ladies…”

Fleur just giggled, bringing herself and Gabrielle to the carriage. I quickly entered the carriage and closed the door.

“Where do you want to go?” I asked, sitting opposite of Fleur.

“I don’t know, you can lead us anywhere.” Fleur said to me.

“Well, I have only been to Hogsmeade once before…” I murmured in embarrassment, and it surprised Fleur.

“Why?” she asked.

“I can’t sign the permission form because I have no parents nor guardians.” I shrugged, earning a sympathetic look from Fleur. “Don’t look at me like that, I don’t need pity Fleur…”

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“Sorry…” she murmured. “So how come you can go now?”

“Your father signed it apparently.” I said casually, looking at the window. “I suppose I should thank him now.”

“Well that is good.” Fleur nodded in approval. “Then we can explore Hogsmeade together.”

“That sounds good.” I smiled. I looked at Gabrielle as Fleur translated her words to her. She looks excited, exploring it is, then…

B===========D~~~~~

When we arrived at Hogsmeade, I could feel the cold air of November breezing through my body, fluttering my Ravenclaw scarf. Whitlock had been here before, although not from Hogwarts, he had visited this place in the summer with the Whitlock’s house elf Dooky, simply curious on what it’s like. By the way, what’s with the house elf’s name Whitlock? That is simply hilarious and cruel at the same time…

I shook my thoughts away from my brain as I could feel Gabrielle’s hand pulling my trousers. She’s quite an excited ball of energy, and so we started to explore. We followed the icy trail of Hogsmeade, seeing kiosks and shops that were displaying their products. Gabrielle wandered around, checking out every shop she encountered while me and Fleur just watched her with a smile.

Speaking about me and Fleur, we didn’t talk much during the ‘exploring’ phase… it’s all about Gabrielle in this period of time. Eventually, we stopped at Honeydukes, where Fleur was forced to agree to buy some sweets for Gabrielle, me, and herself, although me and Fleur both know all of that is just for the little Veela…

While she was hoarding all the sweets she could see, Fleur and I waited at the entrance of the place, watching the girl closely. She was quiet for some reason, but she had this big smile on her face that never disappeared once we stepped into Hogsmeade.

“Are you alright?” I asked her, a bit worried at her solemn state.

“Hm? Oui, I am alright Archie, thank you for asking.” she said, breaking her gaze at Gabrielle. “It is just… it is rare for ‘er to be like this.”

I turned to Gabrielle once again, happily wandering around the shop. “How come?”

“Papa is rather overprotective of us.” she said calmly. “There ‘ad been… attempts of kidnapping, of me or Gaby alike. So we rarely go out like this.”

I looked at her and gave her a sad smile. Damn, that must’ve sucked. “Because of your heritage?”

She didn’t say anything, she just nodded. I then observed the entire surrounding, and sure enough, a lot of men and boys were looking at Fleur and Gabrielle… dangerous if they’re exposed for too long.

“Do you think… lowly of me, Archie? Because of my ‘eritage?” she asked, a bit vulnerable.

I just held her hand and squeezed it softly, before letting it go again. “‘Course not. You are the same as everyone else.”

She didn’t look at me, but a relieved smile could be seen on her face. After that, Gabrielle ran towards us, showing us what she got for ‘us’. I paid for it, and wandered off to other places.

We spend hours just walking around the place. We visited the joke shop, but had to quickly go because there were too many stares from the visitors, visited the post office and their many owls, watched the shrieking shack from afar, and we tried out some local wizardwear.

When we reached the end of our trip, I could see that Gabrielle had the widest of smiles. She was skipping when we moved, happy at the trip. After that, we decided to find some place to rest. We visited Madam Puddifoot’s tea shop but it was packed. I had asked the madam if there were any private rooms, she said no, but she recommended the Three Broomsticks for rooms, so we went there.

When we were there, it was also packed, but I asked Madam Rosmeta to rent a room for a couple of hours, and she agreed. We were escorted into a room, and when we opened it, Gabrielle quickly ran to the bed, jumping on top of it.

We ordered some food and decided to spend the rest of the trip here.

—

A couple hours later, Gabrielle was now sleeping on the bed as she had just finished her meal, while me and Fleur just sat opposite of each other, talking casually.

“How was Beauxbatons?” I asked her, drinking my cup of tea.

“It was… fine.” she said hesitantly, which made me raise my brow. “I ‘ad to move to a private room because of my heritage… but other than that, it was fine.”

“You are a terrible liar Fleur.” I commented, which made her sigh. “You can talk to me, you know that right?”

She just nodded meekly. “I just… these past couple of weeks ‘ave been a blessing to me. Usually, in Beauxbatons, my daily routine would be just to study and eat, nothing else, not socializing, no “‘aving fun” or anything of the sort… but when I met you, I don’t feel lonely anymore… everyday I woke up, the first thing I am looking forward to is to talk to you at breakfast, I spent the entire day waiting for dinner to meet you again, I will try to find reason so that I could go to your Room of Requirement so that I could spend time with you… I am starting to think that this arrangement is not so bad after all…”

“Starting to think?” I scoffed teasingly. “I had thought that you had fallen over heels for me.”

Fleur let out an amused snort. “Only in your dreams Archibald.”

I just chuckled at her reaction as I sipped my tea again, it’s getting cold… the tea I mean…

“Thank you…” Fleur murmured. “For taking this… ‘arrangement’ thing slowly… I ‘ad dread that you will push it quickly because of… well… teenage ‘ormones…”

I smiled at her. “You’re not the only one who is in this arrangement Fleur, I am too, remember?”

Fleur nodded. “Oui. I suppose I should apologize as well to not let you have a chance on choosing a partner too.”

“To be honest, it’s a bit of a blessing.” I said jokingly, making Fleur look at me with amusement. “If this hadn’t happened, I doubt that I could woo a girl into marriage.”

“Well I think that you are a charming man Archibald.”

“Man?” I said, raising my eyebrow. “I’ll take that.”

Fleur just shook her head in amusement. I looked at the window beside her, it’s getting dark.

I stood up. “It’s almost time to go back.” I said, and it made Fleur stand up. “Let’s get going.”

B===========D~~~~~

I am now escorting Fleur and Gabrielle to the Beauxbatons Carriage. Gabrielle is in this state of half asleep and half awake, which was quite cute to be honest.

We stood in front of the carriage as Fleur turned to me.

“Thank you for today.” she said, hugging me tightly. “I ‘ad a good time.”

“Me too.” I said, patting her back. “Never went out like that to be honest.”

She released the hug and kissed me on both cheeks. She then spoke to Gabrielle in French, which I didn’t understand… I really need to learn it…

As she finished talking, Gabrielle approached me which made me crouch down. She gave me a hug, and also kissed me on both cheeks. She said something in French, and walked back to Fleur again.

“Hey, if you need anything, just find me.” I said to Fleur. “You don’t have to worry about my permission, if you want to meet me in the room, just go there.”

“I will.” she nodded, grabbing Gabrielle’s hand. “Bonne nuit Archie.”

After that, she walked to the carriage to end her day, and so I walked back to Hogwarts, tired as fuck.

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