C18 Learning French

Beauxbatons Garden | 1st September 1985 | 8 AM

After having breakfast, Charlus went to the garden alone. He found Fleur waiting for him. She had told him the previous night at dinner to come at that time. He went up to her and said, "So teacher. What do you want me to do?"

Fleur giggled a little, and then handed him a potion.

"I got this from the potions mistress. This is a potion that helps you increase efficiency of learning. Madam Ivy said 8 times. Drink entire vial."

Fleur handed the vial to Charlus. Charlus trusted Fleur completely and downed the whole vial. When Charlus downed the entire vial, he felt that everything was clear. It was like he was stupid his whole life and suddenly he felt that he had become enlightened.

Fleur started his class. The class went on for the entire day, and when they were done, it was 6 PM. Fleur had even brought lunch to not disturb their session by going to lunch. Charlus was surprised he had concentrated for so long.

"How did we concentrate so long?"

"I also took a potion," Fleur confessed. "Anyways, Madam Ivy told me to make you take this potion too."

Fleur handed a potion to Charlus. He took it without any hesitation. This potion was the cure for the concentration potion. While the potion was only effective for a short duration, and it had excellent benefits, one of the greatest disadvantages was that it was very addictive, and an overdose would claim anyone's life. This was one of the reasons that such potions were heavily regulated by the French Ministry of Magic's Department of Dangerous Potions. The British counterpart simply resorted to hiding the existence of such potions and believed that this was an effective solution.

"I should meet your friends. I'll introduce you friends to mine too." Charlus said in French. While Charlus' wasn't an expert at French after the class, he was still good if compared with the average 8-year-old. Fleur was actually astonished by Charlus' learning capacity.

"Yes! We should do that. Tomorrow, we only have classes at 9 and 11. So we are free in the afternoon and evening. I'll bring my friends here. You can bring yours here too. Sharp 3:00 PM. By the way, you didn't tell me about your room mates."

"We'll meet again tomorrow, so I will tell tomorrow. Till then, enjoy the suspense. Charlus laughed and ran from the garden to his dorm.

He reached his dorm and went to his room and found Henri there. Patrick was no where to be found, but Charlus didn't care about him. He called out to Henri.

"Hey Henri. I promised my friend I'll meet her and her friends after classes with you, Lucas and Lucifer. Can you come? Please?"

Henri didn't have anything to do after classes and he wanted to make more friends anyways, so he said yes. After Henri agreed, Charlus thanked him and ran to the room beside theirs. He barged in directly.

"Lucas! Lucifer! I need you to -"

Charlus was shocked by the room of his friends. It was almost a third bigger than his, and it had only two beds instead of three.

Lucas and Lucifer were in their bath robes sitting on a table and playing a card game. They looked at Charlus who barged into their room.

"Charlus, we can explain."

Charlus immediately ran to their table and pulled an empty chair and sat down in it. He placed his hands in front of him and demanded, "Explain."

Lucifer started, "You see. Our families have an alliance and we are practically royalty, so our families demanded a separate room for us. That's why the room is better than yours. But you can always come to this room and think of it as yours."

Lucas also tried to apologize, "I wanted to tell you Charlus but I didn't know when to tell-"

"What are both of you talking about? Thanks by the way, but still. What's this game about?" Charlus pointed at the cards in front of him. He wasn't bothered by the room at all. After all, he had grown up in the Black Manor. He had a room that was bigger than the one that Lucas and Lucifer had to share, so he found nothing odd.

Lucas and Lucifer looked at each other and started laughing. Charlus didn't know why they started laughing, but he laughed along with them. After a few minutes, the laughter slowly started going down, but then it resumed. It took 10 minutes for the three of them to calm down. It was at that moment that all three of them understood the phrase - "Laughter is Contagious."

Lucas stopped laughing and then started explaining the game to Charlus.

"This game is called Crazy Eights. Basically what we have to do is discard all the cards in our hand...."

"Oh, I forgot to ask you, are you free tomorrow afternoon? I promised my friend I will bring you and Lucifer at 3 to meet her and her friends."

"Oh, we are free. We can come can't we Lucifer?"

Lucifer agreed with Lucas. After that, they went back to playing the game.

_______

A deserted place in the middle of nowhere | 1st September 1985 | 12 PM

In the middle of nowhere, there was a place that had desolation that made all life stay away from the area. A sudden rumbling noise scared away the few birds which were resting in the area before continuing their migration.

A huge runic array rose from the ground. From the top, it looked like a stone carved pattern. In the entire area, there were only two living beings.

"Why did you choose this place Nicholas? I understand secrecy is an issue, but going this far so as to bringing the boy to a cursed land? Won't that be detrimental?"

Nicholas looked at Dumbledore beside him and said, "Albus, when you live as long as I do, you will understand that all life comes from the ground below us. There must always be a time when we give back to the ground that is our second mother. The Phoenix Awakening will release a huge amount of life energy that the entire curse will be destroyed. The impact might not be immediate, but in 5-6 years, this place will be a crucial breeding ground for magical creatures that are descendants of Phoenixes like Fawkes."

Dumbledore nodded his head and continued to create more complex runes out of stone.