Chapter 130: Beauxbatons; MC already flexing
Chapter 130: Beauxbatons; MC already flexing
The registration had been done simple enough, Durant just had to write a letter, and it was done. So today, everyone was going to Beauxbatons for the selection matches.
Last night, Fleur had requested Chris to train with her, 'coincidentally' in front of Camille, thus had to play with her on mother's orders. After beating everyone in Beauxbatons, perhaps, the girl might have unconsciously developed some thoughts that she might be able to beat him this time.
Chris put her in her place. Thoroughly.
Which is the reason why she seems to be sulking this morning. But, when they portkeyed to the front of Beauxbatons, all her sulkiness vanished. It was Chris's, Esme's, and Gabrielle's first time coming to Beauxbatons. It was cold outside their manors, everyone was wearing warm clothes.
In front of them was a huge marble gate and high walls which surrounded the Castle and it's vast grounds. They all crossed the wards and entered through the magnificent front gates which were made of beautifully carved white marble.
Inside was a beautiful garden with carefully groomed magical plants and flowers. The huge castle was, about 6 stories tall, with it's towers reaching sky heights topped with blue peaks.
"Damn," Chris muttered, and Gabrielle and Esme also stared at the beautiful scenery in front of them in awe. Seeing their reactions Fleur smiled proudly, as if she was the one who built it.
"Magnifique, isn't it?" She asked. And they agreed. It wasn't a castle, it was more of a palace.
The reason behind Beauxbatons' grandeur isn't only about it's beautiful castle. No. What truly completes the scene is it's surroundings as well.
In front of Chris was a beautiful chateau, surrounded by majestic gardens and fountainsmagicallycreated out of the surrounding mountains.
The surroundings were so beautiful and vibrant that Chris wondered for a moment if he was a fantasy world....Oh wait, he actually was.
Looking at Chris, Esme and Gabrielle who were spellbound, Fleur gracefully gestured towards the scenery in front of them.
"I present you, the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. Found in 1295 and once home to some of the most prominent wizards in the history, including the Immortal Alchemist Nicholas Flamel and his wife Perenelle Flamel," She said, purposefully acting like the tour guide.
"She sure is lively today," Sebastian said to Appoline as they both smiled at their daughter's antics. It reminded them of the young Fleur, who didn't have to deal with anything related to discrimination and isolation. The couple were infinity grateful to Chris for helping them in bringing her back to her former lovely self.
In the middle of the gardens was a striking splendid Fountain.
"That," said Fleur gestured proudly to the giant and glorious fountain, "is called the Alchemist Fountain. Apparently, Nicolas Flamel and Perenelle had their first meeting there centuries ago. The fountain is said to have healing and beautifying properties."
Chris looked around, feeling the dense magic in the air. It wasn't as dense as Hogwarts, but it was still great. The castle had a lot of students walkings around with their parents. Today's event gave various parents a chance to visit their Alma Mater once again. Nostalgia was written all over their faces as they recalled various memories.
"So, where's the tournament supposed to be held?" Asked Chris.
"It's in the Arena," She answered pointing at the huge arena which could be seen even from this distance, "It's where the Quidditch matches are usually held."
"Let's go to the Arena first,"said Durant.
Before coming here, the ladies had taken their time in getting ready, so they were already running a bit late. Thus, they decided to directly go to the arena and decided to have a look around after the tournament.
As they neared the Arena, crowd became denser. The Arena was about the same size as the Quidditch pitch of Hogwarts. But instead of those eccentric stands, the seating was like Roman arena, just a lot higher, similar to how Chris had seen in the Quidditch World Cup in movies. A huge audience had already gathered in lower parts of the stands, and some vendors were making rounds, selling things like Omniocculars (magical binoculars).
"Oh no! We're late!" Fleur dragged Chris away before he could properly have a look around.
Chris was unwilling, "Oi, there's no need to hurry. At least let get my good luck kiss from Esme!"
"This crazy sis-con! You can come back later. We're not going to have a match right now. The participants just have to check-in early to let them know we're here." said the hypocrite Fleur. She herself wouldn't have left just now without a good luck kiss from Gabrielle if they couldn't come back.
In this crowd, Fleur naturally attracted a lot of attention. There wasn't a single student at Beauxbatons who didn't know her, though everyone has different opinions about her. And right now, she was dragging Chris by hand, which was already an unseen sight to the students present. Though Fleur had long stopped paying attention to what the crowds think of her.
"Hey! Fleur! Wait for me!" Right then, a voice cut through the crowd and calling for Fleur. Fleur already knew who it was from the voice alone. It was Amelie Dumont, her one and only true friend in the whole school.
Amelie was a beautiful girl with auburn hair and she had spectacles over her dark eyes. She was usually a shy and introvert girl, but only in the presence of Fleur does she open up. They had been friends from their very first day at Beauxbatons.
During these years, all of Fleur's friends were either two-faced or straight up showed jealousy towards her after her looks and talent started getting everyone's attention. So, if there was anything that had prevented her from complete depression along with her family's support, it was Amelie, the shy and introverted, but kind and supporting girl.
Amelie, who had been trying to find Fleur in this crowd had just now seen her, and to her surprise, she was hold the arm of a boy! It had to be said that since last year, Amelie had rarely seen Fleur even get close to a girl other than her, let alone a boy. So she was naturally very surprised and called her out to stop her.
And even the boy's looks weren't ordinary. He had messy just-got-up-from-bed golden hair that seemed to still look good on him, his face had aristocratic features and his clear electric blue eyes seemed to glow. Standing together with a veela, his looks still didn't pale in comparison.
Fleur turned around impatiently and addressed her best friend, "Amelie, we don't have time right now. I'll talk to you later, Ok?" The participants had to check in right now after all, so she just straightforwardly told her best friend to wait.
But Amelie, who was left behind, felt very hurt, thinking that her best friend had ignored her because she had found a new friend.
"Come to think of it, she's been acting completely different from the start of this year." She mumbled to herself. Fleur had told her that it was all due to a complete scoundrel name Chris.
Before this, Amelie and Fleur were always together, being each other's strength. But Fleur was now changing.
"It must all be that scoundrel Chris's fault." She muttered, her eyes gaining scary glint for a second, but then, it was gone. No one can take Fleur away from her.
...
Chris, who just saw the interaction between Fleur and the other girl shook his head. Now he can see why Fleur has been a loner upto now. Fleur would still need a lot of training if she has to completely change this Karen attitude of hers and learn more about social interaction.
As they made their way to the check in point, many students would point fingers at Fleur. Some were in awe, most girls in contempt, and some, which Chris was guessing was due to his help, even took the initiative to greet her.
'Those must be the followers she gained this year.' thought Chris.
As they reached their destination, they could see many students in dueling attire gathered there. Obviously, they were also participants. When Fleur came, all eyes naturally gathered on her, of course because of her being the best at dueling here, and her beauty.
Chris bumped his shoulder with Fleur.
"You know, you can let go of my arm now," said Chris as he suppressed his grin.
"Hmm?" Fleur looked down, only to realize that she was still holding onto Chris's arm even now!
"Use occlumency," Chris suggested, as Fleur got flustered. He didn't want to embarrass her in front of everyone.
Fleur who had quickly let go of Chris's hand hand her head turned to side for a few seconds and straight platinum blonde hair naturally hid her face like a curtain.
When she turned her face back, it was back to her usual cold and haughty expression which is usually how it is when she's in public. Only Chris could see that the tips of her ears were red.
"So, she actually came, huh?" Muttered a girl who also had blond hair and blue eyes. She was beautiful, but everything about her appearance seemed to pale when compared to Fleur.
The girl was surrounded by a lot of students, and her name was Louise Fontaine.
She is the niece of the current Minister of Magic. Her mother, Lara Firmin is sister of Gustave Firmin, the minister. And Lara married into the Fontaine family had high influence in the various departments of ministry.
With such a family background, Louise Fontaine naturally grew up to be Karen worse than Fleur, thinking that the whole world revolves around her. From childhood, she was praised for being smart and talented and her parents obviously ignored the mean streak she had which sometimes showed up in her small actions like torturing of House elves or stealing stuff, etc.
So, when this entitled girl who thought very highly of herself saw Fleur who was better than her in every aspect, her natural mean nature started to show itself as she became the source of many of the rumours that were maliciously spread around in the school about Fleur. And of course, she didn't do it openly, but in a more clever and Slytherin way.
Earlier, Fleur had never once paid attention to this girl, since she thought Louise didn't deserve it and when she caught someone say bad things about her, she'd directly confront them, thus giving Louise more ammunition to make more false rumours from behind the scenes. But after Chris had told her about how and why the rumors about her spreading not because of her being veela, but because bragging boys and jealous girls, Fleur had begun to act with more tact and calculations, and thus, the results were slowly starting to show.
When Fleur walked in with Chris, some of the students who were standing with Louise either walked away casually or subtly distanced themselves from Louise. This wouldn't have happened a year ago, since Fleur was always aloof and arrogant in those days, but now that she's started to take action this year, little Louise is having already starting to lose her following.
'Damnit!'
Seeing what was happening, Louise gritted her teeth, and her fists clenched. Fleur Delacour! Just seeing her causes Louise immense jealousy. 'That beauty... should be illegal to have! It's totally unfair!'
But, instead of showing her anger, Louise put on a smile on her face and approached Fleur. For today's tournament, Louise had planned extensively to get Fleur eliminated early.
"Oh, Fleur! It's so good to see you!" Louise came to Fleur to la bise (kiss on both cheeks)
She then acted as if she noticed Chris only now, "Who is this handsome boy? Did you already get bored of the last one?" She asked, winking playfully.
This was Louise. Acting all friendly, but still secretly taking shots at the other person. She'd just now shown that Fleur was a girl who easily changes her boy toys. Of course, the false rumors about the last one was not spread 'directly' by her. She was just one of the people who heard it and thought it was true.
"...."
This is the reason why Fleur hated interacting with people. Just now, she had done nothing, but now people would already assume that she had was a girl who has relationships with many men. And most of all, what would Chris think?!
During her years at Beauxbatons, she had mastered the subtle art of not giving a f*ck, but she still cared somewhat of what Chris thought of her, since she didn't want anyone at home knowing this and most of all, she didn't want to be teased by Chris!
She was about start explaining but Chris stepped up at this time. Louise, the silly girl didn't know that she could have saved herself from a lot of trouble if she had just kept a low profile in front of Chris, or atleast didn't directly involve him in her little games.
*Vrooom*
A wave of invisible magic burst out from him, making the surrounding people feel fear and intimidation.
"I'm Chris Martin," he introduced himself with a slightly smirk.
This was, of course, magic he'd felt from Durant at the train station when the crowd was about to get out of control on seeing them.
The thing that Durant did on the station was very instictual wandless magic of low power, and Chris just felt it, copied it, and released it right now with some more intensity. But it's still not enough for people to understand that it's actually the effect of magic.
Louise, who got the direct and concentrated blast involuntarily took two steps back in fear.
Being from an affluent pure blood family, and also being the niece of the minister who has a strong relation with the Martins, there was no way Louise didn't know who Chris Martin was.
He was the Heir of both the Laurant and Martin family.
Totally not worth it to offend him just to bring down someone she's jealous of. But right now, she couldn't even concentrate on that. Because she was too busy trying not to pee that was about to be released out of fear when his almost glowing electric blue eyes looked at her.
Right now, to the surrounding people, Chris gave off the same feeling as his father Durant. The only difference was, he was somehow more terrifying, and they could all feel as though they was an invisible pressure weighing down on them, as if to force them to bow their heads to him.
As for Fleur, she was naturally very glad upon seeing Chris being Chris in front of these people. Actually, this was reason why she had always wanted Chris to come to Beauxbatons. In all situations, she has noticed that Chris always... always somehow comes out on top. He handles them very differently from how she would usually react in his place. So, she wanted to just see what would it be like, if he faces the people she hates.
And Fleur had to say, she was not disappointed at all. Standing behind him, Fleur felt that even if he's a nightmare when he teases her, but this guy is very reliable if he takes her own side.
While outwardly, people were feeling intimidated by Chris, Inwardly, the guy was jumping with joy like a true geek.
'It works! Man, it truly works!'
'I'm now a xianxia cultivator who intimidates people with by flexing his cultivation!'
'Kneel! Junior!'
'I have the dragon bloodline and my chi is very pure! My cultivation is unfathomable!'
***
A.N.: Hopefully, all of you have read some xianxia, so that you can understand the references.
MC got a new skill!
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