Chapter 54: Back to School
The week passed like a single day.
Fortunately, no more women with delusions of grandeur, or simply a desire to bring me to heel, appeared in our vicinity, and so the remaining days were spent swimming in the sea, lounging on chairs, and, on my part, entertaining increasingly serious thoughts about a monastery.
But that was then, and this was now. The week was over. We had moved out of the Delacours' and rented a small house not far from theirs in the wizarding quarter of France, so Fleur had promised to visit. And now I stood before Flitwick, who was tapping his wand thoughtfully against his forearm.
"Right. To begin, I want to assess you in your other subjects. I have spoken with my colleagues, and they will be prepared to examine you at the end of August. So you will be coming to Hogwarts with me a week before the rest of the students..."
I nodded in understanding. It made perfect sense. That way the other teachers would not have to carve time out of a busy start of term, and Flitwick himself would not have to figure out how to fit exams into a schedule that already included teaching all year groups, conducting my lessons, and running his extracurricular sessions. A sensible arrangement, and one I had anticipated.
"...so let us see what you have absorbed over the past year."
"As you wish, Master. Though in any case I will be working with tutors who will be bringing me up to speed in the other subjects, so I expect that by the end of the summer, I will be at a third-year level across the board."
"Good plans. The right sort of plans."
Flitwick gave an approving smile.
"...but I will still run the assessment."
And so the tests were produced. Nothing in them was particularly difficult, so I worked through them without trouble, and then demonstrated to Flitwick that the year had not been wasted and that I had genuinely mastered the entire second-year program to a very high standard.
The tests, the discussions, and the practical work took nearly three days. My Master approached the assessment with considerable thoroughness. But finding no gaps, he was satisfied, and my summer program began in earnest.
Day after day. Week after week.
Knowledge, skills, everything that could possibly be driven into me was driven in, and in certain areas, "driven in" was entirely the right phrase. Memory-enhancing potions became my closest companions. One cannot take them continuously, but even so I made full use of every hour they were effective, absorbing information at a rate I would previously have considered impossible.
And that was before factoring in the ordinary tutors who were catching me up on Hogwarts' other subjects.
And the practice with my gift.
The ongoing work to lift the curse on Daphne and Astoria's parents required me to return to Grimmauld Place every three days. The curse itself was no longer particularly difficult to manage. If I had wanted to reveal the full extent of my abilities, which had grown considerably, I could have lifted it by now. But I was keeping that hidden, so I had to leave the final removal until the end of the summer.
In short, summer had begun, and I had simply lost all track of time.
"Sorry?"
I looked at Flitwick with a slightly vacant expression.
"I said you've worked extremely well for three weeks. You've earned two full days off."
I blinked slowly as his words gradually sank in.
"Sorry? Days off?"
"Yes, days off. And this is not merely a reward. It is a requirement. For two days you are not to touch a book, and you are not to use magic unless there is a genuine emergency. Is that understood?"
"Yes."
I nodded, though the concept of a day off drew a complete blank in my mind. Somewhere in the back of my mind I understood that I needed rest, that I was absorbing information less effectively, that the ordeal would resume after the break, but...
But none of that helped me accept that I was, in fact, on vacation.
"The beach. The sea. A lounger and an umbrella."
That was all I said before I turned and walked back to the house, where I changed into swim trunks, packed a bag, and headed to the beach.
When I arrived, I set up my lounger and umbrella without a thought in my head, went to rinse off at the water's edge, and came back to find a large, smug man sprawled on my lounger.
"Go find yourself somewhere else, kid."
The tone was dismissive and slightly patronizing, and only two thoughts crossed my mind. I was not supposed to use magic. And this was my bloody day off.
The next thing I knew, the man was face-down in the sand. His arm wasn't broken, but he'd definitely dislocated it, and he was making that fact known in a loud voice. He ceased to interest me. I settled calmly onto the lounger and closed my eyes.
"You little..."
I opened my eyes and the man froze, staring at me the way a rabbit stares at a snake.
"Listen here. This is my first day off in three weeks. My Master is an absolute beast who spends his days knocking the stuffing out of me. If you do not walk away right now, I will be very, very, very upset, because I will have to waste part of my day off dealing with you. And when I am upset, I have been known to lose control of myself. Not just a dislocation. Something more along the lines of a compound fracture."
"Right. I got it. Just... don't do anything rash..."
The man took several steps back. I closed my eyes again and sank into a thoroughly pleasant doze.
"Just look at him, Penny."
"Honestly, this is really bad form on his part..."
"Girls..."
I recognized Fleur's voice immediately, and Penny's too.
Not that Penny was hard to recognize.
She had settled so thoroughly into that ridiculous little verbal habit that it had started slipping out even in conversation with her tutor.
He would make a noise of mild exasperation each time but say nothing about it, though apparently he had once asked about it, and she had told him about our wager.
Wait.
How do I know that?
I opened one eye lazily and looked at the girls.
"Right. Confess."
"Hmm?"
"...which of you has been talking my ear off? No, actually, withdraw the question."
I shook my head, looking at their puzzled faces. Memories surfaced unbidden, something about what a tyrant Monsieur Jean was, and what a despot, making poor, beautiful Fleur train in dueling until she could barely stand.
I shook my head.
"Aren't you ashamed of yourselves?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I am talking about the fact that my head is already buzzing from everything my Master is driving into it, and then you all pile on with your stories... I am barely holding together as it is, and..."
"But you remembered."
Fleur smiled at me, settled herself on the sand beside the lounger, and kissed me on the cheek. On my other side, Penny did the exact same thing.
"Yes. You remembered, and you never sent us away when we came to you."
I sighed.
"Well, for starters I am genuinely surprised I remember any of it, because I cannot for the life of me recall the actual moments when you were talking to me. And besides, I would have to be a pretty poor sort of person to simply wave you away."
"Ahem."
Fleur looked down.
"...the thing is... when I think about it... today is the first time in a long while that you have actually talked to us properly, instead of just humming and grunting. Are they really working you that hard?"
There was a slightly lost quality to Fleur's voice. I might even have described it as guilty.
"Oh..."
Penny reacted to Fleur's words with a small start, followed immediately by visible panic.
"Right. All of that later."
I got up from the sun lounger and went into the sea, rinsed off, and came back. As I returned, I noticed that Fleur and Penny, who were looking slightly put out, had been surrounded by five young men of roughly their age.
"Take a walk, pal."
Someone waved me off as I approached, and my already fragile mood took another dive.
"It seems the earlier demonstration taught no one anything."
I shook my head and kept walking forward. One of the young men swung at me. He found himself face-down in the sand before he had finished the motion, and I planted my foot on the back of his head to discourage any ideas about getting up.
"...so I am going to have to demonstrate once more to everyone on this beach that picking a fight with a combat arts apprentice who has not had a single day off in three weeks is a spectacularly poor decision."
Something in my expression gave them pause. They took a step back. Fleur had focused her Charm on me, and whatever had been emboldening them began to dissipate.
"So."
I finally lifted my foot from their friend's head and took a step forward.
"There are more of us!"
"And I am clearly angrier. Shall we see which of you gets away with minor bruising and who ends up in the hospital with broken bones? Come on, then. Who wants to spend the rest of the summer in..."
I noticed Fleur's eyes widen slightly, and her mouth began to open in warning. I immediately sent magic flooding through my body. I sharpened my vision and read her eyes.
Someone was about to hit me from behind.
I accelerated just enough to avoid any visible reaction, crouched slightly, and turned to meet the blow with an open palm.
"You!"
The young man was clearly not entirely in his right mind. He took a moment to realize his fist had simply been caught. By then it was too late—I had already spun him, shoved him facedown in the sand, and his arm cracked audibly on the way down.
"Right."
I looked at his companions.
"...what will it be? Walk away, take your friend with you... or attack, and possibly, only possibly, get away with bruises, or at worst spend the rest of the season bedridden with broken arms and legs?"
"We're leaving!"
The most sensible one gave the order, and the rest promptly collected their injured friend and made a swift exit.
"We will meet again!"
I sighed, lay back down on the sun lounger, and closed my eyes.
"I want to sleep. Sleep and do nothing."
"Don't worry."
Someone's fingers found their way into my hair and began gently working at my scalp.
"...we'll keep your sleep safe."
"Rest, our hero."
It was very, very nice, and before long I had drifted off.
"Nobody move!"
I opened my eyes without any particular urgency and found a French police officer, accompanied by several colleagues, pointing their pistols at me and the girls. Not that I was unconcerned, but the young man from earlier was standing behind the officer, his arm already in a cast, which told me they had no intention of shooting anyone.
"Officer, do you understand what you are doing right now?"
"Shut your mouth!"
"I'll continue, actually. You're putting your career at risk. I don't know who that young man's family is..."
Still lying on the lounger, I raised one hand very slowly so I wouldn't provoke anyone into firing, and pointed toward the boy, simultaneously casting an extremely weak wandless Confundus. Not nearly enough to make a wizard miss a step, but more than sufficient to make an ordinary person feel uncertain and slightly off-balance.
"...but I'm a citizen of another country, as is one of my friends. The other is French. All three of us have the resources to hire excellent lawyers. Those lawyers will dig up the entire story. They'll uncover how your employer..."
I pointed toward the boy again and cast another Confundus, leaving my reserves roughly halved. Without a wand, it was a costly spell to throw around.
"...came to this beach with his associates and harassed my friends, and how I was simply defending myself. They'll find out everything that happened here today. They'll find out exactly how much you were paid. After that, the young gentleman, and you yourselves, will be going to prison. And his family will be paying us a very substantial sum in damages."
All the officers, and the young man himself, became visibly uncomfortable.
"Now."
I stood up slowly from the lounger and extended my hands toward the nearest officer, casting one more charm as I did.
"...either you put me in handcuffs and we work through everything I've just described step by step, or you arrest the young man for attempting to bribe a police officer. Well? What is it to be?"
"You wouldn't dare!"
The officers, however, were of a different opinion, and after only a moment's hesitation they redirected their weapons toward the young man. I gave a small nod.
"The right choice."
With that, we wasted no time gathering our things and leaving the beach as quickly as possible.
"How?"
Fleur asked as we walked toward the house my mothers and I had rented for the whole party.
"Confundus. Three of them, and very weak ones. Without a wand, that spell was difficult to control at any strength. The boy will almost certainly be charged, or rather, they'll try. I have no idea who his family is, but I'll want to drop the memory into a Pensieve and let my mothers look into it, so they can stop these people from interfering with our lives."
"Or we could simply go to that beach next time."
I considered it and shook my head with genuine regret.
"I'm sorry. I'm not sure I could resist the charm of an entire gathering of Veela in my current state. Even your presence right now is... rather noticeable. And if there were several others like you nearby..."
"I understand."
"Don't worry about it. Today simply caught me off guard. Tomorrow I'll look into renting a private section of the beach so we can have it to ourselves."
"Or maybe just a pool?"
"No."
I shook my head.
"A pool isn't the same thing. Though we might be able to arrange something similar at Hogwarts eventually. But right now the sea is two minutes away, and it's the sea or nothing."
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