French Affair

Chapter One

"May I have your attention please?" Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and everybody looked at her. They noticed a tall girl with long brown hair standing next to her.

"This is our new student, Malvina Cielriusseau. She has transferred from Beauxbatons and she'll be sorted soon. Until then she'll sleep in the Gryffindor girl's dormitory for Seventh Years."

A loud humming noise followed her speech and everybody looked at Malvina curiously, when she went over to the Gryffindor table. She sat down next to Angelina Johnson and didn't say a word.

From time to time somebody would glance at her, but besides that she had a silent meal. Especially Oliver Wood, Gryffindor Keeper and Quidditch captain eyed her.

The dinner was over and everybody went back to their Common Room. Malvina stood up and followed the others silently.

"Hey!" Alicia Spinnet called and caught up with her. "My name's Alicia, call me Al or Liz if you want. Do you have a nickname?"

Malvina spoke slowly, like she'd have to think about her words carefully. "My friends in France call me Ina. Nice to meet you," she said to Alicia and smiled.

The other girl grinned at her and seized her arm. "I'll take care of you I knew what it feels like to be alone. But don't mind, at the end of the day, everybody will love you!" she said and winked at her.

"I don't think so I'm not a very interesting person. But that's very nice of you. And yes, it feels terrible to not know anybody here," Ina said and soon they stood in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Love bite," Alicia said and the portrait swung open. "Don't ask!" she said and pushed Ina through the portrait hole into the Common Room.

"Hey, Al!" another girl called and they went over to the couch they were sitting on. "Hey Angie, hey Kat," Alicia said and motioned Ina to sit down.

"This is Ina. Ina, the two crazy girls here are Angelina and Katie. We three are on the House Quidditch Team. Do you play Quidditch?"

The three girls looked at the brunette and she thawed under the attention. "I used to play on our Quidditch Team in Beauxbatons and we had a small Quidditch pitch near our house before we moved to England. I was a Chaser."

"We three are the Gryffindor Chasers as well. Maybe we can learn some tricks from you," Katie said and Ina blushed.

"I don't want to sound impolite, but why do you speak English so well? I nearly can't hear your accent," Angelina suddenly asked and looked at her curiously.

"Oh, my mum's French and my dad was born in Liverpool. I spent my childhood in England and when I was ten years old, we moved to Paris and I got my letter from Beauxbatons.

"Now my dad got a job here at the Ministry of Magic and we now live in London. But I don't want to bore you with the details of my live. Tell me, what do I have to know?"

Alicia, Angelina and Katie spent the whole evening telling Ina stories about the life in Hogwarts, the teachers, the lessons and mostly about the pranks of the Weasley twins.

They went to bed late and before Ina fell asleep, she found that she had luck to be in such a great school.

~~

The next morning Ina had to get up early, because McGonagall had told her she'd be sorted before breakfast.

She waited at the Gryffindor table and when the Gryffindor Chasers came into the Great Hall she ran towards them and called "I'm in Gryffindor, I'm in Gryffindor!"

"Congratulations!" Al called and hugged her.

"Oh, what a beautiful day, another Gryffindor-k," a voice drawled and the girls turned round. Draco Malfoy stood at the entrance and looked at the cheerful girls with a frown.

"Watch your attitude, Malfoy!" Angie spat and they went to take their seats.

"Who was that little boy?" Ina asked and looked at the Slytherin table where Draco tried to teach Crabbe how to use a spoon.

"Don't mind the little rat. He's Draco Malfoy, a show-off. He thinks he's the best, just because he's a Slytherin." Alicia said Slytherin like it was a very disgusting form of skin rash.

The Great Hall was soon full of students and Alicia and Ina discussed her timetable. "Cool, we have Herbology now. That's really cool. You don't have much to do and get to know many interesting plants."

"I know," Ina answered. "We have the same in France!"

"Oh, umm... Yes, of course," Alicia mumbled and put some scrambled eggs on her plate.

"Morning girls," Oliver Wood greeted and sat down at the table.

"Morning Oliver!" the three girls answered in unison and Ina looked up. "I had no time to introduce myself. I'm Oliver. Oliver Wood. And you are-?"

"Just Ina, You're the Quidditch Captain, right?" Ina asked and Alicia whispered, "Well done, Ina! Now you'll have to listen the whole breakfast to Quidditch moves, tactics and fiends."

After the other girl had said that, Oliver leaned over and asked Ina, "You're interested in Quidditch? Well, I have to show you..." and Alicia rolled her eyes and returned to her breakfast.

Ina had to hold back a giggle and pretended the whole breakfast to be interested in Oliver's explanations and only woke up, when he knocked a glass of milk over while he had showed her Harry's Snitch-catch in his second year.

~~

Ina sat alone in the library two weeks later and tried to finish her Potions essay, when Oliver came in and sat down next to her. "Hi Oliver, Don't want to be rude, but I think I had enough Quidditch strategies for a month," she said and smiled.

Oliver blushed, but answered hastily, "No, I didn't want to talk about Quidditch. Ok, maybe I wanted, but now I think I'll have to think of something else. You are a difficult girl."

"No, I'm not. Girls doesn't want to hear about Quidditch, at least not all the time," Ina explained and laid her quill down on the table. Her quiet work time was over.

"Oh. That would explain why my last dates didn't go so well," Oliver admitted and ran his hands confused through his hair. Ina chuckled, but stopped, when she saw Oliver's scowl.

"Sorry," she murmured and had a hard time to bite back a grin. "Umm, now that we have cleared that we, especially me don't want to talk about Quidditch, what plans have you now?"

"I'm completely clueless. You destroyed my plans. Umm, see you at dinner," Oliver said hastily and fled out if the library. Ina looked after him and shook her head. Strange guy, she thought and went back to work on her Potions essay.

But she didn't have much time, because soon after Oliver had left, Alicia came in and dropped herself in a chair next to Ina. "Hey," she panted and stroke a strand of hair out of her red face.

"Hey Al, what have you done?" Ina lay her quill down on the table and sighed. She would likely have to work on her homework until late at night.

"Escape from Oliver... wanted to show me new Quidditch moves... he had worked out...Oy!" she gasped and clutched her sides that were aching after the long run.

"He can be really boring, but I think he's kinda cute," Ina said and propped her chin on her palm. Alicia eyed her from the side and an irritated frown appeared on her face.

"What?" the brunette girl asked as she glanced at the Gryffindor Chaser. "Don't you think he's cute?"

"Yeah, but," she said and examined Ina's face closely. Suddenly a smile spread across her face. "You have a crush on Oliver!"

Ina's face turned a nice scarlet shade and her eyes grew bigger. "No, I have not!" she exclaimed and tried to keep her voice low. "I think he's nice and cute, but I do not have a crush on him. Ok, maybe a little, but nothing important."

"Ina and Oliver are sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Alicia sang and jumped up. She danced through the whole library until Madame Prince seized her at her arm and threw her out of the library.

"I'll go get Oliver!" Alicia called and ran away. "No! Alicia!" Ina hissed, but it was too late. The other girl had disappeared in the hallway.

Oy, Ina thought. This is going to be great.

She tried to concentrate on her essay, but her hands were lightly shaking and she kept glancing at the door.

"Hey," Oliver said and Ina jerked backwards and fell with her chair on the floor. Oh, how impressing, a small voice in her head said. How very subtle.

Oliver gasped in shock and the girl emerged from the floor with a red head. "Nothing happened, I'm all right," she said and tried to ignore the stabbing pain in her back.

"What did you want? Alicia told me you needed my help with an essay." Ina looked startled. "Oh, yes. Umm, I wanted to know..." She let her eyes wander over the bookshelves.

"Dragons!" she called. "I need to know how to keep a dragon for Care Of Magical Creatures."

"Umm, Ina. We're in the same class and we now go through Unicorns," Oliver said and looked at her amused.

"Oh. Unicorns, dragons, they are so alike!" Ina let out a forced laugh. "But now, I have to go. It's very urgent. Bye, Oliver!" She grabbed her things and stumbled out of the library.

"I'm going to kill you, Alicia Spinnet!" she said through gritted teeth and ran out of the big oak door, onto the fields of Hogwarts.