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This story is part of the first drabble collection of the Flowerpot (H/F) Discord. Go check the discord and the other stories out. They’re amazing!
Collection: See below tags
Discord: https://discord.gg/Np2zjAH
Disclaimer: HP does not belong to me but J.K. Rowling. If it did it would have been Flowerpot.
Summary: Harry has always been a lonely kid, but when he sees the opportunity to go on an exchange, he immediately grabs it. But it isn’t as easy as he imagined.
A/N:
Thanks to everyone participating in this collaboration and a special thanks to:
x102reddragon, HonorverseFan, hannibal1234, NerdDragonVoid and Abel Lecoq for betaing. And of course Liberty Prime for organizing the event and betaing.
While this my first written fanfic ever, it has been a blast and certainly made me appreciate the amazing authors this community has even more.
~XxX~
Harry felt his legs go stiff from hearing the French Ministry woman drone on about how great this exchange was going to be. He fought back a yawn and let his gaze wander around the beautifully decorated room. It sort of reminded him of the palace of Versailles. Even the dullest ornaments had more detail than the most intricate thing in Hogwarts. The air around the golden details smelled of ozone and magic.
He shied away from it and focused on the host families next to the woman. Feeling his hands get a bit sweaty he quickly looked back at the Ministry woman, who was now telling them with whom they would live before the 4th school year started:
Davies – Couture
The women pointed over to a posh looking family with a boy and a girl. She proceeded to sort the exchange students. Finally:
Potter – Delacour
His eyes followed the finger towards the epitome of contrast. A gorgeous woman, next to a small pudgy man. An annoyed but beautiful teenage girl - around the same age as him - next to a bundle of energy calling itself a child.
Harry slowly made his way over, as the last person was read-out giving the hosts and exchange students the chance to introduce themselves. Harry could feel his heart rate increase.
“Welcome to France, Mr Potter!”, the man said with a warm smile.
“’Ello,” Harry mumbled back forcing an awkward smile on his face. “You can call me Harry, Monsiör Delacour.”
“It’s called Monsieur," replied the teenage girl condescendingly and added an “imbécile” under her breath.
“Fleur," Mrs Delacour reprimanded the girl harshly.
Harry heard none of that though as a little girl ran up to him, hugging his leg and babbling in French. Breathing out to relax, he smiled down at her.
“Now Harry, I’m Henri, this is my wife Apolline and this is our daughter Fleur," he said while pointing towards the teenage girl.
“But let’s not forget the little minx choking your leg to death, Gabrielle.” hearing her name, said girl hugged Harry’s leg even harder.
Unwillingly a little smile slipped on his face.
They made their way to one of the dozens of beautifully ornate fireplaces with Fleur marching in the front. She quickly grabbed a pinch of Floo powder. “Maison Delacour,” she said while the Floo powder was still falling. Harry, standing in the front, took the next turn.
Making his way out of the other end, he was stunned by a lovely looking dinner with a 'Welcome' garland hanging from the ceiling. The moment of happiness didn’t last long though as Mr Delacour came out of the fireplace stumbling right into him.
Just before they knew what happened, Gabrielle ran out of the Floo System and – of course – right onto them. It was a big knot of arms and legs. Hearty laughter filled the room as Mrs Delacour came out of the fireplace causing the mess on the floor to snap out of their stupor; although with differing reactions. Mr Delacour started laughing profusely while Gabrielle stood up and quickly let herself fall onto the fleshy mattress again causing the adults to laugh even harder.
“I’m so sorry,” Harry tried a couple of times but was always interrupted by the next jump of Gabrielle.
~XxX~
“So Harry, tell us a little bit about yourself.” Mr Delacour said after taking a sip from his wine-glass and quickly adding a, “How is Hogwarts for example?” after seeing Harry stumble over his words.
“Hogwarts is nice. Although it isn’t only a school. Like um, it is a living piece of history and there’re a lot of adventures to be had. Moving staircases, talking suits of armour and a lot of secret passages. If you don’t want to be caught… or are in a hurry, it is really good to know a few. But I wouldn’t say it’s not a school at its core. The library and all the knowledge to be gained from it is lovely. I usually read one book a day during the holidays there or every couple of days during the term. I can always count on Madam Pince – the librarian – to lend an ear whenever I have a question or need advice.” Harry stopped almost shocked by himself.
“I heard Hogwarts had a lot of ghosts and even the dumbest person on earth would be allowed there. Also, it’s apparently a dark, moody castle." Fleur shivered in disgust causing her parents to look at her in shock.
~XxX~
It was already really dark outside, as Harry was finished with unpacking and made his way to the big fluffy guest-bed. Sinking into it almost so much he felt uncomfortable he started reminiscing about the day.
A smile appeared on his face. It appeared to be the right choice to go on this exchange. He wasn’t used to the welcome feeling the Delacours seemed to emit, but he was not going to fuck this up over some initial awkwardness.
Fleur seemed to dislike him for some reason though. Hopefully, this wouldn’t ruin the whole trip…
~XxX~
Mrs Delacour thought the same thing as she was talking to Fleur in her room.
“Fleur, why were you so rude today? It’s not how you usually are.”
Fleur just turned away as she laid face down on her bed clutching her pillow.
“Talk to me, Fleur. I’m your mother, you can tell me everything.”
“I don’t want to." came the muffled reply.
Her mother sighed as she sat down on the side of the bed.
“Fleur…” she pushed.
“What do you want?" came the unhappy reply from Fleur.
“What happened, Fleur?”
Fleur turned around, her face teary: “Louis broke up with me…” she latched onto her mother like an animal seeking shelter, “and then you forced being a host family on me even though I didn’t want to begin with.” Fleur sniffed, “and now you wonder why I behaved so rudely?”
Her mother didn’t reply for a minute and just stroked Fleurs back.
“I know this is hard, but over time the pain will go away. I know the best recipe for a breakup is a hot chocolate and some cake. Do you want me to make some for you?”
“You would do that for me?”, Fleur sniffed.
“Of course, honey,” she smiled. “But I want you to be nice to Harry tomorrow.”
Fleur nodded against her mother’s chest.
~XxX~
“And checkmate. Well…” Fleur picked up her chess pieces. “chess is for the smart.”
“I won the last four times before so…” Harry replied somewhat miffed.
Fleur stuck out her tongue. “Such a bad loser.”
Harry’s face must have shown his uncomfortableness because she dropped her playful act.
“Come on, I’m just teasing, Harry. Although it’s true: chess is only for the civilized.”
Harry finally grinned back at her. “Seems like I have to show you a barbaric game then!”
“Typical of men to always want to corrupt innocent women,” She sighed exaggeratedly, putting the back of her hand on her forehead. She leaned forward, looking from left to right as if sharing a secret.
“So… What game do you propose?”
“It’s quite popular with Muggles. But we would need two pieces of parchment for it in order to create the board for ourselves.”
Even though she looked questioningly at him, she stood up to get parchment and quills.
He shifted awkwardly on his chair. He had been used to being alone for long periods and even thought he preferred it, but spending time with the Delacours proved him wrong.
Fleur came back with some parchment and quills in her hand.
“Are you sure you are smart enough to draw something? Art is for the civilized.”
“I’m sorry if I demand too little of you, your highness. But you only need to draw grids. Let’s have a simple first game and make it 7x7. The game we’re going to play is called Battleships."
~XxX~
He had spent the last few days visiting famous places in the area, going swimming and hiking and of course playing games with Fleur. She’d taken a liking to muggle classics.
“Harry!” He was shaken out of his daydreaming by Apolline. He quickly carried his trunk downstairs where the Delacours were ready for them to depart to Beauxbâtons. The way of transport differed from how Hogwarts handled it but also had its similarities. For a start, the students were picked up at their homes with a vehicle not quite unlike the Knight Bus but a lot more comfortable. It was a massive silver-blue carriage decorated with the intricate golden emblem of the school.
Although Harry experienced quite a lot of anomalies at Hogwarts he was still looking like a kid in the candy shop. Fleur moving past him shook him out of his stupor. He still took his time to thank the Delacours for their hospitality and goodbyes but then followed an awaiting Fleur.
“Come on Harry. The best places are always in the back." She bounced up the steps, two at a time, stopped before the door, turned around and quickly waved her parents before making her way into the carriage. Harry copied her actions and then was led into a labyrinth of corridors. Again overcome by child-like wonder he let out a laugh and stopped. The carriage looked like the architect of a renaissance temple used a drawing of a toddler for the structural plan.
“Ok Harry, can you go in here for now and wait?”, Fleur said, while pointing into a compartment. “I have to go somewhere for a couple of minutes.” Harry shrugged in acceptance and opened the door to an empty room. Unlike the corridors, it was symmetrical and organized. There was a Mahogany table in the middle, a shelf for the trunks in one corner and a big window on the opposite side. Harry lifted his heavy trunk into the shelf and sat down.
He looked outside the window – a smile firmly fixed to his face. He hadn’t had that much time alone during the last few days but he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. He had had difficulties with his social life before, but with the Delacours he felt himself being pulled quickly out of his shell, like tearing a band-aid from your arm.
Although he couldn’t shake off the doubt, that it was all an act of politeness from his host family. Adding to that his anxiety grew again. He didn’t want to go to school again. Being near so many people…
“You wanted this! Having friends, instead of bullies.”,” he reminded himself.
He sighed and rubbed his face wearily. He sadly didn’t have a watch with him so he had no idea how long he’d been waiting for Fleur. But surely it’d been more than a couple of minutes.
Not being sure though, he returned to looking outside again. They were over the sea so there wasn’t anything interesting going on apart from an occasional seagull flying by. He looked around the room again to see if there was something interesting he had missed before.
There wasn’t. He opened the door and looked outside and almost wanted to go and look for Fleur, but remembered that he would probably get lost in the maze of golden paintings, chandeliers and corridors. So he closed the door and sat back down again. It started to worry him now. He was sure it had been more than an hour at this point. He looked outside again…. Not wanting to think that Fleur abandoned him he started going through tons of excuses why she could be late.
Suddenly it struck him.
Fleur could have hurt herself.
Frantic, Harry tore open the door again when he noticed that there was a map on the wall with a marked location. Furiously looking over it he noticed that it all had an unseen structure to it. Memorising the location of his room, he began checking the rooms in his corridor. Knock on the door. Ask if they had seen Fleur. Rinse and Repeat.
Going around a corner he saw Fleur standing inside a room, the door open. As far as he could see she was just looking outside the window.
“Fleur?”, he asked.
Fleur turned around as if stung by a bee and revealed a handsome boy behind her.
“Potter, fuck off I’m busy.”
“What?”, he stammered.
“I said fuck off, I’m busy.”
Harry just stared at her.
“Are you deaf? I’m busy. Leave… now!”
“B-but...”
Harry did what he did best: Run away.
~XxX~
Harry was only just able to run to his room before breaking down. He shouldn’t have thought she wanted to be his friend when instead she abandoned him almost instantly after having other options again.
After a while, he calmed himself by breathing deeply.
“Maybe she just didn’t want to be interrupted,” Harry thought, trying his hardest to remain optimistic. But a seed of doubt was planted and already blooming. Why would Fleur lie to him, to begin with? She said she would be only away for a couple of minutes.
A voice talking French tore Harry away from his thoughts. He looked up confused.
A person who must have been the French equivalent to a Prefect stared back.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get that. Could you repeat yourself?” inquired Harry.
“Oh, you’re one of the exchange students? Uhm, we’re arriving at Beauxbâtons in a couple of minutes. You can leave the trunk here and come to the door, please.” He turned around seemingly going for the next room to tell the people there.
~XxX~
Harry only absentmindedly listened to the tall headmistress. He looked over to Fleur who appeared to be busy sneaking glances at the boy from earlier.
Harry didn’t even try to remember where he was after being shown his dorm room and the people he’d have to share it with. Only mumbling a quiet “Good night”, he instantly went to bed.
~XxX~
On the next day, Harry and the rest of the exchange students were put under a language charm. And while it wouldn't make them experts they would be able to understand French if they listened enough and speak French if they talked enough.
The problem was that Harry never really spoke French. He sat in the back of every class, only read books or explored the - compared to Hogwarts – boring palace. To sum it all up: Harry returned to his Hogwarts-behaviour. It had been stupid of him to assume he would be able to make friends in Beauxbâtons. But while the students didn’t notice him the teachers still saw his practical skill. Every now and then he would be asked to explain how he was able to master a charm or a potion in front of the class. While this caused him to improve his French, it certainly didn’t help his friendship issues.
~XxX~
Harry was holding his breath. He’d been sneaking around after curfew and a teacher was walking around in the corridor.
Pressing himself into a small alcove of the palace. After seeing the teacher turn around a corner, he slowly looked around again. His journeys around the castle had been frequent and he was able to find his way through Beauxbâtons now.
Even though the palace was boring compared to the randomness of Hogwarts it had a majestic aesthetic compared to the dark castle. It sort of reminded him of the French Ministry room he’d been in when meeting the Delacours but while the corridors weren’t as spacious, it felt intended. Where they were smaller, the classrooms made up for it more than enough.
It had taken some time for Harry to adapt to an environment with only a ground floor. He had theorized about a cellar though as he couldn’t find any storage areas anywhere in the school. His current mission was to find the kitchens and maybe a lead to the underground areas there.
And even though he hadn’t found them yet, he stumbled into a secret passage behind a painting. It felt a lot more like an escape though. Rough dirt walls leading outside into the nearby forest where the exit was hidden inside a hollow tree.
~XxX~
A few days later, Harry was yanked from his plans to find the kitchen, as he noticed that he only had a couple of minutes to go to potions. He quickly packed up his books and ran down the corridor. Not being able to see around the corner he ran straight into a group of people causing all of them to fall on the marble floor and Harry’s books to spill all over the floor.
A lot of swearing rang through the corridor. The group slowly disentangled themselves and stood up. Harry didn’t though as he was quite shocked. This was spelling disaster. He noticed he had run into Fleur and her friend group.
“You… You fucking nerdy Brit! Who do you think you are to run over your betters?” Fleur shouted at him.
Harry’s face reddened from embarrassment. He quickly picked up his books and ran away under the jeers and insults from the group.
Panting he slipped into the classroom. This didn’t go unnoticed by the teacher who reprimanded him and gave him a detention for being too late.
~XxX~
It didn’t hit Harry as hard as the first rejection in the carriage but it cemented his belief that his peers hated him.
Harry knocked on the door of the teacher’s office. It was Professor Pasteur’s, one of the younger teachers.
“Come in!” came the somewhat familiar voice from inside.
He opened the door and was hit with conflicting feelings. There were big windows with a beautiful view of the clear lake. In contrast, it felt like Mr Pasteur had a barrier between himself and his guests, due to the enormous dark wood desk which he throned behind.
“Take a seat, please. I’ll be with you in a moment.”
Harry made his way to the chair in front of the table as Professor Pasteur laid his quill down and looked up.
“I usually wouldn’t give detention to people that are late once, but I wanted to talk to you, Mr Potter. We – the teachers – noticed that you don’t spend any time around your peers. Not even the ones from Hogwarts. Would you care to share why?”
“But I do?” Harry tried.
“Are you sure? All I’ve seen you do is sitting alone, leaving the class alone, eating alone and walking through the palace alone. Are you homesick?”
“No, I’m not homesick, sir. I really enjoy the library and the classes in Beauxbâtons.” He said his stomach twisting in fear of being known as the ‘homesick kid’ who would have to be sent back early.
“Yes, I noticed that you were quite proficient in Transfiguration and the other teachers told me you’re also better than your classmates in their classes as well.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Maybe you’d like to join a club here for the year? I think the Magical theory club is always in need of smart members.”
“But I’m from Hogwarts. I’m not sure how I could join a club here.”
“Oh don’t worry. You’re here for a year of learning in Beauxbâtons. And if you’re here studying you’re a valid student of Beauxbâtons. Also, no one would want you to spend time on your own all year.”
“I don’t know.”
“Come on Mr Potter. I’m sure you’d have a lot of fun spending time with other people.”
Harry looked down unsure how to proceed. It wasn’t like he could tell Professor Pasteur that he was being bullied. He learned that mistake when telling on Dudley.
“I really don’t know, sir”, he said after a while.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t know anyone here,” tried Harry again
“Can’t get to know anyone without even giving them a chance to meet you!”
Harry’s head snapped up at that.
“I’ve tried. Why do you think I’m on this fucking exchange? I wanted to make…” Harry managed to reign himself back in.
Professor Pasteur looked at him encouragingly but his eyes betrayed his sadness. Breathing out deeply he started.
“There are more than enough fish in the sea. I’m sure you could find someone with the same interests as you. Just ignore the ones that didn’t want to be friends.”
Harry looked at him in confusion. It felt like the Professor didn’t know anything about being alone and was just pulling at random strings of wisdom.
“Ignore? You think it’s that easy?”
“They just want to get a reaction out of you. Don’t give them that pleasure.”
“I’ll think about it, professor.” Harry sighed.
~XxX~
Harry didn’t think about it. In fact, he spent even more time alone. This didn’t mean Professor Pasteur stopped trying though. He didn’t give him detention anymore, but he asked Harry to perform a lot more in front of the class to show how he did things. That backfired though as now he wasn’t just known as a nerd but also a teacher’s pet. And when he started implementing more group projects, it was expected of Harry to do almost all the work…
Professor Pasteur told him to only do a part of the work, but Harry didn’t want his marks to suffer from this whole thing.
~XxX~
Fleur,
What happened to you this year? You never write and the only news I get is from your teachers. You know you can talk to us. We can’t help you if you’re not telling us what’s wrong.
But if we hear from your teachers that you are struggling with some classes and your prowess in Conjuration might not be enough to compensate for the other classes.
Do you want to redo this year? Do you want to waste a year of your life because you couldn’t pick your lazy ass up? I know it’s only been the first quarter of the year but be happy we’re giving you an early warning. You’re on a trend you won’t like in the future.
If you’d at least talk to us, tell us why you’re struggling so much…
We love you Fleur
Your parents
Fleur stared at the letter for the umpteenth time in the last few days. Her parents were right, this year wasn’t going as planned. She straightened her shoulders as she came to a decision.
~XxX~
“I’m sorry but I don’t have the time right now to individually tutor you, Fleur.”
Fleur’s shoulders deflated.
“But you could ask one of your peers to help you”, Professor Pasteur said.
“But my friends are not that great at Transfiguration either.”
“Ask Harry. He really knows his stuff when it comes to Transfiguration.”
Fleur sighed.
~XxX~
When Fleur thought it had been hard to find the courage to ask her teachers for help, she hadn’t known how hard it was for asking Harry.
She realized she’d fucked up. She was supposed to help Harry integrate into the school… but in her endless wisdom, she had completely forgotten him. She’d been a poor host.
She breathed out into her hands as she finally came to terms with having to apologize and knocked on Harry’s door.
~XxX~
Harry got up from his studies and went to open the door. He certainly hadn’t been expecting any visitors.
“If you want to visit my roommates, they’re not here right now,” he said in a monotone voice while opening the door.
He was stunned though, as he saw Fleur being the one to knock. He blinked once. Then again. Somewhere in his subconscious, he noticed that Fleur said something, but it all sounded like gibberish.
He finally shook himself out of his stupor.
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that. What did you say?”
“I wanted to apologize for being a bad host… And,” Fleur looked up, “I wanted to ask you for your help. Or to be exact I wanted to ask you if you’d be willing to tutor me?”
“What? So that you can push me away again after I’ve helped you. Bully me when you feel like it?”
“Bully?”
“What else do you call always insulting me when I’m in front of someone you know?”
“I’m sorry for insulting you after you ran into us in the corridor. I shouldn’t have said what I did. I was pissed because…” Fleur sighed.
“Yeah why?” Harry crossed his arms.
“I guess I should start from the beginning. Do you remember how I treated you when you first arrived in France? I know I was a fucking bitch. And while I apologized for it, I haven’t told you why I behaved the way I did. The same day you arrived my boyfriend broke up with me. I know I shouldn’t have let my anger out on you, so I can only ask for your forgiveness.”
She looked at him with pleading eyes.
“And when I sent you away in the carriage, I had just gotten together with him again. Again I shouldn’t have overreacted, but I couldn’t find you during the next few days when I wanted to apologize.”
“Look, Fleur, I just don’t know if you’re just telling me this to get my help...”
“What can I do to at least get a chance again? Forget the whole helping thing, if that’s a hindrance, but I enjoyed the time we spent together over the holidays.”
Harry sighed.
“I don’t know why I’m doing this, but I’m giving you another chance.”
~XxX~
While already having dozens of parchments lying around him, Harry still continued to plan where he could look next. He’d been systematically turning around every single stone in the palace to find the kitchen but to no avail.
Being completely focused on his research, he didn’t notice Fleur sneaking up on him.
“What are you working on so hard?”
Harry looked up from his notes. He wasn’t greeted to the usual lively Fleur, but instead, a sleep-deprived zombie – heavy bags below her eyes. She had done as promised and not asked him to help her anymore, but it was clearly taking a toll on her.
Harry’s mind was racing. It had been a couple of days since the talk with Fleur and they had somewhat returned to their previous friendship. He sighed…
“Fleur, you know as much as I do that you’re overworking yourself. I don’t want to be rude, but you look like you had 10 seconds of sleep during the last week. You can’t continue like that. Your marks are less important than your mental health.”
“I can’t… I don’t want to fail the year. Your concern is greatly appreciated, but it’s my burden.”
“It doesn’t have to be only yours though. I know we had an agreement on me not helping you, but I can’t stand seeing you this way.”
Fleur looked at him in shock which quickly turned to guilt.
“You don’t have to, Harry. I made a mistake and now I’m paying the price.”
“I want to help you Fleur. You’re my friend.”
He pushed his notes aside to make room for Fleur’s.