Muggle Meets Magic (Harry Potter Fanfiction)

FIFTEEN Beauxbatons

As Christmas grew close, the Championships grew even closer. In just a week we were all supposed to head over to the first location; Beauxbatons.

I'd made the decision to return home for Christmas break, and while there I intended to dig into my family history a little. For the Headmaster's benefit, of course, but now that he'd mentioned anything, I'd grown a little curious. I just wanted to make sure I was right.

While sitting in the common room one night with Veronica, I expressed my nervousness at the Championships being so close.

"Relax Aly. You're more than ready," Veronica insisted. "Professor Slughorn even gave you a few lessons, and you've had plenty of help from us. Your magic has improved significantly since you first arrived here. There's nothing to worry about."

"I guess," I said quietly. "I just... I really want to beat Eleanor."

I had even more reason to do so now. After hearing what her family had done to Lucas' I was more determined to turn things around for her.

"Your obsession with Ambleforth isn't healthy, Aly," Veronica frowned.

"But you don't know what they did," I replied. I had contemplated telling Veronica, but I hadn't wanted to upset Will. He surely knew all about the story, and regardless of his relationship with Lucas, the two were still brothers.

But Will wasn't here right now. He was at the library, studying.

So I ended up spilling it all to Veronica, who listened with intent. Her expression grew horrified when she learned what had happened.

"Oh my gosh," she whispered. "That's terrible."

"I know," I replied. Veronica frowned.

"But they did bring it on themselves," she said. Before I could reply, she had stood up. "They stole that heirloom from them. It was something that was never meant to leave the Ambleforth household. There's history around it."

I raised an eyebrow. "You know about this?" I asked.

"When Everett gave me that history on them, he mentioned something about the family feud. He didn't know about the murder, but he did know about the heirloom that caused so much fuss."

"What was it?" I asked, sitting forward in my chair.

"It was an Emerald Amulet," she replied. "Back when the first Spellmaster Championships took place, the amulet was the very first prize. The eldest daughter of the Ambleforth family, Brianna, won that year. She took the amulet, and no one realized the magical properties contained within it were evil. Soon after the competition, Brianna died."

I was listening intently now.

"The family mourned, and they wanted to destroy the amulet, but the Ministry refused. They said it was unknown what kind of magic was sealed in it, and how much destruction it could cause if any harm came to it. So instead, the Ambleforths were given the task of sealing it away and guarding it."

Veronica sat back down, and grimaced.

"One night Eleanor was home alone. Someone broke in and stole the amulet; she wasn't able to defend herself. The Ambleforth family was distraught, as the amulet was the reason one of their own were dead, and they came down hard on Eleanor for losing it."

I took in all the new information. "The Grey's stole it. Obviously," I said, putting it together. "And the Ambleforths were so angry because of the history behind the amulet. They were still hurting from their loss, so they attacked the Grey family."