"Ginny, dear, wake up"
Ginny wrestled her eyes open. She had forgotten how hard it was to get out of bed on a school morning considering she just had a massive holiday of lay ins. When her misty vision finally cleared she saw her mother, Mrs Weasley, staring down at her with a large smile. The smile seemed almost fake, as if she was worrying underneath it. What was there for her to worry about? Sure, last year she was kidnapped by the worst evil wizard that the world had ever seen and nearly killed, but that was last year.
Then she remembered. Her mind must've only just woken up, she really was struggling this morning. She remembered that today she wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts, she would be starting her first day at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. At the end of the previous year Professor Dumbledore had made it very clear to the first and second years that they would be taking place in a student exchange program with Beauxbatons and two other wizarding schools (Durmstang and Ilvermorny). Ginny had leaped at the idea of travelling to another school because she had an urge to travel the world. Durmstrang didn't appeal to her very much considering it was known for its speciality in the dark arts. Ilvermorny did cross Ginnys mind but it scared her to think that she would be so far away from her family. She settled at Beauxbatons, a school which was known for producing high achieving Witches and Wizards. She had also read somewhere that Beauxbatons produced the most amount of Veela girls in Europe. This wasn't a fact that particularly fascinated Ginny, but it was interesting nevertheless. She signed up immediately.
Ginny sat up in her bed and rubbed her eyes.
"My little girl, travelling all on her own" said Mrs Weasley.
"Not really on my own mum, I'll be with other people from school."
"But not with me!" Mrs Weasley was definitely a little worried. You could hear it in her slightly jumpy tone.
Ginny stood up and saw her new uniform hanging from her wardrobe. It wasn't a black clock lined with scarlet silk. It was a light blue dress and the most elegant hat that had ever been seen around the burrow. On the floor she saw tiny light blue heels with lacy white socks in buns.
"I'll leave you to get ready" said Mrs Weasley through her fake smile. "But try not to take too long because I want to make sure you get a good breakfast before you head off".
Ginny got dressed and couldn't help but feel like she would be more comfortable walking around in a potato sack. The heels on her shoes weren't big at all, yet they felt like walking on stilts to Ginny, who had never worn heels in her life. She trotted out of her bedroom, making a racket with her new shoes.
She walked into the kitchen and was greeted by Fred and George who were trying excruciatingly hard to not laugh at her new outfit.
"You look lovely, dear" said Mrs Weasley as she brought a plate of toast over to the table, "Come and eat".
Each mouthful was like swallowing dried up cabbage. She didn't have an appetite at all. Maybe it was nerves. Maybe she was regretting signing up to the program in the first place. At this moment Ron, Harry and Hermione came bounding into the kitchen. Hermione and Harry had come to stay through the last few weeks of the holidays. All three of them were dressed in their usual Hogwarts uniforms and were wearing a smile ten times bigger than Ginny's. The idea of them all returning to Hogwarts without her and seeing all their favourite people again made Ginny's stomach do a somersault.
"So THIS is the Beauxbatons uniform." Said Ron in a patronising tone
"Yes." Replied Ginny very sternly. She didn't like it either but she didn't want anyone else to know that.
"I really like the hat" said Hermione, taking the seat opposite to Ginny.
At this moment Arthur Weasley (Ginny's father) had come strolling into the kitchen with papers under his arm. This was a reoccurring event in the Weasley household. Since Mr Weasley worked at the Ministry Of Magic he often had mountains of paper work to fill out and today was no exception. "Morning everyone" he said. "Don't you look grown up Ginny!"
Ginny smiled. This was the first genuine smile of today. She really did like being called grown up by people because most of the time she was simply known as the baby of the family.
"I'll be taking you to the carriage station on my way to work" Mr Weasley said as he tried to force the papers he was carrying into his briefcase.
Walking up to the carriage station seemed to take an hour considering Ginny's new shoes were making her walk slower than usual. She could already feel a blister forming on the back of her foot but didn't say anything. She was about to ask her father how much longer it would take to get there but all of a sudden five large pale blue carriages came into view. They all matched Ginny's dress so she knew that these would be Beauxbatons carriages. Ginny felt a little less nervous when she saw the stunning white and gold unicorns that were pulling the carriages. Maybe because they were so beautiful, maybe because she was interested in them but more likely because unicorns always seemed to give off a feeling of life and comfort.
A tall woman in a large pink coat walked towards Ginny and her father. "Ah, you must be ze final girl to arrive."
Ginny felt slightly embarrassed at these words, they had been the last to get there. Probably because her shoes were causing her so much pain and making her walk slower than usual.
"What is your name, little one." Said the tall lady as she towered over Ginny. She even towered over Mr Weasley but he didn't seem taken aback from it."
"Ginny Weasley" she replied.
"Ah yes it is an honour to meet you and your fazer."
"I really must be going now" said Mr Weasley in his usual excited tone. "I will see you at the end of term Ginny, don't forget to write us!"
Normally a term would fly by but Ginny couldn't help to feel her stomach drop when she heard her father speak those words.
"Goodbye dad" she said and wrapped her arms around Mr Weasley, which she rarely did nowadays.
"She will feel right at home is a matter of minutes" said the tall lady through her thick French accent. It was now very clear to Ginny where the school was located, even though each wizarding school tried to keep its whereabouts very secret. They had been told that Ilvermorny was the only school outside of Europe and that was all they had been told but now she knew that she would be spending the next term in France. Within a few seconds Arthur Weasley had apparated.
"My name is Madam Maxine" said the lady. "And zis is Gabrielle Delacour, she will show you around ze school and be your roommate for ze next term."
A blonde girl with beautiful blue eyes had appeared from behind Madam Maxime and gave a big smile. She didn't seem nervous at all.
"Hello!" Said Gabrielle.
"Hi." Replied Ginny. She returned the smile and now felt ten times more comfortable than she had when she had left the burrow.
"Why don't you show Ginny to ze carriages" said Madame Maxime to Gabrielle.
"I will!" Said Gabrielle, she seemed to be enjoying the authority of having someone to look after. Gabrielle ushered Ginny over to one of the carriages and the two of them climbed inside. There were two other girls in the carriage with them. Both of them were extremely beautiful and they made Ginny feel rather insecure. One of them had Curley black hair and green eyes, the other had blonde hair like Gabrielle that was tied up in a bun. She had freckles that suited her dark brown eyes.
"Zis is Lola" said Gabrielle signalling towards the girl with black hair.
"Hello." said Lola with a friendly smile
"And zis is Bella."
"Hello." Said the other girl, but she didn't smile. She was reading a copy of the Daily Profit and didn't bother to look up at Ginny from over the page. "Very strange, British politics" said Bella, breaking the silence. "Does ze minister always act zis transparent". Bella seemed to know more English than the other two girls who seemed puzzled by the use of the word transparent.
The door to the carriage closed and the carriage jolted upwards. At first Ginny nearly stumbled forwards off her seat but managed to grab hold of something before she fell into Gabrielle's lap. Unfortunately the thing she had grabbed was a sleek black cat which let out a loud squeal of pain. "Oh sorry!" Exclaimed Ginny and she sat back upright on her chair. The other girls hadn't even slipped when the carriage had took off into the air. "Don't worry," said Lola through a small giggly, "that's my cat Mari, she lets out massive yells when anyone goes near her." Ginny felt comforted by the fact that Lola didn't seem bothered but as she looked back up from stroking Mari, Bella was looking up at her and didn't seem impressed at all.
