As the ho of Beauxbatons—one of the three major wizarding schools in Europe—and birthplace of the fad alchemist Nicolas Flal, France holds a prestigious place in the magical world.
Though it may not be as globally recognized or celebrated as Britain, there is one point of pride... The French Minister for Magic can confidently proclaim at diplomatic etings that their country hasn’t produced a single notorious Dark wizard in the past few centuries—giving them a far better reputation than Britain by any asure.
It was only seventy years ago, when Grindelwald suddenly appeared to hold a rally, that France’s centuries-long peace was disrupted.
But that was the one and only ti. Ever since Grindelwald, the region has remained peaceful, and French wizards appear more relaxed compared to their British counterparts.
...
In the heart of Paris, at the center of Place Fürstenberg, stood a building with a particularly unique shape—its exterior resembled an arrow pointing left, or rather, a vertical triangle.
Its unusual design had drawn quite a bit of attention, making it a minor local attraction. What most people didn’t know, however, was that this building was even more famous in the wizarding world.
This was the French Ministry of Magic—and Kyle’s destination.
Even though the drunken Muggle hadn’t answered Kyle’s question, the mont he heard it, the answer had already taken shape in his mind.
Which ant Kyle didn’t need a response. The Wampus Cat had seen everything clearly: this precise location, along with a complete map of the city.
Fortunately, Kyle hadn’t been far from Place Fürstenberg—just a few streets away—and he reached it within half an hour.
At eight o’clock sharp, Kyle stood before the massive glass doors. After adjusting his clothes, he walked forward calmly.
He paid no attention to the security guard or the open door, heading instead toward the fountain in front of the building.
There were two statues beside the fountain. Kyle considered for a mont before choosing the winged horse on the left. As he approached, the statue’s wings lifted, revealing a hidden passage.
The mont he stepped inside, the world around him transford.
The bustling streets and tall buildings vanished, replaced by oddly shaped structures. The attire of the passersby shifted from suits, dresses, and stylish shirts to the traditional long robes of wizards.
It was France’s version of “Diagon Alley.”
Of course, it wasn’t actually called Diagon Alley here—but the concept was the sa: a shopping street only accessible to wizards.
“Good thing I picked the right one,” Kyle exhaled in relief. He rembered Fleur ntioning that there were two active entrances—one here, and another that led straight into the Ministry. If he’d taken the wrong one, he’d be explaining his presence to a group of Aurors right now.
Thankfully, his mory hadn’t failed him.
Kyle continued walking, eyes filled with curiosity as he took in the French shops.
To the left of the entrance was a massive candy store—at least five tis the size of Honeydukes—lined wall-to-wall with all sorts of confections Kyle had never seen before. More than half the selection appeared to be chocolate.
It was probably because Beauxbatons had already started the school year that the shop wasn’t crowded.
Opposite the candy shop was what he assud was a stationery store. Kyle couldn’t read the stylized French script on the sign, but he recognized the quills and parchnt through the window—no need to decipher the na.
Farther ahead were a broomstick shop, a pet store, a bookstore, a souvenir shop, a secondhand goods store, and—most eye-catching of all, right in the middle of the street—the Gringotts Wizarding Bank, built from gleaming white marble.
The types of stores were much like those in Diagon Alley, but the architectural styles were entirely different.
Diagon Alley preserved its centuries-old, unchanging traditional aesthetic—its buildings, many dating back to the previous century or even earlier, never felt out of place in any era.
By contrast, the French shops were clearly much newer. Kyle could tell at a glance that many of them had been built in recent years.
One shop, the broomstick store, even had a tal security door—the Muggle kind.
Kyle had a hard ti believing such a thing could stop an Unlocking Charm.
He walked on, past Gringotts and a noisy pub, before finally stopping near the end of the street.
“Prince Potions.”
He glanced at the neatly printed French sign and nodded. “This should be it.”
But sothing puzzled him. All the neighboring shops were open and doing business—except this one. Its door was shut, and the display windows were completely bare.
Could Kanna not be here?
Kyle paused, then looked back up at the sign.
Prince... That had to be it. There couldn’t possibly be another Prince shop in France, could there?
With a might as well try attitude, he stepped forward and knocked on the door.
No response.
He knocked several more tis. Still nothing.
“No way... she’s really not here?”
Kyle was baffled. The address matched, the na matched—how could there be no one inside?
Had Kanna co to France but set up shop sowhere else?
Just as he was debating whether to give Fleur the letter, a sound finally ca from inside the shop.
“Sorry, we’re closed today.”
The mont he heard the voice, Kyle felt a wave of relief wash over him.
Though the speaker used French, Kyle recognized it imdiately—it was Kanna.
“Ministry of Magic inspection, please open the door,” Kyle said, clearing his throat.
Inside, there was a sudden rush of footsteps—but it quickly went quiet again.
A few minutes later, with a creak, the door opened.
Kanna looked like she had just woken up, her hair hastily combed—but her face was lit up with surprise.
“Kyle!” Her voice carried a trace of disbelief, but she had already thrown herself at him without thinking.
Kyle quickly opened his arms to catch her, and after such a long separation, the two of them embraced tightly in front of the shop.
In that mont, neither of them cared about the passersby’s stares. They just held each other close, unwilling to let go. Then, Kyle felt his lips brush against sothing soft and sweet—like creamy custard pudding.
He didn’t know how much ti had passed. It could have been ten minutes, an hour, or even longer.
“Hey, that’s enough,” ca another voice from inside the shop. “I get how emotional this is, but can’t you take it inside? Aren’t you tired of standing there?”
Though Fleur was a half-Veela, at that mont Kyle felt certain her voice had been cursed by a witch—it was that grating… even if she was a witch herself.
“Aren’t the French supposed to be romantic?” Kyle muttered, eyeing Fleur as she leaned against a shelf. “Why are you being so uptight?”
“Do you even hear yourself?” Fleur snapped, instantly flaring up. “Spare a thought for , will you? I left my boyfriend behind and ca all the way here to stay with Kanna, and you’re calling ddleso?”
The more she thought about it, the angrier she beca. She and Bill had been in the middle of a passionate relationship, already talking about marriage when she left.
And now Kyle not only failed to thank her for abandoning her fiancé to help care for his girlfriend—he had the nerve to say sothing so heartless.
She looked ready to explode. Snatching up a bottle of potion, she lunged at Kyle, but thankfully, Kanna intervened just in ti.
Kanna had already shaken off the initial surprise of seeing Kyle.
“Calm down, calm down. Don’t stoop to his level,” she said, soothing Fleur while shooting Kyle a scolding glare.
“All right, I’m sorry,” Kyle quickly raised both hands in surrender. When in Ro...
“To make it up to you,” he said, pulling out a gift he’d prepared in advance, “this is for you.”
“What is this?” Fleur’s anger finally began to ease as she picked up the bottle on the table. “It looks like shampoo.”
“Pretty much,” Kyle said. “Newt studied Veela, and apparently these magical creatures tend to shed a lot in autumn. Since you’re half Veela, I figured you might have the sa issue, so I used ginger root, Lady’s Mantle, and mandrake juice to create a hair care—”
Before he could finish, a bottle ca flying toward him, grazing his ear and smashing into the wall behind him. Kanna hadn’t even tried to stop her.
Or maybe… she never planned to.
Considering he’d managed to infuriate the usually aloof Fleur that much, taking a hit seed fair. The only pity was that it had been one of her Invigoration Draughts.
Kanna sighed and shut the door again.
It wasn’t until twenty minutes later that the shop finally quieted down. Fleur sat panting, glaring daggers at Kyle.
Interestingly, however, the gift Kyle had brought was no longer on the table.
“So? What are you doing in France at a ti like this?”
“Wait!” At that mont, Kanna suddenly realized sothing. “Why did you show up here all of a sudden? Is sothing happening in Britain?”
“Relax, everything’s fine over there. You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters have been keeping a low profile lately—no one’s seen them around.”
“And Hogwarts has started its term as usual, so I thought I’d co see you,” Kyle said. He gave a wave of his hand, and the shattered items on the floor reassembled themselves and floated back to their places.
This was a wizarding shopping street, after all. With only wizards around, using magic here was perfectly fine.
“By the way, how did you know it was outside?” he asked casually.
When Kanna had opened the door, she’d rushed out without a hint of hesitation. It was obvious she’d already known it was him.
“Of course I knew,” Kanna said with a smile. “If it had been a French wizard, they wouldn’t have spoken such awful French.”
“My French is that bad?” Kyle scratched his head. He thought his pronunciation was decent.
“My sister could speak better French at ten months old,” Fleur sneered.
“Okay, fine,” Kyle sighed. “I really should’ve brought a translator. This trip’s been nothing but trouble.”
“How did you get here? Portkey?” Kanna poured him a glass of cherry soda—a popular drink in France, about as common as pumpkin fizz in the UK.
“No, I didn’t use a Portkey,” Kyle explained. “Fawkes brought . That way I could stay off the Ministry’s radar.”
“Fawkes...” Kanna blinked. “You an Professor Dumbledore’s phoenix?”
“Yeah. Gotta say, it’s really convenient,” Kyle said, rubbing his forehead. “Though the ride itself could be a bit more comfortable.”
Fleur was sitting nearby, but Kyle didn’t try to hide anything from her.
She was soone he trusted.
And realistically, it was only a matter of ti before she and Bill got married, which ant she’d eventually be part of the Order of the Phoenix too. There was no reason to keep secrets.
That said, Fleur didn’t seem particularly interested in the phoenix. Her mind was clearly on sothing else.
"I'm really curious... with how terrible your French is, how did you even manage to find this place?" She stared at Kyle. "The French Ministry of Magic takes Place Fürstenberg very seriously. There are Aurors all over the area—they wouldn’t just miss a wizard suddenly showing up."
"Is that so?" Kyle blinked. "Then I guess I got lucky. I appeared three streets away—not exactly close, but not too far either."
"Then how did you get here? Don’t tell you asked for directions."
"Of course I did." Kyle replied with complete seriousness. "I asked a Muggle. He was very enthusiastic—and he understood everything I said."
"Really?"
Fleur sounded doubtful. But since Kyle had made it there without Aurors chasing after him, it probably ant he really hadn’t used any magic.
"But still... that doesn’t make sense. Are Muggles really that tolerant of foreign languages?" she muttered to herself. "No, you must’ve found a Muggle who speaks English."
Kyle chose to ignore her baseless guesswork.
"Anyway, it’s nearly noon. Why aren’t you open yet?" he asked, smoothly changing the subject. "Are you actually running a potion shop?"
"Of course..."
"Of course we are. What else would we be doing?" Kanna cut in before Fleur could answer. "I just don’t like opening that early, that’s all.”
"This shop’s not ant to make money anyway, so we do things however we like. Normally, we don’t even open until noon."
"Then why’s the display window empty?" Kyle pointed behind him.
"Obviously because everything’s sold out," Kanna said. "Beauxbatons started its term a few days ago, and the students practically cleared out our stock.”
"I wasn’t planning to open today at all—I need to restock first."
To back up her claim, she got up and opened a door in the back.
Kyle leaned in and saw shelves full of potion bottles. The room was packed, wall to wall, with just a small open space near the door to walk through.
Seeing all that, Kyle believed her.
There was no way to fake that many potions, and clearly, Kanna was running this shop with real dedication. That alone put his mind at ease.
...
They moved on to another topic, with most of the conversation between Kyle and Kanna.
After being apart for so long, it felt like they had endless things to say.
"I'm telling you, France is fascinating. Did you see those alchemy shops when you ca in?" At so point, Kanna had taken Kyle’s hand.
"I did—three of them," Kyle nodded.
"There’s more than that," Kanna said. "People here don’t seem to care much for potions. They prefer alchemy."
"Then can you still sell yours?"
"That’s exactly why they’re popular," Kanna said. "Potions do things alchemy can’t replace. Even if they don’t value it much, there’s still a need."
"Fair point."
"How are things back in Britain?"
"Not bad," Kyle said. "The Death Eaters were pretty active when Hogwarts first went on break, but things have quieted down lately. Oh—and Lupin and Nymphadora got married."
"Really? When?"
"Beginning of August."
"Pity I couldn’t be there."
"It’s fine. Honestly, it was dangerous that day—Bellatrix showed up with Death Eaters to crash the wedding."
...
The two of them chatted away, completely wrapped up in each other. At first, Fleur could still sit and listen, but as ti went on, the atmosphere began to feel increasingly off.
It was like... she didn’t exist.
She—Fleur—a half-Veela, who always stood out wherever she went, had never imagined there would be a day when soone could just ignore her.
And yet today, it was happening.
It was as if so magical aura surrounded the two of them, shutting out the rest of the world. Fleur had tried to chi in several tis, but had been completely brushed aside.
"Excuse , can you two show a little respect?" she snapped. This ti, she finally got a reaction.
"What’s the matter?" Kyle looked up.
"I was trying to ask—how’s Bill been lately?"
"You two write letters so often you’re probably wearing out three owls a day, and you still need to ask how he’s doing?" Kyle said leisurely. "Besides, if there were sothing wrong with Bill, do you really think I wouldn’t have ntioned it by now?"
Fleur took a deep breath. Her manners kept her smiling, but no one could guess what was going on in her mind.
"Carry on... I’m going out for a walk."
She stood up, slamd the door behind her, and stord off.
She couldn’t stay in that place another minute.
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