A/N So we're officially onto the second book! YAY! Please review and I hope you enjoy!:)

Chapter One

Wizarding France

Amara Matthews shifted slightly on the hard plastic seat at the airport. She had half an hour to wait before her plane came in, and she was very bored. Her parents had instructed her to put her wand, which she had insisted on bringing, inside her suitcase with all her schoolbooks that she wanted to read. She was trying to occupy herself and Tessie, who was very eager to go on holiday to France, just as she was eager to get even more information from Amara about Hogwarts. The Matthews family were taking a holiday to the south of France, to see her mother's sister and her children. Amara was excited – but she was rather put out that she had to pretend she was a muggle for three weeks. She had only been home a week and a half, but when they got back she was allowed to have Hermione over to stay for a week in the middle of the holiday.

Amara decided to get a drink from the shop as she needed something to calm herself. She had never been fond of flying –and she sometimes could get sick but luckily this flight wasn't very long. She bought a cup of tea from the grumpy lady at the counter, who looked as though she needed to go to sleep, and wandered back to where her family were sitting. As it was very early in the morning, the airport wasn't completely packed as it would have been. She took a sip of her tea and winced as she burnt her lip. Ethan was stretched out over two seats, napping and Tessie was playing on her father's Game Boy.

Amara thoughts wandered to her friends, Hermione was probably reading, Ron playing Quidditch and Harry – well, Amara didn't know, for she hadn't heard from him yet. She had got letters (or phone calls in Hermione's case) from Ron and Hermione (Ron's was a little brief) and they had told her Harry hadn't contacted them either. Amara wasn't that worried, for it was rather soon after school had ended.

Finally Amara's flight came in at half past seven and they were able to board the aeroplane. Amara was sat by the window next to her mum, with Tessie the other side of Mrs Matthews. Amara gripped the seat as the started to move and closed her eyes. Her seat vibrated as the plane lifted off from the runway. It shot into the sky, gracefully from viewers, but to Amara, it was rather shaky.

'Goodbye England,' she thought.

-OOOOOO-

Three hours later, after a half an hour car journey, they arrived at Amara's family's house in Cannes. Louis, her Uncle, had picked them up in his truck. It was very hot in France, and Amara was trying to get used to it. She had already gotten rid of her shirt, and now was in her T Shirt. She had changed her cropped trousers for shorts too.

"Bryony – David! It's lovely to see you again!" cried Elisabeth Reynolds excitedly as she hurried down the steps of the house they had drawn up to, her English accent contrasting to Louis', who was from France himself. "Amara! You look so grown up! And you Tessie – Ethan, look, Jesse! Noah! Tally, come here and greet them!"

Three others came out of the shadows. Jesse, aged 15, in a few days, was tall and tanned, he had thick dark brown hair and blue eyes. He obviously knew about the heat, for he was in a loose T Shirt and shorts, with flip flops. Noah, aged 14, was shorter than Jesse and had much longer hair, it was nearly down to his shoulders – in fact, he had put some of it in a little ponytail. Noah, it seemed, preferred darker clothes, but even he had a T shirt and cropped trousers. His baseball boots were scuffed and smeared. Tally, age only 11, was petite with dark blonde hair from her father and wore it in two plaits; she looked very sweet with her short dungarees and top.

"Bonjour," grinned Tally, bouncing down the steps, Jesse and Noah trailed somewhat glumly behind.

"Bonjour Amara, nice to see you." Jesse said, smiling a little bit.

"Don't mind zem," Tally said "Jesse's upset 'e can't read 'is new book."

Jessie shot a glare at Tally, who didn't notice. The Reynolds greeted them some more before Mrs Matthews asked if they could have something cool to drink. Elisabeth hurried them inside at once, and bustled about, getting them their drinks. Amara hadn't been in this house before, for they had moved in only a year and a half ago, and Amara hadn't yet visited. Before that, they lived in a large flat in Nice. This house was much nicer, though, with its wooden beams and polished wooden floors.

"Tally, could you show Amara to her room? Sorry, you have the attic conversion, as we only have one spare room. Bryony, David, you're in that, and Ethan, you're on the make-shift bed, Tessie, you're sharing with Tally." said Elisabeth, noting their suitcases.

Amara followed Tally up the spiral staircase all the way up to the loft. Tally sat on the small bed in the room, watching Amara open her suitcase. The loft conversion was the length of the house, but half of it was a storage area. There was also a bathroom, and there was a spiral staircase leading up to it, from the second floor. There was a big bed, chest of drawers and a wardrobe, as well as an armchair and lamp. On the white-washed walls strung numerous photos of the Reynolds on holiday – Zimbabwe, Italy, Spain, England. There were a few of her as well, one with all of them, and one with just her and Tally. People she didn't know, like the ones on Louis' side of the family, were there too. It was probably because she was used to the wizarding world, but Amara thought she saw those ones move. She got her things out of her suitcase and put them in the wardrobe and chest of drawers

"What's zat?" asked Tally rather sharply, pointing at something in the suitcase as Amara folded clothes inside the small chest of drawers. Amara turned and saw, with a lurch, it was her wand, tucked inside a sock, which was the only thing left, apart from her wizard books.

"Umm…"

"It's a wand."

Amara's eyes bugged. "W-What?"

Tally started grinning, "Don't say – you're a witch? You go to 'Ogwarts?"

Before Amara could answer, Tally hollered down the stairs "JESSE! NOAH!"

Then she grabbed her hand and pulled her down the stairs. They banged into Noah and Jesse's room at full speed. Their room was a lot bigger than the loft; it was nearly halved, for there were two beds on either side of the room, the walls around it decorated in their own way.

"Tally!" snapped Jesse, looking up from the magazine he was reading. "What zee hell?"

"Amara's a WITCH!"

There was silence.

"No way," said Noah, shaking his fringe out the way. He was sat on the bean bag, playing Tetris.

"Yeah way, I saw her wand and the books – it's in her suitcase."

"Are you?" asked Jesse, plopping his basketball onto his bed.

Amara nodded.

The three siblings grinned.

"Are you ones too? I thought I saw the pictures moving upstairs,"

Tally nodded "I zought so too,"

"Zank Merlin!" Jesse said "I zought I had to act like a muggle for three weeks! We had to put Rugby in Mama and Papa's room and shove our Quidditch stuff away and everyzing! Do you play Quidditch?"

"Do you go to 'Ogwarts? Which 'ouse are you in? We go to Beauxbatons, but Hogwarts sounds better, no Ballroom dancing or stuff like zat…"

"Can we see your wand? What's 'Ogwarts like? Can we go play Quidditch? Are Tessie and Ethan magical too?"

-OOOOOO-

Half an hour later, Amara was sat at the table with the entire household (including Rugby the Owl, who seemed ruffled to have been shoved in Elizabeth and Louis' room before they came) absorbing all the information she could.

Louis was in fact a half-blood wizard, but Elisabeth was a muggle, for her sister was Amara's mother, and she was defiantly a muggle through and through. Jesse, Noah and Tally were all magical – they went (Tally was going to, in September) to the French school Beauxbatons Academy of Magic – Jesse had just finished his fourth year and Noah his third. Beauxbatons was the French equivalent to Hogwarts, but it seemed more classy and elegant than the castle of Hogwarts. It was in the Pyrenees, on the border or France, and Jesse said it was very beautiful. From what Jesse said, it was more of a palace than a castle. They were allowed to go to a tiny wizard village when they were in fifth year, a place called 'Palais'. Beauxbatons, it seemed, was a little more structured than Hogwarts, it seemed much more graceful. They were divided equally into the four wings of the castle, so there was a fair amount of skill in each one, unless there were siblings, and then they were sorted into the same house. There was the North Wing (Nord) South Wing (Sud) East Wing (Est) and the West Wing (Ouest). Each had a different animal, which were very graceful and peaceful, that they had a pin for, which they pinned to the front of their blue silk robes. North had a Swan, in silver, South had a Peacock, in blue, East had a Dove, in white and West had a Butterfly, in gold. Jesse and Noah were both in the West Wing and Jesse was a Chaser for their Quidditch Team. Noah didn't seem to be as interested in Quidditch as Jesse, he liked to draw pictures and take photos, but he still liked to play, as beater, mostly. According to Jesse, the captain, François Bellerose, had been trying to get Noah to try out the entire year, after he saw him play. They seemed to have the same lessons as Hogwarts did, with slightly different names, and they had the extras you had to take in third year. But they had extra classes as well, once a week each, they had to do a language lesson (they learnt English) a Dance lesson, which was generally Ballroom, considering how many Balls they had in the year ("Autumn, Christmas, Spring, Summer, eet iz ridiculous!" Noah said), and an Art and Writing lesson, where they perfected magical Art and had perfect calligraphy handwriting. Noah seemed to be very good at the art side, and Jesse was good at the lessons they had, he excelled in his language, probably because of his English mother. Beauxbatons accepted students from France, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, so it had a wide range of students. Louis was very surprised when he heard about Amara's magical blood, and Mrs Matthews was highly affronted that her sister had not told her about her husband.

"It's not allowed," she said "You can't tell our family or David's family either,"

Jesse, Noah and especially Tally were amazed to know that Amara was friends with The Harry Potter, for he was slightly famous in France as well. They had all heard what he did, and eventhough Voldemort hadn't affected France, they were all glad to know of his disappearance. They (mainly Tally) begged for stories about him, but Amara told them of what she did in her first year and which house she was in. Mr and Mrs Matthews didn't seem to believe her, they thought she was making it up, but Louis had a smile on his face. Louis himself worked at the Ministry of Magic, but the French version – the République magique de la France – in the Département de la Coopération Magique International, which was the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

They decided to take Amara to their equivalent to Diagon Alley – Réver Vallée, a string of shops in a hidden valley somewhere in France. They decided to 'Floo' there, as Elisabeth and Louis were staying at the house with the rest of the family, which was a mode of transport which used a fireplace. Amara was nervous about this, she had never done it before and it did not sound all that safe.

"You get a handful of floo powder, throw it in zee fire and say your destination clearly – remember, it's pronounced 're-ve val-eh'." said Jesse, holding a glass pot filled with powder that was on the mantelpiece.

"Remember to keep your arms tucked in and don't breathe in zee ash," Noah advised "Look, I'll go first."

He threw the powder into the fire (which had been lit just for this) which made the flames go green. He stepped in and said clearly "Réver Vallée!"

He disappeared in a puff. Amara blinked. Jesse nudged her "You go next," he said.

Amara hesitantly stepped up to the fireplace, looking warily at the flames. She got a pinch of the Floo Powder and threw it in the flames, which went higher than her. Gingerly stepping in, she was shocked to find that they didn't hurt. She gulped and pressed her arms to her sides tightly, bracing herself.

"Réver Vallée!" she said and began to have the most uncomfortable experience she had ever had.

It felt like she was a spinning top falling down towards the floor. She was sucked downwards so fast her eyes watered and she nearly gagged when she opened her mouth to scream and a bit of ash came in, she remembered what Noah said and shut her mouth. The noise was deafening and it hurt her eyes to keep them open – the swirl of green flames was sickening. She was just wishing it would stop when she fell face forwards onto the floor in a cosy café. She heard laughter from above, and she lifted her head she saw Noah standing there with a girl and a boy. She rubbed her nose slightly, for she had bumped it on the floor.

The boy helped her up, grinning.

" 're you alright?" he asked, his French accent very pronounce. Amara nodded, smiling. She brushed herself free of soot and looked around the café. It was pretty, wooden tables stood neatly everywhere with chequered tablecloths.

"Zeese are friends from school," said Noah as Jesse zoomed into view. The girl immediately blushed and looked away. "Zey're in my 'ouse, but Adrien iz een ze year above, with Jesse – zey're siblings by zee way, Adeline and Adrien Page."

The two were very alike – each had silvery blonde hair and stormy grey-blue eyes with unnaturally long eyelashes. Adeline's hair was even longer than Amara's, and reached the small of her back. She was still slightly pink from Jesse's arrival. Jesse did seem to be getting a lot of attention, girls in the café kept flicking they're gaze back and forth.

"Where do you want to go first?" asked Jesse, flicking his hair.

"Shall we get a drink?" asked Adrien "We 'ave a table over zere, Aleex – our bruzzer – iz saving eet for us."

Amara agreed.

"Why don't you and Adrien order drinks – you can test out your French, Bryony said zat you were taught it when you were a leetle younger?" Jesse asked, his eyes twinkling. "I remember trying to teech you."

Amara scowled "Just a little bit," she said "I'm probably extremely rusty!"

"Don't worry!" Adrien smiled, as the others laughed and went to sit down with a boy with blonde hair the same as them. "I'll 'elp 'ou!"

They approached the counter where a pretty barmaid was serving the drinks. She grinned at the sight of Adrien.

"Bonjour, Mademoiselle Gwendolyn!" Adrien said, in perfect French "Comment allez-vous? Je ne t'ai pas vu depuis très longtemps!"

"Salut, cher Adrien!" replied Gwendolyn the barmaid "Je suis bien, merci, mais aujourd'hui est plutôt occupé! Ça fait longtemps – comment est Beauxbâtons?"

"C'est fantastique, j'ai examens dans deux ans !" Adrien said.

Amara had gotten most of the conversation, for she used to be very good at French, when they visited Elisabeth often, but hadn't practised properly in about three years.

"C'est Amara en passant, le cousin de Jesse d'Angleterre," Adrien said, when Gwendolyn glanced questioningly at her.

"Ah," said Gwen "Bonjour, Amara, 'ow iz your French?"

"Er-." Amara said "Il est un peu rouillé!"

Gwen laughed "You 'ave a beauteeful accent, ma cher. Do you go to 'Ogwarts?"

"Oui," Amara grinned "I just finished my first-year."

"Could we order drinks?" Adrien asked "Amara – try out your French again, do you learn it at Hogwarts?"

"No," Amara said "We don't have a language class; I heard Beauxbatons does though, is that true?"

Adrien nodded "Zat's 'ow I learnt my eenglish! Eet's very useful. But eef I did not go to Beauxbâtons, I would not know 'ow to speek eet. My muzzer and father do not know, so we try and teech them. "

"Oh, that's nice. Je voudrais un milk-shake fraise, s'il vous plais, et un thé, deux café et un milk-shake banana et un chocolat." Amara struggled. Gwen beamed.

"Perfect!"

They paid first and then sat down with the others. They introduced Alex, who was the same age as Amara, before interrogating Amara about England and Hogwarts.

"I 'eard zere waz an 'ousing seestem as weel. Is zis true?" Adeline asked.

Amara nodded "There are four houses, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. I'm in Gryffindor."

"Isn't Slythereen full of bad wizards?" Alex asked. "I read about eet in a book on European schools."

"Well, that's what everyone says," Amara said, unsurely, for she was sure that not all Slytherins could be bad.

"She iz friends wiz Ze 'Arry Potter!" Noah burst out, as Gwen had given them their drinks. Amara choked on her strawberry milkshake and Jesse thumped her on the back, grinning.

The three Pages stared.

"Oh, wow!" Adeline swooned, she twirled her straw around in her drink and gazed at Amara.

Amara sighed, and began an explanation of how Harry was just normal. Adeline seemed adamant that he couldn't be, for he was famous, so Amara told her that he was brought up by muggles, and didn't know he was a wizard or that he was famous before a year ago.

A while later – after Amara had described her adventures, which they all loved (eventhough Jesse and Noah had already heard them) they decided to head out to do some shopping.

Adeline wanted to get some new dress robes from the Ball Robe shop, for she needed them for next year before 'all the good ones sold out'. She dragged Noah and Alex with her, much to their disdain; she blushed when she saw Jesse looking. Jesse and Adrien rolled their eyes at her.

"Well," said Adrien "Sorry, but my girlfriend - Celeste, iz waving me over; I zink I have to go wiz zem."

He sped off to see a pretty black-headed girl who was waving from her corner booth, where she sat with some of her friends.

"Can you show me around?" Amara asked Jesse, who grinned.

"Of course, ma belle, eet would be an 'onour," he looped his arm round hers and together they sauntered out the shop, giggling like little girls.

"So, where do you want to go?" asked Amara as they walked down the sweet French street. There were about as many shops as Diagon Alley, but the shops were more petite.

Jesse looked a little awkward. "Um, zis new bookstore 'as literally just opened and I was wondering if we could go take a look? I mean, if you don't like zat sort of zing zen fine, but-"

"No, its fine," Amara interrupted, grinning "Do you like books then?"

"Like zem? I love zem! Zey're so..." Jesse stopped, for Amara had started laughing. "What?"

"Sorry, it's just that you remind me of my friend, Hermione, she lives in books," said Amara

"She does?" Jesse said excitedly

"Yeah, in fact you'd probably like her," Amara smiled "You could write to her, if you want. She'd like that."

"Sure!" grinned Jesse, turning the corner to see a shop on the corner which was painted so it looked like it was made out of books "But, you ask her first, just in case she doesn't."

They stayed in the bookstore for ages, and came out again when it was nearing an hour. They got some sweets before heading towards the Quidditch Shop. They spent nearly as long in there, ogling at the broomsticks.

"Mama iz getting moi a broom for my birzday," said Jesse "A… um, 'ow do you say it? Nimbus 2001, eet iz ze newest model – just released from Eengland zis summer, zey makes better brooms zan ze French."

"You are so lucky," said Amara, jealous "I haven't got one, I'm not on the team, see? I might when I'm older, the team hasn't changed yet."

Jesse smiled "You will get a place, sooner or later, I theenk."

"I forget – have you always lived in France?" Amara asked as they walked towards the Robe shop - Sorcières Robes pour Occasions Magiques (Witches Robes for Magical Occasions).

"No, no, I waz born in Eengland, but mon pére missed France, so we moved here. I don't really remember, but I would like to move back, France ees not ze greatest place for moi – and I want to get rid of zis accent!" Jesse finished with a laugh.

"Why don't you transfer to Hogwarts?" asked Amara, chewing on her sweet.

"No, my father wants me a Beauxbatons – I do not know his reasons, but I might move when I fineesh, take someone wiz me! Maybe some of mon copains."

They walked into the very posh looking Robe shop, to find Noah and Alex looking very frustrated, and also nearly disappearing under a pile of dresses and dress robes. An assistant was trying to get the load down, but every time she took one away, another one was thrown back on top.

"I can't find anything!" a voice belonging to Adeline, screeched behind a curtain. "Noah – oh! Jesse!" she had come out and blushed very deeply, which clashed with the shocking pink dress she now had on. She immediately ducked behind Noah.

"'Aving trouble?" asked Jesse in amusement, shaking his head.

"Uh," she stuttered, peeping out "Amara, may you 'elp me?"

Amara smiled and walked up to her.

"I cannot decide – I 'ave a leetle pile of ze dresses I like, ze others are wiz Noah and Aleex." She said in despair, still slightly flushed.

"Well, what about a blue?" Amara asked "You haven't got any of them, and they could go with your eyes."

Adeline looked a little hesitant but finally agreed, making the Assistants put back the clothes she had tried on. Noah and Alex looked extremely relieved and immediately clamoured that they needed something from the Quidditch shop, leaving Jesse and Amara to wait for Adeline.

After another hour, they found the 'right' dress. It was blue, much to Adeline's shock, and it was a deep, sky blue colour and it went down to her knees. It had a sweetheart neckline, and the fabric was a shimmery silk that glinted in the light.

"Oh, zaank you – zaank you! Oh, my zis is seemply delightful!" squealed Adeline, twirling around, quite gracefully.

"No problem, it looks really nice," said Amara, as they walked to the till. The Pages, it seemed, were not at all poor – the dress, they found, was more than 50 Galleons, but Adeline paid for it straight away.

-OOOOOO-

For the next two weeks of the holiday, Amara had an amazing time. They generally played Quidditch in the back garden (Amara borrowing Louis' broom, and Tessie, Ethan and Tally looking forlornly at the players in the sky) and going to the beach. Amara and her family met a lot of the Reynolds' friends, who were as interested in them as they were of them, for Mr and Mrs Matthews had a lot of questions about how France differed in the Magic range. She was able to write letters to her friends to – Hermione had kept close contact (and with Jesse, who had his own owl, Caesar) and Ron had replied to all her letters, which she was surprised with. The only thing was Harry. He hadn't replied to any of his letters, but Amara bypassed the fact when she realised he couldn't be in trouble – the letters must have gotten lost.

A couple of days into the holidays, it was Jesse's 15th Birthday. He decided to have a house party, so they opened the French Doors and let the sun stream inside, as well as putting up a marquee for some shade. A lot of his friends came over – some speaking only French, and some able to speak fluent English (Jesse admitted that some students could not be bothered to learn English, for they decided they wouldn't ever use it and wanted to focus on other things) so Amara stuck with them. It was a very nice day, they were able to drink cool lemonade in the sun and laze around.

When there was only one week left, the entire household went out for and evening meal at a very nice restaurant. The Menu was completely in French, and Amara had trouble deciphering it.

"Noah, what does that say?" she asked

"Snails," he said.

"What?" Amara glowered at him, for it seemed he liked to things Fred and George liked to do.

"Snails," repeated Noah "You eat zem."

"What else is there?"

"Frog's legs?"

"What is wrong with you? Do you like slimy creatures or something?" Amara demanded.

Noah smirked "I bet you couldn't eat zem."

Amara narrowed her eyes. "Bet I could."

"Dare you?"

"Deal."

When Amara's meal came out (Jesse, Tally and Louis had snorted when she had ordered) she wondered why she had chosen it. Her imagination made the dish look ten times worse.

As everyone else was tucking in, Noah glanced at Amara.

"Please, you can eat."

Amara frowned and cut a bit of the frog's legs off. She slowly moved it to her mouth, gulping. She popped it in quickly. She chewed and grinned.

"It's like chicken and fish," she said, Noah looked annoyed, but pleased. "Are the snails nice?"

"Not really," he said "I don't like zem particularly much, Jesse can eeat zem zough."

Amara tried the snails, but gagged.

The frog's legs were much nicer.