Notes 1: Has anyone ever done this before?
Notes 2: Haven't picked up Harry Potter since I was 16 or something, I dunno how I lost 4/7 of the books but I did. And the DVDs are just sitting on my desk, collecting dust. Also, I use the train ticket souvenir I got from King's Cross as a bookmark. So if you think this is inaccurate, it is. I thought I was a Ravenclaw but then realised I was too dumb and lazy to be in that house therefore I am a Hufflepuff who just wants to be as close to the kitchen as possible and be surrounded by friendly people because I want friends whom I can talk shit with.
Notes 3: I'm making Juvia Spanish because her original name 'Lluvia' means 'rain' in Spanish and also because Beauxbatons accepts students from France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. However, I am not going to write Lucy with a French accent because I struggled like fuck to understand Fleur when I was reading the books.
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before it rains
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Quidditch – Is something eighteen year old Juvia Lockser is very interested in. In fact, she's quite a fan of it. She knows the 777 rules like the back of her hand, she's memorised it better than the charms and spells taught to her at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic.
Juvia knows there are eleven magical schools for wizards and witches, meaning there are about ten other Quidditch she could be rooting for (though she really should be cheering for her own school Quidditch team) but she can't help but feel more passionate about Durmstrang Institute's team.
Even after many years of Victor Krum's leave from the said school, Durmstang's Quidditch team is still popular. Though, Juvia's more of a fan because she has a (teenie weenie) crush on one of the players; Gray Fullbuster.
Most of Juvia's friends ask her why she fancies Gray. He is not a seeker nor is he a chaser, he is just a beater – and there are two of them who's roles are just to hit the Bludgers. Not that Juvia had asked for their opinion but they gave it anyway, and that opinion was that there was nothing special about Gray Fullbuster.
It is true that there is not much information about Gray Fullbuster. Among the other Durmstang Quidditch members, Gray's interviewed the least and that makes him both the most mysterious and easily the most forgettable Quidditch member.
But Juvia thinks they're wrong. Oh-so very wrong, because she thinks he is more than just what the magazines says he is, he is a person.
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"Do you think Gray-sama will like Juvia?" Juvia asks nervously as Lucy Heartfilia helps brush Juvia's soft, blue hair with a wooden comb. A selected few of the Beauxbatons students are sitting in an Abraxan pulled carriage, on their way to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the annual Triwizard Tournament.
"Of course," Lucy says sweetly, still making Juvia look pretty. "How can he not?"
Juvia immediately thinks of a hundred and one reasons why Gray would not like her. Even Juvia admits she is strange. Juvia thinks she is not beautiful as Lucy who has warm brown eyes and blonde hair that is pretty like spun gold. Lucy looks like a veela compared to Juvia who just looks like … Juvia. Juvia does not even have a romantic French accent like Lucy or most of the students at her school, no, she has a simple Spanish accent that is spiced up (arguable) with the fact that Juvia speaks in third person.
Lucy must have sensed Juvia's doubt because the blonde stops brushing Juvia's hair and places two of her hands on her friend's shoulders. Lucy says, "You've been sending letters and gifts to Gray for years now, they're very nice gestures that you take time to do. He must have appreciated all the kindness you've given him."
That is true, after Juvia had worked up the courage to write her first letter to Gray, the rest just came so much easier. She had put a lot of soul into those long-winded letters and homemade candy gifts. However, Juvia considers herself more of a fan than a friend to Gray.
"Five years ..." Juvia can't help but say as Lucy works on Juvia's hair again.
"And to think that you'll finally get to meet him today." Lucy says, styling those tight blue ringlets.
Today … Juvia thinks and feels her chest tighten. Oh Merlin, she's so nervous!
"You'll have so much to talk about!" Lucy continues.
"Uhh …" Juvia mumbles with uncertainty. While Juvia is the type to easily word vomit everything into her letters, Gray, on the other hand, is a man of fewer words.
"Come on, Juvia. We've talked about this." Lucy frowns.
Juvia only squirms further. They have talked about it. Lucy had said how there is an obvious fondness written in Gray's replies. Juvia trusts Lucy because of her writer background, not only does Lucy have a good grasp of words but she's also good at reading people, Lucy says it's as easy as reading her books. But … Juvia still doubts her … friendship (?) … with Gray.
"Juvia will just be glad if Gray-sama spares Juvia some time." Juvia says, sounding very much like a fan. And maybe there lies the problem because she's scared to take a step forward and be anything more than a fan.
Lucy only sighs at this and Juvia pins a bow hairpin to her hair … before she takes it off.
"What are you doing? Wear it." Lucy says and repins the clip.
It feels like the first time in a long time since Juvia's worn something other than hats. She had wanted to look pretty but maybe … now that she's thinking about it, it was a stupid idea.
"Will you two shut up, I'm trying to sleep here." Gajeel Redfox grumbles, cracking a red eye open and he unfolds his crossed arms. He's been silent through the entire ride, choosing to nap instead of converse.
The size of the swan-shaped carriage may be as big as a large house but that doesn't mean that it's all that private. Both students and staff members are cramped in for the long journey from France to Scotland.
Lucy's eyebrows bunch together. "It's about time you woke up, we're almost there. Wouldn't want drool on your face, would you?"
Lucy is sweet but she does not take sass from anyone. Sometimes Juvia wonders how Lucy and Gajeel remain friends. Juvia is certain Gajeel and Lucy fight more than anyone she knows and swears Lucy almost reached for her wand once when Gajeel had been particularly grouchy.
Gajeel only rolls his eyes and stretches as the carriage soars over the Forbidden Forest and toward Hogwarts. But Juvia pays attention to none of this as Lucy's words hit her – they were close to Hogwarts! Is it too late to back out?
"Be brave." Lucy says and perhaps is the last advice she can give Juvia because soon the Headmistress is telling everyone to get ready and Juvia's heart is racing so fast.
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There's no escaping now.
Juvia's hand falls from the side of the powder-blue carriage to her side, silk robes swishing. She's so so so nervous as she follows the Headmistress and her fellow students down the castle halls. All these eyes on her when they enter the Great Hall … and it seemed that Durmstang has arrived earlier than them.
"Pay attention, Juvia." Lucy whispers by her side after catching Gajeel send his friends a look.
"Right," They can't disrespect their Headmistress or Hogwarts.
"Students, let's welcome Beauxbatons Academy of Magic!" The Hogwarts Headmaster shouts in joy before Juvia and the others greet the hall full of people.
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The Durmstang and Beauxbatons students stand awkwardly as the Hogwarts student sing their school song. Maybe awkward is the wrong word, an understatement, because honestly, what kind of lyrics are "Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts! Teach us something please!"?
Despite the pride in the Hogwart's students' voices and the awe of the old castle, Juvia can't help but notice Gray from across the hall, sneaking glances and smiling at her. It leaves her red in the face and wide-eyed at her shoes, unable to look at him in the eyes.
She had written to him and told him she was coming for the Triwizard Tournament but she has never shown him a picture of herself nor told him what she looked like. She does believe – no, she knows – he is looking at her.
But uh … maybe it could also be a trick of the eye? He shouldn't know what she looks like.
Nervously, Juvia fidgets with her bow once again and hope Gray is only distracted by Lucy who is beautiful and standing beside Juvia.
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The dinner ends with the Durmstang students sitting with the Slytherins and the Beauxbatons students sitting with the Gryffindors.
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"Hogwarts is so different," Lucy notes, strolling with Juvia in the halls. They're getting themselves familiar with the huge, stone castle. The blonde smiles, "It's interesting."
And Juvia has to agree, back in France, the Palace of Beauxbatons was surrounded by lush green gardens and majestic mountains. Hogwarts lack Wood Nymphs in the Dining Chamber and non-melting ice sculptures but it does have its own charms.
However, even with the change and new sights, Juvia cannot concentrate. Her bluebell eyes keep drifting around, scanning the area, looking for the likely chance that she will bump into Gray.
"Are you excited for tonight, Juvia?" Lucy asks, snapping Juvia from her daze.
"Tonight?"
"The Goblet of Fire is being brought out. They're choosing the Champions for the schools."
"Ah, yes … Juvia's very excited." Juvia lies, though her stomach does flips.
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The dining hall roars with excitement as the Goblet of Fire declares its champions. Gajeel Redfox is chosen as Beauxbatons's champion and a Hufflepuff boy is chosen from Hogwarts while a boy with silver hair and dark eyes is selected from Durmstang. Juvia recognises the silvered hair boy immediately, he's the seeker of the Durmstang's Quidditch team, Lyon Bastia.
"I can't believe Gajeel got picked!" Lucy blanches.
Despite this commotion, Juvia can't help but gravitate her gaze towards Gray. Even in the large crowd, Gray stands out to her. There's a look of disappointment on his face as he claps for Lyon. Juvia wonders why …
Maybe Gray had wished to be chosen? Juvia isn't all that upset by the outcome but she figures others around her may be so. The thousand Galleons prize money is an opportunity but to Juvia, the Triwizard Tournament is almost scary, it has claimed many lives even before she was born. Juvia's goal of visiting another magical school and to see Gray in person have both been fulfilled, but she knows there are those who are ambitious and seek to prove themselves.
Juvia had a feeling that Gray was one of those ambitious people.
… At least Gray is being a good sport about it, clapping for his teammate and all.
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"You look lovely," Lucy says, pretty in pink and ready for the Yule Ball.
Juvia feels her heart squeeze and her chest tighten as she stares into her reflection in the vanity mirror. Her blue hair is no longer in tight ringlets. Juvia had considered doing something drastic like cutting her hair to a shoulder-length but Lucy said it would be best to let her down. And now Juvia's long blue hair flows down her back like waves of an ocean.
"Thank you." Juvia says sincerely, smiling at her friend. "Lucy-san looks pretty too."
And Lucy beams. "Let's go. You know how Gajeel hates waiting."
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Lucy dances with a newly made Ravenclaw friend named Levy McGarden who's sweet and small, and Juvia thinks Gajeel is very much smitten but much too anxious to approach her.
"Go ask her," Juvia says, elbowing Gajeel. She doesn't even bother to whisper because the Yule Ball's music is playing so loud and festively.
"Who?" Gajeel asks gruffly. He looked so well-dressed in a nice suit and his long hair pulled back in a low ponytail.
"Levy-san."
He blanches. "No fucking way."
Juvia only raises her eyebrows. So Gajeel is fine with putting himself through two deadly tournament tasks but he can't even talk to a girl? "Go before it's too late. You're the champion of Beauxbatons, what have you got to lose?"
"Where's your boyfriend?" Gajeel asks instead, wanting to change the topic.
Juvia huffs in irritation but the distraction works because Juvia's cheek turns pink. "Gray-sama is not Juvia's boyfriend." She doesn't even consider them friends.
"You're friends, are you not?" Gajeel says, keeping the distraction up.
"No, Juvia is just a fan." Juvia answers. After all, Juvia saw herself as nothing but a witch from Beauxbatons Academy who wrote fanmail to a Durmstrang's Quidditch player.
"Sure." Gajeel rolls his eyes and Juvia once again fiddles with the bow in her hair out of frustration.
"Juvia's going to get some air." Juvia decides, grabbing the hem of her dress and taking careful strides out of the Great Hall.
"What about your boyfriend?"
The only response Gajeel gets is a threat from Juvia's waved wand.
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She's lost.
"Juvia's so lost." Juvia says out loud as she stands in one of the many halls Hogwarts had. All the corridors looked alike and the portraits weren't helping much. Collin Creevey was the most helpful, helping Juvia find her way to the bathroom, bless him, but … argh, it felt hopeless. And Juvia thought the moving stairs were a nightmare.
"Finding your way back to the Great Hall?" A voice asks from behind her, sending Juvia jumping.
Juvia turns around and pulls her wand out of defence but stops when she sees Gray stare wide-eyed at her, not knowing whether to draw out his own wand out or not. He was dressed in a nice tux and his messy hair was gelled back.
"Oh." Juvia mutters, now wishing she could disappear (too bad only Harry Potter has the cloak of invisibility). She awkwardly fumbles as she puts away her wand. "… Hi."
"Hey," Gray answers, offering a small smile. "You're … Juvia, right? From the letters?"
"Yes." She squeaks.
"It's nice to finally meet you." He tells her, offering his hand for a friendly handshake.
Juvia freezes, eyes looking at Gray's outstretched hand for the longest time. Move! Her mind yells until she finally does.
But the moment Juvia steps forward and touches Gray's hand for the handshake, someone new comes into the picture.
"Gray, where have you been?" Gray's friend asks, and Juvia instantly recognizes him. He's the champion and seeker of Durmstang – Lyon.
"The Hall felt stuffy, I wanted to step out for a bit." Gray answers, sounding a little annoyed that he was interrupted.
"Who's this?" Lyon asks, noticing Juvia.
Gray looks back at Juvia and his mouth twitches into a nervous smile as if he's not sure what to say. Something tells Juvia he wanted to say 'None of your business, Lyon' but then settles with, "She's ... a friend."
And – gosh, is it possible to be both relieved and stung by such a declaration?
Juvia covers up her hurt expression by waving at Lyon. "Hello."
Lyon only nods his head before addressing Gray again. "Don't be gone too long. Wouldn't want to miss anything exciting."
"Like what?" Gray raises his brow. "A fourth champion?"
Lyon only snorts and shakes his head. "Just make sure you come back or I'll whoop your ass the same way we saw that tree in the Forbidden Forest whoop that squirrel."
"You don't have the muscle," Gray says quickly because Lyon's practically just blown their cover of the stuff they've been doing for the past few days at Hogwarts. The Forbidden Forest is forbidden for a reason.
"Just hurry back."
Once Lyon leaves, Gray turns back to Juvia. "Sorry about that. Lyon just gets worried about me. He thinks I can't look after myself and makes it his business to flutter over me or something." Gray apologizes but then stops when he notices how Juvia's wrings her hands nervously.
"Gray-sama should head back."
"What? We can head back together." Gray says puzzled. "You were lost right?"
"Yes but … Juvia saw the way Gray-sama looked when he was trying to explain who Juvia was to Gray-sama." She says slowly, causing Gray's heart to sink. "Is Gray-sama embarrassed to be seen with Juvia?"
"What? No! I mean ..." He trails off. "Maybe a little."
Oh ...
Gray clicks his jaw, trying to find his words, "But it's not … It's not because of you."
"It isn't?"
"… Sorta?"
Oh.
"I mean ... Lyon and the other guys, they kind of know about you already so I shouldn't be all that embarrassed but I still kind of am."
What?
Gray continues talking, "But I didn't want them to tease me. At least, not tonight. If I had told Lyon who you were just now, he would have told the others and I would never hear the end of it."
Again, what?
"Gray-sama?"
"Yeah?"
"Juvia doesn't understand." She's pretty sure it's already be punched twice with the friend declaration and Gray admitting that he was embarrassed to be near her. What's more words going to do to her?
"Oh." Gray blinks. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm really bad with words." Gray apologizes. It almost makes Juvia laugh. Maybe now she understands why he doesn't get as interviewed as much as the other Dumstang Quidditch members. "Lyon and the others, they know about you. They know who you are, they've seen me read your letters and receive your gifts. I felt uncomfortable introducing you earlier because I was sure Lyon would have told the others and they would have probably all come straight here and bugged us. I don't want that because – well – we're finally talking. I wanted to talk to you earlier but Lyon was dragging me into all these wild shenanigans and I didn't want to bother you while you were with your friends."
Her mind was spinning. That's a lot of information.
"Why would they bug us?" Juvia asks. It's not like the others didn't have fans too. She knows Lyon is the most popular among the others. Surely he's surrounded by fans more often than Gray.
"It's because they know." Gray answers.
"Know what?" Juvia repeats.
".. because they know I sorta …" He trails off, "… have feelings ... for you ...?"
Juvia blinks. What?
And she must have said it out loud because Gray starts fumbling and scratching the back of his head, making his jet black hair look like its usual mess. He's looking as pink as Lucy's dress.
"I mean, it's crazy, right? Like, I've never seen you. All we do is talk – Well, I barely say anything but you say so much, pouring your heart out in your letters so – So how could I not?" Gray blurts out, cupping his lower face, letting his words slip through his fingers.
"Gray-sama?"
"You were always so sweet in your letters. They were always so long, you put in so much effort and you no detail was too small for you. You sent me handmade gifts and that made things extra special. All I gave in return were two pages replies at best and stupid store-bought things because I can't make anything for shit, like that bow –"
"Juvia doesn't think they're stupid." Juvia says, cutting him off, pale hands holding his elbow. When did that get there? "Juvia doesn't think Gray-sama's gifts stupid at all." Juvia repeats herself and it suddenly occurs to her that maybe that's how Gray had recognised her the first night they had arrived at Hogwarts. It was the bow. He memorized how it looked. "Juvia's wearing it now."
"Of course, you're wearing it –" He says, eyeing the blue bow that matched her blue hair. He had enchanted it himself since he didn't know what she looked like (beautiful, by the way) and wanted his gift to suit her no matter how she looked or dressed. "– but you did it because you're nice."
Juvia feels her chest swell with girlish anger. For such a patient girl, tonight, she is getting angry rather fast. "Juvia is not wearing it because Juvia is nice."
Gray's dark eyes snap to her face. "You're not?"
"Juvia's wearing it because she likes it." She would have said 'love' but that's too much to say. This is basically their first conversation.
"Why?" Gray asks. "I'm not … anything special. Even the stupid sorcery magazine says so. I'm not like Lyon or the others. I'm just … here." Gray confesses, just like Juvia, he too was insecure about himself.
And this hits Juvia – suddenly, she's straightening her back and her blue eyes are shining with determination. "Let's get back to the Great Hall. Come dance with Juvia," She says, pulling his hand because what declaration is bolder than dancing together in front of a hall filled with students and staff members, people from all over the United Kingdom and Europe and Scandinavia?
"What?"
"Juvia thinks Gray-sama is special. So what if the magazine doesn't think so. It's Juvia's personal opinion but Juvia thinks Gray-sama is special and he should too."
"I –" He looks at her and ends up nodding. He can't say 'no' when Juvia is looking at him that way. Juvia had said enough for the both of them, she was always good with her words. "Okay, let's go." Then he holds his arm out for her to take as they walk back to the festive hall together.
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Just before they enter the Great Hall, Gray looks at Juvia one more time and tells her, "You look really pretty tonight, by the way."
Her face glows pink. Now Juvia thinks she's the same colour as Lucy's dress. "Thank you."
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Gray holds Juvia close and they dance so many times that Juvia ends up losing count by the number of spins and the laughter spilling between them and the smiles shared.
Juvia catches Lucy grinning at her from the sidelines, Gajeel and Levy occasionally comes into Juvia's view as the duo dances along with the others in the hall, and Lyon and the other Durmstang boys smirking, but it's all okay because Gray doesn't let go of her hand until the Yule Ball ends.
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Nearing the end of June, after the third and final task of the tournament – the Hufflepuff boy being the victor for the Triwizard Tournament – the two other schools ready themselves to leave Hogwarts and back to their respective schools.
Gray turns to Juvia before he boards the ship back to Durmstang and asks, "Will you continue writing letters to me, Juvia?"
Juvia smiles. What a silly question. "Of course, Gray-sama."
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end
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Notes 4: HARRY! DID YAH PUT YAH NAME IN DAH GOBLET OF FIRAH?!1!1!
Notes 5: I could have written them fighting against each other during the Triwizard Tournament but my lack of Harry Potter knowledge prevents this.
– 8 August 2018