Fleur Weasley (née Delacour) and the Beauxbatons Academy

Fleur Weasley (née Delacour) first came to the attention of the international magical world when the 'Goblet of Fire' selected her to be champion for the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic in the Triwizard Tournament, hosted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy in 1994. A fascinating detail of her recent ancestry was revealed at the Weighing of the Wands ceremony at the beginnining of the championship when Fleur told Mr. Ollivander (the famed wand expert) that the magical core of her wand is a veela hair from her own grandmother's head. This revelation helped to explain the bewitching attractiveness of Fleur to the young wizards of Hogwarts. These included the famous friend of Harry Potter, Mr. Ronald Weasley, brother of Fleur's future husband, Bill.


The Beauxbatons Academy of Magic attended by Fleur is situated in France, and is very characterisitc of its location. 'Beauxbatons' means 'beautiful wands' in French, which meaning is illustrated in the school's crest seen below. The school buildings are in the style typical of French palaces such as that of the historic kings and queens of France at Versailles. Fleur herself is French, and manifests the same elegance of dress and manner associated with students of the school.





Apart from her role in the Triwizard tournament Fleur is celebrated as one of the brave witches who participated in the battle which saw the final end of the dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, at Hogwarts in 1998. At the time she had only recently been married to Mr. Bill Weasley, who participated in the battle with her. He sadly lost one of his own brothers in the battle, the fondly remembered Fred Weasley whose twin brother George owns the popular magical joke shop 'Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes'. Fleur and Bill's first child, Victoire, was so named because she was born on the first anniversary of the battle.

Petunia's game

Here's my contribution to a little game started by one of the young Hogwarts witches (a lovely Hufflepuff girl):

Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question

What is your name.......................................... Emma
4 Letter Word......................................................Ever
Vehicle........................................... Espace (Renault!)
City............................................................. Edinburgh
Boy Name........................................................... Ernie
Girl Name................................................. Ethelberga
Alcoholic Drink............................... Elderberry wine
Occupation................................................... Engineer
Something you wear.................................... Earrings
Celebrity.................................. Egbert the Egregious
Food......................................................... Eels (jellied)
Something found in a bathroom....................Earwax
Reason for Being Late...................... Everybody else!
Cartoon Character................................... Ermintrude
Something You Shout............................. Excrement!
Animal........................................................... Elephant
Body part.......................................................... Elbow

Your turn!

House Quiz

1. Veritaserum is a colourless and odourless potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth.

2. If the spell to Apparate goes wrong and leaves bits of you behind you are said to have been 'splinched'.

3. Miranda Goshawk wrote the 'Standard' books of spells that are used for teaching witchcraft and wizardry at Hogwarts.

4. When brother wands are opposed to each other in a duel an effect called 'Priori Incantatem' is created. One of the wands emits ghostlike recreations of the spells it has cast in reverse order, with the most recent coming first.

5. Ludo Bagman used the 'Sonorus' charm to magnify his voice at the Quidditch World Cup.

6. The charm 'Aperecium' makes invisible ink become visible.

7. The 'Fidelius' charm requires the use of a Secret-Keeper.

8. A strengthening potion should be turquoise in colour.

9. A confusing potion is prepared from sneezewort, scurvy-grass, and lovage (incidentally Mr. Wigworthy grows lovage at our allotment!)

10. Glumbumble parts can be used to cure the hysteria caused by eating Alihotsy leaves.

11. A potion made from wolfsbane (aconite), thus called 'Wolfsbane Potion', has been created by modern wizards. This potion (merciful heaven!) enables a werewolf to keep his human awareness when he transforms into the werewolf form, thus rendering him safe. Unfortunately, if sugar is introduced to the potion it becomes ineffective.

12. To be used in making 'Polyjuice Potion' Fluxwood must be picked when the moon is full.

13. A 'Shrinking Solution' should be bright acid green in colour.

14. The 'Draught of Living Death' is made from aspodel and wormwood.

15. Jobberknoll feathers are used in memory potions and truth serums.

Earthquake!

The cottage is still standing, and the little Wigworthy's are fine! It was quite something - it woke both me and Mr. Wigworthy up (he jumped out of bed with the shock). Everything was rattling (including the bed!) and there was quite a rumbling noise. Even though I don't ever remember experiencing an earthquake before I knew what it was straight away (apparently I have been through a few - just not powerful enough for me to notice them). The news conflicts on the magnitude - some say 5.2, others say 5.6. Anyway, it was strong enough to scare me, and left me counting my blessings - I realised again how fragile life is.

Owl Woes

As I feared, the parcel did indeed prove too heavy for the three owls. It must be due to some kind of interaction between the forces of mass and balance, because when I split the parcel into two different packages Verso and one of the hired owls managed one each with no problem, so I returned the other owl, making a significant saving on the hire. It still hurt the vault though - it seems a little echoey in there compared to before I started this swap thing. Not to worry - my motto is 'Galleons are only any use when I'm spending them!'
Anyway - Emma's sock kit is now winging its way to her (literally!) and I can't wait to see how she likes it. It may take some time for the owls to make the journey - they're carrying heavy weights, and Hogwarts is such a long way. Luckily I can just apparate to Hogsmeade and then fly up from there on my broomstick when I want to visit (old Cleansweep - no good for Quidditch, but plenty good enough for a little old housewitch).

Timed out

My time turner is such a useful object - I don't know what I would have done without it this week. Mind - I'm absolutely shattered now!! I think I need two extra nights sleep to make up for all the extra hours of being busy I've created thanks to the aforesaid magical assistant.

So - what have I been busy with? The sock kit of course! I gave it some final finishing touches yesterday before packing it all into a box ready to send tomorrow (all being well). I am more than a little worried that it may be too much for Verso and the other two owls I've hired to carry it. Do you know how much owl hire is these days? It's scandalous!!

Alas, after I had wrapped it all I forgot to take any pictures before I put it in the box, so I'm hoping dear Emma will take a picture of it all before she opens the little packages up. I am rather proud of how I've wrapped it. I do, however, have pictures of the contents, and may post some after Emma has got it all (I don't want to spoil her surprise).

Not only have I finished Emma's package this week, I've also knitted some school socks for little wizard number two. I've just blocked them (muggles do this on wooden foot-shaped things, whereas, thankfully, I know a little spell that does it in a flash with just a flick of my wand).

Additionally (thank you time turner!) I've spent a lot of time with quill and parchment designing some special Ravenclaw socks. This was after Lavender Ackerly suggested it when we were chatting one day in the Ravenclaw common room (alumni priveleges are just fantastic under the new headmistress). She has also, very kindly, offered to 'test knit' them for me. I need to do a bit of research (Yay!! - I love research!!) about quite what this means before I make any arrangements with her about it. I think I might be able to get some information about it at that wonderful magical forum for knitting witches - 'Ravelry'. Perhaps I'll see some of my friends there when I go do my research visit?

For now though my bed is singing loudly to me (yes - really - I must get Mr. Wigworthy to see if he can do anything about it). Sleepybyes, here I come!!

The final countdown!

It's very nearly, almost, so close, just about, ready to send!! Everything is packed apart from one more thing I have to brew up in the cauldron tonight. I am so excited about sending this kit. I hope Emma is as overwhelmed by this as I think I would be should I get something similar.

Quidditch notes: I never was good at sport in my schooldays. In fact, its an honour to be chosen for a team, as I wasn't in my youth! Some of our Ravenclaw housemates have been discussing how we are more typified by 'brains than brawn', i.e. we're not very athletic. Good point. So we'll allow the Gryffs to enjoy their moment of glory on the quidditch field, while we plan our revenge in the classroom!