𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐍 - 𝐡.𝐩.

16 | Golden Wings, Golden Love

"Bonjour mon cher." she said in a deep voice, "Oh, regarde comme tu es belle!" She reached down one of her large hands and gently lifted Gemini's chin with her fingers.

"Merci madame, mais vous êtes trop gentille." Gemini thanked her, trying not to gloat at the fact that yet another person had called her beautiful.

Madame Maxime smiled at her. "Et qu'est-ce qui vous amène ici, mademoiselle...?"

"Delmar. Gemini Delmar." Gemini introduced herself. "I came here to study your horses. I thought it would be polite to ask you first."

"Pardonne me, mon cher —" Madame Maxime blinked, "you weesh to study ze 'orses?"

"Yes." Gemini nodded.

"But you cannot get near zem, zey might not be fraindly wiz you." Madame Maxime reasoned, looking over at the giant steeds. "My 'orses are vairy beeg and powerful. I do not think eet eez fully safe..."

"You needn't worry about me, madame. I have ample experience with magical creatures." Gemini assured her. When Madame Maxime still looked unconvinced, Gemini added, "You can see me try first. If anything gets out of hand, we have our Care of Magical Creatures professor nearby —" she gestured to Hagrid's hut just as he came out, surrounded by three familiar-looking students. "Hi, Hagrid!" She waved to him, clutching her books to her chest with the other hand.

Hagrid turned around and Gemini nearly choked at his new attire. He was wearing a horrible hairy brown suit, plus a checked yellow-and-orange tie and he had evidently tried to tame his hair, using large quantities of what appeared to be axle grease.

He waved jovially back to her and the three students whirled around quicker than the wind. Gemini recognised them in sequence — Granger, Weasley (she groaned internally), and golden boy Potter.

Hagrid then noticed Madame Maxime and went very rigid. Gemini cringed at the obvious lovestruck look on his face as he attempted his best smile at her.

"and.... we've got an excellent nurse...." Gemini continued, wincing as she awkwardly looked back at Madame Maxime. She was going to have a talk with Hagrid later.

"Eef you say so..." Madame Maxime agreed, at last, tearing her eyes away from Hagrid.

Gemini nearly jumped with joy. "Merci, merci, Madame." she thanked the woman excitedly.

"Oh, eet eez nothing," she waved her bejeweled hand and looked at Gemini with a warm smile. As Gemini went to approach the Abraxan-winged horses, Madame Maxime called her back, "Why eez your 'air — err — blue?"

"Oh, just a joke someone had played on me," Gemini answered, "I decided to keep it." Shooting a dazzling smile at the enormous woman, Gemini spun curtly on her heel and carefully approached the horses. Madame Maxime shot her a last odd look before she went back inside the carriage.

Dawdling, Gemini moved closer to the magnificent horses, her eyes kindled with utter fascination.

It was only when she was but a few feet away from their paddock that they noticed her presence. Gemini stopped in her tracks. She then moved a bit away from them, towards a large rock. The horses watched her movements with fiery red eyes as she pushed herself up on the rock and opened one of her books. She cast a levitating charm on it so that it was suspended right in front of her in mid-air.

Performing the same charm on her inkpot such that it was positioned on her left, she opened the second book which had notes scrawled elegantly on some of the initial pages. There were also a few diagrams, not the most beautiful necessarily, but still good enough. Gemini then took her quill in her left hand, using the right one to turn the pages of the floating book with her wand.