"Paris?" I asked confused. "How did you come up with this idea now?" "I thought it would be nice to take a little time out before classes start up again"
Yes, he was right. In addition to probably the most beautiful experiences in my life so far, the last few days have been very stressful. Garreth, in particular, deserved a break. I placed my hands on his cheeks and kissed him. I nodded in agreement so he grabbed my hand and dragged me into his bedroom after him.
"And what do you mean by change of clothes? I didn't bring any suitable clothes with me. After all, they said 'Garreth's father was attacked' and not 'walked through central Paris'." I said. He smiled and rolled his eyes, took one of my skirts and a blouse from my suitcase, laid them out in front of him, took his wand and cast a transfiguration spell. I saw how my skirt changed. It grew much longer, gained some ruffles and turned a dark red. A second spell also turned my white blouse into a black blouse with dark red embroidery.
"Et voilà," Garreth stepped back from his work and looked at it with pride. I loved it and looked at it up close. It really looked fantastic. I got changed and looked at myself in the mirror. I looked so elegant. Garreth looked over my shoulder, gave me a kiss on the cheek and put on a small hat which was decorated with flowers to complete my outfit. I've never felt so beautiful before.
Now Garreth went to his closet, took some clothes and transformed them as well, while I went to his bathroom to do my hair a bit and put on some makeup.
By the time I finished and went back to his bedroom, he was already changed. He was wearing dark brown pants, a white shirt, a yellow vest, a dark brown bow tie that perfectly matched the pants, and an orange-brown coat. All of this harmonized perfectly with his reddish-blonde hair and his green eyes. He looked perfect.
He grabbed a brown leather bag, performed an expanding spell, threw all of our stuff in and slung it over his shoulders. He tucked his wand inside his coat, handed me a matching purse and my wand, and led me outside to our brooms. We had another twenty minute flight ahead of us before we reached the Floo Powder Chimney.
Once there, he put our brooms in his pocket. We stood together, hand in hand, in the fireplace. Garreth threw the floo powder on the floor, I closed my eyes and when I opened them again we were in another room.
I heard voices, but I couldn't understand them. Apparently we were actually in Paris. Due to the difficult situation with my parents and my godmother, I never went abroad for vacation. And while I was able to spend the summer holidays with the Weasleys, I stayed at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays so as not to be a burden to them any further. They usually went to visit their families, which probably spread all over Europe. They have offered it to me several times and I would really have liked to have gone with them, but I was so infinitely grateful to them for taking me in. I wanted to cause them as little expense and effort as possible.
Garreth looked around and, holding my hand, purposefully left the small room. "Don't forget, outside we're among Muggles." he murmured to remind me not to cast magic.I nodded, he gave me a small kiss on the forehead, and led me down a long but cozy looking corridor. This went into a large, dark room. Apparently this was some kind of pub.
We exited the restaurant and found ourselves straight on a busy, narrow street. He pulled me to the many people in a small side street. We walked for a few minutes until Garreth stopped abruptly.
"Louis? Est-ce vraiment toi, Louis?" I heard him say I didn't know he could speak French, so I gave him an irritated look as he hugged another red-haired man. This man looked a lot like Garreth, but was probably ten years older than him and he had a twirled mustache. "Garreth, que fais-tu ici? Nous ne nous sommes pas vus depuis des lustres. Vous avez beaucoup grandi!"
Louis seemed genuinely pleased to see Garreth and he looked him up and down until he saw someone holding his hand. He looked at me and his smile widened even further. He took my free hand and gave her a kiss on the back of the hand. With his deep voice he said: "Bonjour belle dame, êtes-vous la petite amie de Garreth? Il a vraiment de la chance, tu es magnifique!". He ruffled Garreth's hair. Garreth began to laugh. "Elle ne parle pas français. Elle n'a aucune idée de ce que tu as dit."
Louis cleared his throat. "Sorry, I don't know that you don't understand me", he said with a very strong french accent. His cheeks turned red. "I was just saying that Garreth found a really pretty girlfriend. What's your name?" "My name is Caelie and -" Garreth cut me off. "Louis, où est Mamie? Nous n'avons pas beaucoup de temps." Louis nodded while, once again, I couldn't understand what Garreth was saying. "Mamie est avec Maman et Papa" "C'est parfait! Merci, Louis!" he said, hugging Louis goodbye. Garreth started maneuvering us again quickly through the narrow and crowded streets of Paris.
It felt like everything was passing me by. It was all too intriguing. Garreth being so well dressed and fluent in a language I didn't even know he even understood, Paris itself and the fact that I couldn't understand any of the other passers-by.
As we walked through the quieter, but still noisy streets, I kept catching glimpses of the streets, where cafés and boutiques lined up next to each other and many people admired the goods in the shop windows. The sun slowly began to set.
Garreth and I walked onto a stone bridge. He stopped right in the middle and looked to the west. The lanterns were already lit and the sky was just turning a beautiful shade of purple. "I'm so glad we can experience this together."
The grip of his hand tightened a little, but it didn't hurt me. "Thank you. Thank you for everything Caelie. Thank you for always being at my side. Thank you for still putting up with all the nonsense I do." , he sighed. I turned to him, cupped his face in my hands and pulled his head towards me. I looked into his eyes. They looked very damp. "I love you, Garreth. And I'm happy about every day we can spend together. It doesn't matter if we study together, or I can't walk right now because my leg is numb from one of your experiments, or we're on the roof by your room window sit down. I just want to be near you. Forever."
I saw a tear make its way down his cheek when suddenly he pulled my hands away and hugged me. He hugged me tight and long, burying his face in my hair. We stayed like that on the bridge for some time.
Finally he raised his head, kissed me and took my hand again. We walked along the Seine for a few more minutes until he said we'd be there in a minute. "You probably won't understand anything. I'm very sorry... I've dreamed of introducing you to my family as my girlfriend for so many years, but I all these years haven't thought about the fact that you guys speak different languages." he tilted his head back and wiped his hair from his face. He seemed genuinely ashamed of it. "It's fine, I'll just sit there and look friendly" I joked.
We were now standing in front of a beautiful little house on a stone footpath by the Seine. The windows were adorned with flower boxes and across the river you could see that it was autumn as the trees were covered in leaves of all different colors. He knocked on the door. A few seconds later, a very large and muscular man opened the door. He had a beard. A full black beard. The tall, stern-looking man eyed him and then me. The expression on his face was unchanged as he turned away from us again, calling into the house "Maman, veux-tu venir s'il te plait?"
He went back inside, leaving the door open. Suddenly there was an old and very small woman standing in front of us. She looked at Garreth "Yvain? C'est toi? Non, ..." she stopped. "Garreth, tu es adulte.". I saw tears spring to her eyes. Garreth released my hand and took her in his arms. After a few words I didn't understand, she broke free of Garreth's secure hug.
"Mamie, je veux te presenter quelqu'un. C'est Caelie. C'est la fille que mes parents ont accueillie il y a 3 ans. Et ... elle est ma partenaire.". He smiled at her proudly. I didn't know what he said, but they were both looking at me very happily now. His grandma came over and grabbed my head to get a better look at my face. "Elle est très intelligente. Et courageux. Je le vois dans ses yeux. Ce sont des yeux honnêtes". She smiled at me and gave me a hug. "I think she likes you." said Garreth amused. He knew very well that it bothered me a bit that I didn't understand everything. When only he saw it, I glared at him jokingly angrily and elbowed him in his stomach.
Garreth took my hand again and we entered the house together. There was also a middle-aged woman with red hair who was reading a book. "This is Aunt Adaliz, Dads cousin. The grim man is her husband Uncle Gawain. He's very nice too, even if he's a little tight-lipped," Garreth whispered in my direction.
"Adaliz, Gawain, je voudrais te présenter ma partenaire. C'est Caelie. Mais s'il vous plaît ne soyez pas surpris, elle ne parle que l'anglais." Gawain gave me a friendly nod. As far as I could understand the individual words, he informed them that I only speak English.
Adaliz raised her head, looked at me and closed her book. Her friendly gaze became serious and she drew her eyebrows together. She stood up so she could get a better look at me. Garreth was confused. We both didn't understand why she looked at me so seriously. Suddenly she shook her head and greeted me kindly.
We were asked to sit down. Garreth chatted with his family. From the shocked faces I could read that they didn't know about Yvain's injury. Garreth seemed to describe all of this. I looked at him. He spoke that language so well. And the more I focused on his voice, the more attractive it became.
After a few hours, Garreth slowly began to say goodbye. "J'espère que tu reviendras bientôt" I heard Adaliz say. With the last word, she looked at me very seriously again.
We went back out into the street. In the meantime it had grown dark. Lanterns were lit all along the streets. We continued to walk hand in hand along the street. "Garreth, why was your aunt looking so serious at me?" I asked him. "To be honest, I don't know either. I've never seen her like this before." "What did she say at the end? I had the feeling that she was going to pierce me with her eyes." "She said she hopes we'll see each other again as soon as possible. I don't know why. But it seemed like she wanted to say something she couldn't."
He shrugged his shoulders. "We shouldn't think about it anymore. If we come back here, we'll have more time and we can talk about everything."