Only over an hour in Paris and I am already regretting coming. I'm forced to follow Flitwick since neither Cedric or I speak french and literally everything is in french. We follow Flitwick from street to street getting odd stares from the locals.

The streets go from narrow to wide, from old to new, in just a matter of a few steps. According to Flitwick we were supposed to be spit out at the hotel we were staying at but since we didn't we are going to walk to the venue. It wouldn't be much of a problem if it weren't for the fact we are in the muggle section of the city.

"So where are we going anyway?" I ask the following behind.

He sighs "We are heading to the Arc De Triomphe. I would take us to the hotel but I don't know how to get there through the muggle side entrance."

My eyebrows scrunch "Why don't we take a taxi?"

Flitwick looks at me confused "What's a 'Taxi'?"

"It's a vehicle muggles take to get somewhere by paying them. It's like taking a flying carriage, or the knight bus." I say with an odd smile.

Cedric perks up "I've heard of those, don't they cost money? I don't think muggles would take galleons. Do you have any muggle currency?"

I give a wry smile "Muggles all have different currency systems. I only have English pounds on me. They take francs here. But the professor can ask…"

Professor Flitwick sighs "If we weren't in such a populated area we could just apparate, drats. Alright Soren, how do we get one of these 'Taxis'? "

I gesture them to follow me ignoring the odd stares from the muggles. Once we get to one of the big streets I wave at one of the bright yellow taxis like I saw in movies. I haven't seen many movies but one I saw on a class trip 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' has taught me the ways.

After a few tries one of them pulls off to the side in front of us and I gesture Flitwick to open the door. "Ask him how much to Arc de Triomphe, and ask if he will take British pounds."

He looks a bit hesitant to open the door so I open it for him and they start talking in french. After only a few words were exchanged Flitwick looks at me.

"He says it will be 350 franc's or 52 pounds." Flitwick says obviously not knowing the value.

My jaw drops "What a ripoff!" I say glaring at the taxi driver.

Cedric looks at me confused "What, is that expensive?"

"That's like 10 galleons," I say still glaring at the driver who has a shit-eating grin.

Both Flitwick and Cedric gasp I roll my eyes as I open the back door to the taxi. "Get in, it's fine."

"Wait, wait, wait. We can't just get scammed." Cedric says with an annoyed tone.

Flitwick sighs as he gets in the front seat "I will pay you back when we get to the venue."

I shrug "We are foreigners, it's to be expected we get ripped off. Besides, it's muggle money, I don't really care." I say as I shove my bag between my feet in the taxi.

Cedric sighs as he puts his bag in as well and sits down next to me. After a 30 minute drive, I hand the swindler his money and step out of the taxi. The drive was short but the number of cars on the roads were terrifying.

Flitwick hops out with his bags looking up at the giant arches "Finally, we can leave the muggle section."

We follow closely behind ignoring the giant masses of tourists. We walk up to the outside of the largest arch towards the southern side and he sets down his bag. Pulling his wand out discreetly he taps the right pillar four stones over one stone to the right in a rhythm.

After he is done he gestures for us to walk through the pillar. I look around to make sure no one is watching us but for some reason, people are pretending we don't even exist. Which is odd since we are oddly dressed even if not in our robes. Are they just snobby?

With a shrug, I walk through the pillar with Cedric close behind. Stepping through is like walking into a portal the busy streets around us are replaced by open fields and what looks like a large fighting arena. Like a coliseum.

Flitwick walks in behind us as we are marveling at the massive building. "This area was built hundreds of years ago. Concealment charms are fixed up every single year. It holds the testament of just how powerful charm spells can be."

"Even in this massive muggle city we are able to hide something like this. The wizards of the time managed to convince the muggles to build the arc de triomphe to honor their fallen. While the wizards wished to use it as a perfect place to hide the entrance to this place." The pride in his voice makes you think he did it himself.

I roll my eyes as I look around and see all the stalls on the walking paths between gothic-style buildings. Even the coliseum looks a bit gothic with spires and everything.

"So how big is this space?" I ask the Professor.

"Around three square kilometers." He says with a proud huff.

"Well lead the way professor," Cedric says patting his back.

Flitwick's face turns serious again, seemingly just remembering that Cedric almost died to the rouge portkey. He marches forward to the coliseum and we both follow behind closely watching the wizards around going about their business.

Once we enter the large doorway to the coliseum we are greeted by a large stone desk. Behind the desk stands a very tall woman with an uninviting expression.

Flitwick and the woman begin talking in french switching to english every so often. The woman's accent while speaking english was so thick it was a bit hard to understand.

After pulling out the ticket portkey the woman's face becomes worried. Only a minute later there is a group of people from the dueling board standing around looking at the ticket. I assume they are from the dueling board since they came from a back room.

They all have upset expressions and begin apologizing profusely to Professor Flitwick. With a sigh, Flitwick walks back to us.

"Let's go to our rooms, they will have this sorted out… hopefully. Cedric, your teacher is in room 315, be sure to go meet him before tomorrow." Flitwick says, leading us out of the building.

"So what happened? You guys were talking for a long time." I speak up curious.

His eyes narrow "The portkey was tampered with. We don't know if it was intentional or not but they will be investigating the ones in charge of making the keys."

My eyes narrow 'Someone tried to kill us?' I think to myself wondering who I pissed off that they would want to kill me. I also wonder if it was targeted at one of the others, but I doubt it, they are both good people.

Flitwick leads us down the walking path towards the second biggest building in the area at 6 stories tall. We walk into what appears to be a really posh hotel.

Flitwick starts talking to the desk lady who smiles and looks at us behind him. She replies in english obviously trying to be polite. She asks our names and we all oblige.

"You are room 417, you are room 411, and you are in room 601." I take the card that says 601 turning to see Flitwick giving me an odd look.

"What is it professor?" I asked curiously why he was looking at me weirdly.

"Usually penthouse suites are reserved only for seeded members. You've never been to a tournament before, correct?" He asks confused.

I shake my head no as we both look at the desk lady. She shrugs "I only have a list of who to give the rooms to. But I assume that means he has been given a seeded position."

I shrug since it's fine for me. I head up the stairs to my room on the sixth floor. The hallway on my floor has twelve doors, all a fair amount of space away from each other. Mine is the first off the stairs to the left.

I open the door to my room and it instantly becomes apparent that it has an extension charm on it. There is a massive kitchen with a living room attached then off to the side are two doors. I assume one is a bathroom and the other a bedroom.

The room is bigger than the entire first floor of my house… Auntie Dromeda's house. I am a bit confused as to why I got the room but I won't question a good thing. I plop down on the couch and stare up at the kitchen… I wonder what I should make.