Author's note. So this has been rattling around my head for years. It's a little bit of a slow burner but it will get going! Harry's not coming into the story for a while and he's not really that much of a main character at the moment.

Warning for not evil but certainly manipulative Dumbledore who may seem to be for equality in his words but disguises a lot of his contempt for others. There is also lots of anti-French sentiment expressed by characters. I think after the First Wizarding War the population needed someone to blame and JK Rowling certainly gave a lot of her evil characters French names (Lestrange, Malfoy, Voldemort) so we're rolling with it! This also links with a traditional dislike of the French from certain British/English citizens today.

It's funny how seemingly inconsequential things and how they go, can drastically alter the face of the Wizarding World. There were many such moments like that. If Remus hadn't taken five minutes more to eat his dinner before an Order meeting, he wouldn't have snuck into the meeting late looking guilty thus confirming Sirius and James' belief he was the spy. Maybe then Remus would have been named as Secret Keeper and the whole resulting mess would never have happened. What would have happened if Luna Lovegood hadn't gone to search for Nargles in the garden three minutes before Pandora Lovegood exploded her cauldron, living room and ultimately herself. What would Ginny Weasley be like if she hadn't been standing beside Harry in Flourish & Blotts at the exact time Lucius Malfoy needed to get rid of a book? The Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries study such things but as with much of their research their findings are not revealed to the average wizard on the Knight Bus. What is probable is that if on 8th February 1982 a certain Mr John Cartwright, Deputy Head of Wizarding Travel and Immigration, hadn't received such grim news about his inability to deport the various French Deatheaters awaiting trial he probably wouldn't have been storming down the corridor on the 12th floor of the Ministry staring at the carpet muttering furiously. He probably wouldn't have barged into a certain French witch, Madame Claudette Villiers, and this whole "Elodie incident" wouldn't have occurred. But he did receive the grim news that day and so he wasn't looking where he was going and he did barge into Madame Villiers and well the "Elodie incident" did occur.

A great many thoughts were going through John Cartwright's head as he stormed down that corridor on the morning of 8th February 1982. The only one suitable to publish was the repetition of "Those Bloody French". "How dare bloody whatshisname tell me that "France refuses to take responsibility for British terrorists committing offences on British soil". Those bloody Deatheaters are from bloody Bordeaux, half of them don't speak English so I'm having to budget for bloody translators who are also bloody French. Bloody Lestrange and Bloody Malfoy going on recruiting trips to the South of France. Why couldn't they have gone to Romania where we could have chucked them all to the vampires?"

More would have followed if Cartwright hadn't landed on his backside after a collision with some woman and his briefcase went flying. "Bloody Hell! Look where you're walking you stupid woman" he near yelled. This rage only increased after he heard the mutters of his least favourite language. Cartwright quickly stood up and observed a woman standing up with a tremendous scowl on her face. "Are you mad? You 'ave knocked me over right off my feet!"

At the sounds of her French accent he scowled more. "Look where you're walking woman! You shouldn't even be here, you're supposed to be down in the courtrooms translating."

The woman's scowl turned to utter confusion with still that undercurrent of anger drawing herself up to her not inconsiderable height. "I am not a translator, I am 'ere for my visa appointment. My name is Madame Claudette Villiers and you 'ave made me late. Good day monsieur." With that the woman swept off and headed into the visa section of the department.

Cartwight's scowl increased as he gathered his briefcase and papers. However, as he cast his last Accio a thought came to him there was something he could do to salvage this hellish day. He went back to his office and called for Kevin the deputy of the deputy assistant i.e. the coffee maker and errand boy. When the perpetually overworked and underpaid underling arrived, Cartwright smiled, "Now Kevin there's a French woman with a visa appointment in the next office. I need you to do this little thing for me…"

That evening Cartwright gained a lot of joy from stamping Madame Villiers's form with his stamp setting out that the upright French Frog had no right to remain in Wizarding Britain. Indeed, he enjoyed it so much he went on a stamping spree and well anyone who had ever been within 100 miles of a baguette were informed they had thirty days to leave Wizarding Britain.

A few days later….

No one could say Bathilda Bagshot was at the height of her intellectual capacity but one would literally have to have a snake inside of them to not realise her usually unflappable housekeeper/personal assistant/chef/companion Claudette was stressed. Finally, after another failed pie Bathilda was compelled to ask, "Claudette what on earth is wrong?" Shrug "Claudette…"

The French woman turned round and Bathilda was shocked to see tears in her eyes. With an anguished "Oooh Madame" and the story came out how Claudette and her daughter had been inexplicably denied a routine visa extension and had less than a month to pack up their entire life and move back to Lyon, a town Claudette had left twelve years ago. To say that Bathilda was devastated was stating it lightly. She'd relied on Claudette for a decade now and her little daughter brought a lot of laughter to the old woman's life. Racking her mind for a possible solution she came back to the obvious answer to any wizarding problem in Britain.

Dumbledore

Bathilda immediately wrote a letter to the esteemed headmaster inviting him to a fairly urgent afternoon tea the following day. Claudette immediately set to making her exquisite scones and meringues.

However, even the choicest lemon meringue pie made no difference. He didn't come citing prior engagements. Even when Bathilda had swallowed her pride and begged him to help the little French family, she only received a standard Dumbledore letter with many words but little substance. A vague promise to "look into the issue if possible" gave very little hope to the inhabitants of Godric's Hollow.

It was twelve days before the Villiers' forced exit from Britain and Claudette was in the attic looking for some sort of suitcase. The usually unflappable always with a plan Claudette was feeling at an utter loss. She couldn't go back to Lyon and the thought of again finding a new life was just too much. So, lost in her worries and anxiety, Claudette almost overlooked the contents of a particular trunk in the attic. A few photos and a bundle of aged letters. She initially dismissed them as a few holiday snaps of young boys from a summer day long passed but the note caught her mind. "Albus and Gellert 23rd July 1898". She looked at the letters and when noticing those few choice phrases of "the Greater Good" she had a plan.

"Madame", she shouted, "I'm just stepping out for a little minute. Now, how did one get to Hogwarts?" she wondered.