Lynn walked slowly through the library, head bowed. Overnight, Aimee had grown obsessive, and vocally so, about 'Quidditch', and rather than wait to discover precisely how short Dani's patience would be with this bout of Aimee fixation, Lynn had volunteered as researcher. To be honest, she knew what it was already. She'd spent her summers at home with her family rather than on one of the Beauxbatons-approved (and often sponsored) summer trips. Dani, on the other hand, had been foisted each summer back into the clutches of the school by her strange, aloof father, and Aimee lived with her grandparents.
In any case, having extra knowledge on hand that coloured outside the school-decreed lines was not a recipe for safety, and Lynn was only too happy to avoid trouble. If she had to stay cloistered to stay safe, so be it. What did she care?
Unfortunately, while she was driven by the nerves that steered her carefully inside the lanes of her content and moderated universe, Aimee was less easily appeased, and so to the library it was.
The library had initially seemed a safe bet. Lynn was accustomed to treating them in her head as a safe haven sort of nook of reliability that she could always crawl into to hide away. A lone Beauxbatons girl, however, had attracted the dangerous attention of the Hogwarts students studying there, accustomed to Fleur and her lot traveling in packs. Not to be ignored were the venomous looks shot with little subtlety from the females of Hogwarts, who were after only a day already prejudiced against all of Beauxbatons.
Lynn took a turn down an aisle labeled 'Wizarding Sports and Entertainment', and ran her eyes along the numerous shelves. She had little luck at first, skimming unsuccessfully through such titles as Gnome Throwing and its Various Forms and The Secret Life of Mandrake Athletics. At last, she spotted the well-worn spine of a book with a brilliantly green cover, titled Quidditch Through the Ages in gold lettering. Anxious to leave what felt like the belly of a beast, she pulled it quickly and flipped hastily to the Table of Contents.
She'd only just snapped the cover shut when a male voice from behind her made her jump.
"Interested in Quidditch?"
Lynn flinched and turned. A boy clad in Hogwarts robes with a red and gold tie peeking from the collar was standing in front of her. His light brown hair was casually disheveled and caught in the light streaming down through the library window, deep brown eyes narrowed at her curiously as he held the strap of a bookbag. He was attractive, she realized abruptly, with a pool of nerves to her stomach.
"Sorry?"
The boy - well, no longer a boy, judging by his forearms, smiled crookedly and pointed to the book gripped tightly in her hands.
"Oh" she said, "Um…well, actually we don't have Quidditch at Beauxbatons. Just…wondering what it…was…like..."
She trailed off uncertainly, as the boy was still staring at her.
"You don't know what Quidditch is?" The boy repeated.
Lynn stared back, there not really being anything further she could say. They didn't have the sport at Beauxbatons and she was beginning to think this put them in a whole separate country from the rest of the adolescent wizarding universe. A tug at the edge of her mind was already suspicious that this had been an intentional byproduct of Madame's summer "programs" and "assignments". It was embarrassing to her - more so that she had failed to notice something being hidden so intentionally and less because she didn't know the practical ins and outs of the stupid game.
The corner of the boy's mouth and eyes were already crinkled in amusement.
Lynn flushed. Why should she feel so embarrassed by a stranger? She'd never really cared for the opinions of the Beauxbatons boys, even the few that she'd dated.
"Um…you know, I should - really be going now," She mumbled, flustered and stepping around the boy to leave, cursing herself silently for leaving the situation looking like a lunatic.
"I didn't mean to -" He started, turning just too late to apologize - if he'd only not been distracted by the color of her eyes - but Lynn had already left the library, treading swiftly back out of the castle, suddenly keen on being back in the company of her own schoolmates.
"Lynn, you're sure I can read this before you?" Aimee said for the fifteenth time over breakfast that same day.
Lynn shook her head silently, choosing to eat her egg instead of replying. Clearly the book was a treasure to Aimee, who had grown unbearably excited after only ten minutes of reading in the carriage. Dani and Lynn had been forced to place a Silencing Charm on her until she calmed down, as not to attract attention from Maxime, stationed as always in her private room.
Since then, they had been subject to her periodic outbursts, each new excited stream of facts about quaffles and beaters making Dani more and more irritable, grinding her fork into the bottom of her plate. It only made Lynn more curious.
The boy in the library was stuck in her mind in an irritable way, and the feeling that she was missing out on something was grating more and more on her patience. Fortunately, she would know a lot more should she ever encounter the boy again, as Aimee had done her best, despite Dani's greatest attempts to resist, to fill her friends in on the details of her new obsession.
"It says here that they first used a tiny bird called a Snidget before the Golden Snitch, and nearly drove them to extinction." Aimee said, scanning the page.
Dani showed no sign of interest, though Lynn glanced up politely.
"The Wizards' Council was newly headed by Elfrida Clagg, who made the Golden Snidget a protected species," Aimee said, so quickly that Lynn suspected she had rehearsed. "Figures it was a woman who finally brought them to their senses."
Dani shrugged, "Boys aren't all that bad."
"I know that," Aimee said indignantly.
"Sure, I was only making certain."
Aimee snorted.
"Yes, and you were only making certain because they happen to be your favorite hobby!"
"Speaking of which," Lynn said, laughing, head still bent over her plate but eyes looking up, "Any new school sightings of yours that we should be worried about?"
Dani smirked and gave her a sly look.
"As a matter of fact…"
"Oh no, not again!"
"Oh, bugger off Aimee."
"But it's only been a day! There should be some kind of requirement on how long a period of peace we have."
As usual, Aimee and Dani disagreed openly and bickered about Dani's habitual fondness for males.
"Sod off Ames, you can listen through another yet," Dani said.
Lynn sighed slightly, but motioned for Dani to go ahead, having decided it better to weather the storm sooner rather than later.
Dani took a deep breath to prepare herself before beginning, "Alright, so first off a couple of the boys from the opening ceremony of the Triwizard Cup - You know, from Durmstrang? They tend to be rather thickheaded though apparently, and I could probably do without the accent."
Lynn nodded as though she understood.
"And then there's that Hufflepuff boy I heard a few of the Hogwarts girls gossiping about; he is rather handsome. And then there's-" Dani continued, clearly enjoying herself as she rambled on in her regular routine of picking out favorites among the boys.
Aimee groaned and once again immersed herself in Quidditch Through the Ages. Lynn found herself wishing that she could do the same. As much as she loved both of her friends, Dani's rants could get a bit wearing to say the least. Dani had quickly become lost in her own little world, listing off names as she twirled a fork around her empty plate and gazed into the ceiling. Lynn found her eyes traveling around the Great Hall.
Beauxbatons students were no longer obligated to sit at the end of the Ravenclaw table, at least not when Fleur wasn't around. The girls made a point of rising earlier in the morning, knowing that Madame allowed the Delacours to sleep in later. They now sat at the Hufflepuff table for a change of pace, which was probably the reason for Dani's overhearing the gossip.
The other tables were only slightly inhabited. Clearly the Durmstrang students were not accustomed to waking early, and most Hogwarts kids chose to sleep late at any opportunity. The Slytherin table was entirely empty, Hufflepuff was nearly the same, Ravenclaw had the most with close to ten early risers, and Gryffindor held a mere total of one. As Lynn had read in Hogwarts, A History, Ravenclaw was the house of wit and learning, so obviously the early risers were hoping to get a head start on their studying.
The only girl sitting at the Gryffindor table had rather curly brown hair and was flipping through a textbook at her leisure while eating her breakfast. Lynn's gaze rested on her for a moment, noting that the color of her tie was the same as the boy in the library's had been. The girl looked up and smiled a bit uncertainly at Lynn when she saw her looking. Lynn smiled sincerely back, hoping to disintegrate a bit of the Beauxbatons prejudice most females at Hogwarts now held. She turned back to face Dani, who was still rattling off names.
"I hate to interrupt you darling, but we ought to get going if we want to find our first class," Lynn said, cautiously choosing a point in time where Dani had been forced to pause for a breath.
Dani grumbled an, "All right," and nudged Aimee out of her book before rising.
They exited the Great Hall and began their search of the castle's confusing maze to locate their class. Lynn had learned from her reading that it was easy to get lost at first, and had zero desire to find herself up the wrong trick staircase. After all, Madame Maxime would have them cleaning winged horse dung if she heard of them doing anything to harm the school's reputation.