It was March now, and the snow had melted at least temporarily from the ground. Everyone was enjoying the good weather for fear that it would only last the day. Dani, Aimee, and Lynn had all become much closer friends with all the Hogwarts students, and thus were out with them on the castle grounds. It seemed as though the time they got to spend with their friends was precious, since Madame Maxime was beginning to replace her temporarily slackened rules of curfew.

The first sign had been the replacement of the strict night curfew a week after the Yule Ball. All Beauxbatons students were to be in the carriage by 8 o' clock on week nights, and by 10 o' clock on weekends. While this didn't particularly concern many, it suggested the return of Madame Maxime's wrath of terror, from which the students had been enjoying their temporary reprieve. Madame had also forbidden Beauxbatons students from attending Valentine's Day celebrations, saying that it was to keep their grades from suffering from any distraction.

The day before this announcement was made, word had drifted around that a Beauxbatons sixth year was interfering with Fleur's relationship with the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain. Said sixth year had only greeted the boy in the hallway, having been partnered with him for a Potions class. She was grounded to the carriage for an additional week for no specific reason. Fleur was allowed out for Valentine's Day.

Today, no one remained in the carriage. Even Lynn had been dragged out, away from her books, to enjoy the nice weather. Aimee, of course, had lasted seconds before running off to take care of "important testing business" with Fred, George, and Lee Jordan, to whom she had become permanently attached. Dani and Lynn had discovered a large of group of familiar Hogwarts faces lounging on the grass just outside the castle.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron sat in their familiar pose: Hermione propped against a rock with an open Charms textbook and furrowed brow, and Ron and Harry lazing in similar states of "working" on either side of her. The sunshine had lured a number of other people out as well - Seamus among the Gryffindor fourth years, Ginny, and Roslyn Tendray. Several members of what would've in other years been the Gryffindor quidditch team sat sprawled in a semicircle, listening with varying degrees of attention to a fervently gesturing Oliver. His hands draw increasingly ornate shapes in the air until finally he knocked Seamus' hat off and was forced stopped by the Chasers' inexorable laughter.

Dani, who had become a regular attendee of the Gryffindor Common Room, was quickly pulled down into a game of Exploding Snaps with Katie Bell. She made herself comfortable propped against Seamus' legs and flicking grass at Ginny, who retaliated in kind with dandelion petals.

After a rather disgruntled Oliver finally accepted that he had lost his captive audience, he rose to "show Lynn around the grounds" now that she had "finally escaped from prison". There were several smartass jokes about the idea of Lynn as an inmate followed by a scattering of inside jokes that only the Quidditch team members seemed to get before they were finally permitted to leave, wandering across an emptier swath of lawn towards the lake.

They were quiet, though Lynn found it was no longer from nerves. The silence was enjoyable. The surface of the lake glistened in the distance as they considered the day together, comfortably.

"What's Beauxbatons like?"

His question seemed sudden in the peace of the afternoon. Lynn tried not to look surprised.

"Well," she said, "it's not Hogwarts."

Oliver shoved his hands farther into his pockets and looked sideways at her.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Lynn stared hard at the treetops of the Forbidden Forest.

"It's beautiful, and warm, and a palace instead of a castle. It rarely snows in the winter and there are flowers everywhere on the grounds, even growing up on most of the buildings. There's a lake, but it's more of a large pond than a lake…it looks like paradise."

"But it isn't?"

She glanced up to catch him smiling at her, but knew it was only almost a joke. In the back of her mind, the voices of Hogwarts students whispered soft gossip about Beauxbatons and its students...wondering, guessing, scrambling without a clue.

What was it that made the strict disciplinary measures so necessary? they wondered. What lay waiting behind the constant fear of groundless punishments, Madame's habitual frown, the seething but somewhat inexplicable common resentment toward Fleur?

It wasn't only the Hogwarts students that searched for an answer.

Lynn shivered at the thought. She had seen what a silent few had - what they all wondered about.

"Every paradise has a price."

They came to a halt abruptly beneath a tree by the lake's edge. Oliver pulled a branch away from between them and stared hard into her eyes.

"What price is that?"

Suddenly she had gone too far. Her stomach dropped cold. This wasn't just a silly conversation in a daydream, the words had left her mouth when she wasn't paying attention and this was very real. Her fear told her so.

She looked out across the glittering surface of the lake for a second, thinking wildly of what would happen if the life concealed beneath its surface were suddenly thrust into the air for all to see. Her heart was suddenly pounding as though she was being chased.

"Nothing - forget it."

"You know something, don't you?"

"That's impossible," she said. "No one can know."

Her voice was not as strong as she'd hoped. She avoided his eyes, looking anywhere else.

"Lynn, you have to tell some—"

"I can't—" She broke off, voice cracking, "You don't understand!"

Without warning she was gripped with the feeling that she must either cry, scream, run, or some combination of the three. Panic ran cold in her veins. Her feet moved of their own accord out from beneath the tree.

"Lynn, tell me what's going on."

He reached for her arm but she fell back. It occurred to her that there was nothing she wanted more than to tip forward, fall towards him, but then they were both doomed. Dead or worse.

There was a familiar scream from behind her, another crack in the sunny day.

Fleur Delacour materialized suddenly behind Lynn's shoulder, so close Lynn could feel her breath, her face a perfect mirror of Lynn's panic. She fumbled uncharacteristically for Lynn's wrist.

"Ne vous pouvez pas!" she hissed, voice a disturbingly higher pitch than normal.

Lynn said nothing.

She recalled in the back of her mind the nature of veela to be beautiful and bewitching one moment and bird-like, infuriated monsters another. While she knew the odds of Fleur's face morphing into a sharp beak were next to none, Fleur's current expression did nothing to suggest she couldn't sprout huge Harpie wings and throw balls of fire.

Before the other girl could scream again, she found words in her fear.

"Yes, obviously!" she snapped, her bitterness surprising her.

"Lynn, wait-"

But with Fleur on Lynn's wrist, they had already begun dragging each other toward the carriage, fueled by the panic and fear they suddenly found themselves to be sharing.

Fleur muttered under her breath in French as they walked, her frantic eyes only stirring Lynn's panic to quicken.

Students across the lawn began to notice the commotion, looking up from their perches on the grass or rocks scattered throughout the green. The thought of looking back flitted just once across Lynn's mind.

"Think of vat they would do to us," Fleur said, just once, as though she had seen the thought in the other girl's mind.

Her hand dropped from Lynn's wrist so that she clasped her hand instead, tightly, the two of them suddenly prisoners in the same cell.

Neither girl in blue looked back.