At dinner that night, the sky on the ceiling of the Great Hall was bleak and starless, but none seemed to notice it except Lynn. Hogwarts students of all houses, as she'd predicted, had burst into a gossiping frenzy after Fleur's commotion on the lawn. The dining tables were filled from end to end with talk about what could have possibly caused the fairy princess of Beauxbatons to go completely mental.
Lynn herself sat quietly at the end of the table where Fleur and her small posse of followers sat. The "fairy princess" was in the seat next to her. Gabrielle, her younger sister would have usually sat in Lynn's spot, but had been sent back home after the second task, and would not return until it was time for Fleur to compete again. So the seat was open for Lynn to be forced to sit in, sitting silently and staring at nothing but the nearly empty plate in front of her.
Dinner looked delicious tonight, just the sort of meal that Aimee would pig out on. Aimee was sitting over at the Gryffindor's table, their usual spot. Dani was there as well. Lynn was still permitted to talk to them, as they were also Beauxbatons students, but was not allowed to leave the now Beauxbatons-christened table. She couldn't ask her friends to leave the happiness they so easily fit into under the red and gold banners, so she was left sitting alone by Fleur for the meal, and would be for the rest of the year.
"Pass the broccoli?" said a small voice from Lynn's right.
She looked up numbly from her plate to see that Fleur had addressed her. The expression on her face was not one that Lynn was used to seeing. Face lowered, eyes glancing only sideways in her direction; she looked almost ashamed. It was not at all her usual arrogance, the upturned nose that Dani loved to mock. It would have been an interesting mystery if not for the events of the past couple of hours. As frantic as Fleur had been, and as sure as she was that Lynn had to be stopped from whatever she may or may not have been about to do, she was punished now with the plague of self-doubt that they had to share in silence.
Lynn nodded, and tried to smile slightly as she passed the platter. Fleur dimly acknowledged her with a sad smile of her own. How odd that this was the one person nearly all of Beauxbatons had come to hate, including Lynn's own best friends. Now they shared the same knowledge, same burden, and same silence. Lynn had always wondered why it was that Fleur really never had any friends, why she was always followed around by the posse of girls who seemed only vaguely interested in her existence. Now she knew.
"Ms. Poesy, I must impress on you 'ow important it is zat not a soul outside zis room knows," Madame Maxime said firmly.
It was the first time Lynn had ever truly seen this side of Madame. She was ruthless in keeping up her part of the machine, certainly, but at the same time was hopelessly puppet to the strings of the Golden Council - the school board that oversaw Beauxbatons - melting in the path of its will like wax to a flame. Even the great eloquence of Madame Maxime was stretched to its limit to contain the monstrosity for which she was in part responsible.
Lynn wondered vaguely if she would snap on her own one day, dragon hide cloaks and all. She was a large woman, sure, but the woman who had swwoned for Hagrid the night she and Oliver had danced could not be completely without feeling and remorse.
"Zee council…" Madame continued. "What zey say must happen is what must be. Zey have the last word over the academy. It is zey who decide…"
She looked nearly tired, her overdone eyes weary in the dim light of the carriage.
"It is because of zem that Fleur must compete. Zey 'ave decided she is our finest product...and zee world must see what we 'ave to offer."
Lynn felt Fleur flinch with her at the word "product". If only they'd known what came in such fine blue silk packaging when they'd first signed in as first years.
Madame sank back in her chair, at half rest in her usual charade. There was no reason to waste smokes and mirrors to the two of them - Fleur had told Madame enough for her to know that the secret had slipped by some means to Lynn.
Her headmistress' dejected state served as little but a mirror for Lynn's own. She sat half-slumped in the leather chair across from the much larger woman, uniform still ruffled from the walk. The tears that had slid quietly down her cheeks as she was dragged across the lawn away from her friends with an air of finality had dried.
She had been in Madame's office for brief periods before, usually to receive some form of punishment for whatever excuse Madame had invented at the time. Now she sat in an exquisite green leather chair on one side of a handsome desk of polished dark wood. The walls were a dark turquoise paper accented by a thin gold diamond pattern. There was a couch of the same green leather as the chair, and several cabinets containing papers and books.
"Do you understand?"
Lynn looked up at her. The huge woman in front of her's face was lined with worry and concern, handsome features crinkled with the wear of stress. This was not the overbearing, intimidating headmistress she had obediently feared for the past seven years. This was a desperate woman, one now forced to plead with and threaten a woman decades younger than her.
"Good," Madame said, her voice without enthusiasm, tired. "From zis point on, you can no longer speak to anyone from 'Ogwarts. You will say nothing to zem when zey speak to you, except 'I cannot speak to you'."
Lynn snorted amusedly for no good reason, something Dani would do, but Madame had her attention now. Panic didn't rise as it had before, but hopelessness was crawling quickly in from the edges of her mind.
Hogwarts had become more than a temporary home - it had built a new life in the moments when she wasn't looking, between the cracks of laughter in the Dining Hall to the whispers of Dani's exploits in Gryffindor Common Room. It was impossible now to imagine the pattern of her life without it...without chatting with Ginny and Roslyn on their way to a class, hiding out in the library with Hermione to obsess over a new text, even chasing Aimee's creations down dungeon halls to keep the girl from detention.
More than anything it was hard to imagine without Oliver. Sure, they had - frustratingly, she was surprised to realize - not gotten as physically close to romance as the night of the Ball, but he had somehow grown to consume her thoughts and free moments more than anyone else. He appeared from nowhere to walk her to classes - always pretending it was an accident, sat next to her at all meals - the side of her that brushed him burning in a not-unpleasant way, looked her in the eyes as she spoke as though she were the only person in the world until she looked away, cheeks flushed.
"Especially zis boy, you will not speak to 'im," Madame said softly, looking out the window. "He would do anything to save you."
Lynn's head rose to stare, now vacant, at her headmistress, who refused to meet her gaze.
She abandoned the sight of Madame by the window for Fleur, who had sat quietly on the edge of the sofa up until this point. Her panic had faded into a dignified statuesque pose, and now she had completely disintegrated as reality caught up. Her eyes stared wide at the ground, but she met Lynn's gaze long enough for a single genuine apologetic smile.
Lynn had always wondered if she had a conscience. Now she had proof for Dani. Somehow, Lynn doubted Aimee would be surprised…she always seemed to already know these things.
"You will eat all your meals at zee Beauxbatons table by Ravenclaw. You will attend all your classes as you normally do, but you will leave zee castle immediately at zee end of the day and travel with Fleur and zee ladies."
By ladies, Lynn now instinctively knew that she was referring to the small posse that followed Fleur around. Madame had already revealed that they were her own hand-picked group of girls approved by the Council to be Fleur's friends. Similarly impressive "products".
In more than one sense, Fleur had always been as imprisoned as Lynn was becoming.
"You will be allowed to zee castle for library study for one hour each day of zee weekend, and will spend all your otherwise free hours in zee carriage."
Lynn nodded numbly. What had begun as moisture in her eyes had collected into tears that dripped out of her eyes onto the rug below.
"Zat is all."
Lynn almost didn't hear Madame, her voice was so low. In fact, she would have continued to sit there staring at the floor if it hadn't been for Fleur, who rose immediately and turned for the door. Lynn rose and followed slowly. As soon as they had closed the door that separated Madame's office and the Delacours' quarters from the rest of the carriage, Lynn felt Fleur wrap an arm around her shoulder.
"I am sorry," Fleur said quietly.
Lynn looked over to Fleur's face on her shoulder. She could see now that the other girl was crying as well, glistening tears trickling down her cheeks. She tried to smile, but couldn't and nodded instead.
"I'm sorry too."
Dinner was over now. It had been for Lynn minutes after she'd sat down, but now more students were leaving the Great Hall, returning to their common rooms for the night. She continued staring at her plate until she felt Fleur touch her shoulder. Looking up at Fleur, she nodded and got up. They both took their bags and gracefully put them over their shoulders before walking around the tables to walk down the aisle out of the hall.
There was a noticeable wave in the tables as heads turned to see the girls leave. Apparently being the object of popular conversation meant nothing you did went unnoticed. The gazes of hundreds of people burned as they walked, and Lynn was having a dreadfully hard time not looking to the Gryffindor table, where so many familiar faces had joined the crowd in watching them.
As though she'd read her mind, Fleur touched her wrist gently.
"Don't look," she said as they neared, "it'll make it 'arder."
Lynn met her eyes and nodded, but didn't say anything. She focused all her energy on watching the floor. She had told Dani and Aimee what happened when they returned to the carriage, and they had reacted characteristically. Dani had thrown a fit and ranted rather violently for ten minutes before settling into a silent brooding on her bed, occasionally cursing anyone who neared her. Aimee had been shocked, then quickly recovered and rattled off a long list of ways to escape the carriage. Just as Lynn had thought, Aimee wasn't the least bit surprised that Fleur had a conscience. If anything, she'd been just a bit upset at not having an excuse to imitate Fleur behind her back anymore.
They were passing the Gryffindor group now. Out of the corner of her eye, Lynn saw the familiar upturned faces. Only some of them looked confused, though. Lynn had wondered whether or not Aimee and Dani would tell them what was going on…now she had her answer. Without thinking, Lynn lost her focus and looked up.
Her eyes roved around the table automatically. Dani looked angry as usual, and Hermione sympathetic. Lynn willed her eyes to stop. She couldn't look at them; Fleur knew what she was talking about. It made it worse to see the faces she had to ignore again. Just before she could get her eyes to the ground safely though, they caught on Oliver's. He was sitting beside Ginny, and across from Seamus and Dani, but watched her as though she'd disappear if he glanced away.
Lynn's breath caught in her throat but she kept walking, Fleur's hand touching her wrist. He didn't stop watching her, and she was rendered completely unable to tear her eyes away from his. She couldn't speak to him. The knowledge burned into her even worse then his eyes. She felt a lump rising in her throat and swallowed it back down.
Finally, they had passed the Gryffindor table Lynn's eyes were free again. They skipped around to many people's faces, but no one caught her eye quite like her friends…the friends she was forbidden to speak to. She stared straight ahead as they exited the Great Hall, then the castle, and then entered the carriage.