It had been over a week now. An excruciatingly painful ten days actually, each one inching by as slow as molasses, dragging out each moment of solitude torturously. Lynn had been grateful to walk the halls of the castle once again after a dreary weekend in the dark confines of the carriage. Another upside seemed to be that gossip about Fleur and Lynn's commotion had mostly blown over, and now the student body was left to happily gossip about other happenings, refreshed from the weekend. Today was Tuesday, and despite Dani's rant about how dreadful Tuesdays were that lasted the entirety of their walk across the grounds, Lynn felt an overwhelming wave of relief upon reaching the castle. Their dew soaked shoes left light footprints behind them in the corridor as they made their way to the Great Hall.
"Nothing exciting ever happens on Tuesdays," Dani was saying.
Aimee was skipping next to her, and the look on her face suggested she knew of several exciting things that could happen on a Tuesday, probably all of her own creation. They had reached the great double doors of the Great Hall though, before she had opportunity to share them. Dani paused in her ranting to glance regretfully at Lynn before she and Aimee made for the Gryffindor table.
"Aimee, have you brought my book?"
"In my bag - you can check for yourself if you'd like."
"Right, so I can lose mind looking for it in that mess…."
The comforting back and forth of their bickering faded as Lynn made her way to the end of the Ravenclaw table, joined quickly by Fleur. They sat, and Fleur was pulled into meaningless conversation by another Beauxbatons girl, Illya, beside her. Lynn pulled toast onto her plate, spread it with jam, and sat staring unconsciously at the ceiling.
Today the enchanted beams were illuminated with the peaceful powdery blue of the sky, only thinly clouded in a picturesque vision. Lynn watched a cloud work its way slowly across the ceiling until it was nearly out of sight.
At least she hasn't banned me from this yet, she thought amusedly.
She toyed with the idea of Madame banning her from daydreams for a few minutes, swishing a piece of toast around in a pool of syrup. She was jolted into reality once more by the traditional shock through her stomach as Oliver and the rest of her friends arrived for breakfast. He hadn't overslept today, which was a rarity, but his robes were lazily donned and the sharp knocks in the head he was receiving every few seconds from Fred and George suggested he wasn't awake by choice.
Without warning, Lynn remembered the last time the twins had decided to help wake Oliver up, and his dripping hair that morning on the Quidditch pitch. Suddenly her eyes were wide with the memory of flying, terrifying and exhilarating, the wind blowing furiously at her hair and eyes. She was ducking behind Oliver's back again, arms wrapped around his waist in fear...could imagine the warmth of his skin through his sweater.
She gasped and closed her eyes in horror. That could never be hers again now. No flying. No Oliver. Fleur was surveying her with interest from her right, alarmed by her sudden movement, but no one else seemed to have noticed nearby. Lynn didn't dare to glance at the Gryffindor table again, and only nodded to Fleur to assure her, before there was a sudden commotion in the hall.
Dumbledore was approaching the front of the Great Hall with an air usually reserved for school announcements.
But it's breakfast, Lynn thought. And he promised the champions some time off…
This prompted her to glance at Fleur beside her, who looked beyond concerned and bordering terrified. Others in the Great Hall appeared confused, several students in the back standing up to see for themselves if the murmurings were true. Lynn reasoned that the announcement couldn't have to do with the Tournament, because the champions were being given a reprieve from preparing for tasks, and Dumbledore was a man of his word.
"Attention everyone," Dumbledore said loudly.
All heads in the Great Hall were now turned toward the owl-carved podium, curious even through the stupor of sleep. Lynn didn't dare look over, but she could see Aimee's blonde head in her peripheral vision. She was sitting on top of the table for a better view.
"I have an announcement that may be of great interest to you," Dumbledore continued, seeing that he had captured his audience, "As you all know, the third task will not be taking place until June. Also, the coming month will be particularly academically challenging and require you to focus all of your efforts to succeed in your studies."
Lynn smiled slightly. He was talking about April, as most of the student body had been for the past few weeks. The closer they came to the dreaded weeks of piled on homework and testing, the more stressed out they all became. Next to finals, this was the most stress students would be in all year. Even the Beauxbatons students, who were often above in their studies or else received separate instruction within the carriage, were affected by the tension in the atmosphere.
"So naturally, the rest of the faculty and I have decided that a bit of fun and relaxation is in order. We will be holding a small Quidditch tournament for our Hogwarts teams at the end of April."
Loud cheering suddenly rose up from the seated tables, centered particularly where Aimee's blonde head was in Lynn's peripheral vision. Oliver would finally have his beloved Quidditch back. In fact the more Lynn thought about it, the more it seemed likely that this announcement had something to do with a fair amount of complaining and pleading on Oliver's part. After all, it was impossible for anyone in the castle not to know of his misery over the cup's cancellation.
Chancing a glance over toward the Gryffindor table though, Lynn was surprised to see Oliver's face as shocked as anyone else's. Lynn laughed a little under her breath, partly out of amusement and partly to distract herself from the sudden urge to cry that had swept over her at the sight of him. Realization was dawning now, and elation spread over his features slowly but surely. Lynn winced at the tug on her heart when he grinned, and snapped her focus hastily back to Dumbledore, who was leaning against the podium once more for attention.
"The house teams will have two weeks, beginning on the Friday of next week, to practice and prepare for the cup. A schedule of the matches will be posted in all common rooms beginning tonight. I also urge that our teams take into account that this is a period of academic intensity, and not to take on too much unnecessary stress. This is to be a good-natured competition to share with our guests and to help revive some school spirit."
Dumbledore was gazed pointedly at certain people in the audience, and Lynn didn't have to look to know Oliver was one of them. She felt a sudden pang of sympathy for Harry. She knew he was the Seeker for the team, and now he would have Oliver's relentless practice schedule on top of the Triwizard Tournament and everything else.
Fleur, however, looked relieved, even curious, and it took a moment for Lynn to realize why. The female students of Beauxbatons, with the exception of Lynn, Dani, and Aimee, had for the most part never witnessed anything to do with a Quidditch game, much less knew what it was. Madame and the school had done a fantastic job of keeping them in the dark about that particular aspect of society. After all, it was the Executive Advisor's wish to keep the 'ladies-in-training' as enclosed, or rather, cloistered as possible. This meant, though, that the heads of the other schools had not known about Dumbledore's decision, and were just finding out about it now.
Sure enough, Lynn could already see the horror-stricken face of Madame at the staff table. Her face, painted into its usual elegance, was now frozen in hopeless fear as she witnessed the downfall of something she'd worked relentlessly to achieve over the years. Around Lynn, the rest of Beauxbatons had burst into whisperings.
"What's going on?"
"I don't understand - what's Quidditch?"
"Why didn't Madame tell us?"
A grim smirk caught itself on Lynn's fair face. The ban on Quidditch at Beauxbatons was one of the sillier rules of recent years - as though that last insistence on ignorance was necessary to cloister them all further away from the wizarding world.
Still, it was more effective than one would think - how much power the school had to isolate them over the course of their "education".