It was midday, when Dani's sense of urgency had reached boiling point, when she was finally able to intercept Oliver at lunch and pass on the news. The Great Hall had been somewhat crowded with students making their way in and out for lunch, and the Gryffindor table was filled with the usual faces. Dani had been more than a bit concerned about how Oliver would take the news, but reasoned that he would stay under control with so many people around. Nothing could have prepared her for his reaction.
She had barely gotten the full story out with Seamus' help, conveniently leaving out what circumstances had led them to be out in the castle at that time of night, when she took full stock of his expression. All of the blood seemed to have drained from his face, his brow furrowed, and the corners of his mouthed turned down so powerfully that it seemed his entire face had been transformed into the stony mask of an executioner. It was in that microscopic moment that her fears were realized, and as she sat staring at his facial expression warily, he pushed himself up from the table with enough force to jolt it for several feet toward either side.
He stormed out and was in the corridor before a word could be said to stop him. There was a flurry of noise as the students by the entrance scrambled dazedly out of his way, and then silence as he neared the girls in blue. Dani and Seamus rushed to catch up with him, the rest close behind.
"Oliver—" Dani started, but was cut off as a confused Ravenclaw ran straight into her in the confusion.
"Oof!"
Seamus stopped chasing Oliver to help her up.
"You ok?" He asked concernedly.
She simply nodded and then started again in the direction of Oliver, who was getting dangerously close to the Beauxbatons group, and still clearly fuming mad.
"Oliver, wait!" She called, her face a picture of annoyance as she shoved through the crowd toward him.
By the time she had managed her way through the crowd, losing Seamus among the sea of nosy faces in the process, Oliver had already reached the group, and was facing them with a look of complete disgust on his face.
"Really!?" He was yelling now, like a challenge, "So this is what it's come to?"
Dani could see now that Lynn was beside Fleur at the front of the group, and that uncomfortably close to her was Pierre Simon, the pointy-chinned prat himself. She should have seen this coming. Pierre was a student at Beauxbatons, but enjoyed a treatment of exclusivity that stemmed from some kind of closeness with the Executive Advisor. Dani would guess it had something to do with his father, since he never seemed to shut up about the blighter. Whatever the case, he was regularly employed in Madame's schemes, although it had been some time since he had made an appearance among the female students. Madame had brought Pierre to Hogwarts a few days ago, ostensibly by the notion that he could benefit from the extraordinary uniqueness of the situation. It was absolutely ridiculous. The boy had not a single functioning synapse in his brain, and couldn't have benefitted from anything other than a sharp knock to the head.
There was a smirk on his uptight little face that made Dani want to hurl and sock him in the nose at the same time. And he was disgustingly close to Lynn, who looked so blatantly uncomfortable it was impossible to miss. How did Madame ever think this would work?
She was pulled from her diverted thoughts by Oliver's raised voice again.
Pierre had made some swarmy comment back to him, which seemed only to have added fire to the flames of Oliver's temper. Dani studied Lynn carefully as Oliver yelled, realizing that in all honesty there was no compelling reason for her to stop the steady flow of insults he was sending Pierre's way. From under Oliver's muscular figure, Dani could barely see Lynn. The older girl was stony faced, rigidly staring at a point in the middle distance as though she wasn't there. For some reason, this sent a flare of anger through Dani. How could she stand by and let this happen? She knew Lynn had her fears, but she couldn't possibly have been okay with acting as Pierre Simon The-Lousy-Git-Himself's girlfriend. She should have been able to stand up for herself.
It was only when a hand gripped her arm as Seamus finally caught up with her that Dani realized she was glaring furiously at Lynn.
"What's wrong?" Seamus asked, looking confused at her sudden change of demeanor toward her friend.
Dani hesitated, then shook her head and gestured silently toward Oliver, who appeared to have been interrupted mid-insult by one of Fleur's ladies.
"Per'aps you mizunderstand," Sylvia was saying in a falsified attempt to be diplomatic. "Pierre is 'ere to learn from ze tournament, and…"
Lynn could barely listen to each lie as it tumbled out of the other girl's smirking mouth. There were so many conflicting emotions powering through her chest at the moment she could barely remember to breathe, let alone appear to be interested in the rehearsed lines of one of Madame's ladies. Oliver had come out of nowhere, and despite all of her mental preparation for his inevitable reaction, the sight of him tearing through the corridor had still knocked the wind out of her. She would have given anything to fall forward into his familiar embrace. But at the same time, fear had laced itself over each cell in her body, forming a tight corset over her every movement. And this was not her usual irrational fear, but rather a very, very real one that leaked like toxic waste from the boy standing next to her, and the man that had sent him.
"Ms. Poesy," came the dreaded call.
She was being summoned back to the carriage, having just stepped down the stairs to start toward the castle for morning classes. The sound of Madame's voice was hardly a source of joy, especially since she was already in a drearier mood than usual. Dani had returned late to the carriage the night before, and Lynn hadn't had a chance to talk to either she or Aimee that morning. So she was without her usual sustaining comforts as she stepped out to leave with Fleur and her usual band of company.
At the sound of Madame's voice however, she turned, as did the group surrounding her. Madame was not calling Lynn into her office, as was the norm for when she was to receive a reprimand. Instead, the bulk of her towering figure was filling the entrance to the carriage itself, with an expression of stern authority.
"You will be accompanied by monsieur Simon from now on," the headmistress said, gesturing to her side, where Pierre had just appeared.
Lynn felt her jaw tighten but did nothing else but nod. There was no use even appearing to contradict Madame's orders when there was nothing to gain from them. That was the first lesson she had learned from Fleur, who seemed a bottomless well of information on how to live within the confines of Madame's cage of perfection.
Pierre smiled down at Lynn in a manner that may have been friendly had it not given Lynn the distinct impression of condescension. He was nothing but a greasy pawn in Madame's plans. That much she knew, because he was the son of one of the Executive Advisor's so-called 'business partners' and was treated with such distinction in the school. Not that she had witnessed too much of it personally, since the Academy was kept carefully segregated, the 'ladies' to their studies, and the 'gentlemen' to theirs.
Lynn tried her best to smile back at him as he joined the herd of girls in blue, but ended up with something more akin to a grimace. He didn't react to this, instead strutting along confidently as the group began to move its way across the lawn. Lynn knew exactly what 'accompanying' meant in Madame's terms, but she was thankful that the headmistress didn't seem to think it was necessary for them to keep up appearances until they were actually around people. Lynn didn't think she would be able to stand Pierre's snide manner for long. Her mind was already racing with ways to get away from him even within the castle, ways to explain how this would appear to her friends.
Pierre made politely stiff conversation with the other girls as they neared the castle, ignoring Lynn almost completely, for which she was thankful. As they entered the hall though, he pulled her roughly to one side, gripping her arm like an iron vice.
"Alright, so here's what's going to happen," he said lowly.
At least Lynn knew she would was spared the ridiculously exaggerated French accents that so many of Madame's ladies sported as a show. Sure, their school was in the south of France, but the majority of its students were temporary imports.
"You are going to help me make everyone believe that we are seeing each other," Pierre said, eyes narrow in a demeaning stare. "And if you can't do that, you will at least stand by and say nothing, no matter what you're new little friends do. We can't have you wandering off with that oaf and spilling all of our secrets, now can we?"
Lynn burned at the word 'oaf', and glared back at him. He seemed to delight in having elicited a reaction from her, and continued with a slimy smirk on his face.
"And do you know why you won't be causing any trouble?"
Lynn said nothing, just continued to glare silently.
"Because," he paused for dramatic effect, smiling coldly. "If you do, your family will pay on your behalf."
Ice began to creep up Lynn's veins as he continued.
"Your father works in the Ministry, does he not? Your new brother-in-law as well? Well…it would be a shame for both of them to lose such proud posts."
Lynn's eyes widened. She didn't doubt the validity of the threats. The power behind all of this had fingers at the necks of enough powerful people to make life hell for her entire family at a moment's notice. If she so much as displeased them…she'd been taking too many risks over the past few months. Madame must have informed him of how much she knew.
Pierre was still talking.
"And what a shame it would be for your sisters to suddenly meet a decline in their careers."
Lynn's blood ran cold, terror washing over her every limb. Karina, the oldest, worked as a healer at St. Mungo's, while Morganna, the next oldest was an aspiring journalist. Eloise, the last, was completely enamored with the bakery she had started up after her graduation. There was too much at stake that wasn't hers to risk.
"Oh, and I wouldn't even think about your own future, should you choose to step out of line," Pierre continued sharply, glaring cold daggers into Lynn's wide eyes. "Or at least, think of your darling brother. Mr. Wench can be quite the persuasive man, he has a lot of power in our society."
She focused every nerve in her body on not crying – she was in deep but if there was anything that could mitigate disaster coming to her family, it was minimizing her reaction to his threats. Her younger brother, Tristan, was only ten. He hadn't even started at wizarding school yet, hadn't even had the chance.
"Well….I think you get the idea."
He pulled his face into one last sickening smile entirely too close to her for comfort and turned away, dragging her by the arm to catch up with the rest of the girls in blue.
"Why and to escort Ms. Poesy, of course," Sylvia finished in a sickeningly sweet voice. She was the kind of person whose voice gave one the feeling of something that needed to be shaken off.
Oliver looked like he had been struck sharply in the face. It didn't help that Pierre was smiling his greasy smile again. It looked more like he had somehow twisted his face up like a badly carved Jack O' Lantern, leering out at the world.
Lynn tried hard not to look at anything in particular. She was paralyzed with fear, and the sight of Oliver looking at her as though the world had just crashed down around him made her want to burst into tears on the spot, which was probably the only worst case scenario escalation she'd so far managed to avoid. The crowd that had gathered around their dramatic scene started to whisper at this latest bit of information, but Lynn couldn't have cared less about anyone other than her friends. And Oliver.
She kept her face carefully blank, even as Pierre stepped closer to her as though to claim her as his. She wanted to push his oily presence far, far away from her, but the memory of that morning was too fresh for her to move. Picturing his cold threats was enough to keep terror washing over her intermittent waves. She worked hard to keep her face blank, fists clenched at her sides to keep rooted to the spot.
The corridor was quiet. She realized that this was it; they had stopped.
Oliver turned his gaze on her finally, one last time, pleading silently with her. It was all she could do not to melt and hand him the secrets in open palms, let someone else riddle the bigger, darker mess out. She returned the stare, hoping to any powers that be that he could see the hopelessness in her eyes. Merlin, why did he have to be handsome? It was extremely hard to ignore in a crisis. If she could make it five steps out of the sea of blue fabric she could be on his side again, assured the hands that enveloped her own, voice that warmed her from the inside out. She could so happily step into the arms of the boy with the chocolate eyes.
He looked at her for entirely too long, eyes hurt and face tight, then turned back to face no one in particular, as though he was addressing the mass of blue uniforms in general.
"Alright," he said, and his voice was so unusually quiet that Lynn's heart broke at the sound.
He turned on his heel and stalked off down the corridor. As he left, bringing most of the Gryffindor crowd with him, Lynn caught a glimpse of Dani's enraged face in the corner of her vision. She was shocked at first, then realized that for once her friend hadn't been there for everything. Dani knew only what this appeared to be, the act that Lynn was being forced to put on. She pleaded silently that her friend would understand, but as they all walked away, she found herself watching the back of Oliver's head until it disappeared from her blurry vision.
"Let's go," was the command, after a cruel beat of silence.
At once, the group of girls in blue turned and moved gracefully toward the next class, Lynn bumbling between their shoulders, a steel grip on her arm guiding her as tears dripped from away from her foggy vision.