It was in the last moments before Lynn left Madame's office that morning that she saw it, glinting in the corner of her vision.
Madame had been asking her to her private partition of the carriage each morning before to have tea with herself in Fleur, in some perverted passive attempt at an apology. As the two students rose from their seats, adjusted caps and uniforms to appear as spotless as they were expected, Madame reached down to check within a drawer and Lynn saw the gold wink in the light of the window.
It was only for a moment, but she was certain. It had been a scroll, with golden-caged handles, stuffed too hastily beneath a pile of papers.
Heartbeat in her ears, she returned to her compartment and let the light chatter and shuffling of the girls settle around her as she planned...and in one of the more terrifying and absurd moments of her life, decided to wait for Madame to go to the loo.
The final Quidditch match was today, and the Hogwarts campus rustled with activity. It was Slytherin versus Gryffindor, and the intensity of the rivalry had inspired anyone not directly involved to choose a side with vigor, dressing in one color or another.
Several boys in green facepaint charged past Dani to the field as she searched for her friends. She sidestepped them, spotting Seamus, Ron, and Hermione in the crowd.
"Hey!" she yelled, waving.
They smiled in response, Hermione waving.
"It's going to be a great game!" Ron said enthusiastically as she neared.
Hermione stood beside him, lips pursed in thought. Dani reached out to the other girl's arm softly in greeting as she stepped closer to the three.
"Do you think Gryffindor will win?" she said to the rest.
Ron stared aghast at her, and she laughed at him.
"Don't tease him," Seamus said smiling. He pulled her toward him and kissed her softly on the mouth before she could retort.
"Too much pride at stake," Hermione added, breaking into a smile. "Where's Aimee?"
Dani shrugged as they turned to join the stream of people headed to the stadium.
"She was out working with the twins this morning and went back to the carriage for her bag, I think."
Hermione tutted.
"They'll get themselves into trouble one day," said Hermione.
The rest laughed it off. Somehow, as constantly as the twins and Aimee seemed to tempt fate, there was never any doubt that they would escape any punishment too severe.
"They're a slippery lot," said Seamus, just as Dani thought the same.
She smiled at the synchronicity and kissed his cheek in a rare moment of lightheartedness.
"Oy Seamus!"
The moment was ruined as a blonde Hufflepuff girl waved his way, and Hermione giggled at Dani's instantly darkened expression.
"Shut up," she said lowly to the curly-haired girl.
Two Hogwarts girls wearing enchanted sparklers in their hair passed, giggling, and Dani rolled her eyes.
"Idiots…"
And then there was a piercing scream, and everything stopped.
The scream was cut off by yelling, and a crowd turned to find its source. It was coming from outside the carriage.
Dani hardly noticed that she had started running until she was nearly there, the others on her heels.
"LYNN!"
It was Hermione who yelled from behind her, and she was right.
Outside of the carriage stood several too-familiar figures: Madame, Pierre, and Lynn. Pierre was sneering, a painful-looking vice grip on the arm of their friend, who appeared to be bordering on hysterical.
"Where iz it!?" Madame was demanding, tall and menacing in her billowy dragon-hide cloak.
There was an urgency in the woman's manner that seemed frightfully close to panic; the finger she held accusingly in Lynn's face was shaking.
And Lynn's face - she looked somehow hardly like the friend Dani had known for most of her life. Braver. Determined. But also...terrified.
"TELL ME!"
By now another man, who seemed to come out of nowhere, had a tight hold on Lynn's other arm.
Lynn's braided hair had escaped in stray wafts and flew in her eyes, blue and wide as she ignored her captors.
She laughed.
"You'll never find it," she said, smiling mischievously.
At the edge of the crowd, Dani saw a familiar blonde head appear from the carriage.
"Lynn?" said Aimee.
It was perhaps the first time anyone had ever seen Aimee serious, and seriously confused.
Lynn grinned in response. Dani wondered briefly if she had finally gone insane, polite and obedient for just a smidge too long.
"What is going on?" Ron said, echoing the curiosity of the crowd that had gathered around them.
As though suddenly aware that she had an audience, Madame glanced furiously around at the crowd.
"What are you looking aht?" she said, "Continue to your silly game!"
Only a few Beauxbatons budged, compelled by instinctive obedience.
When no one moved, Madame swept up her cloak and gestured to Pierre and the man.
"Take care of her."
To the crazed Lynn, she addressed one last threat.
"You will tell me where eet iz."
Lynn smiled, and Dani thought she saw her eyes flash deliberately toward her and Aimee.
"You'll lose your mind looking for it."
Her cryptic answer was barely out before Pierre and the man began dragging her toward the forest, Madame focused on hastily forcing the crowd in the opposite direction. Oblivious to what had just happened, the last of the Hogwarts faculty appeared at the edge of the crowd, ushering everyone in the direction of the stadium.