The French version of this story can be found on Wattpad
La version française de cette histoire est disponible sur Wattpad

CHAPTER 2 - Bad reputation

Gabrielle was ecstatic.
She had waited all summer to finally be able to visit London before going to the most famous magic school in the world. Chauvinistically, she couldn't say it was the best - her heart would always go out to Beauxbâtons - but she knew that Hogwarts' reputation was well-founded. Everything about this trip excited her: the country, the culture, the people, the distance from her parents... Especially the distance from her parents, really. What eighteen-year-old girl doesn't dream of being able to get away from the stifling confines of home, to reinvent herself in a place where no one knows her, and to be able to be herself without fear of judgement from those closest to her?

The summer before her sixth year, she had learned one fine morning, between butter and toast, that her parents had found her an English pen pal with whom she would have to exchange. Without asking her opinion, her family had set up a whole study abroad programme and she was expected to send a few carefully worded owls to get to know them beforehand. As so often, she swallowed her remarks and remained silent, nodding when her mother looked at her insistently. Disobedience was not an option.
But to his great delight, things had not gone according to plan. His pen pal, a certain Ominis Gaunt, was suffering from congenital blindness which made studying in France a little too arduous to risk ending his schooling. At least, that's what the letter sent by Mr Gaunt said.

Gabrielle mimed her disappointment perfectly when her parents told her the news. But in reality, what a relief! She hadn't written a single line and was delighted to be able to spend a peaceful year with her friends, without anyone to look after or drag behind her.
But that was without counting on the determination of the de Lauzanne and Gaunt families.
In the middle of her sixth year, the subject came up again: on reflection, there was nothing to stop her making the trip to Hogwarts. And to make sure that nothing got in the way of her good relations with the young man, she was even going to receive intensive English lessons, as well as lessons in reading and writing Braille. In other words, the rest of her year had been anything but peaceful. By the end of a hellish first week with this new programme, she had even developed a strong resentment towards this illustrious stranger for whom she had to work so hard.

Luckily, her friends had not left her alone to revise and had even joined in to support her. Little by little, the teasing about her departure turned into real conversation and a genuine curiosity was born in the girls. What was Scotland like? Were English fashions different from those in France? Did they really eat pudding at every meal? And what was this unknown correspondent with whom she never corresponded like? Did he have that famous 'English humour' that adults talk about? Should she expect a dandy? Was he handsome? The questions had been piling up until the summer, turning annoyance into excitement, the call of adventure resounding louder than anything else.

— Don't forget the best part: you're going to be on your own, without your parents," someone whispered in her ear on the eve of the summer holidays.

This simple sentence had been like a revelation for Gabrielle. Never, oh never, had her mind allowed herself to think that one day she would be able to free herself from her family's grip. But freedom was just around the corner.
Oh, how she had looked forward to this departure for London!

And now she was there: Hogwarts, the Highlands, the lake, it was all there. Professor Weasley had even arranged for her to come a day ahead of the other students so that she could familiarise herself with the castle and its surroundings. On this occasion, she had been given the choice of whether or not to stay outside the house system, since she was only there for a year, but it had seemed unwise to refuse. The whole school was based on this separation of pupils, the values of the four houses being the very foundations of the establishment. The young girl had therefore complied with the advice of the sorting hat and had been sent to Ravenclaw.
She would long remember her very first night alone in that big dormitory. Barely dressed in her nightdress, she had run breathlessly around the common room in the middle of the night, throwing away her nobleman's manners and letting off steam like a madwoman until she was out of breath. Then she went up to the terrace at the top of the tower, wrapped in a thick patchwork blanket, to admire the stars. All those familiar constellations seemed to shine with a new brilliance. She fell asleep with a smile on her face.

When the other students arrived, Gabrielle slipped through the ranks unnoticed and took her place at the banquet table as if nothing had happened. It took a moment before her neighbours realised that nobody knew her, despite her beautiful blue and bronze uniform.

— I want to go to this school, but my parents don't want me to. So I went incognito at the same time as you, that's all," she explained with a thick French accent, but a perfect ease of expression.

A silence greeted her statement. Some seemed shocked, others frowned suspiciously, and it wasn't two seconds before the young girl burst out laughing and dispelled her lie by explaining her situation. The atmosphere lightened as soon as she apologised for this unconventional introduction. Then the first-year students made their entrance and the distribution ceremony began, monopolising all the attention.

⁂

The interrogation, which had begun at the dinner table, led her to sit on a sofa in her common room with three other pupils of her own age. As they chatted, they realized that they would all be in the same class this year, and Gabrielle began to ask questions in turn, sometimes about the teachers, sometimes about the other students. Her enthusiasm showed no signs of abating.

— It's such a pity we haven't been able to correspond over the last few years. I would have gladly studied at Beauxbâtons to escape Headmaster Black! But my French is too bad..." lamented Samantha Dale, a young girl with black hair tied up in a thick bun.

— Obviously, that's not a prerequisite for an exchange student," replied a broad-shouldered student whose dark curls fell over his glasses. But I imagine that when you're called Gaunt, you can afford to have foreign pen pals without even bothering to speak their language. Watch out for him, new girl, there are rumours about him and they're not all very flattering.

— Everett!

Samantha sent a sharp kick into the shin of her comrade, who yelped in pain. She glared at him as he held his aching leg in both hands, a look of utter incomprehension painted on his face.

— But what? Everyone knows that the Gaunts are one of those old "traditionalist" families with backward ideas. That's what it takes to be friends with the Blacks! Even Natsai suspects him of practising black magic and it's only been three years since she arrived in the country.

— That's no reason to spread gossip and build reputations behind people's backs, Everett! It was exactly because of remarks like that that Natty became suspicious of him, without even speaking to him.

— It has to be said that he doesn't make much of an effort to make you want to talk to him. But since you're so good at defending him, remind me when was the last time you spoke to him, hm?

— I never said I was friends with Ominis, just that we shouldn't spread rumours unnecessarily. Leave that to the Slytherins. In Ravenclaw we're better than that," she finished scolding him before letting herself fall back against the soft back of the sofa.

Everett shrugged with a sigh and concluded:

— All I'm saying is, don't forget where he came from. But before you hit me again, I'll admit he's never done anything wrong in class, or to anyone I know. Happy now?

Sitting at the other end of the sofa, Gabrielle smiled, touched and amused by the complicity between the two Ravencalws. She wanted to follow Samantha's example and be deaf to gossip, but she couldn't ignore what Everett had said either. Her parents didn't know her pen pal personally, so they hadn't been able to tell her much about him apart from his disability and the fame of his family. Hearing classmates talk about rumours of black magic was therefore not reassuring.
Her thoughts must have been written all over her face, because a hand came to rest on her shoulder and snapped her out of her reflections. The smiling face of Amit, who up until then had been watching the conversation as he jotted down readings on a star chart, banished the worried crease from her forehead.

— Don't worry, you'll make up your own mind tomorrow. None of us really know him, but he can't be that horrible if he's managed to make friends, can he? And if the saviour of Hogwarts is part of his very small circle of acquaintances, then maybe he's a lot better than the rumours say?

— The saviour of Hogwarts? Gabrielle repeated, raising an eyebrow in doubt.

The three pupils stared at her in amazement before realizing that the story of their incredible misadventure in fifth year was unlikely to have reached the south of France. They were then happy to tell her the whole story, from Elisabeth's surprising arrival to her acts of courage in the spring of the same year, not forgetting the countless testimonies of the help she had been able to give her classmates over the years. To hear them talk, this famous Elisabeth was a witch of rare talent and unprecedented bravery. No doubt Slytherin was proud to have such an exceptional person in its ranks.
But once the main events had been outlined, the conversation took a slightly more normal turn for teenagers and everyone had their little anecdote or remark to say about the ongoing romance between the saviour of Hogwarts and her best friend, Sebastian Sallow. Both seemed to enjoy an image of being daredevils with big hearts, irresistibly drawn to trouble.

Gabrielle listened from A to Z without saying a word, dumbfounded by what she was learning. She was used to dealing with the sons and daughters of great families, with successful ancestors, but this was the first time she had heard of a sixteen-year-old girl capable of single-handedly routing a rebellion. However, the more her new friends talked, the more she wondered about something far more trivial than saving the wizarding world: how was it that Ominis Gaunt got such bad press from the others when his two best - and only - friends were so well liked? A little voice inside her whispered that Amit might be right and that rumours should not be trusted. She brooded on this thought until it was time to slip into bed, torn between apprehension about tomorrow and impatience to satisfy her curiosity.