HOGWARTS... BEAUXBATONS...

♡

wakes up with her head throbbing — at least, she thinks of it as waking up. In reality, it's a night of sleeplessness, where she can see nothing but the future. She can't remember it, of course, but it still unsettles her the next morning, when she swears she remembers hints of visions, but then never bring back the full picture.

She goes back to the Beauxbatons carriage, sneaking in once Maxime's busy. Briar's greeted by Fleur when she arrives in their dorm room, with Fleur wrapping her arms around her, hugging her warmly, tightly. Briar smiles softly, as she sighs. "Well that was shit," she says to Fleur, who's hand is still holding onto Briar's arm. "I'm gonna have a shower and then motor to the hall."

It's a Saturday, meaning the Hogwarts students are allowed to go into Hogsmeade... It also means that today is the day that everyone can enter themselves into the Triwizard Tournament, which is what Fleur did on their way to breakfast. Briar hopes that Fleur gets chosen and really, she thinks that out of everyone, Fleur would definitely be the best champion for Beauxbatons. Like, Briar knows that Fleur's a fucking badass, and she knows that most people only think Fleur's a pretty face. But could you imagine, how Fleur would crush every single task, without batting an eyelid? It would be amazing.

Briar already knows that Viktor Krum's going to be Durmstrang's champion — it isn't even a vision of hers, she just knows. Considering the headteacher (she forgets the name) has been following him around since they got here, and he's already a famous Quidditch player, obviously Krum's going to be their champion. For Beauxbatons, in Briar's heart she thinks it'll be Fleur, because no one else is as good as Fleur is. But, for Hogwarts? Briar doesn't really know...

"Briar!" says Cedric, catching up to her and Fleur as they walk to the Great Hall for breakfast. Since it's a Saturday, they're all in their clothes, thankfully; Briar, black jeans and a baby pink jumper, and Fleur, something similar, the jeans being a light blue and the turtleneck a cream. "Are the rumours true, then? You've come back to enter, because of some loophole?"

"Oh, no," says Briar, shaking her head. "I'm here because Beauxbatons would burn down if Maxime left me unsupervised." Cedric laughs, and she smiles. "But, anyway — the real Beauxbatons champion is Fleur," she says, putting an arm around her best friend. Fleur looks embarrassed. "Fleur's super smart, she's bound to be champion... Are you entering?"

"Did it a couple minutes ago," says Cedric, looking nervous.

"You'll be fine," says Briar.

Fleur tells him, "At least you've put your name forward."

Briar nods. "No harm in trying," she says. "And you're really good at literally everything, so why wouldn't you get picked?"

"I guess," says Cedric, and the three of them start to walk towards the hall again. "What's Beauxbatons like, compared to here? Is it better there?"

Briar doesn't know how to answer, but it's fine, because Fleur's already started to speak about how amazing Beauxbatons is. Briar stays quiet. She doesn't know her own stance on this question. She wants to say she prefers Hogwarts, of course she does, this place is still her home, but then... There's a little voice in the back of her head that goes, is it?

"Well, I'll see you later," says Cedric.

"Good luck," says Briar.

"Thanks," says Cedric. He looks at Fleur. "And you too!"

Fleur beams at him. As he walks away, Fleur turns to Briar. "I like him..." says Fleur. "Why don't you fancy him instead?"

"Instead of who?"

Fleur rolls her eyes. "Malecrit, Briar," she mumbles, before she looks across at where Maxime's sitting. "I need to speak to Madame Maxime, I'll find you in a few minutes?"

"You know where I'll be," says Briar with a smile, sitting down at the Gryffindor table, opposite Fred and George and next to Lee. "Morning, boys," she says, taking a couple slices of toast. A couple places down sit Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and she smiles at Harry. She feels bad for not seeing much of him lately...

"This time tomorrow," says Fred, looking both smug and excited. "You'll be having breakfast with a champion..."

"Uh, yeah, Fleur," says Briar, frowning as she butters her toast.

"Not Fleur," says Fred.

Briar looks across at George, as if for help, and George raises his eyebrows slightly. And then, the realisation hits Briar in the face — or not so much hit, but rather, smacks her, fully.

"You're going to enter?" she says to Fred.

"We all are," says Fred, who hasn't seemed to have noticed the horror on Briar's face. She glances at George and Lee, who look down at their breakfast, not wanting to get involved. Then she looks back at Fred, who looks over the moon (ha) at the idea, and really wants Briar to be just as excited. "We're going to use an ageing potion, and then we're going to put our names in... I bet we'll get it, one of us will."

"You're not old enough," says Briar. "You don't know everything you need to know — you'll get yourself killed."

Fred shakes his head. "Dumbledore said no one's going to die."

"Uh, well, he doesn't expect an idiot to get into the tournament!"

Fred frowns at her. "What?"

"I mean I'm sorry, Freddie, but I just — I think it's too dangerous," says Briar. "You don't know—"

"Have you said the same to Fleur?" he asks.

Briar frowns at him. It's at this moment where George and Lee begin to stand up, and Briar grabs onto Lee's sleeve, pulling him back onto the bench.

"Well, no, because she's of age and our headteacher thought she was so capable of becoming champion that she brought her here from France," says Briar.

"Right," he says.

Briar gives him a look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"So you support your friend from your new school, but not us—?"

"That is so not the case, Fred Weasley, you piece of shit," says Briar, already getting up to leave, to hold onto Fleur's hand and ask her to get breakfast from the kitchens instead. "Fleur's old enough, she could handle it, you can't—"

"Or is it because you want your new school to win, not ours?"

"So you want me to support your school, but you don't wanna do the same for me?" she snaps back at him. Lee, next to her, pulls a face, as if to say, well, shit. George avoids her eye contact, most likely feeling uncomfortable. Briar knows what's going to happen is that George is going to have to listen to his twin complain about this. She's never cared about that before (if anything, she doesn't mind, because normally George and Briar can see eye-to-eye, so he'll tell her what's going on) but she gets why he doesn't look happy about this. Oh, well, she thinks. It's not his fault his brother's a dick.

"I think you're being stupid, entering, and I don't want anything to do with this," she says, and she stands up. Fleur's walking away from Madame Maxime, and Briar walks towards her, taking hold of her hand to pull her out of the hall. "I think I fell out with Fred... Can we get breakfast in Hogsmeade, or something?"

"I... sure?" says Fleur, frowning. They walk out of the hall, lightly holding onto each other's hand. "What happened?"

"They all want to enter in the tournament—"

"But they're too young?" says Fleur.

"Exactly!" says Briar. "It's far too dangerous, and that's what I told them, I said they'd get themselves killed, and Fred thought that the reason I was saying that was because I would rather you win, and all of this..." She runs her fingers through her hair, frowning.

Her rambling continues, as they go back to the carriage to get their coats and purses, as they give their permission slips to leave the grounds, as they walk down the path into Hogsmeade, absentmindedly walking into Madame Puddifoots. Sure, most of the people that go to the place are couples on dates, but the owner's French and that comes across in the croissants. So Briar and Fleur sit next to the window.

"Like, I get that he's... weird about the fact that I think of Beauxbatons as my school, not Hogwarts, because he probably thinks that it means that I'm moving on from them which I'm not, I just don't go here anymore... But it's ridiculous. He's such an idiot sometimes—!"

"Hang on," says Fleur finally, looking at Briar strangely. Briar nods slowly, her brows furrowing as she looks across at her best friend. The waitress gives them their order, croissant with jam for Fleur, and blueberry pancakes for Briar, tea for both. "Why were you concerned about them getting into harm's way, when you encouraged me—?"

"Because you could fight anything and win," says Briar without a second's thought. The expression on Fleur's face is odd; almost like she doesn't know whether she should be flattered by that. "Like, you're super smart... When I say I think you'll become champion is because I honestly don't know anyone else at Beauxbatons who's as good as you are..."

Fleur smiles softly, her cheeks rosy.

"But... don't you think your other friends...?"

"OK, they're geniuses, same as you, but for them — it's different. They can invent stuff and think of pranks, sure, but competing in the tournament?" she says, and she shakes her head. "I've read what the tasks used to be... I would be worried sick about them if they had to do any of that... Like, you've got a whole extra year of knowledge under your belt, and I wouldn't be surprised if Beauxbatons was, uh, better at preparing you for something like this..."

Fleur nods. Briar eats some more of her pancakes.

"And, besides... Freddie just wants to show off," she says. "Like, when I sat down with them earlier, he turned to me, and he went, 'Oh, tomorrow, you'll be having breakfast with a champion.' He just wants to show off."

Fleur looks across at her. "Briar?"

"Hm?"

"Do you ever get the impression that he's trying to show off, so you're impressed?" says Fleur, looking at her oddly.

Briar rolls her eyes. "Of course he does, he thinks he's going to lose his best friend to a new school," she says, and she eats another bit of her pancake. Across from her, Fleur looks exasperated.

"What about the fact that he wanted you to support him?" says Fleur.

Briar shrugs. "Well obviously George and Lee already are, they're all doing it, he just wanted another person to tell him that he's doing the right thing."

Fleur raises her eyebrows.

"I—Sure, Briar..."

♡

BRIAR SITS WITH FLEUR and the other Beauxbatons students in the corner of the room where the goblet's being held. Since getting back from Hogsmeade, Briar gave Fleur a tour of Hogwarts, showing her all of the best kept secrets: from the kitchens to the room that turns into whatever you want, Briar showed her all of it — well, except for the common rooms, but Briar's never seen three of them, anyway, so it's not like Fleur was missing out on anything terrific.

Livvy sits down next to Briar, letting out a sigh. Briar frowns at him. "You all right, Liv?" she asks.

"Yeah," he says, and then he sighs again. Briar nudges him, hoping he'll speak to her about it. "I don't think my old friends realise I'm not a Slytherin anymore..."

"I know the feeling," she says, grimacing.

"Like, I know my new friends are all still in France — except for Hugo and Victor," he says, pausing to nod towards a couple of the boys, the ones he's sharing a room with. "But still! Draco keeps on fucking trailing after me like I'm back here for good and it's so frustrating! It's gotten to the point where Holly's been forcing him to leave me alone..." He sighs. "I didn't think coming back would be like this."

"I know," says Briar quietly.

She looks across at the door, her inner eye telling her who's about to walk in. She sees Fred, George, and Lee walk in, smug smiles already across their faces. So they're going to enter... She doesn't know how they're going to get past the age line. If anything, she's worried that the second they touch it, they'll get injured, in some shape or form — part of her worries that it'll singe off all their hair or something, because that'll just be hideous... Could you imagine...?

"Malecrit," she mumbles under her breath. She keeps on watching them, her hands slowly beginning to cover all of her face, already bracing the repercussions of whatever plan they've concocted to get themselves over the age line...

Fred jumps over the age line. There's a minute where the hall goes quiet, people turning their heads to watch. Briar watches in shock. She expects him to get thrown out of the circle by some supernatural force, but nothing happens. He looks across at Briar and he grins at her; she doesn't even know if she's pissed off anymore. If anything, she's a little impressed they managed to get past the age line.

George jumps in after him. There's this moment where everything seems as if it's going to their plan, but Briar can already sense that it's going to go off the rails like her inner eye's saying. And, like that, both of them are thrown out of the circle, slamming against the floor. Briar winces.

They both stand up, long, white beards growing from their chins. Briar bites on her lip to stop herself from laughing.

Lee says to them, "Merlin, you're both ugly old—!"

The twins look at each other, before bursting into laughter.

"Those are the boys you know, right Briar?" says Victor.

Briar turns around, and she nods. "Unfortunately..."

Fleur scoffs, smirking at Briar. "Unfortunately."

"Hey..." She turns around, and sees Fred, a sheepish smile across his face. Briar frowns at him. He holds out his hand for her. "I know I was a dick earlier, but can you please look at my shitty beard."

Briar rolls his eyes, finally breaking and letting out a laugh. "You're such an idiot sometimes," she tells him.

♡

"SO," SAYS FRED, AS THEY walk from the hospital wing to the hall later on, to find out who's been picked as the champions. Things became a lot easier once the twins admitted that it probably wouldn't have been the best idea for them to become the champion in the first place. Briar hung around with them as Fleur spent some time with her little sister, laughing behind her hand as Madam Pomfrey scolded the two for taking the ageing potion. "How did I look, as an old man?"

"If you're expecting handsome, you're not getting it," says Briar, without another thought. Fred put a hand on his heart, and she laughs at him. "Lee, you said it too!"

Lee nods. "Yeah, you two are gonna need a miracle if you wanna be handsome old men."

"See?" says Briar. "I'm not being funny, but you both had beards like Dumbledore, and like, let's be real, there's a reason the only person that's fancied him was Grindelwald."

Lee snorts. "Maybe You-Know-Who will find you two attractive."

Briar begins to laugh. Both Fred and George look as if they weren't expecting this — but rather, "Oh, no, you'd definitely be handsome when you're older!" As if.

"Imagine trying to break that news to Mum and Dad," says George, and Fred snorts, shaking his head. "Maybe you two will be ugly old as well...!"

Briar and Lee exchange a glance, before they burst out laughing.

"Me and Briar," says Lee, putting an arm around her. She's still laughing. "We're ageless. Timeless beauty, one may say—"

"One will say," says Briar, grinning.

Fred rolls his eyes. "You say that now—!"

"OK, Freddie, you haven't even heard of night cream, I don't know what you're trying to say," says Briar, looking at him oddly.

They get to the hall. Briar spots Fleur sitting with the rest of the Beauxbatons students, and Briar says goodbye to her friends to sit with her. Thankfully, none of them (and by this she means Fred) decided to make a comment about how she's gone to sit on the Hufflepuff table, but she knows the argument from earlier on is still fresh in their minds.

Briar sits down next to Fleur. "Hey, cutie," she says. "Nervous?"

Fleur shakes her head. "If I get it, I get it. If I don't, I don't, and that's fine..."

"But you're gonna get it," says Briar, with a smug smile across her face.

Fleur gives her a look. "Don't jinx it!"

Towards the end of dinner, Dumbledore says, "Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision. I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them to please come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber, where they will be receiving their first instructions."

Briar looks across at the goblet of fire, and her inner eye counts down, until finally, the fire inside the goblet flickers to bright red, and sparks land on the ground. A piece of parchment jumps out, falling into Dumbledore's hand.

"The champion for Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum."

He stands up from his seat next to Holly on the Slytherin table.

The next piece of parchment erupts from the flames. By the looks of the blue parchment it's been written on, with the gold foil detailing reflecting in the light, Briar knows it's the Beauxbatons champion. She looks across at Fleur, who looks incredibly nervous, and Briar holds onto her best friend's hand.