The Delegation
After signing their names onto the piece of parchment hanging outside of Madame Devereux’s office the group of friends could only wait to see if their names would be picked. Cassie spent the following couple of weeks excitedly daydreaming about all of the adventures the group of friends could embark upon. If picked she couldn't wait to explore all of the places from Kingsley’s stories, she could sit on the shores of the black lake in summer or grab a Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks with her friends just like he had. However, there was a constant nagging thought at the back of her mind that put a damper on her mood whenever she contemplated the prospect of attending Hogwarts for the year, the Weasleys. The dull ache she felt in her chest whenever she thought about her former best friends only hightented when she considered seeing them again. She realised it had been almost five years since they had last seen each other; they were practically strangers now, she knew she had changed and matured throughout her time at Beauxbatons and she couldn’t help but wonder how they had changed. After a particularly bad night's sleep where she had tossed and turned worrying about every possible variation of their reunion she broke.
“I’m going to go and ask Madame Devereux to cross my name off of the list, I don’t want to go,” she said, throwing herself onto Libby’s bed that afternoon and burying her face in her soft down comforter.
“What! You can’t do that! What about exploring the castle and finding hot foreign boyfriends!” squawked Bonnie from across the room, throwing her potions essay aside and scrambling through the mess of books and quills on her bed.
“Cassie, what’s got you so riled up Sweet?” asked Libby sitting beside Cassie and gently running her finger through the girl's hair.
“I just don’t want to go,” Cassie mumbled.
“Cassandra Ivy Juliette Vaughn, we all know that is a complete and utter lie. You couldn’t stop talking about the grounds with the lake and the castle with all of its turrets. What’s changed?” questioned Odette, joining the small group of girls that was now congregating around Libby’s bed.
“Nothing! I’ve got so much work to do and I want to get ahead for all of my OWL revision. I just don’t have time.” Cassie said, not believing a word that was coming out of her own mouth.
“If you don’t tell us what is going on right now, I will be forced to use the banned nipple cripple spell on you Cassie, so help me I will. We all know how it ended in second year, do you really want to see a repeat?” Libby yelled dramatically, brandishing her wand like a mad woman.
“Lib, put the wand down,” Bonnie said, holding her hands up in surrender.
“Not until Cassandra tells us what’s going on!” Libby boomed.
“Jeez you’re so dramatic!” Cassie huffed rolling over to face her friends.
“If I get chosen to go, that means the likelihood of me seeing the twins and having to socialise with them increases, and I don’t think I’m ready,” she said voice thick, “We saw Bill Weasley, the twins older brother at Gringotts in the summer and he mentioned that all of the Weasley’s had tried to visit me in the hospital, why do they care now all of a sudden? They ignored me for nearly 5 years!” Cassie wailed.
“Ah the tall, hot, redheaded men at the hospital, I recall!” Bonnie said, trying to nod along sympathetically.
“Can you keep it in your pants for five minutes Bon, please,” pleaded Libby, chuckling.
“Wait, you met them?!” screeched Cassie, frantically looking between the girls.
“Not really, a massive gaggle of gingers walked in whilst we were sitting in the waiting room of the hospital one day, they asked for you but Kingsley came out and told them you were too weak to see visitors. They all looked pretty shaken up if I’m being honest.” Libby said in a calming voice trying to defuse the tension.
“Seems a bit late to care now,” grumbled Cassie, crossing her arms over her chest and frowning like a petulant child.
“Cass, the only members of that family you have an issue with are the twins, don’t take it out on the rest of them. You practically spent the entirety of last winter in the jumper Mrs Weasley knitted for you, I was worried we were going to have to surgically remove it from your body when spring came. Plus you’re always so excited to get a letter from Ginny, don’t let those two freakishly tall morons take that away from you.” Odette said gently brushing some hair out of Cassie’s face.
“But I don’t want to have to see the stupid twins everyday for a whole year,” continued Cassie.
“Then ignore them! Have fun with us, catch up with Ginny and show them what they are missing! I don’t mean to be rude Cass, but puberty hit you like the Night Bus. They’ll be drooling as soon as they see you! Especially that Ed character,” winked Libby.
“I think you mean Fred, Lib,” chuckled Cassie, rolling her eyes.
“Don’t know, don’t care,” retorted Libby, smiling.
Cassie couldn’t help the laugh that fell from her lips.
“You’re right I suppose. I might not even be chosen! And if I do I will not let them ruin this experience for me,” Cassie said, sitting up and running her fingers through her knotted hair.
“Exactly, and if you are chosen and they bother you I will use the nipple cripple spell on them. They’ll be bruised for years to come,” said Libby darkly.
Cassie looked between Odette and Bonnie looking slightly scared of their best friend. She may be small but she was terrifying.
After the girl's intervention Cassie began to feel better about the whole situation, she was going to go to Hogwarts with her amazing group of loving friends, the twins could fall into a pit of Devil's Snare for all she cared. Their discussion about the Weasley's had however, reminded her that she needed to send a quick owl to Ginny; she wanted to let her know that she had put her name down to become part of the Beauxbatons delegation and that she would love to spend some time catching up if she was chosen. Going over to her desk she grabbed a quill and a sheet of parchment, quickly penning a letter she intended to take to the owlery after Alchemy the following morning.
✵❂✵
The entire month of September went by in a blur of classes, homework and fantasies about the upcoming Triwizard Tournament. Cassie began to settle into her new role as Head of Year, patrolling the corridors every Thursday with Patrick and helping to keep her fellow year group organised and happy. Cassie found herself quite enjoying the job. Due to the fact that Cassie was now in her 5th Year, it was to be expected that her workload would also significantly increase. Her OWL examinations were at the end of the year but Cassie was already beginning to feel the pressure, she had decided to up her workload and take 12 OWL subjects because she enjoyed all of her classes so much but she was already beginning to think that this may have been a mistake.
On the evening of the 30th September Cassie was sitting in the vast Beauxbatons library, her desk was pushed up against a window that overlooked the woodland and the sea beyond. Scribbling furiously, she was determined to finish her potions essay having already completed the revision notes and homework tasks for Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Herbology and Charms. Putting her quill down and shaking out her aching hand she quickly skimmed over her final paragraph making sure that she had added as much detail as possible. Suddenly, she was startled by a loud crash echoing through the enormous room, someone had swung the door open and it had appeared to hit the bookshelves behind it particularly hard. Cassie couldn’t see the loud intruder as ceiling high bookshelves blocked her view but she could hear the pounding of footsteps and someone huffing particularly hard as they ran. Cassie clicked her tongue in distaste, the library was supposed to be silent and she had been in the zone before that loud interruption.
Before she could get back to her essay a loud voice behind her shouted, “There you are! I’ve been running around the school like a headless hippogryph looking for you, you’re going to be late for the Triwizard announcement Cass,” boomed Fabian.
Grabbing her under the arms he placed her on her feet whilst he randomly grabbed her quills, papers and ink pots shoving them untidily into her bag. Swinging the bag over his shoulder he grabbed her hand and began to sprint through the school corridors dragging her along behind him.
“Fabian you better not have screwed up my homework, I’ve been working on it all afternoon,” Cassie huffed, trying her hardest to keep up with the boy's large strides.
“It wouldn’t exactly look great if they called your name to be part of the delegation and you weren’t there though would it, Cass! You’d be skinned alive for tardiness, the punishment would only be more severe now that you’re Head of Year. They would probably ban you from going all together!” Fabian snapped back, looking down at his watch he upped the pace again, they only had 2 minutes to get to the ballroom and take their seats.
The pair came hurtling around the corner into the entrance hall at top speed, both panting for breath and red faced. Relief flooded through them when they noticed that the ballroom doors still stood wide open, a cacophony of disembodied voices floated into the hallway, all had distinct tones of nervous excitement. Briskly walking through the double doors the pair stopped and began looking around to find their friends in the sea of students. The room had been set up for an assembly with rows of chairs to the left and right and a walkway down the middle. Rushing down the narrow walkway Cassie was grabbed by the back of the blazer and violently tugged backwards. Tripping over her own feet she landed hard on one of the chairs, unfortunately she had grabbed Fabian’s hand as she had fallen backwards and the 6 foot 1 oaf landed directly on top of her, squashing her completely.
“Ugh,” she grunted, as Fabian wriggled, trying to find his footing without hurting her further.
“What the hell was that Cassie!” he groaned, finally standing up.
“It wasn’t me!”, she argued, “This moron grabbed my robes and pulled me backwards!” she said, gesturing to a sheepish looking Hugo behind her. The girls further down the row were in fits of giggles.
“Sorry! I forgot that you have the coordination of a tranquilised banshee! I didn’t want you to rush past us!” he defended, the tops of his ears turning pink.
“I may have awful coordination, but my ears work just fine, thank you. Next time try calling my name!” she grumbled back.
Before the pair could continue to bicker, Madame Maxime walked into the room, her jade green robes fanning out elegantly behind her. The rest of the school faculty followed her, jogging slightly to keep up with the giant strides of the headmistress. The entire school rose to their feet and stood to attention as she made her way to the front of the room and stood behind the beautifully carved floral lectern, looking out at all of the students that stood before her. The professors took their seats on the front rows, looking at the headmistress expectantly.
“Welcome, please take your seats,” said Madame Maxime, smiling down at the students.
Cassie sat down, jokily nudging and elbowing Hugo as she did so, much to his discomfort.
“I am sure you are all aware of the reason we have called this assembly today,” she continued. A hissing of whispers erupted in the room as students began to excitedly talk to their peers. Raising one of her defined arched eyebrows, Madame Maxime tutted at the noise then cleared her throat. The whole room fell back into silence.
“As I was saying, we had hundreds of students put their names forward to become part of the Beauxbatons delegation that will accompany myself and Madame Devereux to Hogwarts in two weeks. However, we are unable to take all of you, and after an extensive discussion with your professors we have decided upon a shortlist of names. We will be taking 20 students from each year to represent our illustrious school. Should your names be chosen, I will expect nothing but perfect behaviour from you for the duration of the trip, one misdemeanour and you will be sent straight back here with a punishment so severe you will regret your transgressions for the rest of your life.”
Looking around the room Cassie saw a couple of the older students' faces pale, they all knew that although Madame Maxime’s tone sounded light and joking, she would stand by her threat. Cassie couldn’t imagine what the punishment could possibly be and never wanted to find out.
“We shall begin with our Fifth Year delegation members, if your name is called please make your way to the front here. Students chosen from Ombrelune are… ”
Cassie could hear her heart pounding in her ears drowning out the voice of the headmistress, she hadn’t realised until this moment how much she wanted to be chosen. Looking to the front of the room Cassie realised that she had missed half of the announcement, there were students from Ombrelune and Papillonlisse standing at the front of the room, all smiling widely.
“... and finally from Papillonlisse Miss Clara Dumond,” everyone clapped politely as the girl walked up to the front of the room and took her place.
“The last students from 5th Year will be representing Bellefeuille house,” Cassie was distracted by Fabian muttering from beside her.
“There are still seven places, we could all still be chosen,” he was saying, his leg bouncing up and down nervously.
“... these students are, Miss Bonnie Cartwright,” a loud round of applause rang through the room as Bonnie stood up and made her way to the front, Cassie caught her hand on her way passed and gave it a small squeeze.
“Miss Odette Carlisle,” Cassie was now smiling widely, two of her best friends had been chosen, their plan would hopefully all fall into place. Libby and Hugo’s names were called next, both stood up with a look of complete disbelief on their faces as they made their way to the front. Cassie shuffled closer to Fabian grabbing his hand, anxiousness was coursing through her.
“Mr Rupert Abernathy,” Cassie’s heart jumped, there were only two places left now, if someone else was chosen that would be it.
“And finally Mr Fabian Bartlette,” Fabian stood up with a look of confusion and worry on his face, he gently squeezed her hand before letting go and joining the rest of their friends.
“And now the members from 6th Year…”
Cassie couldn’t focus, her chest became tight and she felt tears welling up in her eyes as she looked at her friends at the front of the room. She was trying her best to be happy for them but she couldn’t help the feeling of disappointment that was flooding through her. She had spent the last months dreaming for Hogwarts and finally being able to follow in Kingsley’s footsteps. But she hadn’t been chosen! There was a small questioning part of her that wondered why she was top in all of her 12 OWL classes (12!), she took part in extracurricular activities, she was popular (she thought) in her year and she was Head of Year! She felt as though she had proven herself! Cassie sat here and counted the 5th Year participants and repeatedly counted 19. Had they chosen less 5th Years? Shaking her head slightly to clear her mind she refused to be bitter, she wanted to be proud of her friends achievements and supportive of them, not come across jealous.
When everyone around her stood, Cassie realised that she had not paid any attention to the rest of the assembly at all; She didn’t even know who had been selected from 7th year so had no idea who could be their champion. Grabbing her bag from under Fabian’s seat she looked towards the front of the room to see her group of friends pushing through the crowd, all making a beeline towards her. Although she had vowed to be happy for them, she needed a couple of minutes to collect herself. Turning around she swiftly headed towards the downstairs girls bathroom, she was sure she heard her name being called behind her but she had no intention of stopping.
Once she made it into the entry hall she was immediately stopped by the imposing figure of their headteacher.
“Ah there you are Miss Vaughn, if you would like to follow me I need to have a discussion with you in my office,” she said, a gentle smile on her face.
“Of course Headmistress,” Cassie replied dutifully. Throwing a quick glance behind her she caught the eyes of her friends. Shrugging her shoulders at them she then followed Madame Maxime up the stairs, jogging slightly to keep up with her.