THE RAVENCLAW PRINCESS

chapter 34 - beauxbaton & durmstrang

"Miss Tonks, put your tie on correctly, you are a prefect!" McGonagall scolded as she moved down the line of Hogwarts students, critiquing everyone as she passed.

Lyra frowned but adjusted her uniform. The students from Beauxbaton and Durmstrang were to arrive today and all the staff was doing what they could to make Hogwarts look as beautiful as possible. Filch was overworked frankly so every person who received detention was forced to spend it cleaning some part of the castle.

Lyra was standing close to the door, so she could just make out the Black Lake if she stretched her neck. She was surrounded by her friends.

Soon enough the Beauxbaton's enormous carriage flew down and almost at the same time Durmstrang's enormous ship rose from the Black Lake. Excited murmurs broke out as everyone craned to see the newcomers making their way to the castle.

Soon enough the Durmstrang students started walking up into the castle and past where Lyra was standing. She couldn't help but stare at the boys and girls as they walked past her. She made definite awkward eye contact with a number of people but it was hard to focus on that as another million set of thoughts raced through her mind.

Would they take lessons with the new students? How much bigger would their class sizes be? Would they constantly wear those enormous fur coats? Is it fake fur or real? Using fur coats is not environmentally conscious. How cold is it at Durmstrang? Do they ever see the sun? Are there vampire students? Would they not like summer here because of the sun? Some of these students are hot. Merlin, I hope the people I think are cute are my age.

Soon enough, the dark fur coats were replaced with beautiful blue uniforms and Lyra again made awkward eye contact with the boys and girls of Beauxbaton. Another set of thoughts rapidly set off in her mind.

How is it possible for everyone from this school to look so beautiful? Veelas are much more common in France than here. How would that affect you if you're not attracted to that gender? How many students are Veelas? What if they can use their power to convince professors to give them extensions? I would never be able to get assignments done if I- DID THAT BOY JUST WINK AT ME? No, no, definitely not. My goodness, I should remind Iliana that she has a girlfriend and not to stare like that. Merlin, am I staring like that?

"Lyra, come on. We have to go in," Mia nudged her towards the Great Hall.

Mieko, Lyra, and Mia sat down in the middle of the Ravenclaw table, squishing a bit as Beauxbaton had taken up the end of their table, closest to the professors. Mia sat next to a boy from Beauxbaton with Lyra next to her and Mieko across from them.

As they slowly pile food onto their plates, Mieko and Lyra engage in a nonverbal conversation. Somewhat obvious eye gesturing and eyebrow movement later Mia looked at the two of them very confused.

"Am I missing something?" Mia asked both of them.

Sheepishly both look at her then discreetly nod to the Beauxbaton students next to them. Mia nods once then turns to face the boy sitting next to her. She taps him on the shoulder and says, "hi! My name is Mia Hayworth. These are my friends, Mieko Chinen and Lyra Tonks."

Lyra smiled and tried to maintain her facial features as she realized the boy next to Mia is the one she thought winked at her. He smiled. "Hello, my name is Henri Allard and this is Celeste Tremblay," he motions to the girl sitting next to Mieko who offers a shy smile in response.

For the rest of lunch, the five introduced themselves further and shared information and stories about their respective schools. To all their surprise, the group of five got on rather well. Mieko and Henri shared a love for Greek literature. Mia and Celeste shared a love for French patisseries. Lyra, Henri, and Celeste all preferred coffee over tea. Soon enough, lunch had concluded but the group had made plans to study together and the Ravenclaws promised a tour of the castle.

"Merlin's left tit! Move, you blasted animal!" Pucey shook his foot at Nyx who casually walked back to Lyra's side, away from the untied laces she had been playing with on Pucey's feet.

This was their seventh round together since school began and frankly it was currently much less frustrating than the previous ones. Cursing at each other had significantly dropped along though the snarky comments persisted.

"Just tie your shoelaces then," Lyra said.

"No, it's-"

"Fine, I'll do it."

Pucey took one step then fell over dramatically, just barely saving his face from hitting the ground by throwing his hands in front of him at the last moment. Lyra stopped walking and burst out laughing. Using a nonverbal spell, she had tied his shoelaces together and, as expected, Pucey took a nosedive to the ground.

Pucey raised to a seated position and began untying his laces, face flushed and irritated, "is it possible for you to not be so annoying?"

"Is it possible for you to not be so irritating?" Lyra rolled her eyes. She contemplated stopping for him. Lyra mentally shook her head and instead slowed her gait as he correctly tied his laces and caught up to her.

"So, how are the Beauxbaton students?" Pucey asked.

Lyra glanced at him curiously but Pucey was entirely focused on twirling his wand in his right hand. "I only talked to two people but they seemed nice. How are the Durmstrang students?"

"Nice, I suppose. I didn't talk to anyone," Pucey glanced at Lyra to see her looking back at Nyx, who was lingering back to smell something. He found himself unconsciously smiling and quickly looked back ahead. "Terence did most of the talking. Well he actually made terrible jokes that no one laughed at."

Lyra laughed softly, "sounds like something he would do."

"Irritating habit of his," Pucey scoffed, smiling.

Lyra nodded in response, unsure if she wanted to continue a conversation that was headed to normalcy. How was it even possible that they had a semi-normal conversation that didn't end in a battle, Lyra frowned, asking herself.

Pucey pursed his lips after a few minutes with no response. It was only a few more minutes till they would reach their stopping point. He could tolerate the silence for that much time.

Once they arrived at the end of rounds, both Lyra and Pucey gave the other a slight nod and headed their separate ways.