De honte et de pardon [OPEN]

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September 5th, 2026

The first official week at Beauxbatons had finished. It was hell. There were really only two options though for her: drop-out completely and be no better than her fraudulent parents or attend Beauxbatons again. Had this been prior to the news breaking about the Chevalier family being broke, she would have happily returned to her original school with stories about the lackluster classes at Hogwarts and how the students were all boorish and uncivilized. That was the sort of gossip her former classmates enjoyed. Instead she was being subjected to a return against her own volition and under unsavory circumstances. Not only did she now have to explain at length why she was an entire year behind in school from where she had been when she transferred out of Beauxbatons, but there was also the slaughter of her social standing. They didn’t even wait for the end of the start of term feast to unceremoniously make it known that she was back, had clearly flunked hard enough to be held back, and was not the talk of the town anymore. There had been a brief moment where she rode the fame of her brother’s selection as the Beauxbatons Triwizard Champion, and now it was long gone. The trash was a more popular figure at Beauxbatons than she was now.

Explaining to them that the change in her school year was due to being burned by a dragon two years prior would only sound like an excuse to them at this point. She bore the scars to prove it, but that didn’t matter to this group. Compared to the other oddballs that had come from Hogwarts, she was a prime target because she knew exactly what they were saying behind their back. To make it worse, some of the Hogwarts students had decided to wear their regular uniforms in protest of the normal Beauxbatons ones. Why they did that, she didn’t really know, but it was the angry girl that she had watched knock a younger kid out cold the previous spring doing it and trying to follow in her footsteps didn’t really seem appealing to Maddie. On the flipside, she was being taunted for wearing her old uniform again. It was a lose-lose sort of situation. To her, being told she didn’t belong in the Beauxbatons uniform anymore was better than being bundled up with a girl that had the temperament of a gorilla.

With it being the first Saturday of the term though, uniforms weren’t really important today, and she had found her way down to the dining hall for an extremely late breakfast. Or maybe lunch. She hadn’t been hungry that much since the year started, preferring to take anything she wanted with her to go hide elsewhere. It wasn’t worth sitting there for an entire meal to hear the jeers and seeing the looks of disgust. She reminded herself constantly that they didn’t know what it felt like to have half their body on fire from a dragon, or the terror of escaping a burning and collapsing building while half the school was paralyzed around them. It was only one more year anyways, and then she could forget any of them ever existed in the first place. That was the first agreeable thought she’d had in a while, and rewarded her brain with a pastry that was sitting in front of her.

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[Deleted]

September 5, 2026

The floaty silk of the Beauxbatons uniform felt so strange in comparison to the heavy robes at Hogwarts, and Dasha couldn't believe how much more it cemented that she had never worn anything so nice in her life. If attending Hogwarts had been a shock for her, attending Beauxbatons was even more so. It looked like the photos she had seen of the non-magical palace Peterhof, in Saint Petersburg, yet Beauxbatons was in France and obviously magical. There seemed to be no way that any school could be so luxurious, and it was amazing that even the other Hogwarts students—the ones who hadn't started in their fifth year after never having attended a real school before, as she had done—were stunned by it all.

Dasha didn't want to admit that it made her feel like an impostor. She was there to learn (and hopefully play Quidditch again), yet the French educational system was different, too. After having just completed her OWL examinations—successfully, in spite of everything that had been up against her—she had exams to sit again at the end of her sixth year because that was what Beauxbatons did. It could have been worse, Dasha knew, so she didn't complain about it. Besides, there was one additional benefit of being at Beauxbatons: There were spells in place in the classrooms such that anyone could say anything in any language, and everyone else would hear it as though it had been interpreted to them in their own language.

That was nothing short of a miracle. No longer did she have to worry about not fully understanding something in English but pretending that she did to keep from attracting too much attention. She could use Russian or English, and it wouldn't matter that she didn't know French… during her classes, anyway. Outside of class was a different story, as she had already found out. The Beauxbatons students weren't all French, for a start. Plus, they didn't necessarily speak English well. Dasha could sympathize with that, but trying to understand what some people were saying made her wish that communication were easier outside of the school's classrooms. She hadn't really gotten to know her new roommates yet, but at least she recognized who else had come from Hogwarts.

Spotting one of the other Hogwarts students as she entered the Dining Chamber for lunch on the first Saturday of the term, Dasha sat down beside her without a second thought. If they had to be at an entirely different school for the year, at least she wasn't the only new student there.

@madeleine

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Having been a member at both magical schools, Maddie was unfortunately able to tell who was who and from where, even if she didn’t actually know all of the Hogwarts students as some of the rest did. Her year and a half of school there hadn’t given her a chance to truly learn names (nor did she ever care to until it was now too late), so she had no idea who the girl that sat down next to her was, except that she had been one of the Hogwarts transfers. The group was small enough that Maddie recognized her from the multiple orientations and meetings they had gone through earlier in the week – which had been useless for her but she was required to do anyways – and that she was a younger student. That was really the only benefit to being a seventh year, because she knew who was younger than her. Then again, most were. Being held back sort of did that.

She bit into the pastry that she had grabbed before the other Hogwarts girl sat down, relishing it as all the flavors came back instantly. Hogwarts had good food. Beauxbatons was exceptional. She still hadn’t decided which one was the better school, though she knew she would have preferred to be at Hogwarts right now instead of here, considering the circumstances. Daintily placing the bitten pastry back onto her plate, she reached out to scoop some fruit onto her plate as well. That would hold her over until the lunch foods got added to the table soon. She could have a late breakfast and early lunch all in one go.

“It isn’t as great as it seems,” Maddie stated to the Hogwarts girl as she threw a couple slices of melon onto her plate. The juice was already leaking out of the bottom of them and towards her pastry, so she had to quickly navigate it to a clean space. “Give it a few more weeks. You’ll hate it.”

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[Deleted]

September 5, 2026

She hadn't said anything to the girl beside her before she spoke. "It isn't as great as it seems," she stated out of nowhere, and Dasha was slightly puzzled. Apart from hoping that Beauxbatons wouldn't go up in flames, Dasha knew that it wasn't going to be perfect. She really wanted to play Quidditch, after all, and she wasn't sure that she would get the chance. "Give it a few more weeks. You'll hate it."

Being at Beauxbatons was better than not being at school at all, and Dasha remained grateful that she even had the opportunity. She didn't think that it would be possible to hate it completely. (How could she, really? Even Hogwarts didn't have as much fresh fruit available as she found herself placing on her plate as the older girl talked to her.) Even though the older girl sounded like she knew what she was talking about, Dasha shrugged. She didn't want to give the girl any reason to make her life miserable.

"The food is better here," she noted, knowing that her Russian accent would set her apart from some of the other transfer students by default. The food at Hogwarts was heavier, greasier. French food, from what she had gathered, wasn't like that. It was flavorful but somehow different. Mealtimes also seemed to take longer; people weren't just shoving sausages and eggs in their mouths and sprinting to their lessons.

@madeleine

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Was this girl even a transfer from Hogwarts? Her accent was Russian, and Maddie couldn’t recall there being any Russians at the English school. Then again, she was also a bit of an oddball there, lost in the wave of Americans that came thundering in at the same time. Talk about being able to disappear into a sea of chaos. She had hated that at first, but came to accept that it wasn’t nearly as bad as she had made it out to be. Hogwarts students were indifferent to her problems, and that had made her life easier.

“Better? Sure. The atmosphere is worse.” Maddie tried not to come across as negative, especially when there were younger students that were actually excited about this wild change they were all going through. But how couldn’t she be? Her own situation was about as bad as it could have gone. The food being higher quality meant nothing to her, since she already knew that before being forced back here. “The only holiday they decorate for is Christmas, which is also better than Hogwarts, but they don’t do Halloween and forget about food themed to anything else.” She could go on and on about what she disliked about Beauxbatons now that she knew what else was out there. Missing the changing ceiling magic was something that she didn’t realize she really enjoyed until it was gone. Hopefully that survived the fire.

Shutting herself up by shoving the pastry into her mouth, Maddie chewed aggressively for a few seconds. The fruit juice puddle on her plate was growing in size, already taking up an entire quadrant of it. Whatever happened to having pristine pieces of melon that didn’t leak juice like a waterfall? This would have been barely acceptable when she was last here. Slacking because more students had to be fed now was ridiculous. At least the pastry was good.

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[Deleted]

September 5, 2026

The older girl agreed that the food was better, but she said that the atmosphere was worse. Dasha didn't fully understand what she meant by that, because the etiquette lessons and stunning setting meant that every meal felt incredibly formal. It was strange to her, but she knew that she couldn't show her discomfort. Especially in an environment where it seemed even more plausible that the majority of students were exceptionally wealthy, she didn't need people to know that she wasn't what she pretended to be. She didn't openly tell lies; the Quidditch was all her, but revealing as little as she could about her life before and outside of school was a survival tactic.

"The only holiday they decorate for is Christmas, which is also better than Hogwarts, but they don’t do Halloween and forget about food themed to anything else."

Dasha shrugged her shoulders a little. Not having celebrations for Halloween didn't bother her, apart from that it meant that there would be no feast for it. Christmastime at Hogwarts had been pretty, too, but she had gone home to Dmitri then and didn't really celebrate that holiday, either. It was on a different date back in Russia, and she didn't really have experience with churches to understand the religious side. She knew that sometimes churches provided things for the poor, like hot meals, though she didn't need to worry about that. It was only the beginning of the school year, but she was already planning to stay at Beauxbatons for the holidays if she could.

"The atmosphere is nice," Dasha expressed. It was easier to keep her sentence structure relatively simple outside of the classroom; it made for less confusion for other people. Besides, it seemed that people looked at her strangely whenever she forgot to include an article such as "the" in her speech in English.

@madeleine

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The only thing that Maddie could think about while she munched on her pastry was that the girl she was talking to didn’t really talk much. At all. Brief sentences at the most. For a moment, she almost wondered if she had screwed up and been speaking in French to her, as slipping back into her mother tongue had been happening a lot more frequently over the past week. All the wires in her brain concerning language had gotten bungled because of the last few years, so it wouldn’t have surprised her in the slightest if she had done that on accident. Having two primary languages at home, French for her father and English for her mother, and then going to school solely with the former had definitely solidified which one she used more frequently. Until going to Hogwarts, of course. And now she was back at Beauxbatons and flip-flopping like crazy. She had almost signed up to help be a tour guide for the Hogwarts students but then remembered that some of them didn’t like her nearly as much as she assumed they did, and her Beauxbatons classmates would have instantly tried to blame her for attempting to play favorites. Not that they were paying attention to the Hogwarts students at all now. They were viewed as intruders and the cause of the explosion at the end of the Triwizard. She’d blamed them for it at first too, but knew better than to do that now.

“Sure, it looks nice,” Maddie rolled her eyes as she continued a little quieter, “But the students all have horrible personalities. Stick with the Hogwarts ones and you’ll be fine.” Merlin, she was feeling friendly this morning, wasn’t she? If that so much as caught the ears of anyone she knew, she would be ignored for the remainder of the year. Which didn’t sound all that bad the more she thought about it. “I know because I used to be like them,” she added, feeling a sting of prideful sorrow. It was better this way even if it sucked. She sort of understood now that how she’d been before was awful, especially now when it seemed like she was going to be on the receiving end of what she used to dish out. Only two more terms and then she could leave them all behind.

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September 5, 2026

The older girl agreed that it looked nice, but she still rolled her eyes in spite of what she had said. All the students there, she explained in a hushed tone, had "horrible" personalities. She instructed her to stick with the other students who had come from Hogwarts, which was something that Dasha had been doing without thinking much about it. It was easier to stick with the people with whom she knew she could communicate, just from a practical standpoint.

Still, Dasha nodded, taking in the older girl's advice just in time to hear her say, "I know because I used to be like them."

There was a definite level of privilege that most of the Beauxbatons students seemed to have, though some of it could have been because they hadn't had to survive an attack on their school. Dasha highly doubted that any of them had had the childhood she had had—and certainly not in Russia.

"I want to play Quidditch," Dasha commented, clearly displeased that she hadn't heard anything about playing the sport at Beauxbatons. How was she supposed to keep up her skills if she couldn't play? The previous year had proven that she wasn't just a good Seeker; for someone who had no experience on a broomstick, she was excellent. She couldn't just throw that away.

@madeleine

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The change in topics almost made her choke on her pastry. Going from talking about the food and atmosphere of the school to Quidditch was certainly a jump. There was a club program, if she remembered correctly. She'd never play, at least not prior to leaving for Hogwarts, only because it would have ruined her perceived look back then. Which was silly because riding horses could be equally dirty and dangerous, if not more so. At least brooms usually stayed under control of the rider. Horses had the chance of being unpredictable. Not that she really knew what flying competitively was like, as outside of the occasional class, she never really gave it a shot.

"There should be a schedule out up soon," Maddie explained. She had to clear her throat first with a long sip of water though. "My brother played, so unless they got rid of it in the last two years, the season should happen." It would be one thing if the majority of the students killed following the tournament were younger, but they weren't. Seventh years were out of the equation at that point. Hogwarts had preceded with their Quidditch like normal, and she assumed they'd continued the year after her injury as well. "What position do you want?" she asked, finding something new to eat because the pastry wasn't cutting it anymore. Picking away at breakfast whilst chatting was sort of nice, but she knew she'd end up eating too much if this went on for too long.

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