Dust Yourself Off and Try Again

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It had been over a week since the carriage had arrived at Hogwarts from Beauxbatons, and Chantal was still getting used to her new surroundings. There wasn't much time to socialize with the students from the other schools during the day, as they all still had their lessons, but there was enough free time after dinner to explore the sprawling grounds.

Stepping out of the Entrance Hall and into the dusk, Chantal illuminated her wand for additional visibility, holding it out in front of herself as she walked. Briefly, she even considered transforming to get a better feel for what she might be overlooking in her human form, but running around as a genet in unfamiliar territory was risky at best.

It was probably better, however, that she hadn't gone for her Animagus form. Before she knew what had happened, the toe of her shoe had become caught on a rock, and she had fallen—and far from gracefully—onto the dirt. The impact had been hard enough that Chantal had grazed her knee, though she tried to ignore the stinging pain. Her wand, still lit, was in the grass within arm's reach of where she'd landed, and she grabbed it up before it could be broken.

At least, she thought, no one had seen her.

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One of Lena's favorite post-dinner pastimes was sitting high up in trees on the Hogwarts grounds and watching students mill around and enjoy their evenings. Of course, if one looked up into one of her favorite trees, they wouldn't see a young girl. They would see a small, silvery cat glaring down at them with Lena's dark brown eyes. Such was the case when Lena saw the Beauxbatons student fall. She hadn't really taken the time to get to know all of the potential Champions, but she had seen them around during meal times and she could usually tell who was from what school. The Beauxbatons students all had an air of grace and beauty to them, even when falling flat on their butts.

Slowly making her way down from the tree, her sharp white claws digging into the hard bark, she padded over to the fallen student. She sat there for a moment, her tail swishing from side to side, before transforming back. "That was quite a tumble to took there," she said, smiling and offering a hand. "Those rocks like to jump out at you."

@chantal

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Curiously, Chantal saw that a cat had been watching her, for it made its way down from one of the trees without a care in the world. She was certain that it must have belonged to one of the students; having a population of feral cats running about wouldn't be good for Hogwarts' image. It was the behavior of the cat that was so peculiar; it sat and watched as she held her wand above her knee and examined it for any significant damage.

As much as it hurt, Chantal knew that she would be fine. It was just a scrape, and there would be situations far more dangerous than a rock on the ground if she were chosen to compete in the Triwizard Tournament.

At the sound of a person's voice, Chantal startled. If she had been on her feet instead of in the grass, she would have jumped. She looked back at where the cat had been, but the cat was gone. In its place was a Hogwarts girl who must have been about her age, offering her help to stand.

Chantal smiled to herself, recognizing the girl's trick, and took her hand. The girl also said something about the rocks jumping, which didn't make sense to her, but she feigned understanding and nodded anyway. “Yes,” she replied once she had gotten to her feet, “it was a rock. Euh, thank you.” She looked down at her knee with a grimace and dusted herself off. Seeing that there was still some dirt on the front of her uniform, she held out the edge of her skirt with one hand and pointed her wand at it with the other. “Tergeo!”

@helena

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Lena had to hold back a laugh at the confused look on the other girl's face when she mentioned the rocks. It never occurred to her that the other girl would recognize English idioms. The idea of a rock jumping was probably baffling. But it wasn't impossible in the wizarding world. When Lena first came to Hogwarts, she had been amazed by the singing frogs and floating ghosts. It was as foreign to her as Britain must be to this girl. From the accent, Lena assumed she was a Beauxbatons student. She'd never been out of the country, so you couldn't tell for certain, but there was a certain flow to her voice that gave her the impression that she girl was of French origins.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her natural healing instincts kicking in. The girl looked alright, siphoning the dirt off of her skirt. It hadn't been a heavy fall, either, as Lena had seen from her perch. But she knew better than most to always ask, just in case. Some people were more or less tolerant of pain than others.

@chantal

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“Are you okay?” the Hogwarts girl asked her. Chantal knew that she shouldn't have been surprised by the girl's kindness, but she could have mocked her just as easily.

“Yes,” Chantal answered with a shrug; she was okay. She was in some pain, though it wasn't bad enough that she was incapable of walking or putting weight on her injured leg. More than anything, she was embarrassed by the fact that someone had been watching her as she had fallen to the ground. Her uniform appeared to have suffered no damage after her use of the spell to siphon off the dirt—and, possibly, blood—that she had gotten on it.

She looked back up from tidying up her skirt. “You are Animagus, no?” she smiled. Having seen the girl transform right in front of her, she couldn't exactly deny it.

@helena