When the news of the cancellation of the Triwizard Tournament reach Constantinople, on December 3, one of the International Education Office staffers gets to Saleh’s office, brandishing the December 3 issue of the Sihirli Gasitesi. As well as a previous issue that covered the disaster itself.
“How do you explain this?” the IEO staffer brandishes all issues of the Sihirli Gasitesi covering the Triwizard Tournament, with the most recent one on top.
The December 3 issue of the Sihirli Gasitesi relates to the cancellation of the Triwizard Tournament, while the November 26 issue was about the cockatrice rampage, and the November 2 one about the failure of both Ottoman entrants to be selected by the Goblet of Fire. But Saleh grabs only the most recent of the issues.
“They cancelled the Triwizard Tournament?” Saleh gasps upon reading the headline about its cancellation.
“And they said they are cancelling it permanently, sir! So why did you send Nurcan away to Beauxbatons to enter it?” the IEO staffer asks his boss.
“Nurcan was our best shot at winning it!”
“You said she was our best shot at winning it, and she failed to qualify!”
“To be fair, the competition was stiff at both Beauxbatons and Durmstrang…”
“So many talented wizards at both institutions, I expected it to be a high level of competition even if neither Nurcan nor Relja made it!”
“But now that the Triwizard Tournament no longer exists, it seems like she would be better served by finishing her exchange elsewhere! From the looks of it, she seems to be too deeply integrated into the culture of Beauxbatons!”
“What do you mean?”
“She chose to attend Beauxbatons on exchange over Hogwarts because she feels like it would be friendlier to her disposition than Hogwarts might have been, in that she feared that Hogwarts’ student body would have been hostile to the Revolution in ways Beauxbatons’ wasn’t…”
“What do you propose then?”
“if what the court diviners say is correct, the United States are going to become a major wizarding diplomatic player in the future. However, they are desperate to rebuild their international wizarding relations after the whole Twelvetrees debacle, so maybe we could send her to finish the year at Ilvermorny!”
“You may as well try to send the other twenty-two survivors there, too! Starting with Relja!” the IEO staffer points out.
The question is: who else, among the 23, would be willing to finish the school year on exchange as a compensation for this botched Triwizard Tournament? They all knew, going in, that being into position to put their names into the Goblet of Fire meant spending 8 months at a new school! Saleh is left wondering who could possibly want to go on exchange without the Triwizard Tournament, or another inter-school event, while re-reading the Sihirli Gasitesi articles about the Triwizard Tournament.
“At the same time, Nurcan claimed that the situation in southern France was at a higher risk of degenerating, especially since, by the looks of it, Revolutionaries were radicalizing! She said it so herself that she wasn’t a radical Revolutionary…”
“Does she feel like she would be subject to the Muggle guillotine if the situation gets worse? Or would you?”
“Try to contact Ilvermorny to work out a plan to get her on exchange for the rest of the year! Or just somewhere else away from Muggle-induced troubles…”
“That leaves us Castelobruxo, Mahoutokoro or, if she’s willing to go to either Fenghuang, in Tibet, or maybe Varshasagar, in Mughal territory…”
“Let’s be realistic: as smart as Nurcan is, she just wouldn’t be able to learn any of the local languages at a sufficient level to function at Mahoutokoro, Fenghuang or Varshasagar in just a month, to say nothing of Relja or the other twenty-one, and even Castelobruxo would be questionable for her!”
Saleh has a point. As much as Spanish or Portuguese could bear some similarities to French, and make things easier than learning Chinese or Japanese might have been for someone who only knows Turkic or French, no one can learn infinitely fast, and the delay is a bit short! The IEO staffer ruminates on the implications of language proficiency on being able to function at the host institution.
“Ilvermorny, I guess…”
Saleh then writes a letter that he sends to Nurcan, ordering her to leave Beauxbatons by December 31, and to report to Ilvermorny by the end of their winter break. And another one for Beauxbatons’ administration, asking to refund 6 months of the exchange tuition, and make the payment for the same duration at Ilvermorny, in Nurcan’s name.
Little do they know is that Hogwarts refunded 7 months of tuition paid in all 25 finalists’ names, even for the dead champions.
Meanwhile, at Beauxbatons, all 12 of its surviving finalists of the Triwizard Tournament meet after school about the Ministère des Affaires Magiques’ compensation plan. Once all students are seated, Mélisande starts reading the plan as outlined in today’s Cri de la Gargouille issue:
“Bonjour. Le Ministère a annoncé que tous les survivants du Tournoi des Trois Sorciers pourront passer six mois en échange à l’école de leur choix, aux frais du Ministère, sujet aux restrictions suivantes : pas de Hogwarts, ou, pour les Nés-Moldus, pas de Durmstrang!” (Hi. The Ministry announced that all survivors of the Triwizard Tournament may spend six months on exchange at the school of their choice, subject to the following restrictions: no Hogwarts, and, for Muggle-borns, no Durmstrang!)
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I can kind of feel like not everyone will take the Ministry up on their offer. Not everyone wanted in on the Triwizard Tournament for the actual competition. More marginal finalists might have been interested in it only for the travel involved, Nurcan starts thinking of the implications.
“Enfin, un peu de bonne foi…” (Finally, a bit of good faith…) Nurcan sighs.
“Levez vos mains si vous êtes intéressés à terminer l’année en échange!” (Raise your hands if you’re interested in finishing the year on exchange!) Mélisande warns the surviving finalists.
After the show of hands doesn’t include everyone, Mélisande fields questions:
“Est-ce possible de reporter l’échange à une année ultérieure?” (Is it possible to postpone the exchange to a subsequent year?) Alejandra asks the History of Magic professor.
“Seulement pour un non-finissant!” (Only if you don’t graduate this year!)
Damn, I’m here under Nizam-I Cedid, and, because I’m using the second allowance, I cannot postpone any longer. So I essentially have two choices: Castelobruxo or Ilvermorny, and the former would require Alejandra’s help in Spanish, Nurcan starts thinking about what the Nizam-I Cedid’s exchange program implies for the rest of the year.
“Pour ceux qui ne connaissent pas une des langues de l’école d’accueil, quelles mesures seraient prises pour l’apprendre avant le départ?” (For those who don’t know one of the languages of the host school, what measures would be taken to learn it prior to departure?) one of the younger finalists asks Mélisande, eyeing one of the more “exotic” locales, such as Karakalem, Fenghuang, Varshasagar, Uagadou or Mahoutokoro.
Mélisande goes on to explain that, for those graduating this year, some destinations might be a no-go, depending on their language proficiencies, but help is more readily available for English, Portuguese or Spanish, and maybe German, than for, say, Arabic, Farsi or Japanese.
But language proficiency is, in Alejandra’s mind, the main reason to want to postpone the exchange she’s entitled to as one of the Survivors identified by the compensation plan. So either I go to Castelobruxo this year, and finish the school year in Spanish, or I go learn another language for six months to a year, and then go somewhere else next year.
Other questions relate to grades and tests, such as whether seventh-year students would take the native tests or the ASPICs.
But, during dinner, Armand has another announcement to take regarding a brand-new exchange program:
“Bonsoir. Le Ministère des Affaires Magiques a conclu une entente avec le Congrès Magique des états-Unis pour permettre à Ilvermorny d’accueillir des survivants du Tournoi des Trois Sorciers, ainsi que des étudiants dont leurs parents travaillent au Ministère, pour six mois, en retour de quoi Beauxbatons va accueillir des enfants d’employés de la MACUSA pour six mois!” (Good evening. The Ministère des Affaires Magiques signed a deal with the Magical Congress of the United States to allow Ilvermorny to host survivors of the Triwizard Tournament, as well as students whose parents work at the Ministère, in return of which Beauxbatons will host some children of MACUSA employees for six months!)
Because other students ask the same questions as the Triwizard Tournament survivors did earlier, Mélisande seemingly repeats the same information, as she just did albeit reduced in scope to Ilvermorny only.
About the American ICW-recognized tests being the HAREs (Honest Assessment of Required Education) and the EAGLEs (Extremely Advanced Graduate-Level Exams), equivalent to the BUSEs and ASPICs respectively, but the HAREs are taken at the end of fifth year instead of sixth.
And, finally, the grading system in place at Ilvermorny, as well as on the American tests. Which is 100% identical to Karakalem’s.
That is, A being equivalent to an Optimal, B, an Effort Exceptionnel, C, an Acceptable, D, a Piètre, E, a Désolant and finally, an F, a Troll.
Maybe, if I took the HAREs at the start of the exchange, rather than BUSEs at the end of it, I wouldn’t need to worry about coursework anymore, so long as I score at least Cs on them. My guess is that the Zhanjiang Bain-Maries only wants passing grades on ICW-recognized tests, Emmanuelle starts thinking about how to spend six months at Ilvermorny, and its implications for her future in Quidditch.
“J’aimerais souligner la bravoure des douze finalistes qui ont survécu au Tournoi des Trois Sorciers, et je les invite à se présenter à l’avant!” (I’d like to highlight the bravery of the twelve finalists who survived the Triwizard Tournament and I invite them to step forward!)
So the 12 surviving finalists of the Triwizard Tournament are honored one last time as such, while Thierry’s coffin is exposed in a chapelle ardente at the main entrance before his family can celebrate his burial or cremation.
When Nurcan returns to her room that night, she realizes that she didn’t tell a whole lot about her time at Hogwarts beyond the cockatrice rampage.
“J’ai déjà parlé de l’échappée du cocatris. C’était partout dans le Cri de la Gargouille! Mais si je te disais que je me suis réconciliée avec Alejandra là-bas?” (I already talked about the cockatrice’s rampage. it was all over the Cri de la Gargouille! But what if I told you I reconciled with Alejandra there?) She asks Christine.
“Tu me parlais d’Alejandra comme si elle était une Royaliste finie!” (You talked about Alejandra as if she was a hardcore Royalist!)
“Elle était, en réalité, une Royaliste en nom seulement! On a pu se réconcilier parce qu’on a toutes les deux perdu, tout en faisant tout ce qui était en notre pouvoir!” (She was actually a Royalist in name only! We could reconcile because we both lost, while doing everything we could!)
“Me semblait aussi…” (Thought so too…)
“Parlant de Royalistes, tu crois que le Ministère craint que les Royalistes ne visent les enfants de leur personnel?” (Speaking of Royalists, you think the Ministry fears that Royalists are targeting children of their staff?)
“Pourquoi?” (Why?)
“Tu ne le sais peut-être pas, mais les sorciers révolutionnaires craignent l’Espagne le plus, pas comme les Moldus…” (You might not know it, but Revolutionary wizards fear Spain most, unlike Muggles…)
And Beauxbatons would be a prime target for Spain if Spain goes to war on a wizarding theater. If Beauxbatons falls, Spain can essentially march on Paris unopposed; that’s why Spain is feared, Nurcan ruminates about Beauxbatons’ strategic value to wizarding France. A Spanish defeat here would see wizarding Madrid fall in short order.
A few days later, during which her popularity skyrockets, Nurcan goes to the owl room, right after breakfast, to retrieve mail from the Bab-i Humayun. Which is written in Turkic, and contains her orders: Due to heightened safety risks, you are hereby ordered to leave Beauxbatons by December 31, and to report to Ilvermorny by the end of their winter break.
“Did the Bab-i Humayun deem the risk of radical Muggle Revolutionaries too great to me?”