By October 26, two days prior to the 13 shortlistees’ departure for Hogwarts, all of them are about to give out, drained by weeks of intensive training in both dueling and mock tasks, along with English lessons, whose assignments contain core concepts of life at Hogwarts, such as house ghosts and house points, or excerpts from textbooks in use there, as appropriate for them.

  Oh, for sure, all 13 wizards’ English proficiency improved by leaps and bounds, but their time to learn the language was limited. When their final mock Triwizard Tournament task ends, Mélisande makes a closing remark about homework:

  “Tomorrow, you’ll get one day off to recover from the grueling training of the past few weeks! So you may visit Visigny if you wish! Don’t worry, we all gave you exemptions as appropriate for this week’s homework!”

  “And catch up with your friends! It might be the last time you’ll see them before finals!” Sandrine adds in a heavy Proven?al accent.

  The rest of the student body start to feel the hype for the upcoming Triwizard Tournament. So much so that some students start taking two sets of bets: the first one being who will go on to represent Beauxbatons at the Triwizard Tournament. However, shortlisters are told not to take or place any such bets.

  So, on her way back from the lake that was used for their final mock task, Nurcan comes across a throng of students all wanting to place their bets, with Nacien taking bets:

  “à qui le tour?” (Whose turn?) Nacien asks the students in the hallway, wanting to place their bets.

  She sees both Femke and Victoria placing bets on her for one bezant apiece. And, of course, other peeps with whom she didn’t interact very much because she was so absorbed into her studies as well as her training for the Triwizard Tournament. One of those faces starts talking about her bet:

  “J’aimerais parier un bézant sur Alejandra s’il vous pla?t!” (I’d like to bet one bezant on Alejandra please!) Isabella pleads with the would-be bookmaker.

  “à quelle fin, elle en tant que représentante de Beauxbatons au sa position finale?” (For which outcome, her representing Beauxbatons at the tournament, or her final position?)

  “Quelle chance tu lui donnes pour que la Coupe de Feu la prenne?” (What odds do you give her for the Goblet of Fire to take her?) Nurcan asks Nacien, wondering how he perceives the two’s odds.

  Nacien tells the two girls about the odds he gives Alejandra to make it to the Triwizard Tournament. “Trois trente-deuxièmes!” (3/32)

  Shoot! He feels like Alejandra, in the aggregate, is equally likely as I am to make it to the main event! So while our odds are better than average, he feels like neither of us are the favorites, but not exactly underdogs either, Nurcan reflects on this whole deal with odds given by the person she once helped.

  When Nurcan returns to her room, she lies flat on her bed, while Christine returns to her, with an envelope containing mail sent by her family, somewhere in Holy Roman Empire territory.

  “Il semblerait que les Révolutionnaires ont rattrapé ma famille à leur refuge!” (It seems like the Revolutionaries have caught up with my family at their refuge!) Christine reads a letter written by her father, dated October 21, but without an indication of where her family hid.

  If this dream is correct, on September 20, the Revolutionaries were in Valmy. Where could Christine’s family seek refuge if it was outside of France, but at the same time, still zoned to Beauxbatons? Austrian Netherlands? Or somewhere else entirely, yet not too far away from France’s borders? Nurcan is left questioning what’s happening to Christine’s family if they needed to flee, but, at the same time, is reminded of the second-year History of Magic final question about school zoning. Yet. like so many, Christine’s family fled because they fell prey to Muggle warfare, without any real political leanings, as is often the case with wizards caught in the crossfire.

  But while Nurcan spends the next day relaxing in Visigny, Luc, meanwhile, combs his cookbooks for a special dessert he plans to serve all 15 people who will spend the next 8 months at Hogwarts, hoping that the missing ingredients for that dessert will arrive in time for tomorrow afternoon, where he will get to work trying to bake it.

  At the same time, the student body seems to be on the lookout to buy materials with which to do practical jokes on each other four days from now. So the more serious students, including but not limited to Nurcan and the other 12 Triwizard Tournament shortlisters, stay away from the village’s joke shop, whose business is exploding during that period.

  Relax. I was lucky that no one really questioned whether I was a Revolutionary, much less the finer points of how I viewed certain policies, outside of Christine or maybe Alejandra, but I admit there was a close call during my first practice. Hopefully, if that 3/32 I predicted months ago really does fall on me four days from now, people from the other two schools won’t force the matter, but I cannot be sure: for what I know, someone could ask me about Revolutionary policy as a joke, Nurcan starts to hyperventilate while the time comes for her to come back to her dorm room.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  And yet, on October 28, at dinner time, the 13 shortlisters are herded inside a private dining room, along with the deputy headmaster and Luc, who prepared brioches for the others in the main dining room before getting to the special dessert, kept under a cloche.

  “Aujourd’hui est votre dernière journée avant le grand départ, qui a lieu à la porte principale…” (Today is your last day before the great departure, which takes place at the main entrance…) Armand announces all 16 people in the private dining room.

  Armand continues his speech on what the expectations placed on them are.

  “Il va sans dire que vous faites plus que représenter Beauxbatons à titre individuel!” (It goes without saying, but you do more than represent Beauxbatons as an individual!)

  Nurcan hears an off voice in her mind. The big concern about Hogwarts is that I might be too close to the French Revolutionaries, and the British MoM might turn me away! But what if my name comes out of the Goblet of Fire, a few days from now, and either Durmstrang or Hogwarts’ champion was an overt Royalist? I would then have no choice but to assume openly my Revolutionary allegiance, even if it meant bringing the Empire into war, and risking it to end in another Iasi! The one saving grace I have is that this outcome has, at most, a 3/32 chance of happening! Why is it that I always seem to jump to Royalists vs Revolutionaries whenever any allusion to the playing field is made? I might be the closest still in the running for the Triwizard Tournament to an overt Revolutionary here at Beauxbatons, though.

  However, this painful reminder of the opposing student bodies’ on the Revolution removes any desire to try predicting the likelihood of any of the other two fielding a Royalist champion, beyond her own estimate that it would be virtually impossible for either one to harbor overt Revolutionaries.

  So when dessert time arrives, Luc comes out and takes the cloche out of a dish that he starts distributing among the guests: the millefeuille. As this dish is being distributed among the guests at the table:

  “Une fois ce plat terminé, vous irez préparer vos bagages ainsi que vos dictionnaires anglais-fran?ais!” (Once this dish is over, you will go prepare your baggage as well as your English-French dictionaries!) Armand instructs the Triwizard Tournament shortlisters.

  As the shortlisters eat their shares of Luc’s millefeuilles, Mélisande approaches the dining room, carrying a load of 13 English-French dictionaries that she enchanted in such a way that they can’t be written on.

  Once the meal ends, and they collect their English-French dictionaries, to put in their respective horse pockets, the shortlisters are herded towards the main entrance by Armand and Luc.

  At which point, hundreds of euphoric students, alongside dozens of professors, and other staff, are assembled to look at their beloved emissaries for what could potentially be the last time. After all, so many of them heard about how deadly the tournament could be to contestants.

  With some of the more music-oriented students, such as Femke and Nacien, playing their own tunes as the 15 people in the delegation pose in front of the school’s carriage. With the shortest 6 shortlisters in the front row, and 7 in the back row, Luc on the left and Armand on the right.

  Stay safe, Nurcan. You were the one ray of hope in my life, even after my family was sent on the run because of Muggle wartime exactions! More than ever, after they left their last refuge, possibly Mainz, my family needs to decide between Austria and Prussia, but this will likely mean I will finish my education at Durmstrang, Christine starts praying for Nurcan’s safety, as she cries, in hopes that she returns alive at the end of the Tournament. I guess I need to find another source of help in History of Magic for the rest of the year…

  Under the cheers of the crowd, they board the carriage, drawn by Abraxans fed with single-malt whiskey, and able to seat 16 thanks to the same charm used in the fabrication of the so-called horse pockets. Which makes the carriage much larger on the inside than on the outside, and much more comfortable than a Muggle heavy carriage, too, even the one used by Louis XVI and his family during the failed Flight to Varennes last year.

  As the flying carriage leaves Beauxbatons in the dead of night, the 13 shortlisters, Armand and Luc all seem to be sleepy, and the carriage’s altitude appears to be high enough to remain undetected by Muggles during their trip to Hogwarts.

  When it flies over eastern Vendée the following day, Nurcan reflects on how this second exchange has changed her. Instead of that, her mind only seems to conjure up questions that make her uncomfortable.

  Why is it that I seem to no longer think of the Imperial government that sent me here in the first place, much less of what the Sultan hopes to get from my participation in the Triwizard Tournament? What happened for me to feel like I’m “less Ottoman” than before, or “more French”? Also, would the indifference of the student body, sans Alejandra and Christine, really make it easier for me to come out of the closet as a Revolutionary? Or would coming out of the closet make the student body… less indifferent to Muggle affairs? Nurcan starts to let her anxiety increase to unhealthy levels despite all the comforts afforded by the carriage’s trundle beds.

  And yet, her facial expression makes it clear that she’s the one who’s the least excited to compete in the Triwizard Tournament.

  “What’s the matter, Nurcan?” Thierry asks, in a heavily accented English.

  “I worked so hard to be here…” Nurcan starts crying, but her accent differs wildly from Thiery’s. Yet, both use it as an opportunity to practice their spoken English. “The only one here who knows about my main issue going into this tourney is Alejandra…”

  Nurcan reaches for the vial of Elixir to Induce Euphoria in her horse pocket. As she grabs it, she also realizes that whatever Elixir to Induce Euphoria she brewed during Griet’s time as a Potions substitute prof won’t be nearly as effective as when it was fresh, so she’s a little wary of drinking it.