The Great Hall remained loud even as students slowly began rising from their tables.
Excited conversations collided together from every direction.
Triwizard speculation.
Complaints about the age restriction.
Arguments over who would become Hogwarts Champion.
Fred and George were already loudly discussing the potential requirements to creating an aging potion.
Percy looked one inconvenience away from spontaneous combustion, as he watched on not being able to stop a simple discussion from occuring before his eyes.
Meanwhile near the staff table the actual adults were occupied with a considerably more immediate problem.
Housing.
Cassius and his table remained the only once who did not rise to head off to bed, well the only hogwarts students at least, the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students likewise remained, those who had split off to talk to the hogwarts students regrouped together a their own tables.
No one even noticed Cassius and his group just silently sat there.
Of course the girls all questioned with their eyes why they werent leaving, but without the heads say so, they couldnt really leave.
Madame Maxime stood with regal posture beside Professor McGonagall, one enormous jeweled hand resting elegantly against her walking stick.
Her expression carried polite concern.
Karkaroff's carried opportunism.
"The Durmstrang students," Karkaroff announced smoothly, "would naturally feel most comfortable among those who value discipline and ambition."
His eyes drifted directly toward the Slytherin table, where all except one of his students had chosen to sit after arrival.
McGonagall's lips tightened slightly.
"I see."
"Old traditions are important," Karkaroff continued pleasantly.
Translation—
Put my students with the future dark wizards, as they are the most like we who openly practice dark magic.
Dumbledore merely smiled serenely behind his beard as though this was all perfectly reasonable.
Meanwhile Madame Maxime sighed softly.
"My girls are delicate."
Several Beauxbatons students nodded dramatically in agreement.
"And your British boys…" she continued carefully, "…zey are perhaps somewhat…"
"Feral?" Moody offered from the staff table.
"Enthusiastic," Maxime corrected diplomatically.
"I simply wish my students to remain comfortable during our stay."
McGonagall nodded professionally.
"We can arrange private accommodations near Ravenclaw Tower perhaps—"
"No."
The word cut cleanly through the Great Hall.
Every nearby conversation faltered instantly.
Fleur Delacour rose gracefully from the Draconis table.
Silver hair cascading over one shoulder.
Blue eyes completely fixed on Cassius.
"I will stay wiz Cassius."
Silence.
Absolute.
Complete.
At the Draconis table—
THUD.
Cassius felt multiple feet connect violently with his legs beneath the table simultaneously.
Astoria.
Daphne.
Hermione.
Possibly Cho since her long legs could probably make the distance.
Ginny might have used actual force-enhancement if her legs could reach from her faraway position.
Cassius remained perfectly composed externally despite the sudden assassination attempt occurring below table level.
Fleur continued calmly as though she hadn't just detonated the emotional stability of half the people who remained within the Great Hall.
"It makes ze most sense."
"Oh does it?" Ginny asked sweetly.
Dangerously sweetly.
Fleur turned her head slightly.
"Yes."
The younger redhead slowly stood from her seat.
Third year or not, Ginny Weasley carried herself with enough confidence now that even older students hesitated around her.
Especially while standing beside Cassius.
"You can't just decide that," Ginny informed her calmly.
Fleur arched one perfect eyebrow.
"And why not?"
"Because," Ginny replied, "the Draconis dormitory isn't open access."
Fleur blinked once.
Ginny continued smoothly.
"Only people recognized by the House itself can enter. Let alone stay there."
That drew murmurs immediately.
The teachers could only nod in agreeance, none of them truly understood the full meaning of the Draconis house, but those who joined did so under the terms of a magical contract not by actually being accepted into the house, but being accepted as the spoils of war, being awarded to Cassius himself.
Ginny folded her arms.
"So unless the House accepts you, the wards won't even let you through the front door, and instead attack you singing that pretty head of hair."
Fleur studied her silently for a moment.
Then—
To everyone's shock—
She smiled.
Not mockingly.
Knowingly.
"Oui," Fleur said simply. "I know."
Cassius's eyes narrowed slightly.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Because that answer implied preparation.
Research.
Planning.
He had little interaction with Fleur and that was years ago now, so for her to be so confident now, she must have spent their time apart learning a great deal about him, and now planned to use that knowledge to foribly gain access to his private sanctuary.
Fleur stepped fully away from the table now.
The Great Hall watched in total silence.
Even the professors had stopped pretending not to listen.
Slowly—
Elegantly—
Fleur approached the head of the Draconis table where Cassius sat.
Her heels clicked softly against the stone floor.
Every male student in the hall watched with the haunted expressions of condemned men.
Cassius looked up at her calmly.
"What exactly are you doing?"
Fleur stopped directly beside him.
Close enough for her perfume to cut through the lingering scent of the feast.
Winter roses.
Vanilla.
Something sharper beneath it.
Then—
Without hesitation—
Fleur lowered herself gracefully onto one knee beside his chair.
The Great Hall collectively stopped breathing.
"Oh you absolute menace," Daphne whispered.
Ginny looked moments away from igniting spontaneously.
Fleur tilted her head upward toward Cassius.
Blue eyes sharp.
Certain.
"In Beauxbatons," she said clearly enough for the hall to hear, "zere are many stories about Cassius Snape."
No one moved.
No one spoke.
Even Dumbledore appeared mildly startled now.
Fleur continued.
"Duel champion."
"Prodigy."
Each title landed heavier than the last.
"And at Hogwarts…" her lips curved slightly, "…zere is Draconis."
Now the hall really listened.
Because rumors about Draconis House bordered on myth already.
Fleur's gaze never left Cassius.
"A House where Courage, Loyalty, Ambition, and Knowledge are equally sought after, but before all else power."
Astoria looked deeply alarmed now.
Because Fleur was not misunderstanding anything.
She understood entirely too much.
Fleur placed one hand lightly over her heart.
The silence somehow deepened.
Fleur smiled faintly.
Then spoke clearly.
"I, Fleur Delacour, offer my loyalty, my future, and my life to Cassius Snape, Lord of House Draconis. So i swear it."
The Great Hall exploded.
Absolute chaos.
The Hogwarts professors had endured much over the last three years, but to see a student, a foreign student mind you, willingly envoke a verbal magical contract of servitude to another student...
McGonagall could only look on horrified at what she had witnessed.
Maxime looked like she might faint.
Karkaroff looked deeply intrigued, as if he were witnessing the rise of a whole new dark lord right before his eyes.
Snape simply closed his eyes briefly like a man accepting inevitable suffering that would come from the endless nagging about his son.
Meanwhile—
The magical aura of the castle shifted ever so slightly, as if recognizing the bond established between the two, and Fluer still wearing her silk blue school uniform found its color had shifted ever so slightly to look like flowing silver, while a black patterned dragon crest now adorned her left breast side marking herself as a member of the Draconis house.