Lunchroom blues

[Sebastian Rossi]

I am so dropping that class after this year, Sebastian angrily thought to himself as he dropped his bag on a table in the Great Hall and sat down to eat and calm down. He had just endured another dreadful Herbology lesson. Besides Astronomy which he had already given up hope on ever getting, Herbology was the bane of Sebastian's existence at Beauxbatons. Although he had learned a load of French since arriving at the school, at times he misunderstood the professor and reached for the wrong plant. Today, he had been bitten in the arm by one of the professor's fanged geraniums. The professor had been telling him to stay away, but Sebastian thought the professor was telling him to grab it. The end result was a plant attached to his forearm, which he had to beat away with his wand.

Sebastian winced as his arm brushed the table. It was bandaged up, but the nurse had told him he would just have to deal with the pain until it went away. With a sigh, Sebastian reached for some bouillabaisse and began to eat, trying his best to ignore the laughter of a few of the guys from his class who were sitting a table away. They had laughed at him as he had left the greenhouse, the bitemarks fresh on his arm. Jerks, Sebastian thought to himself as he turned his back so that he couldn't see them. Any other time Sebastian would probably have been in their faces, but at the moment he was not feeling like it.

 

[Clemence Pelletier]

Clemence did not hate Herbology but she was finding it a little difficult to concentrate with her classmates blabbering on like a bunch of idiots about the TriWizard Tournament and was relieved when the class had come to an end. She flickered her pale blue eyes around the Grand Salle, her stomach churned as she caught sight of The Goblet of Fire. The thing disturbed her emensly and as she walked in she glared at it quietly before taking a seat across from someone that she was sure wouldn't see her even if she was right across from him.

By now, Clemence Pelletier was used to being hidden in the shadows while her sisters, Genevieve and Maria, were taking full reins, one was one of the smartest girls in school and the other was the prettiest and she was just the one that everyone used to get to them so she just accepted this fate and stayed quiet to herself as she ate her meek salad.

 

[Sebastian Rossi]

Sebastian lifted his spoon and allowed his stew to fall back into his bowl. He wasn't really all that hungry anymore. Glancing up from the bowl, Sebastian saw a girl sitting across from him eating a salad. He gave her a polite smile before returning his attention to the food he didn't want to eat. A second later though, he glanced up, a flicker of recognition in his eyes. "Hey he said gently, "you're in my Herbology class, right?"

Although they had probably had herbology lessons together last year, today was the first time Sebastian had noticed the girl. He had been running late to class as usual and had entered the classroom only about a minute before class was scheduled to begin. With no time to spare, Sebastian had simply dropped into the first seat he had seen which ended up being right behind the girl that was now before him. He was surprised that he hadn't noticed her before. She was pretty cute after all, but try as he might, Sebastian couldn't recall her name.

"Uh...do you happen to know what the homework was? I kinda had to leave...because of you know..." he ended, holding up his bandaged arm. He placed it back gently on the table. He hoped that he was right about her being in the class because Sebastian couldn't afford to miss any assignments, especially not in that class. He was struggling to maintain an A in the class and didn't want to see his grade drop to a D or T. His grandmother had already told him what she would do if that happened and Sebastian was in no hurry to receive a howler from her reminding him.

 

[Clemence Pelletier]

Clemence looked up as she heard the person across from her speak to her. She glanced over her shoulder to check that he was in fact talking to her and when he seemed to be, she listened to his English words, slowly translating them in her mind but it was rather difficult. "Bonjour. Uh. 'es?" she answered, trying her hand at English but it was proving to be harder then she expected.

"Devoirs?" Clemence asked, trying to pick up what he was saying but as he waved a bandaged arm up, she could honestly say she was confused. "Je ne parle pas l'anglais, désolé," she apologized shyly but she offered him her text book from Herbology, assuming this was what he was trying to say but she couldn't fully comprehend why he didn't own one of his own, he should really be prepared.

Clemence chewed down on her glossed bottom lip as she crunched her eye brows together and her expressive forehead was lined with confusion as she looked at the nameless boy, a boy she was still shocked that he had actually spoken to her, she was sure that the last person she had spoken to was her professor.

 

[Trilby Kiedis]

Trilby had been at the other end of the class when the incident happened and had watched helplessly as Sebastian had gone to the hospital wing. She had desperately wanted to go after him to make sure he was fine but her own duty called and a brief meeting with the prefects and head boy and girl had been requested. No sooner was it through though and she was back down in the main entrance looking for him. She entered the great hall and looked about seeing him then talking with Clemence, a rather pretty girl from their class.

Standing up straight, she blinked back her annoyance at him conversing with another girl and nearly had to turn about and walk away again. She had no right to think like that, Xavier may have been in another country thousands of miles from her but he was still her boyfriend. She missed him and as she smiled then knowing she would write to him later, she approached the table.
"Are you feeling any better?" her French accent was thick with worry as she sat beside him worriedly looking at his bandaged arm. Glancing at the girl she smiled at her. Politeness was everything after all. She had lost any rights to Sebastian a while back.
"Hello Clemence, how are you today?" she spoke in French to her but reverted back to English for Sebastian's sake, "does it still hurt?" she could not contain the smile now, herbology was not his favorite subject at all.

 

[Sebastian Rossi]

Sebastian felt like slapping his hand to his forehead as the girl opened her mouth and told him in French that she didn't speak much English. He had gotten so used to talking to Trilby in English that he had quite forgotten that some of the students didn't know the language. When she offered him her textbook, Sebastian shook his head. [b]"Désolé." He began with a small smile on his face, " J'ai oublié que tout le monde connaît l'anglais. Ma question portait sur les devoirs. Savez-vous ce que c'est?"[/b] Sebastian hoped he'd gotten all of the words right. He was pretty sure he had.

As he finished, Sebastian noticed Trilby arrive at the table. With a shrug, Sebastian reverted back to English. "Yea, the nurse bandaged me all up, but it still hurts like hell." He listened as Trilby greeted the girl in French, whose name was apparently Clemence. He hoped he'd be able to remember it, especially if he continued sitting behind the girl in Herbology. He couldn't very well think of her as nice-back-of-the-head girl, especially since her front was every bit as pretty. He held out his good hand to the girl and politely said, " Clémence. C'est un joli nom. Je suis Sébastien." Then he turned to Trilby and stuck his tongue out at her and added teasingly, "Voir mon français s'améliore aussi. N'avait rien de mieux à faire tout l'été."

 

[Clemence Pelletier]

Clemence offered the boy a soft smile of apology, hoping for his sake he did in fact speak French considering all the courses were taught in the wonderful language of theirs. When he did she nodded her head and responded as if she were trying to prove that she too could try her hand at another language, "'es I 'ave thee 'omwork." She raised a brow waiting for approval of the stranger.

She slipped her hand into her bag and slid out the note that contained the homework, the note from todays lesson and a doodle of The Goblet of Fire that had consumed her thoughts for the past few days but not because she wanted her chance to cross the age line, but because it frightened her. Clemence looked over as she saw a girl she vaguely recognized as a fellow prefect, Trilby wasn't it? "I'm very well, thank you. How are you?" she asked in return, but something about this girl frightened poor, shadowy Clemence and she wasn't sure what.

You've been on edge since they brought The Goblet in here, it can't be her, Clemence assured herself. "You're very kind," she said to Sebastien as she took his hand and with a gentle firmness she shook it as she said, "It is a pleasure to meet you, I'm sure." She wondered if she should go and leave the two to speak and as her stomach churned with anxiety at the thought of being seen, because hiding had been her solace for so long.

I was lazy and I was sure that freetranslation.com was messing up the language So the italized, bold, red words are her speaking french.

 

[Sebastian Rossi]

Sebastian listened as he finally got his question across to Clemence and she answered him in English. It was obvious that she was much more comfortable with French, but he couldn't help but like that she had made an attempt. A grin crossed Sebastian's face as he said, "Not bad."

He took the homework from her and pulled out his own notebook. Glancing down at Clemence's precise writing, Sebastian realized that his notetaking was probably one of the reasons why he was doing so poorly in the class. Where Clemence had actually taken notes in class, Sebastian had barely a word from herbology written down on his page. Instead, the page was filled with random ideas for a song and a miniature drawing of his guitar. He scribbled the homework down on the first empty page he found and then gave the book back to her. "Thanks...merci" he said with a smile.

"You gonna join us, Tril?" Sebastian asked his best friend and then added, "the more the merrier." Sebastian glanced back down at Clemence's stuff and saw a picture of the Goblet that was right behind them. He pointed to it and asked, "Excitée par la..." he struggled for the word and then gave up, "competition?" He sure was. Even though he wasn't old enough to actually participate, he couldn't wait to see the school champions enter into the death-defying competition.


I used to use that, but now I use google translate

 

[Trilby Kiedis]

She smiled at his attempt at French, when had he gotten so good at it? Another fact that had alluded her. Had she been so caught up in everything that little things like this had escaped her attention. Her eyes took in the way the two spoke to one another, how they acted with one another. Why she was doing this she did not know, if Sebastian wanted another friend besides her she could not stop him. Would not stop him, he deserved better than her that was all too evident.
"I am good Clemence" she smiled kindly at the girl but turned her gaze once more to Sebastian, shaking her head slightly as she made up some excuse.
"No, no I cannot stay. I must uhm.. I have things to attend too. You know how it is" she crossed her arms about her chest, retracted a hand to push some hair behind her ear, "I had only wanted to see how you were. Well..."Why she was feeling so stupid around them was another mystery but suddenly she was just waving to them.
"au revoir" her feet propelling her out of the great hall and up the stairs as fast as they would carry her. Teenage hormones had an awful lot to account for, Trilby fervently wished she was thinking with her head and not her heart the way she seemed to have been doing since the year before.

 

[Clemence Pelletier]

"You're welcome," Clemence said as she took her work back and put it into her bag, not at all understanding what Trilby and Sebastian were saying as they were speaking English, a language she knew she would have to learn now that her family moved to New Zealand with her step father and his children. "No. I think it is a foolish feat and quite dangerous. Even if I was of age, I certainly would not compete," she said honestly, hoping that she hadn't offended this near stranger. "The Goblet frightens me," she admitted quietly, glancing over to it momentarily before back into Sebastian's eyes, only now realizing that his friend had left as she didn't see the shadow of Trilby's figure on his face.

"Where did Trilby go?" Clemence asked semi-curiously but part of her was relieved, something about her did scare her and now that she was gone she felt normal, well, normal for her which was tense and uncomfortable.

 

[Sebastian Rossi]

Sebastian glanced at Trilby and gave her a weird expression as she gave him a reason for why she couldn't stay and swiftly left. He had hoped that the two were getting back to how they used to behave around each other last year before the whole herbology incident happened. Her odd reaction perplexed the teenage boy, who stared after his best friend for another second before he turned his attention back to Clemence and gave her a forced smile.

"No? I might have." he said with a shrug. He glanced over to the goblet, which was sitting on a pedestal. Even though it wasn't sparking or anything, there was a wide arc of inactivity around it. He knew that some of it probably had to do with the age line that had been placed but more of it was probably due to the fact that Clemence wasn't the only one who was creeped out by the thing. It had an aura of extreme...magic about it. There was really no other way to put it.

He glanced back at Clemence as she asked where Trilby went He shrugged again. "I don't know" he said slowly, still perplexed by it all. He would have to ask her about it later and get to the bottom of why she had acted so strangely all of a sudden. "Maybe she went to go send an owl to her... boyfriend" he said, trying his best to keep the bitterness out of his tone. He'd come to terms with Trilby dating Xavier Snow over the summer or at least he thought he had.

Sebastian glanced down at the homework they'd been given. It was only an essay but it would require some research to complete. "So, are you any good at herbology?" he asked Clemence.

my computer is acting up and I couldn't open up the translator. The light blue is French

 

[Alexius Strauss]

Alexius had been leaning against a bannister chatting with a few of his mates when Trilby had brushed passed him. His shrewd eyes had taken in her expression and he couldn't help but wonder at it. The girl was a damn engima, after the rumors that had been rife about the school about herself and Rossi the previous year she had then begun dating Snow of all guys. The fella was a known flirt, girls falling all over him constantly and it would seem as if the school's most intense prefect had not been immune either.

The lads and himself wandered down to the great hall and within two minutes of entering it he spotted Rossi speaking to some girl he had never seen before. Had this been the reason for Kiedis running off the way she had? Alexius chuckled to himself this was all just too easy. So himself and Rossi were mates now, or he thought so at least which in Alex's view meant he could say damn well what he wanted too now.
"Guys catch you later" he winked walking over and plonking himself down at the table, sitting elbow to elbow beside the girl but looking directly at Sebastian.

"So you never mentioned you had a new love interest. Gotten over Kiedis that fast did you?" he grinned turning to rest his other elbow on the table, leaning his head on his upturned hand he regarded her. Could she look any more like a deer caught in the headlights? He was sure if he said boo she'd jump out of her skin.

"What's up with her?" he asked Rossi though still he looked at the girl, she was cute he couldn't help it.

 

[Clemence Pelletier]

Clemence couldn't understand why Sebastian would want to be in the TriWizard Tournament. The fame and the money did not seem worth it to her. "You should be glad you aren't Champion. They could die," she said ominously before shrugging her awkward shoulders that were daintily laced with muscles from her own private training early in the morning everyday since her first year.

She did notice a tinge of bitter from Sebastian's voice when he spoke an english word that she actually understood. Clemence allowed her soft blue eyes to roll at the thought of dating, she was sixteen, it didn't really matter. But then again, she had trouble even making friends, never mind getting someone to have romantic feelings for her.

"I do well enough," Clemence answered modestly, when in fact Herbology was her best class and always had been. She opened her mouth to recipricate the question when some other young man came over to them. Her face paled and she shrunk into herself discretely as this boy she had heard of but had never actually met before looked at her.

Clemence's stomach twisted with anxiety as she looked at him, her blue eyes small and piercing as she tried her hardest to listen to the conversation that was going on between Sebastian and the Strauss boy. "Sebastian?" she asked quietly and admittedly a little naively, "Why is he looking at me like that?" She didn't look away from the boy, but she also didn't look into his eyes, she rarely did that, it took someone with confidence to speak to someone while gazing into their eyes.

 

[Sebastian Rossi]

As Clemence indicated that she did well in herbology, a smile crossed Sebastian's face. An idea crossed his mind to ask her to tutor him or at the very least help him study. He really needed to do well in the class so that he could possibly try and scrape an OWL out of the class. A part of him wanted to ask Trilby for the assistance, but he was still wary about being alone with her in a room. He was not in any rush to get the rumor mill going again, and knew that them studying together would just be asking for trouble. No, for now it was best to interact with Trilby only in public areas.

"Clemence..." Sebastian began, ready to ask her for the help when Alex strolled in and dropped into the seat beside the girl. A hint of annoyance crossed his face at Alex's comments though he knew that it was just the guy's way. Ever since they had hung out over the summer, the guy had felt that it was alright for him to comment on Sebastian's life whenever he had the urge to. A flush spread across his cheeks as he shook his head. "Clemence is just a...friend" he said nervously. Is that why Trilby was acting weird? the teen thought to himself. "And, if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times...Trilby has a boyfriend. We don't have anything going on." he grumbled. He was about to turn to Clemence and introduce the two to each other when Alex asked him another question. "You're probably scaring her...I'd be scared too if I had to look at your ugly mug" Sebastian quipped.

As Alex glanced at Clemence, Sebastian shot Clemence a look. He could see that the older guy was making her nervous, and he felt the need to ease her nerves. So when she asked why Alex was looking at her like that, he forced a smile. "Il n'a pas appris que ce n'est pas poli de regarder" he said with a grin, knowing that Alex could also understand every word he said.

 

[Alexius Strauss]

Alex did not stop staring at her once, he could tell it was unnerving her but she really was too cute and the fact that she spoke French instead of English made him smile at her. The fact that Sebastian spoke English to himself and French to the girl led him to believe that she obviously had no clue of the other language. A mischievous glint sparkled in his eye. Sebastian's words caused him to frown and turning for a brief moment to look at him he shook his head.
"Rossi my man, when the cat's away the mice will play" he winked almost exasperated that Sebastian wasn't going to make a move on Kiedis with Snow out of the picture, "Well if you ain't calling dibs on this one here, mind if I do?"

His gaze reverted back to the girl again, lowering his hands so his arms were now crossed infront of him at the table he winked at her.
"Si je vous fais peur, je suis désolé. Ce n'était pas mon intention" Alexius refused to waver his gaze though, "is she dating anyone Rossi? like it matters right?"
Knowing now that the girl could not understand his English he decided he would use it to his advantage.

---

*translation* If I frighten you, I'm sorry. It was not my intention.

 

[Clemence Pelletier]

Clemence's blue eyes flickered from Sebastian to the Strauss boy whose name she couldn't remember but she knew Genevieve was fond of one of them, or she had been last year. She tried to piece the English words together because she had heard her name and then Trilby's. She let out a sigh, wishing that she could return to the shadows. This was all a little too much for her. "You don't frighten me," Clemence lied, it wasn't that this boy frightened her it was all people that seemed to. "But what is your intention?" she asked, her eyes hard and suspicious. Ever since she had started at this school people used her to get to her older sisters, boys to date them, girls to befriend them and because they constantly spoke English that was the option she was to believe.

"Should I go Sebastian?" Clemence asked, "Your friend seems distracted from your conversation with my presence." She almost hoped that she was able to leave, one person was a lot for her to handle but two people? That was more attention then she had ever gotten in her life.

 

[Sebastian Rossi]

Sebastian tried his best to not show his annoyance to Alex or Clemence. It was true that he wasn't calling dibs on Clemence, but there was no denying that he was interested in at least getting to know her better. The young Beauxbatons boy wasn't sure he was ready for a relationship yet, but he also didn't want Alex going on after her. When Alex asked whether she was dating anyone, Sebastian rolled his eyes and shrugged. "I don't know. Ask her yourself." He really wanted to tell Alex to shove off though.

He turned to Clemence who had begun speaking to him again. He smiled as Clemence suspiciously questioned Alex. Apparently, even though she couldn't understand English, she was apparently getting the gist of their conversations and knew that Alex was interested in her. When she asked Sebastian if she should go, he didn't know what to say. He didn't want to nod because he was enjoying her presence even despite the numerous interruptions. He also didn't want to shake his head because if she stayed, Alex was sure to keep up his flirting which Sebastian was so not in the mood to see.

Finally, he sighed. "Si vous le souhaitez. uh .. seriez-vous capable de m'aider à faire mes devoirs... Herbology sometime?" He waited to hear her reply, hoping she'd say yes. Although he really needed the herbology help, part of him simply wanted to hang out with Clemence again.

 

[Alexius Strauss]

Alex slapped the table and laughed this was just too much, the girl had actually asked him his intentions. They were as unhonorable as the ghost of Witsilav Portrey who roamed the second floor corridor in search of any unsuspecting female and pestered her silly for days, sometimes weeks whenever the girl arrived on to that corridor. Why he never left it was beyond Alex but he certainly felt very much like Witsilav right now. He had the immense urge to just pester the girl senseless, he couldn't help it.

"Mon intention est de savoir si tu sors avec quelqu'un" he winked, well after Sebastian said for him to ask her himself he figured he might as well. He didn't miss the tone from Rossi though but put it down to the fact that he hadn't asked Clemence the same thing, then he looked at the boy closer, a knowing look creasing his face before a broad grin spread out across his features.

"Vous êtes encore accroché sur Trilby n'êtes-vous pas? c'est votre faute, vous laissez la faire sortir l'homme" this was turning in to a rather interesting day after all. He reached out and patted Clemence's hand reassuring her with a few choice words that he was by no means distracted by her in a bad way, that he had no need to leave unless she wanted him too.


*translation to Clemence: "My intention is to find out if you're dating any one"
*translation to Rossi: You're still hung up on Trilby aren't you? it's your own fault, you let her get away man

 

[Clemence Pelletier]

Clemence glared unblinkingly at the Strauss boy as he laughed at her. She was not enjoying his company at all and she almost disliked that Sebastian was friends with him, not that she knew much about either boy. As he told her what his intentions were, she grew red in the face from a mixture of embarrassment and anger at being treated like she felt she was. "For you, Strauss, I'm married happily," she said, with a scoff of distaste, unsure why this perfect stranger was annoying her so but it was likely because of her fear of getting close to people had been shown by his question.

Clemence looked over at Sebastian as he asked if they could see one another again. She quirked an eyebrow up as if to ask him why he would ever want to do that. She nodded her hand slowly to him before looking back at the Strauss boy whose name she still didn't know. "Jerk," she muttered under her breath and surprisingly in English. The Prefect rose as gracefully as she could once she had taken her hand back to herself and brushed it off on her Beauxbatons uniform as to get rid of the touch that the seventh year had bestowed onto her only seconds ago.

"Sebastian it was lovely to meet you. I'm sure I'll see you in class and if you would like help, we can talk after when there aren't so many distractions," Clemence said, looking from his eyes to Strauss' before back into Sebastian's with a pert smile but hard eyes. She turned away from them, not once sparing a glance to the boy and walked away, slowly returning into the shadows of Beauxbatons were she, Clemence Cybille Pelletier belonged.