Y/n stepped down from the train, her breath fogging in the chill air. Her Beauxbatons coat — the pale blue one with the silver trim — marked her out instantly. The carriage behind her carried mostly Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, chattering around her in a blur of crimson, copper and yellow. She watched them stream past, a river of familiar faces that she didn't know and who didn't know her.

Then the whispers started.

The Thestrals stirred in the dark, sensing the shift before anyone else did. The noise of the crowd filled the night air — chatter, wheels on stone, the hum of anticipation — but all of it felt distant. Distant and pointed, like the eyes that kept snapping back to her.