Pomona had once compared herself to a zookeeper; Severus was among the creatures she kept. At the time, they were still attending a local festival in Côte de Nuits, Burgundy.
Later, they took a hot-air balloon nearby and looked down over the scenery of Côte de Nuits. By chance, they discovered an abandoned Quidditch Pitch, whose final schedule had been set for 1831.
At the time, Zirco Rosier was serving as France's Minister for Magic. Like the Lestrange family, the Rosier family also had branches in Britain.
Members of pure-blood families intermarried with one another, forming an intricate web of relationships, and the abandonment of this Quidditch Pitch was also connected to Britain at the time.
Britain's Minister for Magic in 1831 was Otalain Gamble. She had innovatively used the Hogwarts Express to solve the problem of students getting to school. This bold proposal not only stirred controversy but also put the pure-blood families on alert.
Counting from 1801, Otalain's predecessors as Minister for Magic had all been considered "harmless." Artemisia Lufkin and Grogan Stump had both graduated from Hufflepuff, while Josephina Flint was a member of a pure-blood family. She greatly disliked Muggle technology and believed that telegraphs would interfere with the normal functioning of wands.
Both Hufflepuff Ministers for Magic had used Quidditch to foster cooperative relations with other Ministries of Magic. French Quidditch had consequently flourished, only to come to an abrupt halt in 1831 because of a policy change.
To children, it merely meant fewer matches. To adults, however, it meant far more. That same year, while the July Column was being built at the Bastille, several Egyptian mummies were discovered. People at the time had no doubt that Napoleon must have buried them there.
Later came the war between Egypt and Turkey. Its trigger was