Hi everyone!
I'm Jennyhale, and I'm translating this magnificent fic with the help of "Valitahh.15". The fic belongs to promethea, that's why it is being published in her account. English is not our native language, that's why some Betas are helping us: Twilight684
CHAPTER 2: When the Mudblood roars.
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"Dear students," Dumbledore called happily from his position at the staff table with a very big smile in his face, a smile that every single student took as a bad sign. "As I am sure you are all aware, during the last few years the relationship between the different houses has deteriorated because of the prejudices and the archaic beliefs of our society, but thanks to one of you I have had an idea that I'm sure will help the different houses of this castle bond again. I have decided that this year we are going to organize a friendly competition between the four houses. There will be a team per house that will compete against the other houses in a series of tasks that are specially designed to be performed without any type of magic. In this competition you will have to demonstrate your ingenuity, agility, ability, skills, teamwork ability, strength and cooperation.
Taking into account the type of tasks and that a lot of you are not familiarized with some of the things that will have to be done in this competition, I have decided that each team must have at least one member that is a muggleborn.
The objective of this competition is not to win, the objective is to get to understand our neighbors the muggles and to learn to properly appreciate magic, that extraordinary gift that you all have.
Each weekend a task will be organized and each team will have to choose which members of the team will participate in that task. Taking into account that the Slytherin house doesn't have any muggleborn, I expect at least one of the muggleborns of the other houses to volunteer to help them during the competition..."
As soon as the headmaster said that, a great commotion started in the table of the snakes while in the other tables, the ones that had been eating or drinking furiously choked and the ones that had been speaking suddenly fell silent.
"Each team," Dumbledore continued, oblivious to the commotion he had caused, "will have a team captain who will have to take part in all the tasks. The rest of the members that will take part in each task will be selected by taking into account the characteristics of the task. The task will always be a surprise, but we will give you some clues so that you can choose the best team members.
So, my dear students, you have one day to decide who will participate in each time. Tomorrow I want you to give me the list with all the names, the name of the captain, and in Slytherin's case the name of the muggleborn that will help you. All that said, I have the honor of inaugurating the first Mugglelympic Games of Hogwarts!"
There was an awkward moment that lasted until Dumbledore's amplified voice died. The old headmaster had opened his arms theatrically, waiting for an applause that never came. Instead, the only thing he got was hundreds of scared faces that looked at him, dumbfounded. Snape cleared his throat awkwardly. McGonagall covered her face in pure embarrassment. Draco wanted to die just there and there. Ron was gaping while some chicken pieces fell through his chin. The thing wouldn't have been so terrible if Hermione Granger wasn´t covering her mouth and trying not to burst out laughing. The result was similar to a farting sound that broke the silence, making everybody feel even more miserable because there was someone who found this mass tragedy funny.
"Dear Merlin..." Ginny mumbled with an impressive look of astonishment on her face. "Does someone know if Dumbledore has taken his medicine tonight?"
"What medication?" Lavender asked softly.
"I don't know! If he isn't taking anything it is clear that he needs it!"
"This is going to be a horrible experience..." Harry didn't have the gift of prophecy, but he didn't need any classes with Trelawney to know that this hadn't been one of Dumbledore's best ideas.
"Well, I think this is going to be fun..."
Everybody turned to look at the smiling brown eyed girl.
"Did you pay attention during the last ten minutes? I mean, have you heard Dumbledore's speech?" Ron snapped.
"If you think you're going to have a hard time, how do you think they're gonna be?" Hermione said while she pointed towards Slytherin's table, where some of the students were looking at their knives with tempted expressions. Cutting their veins right there would be less traumatic than what was about to happen, and they were thinking about it very seriously.
While the Gryffindors began to see the good side of that bizarre nightmare, at the snake's table things were very different.
"Dear Salazar... I don't want anything to do with the delusions of that crazy old man," Draco said, his voice reedy and grimacing in disgust and superiority. But two voices sharply cut him.
"No, no way. You aren't going to get out of this shit!" Blaise screamed furiously.
"This is your fault Draco, so you're going to suffer with the rest of us!" Theo snapped, glaring at him.
"Exactly!" This time it was Pansy. "It's not fair for you to get away with it!"
Draco started opening his mouth to say something, but Blaise's finger nailing his adam's apple stopped him before he could say anything.
"Don't even dare Draco, don't even think about it."
"I think Draco should be our captain, don't you guys?" Theo said with his laconic voice. "After all, the idea of this wonderful weekend's activities was his, and since he is the undisputed prince of our house, he should represent us."
"What nonsense are you saying?!" the blond croaked, slapping Zabini's hand from his throat. "I don't think-"
"But if it is a great honor..." Nott continued innocently.
"Let's see boys and girls..." Zabini said looking at all the Slytherins nearby who had heard the conversation and whose level of fury against Draco could have exploded a pressure cooker. "Let's vote. Those who believe that Draco should be our captain in this fantastic and interesting activity that Dumbledore has created for us, and that wouldn't have happened if Draco had kept his precious little mouth shut, raise your hands. Raise your hands if you think that he should be the one representing all of us and taking part in all the tasks!"
The response was immediate. Everybody at the Slytherin table raised their hands at the same time, with the same speed and precision of a firing squad presenting their weapons before a death sentence.
Draco knew he had no choice, but he still stood with pride. "I will not participate in-"
"Draco," Theo cut him off, smiling sadistically, "think very carefully before you finish that sentence. You can be obedient for once in your life and be the captain of the Slytherin team on this aberrant circus of your creation, or you can refuse, keeping your pride intact until we reach our common room. And believe me when I say that your pride will serve you little when you realize how much we dislike this... The thing is very simple. You're going to face the consequences, like it or not. You are going to be our captain during this Mugglelympic Games or whatever the name is, and we'll laugh at you only during the weekends, or you suffer in the common room and in the dormitories whenever a professor isn't watching during the whole year... The decision is yours."
Draco sank into his seat. He knew he had lost the argument. In this situation there was no good way out. The only thing he could do was choose between the best of the two possible outcomes. Besides...there was nothing a muggle could do better than a Pureblood wizard, even without magic. Or at least, Draco couldn't think of anything. He sank his shoulders slightly and smirked.
"Okay," Draco said finally.
No one had noticed that a Gryffindor had got up from her seat with a scroll in her hand and that she had walked towards the Slytherin table and that she was watching them with a smile. Pansy was the first to notice her.
"What are you doing here, bookworm?" she snapped at Hermione.
"Me?" the brown eyed girl laughed amusedly. "Believe it or not, Parkinson, I'm saving your precious asses."
"Granger, get lost. Without your wise advice the Weasel will forget how to chew and Saint Potty will not be able to fly with his white horse and go save the day of imaginary dangers..."
"Very smart, Malfoy," Granger said, still smiling when she placed the parchment on the table.
"What's this shit?" Blaise picked it up and read it. It was a blank parchment with the exception of three words at the top, "Slytherin" and "Hermione Granger" a little below.
"Oh, nothing special. It's the list of the team members of your house, Zabini. The rules say you will need at least one muggleborn in your team, and frankly, absolutely nothing in the world is going to keep me from witnessing your performance during this tournament from the best place I can find... Your team."
Draco paled of pure fury while the rest of the snakes were glaring at her murderously, but Hermione didn't take the hint and with a wide and beatific smile she turned around and walked towards her table in amusement.
"Why did you do that?!" Ron yelled when she sat at her seat.
"You guys have Harry and a lot of other people that know about muggle things, Ron. Don't worry."
"But why did you go with them?!" Ron looked at her with a mix of desperation and frustration.
"Partly because I want to be there to see their faces when they realize what's going on," Hermione started with a huge smile, "and because I can't wait to see the great and powerful Draco Malfoy having to swallow his pride to ask me for advice on how to do something Muggle that he doesn't know how to do; and, believe me, the temptation to win and to be the best at something will exceed his enormous pride. And partly, Ron, because I know for sure that another muggleborn is not going to help them."
"Well, fuck them!" Ron yelled. "They'll get what they deserve!"
"You know, Ron, if you want to catch flies you will attract more of them with a drop of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"I think I get it..." Harry intervened, "but I'm still with Ron, Herms. It's not a good idea to go with them."
"Besides, if you're with them, they could win!" Ron continued, but as he said it he saw the radiant smile in Hermione's face and he understood what was going on. If she went with the Slytherins, they could win, but they would win because a Gryffindor Mudblood helped them. And then each and every one of them would know that, and they'd know she knew, and that all the other houses knew too. And if they didn't win everyone would also know that it was because their pride, and because they had chosen to ignore Granger's wise words. Either way the pride of the Slytherins would be touched and irrevocably damaged.
"I still don't like it..." Ron said, though he couldn't stop reveling at the idea of seeing Malfoy and his cronies on their knees, begging and swallowing their pride. Or losing miserably for not doing so. He couldn't decide which one he liked more.
The rest of the dinner was a chaos of murmurs, heated conversations and discussions and the night was not much different.
To everyone's surprise the next morning the lists were delivered promptly.
From Gryffindor, Harry Potter would be the captain and at the same time the honorary muggle. Even though he was a Halfblood, he had lived his whole life among muggles. Ron and Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbotton, Dean Thomas, Susan Bones, Lavender Brown, Seamus Finnigan and Colin Creevey were the other members.
From Ravenclaw, Luna Lovegood, that for some reason that no one understood had been named captain, Cho Chang, Penelope Clearwater, Michael Corner, Anthony Goldstain, Padma Patil, Grand Page, and Lisa Turpin, who would be the honorary Muggle.
From Hufflepuff: Hanna Abbot, who would be the captain, Wayne Hopkins, Justin Flinch-Fletchley, Rose Zeller, Herbert Fleet, Owen Cauldwell, Megan Jones, Eleanor Tamsin and Brandston Applebee, who would be the team's muggleborn.
The chaos started with Slytherin, the renegade team. Draco would be the grumpy team captain against his will. Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott were in charge of making sure that Malfoy didn't leave his post. Pansy Parkinson would play too, only because she didn't want to leave her Draco alone. The Greengrass sisters were too, but only because Pansy had threatened them with shaving their heads and cursing them with pimples if they didn't sign up. Crabbe and Goyle were in the team too, but their expressions were no different than usual. The surprise was that Hermione Granger was on the snakes' team too. But if there was something that the brown eyed girl had been right about, it was that nobody, absolutely no one had volunteered for the task.
At breakfast the house heads collected and reviewed the lists. A very bad faced Snape approached the lectern and with his world-weary voice spoke to the students. "Since today is Friday, tomorrow morning will start the first task of these games. To make things easier this first challenge will require the participation of all team members, and the clue for this first task is the next..." The potions professor pulled out a sheet of parchment and coughed before reading. "Never start a house from the roof."
With all the world's parsimony he closed the envelope and put it away, turning around and returning to the table for dinner, leaving all students with a poker face. They hadn't see thatcoming.
"Never start a house from the roof?" Ron asked in disbelief. "What did he mean by that?"
"That you have to put on clothes you don't mind getting dirty in," Hermione laughed with amusement. If that was what she had understood, it would be very interesting.
Hi again!
What do you think? Write a review and let us know XD.
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This is the comment of the Beta that corrected this chapter:
Twilight684: Things are starting to get interesting I see :3 Feel a little bad for Draco since this whole mess was his fault and his whole house is wanting to rip him to pieces, but hopefully this will teach him a lesson. Not to mention I can't wait to see how the hell he and Hermione end up getting together from this whole thing lol. Anyways, can't wait for the next one ^w^
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