The blazing sunlight immediately struck Harry's eyes like a firework. He looked around. No one else had any idea where they were. People walked around carrying baskets of food, all of them dressed in casual, comfy, loose fitting clothes upon the hard stone ground. Stone houses were lined up all around, dirt floors surrounding them. The first thing Harry noticed was that this was not a community made up of wizards, but rather muggles The second was they all looked to be well fed and taken care of. "Eh-Professor Dumbledore? Where are we?" someone said from the long line of students. Harry had forgotten they were there! "I have told you, we are in District 5, in Panem" Dumbledore responded. 'Panem...' Harry repeated softly under his breath. "Professor Dumbledore? Will we be able to use magic here?" another student asked. It seems that Harry was not the only one with that curiosity.
"Stay calm children! All of your questions will be answered shortly! For now we must get ourselves to our destination!" he bellowed over the rising whispers of the four houses. No one knew where their destination was particularly, which made all of the students start to worry. "What if we are in danger?" Ron said, turning to Harry. "No we are not" Harry said. "And why is that?" asked Ron. "Because. I trust Dumbledore" Ron didn't seem totally satisfied with this answer, but Harry wasn't surprised. After all, it wasn't Ron who was brought to safety by the man at the other end of the line countless times. Passerby began to stare. "Oh that's right we are wearing our robes..." said Harry to Ron. "What's going on over there?" Hermione spoke for the first time since they had arrived. Ron and Harry followed her pointed finger with their eyes, meeting a crowd of people lining up.
"Professor Dumbledore? What'a happening there?" a student cried, taking the words right out if Hermione's mouth. "Ah, that my dear fellow, is where we are going now." Everyone's hands began to break apart, soon rubbing on the robes to get rid of sweat. "Follow me!" Professor Dumbledore shouted, he started walking with everyone following behind nervously. Dumbledore grabbed an empty box lying next to a bakery and held it out in front of him. "Remove your robes and place them in this box" he declared. The students did what they were told, and soon everyone looked like normal teenagers holding dresses in their hands. One by one they followed one another up to the grubby brown box and placed their robes inside slowly. "Move along now, we don't want to be late!" he said. Late for what? Harry thought. The headmaster flicked his wand and the box disapeared. He started walking, his long flowing robes trailing after him like an animal in the snow. Why hadn't he taken his off? They were soon ordered to line up single file.
A table was awaiting them far at the beginning of the line with a man standing over it. "Next!" he yelled. He continued to do this for another half hour until it was Harry's turn. When he got there, Harry found that the man looked slightly familiar. He had dark eyes, bags camping out underneath them. "Hand please" he said, tire managing to escape out of his mouth. Hesitantly, Harry extended his hand to the man. Without warning he took a pin and punctured Harry's skin harshly. "Ouch! What was that for?!" he cried out. The man ignored his cries of pain. "Hand down on the paper" he ordered. Harry didn't want to take any further commands from this guy, but he did. "Happy Reaping Day" the man said as Harry's turn was over.
It was Ron's turn next. He went through the same process with almost the same reactions as Harry had. "Why are you wearing that long sleeved shirt on an extremely hot day like this?" Ron asked. Harry's attention turned to the man's sleeves. It was odd, he was sweating. His face turned to a shade of red that Crayola should copy, but then cooled down and looked Ron in the eyes. "Us Reaping Workers are required to" he said. "Happy Reaping Day NEXT!" He said and turned to the next person. "What's Reaping Day?" he asked Harry as soon as he left the table and joined everyone else. "Today I guess" The two boys stood there for a while as more and more students joined them. They were all facing an old, worn out stage with a table on it filled with slits of papers. A dark man with neatly trimmed hair and shiny teeth walked out in stage as everyone quieted down. "Hello everyone! I am Nate Belikum and welcome to the 74th annual Hunger Games! The history of Panem all started when..." but Harry stopped listening then. What was happening? The Hunger Games? What was that? He looked over at Hermione who was being eaten alive by her own fear. She was biting her lip and breathing heavily.
Harry looked back at the man on the stage, who had evidently finished talking and was now heading off. A young, dark haired woman came on. She was wearing jeans and a tank top with black converse. The look on her face made it clear to Harry that she meant business. She discussed some rules that Harry did not understand the slightest bit, and finished her speech by saying "Happy Hunger Games to all, but her speech got interrupted. Her eyes were placed on all the Hogwarts students. Everyone turned to them to see what stopped her. "I see we have some newcomers. Their papers please!" she yelled, and immediately the man Ron had questioned earlier rushed up and dropped more slits of papers into her hands.
"Thankyou" she said, placing them in the bowl. "Happy Hunger Games to all, and may the odds be ever in your favor. I will start off with the male of the species to enter The Hunger Games as our tribute" Her hand swirled around in the bowl on the left for what seemed like an eternity. She grabbed hold of two papers, pausing before letting go of one. She pulled it out and read it. "Odd... I have never seen this name before. HARRY POTTER please come up".
Harry started to panic. Why was his name called?! Should he go up there? "Go on up. It honestly can't be that bad" spoke Hermione. He made a path through the crowd and anxiously hopped on next to the lady. He had to be facing at least 6,000 people. He had no idea it would be this much. "And for the ladies" she started and rustled around in the bowl. Harry had a desire that she would pick Ginny. He knew it was selfish, but if he was up here singled out from the crowd he would want her to be with him. They had been in danger together before, they could do it again. "And the female tribute of District 5, fighting others with-" She turned around and gave Harry an odd look, "Harry Potter, will be..." She held it to her face. "He-Hermione Granger..."
