Chapter 4: Training
I'm standing standing alone, in the middle of the training hall. Luna left me, bounding off towards the bows and arrows, and I have no idea where to start. I glance towards the weapons, and see all the Careers there, throwing around swords, smashing up targets, destroyi- wait. One Career is missing. There are only 5 over there; they girl from District 4 isn't there.
I know it's crazy, and that I don't even know the girl, and I shouldn't want to know her, but something about her, something interests me. So my eyes start scanning for her.
I see her, standing over by the knots. Someone else is too, the boy from District 12, the one with the glasses. They aren't talking I don't think, and I find myself wandering over there. As I get to the station, I pick up a rope, and try forming a simple cross hand tail knot, whatever that is. My hands fumble, and it isn't going very well; and someone happens to notice.
"You're doing it all wrong; for starters, the end you aren't using should be tucked up into the back, and what on Earth are you doing with the clipped end? It's supposed to be crossed over, and then twisted, not the other way round."
I glance up, angrily, and see the girl looking down at my knot, her eyebrows raised.
"What does it matter anyway?" I ask, folding my arms, letting my knot fall to the table.
She picks it up, her small hands 'fixing' my knot, until it's, oh, so perfect.
"That's how it is supposed to be; seriously, it's so simple," she mutters, rolling her eyes, causing my anger to build up.
"If it's, so simple, then why are you here? Trying to find someone to annoy?" I snarl angrily.
She glances at me, a slight implication of hurt in her eyes, and then its gone; she looks impassive, just as she did at the reaping.
"I'm just trying to help, you know," she says coolly. She turns to walk away, but stops suddenly in her tracks. "And I would try and pay more attention to the knots; they could be the difference in the arena." Then she wanders off towards the plants.
"She's quite fiesty, aint she?" A voice says from my left.
I turn and find the boy with the glasses looking at me, eyebrows raised, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Yeah," I laugh, rolling my eyes. "Abit cranky, huh?"
He laughs, before looking down hopelessly at his knot. "I don't get it either, if it makes it any better; it's probably because she's from District 4; you know, fish and everything."
I nod, sighing.
"You're Ron right?" He asks me, and I feel bad suddenly because I can't remember his name.
"Yup," I answer.
He stretches his hand forward. "I'm Harry, Harry Potter."
"Nice to meet you," I say shaking his hand.
He grins, and is about to say something, when suddenly someone calls him.
"Hey Harry, c'mover here!" It's the boy from District 11 I think.
"Yeah, coming Neville!" Harry calls back, before turning to me. "See you 'round?" Then he walks away, and I sigh; he seems to have an alliance already; it's a shame, because he would have been good to have.
The next day, I move on to weapons. I start by using a bow and arrow, but then realise that I am crap, and move onto using a dagger. It's fairly easy, and I have quite a good aim and technique with it; also it's not to heavy and easy to see, like the swords the Careers are trying; it's actually perfect, and I hope to find one when in the arena.
I found out last night that the girl from District 4 is called Hermione. We were talking about training at the table, and I mentioned seeing her away from the other Careers. Luna somehow over heard her name, and now it's all I can think of. Hermione.
It's quite an unusual name, and I know that I have never heard of it before. To be fair, I don't know why I'm still thinking about her, because she was quite rude, and pretty full of herself. I'm sure she could have corrected me in a nicer way than that. "You need some help with that?" she could have said, or even, "Mind if I show you?"
At the moment, I'm sitting outside the room for where I have to go to perform in front of the Gamemaker, Pius Thicknese, and his other men of some importance. Luna went in before me, and I'm waiting.
I sigh.
Nothing.
Still waiting.
Still waiting.
Still waiting.
Wow, this is getting bor- THE DOOR OPENED!
"Ronald Weasley", the voice calls.
Oh no, I feel really nervous. I stand up, and take a deep breath. Stay calm. Harry gives me an encouraging smile, but I can't return it because my nerves have got the better of me.
I walk in, slowly. I've planned it all out. The people, the judges, are all looking around, sizing me up. And I begin.
I pick up a sharp rock, and a peice of wood. I start carving the edges of the wood with the rock, making a comfortable handle. Then I press the sharp peice of rock into the middle of the wood, making a slot. I turn the rock around, the sharp side facing away from the handle, then I slip the rock into the slot. Holding the rock in place, I gather some of the strong grassy rooty planty thing (whatever it is), and tie it around the rock and handle, holding it in place. It seems fairly strong.
I glance towards the end of the room, where there are targets. I fix my eye on one, the one of the head, and I throw it straight towards it; it hits bang in the middle, and stays there; it worked.
I glance up towards the judges, but only one of them is looking at me; Thicknese. He frowns, but dismisses me anyway.
I got a 10. A 10 out of 12. A 10. An actual 10. It's one of the highest. Blaise got 11, but that was expected. But me. A 10.
Luna got an 8. Most got less.
But 4 people got 10s.
Me. Harry. Cormac. And Hermione.
I got higher than 3 of the Careers. Draco, Pansy and Lavender (I learnt more names) got 9, while I, me, I got a 10.
An actual 10.
10.
10.
10.
10.
10.
Wow. I got a 10.