I'm back with a chapter and some good news - Gonsalsy generously offered to beta-read this story for me, so here you have it: a brand new, enhanced quality chapter :)

Chapter 3: Such a tragedy (the parade and the interviews)

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Contrary to her earlier nagging feeling of guilt, it was almost with vindictive satisfaction that Katniss fired up the recording Madge had given her for the second time. She knew it was childish to feel this way, since while Haymitch hadn't been nice to her, ultimately all he had done was no more and no less than tell her the truth, just in a harsher than necessary fashion. It wasn't like she was really doing anything forbidden, either, but it seemed a little like an act of defiance to watch his Games without him knowing.

She was greeted by a familiar sight of the Capitol promenade that every tribute had once seen.

Of course. The parade. She had forgotten she would see that too. It was weird to see all the tributes gathered together at one place and dressed up in outfits fit for a carnival. She watched them wave to the spectators with smiles on their faces, knowing that all of them sans one would have to die within approximately two weeks. They had been quite a crowd.

Once she took a better look at the colourful flow of chariots, she was instantly reminded just how lucky she had been to be assigned to Cinna's supervision. She tried to single out Haymitch, but it wasn't easy since apparently that year's stylists' grand idea for the District Twelve tributes had been to put them into black jumpsuits and cover them from head to toe in dark, glittering powder that was probably supposed to imitate coal dust – including their faces. It made it harder to recognise who was who, but once she remembered that Haymitch had been a few good years older than the other male Twelve tribute, she was able to find him without further difficulty. He was holding a gilded pick-axe and somehow managed to look utterly bored. She was pretty certain no one had noticed him after that kind of introduction.

Next up were the training results, but that was covered pretty quickly since they weren't showing the evaluation itself, just the scores. Haymitch scored slightly above the average and higher than the other tributes from his district, getting him outside the range of cannon fodder, but still not high enough to draw much attention to himself. She didn't know what he had showed them. She had a vague idea that he had some skills with knives, but that was about as far as her knowledge on the subject extended.

She braced herself for the upcoming interviews, sensing that that part could be harder to watch, though admittedly informative. Thankfully for her it turned out to be heavily edited after the Games had ended, probably because the filmmakers had decided not to bore the public with too many faces and details. Instead they focused on introducing who she was guessing were the few key players and glossed over the rest, but it was still overwhelming to watch due to the large number of tributes.

She purposely made herself not pay close attention to the other tributes' stories, firmly forbidding herself to feel any sympathy toward anyone in particular, instead choosing to feel collectively sorry for them all. She couldn't afford to dwell too closely on their individual fates. She was doing good staying true to her resolution, but of course she couldn't help but falter once the tributes from her home district showed up one after the other. And then, of course, things got even worse when she came face to face with Maysilee Donner again.

Katniss' armor cracked even deeper when Caesar asked Maysilee about her interest in botanic and healing plants and if she thought there was any way she could use her knowledge during the Games. It gave Katniss an inkling as to how the bond between her mom and Maysilee had been formed. Maysilee had a sweet smile that didn't drop as she politely answered Caesar by telling him calmly that what could heal you could also kill you. Katniss wasn't sure if she was more disturbed by her words or pleased by the minuscule almost-falter in Caesar's congenial expression.

She didn't have any time to recover from Maysilee's appearance when it was replaced by Haymitch's entrance. It seemed that his stylist did a better job this time, because he actually looked really good for a change. His clothes and make-up weren't over the top and one would never guess it was probably his first time wearing expensive clothing from the way he was holding himself. While he didn't have the classic clean-cut-square-jaw-and-straight-nose handsome look working for him, he was surprisingly easy on the eyes. He did have some kind of "charming asshole" type of allure on his side, which, Katniss decided, must have frozen and morphed into his current dry sense of humour over the years. He was playing up the arrogance that came quite naturally to him, but his eyes remained sharp during the whole interview and she realised that he was a better actor than she was.

Katniss almost smiled when she heard him replying to Caesar's opening question on how he felt about the Hunger Games having 100% more competitors than usual with a quick "they'll still be 100% as stupid as usual, so I figure my odds will be roughly the same". It had the exact amount of bite that she could imagine the Haymitch she knew would have used as well. Her smile died when Caesar asked if the girl they had seen at the reaping had been someone special, which Haymitch denied with a stone face saying that he just kissed every girl that happened to run into him. She heard the answering laughter from the audience, but didn't find the scene amusing, somehow sensing that Haymitch had been secretly pissed off by the question. The suppressed guilt and disgust came back with a vengeance when she realised that, for a second, she had almost started enjoying what she was watching. The fact that she knew she didn't have to worry for the life of the only tribute she knew personally and the time that had passed made it frighteningly easy to forget that these were real people, not characters in some drama. She watched the rest of the interview in a somber mood before pausing the recording and taking off the headphones, but not quickly enough to miss the image changing into a panoramic shot of lush green landscape she barely recognized as her first glimpse of the 50th Hunger Games arena.

She thought that Haymitch had done quite well on the interview, but it still didn't seem memorable enough for anyone to find him outstanding in the bunch of other tributes and peg him for a champion at that point. She didn't think anyone expected him to win.

Suddenly, she heard someone's steps on the stairs and her heart almost leapt to her throat as she hurriedly turned off the projector and fumbled to hide the recording in blind panic, as if caught doing something indecent.

"Katniss?" her mother's voice called. "Are you in here? I could use some help and I hoped you would give me a hand!"

"Coming!" she called back and took a steadying breath before getting up and stepping out of the room. Her heart was still pounding.

"There you are," her mother said seeing her when she came downstairs. "Can you hold the ladder while I take these drapes off? It's wobbly and I don't want to break my neck."

"Sure, mom. Do you want me to climb it instead?"

"No, it's okay, just hold it still."

"Hey, mom," Katniss said, an idea occurring to her. Maybe she could solve at least one mystery. "I was just wondering… did you know Haymitch when he was younger?"

"I can't say I did, not really," her mom said concentrating on her work. "I knew his name and what he looked like, but we weren't friends. He just lived on the other side of the town and we never really talked, and later, well, he lived here."

"Do you know what happened to his family? Why is he alone?"

"Oh yes. It was such a tragedy, everyone heard about that."

"A tragedy?" Katniss asked.

"Well, his father had been dead for years, I don't even know how he died, but his mother and brother were still around when he got reaped. Imagine that – they all died shortly after he won! Even his girlfriend got caught in the same..." she paused and hesitated for a second before finishing the sentence slowly: "...accident. It almost seemed like there had been some kind of a hex hanging over the family. He really had a bad year, that's for sure," she added in a rush, almost like she was trying to cover for what she said before.

"An accident?" Katniss echoed, her mouth suddenly dry. She didn't know what all of that meant, but she a bad feeling about it. "When? What kind of accident?"

"I think it was about two weeks after his Games. Haymitch had not returned from the Capitol yet – I remember because, well, he was the first victor in years, so we all knew when he was supposed to be back… you know yourself that it takes some time before they put the victors back on the train – all these interviews, galas and crowning the winner, not to mention the healing… Anyway, it was such a strange thing… The Abernathys, they kept geese. I imagine that was how they kept afloat over the years, in addition to whatever Haymitch could earn working after school. Mrs. Abernathy had a stall in the market where she sold whatever she could out of those birds: meat, eggs, lard, hand-made pillows and duvets filled with feathers… I think we even used to have one of those… As you can imagine, they had to have quite a flock to manage that. People said that it all started with the geese honking in the middle of the night. Then there was a loud crash when one of the beams holding the ceiling gave out and the whole part of the house collapsed. See, they were going to move to the Victors Village, but they hadn't gotten around to that yet and had been still living in the old house. They were saying later that Mrs. Abernathy had been probably killed on the spot, crushed by the beam, but her little boy had been still alive, trapped inside, calling for help. I'm just glad that the poor woman didn't live to see that, because within seconds the house was on fire, as if someone put a torch to a haystack. Probably a candle turned over at the impact, or a spark from a fireplace… With all the feathers and pots of grease in the house… Well, you can imagine how quickly the fire spread."

"And the girl? Haymitch's girlfriend? How did she get there?"

"You know, I don't remember her name. She lived down the street and ran to see what happened – when she heard the little boy she just rushed inside to find him and get him out – but then another beam broke and blocked the door… They couldn't get them out."

"What are you saying? That they burned alive?" Katniss asked horrified.

"Probably choked on the smoke before that happened."

Katniss swallowed. It was hard to wrap her head around everything she'd just heard.

Her mother glanced at her hesitantly, as if belatedly realising who she was talking to. "I heard Haymitch killed all the geese when he got back," her mom added quietly. "Snapped their necks one by one, they said. But maybe that part is just wild gossip." She stepped down the ladder. "Here. All done. Thank you. Why do you ask about that, anyway?"

"No reason," she whispered, an icy weight setting in her stomach.

So, how did you like my take on the back story? Don't forget to let me know!